e ill.”
He kept his Russian accent out of stubbornness, she knew. Her father could sound as American as one born to it, yet he refused to.
A shock of dark red hair fell over his brow as his large hand cupped the back of her head and held her to his chest.
“Papa.” She held tight to him. It had been months since she had been able to see him.
His steady strength bolstered her, his courage and bravery. So many years he had worked with her, subtly telling her how to rescue her friends, pointing out weaknesses, strengths in his force, teaching her to see more than just people, but also resources and courage.
He had been her rock after her mother’s death. He had been her hero until Del-Rey, and even now, he was the man she knew would soothe all her hurts if possible.
“Little girl.” So Russian, his voice was a whisper of her childhood. “Look at you, so pale and ill. It is good, huh, that I bring your friends.”
She pushed away from him, unable to bear his touch for long. Ashley was there to steady her as she turned to Dr. Alexi Chernov, and his niece, Katya Sobolova. They were young, protégés of Alexi’s grandfather, and so damned intelligent they were scary.
“Katya.” Anya reached for her friend’s hands.
Katya wasn’t much older than Anya; she was barely thirty. Her clear, unlined expression was tight with worry though, as her too perceptive topaz eyes went over Anya’s face.
“Anya, I agree with your papa, you are not well,” she said haltingly, a frown marring her brow.
“I’ll be fine soon,” Anya promised her. “Alpha Gunnar is on his way to this meeting. Asylum is being granted to you and your uncle but under very strict rules. You’ll have little freedom.”
Alexi shook his head. His brown hair was longer than it had been in the lab facilities, his green eyes worried. “We have no freedom now, Anya. We run in fear of our lives. The Coyote Breeds were our lives, not just our research. To work with them again . . .” He shrugged philosophically. “From what your papa says, we will have more freedoms than we did with the Council, yes?”
“Well, you won’t die for stepping outside for that cigar you like so much,” Anya promised him. “Though you might have company.”
Alexi’s eyes crinkled in humor. With his and Katya’s arrival in the facilities and their eventual control of it, conditions had changed drastically. They had made Anya’s job of aiding the rescue much easier.
“Sit, Anya,” her father encouraged her. “Your cousins, they are waiting for your Alpha Gunnar. Why are you ill, child? You are never ill.”
“The inoculations we gave her as a child should have made her immune to nearly every virus known to humans,” Katya stated, watching her carefully.
“I was inoculated?” Anya blinked back at her. “With what?”
“We all were,” Katya confirmed. “Alexi and I developed the immunizations before coming to the labs. We finished them there. The Breeds are immune to all viruses known. We used that inoculation on ourselves as well as you, your family and Sofia. There was no danger involved. We’d been lab testing on certain animals for years. But it has allowed us never to grow ill. Even your papa has not known illness. You should be well.”
Anya shook her head. She would get to that later. She turned to Ashley. “Has Emma made that call?” God, she needed Del-Rey.
“We dropped her off before coming here, Coya, remember?” Ashley reminded her gently.
She remembered. She swallowed tightly and focused on her father and her friends again. “You’ll be taken out under armed escort.”
“You will go with us,” Katya said with an edge of fear. “Won’t you?”
Anya shook her head and turned to her father. “You and the cousins must leave now, Papa, before Del-Rey arrives.”
“Why, will he shoot my leg again?” Petrov Kobrin asked with a snort. “I will not leave you while you are ill, Anya. I will return with you or these Breeds you protect will learn a father’s anger. I will stay until you are well.”
“We have a Feline Breed arriving, advance scout,” Sharone told them. “He’s coming armed.”
Anya nodded and forced back a cry. Del-Rey had allowed an advance scout rather than coming himself.
“Coya.” Fear laced Ashley’s voice a second before there was a rustle of greenery, a scuffle, and suddenly, they were surrounded.
She stared at the weapons trained on her father’s head, and Ashley’s. The Feline Breed stepped into the grotto.
“Douglas,” Anya whispered.
