“Gods.” Viktor rubbed at the back of his neck. “I can’t fault you for wanting to. Fuck me,Iwant to kill him even more than I did ten minutes ago, which I really didn’t think was possible. But Lana, you have to know that this isn’t— it’s not just about me. It’s about my pack, and it’s about what this could do to you. If you lose, I legally can’t pursue the matter any further. If you win, it’ll change you. I promise you, it will.”
Lana clenched her jaw. Speaking slowly, she replied, “I know, and I understand that I’m not sure what I would choose in your place. But Ihaveto do this. Let me.”
Viktor’s stomach turned. He glanced over his shoulder again and caught Camille’s eye. Her expression was stiff with worry, her complexion ashen. Her eyes were locked unerringly on his back. She stood tall next to Valen and Benny, but he could see past the cool elvish exterior to the broken heart underneath.
If something happened to him, she would not recover.
This is her worst nightmare, and Lana is giving me an out.
His pride demanded he not take it. Andreas had sent someone afterhimandhismate. Honor demanded that he be the one to take his head off of his shoulders, to feel the slide of viscera between his claws. Righteous bloodlust was a raw howl in his blood.
But he was not an angry boy any longer. He was a man, an alpha, a mate. Someday he dreamed of being a father, a grandfather, an elder.Thatman could not think with the mind of the animal.
It was a risk to let Lana take his place, knowing that she might lose, that he might have to watch Andreas murder his own daughter in the circle, but it was one he had to take.
For his future. Fortheirfuture. For Lana herself.
Reaching out to clasp her shoulder, he rasped, “Okay, Lana. If you’re sure, then I concede my place to you.”
Relief was a flash across her features — there and gone in a moment. “Thank you, Viktor.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he warned. “You can do that after you come out of the circle alive.”
He turned to walk back to his mate and second, but a fleeting touch to his arm forced him back around. Lana’s expression was still hard, but her eyes had softened with concern when she asked, “What are your plans for Damon?”
Viktor’s lips thinned. “He shot at and mauled my mate, Lana.”
She didn’t flinch, but he caught the bob of her throat when she swallowed. “I know. I just— it’s important to me that you know he wasn’t always a bad man. Fear made him stupid, but he wasn’t the one who gave the order. My father is manipulative, cruel. You know what that kind of alpha can do to someone weak-willed, Viktor.”
“What do you want me to do with him?” Viktor gestured sharply toward Camille and Valen, whose stares he could feel burning a twin pair of holes in his back. “I can’t let that shit slide, Lana. And even if I could, my mate is the sovereign’scousin.If I don’t take his head off, Teddy will. With relish, I might add.”
Neither man loved violence for its own sake. Fighting together in the ring, learning side by side what it meant to be a man and a leader, they both understood that it was a tool honed for protection and used only when absolutely necessary. The only true difference between them was that Theodore viewed threats to his loved ones as a golden opportunity for an example.
You hurt one of mine, your life is over.No second chances. No negotiation.
The only exception to that rule, of course, was when the threat came from one of his own.
“He’s a father, Viktor. A good one.” Lana squared her shoulders. “I’m not saying let him go without consequence. I’m just asking you to remember how easy it can be to be led astray by a bad alpha — and that maybe he doesn’t have to die.”
The coyote heartily disagreed. A threat to his mate was a threat that had to be extinguished. Permanently.
Still, Viktor nodded once, sharply. He respected Lana’s bravery, her sense of honor, and wouldn’t disrespect her by dismissing her request off-hand. “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Waving a grim-faced Lee back over, Viktor told him, “Lana’s taking my place.”
“You sure?”
He felt the thrum of magic in his veins, the connection that tied him to his mate and to his pack, and answered, “Yes, I’m sure.”
Lee sucked in a deep breath. Looking tired but resolute, he turned to Lana. “Then it’s time. Good luck, kid.”
Lana inclined her head once before she turned on her heel to walk across the platform, toward that faintly etched circle where her father waited. The wind, hot and dry, whistled through the canyon to scour the compound. It carried the scents of the high desert — sand and stubborn greenery and that indefinable quality that was Glory’s light.
Soon, it would also carry the coppery tang of blood.
Viktor and Lee watched her walk away, both lost in a moment of bloody remembrance. For Viktor, the sight brought back vivid memories of his own challenge; the worst and best day of his life.
