FIVE

He had changed. 

The next afternoon Anya walked into the open community room, a large cavern that housed the recreational area of the base, and stopped. 

She stared at the man lounging in a recliner on the far side, his pack alphas similarly relaxed, beers in their hands as they talked. 

Del-Rey looked happy. There was a grin playing about his lips, his dark face was creased in amusement, his devil’s black eyes filled with mirth as one of the pack alphas talked. 

His dark blond hair was shorter. It had once fallen to his shoulders, the long, coarse strands thick and healthy. It was now cut a bit above the shoulder and it was shaggier than it had been before, as though he’d cut it himself. 

One jean-clad leg was stretched out, the other bent. His wrist rested on his knee and he held his beer loosely. The shirt he wore buttoned up the front was wrinkled, clean but not exactly neat. 

In his opinion though, if it were neat, he would be a Wolf rather than a Coyote. She snorted silently at the thought as she let her gaze caress him again. 

He was just as gorgeous as ever. Not pretty-boy gorgeous, but rough and rugged. Strong features defined his face; arched brows, a high forehead. His entire body was a golden bronze, as though perpetually tanned. His lips were sensual, the lower lip just a bit too lush for a woman’s peace of mind perhaps. The full curve tempted the imagination, made her remember what his kiss had felt like. 

Hot. Destructive. Hungry. 

At that moment his head jerked around, his gaze meeting hers. As though he had felt her eyes on him, felt the caress that her hands itched to give in the middle of the night. 

She swallowed tightly as he watched her, his hand moving as he brought the bottle of beer to his lips and tilted it back. Her breathing became deeper, harder. Sweet mercy, she was going to break out in a sweat. 

“Call that damned quack Armani and tell her to get her crap together,” she ordered Sharone. 

“Really,” Sharone muttered. “Damn, Anya, you’re getting hot.” 

“Shut up.” Anya threw her a hard glare before stalking through the community room and heading into the kitchen. 

Okay, the alpha leader was in residence, he could damn well approve kitchen help now. She needed a cook, assistants and a cleanup crew. And she didn’t want Breeds. Breeds were military trained; it was part of their genetics, part of their training. Breed soldiers did not make good cooks, or neat cooks. 

She stepped into the kitchen and automatically started rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher as Sharone, Emma and Ashley began putting other items away. 

“I wasn’t created to clean a kitchen,” Ashley informed all of them as she flipped her cosmetically enhanced blond hair over her shoulder and looked at her nails. “I’m not washing skillets.” 

“You get the first stack,” Anya informed her. “I’ll take the second.” 

“You’re so kidding,” Ashley laughed. 

Anya turned back to the younger Breed girl. She and Emma might be twins, but they were worlds apart. 

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” she asked the other girl coolly. 

“You’re just doing that because I got my nails done yesterday and you were stuck here.” Ashley pouted. “That’s so not fair, Coya.” 

“I’ll give you a list of not fair later,” Anya told her. 

“Oh boy,” Ashley hissed. “Alpha coming.” 

Anya stiffened. She was put out with Dr. Armani, herself and the fact that the first thing she did on seeing him was crave the warmth she knew his body held. 

Not just his warmth. His touch. She wanted to be tucked into his arms, and it was the one thing she knew he truly didn’t want. 

She swore she felt him step into the room. The temperature in the large kitchen area shot up drastically, burrowed beneath her flesh and left her flushed. 

“Coming to clean up your mess?” she asked as though she saw him every day rather than just twice in the past eight months. 

He paused and looked around the room, his brows drawn into a frown. “I didn’t make the mess.” 

“Neither did I,” she informed him sweetly as she shoved a plate into the machine. “Someone did though.” 

He looked around at Sharone, Ashley and Emma as they made themselves very busy. Too busy actually. They usually balked at kitchen duty. 

“How did this happen?” he finally asked her. 

Anya straightened slowly and glared at him. “Do you ever read my reports?” 