The junior-grade soldier that hadn’t yet made enforcer. He was young, younger than Anya. Close-cropped dark hair, brown eyes. He was dressed in an enforcer uniform though. A Wolf Breed Enforcer uniform.
He smiled, displaying his canines as he lifted the butt of his weapon and brought it down hard on the back of Ashley’s head.
“Ashley,” Anya cried out as she moved to kneel beside the girl.
“Come here, bitch.” Hard fingers wrapped round her wrist and through the blinding pain she saw the blow delivered to her father next.
Where was Sharone? Anya looked around desperately, feeling dazed, confused. Sharone should be here. Instead, she saw only city council members and the Feline.
Seven humans and one Breed and leading the pack was the mayor, Timothy Raines.
“I hear you’re breeding,” he sneered as two others tied the doctors’ hands and placed gags over their mouths. “I was just going to kill you. I think I’ll give you to those nasty Coyotes that have offered us a damned fortune a piece for a Breed mate. Only mates can breed, right?”
Breed? He thought she was pregnant?
She shook her head. “Someone lied to you.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think so. But we’ll get what we wanted anyway. Your fucking kind out of our county. We break the Coyotes’ backs, then Haven will fall. That’s the only thing saving them right now. Bastards. The alliance will never stand when a Wolf Breed is seen escorting the Coyote’s mate out of this spa just before she disappears forever. We’ll win. You’ll lose.”
Sharone and Emma. Where were they? Where was Del-Rey? A sense of vertigo gripped Anya as she swayed.
“The bitch is sick,” one of them cursed. “She could be contagious.”
“Get her, Douglas. Let’s find your damned Coyotes and get our payment.”
The fingers that wrapped around her arm were like a manacle of agony, needles driving into her flesh. She went to her knees with a scream, and she swore hell opened up and loosed demons that howled in fury.
“Coya, come with me. Now.”
Jax. She lifted her head to stare at the Coyote dragging her across the ground, his expression tormented as he lifted her, carried her as fire flashed around her.
“Coya, you’re safe,” he growled.
“Papa ...”
“Cavalier has your father and the doctors. Move. We have to move.” He pushed her through the snow-shrouded evergreens that surrounded the next grotto, dragging her through them, pulling her from the sound of gunfire.
“Ashley ...”
“Taken care of dammit,” he growled. “Hurry, Coya. If you get so much as a scratch, the alpha is taking my throat out. Do you want that?”
He steadied her as she tried to crawl, handicapped by the broken wrist and her own weakness.
“Clear,” he snapped, his arm wrapping around her waist. “Let’s go. We have enforcers just ahead waiting on you.”
He rose, and before they could move, they found themselves facing what Anya knew were not the good Coyotes. She swore she could smell them. A stink like blood and death as they smiled coldly.
“Well, it’s the princely whelp,” one of them sneered. “Move away from her.”
Jax pushed her behind him instead. Anya stumbled against the fence before gripping the back of his coat.
“Let him go,” she cried out. “Leave him alone.”
She couldn’t let Jax be hurt. For whatever reason, the young Breed was mor
e important to Del-Rey than the others. He made Del-Rey laugh. She couldn’t let that be taken from him.
She pushed to the side, sidling away, knowing the Coyotes would follow her. She could hear the shouts, the roars and howls of rage now filling the gardens.
“Coya, no.” Jax held his hand out, trying to push her back. “Dammit, Del-Rey will take my fucking throat out.”
“If there’s a throat left to take out.” The Coyote lifted his weapon. “Good-bye, little prince.”
Anya jumped, pushing at Jax as the shot fired and she felt the flames that suddenly enveloped her body.
Jax screamed out to her. Howls of rage filled her mind as she felt herself go to her knees and the ice inside her seemed to fill her veins.
“Anya!” She heard Del-Rey scream as she looked up.
The two council Coyotes were on the ground, bloody, dead. Del-Rey threw himself to her, sliding in beside her on his knees, his hands reaching for her as she looked down, down, to her side and the blood soaking her shirt.
