“Coya is still on base,” Brim reported as they stepped into the all-terrain that would transport them along the steep road that had been curved through the mountain to the base entrance. “Sharone says she requests a few additional days as you didn’t inform her of your impending return and she considers that grossly unfair.” Brim’s lips twitched as he gave Del-Rey the message.
Del-Rey grunted. “Tell her that’s too damned bad. I’ll be there within the hour.” Then he grinned. “Tell her to please apprise my pack leaders that I’ll need them in Command when I arrive.”
Brim grinned and relayed the message before disconnecting the link to Base that he now wore at his ear. The cylindrical earpiece extended just past the ear. The built-in receiver and mic made communication between Base and Haven much more effective. Separate channels had been built into the interface, and reception was as clear as the satellite phones they used.
“You could be playing a dangerous game with your coya, Del-Rey,” Brim informed him. “If she walks, the people she brought out of Russia may walk with her.”
Del-Rey shook his head. “They’re Coyotes; they know a winning side when they see it. I’ll win, Brim.”
“Overconfidence, my friend?” Brim asked him. Only Brim could have gotten away with that question.
“Desperation,” Del-Rey growled. “Just wait, Brim. When you’ve gone nearly a year with a hard-on that threatens your sanity, then you question me about overconfidence.”
Anya turned to Sharone, staring at her silently for long moments after her friend and bodyguard relayed Brim’s message.
“He asked me to do what?” she finally asked quietly.
“Call together his pack leaders to Command; he’ll be meeting with them on his arrival.” Sharone cleared her throat. “He refuses to wait the extra time you requested to return to Haven.”
Anya crossed her arms over the light gray sweater she wore as she tapped her foot irritably against the stone floor of the community room. Around her, off-duty soldiers slouched and watched the huge television screen mounted on the wall or snacked on whatever they had managed to put together for dinner.
It was going to take her days just to figure out what the hell had happened to the supplies in the kitchen area. Either they were eating more, or someone was saving back supplies again.
She’d had that problem in the first months. The soldiers would slip food from the kitchen—it didn’t matter what it was—and hide it, just in case they began running low. She suspected it was the younger Coyotes. Food wasn’t exactly plentiful in the facility they had been created and trained within. They couldn’t get used to the fact that this was no longer the case.
She breathed out heavily as her bodyguard fought to hide a smirk.
“Let that smile free and I won’t fix dessert for a month,” Anya warned her.
Several growls turned on Sharone. Male Coyotes who had been shamelessly eavesdropping.
Sharone rolled her eyes. “They’re worse than that damned Styx when it comes to their sweets.”
“Remember that.”
“I don’t know.” Sharone shrugged. “Rumor from Sanctuary is that Del-Rey has told Jonas to take a flying leap. He’s returning to Base for good.”
Base. She was tired of hearing it called Base. It wasn’t the damned base. It was home. Just as Haven was home to the Wolves and Sanctuary was home to the Felines. Yet Coyotes called home Base. Like soldiers rather than men.
“He wouldn’t dare.” Anya tossed Sharone an irritated look before turning and heading to the exit tunnel that led to her quarters. “Contact the team leaders and let them know to be waiting on their alpha in Command. Get Emma and Ashley back here, tell them playtime in town is over. Their alpha has returned.”
She didn’t question why she was following his orders. She should have contacted him herself and told him to take a flying leap. But if she did that, then it would affect the team leaders and the soldiers under them. That was uncalled for. Her personal battle with Del-Rey shouldn’t affect the men, and too few women, who worked within the caves and caverns the Coyotes had taken over.
She listened as Sharone relayed her orders. She couldn’t leave yet; there was still too much to do and she hadn’t been given warning. If she left without preparation, then the place was a mess when she returned, sometimes weeks after Del-Rey arrived.
She ignored the leap of excitement building within her though, the little ember of warmth that burned low in her stomach at the thought of seeing him again. If she didn’t ignore it, then she was forced to remember everything that was sure to piss her off. To hurt her.
She hadn’t quite gotten over the hurt yet. Her father and cousins had healed without complications. They were back to full strength; the flesh wounds they had received had healed nicely. But Anya’s heart hadn’t quite healed, and she knew it. She still woke in the middle of the night crying out for him, and she still remembered the feeling of complete isolation as the pleasure of their sexual encounter eased away.
She had been cold. So cold clear to her soul that sometimes she wondered if she would ever be warm again. At the time, she had known she wouldn’t. And she would never forget his answer to the Breed tribunal when Cassandra Sinclair had asked him if he loved his mate.
Had he actually suggested he could learn to love her? As if she wanted him to learn anything.
She stomped into her personal quarters, casting a glare at the door that led to Del-Rey’s. She had started to move her rooms, until the pack alphas had come to her, refusing to allow it as per Del-Rey’s orders.
Everything was Del-Rey’s orders. At least everything he could get away with. She still hadn’t seen her father, despite his transfer to the United States. He and her cousins and their families now lived in California, having been slipped from Russia by a combined Wolf and Feline Breed mission.
Because she was now Del-Rey’s mate, her family represented a threat to her welfare if they remained where the Council could easily reach them.