by Lora Leigh
A hint of worry touched his gaze as he grimaced tightly. “I think I’d prefer to fight the alpha.”
“Too bad. I like getting even much better.” She moved behind her desk then. “I’d like your estimation of Sofia. A risk estimate.”
His brows arched as he eased toward the chairs that sat in front of her desk and sat down. “In what way?”
“The attacks began when she arrived. I knew Sofia in the labs; my first thought is that she’s not behind them. But I’d like to know what you think.”
He was thoughtful for long moments. “I’m not ruling anyone out. I’m investigating the attack on you and your bodyguards while in the mountains, as well as the attack in town. It’s clear we have a leak. I’m just not convinced Sofia is that leak.”
“Because she helped you over the years?”
“That,” he agreed, “but there’s more to it. Sofia has always worked hard toward the rescues and used her position in the Council’s lower ranks to the utmost advantage. I can’t see her betraying us now.”
“Even if she’s losing something she may have believed was hers?”
“The alpha?” Brim asked, shaking his head. “She’s always known better. There was nothing serious on either end when it came to them. They’re friends.”
Anya nodded. “Do you have any ideas why Del-Rey has suddenly been targeted?”
“Strength,” Brim stated. “Our team has been investigating those drugs, and someone could have learned of that investigation or what we found. It could also be something as simple as an attempt to weaken Haven. We’ve made a difference in their security. We’ve also been establishing a minor presence in town. Our men go to the bars there, while the Wolves pretty much stay more to their own packs. I’m looking into several areas.”
“Any headway?”
“You would have been one of the first to know if I had anything yet,” he promised her. “We brought in Coley’s daughter last night and should be requestioning him within a day or so. Hopefully we’ll have more then.”
Anya nodded again. “I appreciate you sharing this information with me.”
“Did you ask Del-Rey?” he asked her then. “I’m sure he would keep you apprised of the investigation if you asked him.”
“He would have,” she admitted. “But I wanted to discuss Sofia with you as well.”
“And you’d prefer not to allow emotion to become involved in the discussion.” He nodded as he rose to his feet. “I understand, Coya. But rest easy, you can place that responsibility on my shoulders.”
She watched as he left the office, closing the door behind him before she turned to the computer monitor and the small light blinking in the lower corner.
She pressed the hidden button that revealed the digital keyboard inset in the desk and tapped another button to bring up the conversation box before sliding it into an encryption program her father had helped her to create.
We’re worried about you, the message stated. Your father is well?
Father is well, she answered. And he sends his regards.
How did you find us? The question came quickly. We’ve stayed well hidden.
We’re friends, Anya typed. I used what I knew. Information I knew others wouldn’t have.
Doctors Chernov and Sobolova had hidden themselves well. But Anya knew the forums they inhabited online. It had taken her a few days, but she had finally managed to locate their online identities.
How may we help you?
Anya considered that question carefully. She had to be careful; if she had found this information, then others could as well, and if her encryption was cracked, then she could endanger them all.
I would like to meet, Anya typed.
Here or there?
Near.
The cursor blinked longingly for several seconds.
Is the welcome sign up or is it open season?
Unfortunately, it could still be open season without the answers I need first. I ask that you use caution but make the trip with all haste.
For you.
The answer had her closing in momentary relief. This line is not always safe, she typed. Please contact secondary source, which will direct you from here on out.
We appreciate your discretion in first contact. We hope to see you soon. The message ended and the screen disconnected as Anya closed the keyboard and breathed out roughly.
She could be making a mistake. She could be risking Del-Rey’s rage, she knew. Hopefully, she wasn’t risking the lives of friends as well.
Dr. Chernov and Dr. Sobolova were dedicated scientists and geneticists. Their work in the labs after they took over had been rumored to be some of the most advanced in understanding the Coyote genetics and many of the Breed’s strengths and weaknesses.
Several of the Coyote Breeds coming in from the Middle East had been secretly trained in the psychology of the Coyotes as well as advanced medicines. The lab facilities there had been considered to be ahead of their time. The training there was rumored to have stirred controversy among the scientists within the Genetics Council.
It would be hard for the Coyote Breeds to accept any Council scientist into Base, but the situation was becoming intolerable. Dr. Armani couldn’t treat both species. It wasn’t going to work. The Breeds coming in didn’t have the knowledge needed to work independently of a scientist proven in the areas of Breed physiology and genetic makeup.
Del-Rey had told her that if she could find someone she trusted her friends with, then she could have them. Then he had turned right around and forbade it.
Her lips thinned. The first promise was the one that counted, she decided, as she signed several more reports on the e-pad and sent them to the respective pack leaders awaiting them.