“Del-Rey?” She blinked back at him, crying, desperate when she saw the pure, startled horror that filled his face. “Smile for me,” she whispered as the lethargy began to sweep over her. “One more time, smile for me.”
Del-Rey caught her. His head tipped back as agony poured from his throat in a vicious, horrible howl. He shook with the grief, the rage as he picked her up, barely aware of Jax screaming out for doctors. Barely aware of anything but the smell of his mate’s blood.
Howls joined his, Coyote howls, ripping through the gardens, echoing through the mountains as he stumbled to his feet, holding her to his chest, and searched desperately for the doctor that had come with them.
“Armani!” he screamed out as he rushed inside the spa.
She was here. They had left her in the protection of the building.
“Del-Rey.” The doctor was there, rushing to his side. “Heli-jet is in the street, hurry.”
By her side were the two Coyote doctors. They were jabbering about inoculations, blood loss and fevers as he jumped into the jet.
“Lay her here.” A carrier was stretched out at his feet. “We have to get her to Medic. I have to stop the bleeding.”
Her shirt was ripped open and Del-Rey felt the fear that tore through him.
“Move, Ghost.” Alexi Chernov pushed him to the side. “Let me in there. Blood clotting should go fast,” he snapped to Armani as Del-Rey fell back. “The inoculations saved our lives when the Council nearly caught up with us. The boost to immunity has resulted in surprising little extras.”
“The blood flow isn’t as hard as it should be. We don’t know if the bullet hit an organ. Did it go out the back . . . ?”
The three doctors were shouting at one another as they surrounded her. The heli-jet lifted off, banked and shot through the sky to Haven as Del-Rey wiped his face with shaking hands and found tears on his cheeks.
His mate, his heart. She was bleeding, wounded. Her flesh was like fire to touch, her lips nearly blue. As Brim’s had once been. So cold.
He edged around until he was at her head, bent and laid his lips at her brow. “I love you, Coya,” he whispered. “Live for me, baby. Live for me. Because I can’t live without you.”
He stayed like that. He could warm her no other way. He held her head steady, his lips pressed to her forehead, and told himself it was the dampness of sweat that dripped to her brow rather than his tears.
Nikki Armani stood back in the surgical room of the medical facility in Haven and watched Chernov and Sobolova work steadily to stabilized Anya Kobrin.
Del-Rey sat by her side, his arm stretched out, a transfusion of his blood moving slowly from his strong wrist to his mate’s. His head rested beside hers, and sometimes, she swore she heard the big, rough Coyote praying.
Jonas, Wolfe, Callan, Hope, Dash Sinclair, his mate and daughter waited in the observation room, watching silently, their expressions somber.
“The hormonal fluctuations are too severe,” Katya Sobolova stated. “You can’t give such hormones during the fever. We need to counteract them.”
“She’s conceived,” Nikki argued then. “We can’t afford to mess with the hormones; it could harm the child.”
“You don’t give hormones to Coyotes in heat,” Katya stated. “It results in pregnancy every time. This we didn’t want the Council to know. From the creation of the first Coyote, our grandparents knew they were exceptional. Different in all ways. Their true potential was always hidden. That was the reason for the practice of killing their creators. That directive was given to them, even as babes. Their escapes resulted in their creators’ deaths. Destruction of all records. There were very few who could manipulate those genetics.”
Nikki stared at the other woman in shock. “That’s why the Council has been searching for you.”
Katya smiled. “We are two of the few Coyote scientists left living. There are no known records of the Coyotes now. Normally, Coyotes themselves took care of killing us. If not the Coyotes, then the doctors assigned to us. They knew their duty.” She glanced fondly at Anya’s still face. “This one, she hid us during that rescue. The doctors searched for us, but we stayed where she placed us for days, and finally we found another hidden exit from the room.”
“If the geneticists that worked on the Coyotes were Council, why make that directive?” Nikki shook her head in confusion.
