Authors: Lora Leigh
“Go to sleep,” she ordered, but her voice was sex soft and filled with sleepy satisfaction. “While you’ve been lazing the last two days away, I’ve been working. I’m tired.”
He grinned again, remembering the security recordings Brim had shown him before he literally passed out.
“While the alpha’s sleeping the coya’s playing?” he asked her.
“Being your coya is damned hard work.” She stretched as she spoke, a sinuous, almost feline movement of grace that had him pushing back the thought that perhaps he could fuck her again.
Maybe this time slower, easier.
Tucking the sheet over her breasts she sat up and stared down at him, her hair touseled around her face, her gaze drowsy and filled with satiation.
“Coyotes aren’t like Wolves,” she told him as she bent her knees and rested her chin on them.
“Yeah, their work ethic sucks sometimes,” he admitted. “We’re turning hardened killers into techs and security personnel. Just because they have the knowledge to do it doesn’t mean they have the temperament for it.”
He’d acknowledged that even before they had approached the Wolves for an alliance. His plans were vast in comparison to the roadblocks he faced.
Then his mate shook her head. “That’s not their problem at all.” She stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Their work ethic is every bit as dedicated as the Wolves or the Felines. They just like to pretend otherwise. They’re working to create something and that means a lot to them. But they’re more solitary. Working within a team is their problem.”
Del-Rey propped his head on his hand as he lay on his side watching her.
“We weren’t trained to work together,” he told her. “We have more Coyotes coming in soon, pack leaders who have no problems stepping back in command, though their packs number less than the ten to twelve ours do. Mostly two-man teams. Stragglers who are deserting the Council as quickly as they can. We’ll have another dozen or more soon to add to the dozen coming in from the Middle East via the Bureau. Integrating them will be harder.”
He watched as she frowned at the information.
“Are you returning to mission status now?” she asked him.
Del-Rey watched her carefully. “I’m not going back, Anya. I’m needed here.”
“You say that as though someone disagrees.”
He sighed at that. “The order of separation disagrees,” he told her. “Until you inform the tribunal that you are accepting the mating and your status of coya, then I’m bound by my word, Anya.”
He reached up and played with the ends of her fiery hair. “Are you accepting your place now, or merely feeling your way?”
“You’d allow that?” She tipped her head to the side. “Time for me to feel my way?”
Him and his big mouth.
Del-Rey stared back at her and sighed heavily. “I’d give you whatever time you needed.” He shrugged. “Would I have a choice? I don’t want to force you into my bed or into your place here.
I want nothing from you that isn’t freely given.”
She nodded slowly. “We have things to resolve,” she said then. “With both of us. I notified those on the tribunal that the separation order is null and void, no matter your decision in the mating.”
Satisfaction surged inside him.
“I think you know my decision on it,” he told her somberly. “You’re my mate, my coya. I haven’t changed my mind about that. Nothing can change that for me.”
She nodded again, though clearly there was more on her mind and Del-Rey hesitated to push her.
Here, he felt on very unfamiliar ground. He would have once said he knew this woman and each move she would make. She had shown him differently from the moment he had taken her from Russia.
She was stronger than he had ever imagined and definitely more stubborn. More her own woman than she would ever be any man’s lover or mate perhaps.
“We need to return to Haven,” he finally said into the silence. “You at least need to take the hormonal supplements that will allow you a measure of freedom from the more extreme symptoms of the heat. I don’t want you suffering.”
She shook her head. “This is my choice.” She turned to him again. “You suffered it.”
“It’s not as hard on the male, baby,” he sighed. “It’s endurable. For the females, it’s not as easy.”
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “So, I get horny. I’ll just drag you from whatever you’re doing and you can do your mating duty before anything else.”
“Really?” His brow lifted. “And should I get horny?”
An impish grin crossed her lips. “It’s not as hard for the males, remember?”
What the hell was that sudden tighteness in his chest, that emotion that gripped his throat and had him staring at her with a need to never have her out of his sight? To always see her eyes sparkling with mirth, that pursed little grin on her face?
She was, quite simply, adorable. And she was his coya. Not just his mate. Not just his woman.
