Authors: Lora Leigh
The bastards. Del-Rey knew he should have expected the ambush. Hell, the others probably had.
The only problem was that there was only one clear road into the town and a lot of mountains rising around them.
Coming to his feet, he gripped the weapon as he ran for the all-terrain Brim had swung to the side of the creek bed. The vehicles were built high, light, and made for mountainous terrain.
Heavy shocks supported the dirt-gripping tires and a powerful motor gave the ATV the edge needed to effectively cut through some of the roughest passages.
“Move in on them,” Del-Rey yelled as he swung into the passenger seat.
Behind him, two of his men were braced in the attack supports. One carried a handheld missile launcher; the other gripped the mounted machine gun.
“All vehicles are in the pass,” Jacob, Haven’s head of security, barked into the receiver at Del-Rey’s ear. “Good luck, Alpha Delgado.”
“Move!” Del-Rey shouted the order to Brim as another explosion sent rock and earth flying into the air.
The all-terrain jerked and sped off at his order, climbing the pass and shooting across the road as another explosion sprayed chunks of earth around the vehicle.
“They’ll be waiting in line of sight when they come out of that pass.” Brim jerked the wheel and headed up the mountain.
“Give them a new target,” Del-Rey ordered harshly. “Let them see us coming. Pull the fire off those limos, Brim. If so much as one of those women is injured, there’s going to be war.”
The peace between human and Breeds was always tenuous at best. They were aware that it would take only one wrong move to change the balance in peace. The death of a mate, especially an alpha leader’s mate, would create chaos.
Breed loyalty to pack was everything. Their women were their future, their survival. The death of even one of them would not be taken lightly, and the Council knew that. They knew the Breeds would descend on the murderers with a fury that the humans of the world only imagined them capable of.
Del-Rey’s eyes narrowed along the terrain. His night vision was perfect, drawing from the moonlight above, the shadows around them, each detail highlighted.
“We have incoming,” Brim yelled. “Brace. Brace.”
Del-Rey clenched his teeth in a grimace of fury as the all-terrain rocked and sped along the mountain. It zigzagged among the trees that crashed down around it as the explosion ripped through the forest.
“When we reach them, stay the hell out of my way,” Del-Rey ordered.
“We need to question them,” Brim growled in irritation.
Sometimes, Brim was too fucking logical. That was why, Del-Rey decided, Brim wasn’t pack leader.
He smiled, hard and cold, as the all-terrain avoided another explosive mortar shell and raced toward the ambushers’ location. Within minutes, they’d have them.
Del-Rey turned to Brim and snarled, “Question their fucking ghosts.”
A second later, the world exploded in a haze of color and sound as the all-terrain flew into the air.
The limo raced up the mountain to the Coyote Breed stronghold as Anya sat silently, staring into the distance at the explosions on the mountain.
She knew a team of Wolf Breed Enforcers had followed Del-Rey and his men up there. A helicopter was now streaking across the sky, as was one of the lethal weapon-equipped stealth heli-jets that the Breeds used.
She’d listened to the reports that echoed through the limo and flinched, barely holding back a cry when she heard that the Coyote vehicle had been struck.
Del-Rey was fine, she assured herself, feeling the tears that marred her cheeks. He had been through worse than this. He would have been prepared. He was fighting even now, his teeth clenched, a killer’s smile on his face.
“Coya, we’re pulling to the entrance,” Ivan told her fiercely. “Soldiers are waiting at the entrance to escort you into the caverns.”
“Find your alpha, Ivan, don’t worry about me,” she ordered him. “Which team are you taking?”
He shook his head. “Your protection—”
“Take team two, they know the mountains around here best. Is our jet still waiting here?”
“We’re not armed, Coya,” he stated.
“Get that jet ready to roll and get yourself and team two to your alpha,” she stated fiercely. “You bring him back here alive, Ivan, or I’m going to skin your hide. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Coya,” he snapped before picking up the radio and ordering team two to detach from her protective detail and replacing them with another team.
Coya was second-in-command now, and their alpha was in danger.
“Doctors are waiting at the entrance for Sharone and she’ll be taken straight to Medical. Get ready, Coya, it’s going to be a hard stop.”
