Kent scoffed. “What the fuck are you talking about? I’m not fighting you.”
His voice had gone high pitched. The scent of his panic spread through the room.
Dakota was right.
“Kent...” I didn’t know what else to say. His name felt heavy.
But I couldn’tmakehim fight me. I wouldn’t force this.
So what next? I brought the law down against one of my oldest friends? I let the pack decide what to do with him?
I was supposed to do that, but I couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t be the one to send him away.
So we were stuck, me staring at him and Kent sweating and looking around for an ally.
He found none. It should’ve heartened me, but nothing could make this moment feel like anything but a sick betrayal.
A minute passed like that without anyone stepping in to change anything. It was going to be down to me to decide what to do next, and my head was buzzing. I didn’t have a single clear thought.
Shit, my palms were sweaty.
Then, my sister spoke up.
“I challenge you.” Jillian stepped in and shoved Kent back by his shoulder, moving him away from me.
Kent reared back, staggering further away from Dakota and the couch andme. “What the hell are you talking about? You can’t challenge me.”
The smile Jill sent him was sharp, flashing too many teeth. “The fuck I can’t. Law says that if two wolves are in conflict and can’t both stay in the pack without it coming to violence, one canchallenge the other for the right to stay. I promise you, while I’m part of this pack, there’s no space for you in it.”
Jillian stepped into his space. Her tongue flashed across her teeth in a way that sent a shiver down my spine.
Kent gulped.
“Now,” she went on, “if you want to challenge my brother, that’d take precedence to my challenge. But then you’d have to fighthim, and I’ve got a sneaking suspicion you don’t want to do that, do you, Medson?”
I could see the whites all around Kent’s pupils.
“You’re crazy.”
Jill laughed. Right then, she just might be. “Me or him, big guy. Your choice.”
Kent hissed. “I don’t want to fight a woman.”
“You don’t want to lose to a woman, more like.”
And he would.
Kent didn’t have half the spine my sister did, or he wouldn’t have been moving in the shadows, resorting to poison rather than challenging me outright.
Proving himself a coward, Kent threw his hands up and stepped back from my sister. “You know what? Fine. You idiots want me gone so bad, I’m gone. Good fucking luck in the challenge, Jax. I hope it goesso great.”
He marched toward the door, but he had a little bounce in his step that made it look more like he was fleeing than he was making a reasoned retreat.
The door slammed behind him, and all the air went out of me—not just my breath, but whatever it was that’d kept me standing. It was all gone. I sank heavily onto the couch and stared at my sister’s hip, her fist clenching beside it.
Kent hadn’t admitted to anything, but it was clear enough what had happened. He’d poisoned me. He’d wanted to take me out of Grant’s challenge.
But why?
