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 pu**y 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 f**king 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.