The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,89
his cousin, or he plans to kill him. Think about it, Mel. If even a small part of him believes the Council, then that means Tak killed his half brother. Kaota’s pissed. The Council thought Koi was innocent at first, but now that Tak’s under arrest, they have other theories.”
“Such as?”
“While you were in the kitchen earlier, the Council suggested that Koi was somehow involved. Tak and Koi got along really well, so they think the only reason Tak would have killed his cousin was to shut him up. Everyone knows Koi was smitten with that girl. Maybe Tak warned him to stop seeing her or something bad would happen, and when Koi threatened to tell, Tak panicked.”
“That’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. Who said that?”
“Jack.”
“Did the other Councilman agree?”
Lakota changed his grip on the wheel. “Robert didn’t say much about it, so I don’t know. It looks bad when more than one in a pack is implicated. They see it as a conspiracy. The Council has the power to seize their land and force them off if they feel that the tribe is conspiring against them or thwarting the power of the law from carrying out justice.”
I tugged my seat belt. “This is exactly why I’m going into retail. No dead bodies, no conspiracies, no arrests, no—”
“Arranged marriages?”
“I’m never going to live this down, am I?”
He reached over and squeezed my leg. “Not if I can help it.”
Lakota slowed to a stop. Up ahead, two men holding baseball bats circled the Councilmen’s car. My heart sped up when one of them smashed the side mirror right off the car door.
Brakes screeched behind us. Seconds later, a wolf flew past our truck. One of the men shifted, but the other used his bat to swing in defense. The wolf lunged at his arm and thrashed wildly before turning on another wolf. When the car in front began moving again, Lakota hit the gas.
“That was Kaota.” I swung my gaze away from the carnage as we passed by them.
“He’d better get off the road before a human drives by and sees that mess.”
“Why didn’t the guy he attacked shift?”
“Not everyone around here’s a wolf or a panther. Docile animals rarely shift around a predator, so those baseball bats weren’t scaring anyone. Wolves are another story. Some of the packs around here don’t listen to the Council or follow their rules. That’s why it’s treacherous up in these parts. This is the Shifter version of the Wild West.”
“What drew you to such a dangerous job?”
“Respect,” he answered without hesitation. “Even an alpha has to earn his position in this world. I’m just a beta, so I have to work twice as hard. Respect isn’t handed to you because of who your father is or where you come from. That’s why Tak is sitting in that car right now. Do you think his pack would respect a man who would endanger lives and tear apart families just to save himself? Is that a man you would follow?”
“No, but now they think he’s a murderer.”
“They think he’s a murderer,” he said, pointing at the car in front of us. “The tribal elders will get together and make up their own minds. I don’t know Tak’s history within the tribe, but what I do know is that every decision he makes is meticulously thought out. He’s chosen to be a man of integrity. The fates will decide his true destiny.”
I rolled down my window. If I had to hear about the fates one more time, I was going to scream. All my life I’d seen unfair things happen to good people, and none of it made sense. Why would any higher power have allowed a rogue wolf to bite Hope in the face when she was just a young teen? The day that wolf crept up on us in the field had marred her innocence, and the sound of her screams had haunted me for years afterward. By the time I’d gotten into my own scuffle with a wolf, I was no longer naive to the dangers in the world. My scars were easily hidden, but Hope still carried the marks on her face. It had changed her in ways I would never understand.
I stared at Lakota for a long time before finally speaking. “How much more of this dark world do you need to see to make you a better man?”
Fifteen minutes later, a truck sped up behind us and stayed