Coyote's Mate (9 page)

“Wow. You walked out on the alpha,” Ashley said and whistled behind her. “No one walks on the alpha, Coya.”

Anya rolled her eyes. No one argued with the alpha. No one sassed the alpha. No one disobeyed the alpha’s orders. The list was almost never ending and never failed to send Anya’s nerves into chaos. She wasn’t the alpha’s puppet and she wasn’t going to pretend to be one.

“Maybe he’ll get mad enough to finish loading the dishwasher,” she bit out.

Sharone laughed. “Wanna bet?”

“Ten bucks he doesn’t,” Anya shot back.

“Ten bucks he does and the kitchen sparkles when he’s done. Alpha doesn’t like messes unless he makes them.”

Well hell, she had nothing to worry about then, because she was the biggest mess there.

She wasn’t much better by evening. Adrenaline was racing through her system and Dr. Armani wasn’t being helpful. Natural arousal her ass. There was nothing natural about her reaction to Del-Rey, and no one was going to convince her otherwise.

She waited until darkness fell to check the kitchen and turn over the ten bucks to Sharone, then she and the three other girls slipped out into the night.

The guards on duty were used to her slipping out; they didn’t even blink. As usual, when Del-Rey was on base, there was a strangely relaxed atmosphere. She’d slipped into the base a few times while he was there, when she had forgotten something she needed. She had noticed the difference. There was more of an air of camaraderie, a warmth that was lacking when he was on a mission. It made her feel curiously lonely, and aware that the Coyote home wasn’t complete when their alpha was gone. Their coya just wasn’t a fitting replacement.

Del-Rey stared around the kitchen and at the younger soldiers that had completed cleaning up the mess that had been made.

“How long has your coya had kitchen duty?” he asked one of them, strangely enough one of the men from his own group, not the group that came from the Russian facility.

The young Breed shrugged, glanced at his feet, then lifted his gaze to Del-Rey. “Whenever you aren’t here, Alpha,” he finally admitted.

“This is the reason I have the request for kitchen staff, in bold, in my coya’s list of requirements?” he asked the Breed.

“It’s not just me, Del-Rey,” the Coyote Breed breathed out roughly. “Sometimes we just forget to do things. You know how we are. If we were perfect, we’d be Wolves, right?”

His own words thrown back at him. He growled in warning. The Breed cleared his throat and stepped back, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

“Make a roster for kitchen duty,” he told the other man. “Put the Felines in first.”

He almost chuckled at the idea. Damn, he could see those Felines having fits already.

The Coyote Breed whistled soundlessly. “Alpha Lyons will protest.”

Del-Rey shrugged. “So, I’ll just protest right back the next time he puts our Coyote team on babysitting duty. Last time they were out, they had to make mud pies with the babies.”

“Yeah, but we liked that,” the soldier laughed. “Man, those Feline kids know how to pitch a mud ball.”

“Yeah, but Alpha Lyons protested,” Del-Rey reminded him. “So now his Felines can start off kitchen duty.”

They both chuckled as Del-Rey made his way from the kitchen and went searching for his coya.

He found her scent in Command, in laundry. He found her scent in the new barracks being built within one of the caverns, and he found her scent in her bedroom. It was strongest there. The scent of feminine heat and delicious female.

Damn, why hadn’t he taken the time to go down on her when he had her in his bed? To run his tongue between the luscious folds of her pussy and lap at her like candy? He’d kicked himself a dozen times a day for missing out on that.

He found her scent in damned near every area of the base, but he didn’t find Anya. Activating the communications link, he clicked into Brim’s channel and waited while it beeped.

“I’m in Command, what’s up?” Brim answered him.

“Everything okay?”

“We picked up hunters on the eastern side of Base. We have a team heading out to cover them,”

Brim answered.

“Pull in security monitors; see if you can find Anya.”

“Manage to lose her already?” There was a chuckle in Brim’s voice.

“Laugh at me later,” Del-Rey grunted. “For now, find her before I have to kick your ass.”

“I’ll let you know when we’ve cornered your coya, then,” Brim promised.

