"I'll be returning to my cabin now." Ria turned, collecting her purse and the large thermal cup she used to bring coffee in with her. "You'll be hearing from my boss by morning I assume."
She left the room, hips swaying, all delicate strength and confidence, and Mercury didn't hesitate to follow her. Fuck it. He'd put his life on the line for Sanctuary for a decade or longer. He'd followed orders, he'd played the good little Feline, and even his pride leader found no trust in him.
"Mercury."
He paused as Callan growled his name.
Turning slowly, he stared back at the other man, years of what he had believed were trust and friendship hanging between them, pulling at him.
"Your safety is no less important than Sanctuary's."
Mercury shook his head, his lips twisting mockingly. He countered his pride leader. "Yeah, can't have the bogeyman ripping hearts out in full view, can we? Only when ordered."
Just as it had been in the labs. Only when ordered. He shrugged. "My mission is protecting the woman. As far as I know, I'm still operational." He looked to Jonas. They all looked to Jonas.
And Jonas grinned. "As far as I'm concerned, you are. And the woman's getting ahead of you, Enforcer." He nodded to the door she was disappearing through.
"Good day, Pride Leader Lyons." Mercury nodded back to him respectfully. Callan was a man he did respect, even if Callan didn't trust him. "If you need me, I'm sure Director Wyatt will let me know."
With that, Mercury turned and followed the path Ria had taken. She hadn't left. She was waiting by the passenger side of the SUV, door open, watching the house expectantly. When he followed her out, she got inside the car and was waiting when he slid into the driver's seat.
Ahead, Lawe's four-by-four pickup led the way.
"There's a power play in Sanctuary," she stated as he put the vehicle in gear and drove toward the gates.
He glanced at her in surprise. "Callan doesn't allow those."
The gates swung open, protestors pouring around the truck ahead of them, then around theirs. Signs proclaiming "Breeds Are Atrocities in God's Eyes" and "Breeds Die" were waved frantically as enraged faces filled the windows.
"Animal," one woman screamed as she pounded at the driver's window. "Bastard Breeds."
Mercury drove steadily through the crowd until it disappeared behind them, the chanting ringing in his head long after the sound died down.
And with the chanting was Ria's statement. A power play. Callan didn't allow power plays, but he wasn't at peak strength either. The gunshot wound that had nearly killed him two months before had weakened him and he was still recovering. Was someone moving to threaten Sanctuary while the pride leader was down?
Mercury shook his head. He couldn't imagine it. Kane and Jonas watched Callan's back, as did Callan's brothers, Taber and Tanner. He had a capable, able force around him. A power play wasn't possible. But other things were.
And Mercury was just an enforcer stripped of his rank and his uniform. And the friends he had once believed he had.
* * *
Callan slammed the door to his office viciously behind him as Jonas, his bodyguard Jackal, Kane, Ely, the little dweeb Austin and the enforcer who had been holding a weapon on Mercury stepped into the room.
He motioned Ely, Austin and the enforcer to the back of the room, out of earshot, as he waved the others to his desk and glared at Jonas furiously.
"Why the hell was Mercury not in uniform?" he snarled to Jonas. He had never seen Mercury out of his enforcer uniform while on duty. With Mercury, it wasn't heard of. And at this point, it appeared to be a deliberate slap against the authority Callan held within the community.
Jonas stared back at him in surprise, before glancing to the other side of the room. Ely had her arms wrapped across her chest as she paced; the tech and the enforcer were standing nervously next to the wall.
Jonas turned and stared back at Callan intently. "Because you ordered his rank revoked. His uniform and his weapon were taken, Callan."
Callan stared back at Jonas, stilling, every instinct inside him roaring out in challenge now. Because he had given no such order.
"What the hell is going on around here?" He kept his voice calm, level, low enough to go no further than the men surrounding him, but he couldn't stop the furious growl that rumbled through it. "I have revoked no one's rank. Least of all Merc's. But I may well be getting ready to."
He glowered back at the others in the room.
Ely flinched, the enforcer paled, and if Austin Crowl could have shrunk farther back against the wall, then he did.