“Del-Rey,” she murmured, her fingers tightening on his arm. “What do you think you’ll gain by wining and dining me at this very social event?” She looked around the room before her gaze returned to his. “Do you think this is going to keep me in your bed?”
He let his lips curl suggestively. “Actually, I was more concerned about keeping the bars safe tonight. I hear the last time you visited one, the accounts in the Coyote coffers dipped drastically to pay for the damages caused.”
She blinked back at him, and he had to applaud how well she kept her expression clear and composed.
“A total misunderstanding.” She sighed dramatically as she waved her free hand. “I didn’t start that fight. I was just there.”
He laid his forehead against hers, moving closer. “You broke a whiskey bottle over that cowboy’s head. He was in the hospital for several days. I believe Sharone made another sing a high note when she stomped his testicles, and Ashley pulled a swath of hair from another woman’s head. Coya, I’ve been regaled by tales of the exploits the four of you have managed in the past eight months. Just because Sharone didn’t report it didn’t mean I didn’t hear about it. I’m amazed you weren’t locked up for your own safety, let alone the safety of the public in general.”
She rolled her eyes at him. Eyes that were brilliant, highlighted by cosmetics, tempting and mysterious.
“Everyone survived intact.” She shrugged.
“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 the 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.