The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,86
approve of this ritual.”
I pulled his hand up to my mouth and kissed his palm. “I bet they have zero cases of cold feet before a mating ceremony.”
We both chuckled.
In those moments just afterward, neither of us said anything. We let our bodies speak for us in the tender way he stroked my arms and the care I took kissing each of his fingers. It wasn’t easy sitting in a bathtub with another person, so I tried scooting off his lap so he could be comfortable.
But Lakota wouldn’t have it. He held me close while I turned over one hand and studied all the wrinkles on the pads of his fingers.
“Is this what it’s always like?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“In what way?”
“I mean… when you’re with other men. Do they pleasure you this way?”
Twisting my body around, I looked up at him. He tried to steer his gaze away, but I wouldn’t let him. Lakota wanted to know what all men wondered: how he stacked up.
“No,” I assured him. “I mean, sex is sex. But with you… I don’t know. I’ve never felt this present.” A doleful smile touched my lips.
“What’s that look?” he asked. “I haven’t seen that one before.”
“It’ll sound silly.”
“Tell me.”
I stroked my finger across his Adam’s apple. “You make me feel adored. Is that how you make all women feel, or—”
A cacophony of shouts and footfalls erupted from outside the room. We both tensed. When someone ran down the hall at breakneck speed, Lakota stood up and got out. He struggled with his wet jeans before wrapping a towel around his waist instead and flying out the door.
Alarmed, I stepped out and quickly dried off. After putting on the long nightshirt, I swung open the door and ran into Lakota.
“What’s going on?”
His eyes were grim. “The Council’s here with an arrest warrant.”
“For who?”
“Tak. They found another body.”
Chapter 18
Two Councilmen waited in the driveway while Shikoba read their warrant, which came from the higher authority. They were Jack the Giant and Robert the Unshaven. The sun had already dropped below the horizon, the light of day a fading memory. Crickets began their nightly song, and a wolf howled nearby.
“What proof do you have?” Shikoba asked. “This warrant doesn’t tell me anything.”
Jack raised a familiar satchel, and I couldn’t help but stare at the ring of sweat on the armpit of his blue button-up. “We found this by the body. Tak’s name is on the strap, and the murder weapon’s inside.”
I was standing beside Lakota, watching in disbelief. Robert was beside Jack, a look of disappointment on his face as he barely looked Shikoba in the eye.
“Release him,” Jack demanded. “If you don’t, we’ll have to call the Regulators out, and they’ll take him by force. You shouldn’t have protected your son.”
Shikoba struck the ground with the end of his cane. “I refuse to believe this! What reason would Tak have to murder those women?”
“You’re asking me? Everyone knows he’s got a rocky past. The victim was one of your neighbors. Did you know that? Her mate noticed she wasn’t in the house, and when he saw the car still there, he went out in search of her. Found the body himself,” Jack said, emphasizing the grisly scene with a shake of his head. “He’ll have to live with that for the rest of his life. You know why? Because no one around here uses a blade like yours. It does a lot of damage, am I right? We’ve seen the same marks on nearly every body. We’ve found arrowheads and trinkets at some of the crime scenes. But now we’ve got more than clues—we’ve got a smoking gun.” Jack held up the satchel. “You can hand him over, or you can fight us on this. But no matter how you slice it, you sheltered and protected a murderer. That says a lot about you as a leader, don’t you think?”
I weaved around a group of men and went inside in search of Tak. A few packmates were lingering near the fireplace, but they were too engrossed in their heated conversation to notice me as I veered toward the kitchen.
Tak was alone, eating a bowl of blackberries as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “You know, I never did like these things. Too many seeds. I guess I won’t be getting food like this in jail, so I’d better enjoy the taste of freedom while I can.”