by Lora Leigh
“Hell.” He leaned his head back on the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. “Where is Anya now?”
Hopefully far away from him, because if he saw her, if he smelled her, he was going to fuck her. It was that simple.
“Looks like she’s in Communications at the moment.” Something in Brim’s voice warned him.
Del-Rey lifted his head again.
“She seems to have several of your pack leaders in attendance over that issue we’ve trying to resolve with team participation.” Amusement filled his tone. “Our teams, one and two, are working like the good little puppies they are. The rest, it would appear, are being shifted and sorted as any good little general would shift and sort them. So, you going to go play with her?”
Del-Rey snorted. “I’m going to sleep. Let her play. She’s damned good at it while I’m on mission. Maybe I’ll get some rest this time.”
If she was running Base as he knew she could, then he could tell Jonas to shove mission status, and Del-Rey and Brim could take their place in training the Coyote Breed soldiers more effectively and getting them into enforcer status.
That was a priority he had left the other pack leaders in charge of. Unfortunately, they weren’t as well trained themselves as they could have been. They were killers, not investigators or interrogators. Making that switch wasn’t as easy as it could have been if Del-Rey and Brim had been on base to train them.
“She has a junior soldier working up a proposal to slip into city hall and collect the purses and articles left there as well as to investigate any items missing and conduct covert searches of leading city council members’ homes to detect if they have said missing articles. According to the memo just sent to me, the soldier expects to have a full proposal prepared by tomorrow afternoon.”
Del-Rey blinked up at the ceiling.
“Did you consider that angle?” he asked Brim then.
“I’m sure one of us would have soon,” Brim answered laconically.
Del-Rey wasn’t so certain.
He sighed as weariness pulled at him and his healing body demanded sleep.
“Get everything together. We’ll go over what she’s done in the past hours and see how it’s affecting Base in general. I want a full report from all pack leaders, and I want Sofia’s input on that intel that came in last night concerning the drugs we’re trying to track. Tell her to be prepared to give her report. Once I’m prepared, then I’ll see about facing my mate.”
He had no intention of being ill-prepared when they came face-to-face once again. He wanted her in his bed, and he wanted the upper hand with her. That wasn’t going to happen if he didn’t have his shit together.
If her feelings were hurt, he’d have to fix that.
Added to dealing with a mate he realized he truly didn’t know, he was also faced with the fact that, for some reason, she had been targeted at that attack tonight. It hadn’t been just any female. Carlen, the Wolf Breed soldier, had gone for Anya, just as the bartender had. The entire event had been a stage for a planned execution. And Del-Rey wanted to know why. Then he wanted to know by whom, because he wanted to know whose throat to rip out.
Haven was attacked often, though this was the first time Breeds had been attacked in the small town that resided outside the lands the government had granted the Wolf Breeds. And with each call sent to the army base outside the pack lands, delays had resulted.
Typical, he thought tiredly. So typical. Prejudice had found a new focus when the Breeds revealed themselves. Humans who had no acceptable scapegoat to hate had found one with the mysterious new beings that had been created without their knowledge. They’d found something to fight against, something else to fear. And Del-Rey often wondered if they wouldn’t, in time, find another war to fight in their battle to destroy what they didn’t understand.
No divine deity had given the Breeds life; therefore, they could have no soul. That was what the Breeds were taught, and that was how many saw them. Creations shouldn’t have rights. They shouldn’t have freedom, and there were those that would take every freedom, every right the Breeds had managed to acquire and steal it from under them.
That was the battle they faced, and Del-Rey often wondered if there was a way that the Breeds could ever triumph.
With that thought in his mind, he let sleep take him. The healing process came with its drawbacks. Twenty-four to seventy-two hours of complete weakness and weariness. The need to sleep. That weakness had hampered the Genetics Council several times as they tried to fix what they considered a defect in the Coyote genetics.
Del-Rey had, at times, considered it a blessing. It was the only time he slept deeply, the only time he didn’t awaken searching for the warmth and the sweet relief that only his mate could give him.
