Her mate, she wanted to scoff at the title as she glared at him. She was furious. Enraged. Scorned. In three weeks she hadn’t forgotten a single complaint she had against him.
Her attention was drawn from the man to the young woman at her side. Cassandra Sinclair, daughter of a tribunal member, Dash Sinclair. At eighteen, Cassandra was slender, with long black hair and light, almost pale blue eyes. She had the genetic perfection of features that all Breeds had, though she was what they called a hybrid, a child born of Breed sperm that had fertilized a human egg that hadn’t been changed by the genetics needed to create the Breeds. Her mother had then been artificially inseminated and carried Cassandra to term.
She was still Breed though. There was no mistaking the looks or the longer canines at the side of her mouth.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the tribunal,” Cassandra announced. “You have before you a petition of separation between the Breed Del-Rey Delgado and his biological mate, Anya Kobrin. I’m acting on behalf of Miss Kobrin and officially request an order of separation be issued and constraints be placed on the Coyote Breed Alpha Del-Rey Delgado and that she be given sanctuary within Haven as long as Alpha Delgado is in residence at the base the Coyote Breeds have established. We further request that Alpha Delgado be refused his counterorder, in effect his petition to have access to his mate, over her wishes. At this time, Miss Kobrin is willing to take questions from the tribunal and has sworn on the tenets of Breed Law that her answers will be truthful and without prejudice to Alpha Delgado.”
There was a shuffling along the table as each member except Del-Rey and Sharone took another look at the papers.
Cassandra resumed her seat, her expression composed as the tribunal stared back at the two of them.
“We have only a few questions, Ms. Kobrin. Merely clarifications to your statement.” Jonas Wyatt, the director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, began the process. Eerie silver eyes stared back at Anya surrounded by lush black lashes. His expression was cool and imposing, and perhaps about his lips there was a faint hint of cruel arrogance.
“To start with, I’d like you to clarify for the tribunal that you did indeed work with a man that you knew first as the Coyote Ghost, and finally by his true identity, Del-Rey, for a period of six years, to weed out the spies within the Coyote pack at the facility where you headed administration and inner facility security affairs.”
Anya breathed in slowly. She swore she could smell Del-Rey. A subtle hint of spicy male warmth and sexual intensity. Too bad he hadn’t been willing to share any of that warmth with her.
“That’s true,” she answered.
“Did you research the man you contacted before sending that first message?” Jonas asked her.
“I did.” She nodded.
“And were you aware of the Coyote Ghost’s habit of killing the head of security forces within the facilities he attacked over the years? Facilities that held Wolf, Feline and Coyote Breeds that he deemed acceptable risks to rescue.”
“I was aware of this,” she stated.
“And what made you believe no harm would come to your family then?” he questioned her, his voice growing colder. “Your father commanded parameter security and training. He was aware of what the facility was and the international laws against those facilities. What made you believe the Coyote Ghost would not kill your father?”
Because she had believed in his word. She had trusted him. And over the six years they had worked together, she had believed there was more binding them than a job.
“He swore before we met that my family wouldn’t suffer,” she told him. “He swore for six years as I did what he told me, risking myself and my family if I were caught, that they would not be punished or harmed unless there was no other recourse but to wound them to protect their own. We had an agreement.”
“You have the secured emails that have been retrieved, Director Wyatt, that back up Ms. Kobrin’s statement,” Cassandra interjected.
Jonas looked back at her with faint surprise. “I didn’t need proof of her statement, Ms. Sinclair,” he told her. “I merely needed to clarify that she was aware of the risks in contacting Alpha Delgado before she did so.”
“Ms. Kobrin.” Merinus Lyons, wife and mate to Alpha Lyons, the Feline prides’ leader, spoke up then. “Do you feel that you were, at any time, raped?”
The question had a deadly tension beginning to fill the air. Anya hadn’t expected that question.
“I never stated I was raped,” she answered.
“No, you didn’t,” Merinus agreed. “You have instead petitioned this tribunal for separation from a man that we know for a fact is your biological and, we suspect, your emotional mate. No mate has ever done this, no matter the anger or misunderstandings. As a woman, as part of this tribunal, I’d like to understand why you’ve taken this stance.”
“I wasn’t raped.” She shook her head. “Not by Del-Rey. I feel raped by the insanity of these laws I’m forced to abide by, and I feel raped by a hormonal phenomenon neither Alpha Delgado nor myself had control over. I had no choice but to accept him as a lover because of the loss of control this biological connection forced. I resent that this tribunal feels that I should subject myself to that feeling whenever Alpha Delgado is present. And I resent that the choice could be taken out of my hands. That, Prima Lyons, is the worst sort of rape.”
Merinus stared back at her for long moments before inclining her head in agreement. “Thank you, Ms. Kobrin, for that clarification.”
Silence filled the meeting room then, as though the men and women heading the tribunal hadn’t expected her answer. And she could feel Del-Rey staring at her; from the corner of her eye she could see the dark, brooding frown on his face.
“Would you say, Ms. Kobrin, that perhaps you and Alpha Delgado have been forced into a position that neither of you wanted?” Alpha Lyons asked then.
“I would say that,” she stated.
The pride alpha stared back at her relentlessly. “Yet you’ve seen Alpha Delgado’s statement that his intent all along was to take you out of that facility and claim you as his lover. You were sixteen when he first met you. From that point on, he was aware there was no chance he would leave you there. No chance that he didn’t intend to convince you to stay with him.”
She glared at Del-Rey then. “Then he should have been careful about the order he gave to have my family wounded,” she stated. “Once we arrived here, he should have never refused my request to contact my family.”