“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.