CHAPTER 13
“We still have four pack leaders working against each other,” Anya mused as she went over the notes she had made through the hours Del-Rey slept. “Teams one and two, Del-Rey and Brim’s personal teams, are working efficiently, though not at peak, in Security and Communications. We still have a rivalry with teams three and four, though they’re working together in those areas. Team five seems to be the most efficient at the moment, medical and joint administrative, with team six working perimeter patrol. Too few of the soldiers have achieved enforcer status though.”
There were six pack leaders, a total of only sixty-four Coyotes. There were more coming in, a possible ten to twenty that had managed to escape a facility in the Middle East. The pack leader there had agreed to step down and aid his group in the integration into the packs that were already established here at Base.
Tapping the electronic pen against the side of the e-pad, Anya bit her lip and considered that information. Over the years, she’d dealt with several administrators of various labs and facilities. If she wasn’t mistaken, the facilities in the Middle East had been training surgical and scientific personnel from those Breeds that showed a predisposition to medical knowledge, rather than killing them, as many other facilities did. Coyotes were bred to kill, not to save lives, even those of their own kind. A predisposition to such talents, the Council had feared, was also a disposition toward mercy. That wasn’t what they wanted or needed in this species.
She made a note to check into that before going to Del-Rey with this information. They could use any medical personnel that could be acquired, or even kidnapped at this point.
“Coya, the pack leaders have all promised a full report on their team areas, duties and complaints within the next seventy-two.” Ashley turned to her from where she’d stood, her back turned, talking to the pack leaders via the internal base link. “They’re so cute, have I mentioned that?”
“I think you might have.” Anya grinned at Emma, who was rolling her eyes.
“Has med tech sent their report on Del-Rey’s condition?” She turned to Sharone who was working frantically on her PDA.
“His condition is stable and healing,” Sharone told her. “Brim reported he’s sleeping like the dead and promises you his team report once he can leave the alpha and resume his regular duties.”
Ashley snorted. “She’s supposed to be in there watching over him, not covering Base while Brim sits on his tush and does her job. Cute though it may be.” She waggled her brows.
“Emma, make a note to watch the dye that goes in Ashley’s hair the next time she bleaches it,” Anya ordered. “I think it’s beginning to hamper cognitive abilities.”
Ashley snapped her teeth at Anya playfully before going back to work.
“She’s right,” Sharone hissed furiously, her voice low. “You’re supposed to be gathering reports and watching out for the alpha at this point. This makes us look bad.”
Anya clenched her teeth. “I know what I’m supposed to be doing, Sharone,” she bit out. “He wanted Brim with him. I’m not going to go beg.”
“Who says beg?” Sharone told her. “Go in and be the coya. Damn, have we wasted our time all these months teaching you how to take o
ver?”
Had they? Anya looked up from the e-pad and considered those options. She was aware of the Coyotes in command center sneaking her covert looks. She was well aware that this was Brim’s job now that he was on base, not hers. It was a job that needed doing though, and Brim was busy with her duties.
She was also aware of her own bodyguards watching her thoughtfully. They’d had enough belief in her that they had trained her even as she hadn’t realized she was being trained.
She tapped the e-pad closed and turned to glance around the command center.
“Let’s go!” She turned and moved from the electronic center and began making her way through the tunnels toward Del-Rey’s quarters.
She’d been putting this off. She hadn’t slept since the night before, and her own temper was fraying. She was out of sorts, frustrated, and there was a slow, simmering burn between her thighs from her inability not to remember exactly what she and Del-Rey had been doing before that ambush.
Her lips wrapped around the head of his cock, tasting the essence of his lust as it spilled between her lips, feeling him, taut and hard, growls rumbling in his throat as the arrogant alpha was replaced by the seducer.
Now, nearly eight hours after his return to Base, weariness was dragging at her and the need to see him was eating her alive. Even if he was just sleeping.
But he hadn’t asked for her. He hadn’t sent for her.
He was healing, she told herself. The healing process was exhausting for Coyotes, even more so than other Breeds.