She was the other half of who and what he was as alpha of his packs.
She sighed then. “I believe, based on information I’ve gotten over the months, I have several hours before that luscious body of yours is going to be put to work again.” She bounced from the bed before he could reach out and stop her. “I have to shower and get dressed. We have a meeting at Haven as soon as you’re ready and an interrogation to watch. Wolfe agreed to hold the questioning of the bartender until you could be present.” Her expression tightened as she turned back to him, brazenly naked, breasts firm and tipped with hard nipples, fiery curls gleaming between her thighs. “He meant to kill me. Why target you like that?”
Del-Rey’s brow lifted as he rose from the bed, though fury clenched his gut. “That shotgun wasn’t on me, sweetheart, it was on you.”
“But all killing me would accomplish is whatever my death would mean to you,” she pointed out. “Very few outside Haven know about the separation agreement. To the world, according to the tabloids several months ago anyway, we’re the latest great Breed love match. The kidnapped Russian admin and the Coyote alpha. The stories were very romantic.”
“Really?” He frowned back at her. He hadn’t lied when he said he didn’t read the damned tabloids. “How romantic?”
She gathered up her clothing as she shot him a look he couldn’t quite decipher. One of those feminine looks that he’d often wondered about when he saw other men getting them. Normally when said male had done something that displeased said female.
“Excessively romantic,” she snorted as she checked her link. “Ashley has some information I was waiting on as well; she’s waiting for me.”
She dumped the clothes in a hamper. Only then did he see the dusty state of her clothing.
“How did that happen?” he asked as she disconnected the link she had put through to her bodyguard to request clean clothes.
“Spelunking.” She moved from the bedroom into the adjoining shower room.
Del-Rey frowned as he followed her. “Cave exploring? What caves? We’ve explored them all.”
She rolled her eyes as she turned the shower on and adjusted the water. “Of course you have.
You’re just not using them all. You have more Breeds coming in, remember? Where are you going to put them? Will they have beds? Blankets? Towels?”
He leaned against the entrance and watched her, loving the graceful movements of her body, the way she tipped her head back, washing her hair, and still watched him.
“They would have found what they need.” He frowned at the thought. “You’re trying to cuddle the whole damned place, Anya. There’s not enough of you to go around.”
She laughed at that. “I don’t have time to cuddle. But I do have time to arrange reasonable rooms for them. It will engender loyalty, Del-Rey, and a sense of thankfulness. There’s nothing like a hot meal and a soft bed to remind a man of what he’s fighting for.”
He didn’t like her seeming knowledge of men in general. She should only be aware of his needs, he thought with a hint of piqued pride. Dammit, she hadn’t been cuddling him or taking care of his manly needs in the past eight months. Why worry about others? He was opening his lips to ask just that question.
“Hope and Faith have been forcing me along on their forays into managing Haven,” she said then. “I know what I’m doing here.”
He had no doubt of that and that wasn’t his bitch. Simply put, he had no desire to share her time or her attention with the rest of the packs as a whole.
He was selfish that way, he admitted. Coyotes were bred to selfishness though, he assured himself; he had a reasonable excuse.
He was forming another protest when she began soaping, washing her body quickly, suds rolling over silken flesh, shimmering against her skin and holding his attention more surely than a weapon in his face would have.
Damn her. She had him tongue-tied. He’d be damned if he knew how to put his foot down here and settle the area of what her duties could or couldn’t be. Cuddling other Coyotes, even impersonally, wasn’t going to be one of her duties.
Unfortunately, before he managed to get a grip on his tongue or his wayward lusts, she was wrapping a thick towel around her and the soft peel sounded, announcing someone at the door.
“That’s Ashley.” She peeked around his shoulder to the monitor that looked out into the hall.
“Get in the shower; she doesn’t need to see your manly ass. She’s ditzy enough. I don’t need her getting worse.”
He frowned back at her. Again. What did his ass have to do with Ashley’s often apparent lack of common sense? Shaking his head, he moved into the shower though, determined to get a handle on his lusts so he could get a handle on his mate. He was starting to get the feeling that if he didn’t do it quickly, there might be no hope for it.
