“Maybe he’ll get mad enough to finish loading the dishwasher,” she bit out.
Sharone laughed. “Wanna bet?”
“Ten bucks he doesn’t,” Anya shot back.
“Ten bucks he does and the kitchen sparkles when he’s done. Alpha doesn’t like messes unless he makes them.”
Well hell, she had nothing to worry about then, because she was the biggest mess there.
She wasn’t much better by evening. Adrenaline was racing through her system and Dr. Armani wasn’t being helpful. Natural arousal her ass. There was nothing natural about her reaction to Del-Rey, and no one was going to convince her otherwise.
She waited until darkness fell to check the kitchen and turn over the ten bucks to Sharone, then she and the three other girls slipped out into the night.
The guards on duty were used to her slipping out; they didn’t even blink. As usual, when Del-Rey was on base, there was a strangely relaxed atmosphere. She’d slipped into the base a few times while he was there, when she had forgotten something she needed. She had noticed the difference. There was more of an air of camaraderie, a warmth that was lacking when he was on a mission. It made her feel curiously lonely, and aware that the Coyote home wasn’t complete when their alpha was gone. Their coya just wasn’t a fitting replacement.
Del-Rey stared around the kitchen and at the younger soldiers that had completed cleaning up the mess that had been made.
“How long has your coya had kitchen duty?” he asked one of them, strangely enough one of the men from his own group, not the group that came from the Russian facility.
The young Breed shrugged, glanced at his feet, then lifted his gaze to Del-Rey. “Whenever you aren’t here, Alpha,” he finally admitted.
“This is the reason I have the request for kitchen staff, in bold, in my coya’s list of requirements?” he asked the Breed.
“It’s not just me, Del-Rey,” the Coyote Breed breathed out roughly. “Sometimes we just forget to do things. You know how we are. If we were perfect, we’d be Wolves, right?”
His own words thrown back at him. He growled in warning. The Breed cleared his throat and stepped back, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
“Make a roster for kitchen duty,” he told the other man. “Put the Felines in first.”
He almost chuckled at the idea. Damn, he could see those Felines having fits already.
The Coyote Breed whistled soundlessly. “Alpha Lyons will protest.”
Del-Rey shrugged. “So, I’ll just protest right back the next time he puts our Coyote team on babysitting duty. Last time they were out, they had to make mud pies with the babies.”
“Yeah, but we liked that,” the soldier laughed. “Man, those Feline kids know how to pitch a mud ball.”
“Yeah, but Alpha Lyons protested,” Del-Rey reminded him. “So now his Felines can start off kitchen duty.”
They both chuckled as Del-Rey made his way from the kitchen and went searching for his coya.
He found her scent in Command, in laundry. He found her scent in the new barracks being built within one of the caverns, and he found her scent in her bedroom. It was strongest there. The scent of feminine heat and delicious female.
Damn, why hadn’t he taken the time to go down on her when he had her in his bed? To run his tongue between the luscious folds of her pussy and lap at her like candy? He’d kicked himself a dozen times a day for missing out on that.
He found her scent in damned near every area of the base, but he didn’t find Anya. Activating the communications link, he clicked into Brim’s channel and waited while it beeped.
“I’m in Command, what’s up?” Brim answered him.
“Everything okay?”
“We picked up hunters on the eastern side of Base. We have a team heading out to cover them,”
Brim answered.
“Pull in security monitors; see if you can find Anya.”
“Manage to lose her already?” There was a chuckle in Brim’s voice.
“Laugh at me later,” Del-Rey grunted. “For now, find her before I have to kick your ass.”
“I’ll let you know when we’ve cornered your coya, then,” Brim promised.
The line disconnected as Del-Rey propped his hands on his hips and frowned at the disappearance. Dammit, one woman shouldn’t be so hard to keep up with. There were security monitors through every area of the damned caverns.
He flipped to the general channel. “This is Alpha Delgado, report on coya whereabouts ASAP.”
He could just imagine Brim’s laughter over that one. Not to mention his coya’s irritation if she found out.
He strode from her bedroom and headed back through the tunnels toward the community room as his link beeped.
“Yeah?”
“Del-Rey, it’s Thomas, I have entrance duty tonight. Your coya and her three bodyguards exited Base twenty minutes ago on their way to their evening training session.”
His teeth clenched. He disconnected as the link from Brim beeped at his ear.
“She left Base twenty minutes ago and headed to the east.” Brim’s voice wasn’t easygoing now.
“Those hunters we were tracking disappeared from sight and the team I sent to track them can’t be reached. We have a possible penetration into Base territory.”
“I want team three at the entrance now,” Del-Rey yelled as he began running for the entrance.
“Fully armed and in gear. Have someone get my gear as well. Get the heli-jet revved and ready to move, and I want team six moving in as backup. And get on those fucking heat sensors we put out there. I want Anya found and I want her found now!”
He raced through the tunnels as he switched to the general channel and listened to the reports coming through. The two-man team sent out to track the hunters wasn’t answering; that meant they were down. His mate was out there with three bodyguards and God only knew what tracking her.
“Teams three and six waiting,” Cavalier reported into the communications link as Del-Rey raced through the community room.
The cavern was empty now; all soldiers were moving to assigned duties and preparing to move out.
He rounded the curve to the entrance to the exit tunnel as the twelve men there turned to him expectantly.
“Team three, get your asses out there, I’ll catch up ahead of six. Finding your coya is priority.
Team six will provide backup and another team is heading out to locate the missing team.”
He jerked the mission jacket out of Cavalier’s hands and shrugged it on quickly, checking the pockets for extra ammo, knife and backup weapons. As the first team moved out, he was strapping a handgun to his thigh before grabbing the PDW submachine gun from Cavalier and clipping it to the jacket. The lightweight personal defense weapon was loaded, safety off and ready to fire.
“Move out,” he ordered as he pressed the secured line on the link and waited for Brim to target his identifying signal. A minute beep signaled that Brim had him, and he moved out.
He caught the faint hint of her scent as soon as he moved into the scrub and pine rising around the base entrance. The eastern edge of the mountain cliffs they called home was less steep, covered in pine, oak and a variety of foliage. The western edge overlooking Haven was pretty much sheer cliffs.
He caught up with team three within seconds, motioned them into a new direction and headed east. The same direction where his mate’s scent lingered.
It was subtle and light, and would be harder for the others to detect as it blended so well with his own scent. Mating made the female scent harder to track unless she was aroused or ovulating.
Her body adapted, her scent changing to match the mating hormones and the male’s scent rather than her own.
Camouflage maybe. A natural protection of some sort. Nature was weird as hell where the Breeds were concerned, so who the hell knew. All he knew right now was he was the only person that could track his mate effectively and danger was stalking her.