Page 35 of Truthfinder’s Promise

He cleared his throat. “Yeah. Right.” Magic sprang between them without warning, like the way a spark could send a room up in flames in a matter of seconds. Magic encircled their wrists and hands, twining over the back of her palm and then down between them to curve back over Jensen’s, like an invisible ribbon binding them together.

Jensen locked her gaze. “I, Jensen Michael King, give my oath that I will treat your life as my own. That I will treat your people as my own. To the best of my abilities, I will do all I can to prevent bloodshed between our two societies.”

The way he spoke the words, the phrasing and the intensity, made her think uncomfortably of wedding vows. But then, in the modern world, people didn’t usually make vows outside of the marriage kind, so she shouldn’t find the similarity that disturbing.

The magic curling between them grew hotter, more intense with every second she remained silent. It demanded she open her mouth and return the vow. “I, Meredith Dawn Townsend, give my oath that I will not speak of Shifters to anyone not already aware of their existence, and I will treat your people as my own.”

The magic snapped taut, like a ribbon being tied tight, binding them together.

“So witnessed,” Jensen said. He looked at her and she repeated the words.

The magic sank into her skin and vanished. She pulled her hand from Jensen’s grip. A tattoo marked the underside of her wrist. An infinity loop stretched from one side to the other, drawn in silver and edged in a smoky black. In the right circle rested the Aspect symbols for her affinities. A lit torch, to symbolize how the light of truth reached into even the darkest of places, and an old stylized compass, meant to show that a Tracker always found her way. The left circle held an ornate stylized number one with a J layered over it, both of them stamped on top of a wolf’s paw print.

She dragged her eyes from her tattoo to Jensen’s. His was an inversion of hers, the infinity symbol black edged in silver.

“You failed to mention this vow came with permanent ink.”

“To be fair, you didn’t ask.” He gave her an apologetic grin, dimples popping into existence. That smile was a weapon, meant to disarm. She had no doubt he knew it and exploited the effect ruthlessly. “Think of it like a protection mark. See a Shifter, wave tattoo. You look good with ink.”

She stabbed a finger at the overlapping one and J in the lower loop of her tattoo. “This is you, I take it?”

He nodded.

“What’s the one for?”

“It’s my lineage symbol. There were six founding Shifter families that came to this part of the world. The Kings were the largest so we’re considered the first. The J is obviously me.”

That was when something absolutely horrible occurred to her. She had a J tattooed on her wrist. Next to a freaking number one. Inside a damn infinity loop. Julian would inevitably think it was about him. Siren and Valkyrie, weird as they were being lately, would undoubtedly think it was about Jace. It did have a sort of romantic look to it, what with the J in one half of the infinity loop and her Aspect affinities in the other.

What were the odds she could convince everyone it was some sort of memorial tattoo for her father? Why did she know so many men whose names started with J?

Ugh. “This is worse than getting married.”

Jensen made a choked sound that he quickly turned into a hacking cough.

“Tell me it’s not worse,” Meredith demanded. “Your initial is on me like a freaking ownership brand.”

He finally managed to stop coughing and replied, “If I own you, you own me in return.” He waggled his own tattooed wrist at her. “I just had no idea your views on marriage were so strong.”

She shrugged. “Marriage is great for people who want to do it. I just don’t see the point of trying to chain someone to me with a legal agreement that makes it difficult for them to leave me. Someone signing their name on a piece of paper doesn’t prove they love me, and I’d rather know someone’s with me because they want to be, not because they feel like they have to be.”

He stared at her. The expression on his face fell irrefutably under the definition of “dumbfounded.” A creeping sense of horror overcame her. “Oh, goddess, don’t tell me you’re one of those men who thinks there’s something wrong with a woman if she doesn’t want to get married and have two-point five children.”

“No,” he said quickly. “I’m just usually the one being told something’s wrong with him. Most Shifters are convinced they have a biological imperative to form happy little family units and produce at least one, but not more than four, little baby Shifters.”

Relief hit her as his words rang true, before she reminded herself that it didn’t matter if his relationship views lined up with hers. They weren’t in a relationship. They were not going to be in a relationship. But she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Why not more than four?”

He grimaced. “No one’s masochistic enough to want to run herd on more than that many small humans capable of sprouting fur and claws.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if all Shifters turned into predatory species and what determined it, when her gaze fell on the stove clock. “Shit. I need to leave.”

He stood as she grabbed her keys and purse. “I think you mean we need to leave.”

He had to be joking, right? “You said Julian was the one who took you.”

“And?”

“So won’t he recognize you in human and wolf form?”