Anya gritted her teeth as she jerked the door open and pulled Ashley into the bedroom with a firm yank. Eyes wide, her lips open in a surprised little moue, the other woman stared back at Anya in confusion as she shoved an e-pad at her. “Just need you to sign at the X, Coya.”
“He hasn’t read the tabloid stories about that great and wonderful love affair we’ve had. Just exactly how much did the three of you pay those papers to plant those stories anyway?”
Ashley looked everywhere but at Anya for long seconds before pursing her lips and shuffling her feet. “Didn’t have to pay them a damned thing,” she muttered. “They just about orgasm when you give them dish. How did you know?”
“You might be subtle, but I’ve had a lot of years to figure the three of you out; I’m not stupid,”
she sniffed.
Ashley nodded slowly before peeking toward the shower. “Been a while since I’ve seen the alpha’s bare ass. Can I sneak a peek? It’s probably my birthday. It would make a great present.”
Anya’s eyes narrowed.
“Oookay,” Ashley drawled as she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rolled on the heels of the boots she wore. “So we heading to Haven in a bit?”
“In a bit,” Anya ground out as she stalked to the bed and tossed the clothes on it.
She dried off quickly before pulling on panties and bra.
She quickly dressed in the snug black pants and gray sweater before sitting down and pulling on thin socks and shoving her feet into the black dressy boots.
“Hey, boss man.” Ashley’s voice piped up with amused appreciation. “Damn, look at those chest hairs. Damn sexy. Turn around and flash me some buns.”
Anya’s head whipped around to see
her mate
, striding from the shower room with nothing but a towel tucked at his waist.
“Watch the bleach in the hair dye, Ash.” He grinned. “Maybe you should see Doc Armani. I think the animal genetics are recessing in favor of the human where you’re concerned.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “You’re just being mean to me, that’s all,” she griped good-naturedly before turning to Anya. “Sharone, Emma and I will be in the community room if you need us.”
She turned to go.
“No, you won’t.” Anya stopped her. “You’re going to collect your co-conspirators and get the rest of the day’s reports together for me. I’ll go over them while Del-Rey and I are at Haven.
Send them to my PDA and be ready to go whenever your alpha decides we’re leaving.”
“Perhaps your coya can tell you when we’re leaving,” Del-Rey said evenly. “She seems to have everything else planned out in her day.”
“She’s good like that. We taught her well, huh?” Ashley winked back at him before turning to Anya once again. “I’m on the run then, Coya. Files to PDA, prep for adventure in Haven. I wonder if Styx will try to pinch Emma’s ass again. It’s always fun watching her try to kick his bad ass.”
Ashley turned and made a quick exit as Del-Rey growled low and warningly. The steel door slammed behind her, electronic locks engaging as Anya turned back to Del-Rey slowly.
“Brim should be here any minute,” she told him. “He’s been waiting for you to wake up.”
“And will he have any reports for me?” Del-Rey asked her silkily.
“Most definitely,” she promised. “And I should know, because I put most of them together. If you have any questions though, I’m sure he can answer them.”
She watched as he dropped the towel and had to swallow tightly at the sight of his erection.
Heaven help her, she wanted him again. She could feel the muscles between her thighs flexing, her panties dampening.
He looked back at her from beneath his lashes, his tongue touching his full lower lips, wicked lust filling his expression as he moved toward her.
“You dressed too fast.” His voice deepened, his body tensed.
Anya shook her head, feeling her breathing escalate. She was still tender and she was heating up for him again.
“Um, I think . . .” She was saved from saying more when the security alert chimed again. “I think that’s Brim. He has reports. And stuff.” She backed to the door as he stilled, watching her with that predatory look of hunger. “Maybe you should get dressed.” The security alert chimed again as the monitor showed Brim’s impatient features. “Look, he’s in a hurry.”
Del-Rey’s rumbled growl of discontent raced up her spine as he moved to the small dresser and yanked free a pair of white underwear before pulling them on. Jeans came next before he padded to the door, watching her intently, his gaze never leaving her until he opened the door.