The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,79

get it.”

“He’s your father, isn’t he?”

Tak spun around, his anger barely quelled. “Food is very valuable to us, more than money. Maybe where you come from no one would care, but the way the elders would see it, I’m stealing from the mouths of our children. I am giving away food that someone labored over—food that could get us through winter—to a band of rogues. This would shame my tribe. My father believes in helping others but not if it means putting our people second.” He pointed at the makeshift camp. “Do you see that family down there? They’re not even wolves! They’re living between pack territories on unclaimed land, sometimes stealing to feed their children. That’s how I found them. I caught the girl in our garden one night. She could have gotten herself killed if one of our wolves had been out there. His mate is the only predator in the family, but her fox can’t kill large enough animals to feed them all. Just birds and mice. What I give isn’t enough. I came here today to find she’s gone hunting again. One of these days she might get herself killed.”

“So you thought giving them food would save them from getting caught.”

Tak looked irritated and stalked off.

I jogged after him and caught his wrist, forcing him to stop. “You have to tell everyone what you’ve been doing. If you don’t, they might have enough evidence to pin it on you and make an arrest. That is, if the locals don’t take matters into their own hands first.”

He bulldozed me with his gaze, and Tak was a strong man who could probably crush stones. “Is saving my honor more important than keeping a family together? If I tell the truth, what do you think will happen to them? They’ll drive them out of here and put those children in an orphanage. Do you think I would see their family torn apart just to save my good name? That would besmirch my honor, and sometimes honor is all a man has left in this world when his good name is already black.”

I had no comeback. Tak lived by a different code, and while his choice didn’t do him any favors, it was noble. He cared more about keeping that family alive and safe than he did about his freedom.

“Do you think I don’t know what people are saying?” he asked as we continued plodding back to the house. “Someone is setting me up. Who better to target than the chief’s son?”

“What do you mean?”

“Each time I come out here, there’s a murder. But what can I do? If I space apart my visits, the family will resort to stealing again, and I won’t have their blood on my hands. But a killer is out there, and he’s going to take lives no matter what I decide. Someone is going to die tonight.”

I glanced over my shoulder, but the family was no longer in view. “Did you build that shelter for them?”

Tak looked skyward when a host of sparrows scattered from the branches. “It took me a whole day. That was when it all began—the killings. Later that night, word spread that a girl was found murdered. What you aren’t hearing in the news is that they found arrowheads at each murder scene. That’s why everyone’s on our asses. The Council knows, but they’re keeping it quiet since they have nothing else to go on.”

“Maybe that’s just a rumor.”

“Nope. I overheard Jack and Robert talking about it one night outside the gas station when my wolf was out for a run.”

“Your town is filled with so much animosity. It’s only going to get worse.”

He caught my arm when I stumbled over a hole in the ground. “We have bigger problems to worry about than figuring out how to hold hands with our enemies.”

“Do you have a mate?”

He flashed a look at me. “Why?”

“Well, since you won’t tell anyone where you’re running off to, they’re going to assume you’re guilty. But if you’re mated or have a trustworthy girlfriend, she can give you an alibi that you were with her. Even if you decide not to tell her what you’re doing, she would know in her heart if you were capable of these murders.”

He swiped a branch out of the way. “Now I’m being punished for not having a mate.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. It was just an idea.”

“They can’t sentence me to death without catching me in the act.