With that finished, she rose from her desk, tucked her cotton shirt into the band of her jeans and inhaled slowly. The heat had been easier today. Much easier. But then, Del-Rey had spent the past three days making certain that the hormonal releases she needed were given in quantity, as well as quality.
She flushed at that, then grinned. He was an incredible lover whether the heat was present or not. And as he had promised, he had more than made up for that first time that he had taken her.
As she moved for the door, e-pad in hand, the link at her ear beeped, a distinctive signal that had her smiling as she stepped from the room.
“Yes?” She answered her alpha’s call with a surge of excitement as her bodyguards converged behind her with a snicker and Ashley muttered, “Lovesick.”
“Are you well, Mate?” Del-Rey’s voice was low, his tone like a whisper of rough velvet over her senses.
“I am,” she answered, her voice just as low. “You?”
He chuckled. “How close is Ashley behind you? I’d hate to make her blush.”
Ashley snorted.
“Close enough,” Anya answered with a laugh as she glanced at her e-pad. “I’m heading to your office if you’re free. I need to discuss some reports that came in this morning on the new construction in the lower caverns, as well as some shifts in duty I’d like to make with a few of the teams.” And kitchen staff and uniforms. She saw no reason to list the full file of complaints she intended to face him with.
“We could discuss it this evening,” he suggested.
“That’s what you said yesterday,” she told him. “We didn’t get around to that discussion if I recall.”
“Ah yes, other things definitely came up,” he chuckled.
And they had. Hours’ worth of pleasure. Her body still tingled with it.
“I’m headed up,” she told him as they reached the stairs that led to the upper caverns. “Don’t run and hide.”
He laughed at that. “I’ll be here, Mate. Maybe I’ll even have a treat for you.”
She shivered at the thought of that. She had become overly fond of Del-Rey’s afternoon treats. The ones where he pulled her into his office or entered hers and showed her how hungry he was for her.
A nooner sounded good.
But maybe after she got his approval on the things she needed and had him lift the restrictions on her limits of power within Base.
Command and Security she understood; the day-to-day running of the base itself was another matter.
After being delayed several times for different requests, she stepped into his office nearly fifteen minutes later, and came to a hard stop.
That scent. She almost quivered in longing. Coffee. Real, caffeinated, dark and rich coffee. She almost whimpered as she watched Del-Rey lift a cup to his lips and sip slowly.
“You hate me,” she sighed, longing making her tongue almost curl. “Now I know you hate me.”
He grinned back at her, black eyes dancing as he leaned back in his chair and lifted his cup up to her. “Want a drink of mine?”
She licked her lips. More than she wanted chocolate. She stepped forward slowly, eyes narrowed as his lips quirked. She bet he tasted like that damned coffee. Coffee and male heat and hunger. Tempting. Very, very tempting.
Her eyes narrowed. Cunning, calculating damned Coyote.
She smiled. “I’ll take half a cup when I’ve finished.”
His brows lifted. They both knew what that coffee would do to her within hours.
“You could have a sip of mine now,” he offered.
Anya settled in the chair in front of his desk and stared back at him with a knowing smile. “Mongrel.”
He laid his hand over his heart, his eyes widening despite the wicked laughter in the dark depths. “Coya, you wound me.”
“I’m going to wound you.” She barely managed to contain herself from rolling her eyes. “What are you trying to get out of, Coyote? Lifting the restrictions on my basic powers or the uniforms for our soldiers?”
Del-Rey took another sip of the coffee and regarded his mate over the cup. She was slick, he had to give her that. As bad as she wanted the coffee, and she did want it bad, she wasn’t about to allow herself to be deterred.
Lowering the cup, he sat on the side of his desk and leaned forward. “We can incorporate a rotation of kitchen duties . . .”
Her hand lifted as her expression became shuddered. “Lift the restrictions on my duties, Del-Rey,” she told him firmly. “Kitchen duties and our rotations there are not your department. I don’t tell you how to run Command and Security, or how to train your men. I expect the same respect.”
“This isn’t about respect, Anya,” he finally told her. “This is about maintaining a functioning military base here. This isn’t Sanctuary and it isn’t Haven. We don’t have cuddly little cabins with pretty little flower beds around them.”
She sat back in her chair, crossed her arms and stared at him silently. Hell, she was going to get pissed off.
“I run this base when you’re gone. I’ve learned how to do what has to be done at any given time, and I do it with resources so limited they’re laughable,” she said calmly. “You have no right, Del-Rey, to keep a limit on my authority.”
And he’d considered that fact. For days. Unfortunately, he and Anya differed in several areas regarding the base. Areas he knew would change if she were given the authority to change it. He didn’t want to fight her. There had been too much conflict between them already. He liked her soft and sexy in his arms, not angry with him.
