God love her. He closed his eyes, battling his fears for her. Her drive to protect the Coyotes was going to get her killed.
He thought fast. “You didn’t get that memo?” Protecting her was his prime importance.
“No, Alpha, pack leaders did not receive their memos in regards to this,” the team leader stated soberly. “But there was that communications blackout and shutdown.”
“That explains it.” Del-Rey’s throat felt tight with emotion. “Your coya was contacting doctors she thought would aid our unique genetics.”
“So why meet them alone?” the pack leader asked.
“I don’t know, because she was f**king attacked in her own home?” Del-Rey snarled. “Stop asking me damned questions and find her. I want the location of that meeting.”
“There was reference to a secondary contact, Alpha,” he was told. “The only person she speaks to by phone or link is her family.”
Del-Rey’s eyes narrowed. “Track down her father and those three useless cousins of hers. Find out if they’re where they’re supposed to be, and if not, find out where they went.”
“On it.” The link disconnected as Del-Rey cursed viciously.
“Head to town,” he ordered Brim. “She’s in town or close. She wouldn’t risk a cabin to meet those doctors in. It wouldn’t be secure enough.”
“She’s intelligent,” Brim agreed. “She a strategist as well. She would choose a place she feels she knows, one she thinks she can control.”
Oh yeah, that helped a lot. He’d be damned if he knew where Anya went when she went to town.
“Team three.” He contacted the team that had served as her primary security off base. “List known locations your coya traveled to in town.”
The list was like a f**king map of the town.
“What the hell was she doing in every fricken bar in the damned county?” he snarled, glaring at Brim.
Brim shrugged. “I was with you. Wasn’t my fault. Alpha Gunnar was supposed to supervise that.”
He plowed his hands through his hair as the vehicle surged through the snow that had begun falling again, and headed into the town outside Haven.
He could feel the tension tightening inside him, a sense of fear gripping him whenever he thought of her out there alone, arranging meetings with Council scientists without his protection.
Why hadn’t he paid more attention to her insistence, her fear for the people she called her own? His arrogance and ignorant pride were cutting at him now. He should have never stripped her of her title, her authority. He should have listened to her.
Hell, she had contacted a ghost when she was sixteen, and walked into a bar filled with the worst humanity had to offer. She had done it bravely, with confidence and courage, and faced him even after he informed her he was going to kill her.
He should have known that courage hadn’t been extinguished. He should have seen her determination to ensure a stable life for the Coyotes. For him and their children.
“We’ll find her, Del-Rey,” Brim repeated. “You can fix what’s been wounded.”
“Can I?” he asked his brother then. “Is there any way to repair what I’ve done to her, Brim? I didn’t just strip her of her status, I stripped her of her pride.”
“And still she came to you every night.” Brim shrugged. “Remember this the next time you’re riding high on your own arrogance, and it will bring you back fast. She’ll forgive you.”
It was a good thing forgiveness wasn’t linked directly to whether or not that forgiveness was deserved. Because Del-Rey knew he, least of all, deserved it.
“We’re moving into town,” Del-Rey announced into the link as he thought of something else. “Team Leader Four, put two men on that city council meeting. That has my hackles rising for some reason.”
He couldn’t figure out why either. He turned to Brim. “Inform Alpha Gunnar of that little meeting. It’s Sunday for God’s sake. Since when did they start meeting before daylight on a Sunday morning?”
“Good time to do it,” Brim stated. “Wouldn’t be too many to notice it. We don’t patrol town, just the area around Haven.”
Maybe that should change. Maybe some of the money the Coyotes had in their coffers should go toward Breed-friendly politicians in this town.
He grimaced, fighting back his impatience, his fears. He’d find Anya, he told himself. He had to. There was no other answer acceptable; there was nothing else he could live with.
The cold had seeped into her bones. Anya sat in the small basement of the safe house, huddled in a heated blanket, and wiped her tears away as she glanced at the clock once again.
Three hours before they made the journey from the house to the spa. Del-Rey was surely looking for her by now. What price had Jax paid for the confrontation in the kitchen? Was Cavalier well? Was Del-Rey warm?
She shuddered at the questions that had tormented her through the night.
They had listened to the heli-jets moving overhead for hours that morning. Satin Belle and her Wolf Breed female enforcers reminded her too much of Ashley. They joked, laughed, did their nails and compared clothes. But Ashley hadn’t joined in.
The younger Coyote Breed female was still silent, her gray eyes hard as she cleaned her weapons. Sharone and Emma had followed suit, checking their weapons, going over their plan and watching the Wolf Breed females closely.
Satin, the obvious leader, was brazen. She was sharp-tongued, sharp-witted and, like all Breed females, so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her.
“We have confirmation Alpha and Lupina Gunnar are in place and prepared for the meeting,” Satin stated as she finished drying her nails, after listening closely to whatever was going through her comm link. “We have Director Wyatt in town, Alpha Lyons and Alpha Delgado.” Satin’s brows lifted as she turned to Anya. “He sounds pissed and he sent a message.”
Anya stared back at her.
“He says to tell his coya he made a mistake. It will be rectified the moment she returns.”
Anya shook her head. It was too late; she had gone too far to turn back now, and he would never allow this.
“Respond to his message,” she said painfully. “Say, ‘There is nothing to rectify.’”
Satin stared at her soberly for long moments before nodding and sending the message. A second later her eyes widened, she winced, then cut the link.