“Teams three and six waiting,” Cavalier reported into the communications link as Del-Rey raced through the community room.
The cavern was empty now; all soldiers were moving to assigned duties and preparing to move out.
He rounded the curve to the entrance to the exit tunnel as the twelve men there turned to him expectantly.
“Team three, get your asses out there, I’ll catch up ahead of six. Finding your coya is priority. Team six will provide backup and another team is heading out to locate the missing team.”
He jerked the mission jacket out of Cavalier’s hands and shrugged it on quickly, checking the pockets for extra ammo, knife and backup weapons. As the first team moved out, he was strapping a handgun to his thigh before grabbing the PDW submachine gun from Cavalier and clipping it to the jacket. The lightweight personal defense weapon was loaded, safety off and ready to fire.
“Move out,” he ordered as he pressed the secured line on the link and waited for Brim to target his identifying signal. A minute beep signaled that Brim had him, and he moved out.
He caught the faint hint of her scent as soon as he moved into the scrub and pine rising around the base entrance. The eastern edge of the mountain cliffs they called home was less steep, covered in pine, oak and a variety of foliage. The western edge overlooking Haven was pretty much sheer cliffs.
He caught up with team three within seconds, motioned them into a new direction and headed east. The same direction where his mate’s scent lingered.
It was subtle and light, and would be harder for the others to detect as it blended so well with his own scent. Mating made the female scent harder to track unless she was aroused or ovulating. Her body adapted, her scent changing to match the mating hormones and the male’s scent rather than her own.
Camouflage maybe. A natural protection of some sort. Nature was weird as hell where the Breeds were concerned, so who the hell knew. All he knew right now was he was the only person that could track his mate effectively and danger was stalking her.
“We’re in trouble,” Sharone whispered as they lay flat on the ground, knives gripped in their hands, watching as the five figures moved below them, their voices carrying up to them easily.
“The bitch is here,” one of the men hissed. “She goes out damned near every night to this area. We’ve been tracking her for weeks.”
Bitch. Okay, well, there were only four so-called bitches on base, so it had to be one of them. Anya was betting it was her.
“She doesn’t have her link enabled,” another voice retorted. “I have her channel and the secured line. Nothing’s showing on her or her bodyguards.”
Okay. That meant her. Well golly gee, didn’t she feel so special this week. First her mate returns unannounced and now these yahoos were playing hell with her only downtime.
“We’ve got to strike before that filthy Coyote Delgado returns,” the other voice ordered the others. “Once he’s back, security steps up.”
And just how did they figure that? No, Del-Rey was just less subtle about security. Over the past months, Anya had been hypertense and looking for a fight. She’d let a few areas appear lax, though she had known they weren’t. She’d learned a few lessons from Del-Rey over the years. She tested the strength of Security and Command often. Too bad she wasn’t in Command right now tracking these bastards. Instead, she was stuck out here, almost the hunted rather than the hunter she was training to be. And she couldn’t risk activating her link or the others’ now, not if these men had a way to lock on to their signals.
She stared down at the five men then turned and motioned to Sharone that they needed to back off and get back to Base. At the moment, they were ahead of the men and upwind of any Breed help they might have. Sometimes rogue Coyote Breeds helped the fanatics that still thought they could eradicate the Breeds and steal their freedom.
As long as they stayed upwind and moved quietly, they had a chance. The only weapons they had on them tonight were the knives Sharone and the others used to train Anya. They were sharp, lethal, but they weren’t much protection against a gun.
Moving back silently, though not nearly as silently as her bodyguards, she waited until the voices became more distant before giving the order to move out.
Crouched, they moved as quickly as possibly, which was slower than she knew Sharone and the others could have moved, as they started back up the mountain to the faint animal trail they used to access the area. It was still steep here, though not as steep as the western edge of the mountain. But this particular area was close. Part of the way back was particularly steep. They would be at their most vulnerable then.
“Move,” she hissed. “We need to make speed, Sharone.”
“If they have a rogue Breed with them, then speed is going to get us caught,” Sharone retorted. “Because you’re not quiet enough.”
That was Sharone, blunt and to the point. She didn’t cut slack for anyone.
“Did you smell Breed?” Anya asked as they surrounded her, leading her through the underbrush at the quietest possible speed.
“Doesn’t mean anything,” Emma whispered. “They’ve learned how to disguise their scent. We were taught that in the labs, remember?”
Oh yeah. She remembered that now. They’d found a way to disguise Coyote Breeds’ marker scent. It wasn’t easy, and it was irritating to the Breeds’ senses, but they could do it.
“We need to contact Del-Rey,” Sharone said, voice low. “Ashley, get ahead of us. Run hell for leather and find help. I have a feeling shit’s going to get ugly if those bastards catch us on that trail. We’ll be sitting targets.”
Ashley moved ahead and disappeared. Silently. Damn, Anya wished she could do that. She’d trained for years, even before Del-Rey had kidnapped her, to be quiet like the Coyotes, to race through the night without making a sound, and no matter how hard she tried, she still hadn’t achieved it.
At least Ashley was out of danger. She was the most innocent of all of them, Anya sometimes thought. Their girly little Coyote Breed with her fake nails, polish and hair dye. Her makeup, girly clothes and sexy lingerie. She was what they all wished they could be, Anya also sometimes thought.