Even later that afternoon, as I walked into the Council room, I still felt off-balance and like everything I’d known about my life had been wrong. It didn’t seem possible. How could Cal not tell me he knew who his mate was, and that she wasn’t me? It created a new kind of pain in my heart, that this woman—whoever she was—was told by Cal that he didn’t love her like a mate. It shouldn’t have been possible, to find someone you loved more than your mate. It wasn’t supposed to be possible.

The world moved in slow motion around me, or maybe it was me that moved differently. If Cal wasn’t my mate, then my mate was still out there. I wouldn’t ever love anyone the way I’d loved Cal, but... love could be different. My mate wouldn’t ever replace Cal in my heart; Cal was there to stay. I’d never stop loving him and the time we’d had together, and I knew that I would always mourn that we didn’t have more time. That we’d never made that trip around the world, exploring all the wild and far-flung places that weren’t even on the map. But I could take him with me when I went.

Savannah, still looking a bit bruised and beaten up, waited for me in the chamber set aside for the hyenas, her expression hovering between worried and exhausted. “There you are. I got your message.”

“I’m glad,” I said. I put down my bag and shrugged out of my jacket, easing myself to sit in the massive leather chair reserved for the queen. “How are you feeling? How is the cackle?”

“Okay,” she said, watching me with an odd expression. “Where have you been hiding?”

“I had coffee with Harrison.” I concentrated on straightening some papers on the table next to where I sat. “I needed to clear my head about some things, and I didn’t know... I needed to know what Cal might have thought.”

Savannah sank into one of the other chairs, wincing a little as she moved her right leg. Cass had really done a number on her; even with superior shifter healing, she still moved like she hurt. Guilt ate at me as I avoided looking directly at her. She rubbed the back of her neck, taking a deep breath. “Yeah?”

I didn’t know if it was the right thing. Maybe I’d never know. “I think I got what I needed. As soon as we take care of this BadCreek business, there will be big changes coming.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”

A smile tugged at my mouth, though I didn’t think any of it was funny. “The kind of changes I should have made a year ago. It’ll be okay, Sav. We’ve just got to get through tonight.”

“That’s always easier said than done with you,” she said under her breath, but answered with a tentative smile of her own. “It’s good to have you back, Lacey.”

It was good to be back, just in time to walk away for good. The cackle deserved more than me, and I deserved more than it. And maybe... maybe I deserved a chance to stand on my own—outside of my mother’s shadow, outside of the family’s obligations, and well beyond my own history. I could be Lacey somewhere else, and figure out who Lacey really was. Without Cal, without my mother, without the rest of the hyenas... who the hell was I?

I nodded and leaned to retrieve a bottle of bourbon from where I’d stashed it months earlier. It had come from my mother’s private stash; at least she had good taste in liquor, despite her many other faults. I splashed a bit into two glasses, handing Sav one before clinking mine against hers. “To the future, Sav. To the best of our past and everything that’s still to come.”

She laughed, sniffing at the bourbon before taking a tentative sip. “Now you’re scaring me, cuz.”

I let the warm liquor slide down my throat and settle in my stomach, radiating heat through me. “Then buckle up, babe, because shit’s about to get real.”

“Just promise me you’re not going to do anything crazy.”

I pushed to my feet, laughing. “Come on, Sav. What would be the fun in that?”

“I should have brought more bodyguards,” she said, trailing after me into the hall and in the direction of the much larger Council chamber. “Or an elephant tranquilizer gun. Handcuffs.”

“Sounds like a hell of a Friday night,” a gruff voice said, and I glanced back to find Miles Evershaw leaning against the wall, his eyebrow arched in challenge as his eyes flashed gold. “Need some company?”

“You, Evershaw? Never.” The smile fell off my face and the familiar mask of queen bitch of the hyenas returned, as safe and comforting as a suit of armor. I didn’t even pause as I walked by the wolf alpha, irritated that he straightened up and followed after me into the Council room. “What do you want?”

“Just curious about a few rumors I’ve heard lately,” he said, rubbing his jaw and the hint of stubble there. The man needed to either shave or grow out the beard, because he just looked homeless, not sexy. Not that the jackass could look sexy. “Something about you having a fancy for wolves. Imagine that. I wouldn’t mind being king of the hyenas, it’s got—“

I turned fast enough to startle him, and grabbed a fistful of his shirt to haul him up to his toes. And I was strong enough to do it, too, which took Evershaw by surprise as well. I met his gaze with a stony one of my own. “One of these days, Evershaw, that mouth will write a check your ass won’t be able to cash. Back off.”

He gripped my wrist and squeezed until my bones creaked, and I was forced to release him. He brushed off the front of his shirt, unperturbed by my little outburst, and he even moved to flick lint off my shoulder. “Dear Lacey. Dear, sweet little Lacey. You’re lucky I don’t believe in hitting women.”

Savannah snorted and walked around to our table, limping a bit but showing no other signs of giving a shit that the wolf alpha stood there talking. “Maybe because they’d hit back and kick your ass.”

