Authors: Lora Leigh
“She’s conceived,” Nikki argued then. “We can’t afford to mess with the hormones; it could harm the child.”
“You don’t give hormones to Coyotes in heat,” Katya stated. “It results in pregnancy every time.
This we didn’t want the Council to know. From the creation of the first Coyote, our grandparents knew they were exceptional. Different in all ways. Their true potential was always hidden. That was the reason for the practice of killing their creators. That directive was given to them, even as babes. Their escapes resulted in their creators’ deaths. Destruction of all records. There were very few who could manipulate those genetics.”
Nikki stared at the other woman in shock. “That’s why the Council has been searching for you.”
Katya smiled. “We are two of the few Coyote scientists left living. There are no known records of the Coyotes now. Normally, Coyotes themselves took care of killing us. If not the Coyotes, then the doctors assigned to us. They knew their duty.” She glanced fondly at Anya’s still face.
“This one, she hid us during that rescue. The doctors searched for us, but we stayed where she placed us for days, and finally we found another hidden exit from the room.”
“If the geneticists that worked on the Coyotes were Council, why make that directive?” Nikki shook her head in confusion.
“The past generations, our fathers and grandfathers, they, like us, could not tell the Council no.
They would kill the families of those scientists as well. Our grandparents destroyed records and placed false ones instead. They reported that the Coyotes were as the Council wanted. Soulless, without mercy. They are without mercy, no doubt, but it was always easy to know those who would kill without compunction and those who would kill only when needed. So few Coyotes were created compared to other Breeds, that we were able to work together, pull those we knew were worthy to only certain labs where they would have a chance at life.” She shrugged. “Some of us succeeded, some did not. In Russia and in the Middle East, we succeeded. I hope you saved the scientist in charge there.” She glanced at Nikki. “Simply amazing. She was the brightest in our field for her young age. As though the Almighty reached down his hand and opened her mind to this area in a way no mind had ever been opened. Incredible.”
“There are no reports that she survived,” Nikki said.
“Ah.” Katya shook her head. “This is too bad. She was an angel sent to know things the rest of us only have questions about. We were attempting to contact her when Anya found us.”
“Bleeding is contained,” Chernov said quietly, nodding to Del-Rey. “Take him loose.”
Nikki shut the valve off and eased the needles from both their arms as Del-Rey refused to take his eyes from his mate.
“Give her a few hours to stabilize,” Chernov ordered as he applied the skin adhesive over the wound. “We’ll need blood samples then. Several. If you don’t get her off those hormones, she will go straight back into heat as soon as this babe is born. You don’t want that.”
“We have another mated Coyote,” Nikki said. “His wife hasn’t conceived.”
Chernov snorted. “She was not inoculated as this one was with an immunization created from Coyote blood. Coyote females will breed, Dr. Armani. We’ve always known this. This is why so very few females were allowed to live. We couldn’t risk it.”
“Why the girls in Russia?” Nikki asked.
Chernov sighed. “My grandfather adored this child.” He patted Anya’s arm. “We lost my sister when she was but a babe. He saw Anya and lost his very old, cynical heart. I believe perhaps we all did. She has a way about her. She gets what she wants, and she wanted those girls as her friends. We reported their deaths and kept them alive.” His head lifted. “We were monsters, Armani, do not doubt it. We killed when we were ordered. We researched with demonic practices when we had to. But every doctor in that lab knew what our true goal was. The survival of those we had arranged to have brought to us. Those five girls, they are the future of these creations.
They are amazing.”
“Created to breed,” Nikki said in horror.
“No. No.” Chernov shook his head violently. “Created to be natural. The inability to conceive was coded into the Breed genetics. The records of how they did this were lost so future generations could not undo it. My grandfather and several others learned the secret with the Coyote Breeds. They managed to take this unnatural coding out. How will it work?” He shrugged. “We do not know. If it can help the other Breeds, we cannot say. But the Coyotes are natural. Natural man. Natural animal. We have yet to see what this will accomplish.”
“A miracle,” Nikki breathed. “If we could figure this out, we could figure out the mating heat.
We live in fear of the public taking the tabloid stories seriously. World opinion could go to hell if they figure out it’s true.”
