“A loss of control?” she murmured. “An interesting excuse.”
She shifted, her br**sts brushing against the front of his tux as she spoke. “I don’t remember any reports of sexual training for the Coyote Breeds. Maybe you really just didn’t know any better.”
She was deliberately challenging him and he loved it. She wasn’t going to ask him for anything. She was pushing him, daring him without saying the words. Pushing to see if he was worthy of her. Damn her, she was invading his soul.
“A man doesn’t need training to know how to touch his woman,” he finally stated, allowing his hand to rest against her hip, his senses to inhale her scent. “But remember, Mate, I was out of those labs for a hell of a lot of years. Trust me, I know well how to please you.”
She stiffened at the reminder. He could feel the fine tension radiating through her.
“Took advantage of it, did you?” she asked. “Perhaps that was where I made my mistake. I didn’t take advantage of any chances I may have had. Maybe I should have gained the experience you didn’t take the time to show me.”
His teeth clenched. He loosened them to nip her ear.
“I would have ripped out the throat of any bastard who touched you.”
“Would you?” Her hand settled on his arm as his fingers tightened on her hip. “You wouldn’t have known.”
“I would have,” he whispered against her ear. “I would have known. And I would have killed.”
“You’re rather handy at the killing part,” she snorted, pulling back from him, the deep blue of her eyes peeking up through her lashes. “Tell me, Del-Rey, how many times have you used the freedom of the hormonal therapy to touch another woman?”
“This is the wrong place to push me, Anya,” he warned her. “Don’t make the mistake of believing a public event would stop me from throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you out of here. I will. And once we’re back in that limo, I promise you, you’ll learn to not defy me in such a way again.”
Her lips twitched. Sweet, pouty lips. They glistened as though a layer of dew had been laid to them. He was so damned hungry for her kiss that the glands beneath his tongue were now twice their size. He wanted nothing more than to pump it between those lush lips again, feel her suckling at it, meeting and stroking it.
“Del-Rey,” she murmured, her fingers tightening on his arm. “What do you think you’ll gain by wining and dining me at this very social event?” She looked around the room before her gaze returned to his. “Do you think this is going to keep me in your bed?”
He let his lips curl suggestively. “Actually, I was more concerned about keeping the bars safe tonight. I hear the last time you visited one, the accounts in the Coyote coffers dipped drastically to pay for the damages caused.”
She blinked back at him, and he had to applaud how well she kept her expression clear and composed.
“A total misunderstanding.” She sighed dramatically as she waved her free hand. “I didn’t start that fight. I was just there.”
He laid his forehead against hers, moving closer. “You broke a whiskey bottle over that cowboy’s head. He was in the hospital for several days. I believe Sharone made another sing a high note when she stomped his testicles, and Ashley pulled a swath of hair from another woman’s head. Coya, I’ve been regaled by tales of the exploits the four of you have managed in the past eight months. Just because Sharone didn’t report it didn’t mean I didn’t hear about it. I’m amazed you weren’t locked up for your own safety, let alone the safety of the public in general.”
She rolled her eyes at him. Eyes that were brilliant, highlighted by cosmetics, tempting and mysterious.
“Everyone survived intact.” She shrugged.
“It won’t happen again. It goes on my list of rules to be followed,” he informed her. “Your safety is not to be risked, in any way.”
She frowned, her eyes glittering with irritation now. “Well hell, Del-Rey, why don’t you just lock me up in a padded room and hand-feed me?” she snapped. “Get over yourself and get a clue. I don’t need your permission any more than you obviously need mine to bring another woman to my bedroom. Consider it a trade-off for all those hours Sofia enjoyed your very manly body.”
With that, she jerked away from him, moving smoothly, gracefully, to the small bar that had been set up. Her soldiers followed her, including Ashley, who somehow managed to drop the dumb-blonde act she was giving Brim long enough to realize her coya was no longer with her alpha.
Del-Rey exhaled roughly as his lieutenant moved to him slowly.
“We could make dungeons in the lower caverns,” Brim said thoughtfully. “We could lock all four of them up in them.”
Del-Rey grunted at the observation. “They’d find a way out.”
Anya ordered vodka and sipped at it with an expression of pleasure.
“Have you learned anything during the vastly unentertaining hours that the good city council has spent attempting to show their appreciation of the animals that funded their new school?” Del-Rey asked.
They were there for more than food and drinks. The reports Del-Rey had brought with him linked that Breed drug to Advert and one of the soldiers who had worked at Haven a year ago.
“Not a lot.” Brim shook his head. “The others aren’t learning much either. Mayor Raines is still grieving for his daughter. It seems there’s still no information as to why she disappeared during that attack eight months before.”
Jessica Raines hadn’t disappeared, except from sight. The secured cells in the mountain that rose above Haven had been her new home since the attack she had participated in.
Del-Rey let his gaze wander around the room again. “We have five pack leaders here. Wolfe Gunnar and his mate. Hawke Sanders. Dash Sinclair, his wife and daughter. Myself and my coya. Jacob and his mate. Only Aiden and his pregnant mate, Charity, aren’t in attendance. You have near the full Wolf and Coyote Breed cabinets and their families in attendance and a lot of social pressure to get them here.”
The others were aware of that as well. Each Breed in the room was on high alert, prepared for trouble. Del-Rey could almost feel that trouble brewing, like a storm easing in, trying to slip up on them.
“Sentries outside aren’t reporting anything suspicious,” Brim murmured. “I can feel the tension, Del, but I can’t figure out where the hell it’s coming from.”