Evershaw bared his teeth in her direction, but I patted his cheek—maybe it was hard enough to be a slap, but only maybe—as I walked to take my chair. “Fuck off, Evershaw.”

Sav slid into the chair to my right, leaning her head to murmur something about what she’d heard from some of the other packs, but I looked up just as she started talking and caught a glimpse of Nick. Tall and lean and lanky, he looked whip-thin compared to the bulk of the lion and bear alphas. And he looked tired, too, with dark shadows under his eyes and a cautious tilt to his head that spoke to a sleepless night or a hell of a hangover. Maybe both.

When I saw him, I couldn’t look away, and our eyes locked from across the room. The hyena wanted him. She wanted to snuggle up with him somewhere safe and warm, and spend the next few weeks fucking him in every position possible. Then sleeping next to him for hours on end, until there weren’t any dreams left. Resignation stole over his expression, and he didn’t smile when he caught me watching him. There wasn’t any of the teasing grin or even a wink, just a shadow of a nod and his arms folded like a barrier over his chest.

Sav poked my side. “So you won’t sleep with Evershaw but there’s another wolf on your radar?”

I scowled and gave her a sideways look. “You’ve got a lot of opinions today.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think,” she said. “You know, what with having spent a lot of time in a dungeon.”

“We don’t have a dungeon,” I said under my breath. I wanted to elbow her back but I wasn’t sure whether her ribs had completely healed. “And I already apologized for that. I was kind of in a different plane of existence at the time, so there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

She chuckled, lacing her hands behind her head, and kicked her chair back. “I guess we’re even.”

“For now,” I said. Before I could say much more, though, Harrison strode into the room and took his place at the jackal pack’s table. He was the last alpha to arrive, and nodded to me in passing—as if I hadn’t been sobbing on his shoulder only a few hours prior. I appreciated it more than I could have said.

Kaiser, the bear alpha, folded his massive arms over his chest and eyed me. “I hear you’ve got a plan, Szdoka?”

“Of a sort,” I said. I wondered what Nick had told him. “We have a small window of opportunity, but I think we’ve got a good chance to achieve at least one of our objectives. I appreciate all of you coming here.” My gaze slid to where Evershaw still scowled behind his table. “Well, I appreciate most of you coming tonight.”

Ruby O’Shea smiled with half her mouth, though it was enough that her pronounced canine tooth peeked at me. “What’s the plan, Lacey?”

I pushed to my feet, even though my knees knocked a little. I didn’t know what made me more nervous—the possibility of the other alphas refusing to help, or the question mark over what Nick might say if I called on him for support. “We have two goals. Free Smith, and destroy BadCreek. We can take care of both of those tonight. We have the tools and the magic, and the right people. We can finally rid our city of these bastards.”

Silence greeted my proclamation.

Then Evershaw folded his arms over his chest. “And the djinn? Have you figured out a way to defeat him, or are we just going to charge the hill and hope some of us survive to walk back down?”

I wanted to bare my teeth and snarl at him for questioning me, but with Nick standing so close, the hyena didn’t give two shits about Evershaw’s disrespect. “You can charge whatever hill you want.”

The massive clock on the other side of the room chimed quietly, and I almost held my breath. “The best time to attack the compound will be before the djinn is freed. That way we have a good chance of getting the women and children out of there before Ray uses his third wish.” I glanced at Nick and pushed away the part of me that wanted to leap across the table and lose myself in his arms. “Do you have any ideas what his wish might be? You know him best out of everyone here.”

The wolf sat up a little straighter and didn’t make a joke, like I’d half-expected. “Unless we can distract him and draw him into using the wish for vengeance close to home, chances are it’ll be something to do with destroying everything. He’ll want retribution for being locked away so long. And he might be completely crazy. I have no idea what it’s like in the Betwixt, but if Smith used to rule it... chances are it’s not a vacation destination.”

I wondered whether the witches would be able to tell him more about the Betwixt before we freed Smith and Ray; it would help to know where they’d been living the past several months. I took a deep breath but swallowed the question, since the witch was pretty specific about not wanting other people to know about her involvement. I glanced over at the BloodMoon pack table, where Rafe, Ruby, and Meadow sat. “And there’s no telling what Smith will come out as. He’s been trapped there just as long. He could be the dangerous one.”

Rafe didn’t look happy about it as Meadow leaned forward and cleared her throat. “Rafe and I will be at the house when he’s released. So maybe I can talk him down or at least try to... contain him.”

I didn’t think anyone in that room believed she’d be able to contain Smith, including Meadow, but there was no need to point that out. I tried to smile at her. “And there’s always the possibility that Smith will take care of Ray and the djinn for us.”

She smiled back tentatively, but Rafe looked like he’d bitten into a rotten lemon.

Kaiser folded his burly arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “Do we even know how many people we’re supposed to take out of the compound?”

“Best guess is another twenty to thirty,” Nick said. He shoved to his feet and strode to the wall where a whiteboard hung. He sketched out the layout of the BadCreek compound and started putting Xs in different rooms. “These are the most likely places you’ll find them. I tried to obtain a map that would help us with updated information, but I’m not sure it’ll actually work. Kaiser has it, in case it’s useful later. There aren’t many fighters left. It shouldn’t be that difficult to take them by surprise and get the women and children free. There are probably some of the men who are there against their will, or who are willing to turn their backs on Ray and his methods.”