“Eh. People.” Chernov eased back and gently disconnected the saline solution that had dripped into Anya’s other arm. “They are fickle. Breeds will always live in fear of this.”
He sighed heavily. “She must rest. We need heat packs around her. Her fever is high, but that is natural. The chill is what worries me.”
“She needs me.” Del-Rey’s voice was rough, primitive. “Let me lie with her. She needs to be warmed. I warm her.”
Chernov shrugged. “As long as she is allowed to rest for the next week, the wound should be fine. Nothing strenuous.” He eyed Del-Rey warningly. “She must be treated as though she would break with a breath, Ghost.”
“Del-Rey,” he growled.
Chernov grunted. “As though I did not know about those transmissions this child sent you. Six years you waited, though I told Sofia countless times she must tell you the truth of who she was.
Chaff from the harvest.” The doctor scowled back at him. “As though we were not doing this.
You did not research as you should have.”
There were a lot things he hadn’t done as he should have, Del-Rey admitted to himself.
“She needs a bed,” Chernov said. “She needs comfort and care now. Is there a room available here? I do not want her transported for two days at least. Where she goes, we must go as well.
With the child she carries, her condition is too delicate. We must watch her closely.”
Dr. Sobolova touched Anya’s hair gently. “I believe my girls Sharone, Emma and Ashley are awaiting us now,” she said. “I have missed them. I would make certain they are well and not suffering from their injuries.”
“Petrov Kobrin is demanding to see his daughter, Dr. Armani,” Wolfe announced through the intercom. “When she’s stable enough, could you please meet with him? I have four crazy Russians consuming vodka in the community center, and Breeds joining in. We’re going to have a mess soon if we don’t do something.”
Nikki nodded. “We have a private room just down the hall. We’ll transfer her there and see if her mate can warm her.” She glanced at Del-Rey with a cool little smile. “I have a gown she can wear.”
Del-Rey didn’t rise to the bait. He nodded, rose and was at the head of the bed as they wheeled it to the room.
Nikki jerked the blankets back on the double bed as they maneuvered it into the room.
“Very gently, Ghost,” Chernov advised worriedly as they lifted the blanket Anya rested on.
“We’ll monitor her for infection, though I do not expect such a thing to develop.”
They eased her onto the bed, then pushed the gurney from the room as Nikki helped Del-Rey ease his mate into the soft cotton gown she had pulled from a dresser.
“She’ll sleep for a while.” Nikki patted his shoulder as she moved for the door. “If you need me, there’s a link on the bedside. Rest yourself, Del-Rey.”
Rest.
He undressed and eased into the bed on her uninjured side, wrapping himself around her as he pulled the blankets over them.
He flinched at the feel of her cold flesh and rubbed her shoulder, her arm, gently.
She was breathing slow and easy, but her lips were still blue. She was cold, so cold. He eased her legs between his, his arm beneath her head, and all but surrounded her. If he didn’t get her warm, he wouldn’t be able to keep the knot clogging his throat from choking the hell out of him.
“Come back to me, baby,” he whispered at her ear. “Warm me, Anya. I’m cold, love. So cold.”
As cold inside as her flesh was on the outside. He kissed her forehead again, then laid his head at her shoulder before gently kissing the little wound he had left there.
“I love you,” he whispered. “My sweet Anya. How I love you.”
CHAPTER 26
She was warm. Toasty warm from head to toe. She could feel the warmth wrapped around her, like a brush of flesh, like Del-Rey.
It felt like Del-Rey. It didn’t feel like death. She didn’t feel feverish. She didn’t feel cold and in pain. She didn’t feel weak and lethargic.
Actually, she was damned hungry.
She opened her eyes as a rumbled growl of hunger caused a flush to heat her cheeks. How long had it been since she had eaten?
A warm, broad palm whispered over her stomach. She felt a bandage on her side and the tight sensation of flesh adhesive.
Memory rushed over her then. The meeting, the attack. Ashley and the girls.
Her eyes opened to meet the gentle, black gaze staring down at her.
“About time.”
She stared into his face. There was a rough, rakish growth of beard on his lower face. His lashes were heavy as though he had just awoken himself. Broad shoulders were naked, looming over her side as his fingers lifted to her cheek, his thumb whispered over her lips.
