Del-Rey stepped into the infirmary slowly. Rage was burning a hole in his mind as he listened to the reports on the comm link. Anya hadn’t been found, and neither had her bodyguards. She had gone into the caverns and simply disappeared.
Sitting on a gurney was his brother, the youngest, the one Del-Rey had despaired of saving when the boy was no more than a babe. And now, Del-Rey wanted to kill him.
Jax sat on the gurney, wincing as Regan stitched a part of his ear back where it belonged. Cavalier was there, under guard, willingly.
There were six Coyote soldiers covering him, but behind them were six others, the Russian Coyotes, and they looked furious.
He stared at Jax as the other man stared at the floor, refusing to lift his head.
“Ashley cut his ear off,” Brim reported. “Cavalier nicked the skin over his jugular.”
Cavalier was leaning against the wall, eyes narrowed, arms crossed over his powerful chest.
This was the man who never stepped out of line. He followed every order, fought like hell, and Del-Rey knew, he would fight to the death. He had never so much as struck at any of the men who had sworn loyalty to Del-Rey.
“That pup,” Cavalier spoke first, nodding to Jax. “The next chance I get, I’m slitting his throat. When I do, I’m going to watch him bleed like the gutless rat he is, Delgado.”
Delgado. Not alpha, not Del-Rey. The subtle insult was acceptable, but grating.
“Where is my mate?” That was all that concerned him. He’d find Anya, then figure this out.
Cavalier laughed at that. A harsh, grating sound that had a growl coming from his throat.
“Ask that little whelp brother of yours what he did to your mate.” Cavalier sneered at the title. “What he called her. Your whore I believe it was.”
Jax flinched as Del-Rey turned on him. He gripped his brother’s hair, jerking his head back and staring into his blue eyes. Eyes like the woman that birthed them. A deep, dark blue that swam with misery.
“What did you do?”
Jax was often impulsive, but he was never cruel. And he was intelligent, too smart to do anything to harm Del-Rey’s mate. God save him, Del-Rey prayed. He would hate to kill his own brother.
“I didn’t understand,” Jax said, making no apologies, knowledge of his own death filling his eyes. “I thought she had betrayed us. That you had rejected her because she was a traitor.”
Del-Rey felt every bone, every muscle clench in his body. “What did you do?”
“He touched her,” Cavalier snarled. “He caused her to slip when he gripped her arm to jerk her into place. When she ran out of here, there was a knife wound at her thigh. I think I heard her wrist snap and I know I heard her head hit the wall. That motherfucker hurt our coya, you son of a bitch, and if you’re going to kill anyone, put the gun to your head first.”
Bleak, desperate fury lashed at Del-Rey. He heard the snarl that left his throat as he threw his brother from him to keep from killing him.
Cavalier laughed. “You can’t even protect her against your own men. You make her stay and play your whore for what?”
He jumped for the other man. Jax didn’t have a prayer of surviving his rage. Cavalier might.
He heard Brim curse. Suddenly there were bodies blocking him, enraged growls and curses as his men were pushing him back, Cavalier’s men holding him back.
Snarls filled the room, primal, enraged.
“Enough dammit!” Brim shouted above the din. “Damn you two.” He turned on Del-Rey. “What the hell did you expect, you stupid bastard? You insult her in front of twenty Coyote Breeds that she all but gave her life for and expect them to take it lying down when your stupid f**king brother abuses her.”
Del-Rey spun, fists flying, feet lashing; within seconds he had taken down the Breeds trying to hold him back, just as Cavalier did.
They faced each other now.
“My coya is a target,” he told the other man, realizing in a flash of insight what he had done. “What I did may have been foolhardy, but it was to protect my mate. My coya.”
Cavalier paused.
“I would give my life for her.”
Del-Rey stared into the other man’s eyes. He wouldn’t fight him unless he had to. He would never fight the man that would stand and face death to protect the coya, Del-Rey’s mate.
“We swore loyalty to you, because of her,” Cavalier informed him, and it was no more than what Del-Rey had already known. “She was our coya before you mated her.”
Del-Rey nodded. “I know that, Cavalier. Now she’s hurt. I have to find her. Help me find her.”
Cavalier sneered at that. “If you hadn’t taken her bodyguards, you wouldn’t have to search for her.”
Del-Rey’s eyes narrowed, fear flashing through him. “Her bodyguards were not reassigned.”
Surprised looks turned on him. Two pack leaders’ eyes widened.
“Alpha, the rescending of status took her bodyguards. They’ve been reassigned since the memo went out.”
Del-Rey turned on him. Icy, murderous fury filled him.
“Find her,” he growled. “If I don’t have the location of my coya within the next twenty seconds, the lot of you can pack your asses out of this base and get f**ked. You stupid bastards,” he yelled back at them. “Did I tell you to do this? Did I tell you to endanger my f**king mate?”
“No, Alpha,” Brim answered for them, the sneer in his voice unmistakable now. “You rescinded her status. By refusing to accept her official vows, you rejected her.” Flipping on his own link, he began barking out orders as Del-Rey’s jaw clenched in fury.
Hell, he’d managed to f**k this one up royally. He stared at every man in the room now.
“Within the next f**king hour, you will receive memos,” he snarled. “My mate, my coya, will be making her official vows this spring. And pray to God she’s alive to make them, or every damned one of you will die for being stupid.”
“And you, Alpha?” Cavalier growled furiously. “You did this to her, not those of us who face you now. You placed suspicion on her shoulders by rejecting her. Your men only followed your lead.”
Del-Rey pinned him with primitive fury. “I’ll already be dead, Cavalier,” he informed him. “A man doesn’t live without his soul. Take that woman from me, and that’s what you’ll see. Exactly what the Council strove for. A Coyote without a soul.”