As she turned into the alpha’s section of the base, she nodded at the security team she’d put in place. They were Del-Rey’s pack members and, she knew, more loyal to him alone than the others would be.
“Should we wait outside?” Ashley asked.
“Yes, you should,” Anya answered her. “I don’t need protection from your alpha.” At least, she hoped she wouldn’t. “As a matter of fact, the three of you can return to quarters while I’m here. Get some damned sleep or something, Ash. You’re getting dark circles.”
“Those are fighting words, Coya,” she growled, though the playfulness still filled her tone.
“We’ll spar later.” Anya laid her palm against the palm plate that had been installed, and waited to see if she would be accepted.
She wasn’t. She closed her eyes against the pain.
A second later the door opened and Brim stepped back, his gaze remote as she entered the room. She slapped the e-pad into his hand.
She could almost feel his disapproval that she was there; the fact that if he had the authority, he might even order her out.
“You’ll find my notes, unencrypted, there,” she told him. “You’re needed in Command and Security. While you’re there, have a talk with your pack leaders about cooperation in areas you share before you need to knock some heads together.”
He stared back at her silently.
“The packs have been cooperating fine,” he said coolly. “They’re working together when they were never meant to do so. I consider that a rather amazing occurrence on a good day.”
She stared back at him with the same measured look. “They’re not working together well enough then. It’s your job to see to this, and you haven’t.”
“I have been rather busy.” The mockery slipped free then. “I’m Del-Rey’s bodyguard and part of the team now assigned to the Bureau. It’s rather hard to be in two places at once and to see to my duties in Command and Security as well as be bodyguard and general overseer.”
“You should have assigned someone in your place,” she retorted calmly.
“I did so,” he informed her, his voice clipped. “Things have worked well enough.”
“Well enough isn’t working anymore,” she told him. “And you are not needed as general overseer. I think I can handle that well enough.”
“Coya, this isn’t a place to play games,” he said quietly. “You can’t walk in and take your place for a few days, then run screaming when things begin to get out of control for you where the heat is concerned. Let this be until Del-Rey awakens and he can decide how we’ll handle it.”
“My place is here,” she gritted out. “Yours is in Command and Security now that you’re on base. Are we understood?”
She wasn’t going to argue over who belonged where. She belonged here, and she would be here. Her decision had been made; mating heat or not, as arrogant as all of them could be, it was time to finish this, one way or the other.
“Completely, Coya.” He inclined his head slowly, though his expression never changed. “I’ll collect my PDA and get to where I belong then.”
“Have you slept?” She propped her hands on her waist as he started to turn from her.
“For several hours,” he admitted. “There’s a sleep chair in the office that I made use of.”
He took her e-pad and held it in one hand with his PDA and stared back at her. “When he wakes up after healing, he’s a prick. I don’t want to hear you crying later if you end up with your feelings hurt or, worse yet, you find yourself back in his bed.”
Coyotes didn’t beat around the bush, she had to give them credit for that.
“Agreed.” She nodded sharply. “I’ve left notes where I need to be updated if you don’t mind. My PDA code is notated in there so you can send it straight to me.”
Brim nodded his dark head, his light blue eyes shifting as though amusement threatened to touch his gaze, before he left and closed the door quietly behind him.
Breathing out roughly, Anya stepped fully into the room, then felt, saw, the haze of red fury that began to wash over her. She felt her fingers curl as the need for violence rushed through her system. She wanted to kill. To see blood flow and kick some damned Russian female ass.
Sofia was sitting on the side of his bed staring back at her, a damp cloth in her hand, a bowl of water on the bedstead as Del-Rey lay sleeping, stretched out, all but naked before the other woman’s gaze. Her Del-Rey. Naked. Covered by nothing but a sheet, and another woman was touching him? Brim had dared to allow another woman to touch him?
Sofia rose slowly to her feet. “Fever.” She cleared her throat, her hazel green gaze flickering for a moment. “I was merely helping Brim.”
