“Are you okay?” He tried to keep his voice low, keep the growl out of it. There was no way to hold back the satisfaction that filled him though.
For the first time in eight months he wasn’t tortured with the need. He was semi-aroused, but that desperate throb of agony was no longer present.
“Hmm,” she mumbled against his chest.
He almost grinned at the grumpy, slumberous little sound.
“That’s not an answer, Mate,” he told her, keeping his voice low as amusement threaded through it. “Should I warn Wolfe that we need to call another tribunal?” A second later a sharp pinch to his waist had him chuckling.
“Go to sleep,” she ordered, but her voice was sex soft and filled with sleepy satisfaction. “While you’ve been lazing the last two days away, I’ve been working. I’m tired.”
He grinned again, remembering the security recordings Brim had shown him before he literally passed out.
“While the alpha’s sleeping the coya’s playing?” he asked her.
“Being your coya is damned hard work.” She stretched as she spoke, a sinuous, almost feline movement of grace that had him pushing back the thought that perhaps he could f**k her again. Maybe this time slower, easier.
Tucking the sheet over her br**sts she sat up and stared down at him, her hair touseled around her face, her gaze drowsy and filled with satiation.
“Coyotes aren’t like Wolves,” she told him as she bent her knees and rested her chin on them.
“Yeah, their work ethic sucks sometimes,” he admitted. “We’re turning hardened killers into techs and security personnel. Just because they have the knowledge to do it doesn’t mean they have the temperament for it.”
He’d acknowledged that even before they had approached the Wolves for an alliance. His plans were vast in comparison to the roadblocks he faced.
Then his mate shook her head. “That’s not their problem at all.” She stared at him, wide-eyed. “Their work ethic is every bit as dedicated as the Wolves or the Felines. They just like to pretend otherwise. They’re working to create something and that means a lot to them. But they’re more solitary. Working within a team is their problem.”
Del-Rey propped his head on his hand as he lay on his side watching her.
“We weren’t trained to work together,” he told her. “We have more Coyotes coming in soon, pack leaders who have no problems stepping back in command, though their packs number less than the ten to twelve ours do. Mostly two-man teams. Stragglers who are deserting the Council as quickly as they can. We’ll have another dozen or more soon to add to the dozen coming in from the Middle East via the Bureau. Integrating them will be harder.”
He watched as she frowned at the information.
“Are you returning to mission status now?” she asked him.
Del-Rey watched her carefully. “I’m not going back, Anya. I’m needed here.”
“You say that as though someone disagrees.”
He sighed at that. “The order of separation disagrees,” he told her. “Until you inform the tribunal that you are accepting the mating and your status of coya, then I’m bound by my word, Anya.” He reached up and played with the ends of her fiery hair. “Are you accepting your place now, or merely feeling your way?”
“You’d allow that?” She tipped her head to the side. “Time for me to feel my way?”
Him and his big mouth.
Del-Rey stared back at her and sighed heavily. “I’d give you whatever time you needed.” He shrugged. “Would I have a choice? I don’t want to force you into my bed or into your place here. I want nothing from you that isn’t freely given.”
She nodded slowly. “We have things to resolve,” she said then. “With both of us. I notified those on the tribunal that the separation order is null and void, no matter your decision in the mating.”
Satisfaction surged inside him.
“I think you know my decision on it,” he told her somberly. “You’re my mate, my coya. I haven’t changed my mind about that. Nothing can change that for me.”
She nodded again, though clearly there was more on her mind and Del-Rey hesitated to push her. Here, he felt on very unfamiliar ground. He would have once said he knew this woman and each move she would make. She had shown him differently from the moment he had taken her from Russia.
She was stronger than he had ever imagined and definitely more stubborn. More her own woman than she would ever be any man’s lover or mate perhaps.
“We need to return to Haven,” he finally said into the silence. “You at least need to take the hormonal supplements that will allow you a measure of freedom from the more extreme symptoms of the heat. I don’t want you suffering.”