Nick didn’t care how much they made fun of him as long as it entertained Lacey. His wolf grew more anxious as they got deeper into the city and approached the den. He knew the alpha bear would be waiting.

The SUV pulled up outside the gym where a welcoming party was loitering outside: the alpha, the Russian, and the psychotic polar bear. A growl started in Nick’s chest, but he paused as Lacey cleared her throat. “Are they waiting for him or for me?”

Owen put the car in park but didn’t unlock the doors. “Him, mostly. Do they need to be worried about you?”

“I don’t know,” she said. Lacey looked over at Nick, her eyes flashing gold in what might have been a challenge. “You going to keep your shit together?”

“Yes,” Nick said. He sure as hell wasn’t going to let her see him being pushed around by the bears. “Are you?”

“I’m not promising anything,” she said, and opened her door to greet the impatient alpha bear.

Kara grinned as she looked back at Nick one more time. “I like her. Don’t fuck it up.”

He grunted and climbed out as well, nodding to the Russian and the polar bear as he walked around the SUV. Before Nick could even speak, the hyena queen said, “He’s fine. Let’s get inside.”

She strode to the door without waiting for a response, and for a second, the men just stood on the sidewalk and stared at where she’d disappeared inside the gym. Nick smiled widely and sauntered after here. “See? I’m fine.”

“I’ll decide that, wolf,” Kaiser said under his breath, though he followed them both into the first floor of the building.

Kara pointed Lacey toward the elevator. “You can shower upstairs and call Eloise, if you’d like, while they... sort this out.”

The hyena queen nodded, though she paused near the elevator to give Kaiser a hard look. She pointed at Nick. “He’s useful to me right now. Don’t kill him.”

Kaiser waited under the doors closed after her to look at Nick. “Well. You’re useful to her now? What the hell happened?”

Nick didn’t want to preen, but he plucked at the front of his T-shirt to make himself look a little bigger. “What can I say? I know people.”

“Cut the shit,” the polar bear, Axel, said. “Why do the hyenas think she’s dead?”

“She disappeared for a while,” he said. Nick retrieved some water from the cooler and wished it were a bottle of whiskey instead. “The djinn dragged her into some other realm and convinced her to help free him. She’s got to find Smith and Ray first, then the djinn will free the rest of the women and children in the compound.”

“What the hell is djinn?” the Russian asked.

“The genie.” Kaiser didn’t look particularly surprised. “We’ve been waiting to hear something from them. How likely is it that this is a trap?”

“If the djinn didn’t mean it, he wouldn’t have released her,” Nick said. “She would still be trapped. So if there’s something else going on, I’m guessing the djinn isn’t part of it.”

The alpha bear grumbled and started to pace. After a long, rather uncomfortable silence for Nick as he waited to be tackled and restrained, Kaiser folded his arms over his chest and stopped short in front of him. For a moment, the grolar bear’s gold eyes glared at him from only a few inches away. “Are you going to endanger any of my young?”

“No,” Nick said. He didn’t even try to make light of the situation. “If I have my way, Lacey won’t bother to let her pack know she lives, and we’ll both disappear into Europe before the end of the week. You’ll never be bothered by me again.”

Kaiser’s left eye twitched. “Your sister would not be pleased with that.”

“I know,” Nick said. “Which is why she doesn’t know about it yet. And no one is going to tell her.” Nick glared at Owen, who shrugged and held his hands up in surrender. Nick cleared his throat and went on, focusing on all the possibilities of a life of freedom with Lacey. “So we’ll be out of your hair directly if you don’t get in my way.”

The bear didn’t like the implied threat, but Kaiser, at least, let his better sense prevail. “And how, exactly, are you going to find Smith and Ray? It’s been months.”

“I have a few ideas,” Nick said. “You probably don’t want to know any more than that.”

“There’s an Alphas Council tonight,” Kaiser said. “If you’re going to be causing trouble or needing assistance, now is the time to make that clear.”

Nick hesitated. An Alphas Council. No doubt the new hyena queen would make her debut. He wondered if Lacey knew about the Council, if she wanted to take part, or at least use it to signal her support for the new queen. It would be a very clean way to make the break. Or to re-open the wound, if Lacey decided she wanted to be queen again.

He rubbed his face. “I’m not sure all of you will want to be involved.”

The bears traded looks, and finally Kaiser heaved a gusty bear sigh. “I’m not sure we would, either, but that’s what family is for. What do we need to do?”

“I have to call a few people and arrange some meetings,” Nick said. He didn’t know whether to be grateful for the offer to help or annoyed that his prospects for alone time with Lacey were being smashed apart. “But I’ll let you know.”

The bears stayed to grumble at each other, but Nick headed for his room and the pile of extra cell phones he kept around. It took longer than he liked to find the one with the witches’ contact information, and longer still to steel his courage to call the coven leader. Just the thought made his skin crawl and his stomach sink. But Lacey needed the witches, and that was that.

The coven leader, Estelle, answered on the fourth ring. “Well well well. To what do I owe the honor, Nikolai?”

He really didn’t like witches. “I have a job that might require your expertise. Can you meet tonight?”

“Just me, or the whole gang?”

Nick debated whether it would be worth facing the entire coven. “It’s a job for all of you. I’ll leave it to you on who should hear the details.”

Estelle pondered, making a “hmm” sound as she made him wait. Nick practically itched to throw the phone across the room and call the whole thing off. He could make Hugo do it, with enough gold. He’d have to rob a bank or the Chase mansion, but Nick would find a way.

Finally, Estelle yawned. “Very well. You’re lucky it’s a new moon, otherwise we’d have to wait a while. Midnight, at the old cemetery. You remember the tree, I trust?”

“Yeah. I’ll be there.” He growled more than he intended, but waited until she hung up to do the same. He tossed the phone across the room and headed for the gym, searching for a hint of Lacey’s scent. As soon as she figured out what she wanted to do with the hyenas, they could figure out the rest of their plan.

He wondered if they should fly to Paris first, or stop in London. It was springtime, and he always loved Paris in the spring. Nick stopped in his tracks when he found Lacey already in the gym, beating on one of the heavy bags with her bare hands, blood streaming from her knuckles. So apparently the call didn’t go well. Nick braced to deal with a pissed-off gorgon, some lions, and maybe the rest of the hyenas. It just made Paris look even better.