“With diligence and exacting attention,” he drawled. “What does this have to do with your reports?” 

He leaned against the door frame, watching her curiously as she straightened and fought to control her temper. Damn him, she’d never had a problem controlling her temper before she met him. 

“I’ll tell you what.” She smiled tightly. “Clean up the kitchen, then go read one of my reports with a bit more exacting attention than you read them before and see if you can’t figure it out.” 

With that, she shoved the dishwasher closed and stomped to the opposite entrance, which led to a narrow tunnel running behind the community room. 

Her bodyguards were moving quickly behind her, as though they bothered to follow her every step in Base. She was so safe here it was enough to offend her need for adventure. It did offend that need. 

“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. 

He was racing around the top of a particularly steep area of the cliff, using juniper and holly, piñon and pine for cover, when he glimpsed the fallen form. 

Fuck. Ashley. 

Motioning his men around the perimeter, weapons aimed into the mountain below, he moved for the fallen form. Gripping her shoulder, he pulled her to her back and found her knife nicking his throat as he jerked back. 

“Oops. Del.” Her smile flashed in the dark. “Hey, find that fucker shooting at me ’kay? Coya’s coming up the pass now. And turn off those fucking links, they have our codes.” 

He flipped off the link and turned to pass the message. How the hell had they gotten the link codes? 

“Are you hurt?” He crouched beside her, scanning the darkness, his night vision picking up the movement in the pine below. 

“Naw. Broke a nail though,” she hissed. “Good thing they guarantee me for forty-eight hours, because this one is going to have to be fixed. I might have even skinned my cuticle.” 

Fuck. He would have gaped at her if he hadn’t scented his coya moving up the trail. 

He pushed her to the waiting Breed lying on his belly, and watched as the Breed dragged her into the cover of the boulders to his side. 

Lying flat, he motioned the men behind him to do the same as he made his way to the trail. There were areas he could crouch and run, but getting to her was torturous. 

“I smell alpha ahead,” Emma announced as Sharone pushed at Anya’s back, forcing her faster up the trail. “He’s close.” 

“Get on your stomachs.” Del-Rey’s growl sliced through the night, enraged, echoing with fury and sending relief thundering through Anya. 

“Belly,” Sharone reminded her, pushing her down as they started crawling quickly toward his voice. 

“Ashley?” Anya hissed into the night. “Did you find her?” 

“I found her.” He was suddenly there, gripping her wrists and dragging her over the rise. “Stay down. I’ll pull you.” 

“Ashley?” she whispered again, terrified. 

“She broke a fucking nail,” he snapped out. “She’s fine until I get my hands on her. Now move.” 

He pushed her toward the Breeds, who pulled her around the boulder. 

Sharone followed, collapsing against a boulder and breathing out roughly. 

“Martin, Jax, Ryan and Cross,” Del-Rey snarled. “Get those four back to Base and lockdown until I contact. Apprise Brim we’re on comm blackout. Shut down all comm until I arrive.” 

Nothing was said. Sharone was crouched, pushing Anya ahead of her again as they moved with the four Breeds who surrounded them at Del-Rey’s command. All four had been in the Russian facility. They were hard and well trained, and they knew well how to kill and how to protect. 

“The moment we get to Base you turn right back around and go back for your alpha,” Anya hissed. 

“Sorry, Coya,” Ryan said miserably. “He didn’t say come back; we don’t go back. We could mess him up being in the field and him not expecting it.” 

Anya locked her teeth together as they ran now. Dammit, Ryan was supposed to obey her, not Del-Rey. But it made sense. Okay, that made sense. Del-Rey would know this territory well enough. He had staked it out long before they had arrived here. 

She couldn’t help but worry. She knew better than to worry; a few trespassing bastards looking for the Coyote coya, their alpha female, didn’t have a chance against Del-Rey. She knew that. 

But something inside her insisted on worrying. Aching. And fearing. Because she had seen his eyes. When he made it back to Base, there was going to be hell to pay.