“Anya, I don’t want humans in this base, neither do I want staff that we don’t have control over. The Coyote soldiers coming in here from the Bureau rescues are going to feel out of place if they have beds, blankets and pillows without working for them. This isn’t a Council facility. It’s a military-run base. I can’t lift the restrictions on the powers you have until I’m assured that you understand this. Until then, my signature will be required on any changes you request.”
He could smell her anger simmering now. Low, fierce, barely held in check. But he felt her hurt, and it pinched in his chest.
“Is that why you haven’t signed off on the requests I’ve sent you?”
“I don’t believe the changes you’re requesting are for the good of the base.” He kept his tone soft, gentle. “It isn’t so bad here, is it?” he finally asked. “A little rough at times, I admit, but your personal requests are never restricted.”
She rose slowly to her feet, her chin lifted with that surfeit of pride he knew she had.
“Haven and Sanctuary are homes, to their alphas as well as their mates and children. If you prefer a military base rather than a home, then that’s your choice. Excuse me for taking up your time Alpha Delgado. Perhaps if you find the time from all your duties to fuck tonight, I’ll see you then.”
“Anya.” He came out of his chair as she moved from hers and headed for the door. “Dammit, that was uncalled for.”
She paused and turned back to him. “Was it?” she asked, the hurt in her voice thick now. “I had more freedom when the separation order was intact. I’ve become the one thing I swore I would never be, Del-Rey. Your pet, nothing more.”
“That isn’t true,” he growled. “Anya, you know better than that.”
She shook her head slowly, her blue eyes dark and filled with sadness. That sadness struck him like a physical blow.
“You just proved it,” she said softly. “I’ll leave you to run your base now.”
She swept from the room, head held high, shoulders straight, the subtle scent of her pain drifting back to him as he dropped into his chair and wearily wiped his hand over his face.
She knew better, he told himself. She would come to understand the necessity of this. Like a woman, she wanted ribbons and bows on everything. Coyotes didn’t do well with ribbons and bows. If they did, fuck, they’d be Wolves. Coyotes weren’t fucking Wolves.
He glared at the door as a firm knock sounded on it.
“What?” he snapped, knowing who stood on the other side.
Brim stepped into the office. “Well, how did you manage to fuck up?” He closed the door behind him as he smirked back at Del-Rey. “Wouldn’t let her have the quilts over the plain blankets for the soldiers’ barracks?”
“I refused the requests across the board,” he snarled back. “Do you have a problem with it? Since when do Coyotes think they don’t have to work for what they sleep on? How long did it take us to find a bed of our own? We appreciated it more for the fact that it was ours.”
Brim’s expression went blank. “I see,” he finally said. “Very well. I’ll leave you to your duties, Alpha.” He opened the door.
“What the fuck has a stick shoved up your ass?” Del-Rey snarled. “We’re a military base, not a fucking hotel complete with room service.”
Brim turned back slowly. “If this is true, then perhaps you should return the females to Haven. That way they don’t remind our men of everything they don’t yet have, and everything they know their coya would do to make their lives less military and more normal. They’ll remember they’re animals then, rather than the men they want to be. Should I arrange to have the coya and her detail returned?”
Del-Rey rose to his feet with a primal growl.
Brim’s brows arched. “Be a fool with your mate if you want to be, but stop excusing it. You don’t want the changes because those changes threaten you, not the base, Alpha. And despite your determination to claim her heart, simply put, you’re not willing to give her yours, or your trust, in the same measure. Poor coya. Maybe she’ll become the soldier you need rather than the mate she thinks you want. Would you be happy then?”
He didn’t give Del-Rey a chance to respond, but stepped from the office instead and closed the door quietly behind him, leaving Del-Rey alone with the knowledge that his second-in-command might be right. If she didn’t make the base a home, then if he ever lost her again, there would be less to suffer for, less to miss. For all of them.
“I need an escort to Dr. Armani’s office,” Anya told Emma as they stepped into the community room and headed back to the tunnel that led to her and Del-Rey’s rooms. “Ask her to have the hormonal therapy to prevent conception prepared and to please penc
il in a few moments to talk to me.”
“Yes, Coya,” Emma said quietly, using the comm link to access the outside line.
“Ashley, when is your nail appointment this week?” Anya asked.
“Alpha hasn’t approved it.” Ashley didn’t pout; her voice was calm, composed. The airhead was nowhere in sight.
“I just approved it. You’ll be accompanying me to my own appointment so we might as well make it a girls’ day out. Have our security team advised and make certain the detail is comprised of at least as many of the soldiers that came out of Russia with us as it is of Del-Rey’s men. Ensure that the other half are men who have been on that detail with us before. I want no complications.”
“Fuck,” Sharone hissed. “Now isn’t the time for this, Coya.”