“Don’t move too fast,” he said softly. “The shot missed vital organs but you bled a lot. The doctors want to be careful that you don’t experience more shock.” His expression twisted. “The baby’s safe.”
She blinked back in shock. “Baby?”
“Those doctors you risked your life for—” he cleared his throat—“they knew so much that we didn’t, Anya. So much.” He shook his head. “I’ll let Nikki explain it all later. But you need to be careful at least until our child is born.”
His lips crooked into a grin. “I told you, they knew so much we didn’t. You were right, Coya, we needed them. You were right about so many things and I refused to listen.” He shook his head.
“Later. You need food.”
She watched, silent, uncertain where to allow her thoughts to land as he slid from the bed and tucked the blankets carefully around her.
“Ashley,” she whispered. “Jax?”
He swung around as he pulled a pair of cotton pajama bottoms from the chair and dragged them over his powerful thighs.
“Jax is currently sitting out in the hall, his proverbial tail tucked between his legs as he guards our door. Ashley is fine. A bump on the head to match Sharone’s. They were distracted by your illness. They didn’t have time to react to the attack.” He frowned at her lightly. “That’s why I demanded a security force when you left Haven, Mate.”
She stared back at him. “You took my girls,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “The pack leaders made a mistake in that unsigned memo Brim sent out. A mistake that will never happen again. A signed memo went out the second I learned what happened in that kitchen, Anya, reinstating your status and scheduling our ceremony for spring.
Unfortunately, you had left and the Feline Breed that betrayed us all was able to get out of the base.” He shook his head. “I should have told you my suspicions, but I didn’t want to worry you.”
“We were betrayed?” She licked her dry lips in confusion. “What the hell happened while I was gone, Del-Rey?”
“Everything went to fucking hell,” he suddenly snarled in male irritation. “My whole fucking base came down around my damned ears. I’m a general, Coya, not a fucking nursemaid. You need to get well to take care of their gripes and complaints before I start knocking their fucking heads together. You’ve slept for two days. I’ve spent that time in that bed.” He pointed to her side. “With a laptop, answering a million damned hysterical emails from Coyote Breeds who can’t seem to make a decision on their damned own.”
Her lips twitched. “All it takes is an occasional kind word, Del-Rey. They’re really very responsive to a little emotional pat now and then.”
He glared at her without heat. A hint of humor lit his eyes.
“Prove it, Coya.”
“Feed me first,” she demanded. “And God, I need to use the bathroom.”
He helped her to the bathroom first. He carried her in despite her protests, waited just outside the door, then carried her back when she was finished.
She had managed to wash her face and brush her teeth. She felt almost human again as he tucked her back beneath the warm blankets.
“The girls are bringing your food.” He sat down beside her gingerly, touched her face again. “I almost lost you.”
“I tried to contact you before the meeting,” she sighed. “I made them leave their links behind though. When Sharone borrowed one from Satin’s enforcer, she heard Satin talking to Wolfe about stopping us. We ran but lost the link in the flight. I couldn’t stop, Del-Rey.” She stared back at him desperately. “I couldn’t stop. We had to have those doctors.”
“Shh. The doctors are here, safe and making lists of equipment needed for Base. They’re our doctors. They know us, Anya,” he said softly. “I never saw so many things. Never suspected that a scientist could be more than a monster. They showed me differently. They showed me what we are, and what we were meant to be as Coyotes. But it wouldn’t have mattered. They saved your life. Nikki couldn’t have done it. She would have killed you trying to save you, and I was too damned arrogant to understand that.”
She shook her head. “Too concerned for your people,” she sighed. “This isn’t a blame game, Del-Rey. We survived, right? Jax, Brim, the girls? Everyone?”
“Several wounded, none of our people are dead, though seven city council members and one traitorous Feline Breed were killed.” He shook his head at that. “Douglas was hand-picked by me. He wasn’t even drugged; he just hated Coyotes. Nothing mattered but that hatred.”
She barely knew who Douglas was. He had stayed out of sight for the most part. Now she knew why.
“You have a lot to explain to me, don’t you?”