Merely helping Brim? Brim had called this woman in, allowed her to touch Del-Rey, to care for him as he left Anya in Command and Security?
Anya’s head lifted. “He’s not going to fuck you, so we both know you don’t have a chance of achieving the status of coya in this base, are we agreed?”
Sofia’s gaze darkened, almost in amusement, as she licked her lips slowly. “We’re agreed, the status of coya will never be mine. But you haven’t officially accepted it as of yet either.”
“Don’t play word games with me, Sofia,” she warned her. “I’m not in the mood for them, or for your cattiness. Get the hell out of these quarters and make damned certain you stay out of my sight for a long while. We might both regret it if you don’t.”
“Possessive, Anya?” she asked. “I’ve heard you really don’t give a damn, and haven’t given a damn in over eight months. Why begin now?”
“Playing gossip, Sofia?” she sneered. “You should know better at your age.”
Sofia’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “Poor guy. He needs a lover that could balance him, that can be just as determined as he is. You ran from him.”
“Do you want to die today?” Because Anya was definitely in the mood to shed blood.
“Today is as good as any.” Slender shoulders shrugged expressively. “But, I have a feeling it’s not going to happen just yet. I’ll be on my way, Coya. If you need any help, let me know.”
“Oh, I think I can manage all on my own,” Anya assured her, her voice calmer than she had expected it to be.
“I’m sure you can.” Sofia’s low laugh grated on her already stretched nerves.
“Sofia.” Anya stopped her as she passed.
“Yes, Coya?” she asked with a mocking smile.
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“Let me catch you touching him again while he’s unaware, and I’ll make certain you never enter this base again.”
Better yet, if she didn’t manage to get a handle on her rage, she’d make certain no one found the body.
Sofia’s brow lifted and amusement sparkled in her eyes. “You don’t have that authority, Anya. But I’ll play along and promise to be a good little girl while he’s sleeping, how’s that?”
“I don’t need your promises,” Anya informed her coldly. “Get out of these rooms, and don’t make the mistake of entering them again unless I’m present.”
“Once again, no authority.” Sofia wagged her finger at her. “Only a full mate can make that demand.” She paused and looked at Del-Rey’s sleeping form before turning back to Anya. “Separation order. Remember?”
Anya hid her shock, though she knew she should have expected Sofia to know about the mating. She had worked with Del-Rey all these years, been an informant against the Council. She was here at Base; Del-Rey wouldn’t have allowed it unless he trusted her to keep her mouth shut.
That didn’t mean Anya liked it. It sure as hell didn’t mean she liked the other woman.
She strolled past Anya then as she said, “He needs to be bathed with cool water as he sleeps. Mating heat and healing don’t work well together when the heat isn’t being satisfied. Poor little Coyote. He’s suffered.”
The door closed softly behind her moments later as Anya fought to still the shudders racing through her body. That woman’s hands had been on him. Stroking him.
She stared at Del-Rey, stretched out, only a sheet covering his hips, leaving long, powerful legs bare, giving a full, tempting view of hard abs, a powerful chest. Naked, he was imposing, arousing and aroused. The hard length of his cock pressed clearly against the sheet.
Brim was going to pay for this. It was his job to watch over Del-Rey, to ensure he was protected during the healing phase when he was wounded.
Sofia was sensual, sexual; would she have dared to do more than simply wipe the sweat from his body? A part of Anya was certain the woman was capable of any perversion; another part of her knew better. Conflicting knowledge and emotions were whipping through her, tearing through her mind as she felt herself flushing, felt emotions she’d kept carefully contained rising inside her.
She knew Sofia too well. She had known the other woman all her life, and she knew the games she played. She was as calculating and manipulating as any Coyote Breed. Anya remembered Sofia directing her out of the labs, from the direction she would have gone, into the direction Del-Rey would be.
Yeah, she hated Sofia. She always had. But more because of the other woman’s mocking arrogance and air of superior knowledge than for any other reason.
Del-Rey shifted on the bed. Where he had been comfortable, locked in a haze of dark peace, he suddenly became aware of something more.
