Page 44 of Truthfinder’s Promise

“You’re married,” she whispered again, and there was no mistaking the hurt—or the betrayal—in her voice.

Something twin to those feelings stabbed through Meredith as it occurred to her that maybe her throwaway thought that Jensen—when she’d still thought he’d just been Jensen-the-traveling-contractor—was married, hadn’t been so far off the mark.

“Yes,” he repeated. His voice was soft, gentle even, as he pulled his arm out of her grip. “That’s what I was trying to tell everyone before Hel and Dom decided to hold me down ‘for my own good’.” He actually did literal air quotes over the last part.

“Great,” Valkyrie said. “Now that your husband—” she threw Meredith an accusatory look “—is free to talk, someone explain what is going on before I kill someone.”

The naked woman—and Meredith really wished she was a little less naked, a little less beautiful, and lot less close to Jensen—tossed her hair and shot back, “You could try.”

Valkyrie’s eyes narrowed. “Pretty ballsy for a cat who would have taken a dagger to the heart if I hadn’t stopped.”

“We can go for round two any time.”

“I think if we could all just calm down,” Jace and Random started in tandem, at which point both women snarled at them and they wisely did not finish the sentence.

Valkyrie turned back to the jaguar woman. “What are you?”

“Are you really married?” Siren asked Meredith.

“Does everyone agree that this woman was just a jaguar five minutes ago?” Random asked, while Jace narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and said, “Holy hell, I think Dennigan’s theory on the transmogrification of the human body wasn’t batshit insane.”

Siren gave him one of those, your-brilliant-mind-totally-turns-me-on looks.

“Maybe we could start with everyone agreeing to not kill each other for the next ten minutes so Jace can remove the ocean from my living room?” Meredith suggested. Everyone just stared at her. She rolled her eyes and stood, wildly happy when her legs held. She grabbed a robe lying on the back of the couch and tossed it at Jaguar Woman, who looked at it like the green silk personally offended her. Mercifully, she put it on anyway. Great. Now Jensen’s ex-whatever was only half-naked in her living room.

Meredith peered over the top of the water wall at a lynx and what she thought might be a jackal. “Can you two be chill if we dispense with the waterworks?”

They shared a look. Then fur melted, bones shifted, and a man and a woman stood naked in their place. Meredith was all out of conveniently available robes. The woman shrugged and said, “Anything for Jensen’s wife?”

Jaguar Woman snarled at the W word. Meredith wanted to snarl at it too, but she was neither a jaguar nor stupid. Well, maybe she was a little stupid, since she was apparently married and didn’t even know it, but she wasn’t stupid enough to claim she wasn’t married in a room with four Shifters, three of whom were likely to try and kill her again if they thought she wasn’t married into the—what had Jensen called it?—enclave.

One thing at a time. “Jace?” she prompted.

“Someone want to open a window?” he asked. Random obliged him. Jace stepped back until he stood protectively next to Siren’s side before he sent the water in a stream out the window. He put a hand on the small of her back, a frown worrying his lips. Siren didn’t look so great. But she also didn’t look like she was about to die, so Meredith figured diffusing Shifter/Aspect tensions should be the priority of her focus.

Unfortunately, the entirety of her focus was on one specific person. So instead of coming up with something diplomatic to say, something that would ease tensions and smooth ruffled feathers, she jabbed a finger in Jensen’s direction and said, “You. I need to talk to you. In private.”

“You aren’t taking him anywhere alone,” Jaguar Woman said.

Jensen sighed. “It’s fine, Serenity.”

“Fine?” Serenity whirled on him, and all the fury and hurt washed back into her face. “Nothing is fine. You’ve been missing for seven months. You left without saying a word to anyone, just left some cryptic message that you were going to look for Natalie.

“I thought you were dead or worse, and then a Shifter passing through this area picks up your scent. I came down here expecting to find you in some Aspect dungeon and instead you’ve married one of them? Mister marriage-is-an-outdated-form-of-imprisonment married an Aspecter he’s known for less than a year?”

“Less than two months, technically,” Meredith offered.

“Excuse me?” Serenity’s voice hit a pitch that definitely qualified as a shriek.

“I’ve known him approximately five weeks. He has been in a dungeon—well, basement—for the last six months. I rescued him. I believe thank you is the general response.”

Serenity gaped at her. Meredith didn’t care. She’d hit her limit of bizarre after dealing with Julian, having incredibly hot car sex, nearly bleeding to death by jaguar Shifter bite, and then finding out she was married by Shifter standards. Her system was overloaded and she was now saying whatever she wanted with zero tact involved.

“Is this some weird sort of Stockholm Syndrome?” Serenity asked Jensen. “Have you been brainwashed?”

“You married a guy you’ve known for five weeks?” Valkyrie asked Meredith. “Have you been brainwashed?”

“Wait, Jensen is Monster?” Siren broke in. “The dog in Elijah’s basement was a—a werewolf?”

Serenity snorted at the term “werewolf.” Meredith looked at Jensen. The urge to drag him off somewhere so he could explain, in excruciating detail, exactly how they were hitched and how to reverse it, was overpowering. He had the look of a man who understood full well that he was in deep shit, and for some reason that infuriated her further.

Forget diplomacy, she needed answers. She moved toward Jensen. Serenity blocked her.

“I don’t know what you’ve done to him, but if you think for one second you’re going to—”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re exceptionally tiresome?” Meredith asked. She said it in the bored, indifferent tone of voice that had an unparalleled ability to make people lose all rationality. Serenity’s jaw clenched. The two other Shifters slid in closer at her back, and Meredith’s people crowded nearer to hers.

Jensen stepped around from behind Serenity, likely trying to find some way to insert himself between them, but neither woman was having it.

“Release him from your vows and maybe I won’t rip your throat out.”

Oh good, the vows were reversible. “You know what they say,” Meredith answered breezily, “if you have to kill the competition to hold on to a man—”

Serenity lunged at her—and crumpled immediately, though no one had touched her. Her knees hit the ground, as did Jensen’s and the other two Shifters’.