The line disconnected as Del-Rey propped his hands on his hips and frowned at the disappearance. Dammit, one woman shouldn’t be so hard to keep up with. There were security monitors through every area of the damned caverns.

He flipped to the general channel. “This is Alpha Delgado, report on coya whereabouts ASAP.”

He could just imagine Brim’s laughter over that one. Not to mention his coya’s irritation if she found out.

He strode from her bedroom and headed back through the tunnels toward the community room as his link beeped.

“Yeah?”

“Del-Rey, it’s Thomas, I have entrance duty tonight. Your coya and her three bodyguards exited Base twenty minutes ago on their way to their evening training session.”

His teeth clenched. He disconnected as the link from Brim beeped at his ear.

“She left Base twenty minutes ago and headed to the east.” Brim’s voice wasn’t easygoing now.

“Those hunters we were tracking disappeared from sight and the team I sent to track them can’t be reached. We have a possible penetration into Base territory.”

“I want team three at the entrance now,” Del-Rey yelled as he began running for the entrance.

“Fully armed and in gear. Have someone get my gear as well. Get the heli-jet revved and ready to move, and I want team six moving in as backup. And get on those fucking heat sensors we put out there. I want Anya found and I want her found now!”

He raced through the tunnels as he switched to the general channel and listened to the reports coming through. The two-man team sent out to track the hunters wasn’t answering; that meant they were down. His mate was out there with three bodyguards and God only knew what tracking her.

“Teams three and six waiting,” Cavalier reported into the communications link as Del-Rey raced through the community room.

The cavern was empty now; all soldiers were moving to assigned duties and preparing to move out.

He rounded the curve to the entrance to the exit tunnel as the twelve men there turned to him expectantly.

“Team three, get your asses out there, I’ll catch up ahead of six. Finding your coya is priority.

Team six will provide backup and another team is heading out to locate the missing team.”

He jerked the mission jacket out of Cavalier’s hands and shrugged it on quickly, checking the pockets for extra ammo, knife and backup weapons. As the first team moved out, he was strapping a handgun to his thigh before grabbing the PDW submachine gun from Cavalier and clipping it to the jacket. The lightweight personal defense weapon was loaded, safety off and ready to fire.

“Move out,” he ordered as he pressed the secured line on the link and waited for Brim to target his identifying signal. A minute beep signaled that Brim had him, and he moved out.

He caught the faint hint of her scent as soon as he moved into the scrub and pine rising around the base entrance. The eastern edge of the mountain cliffs they called home was less steep, covered in pine, oak and a variety of foliage. The western edge overlooking Haven was pretty much sheer cliffs.

He caught up with team three within seconds, motioned them into a new direction and headed east. The same direction where his mate’s scent lingered.

It was subtle and light, and would be harder for the others to detect as it blended so well with his own scent. Mating made the female scent harder to track unless she was aroused or ovulating.

Her body adapted, her scent changing to match the mating hormones and the male’s scent rather than her own.

Camouflage maybe. A natural protection of some sort. Nature was weird as hell where the Breeds were concerned, so who the hell knew. All he knew right now was he was the only person that could track his mate effectively and danger was stalking her.

“We’re in trouble,” Sharone whispered as they lay flat on the ground, knives gripped in their hands, watching as the five figures moved below them, their voices carrying up to them easily.

“The bitch is here,” one of the men hissed. “She goes out damned near every night to this area.

We’ve been tracking her for weeks.”

Bitch. Okay, well, there were only four so-called bitches on base, so it had to be one of them.

Anya was betting it was her.

“She doesn’t have her link enabled,” another voice retorted. “I have her channel and the secured line. Nothing’s showing on her or her bodyguards.”

Okay. That meant her. Well golly gee, didn’t she feel so special this week. First her mate returns unannounced and now these yahoos were playing hell with her only downtime.

“We’ve got to strike before that filthy Coyote Delgado returns,” the other voice ordered the others. “Once he’s back, security steps up.”

And just how did they figure that? No, Del-Rey was just less subtle about security. Over the past months, Anya had been hypertense and looking for a fight. She’d let a few areas appear lax, though she had known they weren’t. She’d learned a few lessons from Del-Rey over the years.

