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Somebody had to do the dirty work.
“For all of these crimes,” Lukka went on, in a tone that practically dripped satisfaction. “You will receive death. Do you understand?”
For someone who was facing the end of his road, McGoven looked pretty damn smug.
“You came yourself. It took you long enough…” His voice was soft, not out of fear—McGoven just didn’t think Lukka was worth the effort. Of shouting. Of any anger at all. “You really didn’t think I would make this easy, did you? You want me? Then face me. I challenge you here and now, before these witnesses. For the position of Alpha.”
Kyle didn’t believe his ears at first.
Not until he saw Lukka’s reaction. He sputtered. “You can’t—”
“I am,” Bill said over him. “Tomorrow night. In the heart of the territory before the pack. We settle this the way it’s been done for generations. One on one combat for the right to lead.”
“And I’m supposed to be at the beck and call of a disgraced rogue?”
“If you want confirmation that I will return on good faith, you have the one person who will assure I will. I also want assurances that Sonia Carlisle is alive.”
Kyle couldn’t remain silent any longer. “You dare to make demands of us?”
“This isn’t a demand. This is a promise.” He nodded toward Loren, raising his voice for her benefit alone. “She will serve as my witness. I fight for her, and for the good of the pack.”
Were they on that shithole farm, Kyle knew that Lukka would dispatch the bastard with little forethought. But here…
There were too many witnesses. Too many mouths to silence.
And that seemed to be exactly what the bastard McGoven wanted.
Kyle might have been impressed somewhere beneath the hate. Then he came to his senses—McGoven would never sink to such tricks.
He might break a nail or something.
Regardless of his intent, this little stunt would work in McGoven’s favor. Word most likely was already traveling back to the heart of the territory. Any way they sliced it—there was no way in hell Lukka could avoid it now.
“And if anything happens to her between now and tomorrow,” McGoven added. “I will kill you.”
“Take her through the main entrance,” Lukka snarled. “I’ll join you later.”
Kyle approached the girl, biting his tongue. He suspected Lukka would run for cover and plot a way out of this.
No way in hell would the bastard submit to a fair challenge, not that Kyle blamed him.
William McGoven didn’t deserve an ounce of honor. He never had.
34
Loren didn’t know whether to celebrate or panic. Their plan had worked well enough to lure Lukka out into the open and convince him to accept the challenge. But now what?
As the adrenaline wore off, doubt crept in.
There was no going back. For McGoven’s sake, she needed to ensure that nothing went wrong between now and tomorrow night.
A feat she was starting to realize was a very tall ask.
While she pushed for this plan, she wasn’t foolish enough to suspect she would be safe behind the pack’s boundaries. Not for a second. Even the overall landscape seemed to drive in the danger she was in. Gone was that rugged beauty that had captivated her earlier. This time of the day, very little light pierced the cover of trees overhead, rendering the landscape immeasurably more hostile.
She couldn’t see much. Her only sense of reference was that they were on a road that winded through a thicker, inhospitable section of forest. Kyle stood ahead of her while another man took up the rear, radiating caution with every step.
The scene flashed her back to the night somewhere near these very woods, where the man guiding her now had left her alone to die.
