Page 26 of Truthfinder’s Promise

10

Sunlight hit the backs of Meredith’s closed eyes, dragging her into the land of the living. She never bothered to close the window curtains because she never managed to sleep past the dawn. Except this morning, she apparently had. She felt amazing. Rested. Not even the smell of dog fur in her face could ruin how glorious her body considered a full night’s sleep.

Wait a second. Dog fur?

She cracked an eye open and realized, to her great mortification, that sometime in the middle of the night she had rolled over onto Monster’s side of the bed. She was not, thank the goddess, cuddling him, but she was smooshed up next to him and her face was buried in his neck ruff.

She extricated herself with extreme care, so as not to wake him. Really, a lifetime of sleeping alone should have made her more likely to want to maintain her space in a bed, but the few nights she’d slept over in Jensen’s hotel room had proved she was apparently a sleep snuggler. Every morning she’d woken up wound around him like a boa constrictor and worried it was going to annoy him. He’d never seemed to mind, though, and it was just another thing she’d liked about him.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she muttered to herself, “stop thinking about him.”

Monster, who had woken up despite her best efforts at stealth, gave her the canine version of an inquiring stare.

“Not you.” He still looked curious. What the hell was he interested in her life for anyway? She sighed. “Just asshole men who disappear and then never bother to answer your texts.” Weren’t men supposed to outgrow that leave-and-dodge-responsibility behavior once they hit thirty? A simple, Hey, it was fun but it’s over, could have done wonders for her peace of mind.

And she was still thinking about him. Clearly, she needed to occupy her mind. “You hungry?” Monster yipped. “Right. You’re always hungry.”

Jensen had been like that. The man had a metabolism that could rival a teenager’s, and what the hell was wrong with her? She’d been doing an excellent job not thinking about him until Siren and her damn matchmaker plans dredged up his memory. At least, that was as good of an excuse as any for why the guy was suddenly taking up all her brain space.

She placed a grocery order on her phone, which was later delivered by the same young woman who’d brought their takeout the night before. Apparently she did the restaurant orders at night and grocery orders during the day. The lack of sleep had made her go from bleary-eyed to red-eyed, and she looked as confused as ever about the amount of food she was delivering to a household that still only contained one woman and one dog-like creature.

Meredith tipped her a ridiculous amount in the hopes she could afford to take a day off from work and get some sleep. Then she put her limited culinary skills to use—they were at least better than Val’s—and cooked a breakfast suitable for a family of five. She gave four-fifths of it to Monster and picked at hers while she stared at her phone’s contact list.

She would rather eat glass than call Julian Astor. Especially after he’d shown up at her house and told her she would do just that. Monster looked up from the food he’d mostly eaten through, as if sensing her dilemma.

“What do you think? Ignore the problem and hope it goes away, or call my creepy stalker and find out why this is happening?”

He whined.

“You’re right. Ignoring problems never makes them go away.” She made the call.

Julian’s cultured voice drifted across the line. “Meredith, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You left one hell of a calling card last night.”

Julian chuckled. “I’m quite certain I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Of course. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something. I’m ready to listen.”

“Shall I come over?”

Hell no, you shall not come over. “No. I’ll meet you at The Poisoned Leaf in an hour.”

“I would prefer a more private setting.”

I’d just bet you would. “You aren’t the kind of person best met in private. I’ll see you in one hour.”

She hung up, then stared at the phone for a moment before she rose and grabbed her keys, heading for the door that led to the garage. It would only take her fifteen minutes to get there, but she preferred to arrive early.

Monster jumped in between her and the door.

“I’m not having a good day,” she told him, “and I need to leave.”

He shook his head, a low growl emanating from his throat. “Look, I will be back in plenty of time to make sure you don’t starve to death if that is the problem. Or if you want to leave now I can let you outside the house and the perimeter wards. But I need to go.”

This time, he didn’t answer her. He just gave her a stare she would swear was a little sad and a lot resigned. The magic that had surrounded him since she’d found him in Blackthorn Manor’s basement, that had so successfully hidden him even to the sight of her Truth Aspect, shimmered, flickered, and dissipated.

Gone was the innocent-looking mutt. In its place stood a massive wolf, pure white, and so tall its shoulders were at Meredith’s navel. She barely had a shocked second to think, Well, at least he doesn’t have tentacles, before the wolf trembled and began to change.