The wolf wanted to intervene the moment the other hyena tackled Lacey, but Nick didn’t have a problem holding back. He didn’t know what the hell was going on in her head. It sounded like she wanted to be queen again, and what happened between them didn’t matter. The wolf knew differently. It mattered. It changed both of their lives. She would see that, eventually.

If she survived the fight, that was.

Not that there was much doubt who would come out on top. Despite the sneak attack and the threat of lurking bodyguards, Lacey recovered control of the situation pretty quickly. Her security chief made a few sloppy mistakes, even though she got some good punches in, and in a matter of minutes, Lacey had her pinned to the ground. Nick stayed along the wall, wondering what she would do—let the traitor live or consolidate her rule with an execution.

Lacey, breathing hard, stood over her opponent. Her eyes flashed gold and Nick saw the hyena in control. After a long moment, as all the alphas waited for her to kill the other woman, Lacey straightened. She released her and stepped back. Rage still seethed under the surface, though she looked at Logan Chase, the lion alpha, before she spoke. “Normally I don’t ask others to clean up my messes, but would your security chief take her somewhere far away and drop her off? I don’t want her dead, just... gone.”

“Weak,” Cassidy said, teeth bared. “This is why you should never have been made queen. You’re weak.”

“Merciful,” Lacey said, and kicked her hard in the side. “The word you’re looking for is ‘merciful.’”

Logan nodded and glanced at his security chief, Edgar. “We’ll take care of it, Lacey. And welcome back.”

A growl echoed from the back of the chamber, and Nick got ready to launch as one of the bodyguards ran forward. Lacey made an aggravated noise, as if only mildly irritated with the prospect of another fight. But before anyone else could move, the bodyguard froze in mid-air, turned to stone, and crashed to the floor. The statue shattered into large pieces. Nick’s stomach turned as he considered the broken statue, wondering what it would look like if the stone turned back to flesh, and Lacey’s best friend, the gorgon, slid into the room.

Her silver eyes still blazed out of control, at least until Benedict, her mate, whispered something about sunglasses. Lacey straightened from her defensive crouch and nodded to her friend. “Thanks, El.”

“Any time, you crazy bitch.” Eloise’s voice wobbled, on the verge of tears, but she pointed an accusatory finger at Lacey as if no one else were around. “And if you ever let me think you’re dead again, I will freeze you and put you in my garden. Do you hear me?”

“I won’t,” Lacey said, and almost smiled.

The other hyena growled and tried to get up, but by then Edgar Chase and his brothers hauled her up and marched her off, destined for a lonely future in a cornfield, halfway across the state. Nick waited for the meeting to adjourn, but instead Lacey took her seat behind the table and folded her hands neatly in front of her. The other alphas traded looks, and Kaiser finally said, “If you need to handle some business at home, Szdoka, we can reschedule the meeting.”

“It’ll keep. I have business to address to the Council.”

Even Miles Evershaw looked impressed. Nick hated him most of all. Nick checked his watch, ready to meet with the witches and be done with it, but froze as Lacey went on. “This unfortunate incident was predicated on my disappearance, which was caused by the BadCreek djinn. He offered me a deal—he would release me back to this world if I agreed to free him.”

“You spoke to the djinn?” Rafe O’Shea’s dark eyebrows almost reached his hairline.

“Ray still has one wish; once that is used, then the djinn can be freed.” Lacey ignored the wolf alpha’s question, all business as she surveyed the alphas. “We have to free Ray, wherever he is, and get rid of him. Once the djinn is freed, we can finally destroy BadCreek. Then this will all be over, and we can go back to normal life.”

Going back to normal life. Nick made a rude noise and all eyes turned to him. He refused to look away, instead meeting their gazes without hesitation. Normal life wasn’t possible for him, or for Lacey. She pretended like it would be, and maybe she’d even convinced herself that she could go on as the hyena queen as if that were enough. It wasn’t enough for her; it would never be enough. And she would be miserable every day of her life until she recognized that.

“You have something to add, wolf?” Kaiser frowned at him, though it was an honest, well-intentioned question. As if he expected Nick to continue on with the revelations.

But Nick had had enough. Lacey was lying to herself, and to him. “No. Not a thing.”

He shoved away from the wall and stalked out of the chamber, walking away from the building as the wolf took over. Fury at Lacey and her ridiculous need to save her family from itself burned through him. He needed to run. He needed to hunt, to hurt something. Normal life. What the hell did that even mean?

Normal life without him, clearly. Normal life as the hyena queen, alone and lonely and surrounded by enemies. Normal life for him, back on the run from mission to mission or locked up in the corner of the bears’ building, waiting for permission to run again. No way in hell.

He’d get Smith free and leave, take the next mission from Smith, and get on with running from his demons. Even if Lacey was his mate, that didn’t guarantee them a happily ever after. Life happened. They both had scar tissue and sometimes that didn’t leave room for the heart to grow or move on. He’d just have to live with it. At least they’d had one time together. He growled to himself and headed for one of the Russian bars. An underground fight would help burn off some of the anger, and vodka would soothe the rest. They all made choices in life, and Lacey had made hers. The pack before her own happiness and future. He couldn’t compete with that.