The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,77

amusement.

I let go of Lakota and slithered back into my chair.

He rubbed his mouth with one hand and reached out with the other. His fingers brushed over my knuckles, and a tender moment passed between us. “Are you okay about everything?”

“Everything” meaning the best night of my life. Yeah, I was pretty good about reading between the lines. “Are you?”

His thumb circled over one of my knuckles, and neither of us answered. Maybe the question was more complicated than that, and a simple yes or no wouldn’t suffice.

“Whose belt is that?” he asked.

“Tak’s.”

Lakota broke contact, and his expression hardened. “Stay away from him.”

“Why? I thought he was your friend.”

He lowered his voice. “Until I figure out who’s behind the murders, you can’t trust anyone. Especially Tak. Rumors are circulating, but I can’t slander a man without evidence.”

Breed laws were designed to protect a man’s reputation unless there was incriminating evidence. Slander without substantial proof could ruin a person’s standing and future income even if he was found innocent. People always remembered the accusations more than the final ruling, and tarnishing a man’s reputation could never be undone, no matter how many centuries passed.

Lakota stood up and wagged his finger at me. “We’ll talk later.”

I batted my eyelashes. “At the wedding?”

“Do me a favor and don’t tell my sister we’re betrothed. You owe me for this. Big time.” He stalked off.

Maybe I did, but as far as I was concerned, I’d sealed the deal. It had made the whole trip worth taking. Well, besides our amazing night together. Lakota had set the bar so high that I was certain no man would ever be able to reach it. He’d done me a favor by securing my status as a single woman.

“Did it fit?” a woman asked in the doorway. Her braid was hanging over one shoulder and had a narrow piece of leather securing the bottom of it.

I stood up and collected the flowery crown. “Yes, it’s gorgeous. You really don’t have to go through all this trouble. I’m fine just wearing this dress.”

The woman giggled and looked down at my long nightshirt. “You can’t get mated wearing that. You must show your life mate that he has been chosen by the most beautiful rose in the garden. Your mating has given us something to look forward to, so you shouldn’t carry any guilt in your heart. Your dress should be ready tonight.”

The young woman collected the crown and headed out. The men in the tribe had a powerful presence in the house as protectors, but the women wielded their power in a different way. They were the core that held the tribe together, and it made me realize they weren’t so different from packs.

The yard just outside the kitchen window was in a recessed part of the house where they stored firewood. When I caught sight of Tak, I stepped behind the curtain and watched.

He looked left and right over his shoulders. Then he reached behind the woodpile, removed a brown satchel, and hooked the strap over his shoulder. Instead of returning to the backyard, he veered left toward the garden.

Curious, I snuck out a side door. No one noticed me since the women were busy preparing for the mating ceremony, and most of the men were asleep in their rooms after a long night.

Tak kept walking, so I fell back to a safe distance. There was no point in skulking in the shadows if my purple hair was going to be blowing in the breeze, so I gathered it as I would a ponytail and twisted it into a knot.

I hadn’t expected Tak to keep walking, and by the time we were deep in the woods, I had to choose between following or heading back. It was too late to alert Lakota, but if he suspected Tak, then maybe following him would lead to something. Whenever I thought Tak might stop to rest, I dodged behind trees, but he never did. I was fortunate to have grown up in a house in which two of my uncles were former bounty hunters, so they’d taught me a few tricks on how to follow a person without giving myself away.

For all I knew, he was hunting. After all, that was how the tribe acquired all their meat. But he didn’t have his bow, and something about the way he kept looking over his shoulder led me to believe he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. Having grown up