Authors: Lora Leigh
“We swore loyalty to you, because of her,” Cavalier informed him, and it was no more than what Del-Rey had already known. “She was our coya before you mated her.”
Del-Rey nodded. “I know that, Cavalier. Now she’s hurt. I have to find her. Help me find her.”
Cavalier sneered at that. “If you hadn’t taken her bodyguards, you wouldn’t have to search for her.”
Del-Rey’s eyes narrowed, fear flashing through him. “Her bodyguards were not reassigned.”
Surprised looks turned on him. Two pack leaders’ eyes widened.
“Alpha, the rescending of status took her bodyguards. They’ve been reassigned since the memo went out.”
Del-Rey turned on him. Icy, murderous fury filled him.
“Find her,” he growled. “If I don’t have the location of my coya within the next twenty seconds, the lot of you can pack your asses out of this base and get fucked. You stupid bastards,” he yelled back at them. “Did I tell you to do this? Did I tell you to endanger my fucking mate?”
“No, Alpha,” Brim answered for them, the sneer in his voice unmistakable now. “You rescinded her status. By refusing to accept her official vows, you rejected her.” Flipping on his own link, he began barking out orders as Del-Rey’s jaw clenched in fury.
Hell, he’d managed to fuck this one up royally. He stared at every man in the room now.
“Within the next fucking hour, you will receive memos,” he snarled. “My mate, my coya, will be making her official vows this spring. And pray to God she’s alive to make them, or every damned one of you will die for being stupid.”
“And you, Alpha?” Cavalier growled furiously. “You did this to her, not those of us who face you now. You placed suspicion on her shoulders by rejecting her. Your men only followed your lead.”
Del-Rey pinned him with primitive fury. “I’ll already be dead, Cavalier,” he informed him. “A man doesn’t live without his soul. Take that woman from me, and that’s what you’ll see. Exactly what the Council strove for. A Coyote without a soul.”
With that, he strode from the infirmary. Fuck this. He knew how to find his mate. He knew her scent unlike anyone else could know it. He knew his mate, her pain and her tears. And that was the scent he followed.
To no avail. Before the night was over, the caverns echoed with his howls of rage. Coyotes were searching the mountain, the heli-jet was in the air, and teams were dispatched to Haven.
Del-Rey’s coya had disappeared along with three of her female Coyote bodyguards. And some feared she had disappeared forever.
CHAPTER 23
Dr. Armani didn’t slip Anya into the main portion of Haven. She met her and the three bodyguards as they pulled to the bottom of the mountain in a stolen all-terrain.
Sharone and Emma helped Anya into the passenger seat before the doctor slid into the back with Ashley and Emma as Sharone drove, lights out, to a hidden entrance into the medical facility.
The cut from the knife that had fallen from the table and grazed Anya’s leg was deeper than she had at first believed. Her wrist was broken and the side of her head ached from its impact with the wall.
Nikki was silent as she applied a skin adhesive over the leg rather than the antiquated stitches used for smaller injuries. Anya’s wrist was placed in a hard plasti-cast and secured in place before the doctor cleaned the abrasion at the side of her head and carefully applied a film of adhesive there as well.
“I can’t believe he allowed this to happen.” Nikki’s voice was rough with unshed tears. “I need to get the lupina in here. She has to see this. There’s no way the Breed tribunal won’t grant you complete safety against those monsters, Anya.”
Anya lifted her head in shock. “It wasn’t their fault, Nikki,” she whispered. “They think I betrayed them.”
“Fuck them!” The harsh fury was followed by a hard grip to Anya’s shoulders as Nikki shook her fiercely, a tear slipping free and running down her dusky cheek. “Look at you, Anya. It doesn’t matter why. Jax laid his hands on a woman. A human woman, weaker than himself, unable to defend herself, and he let her be harmed. That is not Breed honor, that is a monster.”
Anya shook her head. “It was an accident.”
“It was fucking abuse,” Nikki yelled in her face as Sharone, Emma and Ashley paced the room.
“Abuse, Anya. There is no excuse; there is no forgiveness.”
Ashley snarled as she jerked the doctor back, her enraged face nose to nose with Nikki’s. “Your hands hurt her. Keep them off her unless you’re treating her.”
Nikki stared back at the younger girl, and Anya saw the torment in her face.
“Ashley, I’m okay, it didn’t hurt,” Anya whispered. “Come here, little sister.”