“We can’t wait forever,” she told them. “Once our appointment is set, I’ll need you to find an excuse to go into town, make contact and give them details. I’ll talk to Armani this afternoon.”
“The conception hormone is an excuse then?” Ashley asked.
Anya breathed in roughly. “I made a choice,” she whispered. “It’s a choice I believe in—to let this play out without the hormones. But that mangy Coyote tried to manipulate me. He tried to play me. Let’s see how he likes playing his own game.” She turned to Ashley then. “How long do you think Brim will give us?”
Ashley’s smile was deadly. “I saw his face when we left. He’ll wait until the last possible moment before telling the alpha. I’d guess, half an hour lead time as long as no one else blabs.”
“No one blabs on the coya,” Sharone grunted.
“Team is in place. We have five men, all are from the alpha’s original team, ready and waiting at the south exit. They have an all-terrain ready to roll.”
Anya changed direction. It wasn’t necessary to change clothes before going to Haven. Jeans, boots and long-sleeved shirts were standard attire there.
“There’s snow moving in,” Sharone reported. “We may not make it back tonight. All we have are the all-terrains; the heli-jet is still in tech getting repairs, but one is on loan from the military.”
Wouldn’t it just be too bad if the alpha didn’t have his little sex toy to play with tonight, Anya thought furiously as they rushed to the waiting escort. Why, that just might break her heart.
Not.
CHAPTER 19
Anya stepped into the examination room and faced the Wolf Breed doctor silently for long moments. Dr. Armani was exhausted. There were darker shadows beneath her chocolate brown eyes, and for once, her long, silky mane of black hair was tied into a ponytail rather than braided into all those tiny braids that normally covered her head.
She was a beautiful woman. Like many of the Breed specialists still living, she wasn’t very old and was incredibly intelligent, with an above-genius ability in genetic engineering. The Council had spent years trying to blackmail her or force her into their ranks. She had spent just as many years in hiding, trying to escape them.
“Shots ready,” Armani said quickly as she prepared the injection. “The hormone to prevent conception isn’t complicated and it works quickly. I just need to take a few tests to make certain you haven’t conceived.”
“I don’t need the test, Nikki,” she said quietly. “I need to talk to you.”
Nikki swung around, her brow wrinkling in a frown. “Is there a problem? Have you been experiencing any other symptoms that we didn’t discuss?”
“No.” Anya moved across the room slowly and took a seat at the end of the examination table. “This has nothing to do with mating heat.”
Nikki’s eyes narrowed. “What does it have to do with?”
She licked her lips slowly. “Treason.”
Nikki stopped cold. “Are you going to kill that Coyote mate of yours?”
Anya let a smile tip her lips. “I haven’t come to that yet.”
“How serious is this, Anya?” Nikki pulled her stool closer and sat down. “I assume its fairly serious for you to make an excuse to see me.”
“How desperate are you for Coyote specialists?”
Nikki’s eyes widened. “I’d give my ass right now for just a few detailed notes. You don’t want to know what I’d do for specialists. But why would I need them if you have them? Base would—”
Anya shook her head. “He refuses to allow Council-trained specialists into Base. He’s made a career of killing them, Nikki. The ones he didn’t kill, the Council did. With the psychologists and medical specialists coming in from the Bureau, specialist backing could make a difference in determining some of the anomalies in the Coyote Breeds. Am I correct?”
Nikki nodded slowly.
“Would Haven give them asylum over the alpha Coyote leader’s objections?”
“Whoa!” Nikki’s head jerked back in surprise. “You have some? Not just one?”
“Two. I’ve been in contact. They’re currently in hiding, running for their lives from the Council. They were exceptional, Nikki. Compassionate, dedicated. They suffered when they were forced to allow Coyotes in that Russian facility to die.”
“Oh my God,” Nikki whispered. “Chernov and Sobolova are alive?”
“For now.” Anya nodded. “I’ve tried to discuss this with my alpha, but he refuses to agree that the Coyotes need their own specialists.” Or blankets and pillows, or a sense of belonging.
Nikki rose from the stool as she drew her jacket around her, crossing her arms under her breasts and turning from Anya for long seconds.
“I have limited time before my alpha jumps in here demanding answers,” Anya sighed. “I need a decision soon, Nikki.”
“You could get in a lot of trouble, Anya,” Nikki whispered. “If these are Council plants, it could backlash on you.”
Anya nodded. “I know this. Just as Hope knew the trouble that could arise when she contacted you, Nikki, and the Wolves gave you asylum.”
Dr. Armani grimaced at that. “And you want Hope to consider giving these two asylum as well?”
“I can’t discuss this with the lupina.” Anya slid off the exam table. “But if you wer