She tested the strength of Security and Command often. Too bad she wasn’t in Command right now tracking these bastards. Instead, she was stuck out here, almost the hunted rather than the hunter she was training to be. And she couldn’t risk activating her link or the others’ now, not if these men had a way to lock on to their signals.

She stared down at the five men then turned and motioned to Sharone that they needed to back off and get back to Base. At the moment, they were ahead of the men and upwind of any Breed help they might have. Sometimes rogue Coyote Breeds helped the fanatics that still thought they could eradicate the Breeds and steal their freedom.

As long as they stayed upwind and moved quietly, they had a chance. The only weapons they had on them tonight were the knives Sharone and the others used to train Anya. They were sharp, lethal, but they weren’t much protection against a gun.

Moving back silently, though not nearly as silently as her bodyguards, she waited until the voices became more distant before giving the order to move out.

Crouched, they moved as quickly as possibly, which was slower than she knew Sharone and the others could have moved, as they started back up the mountain to the faint animal trail they used to access the area. It was still steep here, though not as steep as the western edge of the mountain.

But this particular area was close. Part of the way back was particularly steep. They would be at their most vulnerable then.

“Move,” she hissed. “We need to make speed, Sharone.”

“If they have a rogue Breed with them, then speed is going to get us caught,” Sharone retorted.

“Because you’re not quiet enough.”

That was Sharone, blunt and to the point. She didn’t cut slack for anyone.

“Did you smell Breed?” Anya asked as they surrounded her, leading her through the underbrush at the quietest possible speed.

“Doesn’t mean anything,” Emma whispered. “They’ve learned how to disguise their scent. We were taught that in the labs, remember?”

Oh yeah. She remembered that now. They’d found a way to disguise Coyote Breeds’ marker scent. It wasn’t easy, and it was irritating to the Breeds’ senses, but they could do it.

“We need to contact Del-Rey,” Sharone said, voice low. “Ashley, get ahead of us. Run hell for leather and find help. I have a feeling shit’s going to get ugly if those bastards catch us on that trail. We’ll be sitting targets.”

Ashley moved ahead and disappeared. Silently. Damn, Anya wished she could do that. She’d trained for years, even before Del-Rey had kidnapped her, to be quiet like the Coyotes, to race through the night without making a sound, and no matter how hard she tried, she still hadn’t achieved it.

At least Ashley was out of danger. She was the most innocent of all of them, Anya sometimes thought. Their girly little Coyote Breed with her fake nails, polish and hair dye. Her makeup, girly clothes and sexy lingerie. She was what they all wished they could be, Anya also sometimes thought.

“This way, Coya.” Sharone was leading her through a pine thicket, out of sight and edging closer to the trail. “When we start up, we have to move fast. Emma will go ahead of you, I’ll cover the back.”

Anya shook her head, fighting back tears. They would give their lives for her, and that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted them safe, and she was realizing that her own incompetence merely made her a danger to them.

They had reached the base of the trail when they heard a shot ring out from behind them. Anya flipped around, staring into the night with wide eyes.

“They didn’t see us,” Sharone said carefully.

“Ashley,” Anya whispered. “Oh God. Oh God, not Ashley.”

“Snap out of it, Coya.” Sharone’s voice was hard, unemotional. A clear indication that she was flat pissed and worried now. “Get moving. The shot was aimed higher up and to our right. The trail is in shadow, and we should be able to reach the top and belly crawl from there into the thicket of juniper growing to the right. Don’t worry about quiet going up the trail. We’ll have time to get up there before they’re in position to take a shot.”

They hit the trail and pushed their way up. Anya could feel her chest, tight with tears and rage at the thought of Ashley. God help them if she was hurt, because once Del-Rey caught them, and she knew he would, then she would demand justice herself. Her knife across their throats. She wasn’t proficient enough yet that it wouldn’t hurt.

Del-Rey heard the shot, his head jerking in the direction of the sound. He cut through the mountain echo, pinpointed direction and sent six men toward the shot, and six with him to where it was most likely aimed.

They were racing through the darkness, aware that once the first shot was fired, time was of the essence. One shot. Anya had three Coyote guards with her. There wasn’t a chance of getting to her without taking the others out.