Ashley was breaking apart on her. The feral animal she fought to keep hidden was breaking free at the rage and pain filling her. Anya hadn’t been the only one betrayed. These young women who had so hoped for a normal life, for freedom and laughter, had been betrayed as well.
The others hurt, but Ashley, who had so depended on Anya’s laughter, her support and affection, had suffered the most.
The younger girl tore herself from the doctor after a last warning look, but rather than coming to Anya, she paced again. As though her slight body contained too much energy, too much power for her to contain.
“Ashley’s right,” Nikki admitted roughly. “I shouldn’t have touched you. It was no better than what that fucking Coyote did.”
Nikki was cursing. It was supposed to be a bad thing when Nikki cursed.
“Doctors Chernov and Sobolova will be at the spa in Advert late tomorrow afternoon.” Anya swallowed back her tears. “Del-Rey is going to be watching for us. We have to get Alpha Gunnar and the lupina there for this meeting and get asylum requested.” She pushed the fingers of one hand through her damp, mussed hair. “Jax messed my plans up.”
Ashley snarled viciously, a primal, animal sound that caused Anya to wince. “And Ashley needs her nails done. She gets rabid when they chip.”
Poor Ashley, her nails were bare and natural, the polish gone, the pretty little designs painted on them had disappeared. They had been filed to sharp little points that were strong enough to lay open flesh.
“I should have killed him rather than cutting the side of his ear off,” Ashley bit out. “I should have done what Cavalier was unwilling to do and sliced his throat.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted, Ashley,” Anya whispered. “The alliance has to stand. We agreed to that; it’s the only safety for the Coyotes.”
“Anya, once Wolfe sees this, there will be an inquisition,” Nikki told her fiercely. “This will not pass. If Del-Rey doesn’t control his men, then Haven will break the alliance. You know this as well as I do.”
Anya shook her head. “It was only one.”
“Bullshit!” Emma burst out in an uncharacteristic display of feral defiance. “It was all of his men. His men, not ours. Do you know the trouble we got from the team leaders for trying to cover you? They disobeyed even their pack leaders and assigned the Russian Coyotes as far as possible from you. This was not just a few men. It was his entire fucking base of rabid mongrels.”
Anya lowered her head and shook it wearily. Even her bodyguards didn’t see what Anya had known.
“They’re soldiers,” she whispered. “Completely dedicated to their alpha, just as the three of you are to me. They believed I had betrayed Del-Rey and the base. Their only safety.” She lifted her head and stared back at them painfully. “Jax didn’t mean to hurt me. I slipped and everything went to hell from there. It would have never happened if they hadn’t been certain Del-Rey was rejecting me rather than attempting to protect me.”
“You’re a fucking bleeding heart,” Nikki muttered. “You’d die for any of those bastards.”
“Yes. I would,” Anya sighed. “Their freedom is worth dying for, Nikki. I know them. I know Jax.
He was protecting Del-Rey and the packs. He would have never deliberately hurt me.”
She tried to convince herself of that. Wanted to, but she had been terrified as she faced him.
“What time is that damned fucking meeting?” Nikki cussed again.
“At three,” Anya told her. “Coyotes will be all over the place soon. We’re going to have a hell of a time getting out of Haven.”
“Then we better move you out of here before they start swarming like flies over the dead,” she snapped, turning to Sharone. “There’s a vehicle in the back, get it ready to roll. There are weapons in the locker of the garage, easy to find. I have a safe house. I’ll take the four of you there, then come back here and talk to the alpha and the lupina.”
Anya didn’t want to be here for that conversation. She caught Nikki’s arm, glaring back at her fiercely. “This was an accident, Nikki. I wouldn’t lie to you about it.”
“Yes, you would,” Nikki snapped. “Remember, you said it, Coya, you think they’re worth dying for.”
Anya stared back at her intently. “You listen to me, Dr. Armani. If you tell Alpha Gunnar I was abused, I will deny it. I’ll scream it. I don’t lie, even for my people. Freedom isn’t served by lying, and the freedom of my people is more important than a lie for a single Breed that could bring it all down.”
Nikki’s lips tightened. “Sharone, get that vehicle ready to roll. I’m making a call. Three female Wolves I know will protect Anya with their lives. They’re our best. They’ll drive you out of here, and no one will question them or think to follow them.”
Anya released her wrist.
