Surprise was reflected in his eyes. “If I’d known you had that planned, I would have stayed with the limo.”
“Liar,” she laughed softly.
“Where’s Brim?” he asked then. “I need to make sure Base is secured and on lockdown.”
“Taken care of.”
He exhaled heavily. “I knew I could count on him.”
She pressed her lips together and clenched her teeth at the comment.
“Get a transport ready.” He turned to Armani then. “I’ll be ready to go back to Base in an hour.”
“I hate Breeds,” Armani muttered. “You need to be under observation. It’s the only way I can get any damned information to work on you again later, Del-Rey. You’re not helping me here.”
“I have a base to run,” he told her. “I promise, next wounded soldier, you can have him for a week.”
She snorted at that. “Yeah. Those berserkers? No, thank you.”
Anya stood silently. She ached to touch him again. To push his hair back from his forehead. To wrap her arms around him or something. She ached to do something.
“I need to see Brim,” he told her again. “Could you call him in here?”
Anya swallowed tightly and pushed back the hurt.
The seducer, the man who had kissed her and claimed his worth was tied to her, didn’t need her here. He needed his second-in-command, which is what Anya should have been. She was his coya, automatically second-in-command. Until she had denied the position.
She stepped back slowly. “Sure. I’ll get him.”
Anger surged inside her. Fear. Hurt. She pushed it back and tamped it down. She fought to keep her expression, her emotions, contained so he wouldn’t so much as scent the pain that bloomed inside her.
She had refused the title of coya while he was on base. She had no right, no right to be hurt and angry that he would want to talk to Brim rather than her. He was the alpha leader. There were things he had to do, assurances he needed that Base was operational and secure while he was outside of it and weak. It was those damned animal genetics. That was all it was. Security over emotion. All that good stuff.
She pushed through the doors as Brim straightened from the wall and gave her a piercing look.
“He’s waiting on you.” Her smile was tight. “I’m returning to Base. Please let me know when you return with him. Emma!” Her voice sharpened as she turned to her bodygaurds.
Emma and Ashley both stood watching her strangely.
“I’m heading back to Base.”
She headed for the exit, striding quickly through the corridors and up the incline into the entrance area. She kept her head high, her shoulders straight, and she didn’t cry. She wanted to. She needed to. But not the first tear fell.
Del-Rey stared at the door, a frown on his face at the subtle, barely discernible scent of feminine anger and pain that lingered behind Anya. Now, that didn’t make sense.
He turned to Dr. Armani. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was glaring at him.
“I hate Breed males,” she told him, eyes narrowed, feminine outrage filling her gaze.
“What the hell is wrong with every damned woman in the world this month?” he muttered. “What the hell did I do?”
“You didn’t do a damned thing,” she stated harshly. “Not one damned thing, Alpha Delgado. And that just might be what gets your balls in a wringer and your ass in a sling. And when it happens, I think I want to sell tickets to the event.”
With that, she swept out of the room, passing Brim as he entered. The other man stared at Del-Rey, perplexed. “What the f**k?” He questioned the alpha, “Being your charming self?”
To that he could only shake his head. What the f**k just about described it.
CHAPTER 12
The first person Anya saw as she entered the main living area of the base was none other than Sofia. Anya made a mental note to decide she herself hated vodka, period. If the other woman enjoyed it with the same relish, then there wasn’t a chance in hell Anya was drinking another drop of it.
Slouching seductively on one of the stools that sat at a long teak bar, the Russian was sipping vodka and watching with avid eyes as Anya walked into the community room.
Communications and Security had been notified that the alpha would be returning within the hour; preparations were being made for the twenty-four- to seventy-two-hour length of time it would take for his body to completely heal.
“What are you doing back here, Sofia?” Anya asked as she moved to the bar. “Del-Rey said you were a secret contact. Secret contacts don’t show up flashing their pearly whites and interfering on the base.”
Sofia smiled with superior amusement. “He didn’t tell you my cover has been blown? I’d nearly returned to my apartment before the Breeds assigned to my security detected that assassin waiting on me. I’m now a security risk. I was kindly offered protection here.”
No, she hadn’t been told.
Anya extracted the cylindrical link from the pocket of her jeans, attached it to her ear and beeped Security.
“Yes, Coya.” Command came online immediately.
“Sofia Ivanova is banned from Communications, Security and all areas deemed proprietary until further notice from your alpha. Is this clear?”
“Understood, Coya. Order is being coded in as we speak.”
She smiled back at Sofia as the other woman frowned.
“Del-Rey won’t thank you.” She pursed her lips, perturbed. “He considers my opinion to be valued in all areas.”
“Then he will be unconsidering it,” Anya promised her.
Sofia shook her head slowly as a light laugh left her lips. “So confident. I was his lover, you know, several years ago of course, but we’ve remained close.”
Several years. Much longer than Anya had suspected.
“Sofia, you’re wasting your time here,” Anya informed her, determined not to play the shrew.
She was Del-Rey’s mate. They might have trust issues. She might want to rap his head against a wall. But he was hers, just as she was finally accepting that she belonged to him.
“I never waste my time, dear.” Sofia smiled. “He’ll grow tired of your childishness soon.” She looked around at Emma and Ashley, who stood prepared, watching her carefully. “I nearly raised the three of you, Anya,” she said as she turned back to her. “Trust me, I’m a woman, not a child. Del-Rey understands that.”