The limo skidded, the back end sliding to the side as he threw it to a stop. The door opened and the soldiers assigned to her were pulling her out.
“You.” She was in one of their faces, she had no idea which. “Take me straight to Medical.”
“Coya, we need you in secure quarters . . .” the soldier began.
“Do you want to piss me off, soldier?” Anya snapped, aware of the other limo jerking to a stop and the medical personnel racing to Sharone. “I said Medical and I mean now. The only way you’re going to get me to my supposed quarters is if you carry me there. What would your alpha think of that one?”
She didn’t give him time to respond.
“Samuel, Mordecai,” she yelled at two of the Coyote enforcers. “Get your butts in the air with Ivan and team two.” They were two of Del-Rey’s best men.
They looked to each other, then her.
“Is your alpha here?” she yelled back at them.
“No, Coya.” Samuel shook his dark head quickly.
“Then you obey your coya. Now go!” she snarled. “Now!”
They surprised her. They turned and ran, barely catching up with Ivan as he straightened the limo to head to the top of the mountain and the waiting heli-jet.
She could hear the hum in the air and, over it, the explosions across the mountain. Lifting the hem of her gown, she moved into the caverns, following the medical team that was bearing a still-cursing Sharone through the stone hallways to the lower-level medical rooms.
At least one attack had been made on this mountain while Anya had been here. A stealth jet had managed to penetrate the Breeds’ air defenses and had slammed “cave busters,” mountain-penetrating missiles, into both the Coyote Breed base as well as the mountain that overlooked Haven.
Anya had led then. It had been her first command situation.
There had been damage, but not a single Breed had been scratched. There had been more damage to the Haven buildings and homes, but the rumored base in the mountain that sheltered the valley hadn’t been hurt. Twenty-four hours later Del-Rey had returned and taken over.
“Coya, Sharone’s threatening to leave Base and head to the mountain.” Emma rushed to her side as Ashley flanked her. “She’s cussing up a storm, and it was all we could do to keep her in the limo.”
“Tell the doctors to shoot her full of a sedative if she can’t keep her butt on the gurney and out of trouble,” Anya ordered her. “Ashley, get to Command. Have one of the soldiers get me a headset.
I want to know everything that’s going on as it happens.”
Ashley rushed away as one of the male Breeds took her place.
“You!” She pointed to another soldier, watching his eyes widen almost in panic. “Find me some information and find it now. And make damned sure your alpha is still breathing.”
The soldier hurried off as Anya entered the medical caverns and stood back, watching as Sharone cussed out the Coyote Breed medical staff.
If she was cussing, she was just pissed. Sharone could get eerily silent if she was really hurt.
Almost deadened.
“Emma, get one of our enforcers down to Haven. I want information on that bartender they brought back and I want to know what he’s saying. Get another to Dr. Armani’s office and see what’s coming out of there, then contact our enforcer in the Wolf Breed security detail and see what he has. I want everything tapped into me, via the link Ashley better have to me within the next second.”
“Yes, Coya.” Emma stepped to the side as Anya wrapped her arms around herself, slowly rubbing at the chill invading her body.
“Coya, I found a blanket.”
A soldier stepped forward, unfolding a thick gray blanket and helping her pull it over her shoulders.
“My wrap and purse are still at the ballroom,” she told him. “My knives are in that purse. When it’s safer, I want a team flown into town and all our belongings collected. Get a list together. If we don’t get everything back, then we’re going to break a few rules and start breaking into houses. Whoever was behind this won’t be expecting us to come back to collect anything.”
The soldier grinned. “I like how you think, Coya. I’ll get the information and get everything ready.”
“Prepare a plan,” she told him. “When your alpha returns, we’ll submit your ideas to him in the eventuality that anything is missing. Because I’m betting you, someone is collecting it and splitting the goods now.”
The women invited had all left their purses and wraps with the doorman. Some were exquisite creations donated by some of the world’s premier clothing makers on the off chance that the Breed females or mates would show off their creations and give them the cachet of knowing their designs were worn by the women chosen by the notorious Breeds.