“Alpha and Lupina Gunnar will be at that meeting as well as every Wolf Breed ready and able to roll.”
Anya nodded as she slipped off the examination table.
“Del-Rey will be here,” she whispered.
“Delgado can get fucked,” Nikki snarled. “I’m so pissed off with him I could shoot that bastard myself. Damned stupid men. I hate Breed males. I fucking hate them.”
Nikki stomped to the counter, slipped her comm link over her ear and made her call as Anya wrapped her arms over her chest.
She was cold again. So cold. The arousal wasn’t back though, and honestly, Nikki’s examination hadn’t hurt. Evidently the cycle for the mating heat was easing. If she was lucky, she’d get through the next day without too much difficulty.
“Vehicles and weapons are ready.” Sharone stepped back into the room, her expression hard, composed as she stared back at Nikki. “Our coya needs to eat. She hasn’t had anything since morning.”
“There’s food at the safe house.” Nikki nodded. “Satin or one of her enforcers can go for takeout if you prefer.”
Anya nodded wearily. She didn’t care about the food. She was exhausted. She wanted to sleep.
She wanted to curl into Del-Rey’s arms and she wanted to be warm, and it was never going to happen again. After tomorrow, he would reject her in truth for betraying him.
The Coyote Breed scientists had tried to strip the Coyotes of their humanity in ways often more destructive than what had been done to the other Breeds. Psychologically, their scars were so deep, so bloody, that Anya knew they would never attain the quiet surety the Wolves and Felines had attained.
Coyotes would always be rougher, the baddest of the bad boys. They didn’t just struggle with the two opposing sides of their genetics, animal and man; they also struggled with the very idea of their humanity. They were created to be animals, thinking, walking, talking animals, whereas the other Breeds were created to be stragetists, thinkers, plotters and killers.
The Coyote was created simply to kill other Breeds. To track them, hunt them, torture them. That was all. It had bred distrust among the packs and prides before the alliance was ever formed. A charge of abuse from one of those Coyotes could decimate that alliance.
“Del-Rey should have protected you,” Emma hissed, turning to her. “He shouldn’t have had us pulled from your protection.”
Anya shook her head. She understood his reasons. Neither of them had considered the chance that one of the Coyotes would believe she was a traitor. Del-Rey would have never left her undefended if he had thought, even briefly, that such a thing would happen.
The result of it was breaking her heart in two. It was leaving gouging wounds in her soul, and fighting back that pain was killing her. She wanted to scream out at the injustice of it, the unfairness of everything she was losing. And she wanted Del-Rey to hold her, just one more time. Just one last kiss. Just something to hold on to.
Del-Rey strode into the alpha residence, stopping just inside the door as Brim, Jax, Cavalier and six other enforcer-level Coyote Breeds stepped in behind him.
Alpha Gunnar was waiting for him, along with Jonas Wyatt and Dash Sinclair.
“Bring two men with you.” Wolfe’s amber eyes were icy with contempt and rage. “And that one stays outside my home.” He punched his finger in Jax’s direction. “I’d suggest he protect himself in an all-terrain.”
Del-Rey’s jaw tightened, but he turned and nodded to the others, leaving Brim and Cavalier at his side. Wolfe’s eyes narrowed at the Russian Coyote before he nodded in approval and turned away, leading the way into his office.
Lupina Gunnar was waiting in the corner behind her mate’s desk, standing, arms crossed over her breasts, her blue eyes glaring at Del-Rey.
“I tracked my coya to Dr. Armani’s medical facility,” Del-Rey stated as the door closed behind them. “She refuses to inform me where Anya went from there.”
Wolfe took his seat as Jonas and Dash stood ready and prepared at each side of the desk and Del-Rey and his men faced them.
“So you want me to order my doctor to turn over information on your abused coya?” Wolfe’s voice throbbed with power, with fury. “Then you insult me by bringing that man into my home where my mate, my lupina, resides?”
Del-Rey could feel the shame curling through him, and the fury. He’d fucked up. He’d not just hurt his mate, but he’d endangered her, left her without his protection or the protection of the women who would have prevented this. Out of his ignorance and his belief that his men would never treat her any differently than they ever had, he had endangered her.
“The fault was mine, Alpha Gunnar,” he bit out. “I take responsibility for it and will face whatever inquisition comes after I locate my coya. So yes, I insist that you order your doctor to give me the location where she has hidden my mate.” By the time he finished, the growl in his voice was primal.