“I hate you, Coya.” She grimaced. “Del-Rey will kick my ass personally, then slit my throat.”
“Him or me, take your choice.” Anya shrugged before turning and pacing to the doors that led to Surgery.
She couldn’t see in here, as she could when she’d watched the techs treat Sharone. She was barred from Surgery, barred from seeing him herself.
“Anya?” Hope touched her arm.
Anya swung around to face the slightly Asian, exquisite features of the Wolf Breed lupina, the mate to the alpha leader Wolfe Gunnar. At her side was the Breed pack and pride liaison Faith, a Wolf Breed herself.
“Thanks for coming, Hope.” She smiled back at the other woman. “Is Wolfe okay?”
Hope nodded. “A few scratches, nothing more. He’s in a meeting room going ballistic with the army again over a gun-ship that didn’t get out in time. Jonas Wyatt is en route along with the pride alpha and his prima, Callan and Merinus Lyons. They’re considering a protest against the army base. They should have been prepared. They were on alert for any trouble tonight, but didn’t respond.”
“Typical,” Anya sighed.
“Wolfe sends his regards and says if you need anything, you’ve only to let us know.”
Anya nodded. “Base is secure and we have information coming in. I’d like a copy of anything you have as well as full sanction for Del-Rey’s enforcer, Brim, to interrogate your prisoner as well.”
Hope nodded. “I’ll contact Wolfe immediately. He mentioned you might want to want to do that but he wasn’t certain of your priorities.”
What had changed within her? The moment Del-Rey had jumped from that limo, everything she had learned about Base and the pack had kicked in. As though she had been born to stand at Del-Rey’s side and do what had to be done when he couldn’t.
That was the alpha female’s job. Hope had always pulled Anya along with her when Wolfe was required to lead certain missions. The weight of command seemed to sit comfortably on the other woman’s shoulders. Anya had noticed that about Merinus Lyons, the alpha pride leader, or prima as they called her. Both women knew how to lead, how to snap from mate to commander in the blink of an eye.
Something Anya had done without thinking as well. As though the entire time she’d been observing Hope, Anya had also absorbed the ability and the knowledge to begin stepping into her role of coya, the alpha female, the other half of the Coyote alpha pack leader.
Anya had always been a quick study. Anything that interested her, that caught her curious mind, was easily learned.
The Council had already chosen her for advanced admistrative and covert intelligence work. She had been scheduled to leave the labs within days before the Breeds’ escape.
“Come with me for a few minutes, Anya,” Hope encouraged her, leading her from the doors to a small sitting area. “Is everything going well with you and Del-Rey now?”
Anya turned back to her, watching the other woman intently. “We still snap and snarl at each other.”
Hope’s lips twitched as she smoothed back her shoulder-length straight black hair. “Proceeding as expected then,” she stated.
Anya shook her head. “I don’t understand him. I want to, but sometimes . . .” She shrugged. “He told me tonight that I’m what makes him worthy.” She frowned at the thought. “You can’t base your worthiness on someone else, Hope.”
Hope’s expression eased into a smile. “You’re talking about a man that’s aware he’s not natural,” she said softly. “One who was created and trained with the understanding that he wasn’t natural. That nature or God, or whoever you attribute the beginning of life to, didn’t breathe that life into him. Now, suddenly, nature or that God has given him something that’s marked solely as his. His other half. A comfort, a warmth, someone that eases all those lost, lonely dreams he didn’t know he had. That’s a part of being a Breed male. They base who and what they are on the acceptance they gain from that mate, Anya. You can’t change that.”
And maybe that was part of what terrified her when it came to Del-Rey. An innate knowledge that she was the woman this man had chosen, among all the women he had been with, those he had known, or could have known. He had chosen her. His body had chosen her. His soul had chosen her.
Which meant she belonged to him and everything he was. Even more, he belonged to her in the same way.
“Jonas showed me your file,” Hope admitted then. “Our director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs is amazingly efficient. That file listed your IQ as pretty much off the charts. Notes in the files state that anything you ‘want’ to learn, you excel at quickly and I’ve seen that. You’ve taken your place as the coya of your pack in a matter of months. You knew inside you couldn’t escape it, Anya. You didn’t want to escape it, or Del-Rey. Did you?”
“At the time, I had to.” And she had known that then as she knew it now. “That doesn’t mean I know how to be the woman he needs or that old hurts are easily forgotten,” she whispered. “Being coya is a far cry from being a Breed’s mate, isn’t it?”
Hope nodded slowly. “Yes, it is. But being a Breed’s mate can quickly become even more important than anything you ever imagined, Anya. His lover. Letting him be the man you love. It’s growth. Just as you’ve grown in the past eight months. Because you wanted to grow. It was in you to do it, and you did it far quicker than any of us anticipated.”
“You were working me.” She saw it now. Eight months of being worked, slowly, surely.
“Only in the most loving ways. We’re pack, Coya. We stick together and we help our own. It’s the only way we’ll survive in this crazy world we’ve been drawn into,” Hope said softly before her gaze shifted past Anya.
Anya twisted around, watching as Dr. Armani moved from surgery, her dark face creased in a frown as she pulled the mask from her face and found Anya’s gaze.
Anya was on her feet and moving to her, even as Brim stepped between them.
“Status,” Brim snapped.
Anya laid her hand on his arm and moved in front of him. She was aware of his irritation, the tension in his body as he stepped aside.
“Coya, I need a Coyote assistant,” Armani sighed. “Why did they kill all their scientists? We could have used one.”