“Coya, I’m a lower-ranked soldier,” he finally said. “I’m not an enforcer. I should take this to an enforcer to prepare.”
She turned on the man, her gaze going over him. “Were you considered defective in your lab, soldier?”
“No, Coya.” His voice hardened, a deadly growl reflecting in it. “I was considered a class one stealth and exterminating specialist.”
“Then here’s your chance to earn your bar as an enforcer,” she retorted. “You got lucky tonight, soldier.”
“Yes, Coya.” He straightened. “I’ll get that information together now.”
“Emma, I don’t have my communications set,” Anya reminded the other woman as she turned back to the window that looked in on the medical room.
“It’s coming, Coya,” Emma promised her, then paused. “Our alpha is fine. No matter what.”
“Of course he’s fine, and he’s going to be growling and snarling and tasting blood when he stomps into this mountain. Get on the radio, get me that communications set now. Tell those boys in Communications they better be anticipating every shred of information he’s going to need before he gets here. If I hear again that the information needed to defend this mountain isn’t available to him the minute he’s ready for it, then heads are going to roll.”
During the last attack, she knew, Del-Rey had spent hours getting much needed information together because Communications and Security had been so surprised by the attack that they had been scrambling to figure out what was going on.
“I should be in Communications,” she decided. “Keep a soldier here. I want reports sent in on that stubborn Breed’s status every five minutes. And if she tries to pull her usual get-up-and-fight bullshit, then have her sedated.”
She turned and headed along the passageway as the other Breeds watched her assessingly. This was her first time as second-in-command while Del-Rey was considered on base.
Coyote Breeds had a love-hate conflict in regards to their coya sometimes. She didn’t reside in their mountain while their alpha was there. They had felt deserted by their leader’s other half, and Del-Rey’s original team felt as though she had deserted their alpha.
Now Emma almost smiled. She, Sharone and Ashley had done well. Eight months. In only eight months Anya was automatically taking her place as Del-Rey’s second-in-command and his mate.
“Call up to Communications and have them ready for her,” Emma ordered the soldier. “Make certain she has a cup of coffee or she’s going to crash and burn on us the way she’s using adrenaline at the moment. I also want the doctor standing by for hormonal injections if needed.
That adrenaline crash sometimes retriggers the heat.”
And Anya could get pissy if she went into heat without warning. Not to mention the fact that Del-Rey would have all their heads if Anya ended up in pain again.
The soldier nodded and made the calls as they stepped into the elevator and made the descent into the well-protected communications center.
She glanced at Anya. Her coya’s shoulders were straight, her head held high, sapphire eyes glittering in her pale face. And for the first time, Emma noticed the little sprinkling of freckles across Anya’s nose.
“He’s fine,” she murmured again.
“Of course he’s fine,” Anya snapped. “Have Medical be prepared just in case. And tell me again why the hell we don’t have our own operating rooms and surgeon in-house.” She turned and glared at Emma.
Emma shrugged. She knew the answer; Anya knew the answer. “Dr. Armani . . .” was their designated specialist.
“Is a Wolf Breed specialist,” Anya snapped. “I’ve had enough of this.”
“Hard to get a surgeon to perform surgery when he’s dead,” Emma reminded her.
She remembered. Just as she knew there were at least two Coyote specialists well adept in surgery, Coyote genetics and general Breed medicine that would be well able to treat them.
Anya pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and turned to stare at the Breeds watching her curiously.
They were hardened killers. But standing there, they were staring at her as though she represented more than a pretty face or a singular title she had refused to acknowledge outside the most basic of duties.
She let her gaze connect with one of the olive green-garbed soldiers. Her gaze flickered over the plain military uniform he wore. Wolves and Felines both had a uniform for each designation of their forces. Something else Del-Rey hadn’t been able to take care of.
“Find me some damned jeans,” Anya muttered as the doors opened and they swept into the huge communications network set up underground. “This dress sucks.”
CHAPTER 11
If there was a bone or muscle that didn’t hurt in his body, then Del-Rey couldn’t find it. Brim did a rough stitch on the laceration on his arm after he managed to reset the dislocated shoulder.