With that, he strode from the infirmary. Fuck this. He knew how to find his mate. He knew her scent unlike anyone else could know it. He knew his mate, her pain and her tears. And that was the scent he followed.
To no avail. Before the night was over, the caverns echoed with his howls of rage. Coyotes were searching the mountain, the heli-jet was in the air, and teams were dispatched to Haven.
Del-Rey’s coya had disappeared along with three of her female Coyote bodyguards. And some feared she had disappeared forever.
CHAPTER 23
Dr. Armani didn’t slip Anya into the main portion of Haven. She met her and the three bodyguards as they pulled to the bottom of the mountain in a stolen all-terrain.
Sharone and Emma helped Anya into the passenger seat before the doctor slid into the back with Ashley and Emma as Sharone drove, lights out, to a hidden entrance into the medical facility.
The cut from the knife that had fallen from the table and grazed Anya’s leg was deeper than she had at first believed. Her wrist was broken and the side of her head ached from its impact with the wall.
Nikki was silent as she applied a skin adhesive over the leg rather than the antiquated stitches used for smaller injuries. Anya’s wrist was placed in a hard plasti-cast and secured in place before the doctor cleaned the abrasion at the side of her head and carefully applied a film of adhesive there as well.
“I can’t believe he allowed this to happen.” Nikki’s voice was rough with unshed tears. “I need to get the lupina in here. She has to see this. There’s no way the Breed tribunal won’t grant you complete safety against those monsters, Anya.”
Anya lifted her head in shock. “It wasn’t their fault, Nikki,” she whispered. “They think I betrayed them.”
“Fuck them!” The harsh fury was followed by a hard grip to Anya’s shoulders as Nikki shook her fiercely, a tear slipping free and running down her dusky cheek. “Look at you, Anya. It doesn’t matter why. Jax laid his hands on a woman. A human woman, weaker than himself, unable to defend herself, and he let her be harmed. That is not Breed honor, that is a monster.”
Anya shook her head. “It was an accident.”
“It was f**king abuse,” Nikki yelled in her face as Sharone, Emma and Ashley paced the room. “Abuse, Anya. There is no excuse; there is no forgiveness.”
Ashley snarled as she jerked the doctor back, her enraged face nose to nose with Nikki’s. “Your hands hurt her. Keep them off her unless you’re treating her.”
Nikki stared back at the younger girl, and Anya saw the torment in her face.
“Ashley, I’m okay, it didn’t hurt,” Anya whispered. “Come here, little sister.”
Ashley was breaking apart on her. The feral animal she fought to keep hidden was breaking free at the rage and pain filling her. Anya hadn’t been the only one betrayed. These young women who had so hoped for a normal life, for freedom and laughter, had been betrayed as well.
The others hurt, but Ashley, who had so depended on Anya’s laughter, her support and affection, had suffered the most.
The younger girl tore herself from the doctor after a last warning look, but rather than coming to Anya, she paced again. As though her slight body contained too much energy, too much power for her to contain.
“Ashley’s right,” Nikki admitted roughly. “I shouldn’t have touched you. It was no better than what that f**king Coyote did.”
Nikki was cursing. It was supposed to be a bad thing when Nikki cursed.
“Doctors Chernov and Sobolova will be at the spa in Advert late tomorrow afternoon.” Anya swallowed back her tears. “Del-Rey is going to be watching for us. We have to get Alpha Gunnar and the lupina there for this meeting and get asylum requested.” She pushed the fingers of one hand through her damp, mussed hair. “Jax messed my plans up.”
Ashley snarled viciously, a primal, animal sound that caused Anya to wince. “And Ashley needs her nails done. She gets rabid when they chip.”
Poor Ashley, her nails were bare and natural, the polish gone, the pretty little designs painted on them had disappeared. They had been filed to sharp little points that were strong enough to lay open flesh.
“I should have killed him rather than cutting the side of his ear off,” Ashley bit out. “I should have done what Cavalier was unwilling to do and sliced his throat.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted, Ashley,” Anya whispered. “The alliance has to stand. We agreed to that; it’s the only safety for the Coyotes.”
“Anya, once Wolfe sees this, there will be an inquisition,” Nikki told her fiercely. “This will not pass. If Del-Rey doesn’t control his men, then Haven will break the alliance. You know this as well as I do.”
Anya shook her head. “It was only one.”
“Bullshit!” Emma burst out in an uncharacteristic display of feral defiance. “It was all of his men. His men, not ours. Do you know the trouble we got from the team leaders for trying to cover you? They disobeyed even their pack leaders and assigned the Russian Coyotes as far as possible from you. This was not just a few men. It was his entire f**king base of rabid mongrels.”
Anya lowered her head and shook it wearily. Even her bodyguards didn’t see what Anya had known.
“They’re soldiers,” she whispered. “Completely dedicated to their alpha, just as the three of you are to me. They believed I had betrayed Del-Rey and the base. Their only safety.” She lifted her head and stared back at them painfully. “Jax didn’t mean to hurt me. I slipped and everything went to hell from there. It would have never happened if they hadn’t been certain Del-Rey was rejecting me rather than attempting to protect me.”
“You’re a f**king bleeding heart,” Nikki muttered. “You’d die for any of those bastards.”
“Yes. I would,” Anya sighed. “Their freedom is worth dying for, Nikki. I know them. I know Jax. He was protecting Del-Rey and the packs. He would have never deliberately hurt me.”
She tried to convince herself of that. Wanted to, but she had been terrified as she faced him.
“What time is that damned f**king meeting?” Nikki cussed again.
“At three,” Anya told her. “Coyotes will be all over the place soon. We’re going to have a hell of a time getting out of Haven.”
“Then we better move you out of here before they start swarming like flies over the dead,” she snapped, turning to Sharone. “There’s a vehicle in the back, get it ready to roll. There are weapons in the locker of the garage, easy to find. I have a safe house. I’ll take the four of you there, then come back here and talk to the alpha and the lupina.”