The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,46

have the courage to tell her that Shikoba was never going to lock in a deal with us, and that made me feel twice as guilty for all the hard work she was doing. But Hope needed to focus on the store and remain positive. She had a tendency to let misfortune get the best of her. If I had to call her former dealer and pay him what he wanted for the final shipment, then so be it. Surely there had to be someone else out there who dealt with Shifters.

A knock sounded at the door, and before I could turn, it opened.

Lakota came in and sat down on the edge of the tub in front of me. “Everyone’s outside setting up. The elders are gathered in prayer while the women are preparing the body for burial. We should probably pay our respects.” He glanced at the phone in my hand. “Who did you call?”

“Hope. Don’t worry, she doesn’t know what’s really going on.”

“You didn’t call your pack?”

I shook my head.

“That’s good,” he said. “That would be like throwing kerosene on a fire, and this tribe’s in no state of mind to be confronted by a pack they don’t know. As for the locals, I don’t know what the hell they would do. Look, I know how it seems, but Shikoba’s not keeping you prisoner. He’s protecting you. Your pack would only bring danger.” Lakota regarded me for a moment. “Sometimes a wolf has to stand alone to find out what he’s made of.”

Tears glittered in my eyes. “I have to get home, Lakota. My dreams are crashing down around me.”

He reached out and gripped my hand tight. “Your life is more important than your dreams.”

A single tear rolled down my cheek. “My dreams are my life.”

Lakota pinned me with those beautiful topaz-blue eyes. “Trust the fates, Melody. They put you here for a reason.”

“To die?”

“I’m not going to let you die.”

His words caused a flutter in my belly. They weren’t just empty promises you said to make someone feel better. He meant them.

Turning away, I faced my reflection in the mirror. “I’ve almost died twice. Both times, you saved me. Maybe you shouldn’t have. What if I’m not meant to be here and I’m living on borrowed time? What if I was supposed to die in the Breed war all those years ago when that wolf attacked me? Maybe you interfered with the fates, so they tried again years later.”

There. I’d said it. The niggling thought in the back of my head that I’d carried with me for half my life.

I spun around. “Maybe I’m dreamwalking and none of this is real—it’s just a figment of my imagination because I can’t let go of life. What if I died and I’m refusing to let go? Maybe that’s why my dreams are crumbling.”

He rose before me like a tower and lowered his forehead until it touched mine. “You’re not a spirit. Don’t you think I would know if I had spooned a ghost?”

I chuckled softly and wiped my tears.

Lakota tenderly threaded my hair away from my face, his knuckles lightly brushing against my cheeks. “That’s survivor’s guilt talking. Other people died in the war, and you didn’t, so you feel like you’ve got to make something of your life, or it’s all for nothing. That’s not how it works, Mel.” He tipped his head to the side. “I’ve always seen you as a tough spirit, but now I’m getting to see a softer side. Remember when I said that my wolf has never found peace since that night I found you in the snowstorm?”

“Yeah.”

“I lied.”

Though I’d been looking at his mouth, I swung my gaze up to his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I had that same feeling one other time. It was the moment I walked into the bar yesterday and saw you sitting there. That same feeling. Like…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I wish I knew the right words.”

Lakota knew the right words, but he couldn’t speak them aloud. He had the courage, but the situation with the tribe was too delicate. The moment he’d first laid eyes on her in that bar, his wolf practically vibrated beneath his skin, filling him with a sense of contentment he’d never thought possible. It was like coming home.

He’d always assumed that heroic act of rescuing a young girl was what had made his wolf respond, but he hadn’t felt the same magnetic pull when he’d saved her