He couldn't fix coffee worth shit, but he was a mean cook. He was tired of starving to death in this dark little cabin where she existed after work. And he grew tired of pizza fast.
Ria wasn't his mate, but his mate was dead. She was taken from him before he had even had a chance to realize what being mated meant. It didn't mean he was dead. It sure as hell didn't mean there were no emotions lurking beneath his odd appearance.
He had emotions, and those emotions were tightening, building within him and centering on one contrary little woman. A woman with an intelligence that often amazed him as she stood back and watched people. She watched and she listened. And what she saw, he sensed, was often much more than others did.
Such as her determination that there was a power play being orchestrated in Sanctuary. The more Mercury thought about it, the more it concerned him, and the more he realized how incredibly difficult it would be for him to investigate it.
He wasn't an enforcer any longer. He couldn't just walk into the secured areas of Sanctuary and begin investigating the oddities he was beginning to put together for himself.
Something wasn't as it should be. He could feel it, he could sense it, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
He moved to the front door and stepped outside, ignoring the Jaguar female that hissed at him as he stepped out the door.
"It's damned cold out here," Shiloh grumbled. "And listening to you have fun in there is not fun out here. Do you realize I had to spend the better part of the damned hour in the woods, to escape the sound of her caterwauling?"
He turned and arched his brow. Most Jaguars possessed darker skin tones and black, silky hair. This Jaguar Breed was an anomaly. The rich auburn highlights in her black hair and her creamy complexion gave her a unique look that never failed to draw stares.
She was a bit shorter than most Breed females, barely five-five, and for some odd reason the scientists that created her had allowed her to have a temper.
"Shi, you're going to piss me off," he warned her, hiding his smile, knowing she wouldn't, unless she really wanted to.
"Do you hear my knees shaking?" she growled as she pulled her jacket tighter around her.
He grunted at that. "The grocery from town will be delivering supplies soon. I need to talk to Rule and Lawe. Make certain when the owner arrives that he doesn't enter the house. Take the bill and I'll collect it when I come back."
"You're going to cook!" She accused him with a hint of disbelief. "While I'm stuck outside? Mercury, that's not fair."
"Take it up with Jonas." He shrugged as he left the small porch and headed toward the tree line. "Maybe he'll send you back to Sanctuary."
Mercury doubted it. Once he had a chance to talk to Jonas and lay out his suspicions, he knew the director would begin shifting his own people, keeping those in place that he trusted and shifting back those he didn't.
Most would have suspected Jonas of heading a revolt against Callan and the Ruling Cabinet, but Mercury couldn't see it happening. Jonas was a sneaky, manipulative son of a bitch, but Sanctuary and the Breed community were his primary concerns. And Mercury had spent enough time as the man's personal bodyguard to know Jonas didn't have revolt in mind. Driving everyone insane with his games, yeah, Mercury could see that one coming where Jonas was concerned. But a strike against the security of the community? That wasn't going to come from Jonas.
Jonas had no desire to rule. He liked playing puppet master, and he loved poking his nose in where it wasn't involved, but he didn't have the temperament to play the games it took to weave such a play for power.
Jonas would challenge outright. He would never allow a breakdown in authority. And that was what was happening. Someone had waited, watched, and while Callan was occupied with staying alive and then healing from his wounds, they were moving in to disable the power structure the Ruling Cabinet had in place.
He could sense it. He could feel it, but with his rank stripped now, he had no idea how to identify who or what.
As he entered the thick forest growth, Lawe and Rule fell in place beside him. They turned to face the cabin, all three silent for long moments.
"She's not my mate." He answered the question he had seen in their eyes.
Lawe grunted at that.
"Whatever," Rule snorted. "I don't know about this mating bullshit, Mercury. Seems to me there aren't any rules to it. You act mated."
And there had been a few odd moments that he had felt a bond, an unbreakable something that he couldn't put his finger on.
"Jonas contacted me ten minutes ago," Lawe murmured. "He's pulling Shiloh back to Sanctuary before he arrives here. It seems there's a problem at home base."
"What kind of problem?" Mercury swung his gaze to his friend, watching as Lawe leaned against a tree, his expression implacable, his eyes burning with a hard, savage light.
"He's going to explain things when he gets here, but notice had gone out that Callan has reinstated your rank. He'll be bringing your uniform and weapon when he arrives."
Mercury shook his head. He didn't want the rank, he realized. Jonas would have found a way to force Callan to reinstate it. It meant nothing to him that way.
"There's something going on," he said quietly. "There are too many anomalies."