“I didn’t hurt like this then,” Anya stated. “You’re not making sense.”
“Emotions are the difference, Anya,” she said, her voice gentle. “It’s not your hormones that are changing; it’s the chemicals released due to your emotions at any given time. I’ve adjusted your hormonal therapy for that additional chemical and hormone. This should prevent that pain from returning.” She handed the pressure syringe to Del-Rey. “Upper right arm, Del-Rey.”
He pushed the loose sleeve of her sweater back, his fingers going over the slight blemish on her skin where the syringe was used regularly.
“Next month, during ovulation, we’ll be on guard for this. Until then, we’ll need to step up the hormonal injections. Perhaps every few days.” Armani sighed deeply. “But damn, don’t scare me like that again.”
“Get a Coyote specialist,” Anya told her fiercely. “They might have answers you don’t.”
Dr. Armani shook her head. “I’ve looked, Anya. There are only a few that haven’t turned up dead, but they’re missing. Likely dead as well. I’m doing my best.” She shrugged heavily.
Anya thinned her lips. No, they weren’t all dead, but that didn’t mean she trusted Del-Rey to contact them. She would have to do this one herself. Because that pain was scary. And even scarier was Dr. Armani’s supposition that it was emotional changes causing it. Because Anya knew she only wished she could hate him.
CHAPTER 8
“My nails look so pretty.” Ashley sighed as she threw herself beside Anya on the couch in the community room and lifted her hands up for inspection three days later.
French-tipped, a brilliant stripe running diagonally across each of them through a rich, lustrous vermillion. They were pretty nice.
“Cute,” Anya stated as she flipped a page in the magazine she was pretending to read.
Ashley curled her legs under her and stared back at Anya.
“Get a haircut?” Anya asked her.
“Oh yeah.” Ashley flipped the shorter back and sides. “Alpha sprang for it. But I’m still six weeks without new shoes, video games or splurge money for the mall. That sucks. He’s being mean about cutting weeks off too. Remember, though, you can’t have that ceremony until after my punishment. I want to look really pretty for it.”
Anya had thought about that ceremony, though Del-Rey hadn’t mentioned it. Hell, she had even looked at dresses herself, as though it meant something to her.
“Hmm,” Anya muttered as she flipped another page.
“You’re horny,” Ashley whispered. “Alpha make you sleep with him last night?”
Anya glared at her. “I had to have been out of my mind when I bargained for your nails rather than my bed.”
Ashley grinned impishly. “It’s because you love me best. I’ve been rubbing it in too. Sharone and Emma are so put out with me.”
“Emma doesn’t have kitchen duty,” Anya informed her. “Del-Rey put her in the office instead.”
“Only because she put that knife of hers under a Feline Breed’s throat when he wanted a sandwich,” Ashley laughed.
Anya closed her eyes and laid her head back on the couch. “I want kitchen staff, Ashley. A cook, someone that can bake.”
“Ohh, chocolate. Yummy,” Ashley sighed. “I had chocolate cheesecake and coffee in town.”
“I hate you,” Anya muttered, uncurling from her seat and moving away. “Get away from me, chocolate breath, before I kill you.”
No caffeine, no chocolate. No masturbating. No nothing for the bad little Coyote mate that didn’t want to fuck. She snorted at the thought of it.
“Hey, let the alpha give you a little somethin’-somethin’, and you can do coffee and chocolate.”
Ashley caught up with her easily.
Anya harrumphed at the thought. “I’m not that desperate yet.” She was dying for him. So aroused she was liquid heat, and Dr. Armani was scratching her head over it. All hormone levels were fine and dandy. Just great. Emotional response, Dr. Armani had said and smirked.
Emotional her ass.
“Come on, Anya, you know you want him.” Ashley skipped beside her, her pouting lips spreading into a smile. “You could just eat him all up like he’s chocolate himself, couldn’t you?”
“I’m going to shoot you,” Anya mumbled as she headed for her room.
“Where are you going? Don’t you have coya stuff to do?” Ashley asked her. “I heard Brim bitching at Sharone over your reports.”
“Did them,” Anya stated. They hadn’t taken long.
She was dying for Del-Rey’s kiss. It was eating her alive. She wanted to bite that lower lip and then lick it all better. Then she wanted to get serious about it and lick him all over.
“Don’t you have a party tonight?” Anya asked. “I already bought my dress. Thank God I didn’t wait till the last minute on that one.”
“Yes, something. City council shindig. Their yearly schmooze fest from what I understand.”
“Yeah, Del-Rey has a team out now going into place in case of snipers. He says his neck is itching.” Ashley reached back and scratched at her own neck. “So is mine. Do you think he’s messing with my mind?”
Anya had to laugh. “Did they dye your hair again, Ash? Sweetie, that stuff is rotting your brain.”
Ashley pouted. “And here I thought you loved me.”
Anya shook her head as she opened the door into her bedroom and came to a complete, hard stop. In a flash, Ashley was in front of her.
“Oh boy,” Ashley squeaked as the woman pushed away from Del-Rey’s arms. “Oh hell. Oh shit.
Alpha, you fucking suck.”
Del-Rey watched as Anya stepped slowly into the room. He watched her carefully as Sofia Ivanova moved slowly away from him.
Hell, he was up shit creek now and it damned sure wasn’t what it looked like.
“Anya, you know this isn’t the way it seems,” he told her.
“Why is this woman here?” Anya was glaring at Sofia, her sapphire eyes glowing between lowered lashes. “This is my bedroom.”
“I’m sorry, Anya, this is my fault.” Sofia’s smile was nothing if not confident. “I came to see Del-Rey. We argued and I meant to leave the room. I was upset and used the wrong door.”
“Don’t insult me by lying.” She turned to Del-Rey, her nostrils flaring as she fought to control her breathing.
A perfect cloud of beautiful blond hair framed the other woman’s aristocratic features. She was slender, tall, willowy, and Anya had never liked her.
“Why is she here?”
He pushed his fingers through his hair with a grimace. “She’s one of our plants within the Council. She always has been. She came with information and I didn’t want her seen so I had her slipped in.”
“To my room?” Anya drawled. “Did you think my bodyguards wouldn’t know another woman had been in my room?”
“She’s going to be difficult about this, isn’t she?” Sofia whispered loudly. “She always was such a temperamental little thing.”
“She assumed the room was my office. I didn’t have time to inform her otherwise.”
He didn’t look the least uncomfortable. He was still dressed, his wrinkled white shirt hanging over his well-worn jeans. Boots were on his feet. Sofia was still dressed.