AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Del-Rey snorted. “I’m going to sleep. Let her play. She’s damned good at it while I’m on mission. Maybe I’ll get some rest this time.”
If she was running Base as he knew she could, then he could tell Jonas to shove mission status, and Del-Rey and Brim could take their place in training the Coyote Breed soldiers more effectively and getting them into enforcer status.
That was a priority he had left the other pack leaders in charge of. Unfortunately, they weren’t as well trained themselves as they could have been. They were killers, not investigators or interrogators. Making that switch wasn’t as easy as it could have been if Del-Rey and Brim had been on base to train them.
“She has a junior soldier working up a proposal to slip into city hall and collect the purses and articles left there as well as to investigate any items missing and conduct covert searches of leading city council members’ homes to detect if they have said missing articles. According to the memo just sent to me, the soldier expects to have a full proposal prepared by tomorrow afternoon.”
Del-Rey blinked up at the ceiling.
“Did you consider that angle?” he asked Brim then.
“I’m sure one of us would have soon,” Brim answered laconically.
Del-Rey wasn’t so certain.
He sighed as weariness pulled at him and his healing body demanded sleep.
“Get everything together. We’ll go over what she’s done in the past hours and see how it’s affecting Base in general. I want a full report from all pack leaders, and I want Sofia’s input on that intel that came in last night concerning the drugs we’re trying to track. Tell her to be prepared to give her report. Once I’m prepared, then I’ll see about facing my mate.”
He had no intention of being ill-prepared when they came face-to-face once again. He wanted her in his bed, and he wanted the upper hand with her. That wasn’t going to happen if he didn’t have his shit together.
If her feelings were hurt, he’d have to fix that.
Added to dealing with a mate he realized he truly didn’t know, he was also faced with the fact that, for some reason, she had been targeted at that attack tonight. It hadn’t been just any female. Carlen, the Wolf Breed soldier, had gone for Anya, just as the bartender had. The entire event had been a stage for a planned execution. And Del-Rey wanted to know why. Then he wanted to know by whom, because he wanted to know whose throat to rip out.
Haven was attacked often, though this was the first time Breeds had been attacked in the small town that resided outside the lands the government had granted the Wolf Breeds. And with each call sent to the army base outside the pack lands, delays had resulted.
Typical, he thought tiredly. So typical. Prejudice had found a new focus when the Breeds revealed themselves. Humans who had no acceptable scapegoat to hate had found one with the mysterious new beings that had been created without their knowledge. They’d found something to fight against, something else to fear. And Del-Rey often wondered if they wouldn’t, in time, find another war to fight in their battle to destroy what they didn’t understand.
No divine deity had given the Breeds life; therefore, they could have no soul. That was what the Breeds were taught, and that was how many saw them. Creations shouldn’t have rights. They shouldn’t have freedom, and there were those that would take every freedom, every right the Breeds had managed to acquire and steal it from under them.
That was the battle they faced, and Del-Rey often wondered if there was a way that the Breeds could ever triumph.
With that thought in his mind, he let sleep take him. The healing process came with its drawbacks. Twenty-four to seventy-two hours of complete weakness and weariness. The need to sleep. That weakness had hampered the Genetics Council several times as they tried to fix what they considered a defect in the Coyote genetics.
Del-Rey had, at times, considered it a blessing. It was the only time he slept deeply, the only time he didn’t awaken searching for the warmth and the sweet relief that only his mate could give him.
CHAPTER 13
“We still have four pack leaders working against each other,” Anya mused as she went over the notes she had made through the hours Del-Rey slept. “Teams one and two, Del-Rey and Brim’s personal teams, are working efficiently, though not at peak, in Security and Communications. We still have a rivalry with teams three and four, though they’re working together in those areas. Team five seems to be the most efficient at the moment, medical and joint administrative, with team six working perimeter patrol. Too few of the soldiers have achieved enforcer status though.”
There were six pack leaders, a total of only sixty-four Coyotes. There were more coming in, a possible ten to twenty that had managed to escape a facility in the Middle East. The pack leader there had agreed to step down and aid his group in the integration into the packs that were already established here at Base.
Tapping the electronic pen against the side of the e-pad, Anya bit her lip and considered that information. Over the years, she’d dealt with several administrators of various labs and facilities. If she wasn’t mistaken, the facilities in the Middle East had been training surgical and scientific personnel from those Breeds that showed a predisposition to medical knowledge, rather than killing them, as many other facilities did. Coyotes were bred to kill, not to save lives, even those of their own kind. A predisposition to such talents, the Council had feared, was also a disposition toward mercy. That wasn’t what they wanted or needed in this species.
She made a note to check into that before going to Del-Rey with this information. They could use any medical personnel that could be acquired, or even kidnapped at this point.
“Coya, the pack leaders have all promised a full report on their team areas, duties and complaints within the next seventy-two.” Ashley turned to her from where she’d stood, her back turned, talking to the pack leaders via the internal base link. “They’re so cute, have I mentioned that?”
“I think you might have.” Anya grinned at Emma, who was rolling her eyes.
“Has med tech sent their report on Del-Rey’s condition?” She turned to Sharone who was working frantically on her PDA.
“His condition is stable and healing,” Sharone told her. “Brim reported he’s sleeping like the dead and promises you his team report once he can leave the alpha and resume his regular duties.”
Ashley snorted. “She’s supposed to be in there watching over him, not covering Base while Brim sits on his tush and does her job. Cute though it may be.” She waggled her brows.
“Emma, make a note to watch the dye that goes in Ashley’s hair the next time she bleaches it,” Anya ordered. “I think it’s beginning to hamper cognitive abilities.”
