Page 45 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Siren appeared calm and serene as she held the Shifters immobile, if you didn’t know where to look to see that she wasn’t. Meredith did. Their fearless leader was on the verge of passing out.

The Shifters, caught under Siren’s influence, squirmed. Fur broke out in patches, then melted back into skin.

“Meredith.” Jensen’s voice conveyed everything. She could only imagine how he felt, being held immobile now after what he’d been through.

“Can we all agree to a ceasefire for half a goddamn hour?” Meredith asked. “No one attacks anyone, Siren lets everyone go, and we figure this out like reasonable adults?”

“Agreed,” Jensen said. No one else spoke.

“I need verbal agreements from everyone,” Meredith said, sounding too much to her own ears like a kindergarten teacher.

“If everyone agrees, then yes, I’ll let go.” The strain in Siren’s voice was audible.

The Aspect side agreed, followed by the two Shifters behind Jensen. Serenity remained mutely silent.

“Ren.” Jensen didn’t say please. He didn’t have to. It was in his voice.

Meredith told herself she absolutely did not care that Jensen had a cute nickname for his stunning...ex-girlfriend?

“Fine,” Serenity snarled out. “Yes, I agree. Thirty minutes.”

Siren’s power vanished. It wasn’t the smooth reeling back in of her Aspect that usually occurred. It was as if her power had simply given out the second she stopped exerting her control over it. Jace studied her with a mix of concern and misery that told Meredith his wife’s condition hadn’t gone unnoticed by him, but she wasn’t talking to him any more than she was to anyone else.

“Well?” Serenity demanded.

Meredith realized everyone was staring to her. Typically, Siren and Jace were the calm leader types everyone looked to for guidance. But since Siren looked like she’d throw up if she opened her mouth, and the whole of Jace’s attention was on his wife, Meredith supposed that left her.

Deciding it was harder to be angry with people over comforting beverages, she turned to Random. “If you would please make coffee, I think we could all use it.” What had Jensen called the two naked people? “Dom, Hel, if you go into the hall and take the stairway to the left down, you should find some clothes in that room that might fit you. If we could all then sit down, Jensen and I will explain everything. I don’t think any rational human being will want to kill anyone else by the time we’re done.”

She didn’t actually expect everyone to do what she said, but apparently if you gave reasonable orders most people would follow them. Hel and Dom disappeared, then reappeared a few minutes later, no longer naked. Her kitchen island had enough barstools for everyone and in short order they were all settled around it, the coffeemaker burbling on the counter.

Serenity folded her arms across her chest and looked at Jensen. “We saw you at the cafe. She treated you like a dog. She kissed another man. And you want me to believe she’s your wife.”

Jensen winced. “That was…necessary.” He held up a hand to forestall protests. “But if you want to understand it, I’m going to have to start at the beginning.” So he did. When it came to the point in the story where Julian came in, he handed it off to Meredith. Valkyrie shot her a glare worth a thousand daggers that said they were going to talk about this once they were alone.

No one knew any woman named Analisa.

“I’ll double-check the reports from Julian’s probation check-ins,” Valkyrie said, “but it would have stood out to me if he was meeting with someone regularly. As for his mention of thralls, I’ve never heard the term used.”

Jace’s face took on the pinched expression reserved for dredging up some obscure passage he’d read a lifetime ago. “It sounds vaguely familiar but I can’t think of where. I’ll do some digging and see what I can come up with.” He looked between her and Jensen. “So, uh, you never explained the whole married thing. Where does that come in?”

Siren shot him a look like it bothered her that he’d asked. Seriously, what the hell was going on with them?

Serenity rolled her eyes. “That part’s obvious, really. Under enclave law, a Shifter’s spouse who has taken our vows is considered a part of our enclave and therefore one of our people.” She met Jensen’s gaze. “You felt you owed her your protection for asking her to help you. I should have guessed a sense of obligation was the only thing that could tempt you into matrimony.”

Serenity had wanted to marry him? That meant she wasn’t just an ex, but a serious one. And that so wasn’t the most important thing to be thinking about right now.

Meredith decided to cut short the whole matrimony discussion. “Since I am willing to overlook nearly being murdered in my own home—” because really, what was the alternative? “—can we all agree that no one here has any reason to attack anyone else?”

“No reason?” Serenity repeated slowly. “We’ve hidden our existence for centuries so we don’t end up enslaved to your kind or worse. A fact our missing people should make obvious.”

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to live under that kind of fear,” Meredith said. “And while it doesn’t excuse what some of our people have done, most of Aspect Society literally had no idea you existed. We couldn’t exactly fix what we didn’t know about. So the way I see it, you have two choices. You can either stay in Seclusion and try to figure this out on your own, or—”

“They can’t, actually,” Siren said.

Every head swiveled to look at her.