“The past generations, our fathers and grandfathers, they, like us, could not tell the Council no. They would kill the families of those scientists as well. Our grandparents destroyed records and placed false ones instead. They reported that the Coyotes were as the Council wanted. Soulless, without mercy. They are without mercy, no doubt, but it was always easy to know those who would kill without compunction and those who would kill only when needed. So few Coyotes were created compared to other Breeds, that we were able to work together, pull those we knew were worthy to only certain labs where they would have a chance at life.” She shrugged. “Some of us succeeded, some did not. In Russia and in the Middle East, we succeeded. I hope you saved the scientist in charge there.” She glanced at Nikki. “Simply amazing. She was the brightest in our field for her young age. As though the Almighty reached down his hand and opened her mind to this area in a way no mind had ever been opened. Incredible.”
“There are no reports that she survived,” Nikki said.
“Ah.” Katya shook her head. “This is too bad. She was an angel sent to know things the rest of us only have questions about. We were attempting to contact her when Anya found us.”
“Bleeding is contained,” Chernov said quietly, nodding to Del-Rey. “Take him loose.”
Nikki shut the valve off and eased the needles from both their arms as Del-Rey refused to take his eyes from his mate.
“Give her a few hours to stabilize,” Chernov ordered as he applied the skin adhesive over the wound. “We’ll need blood samples then. Several. If you don’t get her off those hormones, she will go straight back into heat as soon as this babe is born. You don’t want that.”
“We have another mated Coyote,” Nikki said. “His wife hasn’t conceived.”
Chernov snorted. “She was not inoculated as this one was with an immunization created from Coyote blood. Coyote females will breed, Dr. Armani. We’ve always known this. This is why so very few females were allowed to live. We couldn’t risk it.”
“Why the girls in Russia?” Nikki asked.
Chernov sighed. “My grandfather adored this child.” He patted Anya’s arm. “We lost my sister when she was but a babe. He saw Anya and lost his very old, cynical heart. I believe perhaps we all did. She has a way about her. She gets what she wants, and she wanted those girls as her friends. We reported their deaths and kept them alive.” His head lifted. “We were monsters, Armani, do not doubt it. We killed when we were ordered. We researched with demonic practices when we had to. But every doctor in that lab knew what our true goal was. The survival of those we had arranged to h
ave brought to us. Those five girls, they are the future of these creations. They are amazing.”
“Created to breed,” Nikki said in horror.
“No. No.” Chernov shook his head violently. “Created to be natural. The inability to conceive was coded into the Breed genetics. The records of how they did this were lost so future generations could not undo it. My grandfather and several others learned the secret with the Coyote Breeds. They managed to take this unnatural coding out. How will it work?” He shrugged. “We do not know. If it can help the other Breeds, we cannot say. But the Coyotes are natural. Natural man. Natural animal. We have yet to see what this will accomplish.”
“A miracle,” Nikki breathed. “If we could figure this out, we could figure out the mating heat. We live in fear of the public taking the tabloid stories seriously. World opinion could go to hell if they figure out it’s true.”
“Eh. People.” Chernov eased back and gently disconnected the saline solution that had dripped into Anya’s other arm. “They are fickle. Breeds will always live in fear of this.”
He sighed heavily. “She must rest. We need heat packs around her. Her fever is high, but that is natural. The chill is what worries me.”
“She needs me.” Del-Rey’s voice was rough, primitive. “Let me lie with her. She needs to be warmed. I warm her.”
Chernov shrugged. “As long as she is allowed to rest for the next week, the wound should be fine. Nothing strenuous.” He eyed Del-Rey warningly. “She must be treated as though she would break with a breath, Ghost.”
“Del-Rey,” he growled.
Chernov grunted. “As though I did not know about those transmissions this child sent you. Six years you waited, though I told Sofia countless times she must tell you the truth of who she was. Chaff from the harvest.” The doctor scowled back at him. “As though we were not doing this. You did not research as you should have.”