Miles Evershaw raised his eyebrows as he put his feet up on his table and laced his hands behind his head. “So we’re just supposed to trust you, wolf?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. He didn’t turn away from the challenge in the other wolf’s eyes, and for a long moment, it looked like there might be another fight in the middle of the Council room.

Logan Chase knocked his knuckles on the table and pointed at the board. “Can we focus on the matter at hand? I want to be done with all this bullshit. No more evil wolves, no more experiments, no more strange creatures showing up in this city. We need to free Smith and get rid of that djinn. End of story.”

“How did you get this map that’s supposed to give you updated information?” Rafe asked.

I held my breath as Nick pondered, then he shrugged one shoulder in what might have been resignation. “Ah, fuck it. He already wants to kill me. A sorcerer. He’s quirky, but he does good work every other time that I’ve used him.”

“A sorcerer?” Ruby O’Shea sat forward, her dark eyebrows almost to her hairline, just as her brother Rafe said, “Quirky?” The siblings looked at each other, then Ruby massaged her temples like she had a raging headache. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Nick.”

“It’s reliable enough,” I said, holding up my hand to stall any other objections. I really hoped it was true, and that Nick was right about his weirdo friends. There was no reason for me to trust the sorcerer except that Nick trusted him, and that only worked out if I really trusted Nick. Which I did. Maybe. To some extent. “If it starts to work in time. Either way, we’ll be able to find where the women and children are hiding. It’s the best we’ve got.”

The other alphas traded glances in a long, uncomfortable silence.

Harrison was the next to speak, though his gaze was on me and the question was more personal than I’d ever wanted to hear in that room. “Do you expect to survive this, Lacey?”

I took a deep breath and held it, listening to the thump of my heartbeat in my ears. I waited for the answer to come, for the typical arrogance and certainty to provide that impermeable shield against my doubts, but only my heartbeat answered. Savannah fidgeted next to me, about to poke me or answer for me that of course I expected to survive, and I braced my hands on the table so she wouldn’t.

My gaze didn’t leave Harrison, because I was terrified at what I might see in Nick. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Kaiser asked, his bushy eyebrows drawing down and hiding his eyes. I’d never thought I looked like a hyena while in human form, but the bears in particular looked far more ursine than any human face should. He even grumbled like a bear.

I could have lied. I could have laughed it off or rolled my eyes and tossed some bravado their way. But it wouldn’t have done any good. They knew exactly how dangerous this was going to be. “I don’t know. Smith might level a city block when he touches down in this world. The djinn might back out on his part of the bargain. Ray might manage to kill us all. I could trip and break my neck. I don’t know. I used to think...”

My voice broke and I had to look at the table to regain my composure. When I finally looked up to face the other alphas, I saw hints of compassion and sympathy in most of their eyes. Even Evershaw didn’t take the opportunity to be aggressively dickish, which was his way of being supportive. I squeezed the edge of the table until my fingers ached. “There are too many things that are beyond our control. I can’t inflict my will on everything that crosses my path, as much as I might want to. Nothing will ever be as neat and tidy as we want. So yes, we’ve planned as much as we can and we’ve got some serious firepower on our side in this battle, but there are enough big question marks that I don’t know what the hell this place is going to look like in two days. But I am willing to face that if it means finally getting rid of Ray, destroying BadCreek, and freeing the innocent people they’ve still got trapped.”

Sav squeezed my hand under the table.

Harrison nodded once, exhaling a long breath. “The jackals are in. We’ll be prepared to attack the compound.”

Kaiser followed along, though he sounded slow and grudging, like a bear shaking off the last snores of hibernation. “We’ll be there.”

“The lions as well,” Logan Chase said. His handsome face folded into an irritated frown, and he glanced over at his phone before turning his blue eyes to me. “And I’ve been told that a certain gorgon will be going with you, and you will not fucking stop her, so help her Zeus. You will also likely be stuck with Benedict, although he will be of less utility, I am sure.”

“No shit,” I said. Eloise’s support made my throat close down, so I could barely croak the words. “And thank you.”

“BloodMoon will be there to finish this off,” Ruby said. She reached over to squeeze her brother’s shoulder.

Miles Evershaw drummed his fingers as he studied the other alphas, impassive as always, while his cousin sat silently at his right. The alpha of SilverLine pack enjoyed drama and being the center of attention, that much was certain, but his expression was unusually pensive. Normally he would have offered up a soliloquy on how his pack would lead the hunt or he ought to be the one to get all the glory, but instead he just frowned and pondered.

We could do it without him, although his pack mates were strong and capable and well-disciplined fighters. I didn’t expect him to completely pass up the chance to destroy a rival pack and potentially expand his territory at the same time, but when something made him pause that long, I knew we needed to hear it. I braced myself for the inevitable and tried not to look at the clock. I still had a cackle meeting to hold and a couple of big decisions to make. Leave it to Miles fucking Evershaw to ruin our timeline.