“Isen,” the miserable one said, “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“No?” he said. “You won’t mind answering Lily’s questions, then.” He made a small gesture with one hand. Rule moved to stand between the two women.
“Cullen, would you bring the mage lights lower?” The lupi might go by scent, but Lily needed to see faces. “Thanks,” she said as the lights bobbed down to hover at head height. “We haven’t met,” Lily said to the two women, “but I guess you know who I am. What are your names?”
“Sherrianne,” the blond said. “Sherrianne Jacobson. I’m Sam’s daughter.”
Lily blinked. Sam was a dragon…but obviously there was another Sam.
“Sam Posey,” Isen said. “He’s running the vineyard now, but he lived here for many years. Sherrianne grew up at Clanhome, but moved away as an adult. At her father’s urging she returned soon after the hostilities began—she and her son, Will. He’s ospi, not lupus, and she and her ex share custody. I believe Will is with his father for the holiday?”
Sherrianne nodded unhappily. “Can we talk privately?”
“You will talk to Lily now.”
Lily said, “In a moment.” Sherrianne might have started out reluctant, but she was longing to confess now. Whether her confession would be helpful remained to be seen, but Lily wanted to let her build up more steam. She looked at the dark-haired young woman. “And you?”
She didn’t look up. Her voice was low. “Brenda Hyatt.”
“I’ve seen you around Clanhome.”
Brenda didn’t answer—but for the first time she glanced up at Lily. Her eyes were dark and brimming with emotion. Anger, certainly. Defiance, too. She looked down again quickly.
Defiance came with the territory at a certain age, but Brenda was beginning to interest Lily. “How old are you, Brenda?”
“I don’t see why I have to answer your questions.”
Lily smiled. Oh, yes, Brenda interested her greatly. “If you aren’t impressed by Isen’s order, maybe my badge will mean something to you. Special Agent Lily Yu, Unit Twelve, FBI. You can think about your rights and responsibilities as a citizen while I talk to Sherrianne.” She gave a little jerk of her head, indicating that the other woman should follow her.
There was no way to talk privately, of course. Not with so many lupi ears nearby. But she’d give the woman some semblance of it. Lily stopped a few feet away.
Sherrianne followed. Rule kept pace with her. He would act as a lie detector. Human experts dithered over how to detect lies, or if it was even possible. Lupi were quite sure it was—for them. The blend of stress, fear, and guilt from a lie had a subtle chemical signature they could detect when in wolf form. It was easiest if the liar was a lupus confronted by his Rho or Lu Nuncio; supposedly lupi never lied successfully then. Humans were harder to read, but high-stakes lies were easier to detect even for a mere human. They produced more emotion.
Sherrianne must have known some of this. She kept glancing down at Rule—not very far down, since he made a really large wolf—but she didn’t look scared. Not happy, but not scared.
Lily stopped and faced her witness. “You want to tell me why you feel guilty?”
Sherrianne leaned closer and started to whisper something.
“I’m not lupi. You’ll have to be louder.”
Sherrianne sighed heavily. “I guess they’re going to hear me anyway.”
“Some of them will, I imagine.”
Another sigh. “This is so embarrassing. I was saying that it’s not about the workshop. Not really. It’s about him.” Her gaze slid to the left, where Cullen stood. “Cullen. He’s married, you know.”
“Yes, I do.” The only married lupus on the face of the planet. That would change in March, but right now Cullen was it.
“And I—well—people told me he meant it. That he’s being monogamous. I didn’t believe them, and I wanted…I mean, look at him. Who wouldn’t? But at first I couldn’t even meet him. He’s always either at his workshop or he’s with Cynna and Ryder, so I asked people about his workshop, what he does there, and when he’s likely to be there and all. I thought I could, you know, pull off a meeting that way. That’s why I felt guilty, because I’d been talking to people about his workshop. But I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I don’t think you’re telling me everything.”
Sherrianne’s blue eyes opened wider. “I am!”
Rule shook his head.
“You aren’t.”
She gave Rule a dirty look, as if he’d tattled. “I guess some of it was because of Cynna. It’s not very reasonable for her to expect him to be faithful, is it? But I like her, and I…I wasn’t able to meet him on the way to his workshop—”
Rule was shaking his head.
“Oh, all right! I did run into him, and he told me to go away, but everyone says he’s really rude about being interrupted, so it wasn’t like he’d really turned me down. So I…I sort of made friends with Cynna, because that’s where he spends a lot of time. With her and Ryder.”
Rule nodded. She was being truthful now.
“You feel guilty because you used Cynna in order to get access to her husband, who you want to seduce.”
“That’s such a judgmental way of looking at it.”
“Seems pretty accurate to me. Have you talked to anyone outside Nokolai about Cullen’s workshop or what he does there?”
“No! Not even once.”
Rule nodded again.
“Just for the record…how did your use-Cynna-to-seduce-her-husband plan work out?” Lily knew the answer. She wanted Cynna—and the clan as a whole—to know, too.
“It didn’t. He said…it didn’t work at all.” Sherrianne smiled at Lily and shrugged. If a whiff of embarrassment clung to that smile, the main flavor was relief that her confessing was over. She’d been raised clan, after all. Wanting to have sex with someone wasn’t bad. The embarrassment was probably because she’d pushed so hard, and maybe because she’d used Cynna. But in the end she’d taken no for an answer, hadn’t she? She hadn’t crossed the line.
Rule nodded again.
“Okay. Thank you for your cooperation. You can go now.”
Instead she turned toward Cynna. “Cynna—”
Cynna’s face was stony. “Not now.”
“But I want you to know that I—”
“Sherrianne,” Isen rumbled. “Go. Now.”
She sighed and obeyed.
Lily turned to look at the other woman. The young, angry, defiant one, who’d been watching everything Lily and Sherrianne said and did closely. “Brenda. Come here, please.” She wouldn’t like that, being told to come here like a child.
Her lips tightened before she remembered to duck her head and hide again. She walked slowly over to Lily.
“Were you raised here at Clanhome, too?”
“No.”
Lily waited, but Brenda was smart or stubborn enough to stay silent. “Isen?”
“When Brenda was five or six,” Isen said, “her mother experienced a religious conversion. She was born again, and her views on sexuality changed accordingly. From that point on she wanted to limit Brenda’s time with us. She’s a fair-minded woman. She allowed Brenda’s father to see her, but only away from Clanhome. After Brenda turned eighteen, she decided to get to know him—and us—better. She visited her father here several times, then last May asked to move in with him for the summer. We were delighted.”