by Layla Nash
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.
Chapter Thirty-four
Nick
He stood there and wanted to peel his own skin off with the urge to shout at those idiots for delaying. Every second that ticked by was one less second they could use to plan the attack against the BadCreek compound. Granted, he’d seen some of the plans they had on the shelf from previous attempts, so it wasn’t like they’d run in there completely unprepared, but Nick wanted time to recover and relax and maybe even talk to Lacey about the craziness about her thinking she might not survive the effort to rescue Smith.
She didn’t look at him much, but she didn’t avoid looking at him, which was a good sign. Or so he thought. The fact that she was snarling and snapping at Evershaw was a much better sign, since she’d have to be pretty damn resigned to her fate to ignore the asshole.
He clenched his jaw until lights exploded behind his eyes as the SilverLine alpha leaned his elbows on the table and eyed Lacey as she waited for their verdict. “Where will the hyenas be tonight, during this little outing?”
Little outing. Nick couldn’t swallow a growl, though Evershaw and Lacey both ignored him. Kaiser shot him a dirty look over his shoulder, but Nick wasn’t about to apologize. Just because Evershaw was a coward—or, more likely, a calculating bastard with a finely-honed sense of self-preservation—didn’t mean he could attempt to diminish what they wanted to accomplish. Calling the attack and the fight to free Smith a “little outing” was a disservice to all involved. But Evershaw knew that, and he said it deliberately. Which pissed Nick off.
Lacey didn’t blink. “Killing as many BadCreek warriors as they can.”
“And you will be...?”
“Freeing Smith, killing Ray, and releasing the djinn. In that order.” She cocked an eyebrow at him, otherwise unimpressed with the wolf alpha. “Where will you be, Miles?”
His eyes narrowed as he continued drumming his fingers on the table, clearly debating. Nick didn’t know what else there was to think about.
When the silence stretched still longer, Nick couldn’t take it. He straightened from leaning against the table and turned slowly to face all of the alphas at once. “If we do this right tonight, it is the last fight you’ll have to worry about for the foreseeable future. Your mates will be safe. Your young will be safe.”
Tension ratcheted up in the room, and Nick knew he didn’t have much leeway for talking about other men’s mates and young. He didn’t give a shit if they got pissed off at him. It would be better, all things considered, because that anger could be shaped and redirected against BadCreek. He’d done it before. “If we do not get rid of them now, they will get stronger. They’ve already had too much time to lick their wounds and prepare more experiments. They’re still getting money from Keller. He’s set up a new business and a new lab in Europe, a couple of them, actually, in places where there are a lot of people willing to trade in all sorts of illegal goods. This isn’t going away unless we make it go away.”
Nick hated making speeches, and he really hated being the center of attention. So standing in the fucking center of the room made the back of his neck itch, like someone was sneaking up behind him. He tried not to spin faster, just to make sure none of the alphas tried to bum-rush him.
But at the mention of Markus Keller, the bankroll behind the whole BadCreek operation and the so-called scientist who created experiments out of children and babies, all of the alphas went still and cold—predators before the attack. Edgar Chase, the lion pride’s second-in-command and security chief, gave Nick a look that reminded him of when Sasha tried to kill him in the boxing ring. “You found Keller?”
“I found some of his people,” Nick said. He couldn’t look at Lacey, not as a hint of betrayal stole across her eyes. “It won’t take me long to find him once I get to Europe. I owe Smith my life, so I’m going to get him out
of wherever the fuck he is, then I’m out of your hair.”
“Smith also owes you quite a bit of money,” Evershaw said. The bastard did a good job of not putting any inflection on his words, like he was just commenting on the weather. Nick could see why everyone hated him. Fucking douchebag.
Nick wanted to bare his teeth and bristle so the wolf alpha figured out Nick wasn’t going to be pushed around, not in front of Lacey, but he held himself back a little more than normal. In that arena, with Lacey so close and her scent tangled around his brain... If he went wolf, he wouldn’t be coming back. That would be it. And Nick didn’t have time for that fight.
So he answered the unspoken question. “Yeah. I wouldn’t call it ‘quite a bit.’ I’d call it a metric fuckload, and I don’t get the funds unless the old man is back in his office, in his right mind. So I’ve got a personal motivation to get his ass back from the Betwixt, keep him alive, and put him back in charge. You all benefit from that as well, so does it really matter why I’m doing what I’m doing?”
“Yes,” Evershaw said. Nick braced himself and debated leaping over the table at the man, just because he wouldn’t have anything left to lose. But the SilverLine alpha knocked his knuckles on the table and sat back. “I like to know a man has a personal reason for risking his life. If it’s not a woman and it’s not money, it’s some bullshit like honor or duty. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who fights for honor or duty. I’m glad it’s money.”
And Nick might have imagined it, but Evershaw’s gaze flicked to Lacey and then back to Nick. The wolf arched an eyebrow in challenge at Nick, though his words were anything but. “SilverLine will be at the compound. We’ve scouted the north and east sides and already know the best ingress routes. We’ll have armored vehicles and heavy weapons to assist.”
Some of the tension in Nick’s chest eased. One down. And he’d thought Evershaw would be the hardest one to convince. He couldn’t look at Lacey, and not just because she could have broken him with a look, but because Nick suspected Evershaw had guessed at what was between them. Nick didn’t want to give the asshole any other information he could use against Lacey. Since Lacey wasn’t leaving the city with him, Nick could try and protect her from any other cutting remarks as much as possible before he left.