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“It won’t happen again. It goes on my list of rules to be followed,” he informed her. “Your safety is not to be risked, in any way.”
She frowned, her eyes glittering with irritation now. “Well hell, Del-Rey, why don’t you just lock me up in a padded room and hand-feed me?” she snapped. “Get over yourself and get a clue. I don’t need your permission any more than you obviously need mine to bring another woman to my bedroom. Consider it a trade-off for all those hours Sofia enjoyed your very manly body.”
With that, she jerked away from him, moving smoothly, gracefully, to the small bar that had been set up. Her soldiers followed her, including Ashley, who somehow managed to drop t
he dumb-blonde act she was giving Brim long enough to realize her coya was no longer with her alpha.
Del-Rey exhaled roughly as his lieutenant moved to him slowly.
“We could make dungeons in the lower caverns,” Brim said thoughtfully. “We could lock all four of them up in them.”
Del-Rey grunted at the observation. “They’d find a way out.”
Anya ordered vodka and sipped at it with an expression of pleasure.
“Have you learned anything during the vastly unentertaining hours that the good city council has spent attempting to show their appreciation of the animals that funded their new school?” Del-Rey asked.
They were there for more than food and drinks. The reports Del-Rey had brought with him linked that Breed drug to Advert and one of the soldiers who had worked at Haven a year ago.
“Not a lot.” Brim shook his head. “The others aren’t learning much either. Mayor Raines is still grieving for his daughter. It seems there’s still no information as to why she disappeared during that attack eight months before.”
Jessica Raines hadn’t disappeared, except from sight. The secured cells in the mountain that rose above Haven had been her new home since the attack she had participated in.
Del-Rey let his gaze wander around the room again. “We have five pack leaders here. Wolfe Gunnar and his mate. Hawke Sanders. Dash Sinclair, his wife and daughter. Myself and my coya. Jacob and his mate. Only Aiden and his pregnant mate, Charity, aren’t in attendance. You have near the full Wolf and Coyote Breed cabinets and their families in attendance and a lot of social pressure to get them here.”
The others were aware of that as well. Each Breed in the room was on high alert, prepared for trouble. Del-Rey could almost feel that trouble brewing, like a storm easing in, trying to slip up on them.
“Sentries outside aren’t reporting anything suspicious,” Brim murmured. “I can feel the tension, Del, but I can’t figure out where the hell it’s coming from.”
“Any further information from Sanctuary on the drug situation?” Del-Rey asked.
Brim shook his head. “Nothing new so far. We know the drugs went out with specific individuals in mind, but no names. Sanctuary has their own men watching the pharmaceutical and research company involved, but they don’t have much. Plenty of suspicion, not enough to prosecute.”
“Jonas Wyatt is waiting for evidence?” Del-Rey grunted. “That’s a new one.”
“He has a new secretary,” Brim explained. “I think he’s afraid to make a trip to that volcano until he’s certain she knows how to keep her mouth shut.”
In other words, the new secretary Merinus Lyons had hired had the security of knowing Jonas couldn’t fire or kill her. Del-Rey was betting Jonas was loving that one. Breed enemies had a habit of disappearing, proof or no proof. And Del-Rey knew there were several particular volcanoes that had been receiving more than their fair share of human sacrifices over the years since Wyatt had achieved directorship of the Bureau of Breed Affairs.
“Jonas, with said secretary in tow, will be arriving at Haven again tomorrow,” Del-Rey stated. “She’s breeding. You can smell the scent of the child she’s carrying. I can’t believe Prima Lyons hired a pregnant female to work for Wyatt. It’s certain to scar the poor kid before it’s even born.”
Brim nodded. “Hell, he should send her to Sanctuary. A breeding female has no place around any of us. Even our own females. Our lives are too dangerous.”
With that, Brim strolled away, moving about the room once again as Del-Rey checked for the feel of the weapons he carried beneath his tux. The city council had asked that they come unarmed. They had come with their weapons hidden instead. Unarmed was undefended. Del-Rey went nowhere undefended. Especially where his coya was concerned.
Del-Rey caught Sharone’s eye, gave her a silent signal to make certain Anya stayed close to the three of them, then moved to where Mayor Timothy Raines was holding court across the ballroom.
Raines wasn’t a man that Del-Rey could make himself like. He was deceitful. His blue gray eyes barely hid his malicious-ness, but there was no hiding it from Breed senses. Del-Rey could smell it, a subtle acrid stench that sickened him.
“Ah, Pack Leader Delgado.” Timothy gave him a twisted little smile as he moved toward the group. “Join us. We were just discussing those nasty tabloid stories that are making the rounds again. Really. You’d think if Breeds were so animalistic, they would have never achieved human status.” There was the barest sneer in Timothy’s voice.
Del-Rey lifted his brow. “I don’t read the tabloids, I’m afraid. What are they saying now? Are we eating our meat raw again? Howling at the moon?”
“Knotting your females,” one of the men said and snickered with avid curiosity. “Turning them into nymphomaniacs with some kind of hormonal release from a kiss.”
Avid eyes latched onto him as he scratched his cheek, as though in confusion. Breeds didn’t deny the mating heat, but they didn’t admit to it either.
“They’re still harping on that?” He grinned. “From what I understand there were several of our Breed males that volunteered to prove differently. Did that ever happen?”