First, the heat. It tunneled through his cock as he heard Brim talking. That wasn’t normal. The mating heat was always pushed back when healing took over. It was the only time he slept peacefully, the only time he didn’t ache like the bastard animal he knew inside that he was.
The mating heat pushed forward, locked inside his mind. He heard Anya, scented her. He swore he could almost feel the warmth of her body against him. He needed it, he admitted to himself. Here in this dark nothingness, he needed her to lie against him, to warm him. God, sometimes the cold went clear to the bone and chilled him until he feared he would never feel warm again.
He shifted on the bed. He knew he should be sleeping deeper, that the near unconscious state the healing put him in should be blocking whatever was rising inside him. Hunger. Need. A craving for Anya he was never long without.
His Anya. Like a flame in winter, soothing the cold and the fears that haunted the man who wasn’t fully a man, and tormented the animal that wasn’t fully animal. Sometimes the battle between man and beast inside him was so tenacious that he wondered how long he could contain the conflicting urges.
The animal demanded that he take what belonged to him. That he steal her, kidnap her again. He wanted to throw those fucking hormonal treatments to the wind and force her to suffer as he suffered. He was ready to howl with the hunger inside him for the relief he knew they were both desperate for.
The man ached though. The man needed her acceptance. The man needed her touch given voluntarily, without the demand of the mating heat that surged between them. The man, arrogant and filled with his own sense of hunger, craved her acceptance.
“I’ve missed you.”
He heard her voice, like summer rain, washing over his senses as a cooling touch covered his brow. It didn’t ease the heat raging through his body, but it was better than nothing. At least in this tortured, demented nightmare, she was speaking to him rather than taunting him, just out of reach, always slipping past his desperate touch.
“Brim’s a dead Coyote, Del-Rey. He shouldn’t have let her in here. Let her touch you.”
She must have meant Sofia. He had warned Brim to never allow Anya to know Sofia had bathed his brow and chest while healing from that gunshot wound months before. Had he told her?
It had hurt Anya. He didn’t want her hurt.
“God, just being close to you makes me wet.”
Her little sigh had him tensing in need now. She was wet? She wanted? He was hard and willing to give. But he knew better than to open his eyes and reach out for her. When he did, the dream would be gone, as would her touch. And he needed her touch like the land needed the rain. He needed to soak it in, feel it inside him, soothing him, refreshing him.
“I’ve missed you so much, Del-Rey. Like you were before you kidnapped me. Teasing me. Just your eyes would smile and I wanted to see your lips smile too. I wanted to feel that smile in a kiss and know it was all mine.”
He wanted to give her such a kiss. A kiss filled with the promises he wanted to keep, the security he wanted to give her.
There was so little security in a Breed’s life. So little they could depend upon. They had nothing to truly believe in except this. This promise that nature gave them with the mating heat. That there was a place for them. That at least in nature, they were accepted.
Del-Rey twisted against the bed, that agony of need raging through him. His hands clenched in the sheets he could feel beneath his body, the bed he’d picked out with Anya in mind. Large so they could roll around on it. Comfortable and warm, and now it felt like a bed of bricks.
His body was on fire for her. Just one more touch. He wanted to feel her hand, not whatever that cool touch was. He wanted her flesh. Flesh to his flesh. But he knew better than to reach for her.
“Anya.” He forced the word past his lips. “Warm me.”
He could smell her, so warm and sweet. He wanted to wrap around her, just for a while. He couldn’t drag himself far enough from the healing to still the mating heat.
He was lost in this need. The need to just feel her warmth. He had ached for her warmth. It had driven spikes of agony into his soul for months, unceasing, always there, reminding him that what should have been his would never belong to him.
“You’re burning with fever.” Her hand stroked over his chest and something inside him unknotted. Flesh to flesh. That was how he needed her.
“Warm me, Anya,” he sighed, wishing he could touch this dream, feel it, just for a while. “Flesh to flesh.”
Then she was gone. He wanted to howl in agony. The sweet gentle touch was gone. The warmt