Page 98 of Truthfinder’s Promise

“Nat, stop.” Jensen’s hand clamped on her shoulder. “You don’t have the strength to shift back to cat and we don’t have an easy escape route. You’re going to need claws.”

Nat paused.

“I promise, I’ll explain everything later. But right now I need you to trust me.”

The changes in Natalie’s body reversed, leaving her full snow leopard again, and Jensen relaxed.

To Meredith he said, “How fast can you get the remaining cages open?”

“Probably faster than you can convince them not to kill me. Jensen…we don’t have time to talk to them all one by one.” Given how things had gone with Natalie, she didn’t think opening every cage and having Jensen go inside to talk to the Shifter was a viable plan.

“We wake them up,” Jensen said, “then we let them out.”

That was how Meredith found herself opening packages of ground beef and shoving them through cell bars, divvying up everything the refrigerators had to offer.

The Shifters woke as if by magic. As Jensen explained it, scent would filter through to them even in sleep, at which point their magic, sensing the promise of food, did a cost-benefit analysis and decided it was worth burning the energy to shake off the sedative for the reward of fresh caloric intake.

Soon they had a room full of alert, wary-eyed, but curiously quiet Shifters. More than one eye darted to the door—or rather to the wall beside the door, where a tactical stun baton hung on the wall. She supposed if you came awake snarling and got shocked for your trouble, you’d start waking up quiet.

“I’m Jensen King.” His voice was quiet to avoid alerting any thralls who might be outside, but judging by the way ears pricked from all the way down the line, everyone heard him just fine. “Some of you I’ve met, some I haven’t. But you know who I am. I’m here to get you out, but we’re in less than ideal circumstances. Analisa is preparing to sell you at auction to the highest bidder.

“I don’t know how long we have until they come to bring you out. She can open your cages.” Jensen gestured at Meredith and a few soft growls spread through the room. “Yeah, I know she’s Aspect. She’s also the only reason we found you. So deal with it.”

A grumbling assent went through the room.

“Odds are good that we’re going to have to fight our way out. We don’t have the numbers to take everyone in this building, so we need to clear a path to the door and run for it. If nothing has gone wrong, reinforcements will be coming from outside. Some of them will be ours, and some of them will be Aspect. You’ll know our Aspecters from the Aspecters attending the auction, because they will be the ones in tactical gear instead of evening wear.

“They won’t attack you if you don’t attack them. Once we’re clear of the house, I won’t blame anyone who wants to run for the hills. You want to stay, we can offer food and shelter and get you back to your enclave.

“If anyone has a violent objection to this plan, make some noise.” The room stayed quiet. “Good. One last thing. That woman right there?” He pointed at Meredith. “She’s my wife. You touch her, you hurt her, and I’ll end you. Am I clear?”

Furry heads around the room nodded. Meredith wasn’t sure if it was appropriate in this day and age to have a panty-melting response to a guy threatening to kill anyone who touched you, but she was having one and didn’t have time to examine it.

Jensen shifted back to his wolf form as Meredith went to work on the cages. The first held a bengal tiger, who watched her warily as she jimmied the door open. His eyes kept flicking to the tattoo on her wrist.

Once the lock popped Jensen stepped in, planting himself between her and the tiger. He caught the straps of the muzzle in his teeth and tore it off, leaving the tiger free to descend on the hamburger. Meredith moved on to the next cage.

They fell into a rhythm. Unlock cage, remove muzzle, move on. She was two cages from having them all out when she heard the unmistakable sound of the stairwell door opening. The thrall didn’t even get the door fully open before the Shifters were on him.

The tiger clamped his jaws over the thrall’s wrist and bit down. Once, twice, and the hand came off. A black wolf latched onto the thrall’s leg and dragged him inside. Bile crept up Meredith’s throat and she turned away. She understood the rage. She understood this had to be done. But she couldn’t watch it.

She forced herself to focus on the last two locks, to ignore the sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones. She wasn’t sure if it was better or worse that the thralls never screamed.

Finally they had every cage open and she had no choice but to turn back to the door. The bodies on the floor were in too many pieces for her to know how many people they added up to. Seven? Maybe eight?

The tiger, still closest to the door, looked back and saw the cages all open. He looked to Jensen, who nodded. Then he opened his mouth and roared. The sound was deafening. The tiger pawed the door fully open and bounded out, a flurry of Shifters on his tail.