There were a lot things he hadn’t done as he should have, Del-Rey admitted to himself.
“She needs a bed,” Chernov said. “She needs comfort and care now. Is there a room available here? I do not want her transported for two days at least. Where she goes, we must go as well. With the child she carries, her condition is too delicate. We must watch her closely.”
Dr. Sobolova touched Anya’s hair gently. “I believe my girls Sharone, Emma and Ashley are awaiting us now,” she said. “I have missed them. I would make certain they are well and not suffering from their injuries.”
“Petrov Kobrin is demanding to see his daughter, Dr. Armani,” Wolfe announced through the intercom. “When she’s stable enough, could you please meet with him? I have four crazy Russians consuming vodka in the community center, and Breeds joining in. We’re going to have a mess soon if we don’t do something.”
Nikki nodded. “We have a private room just down the hall. We’ll transfer her there and see if her mate can warm her.” She glanced at Del-Rey with a cool little smile. “I have a gown she can wear.”
Del-Rey didn’t rise to the bait. He nodded, rose and was at the head of the bed as they wheeled it to the room.
Nikki jerked the blankets back on the double bed as they maneuvered it into the room.
“Very gently, Ghost,” Chernov advised worriedly as they lifted the blanket Anya rested on. “We’ll monitor her for infection, though I do not expect such a thing to develop.”
They eased her onto the bed, then pushed the gurney from the room as Nikki helped Del-Rey ease his mate into the soft cotton gown she had pulled from a dresser.
“She’ll sleep for a while.” Nikki patted his shoulder as she moved for the door. “If you need me, there’s a link on the bedside. Rest yourself, Del-Rey.”
Rest.
He undressed and eased into the bed on her uninjured side, wrapping himself around her as he pulled the blankets over them.
He flinched at the feel of her cold flesh and rubbed her shoulder, her arm, gently.
She was breathing slow and easy, but her lips were still blue. She was cold, so cold. He eased her legs between his, his arm beneath her head, and all but surrounded her. If he didn’t get her warm, he wouldn’t be able to keep the knot clogging his throat from choking the hell out of him.
“Come back to me, baby,” he whispered at her ear. “Warm me, Anya. I’m cold, love. So cold.”
As cold inside as her flesh was on the outside. He kissed her forehead again, then laid his head at her shoulder before gently kissing the little wound he had left there.
“I love you,” he whispered. “My sweet Anya. How I love you.”
CHAPTER 26
She was warm. Toasty warm from head to toe. She could feel the warmth wrapped around her, like a brush of flesh, like Del-Rey.
It felt like Del-Rey. It didn’t feel like death. She didn’t feel feverish. She didn’t feel cold and in pain. She didn’t feel weak and lethargic.
Actually, she was damned hungry.
She opened her eyes as a rumbled growl of hunger caused a flush to heat her cheeks. How long had it been since she had eaten?
A warm, broad palm whispered over her stomach. She felt a bandage on her side and the tight sensation of flesh adhesive.
Memory rushed over her then. The meeting, the attack. Ashley and the girls.
Her eyes opened to meet the gentle, black gaze staring down at her.
“About time.”
She stared into his face. There was a rough, rakish growth of beard on his lower face. His lashes were heavy as though he had just awoken himself. Broad shoulders were naked, looming over her side as his fingers lifted to her cheek, his thumb whispered over her lips.
“Don’t move too fast,” he said softly. “The shot missed vital organs but you bled a lot. The doctors want to be careful that you don’t experience more shock.” His expression twisted. “The baby’s safe.”
She blinked back in shock. “Baby?”
“Those doctors you risked your life for—” he cleared his throat—“they knew so much that we didn’t, Anya. So much.” He shook his head. “I’ll let Nikki explain it all later. But you need to be careful at least until our child is born.”
His lips crooked into a grin. “I told you, they knew so much we didn’t. You were right, Coya, we needed them. You were right about so many things and I refused to listen.” He shook his he