“Jo?” Reese sounded worried. “You okay, darlin’? You’re awful quiet.”

“I . . . I don’t know.” Jo shivered in the cool grass. Now that the breeding heat was gone, she felt cold in the autumn air. The full moon shone down on her, reminding her of the shameful act she had just committed, right here in the Sacred Glade. Why had she done it? Why hadn’t she been able to control herself?

At the very least she could have asked if they could leave the glade before they jumped all over each other—with Bianca gone it shouldn’t have been a problem. But no—Jo had been so hot she couldn’t wait, even to avoid committing blasphemy. Some distance away, she heard the long, lonely howl of a wolf. A hot tear slipped down her cheek.

“Jo?” She was lying on her side but Reese rolled her over gently, trying to get a look at her. He must have seen her tears because a look of regret came over his face.

“What’s wrong, honey?” he asked gently. “Was I too rough? Did it bring up . . . bad memories?”

“Not . . . not exactly.” More tears slipped down her cheeks, she couldn’t help it. She still couldn’t believe what she had done. What would Miranda think of her if she could see her now? The thought made her cry even harder.

Reese’s face twisted.

“Damn it,” he growled. “I’m so fucking sorry, darlin’. I shouldn’t have taken you so hard.”

“I . . . I don’t . . .” Jo began but just then she began to feel strange—to feel wrong. Everywhere the moonlight touched her bare body she felt a strong tingling. “Reese,” she gasped. “I feel like something’s wrong with me—like something’s wrong inside me.”

“What? How? Describe it,” he said urgently.

“The moonlight,” Jo whispered, having to fight to get the words out now. “Everywhere it touches me I tingle. And I feel so . . . so . . .” She shook her head. “I can’t explain it.”

“The moonlight?” His frown suddenly cleared. “Hell, darlin’, that’s just your Fox trying to get out—your Vixen. You’re about to have your first Shift.”

“My first Shift?” Jo looked at him, wide-eyed. “You mean . . . I’ll really turn into an animal?”

She had known cognitively that Reese Shifted into an animal form—she had seen him do it multiple times now. And she’d known that female Shifters could do the same thing. But somehow the idea of having an animal inside that she herself could change into at will still seemed like a dream—an impossibility.

But Reese was nodding his head eagerly.

“Sure you will,” he told her. “Just close your eyes and let Lady Moon have her way with you.” he frowned. “Honestly, I don’t know how you didn’t Shift the minute we were finished and the moonlight hit you—your magic must give you incredible control. But now you need to let it go and just Shift.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jo said nervously. “Before when the moonlight touched me it felt like it was trying to tear me apart.”

“Because you were outside Lady Moon’s will. Now that you’ve answered her call and gotten . . .” He cleared his throat. “Gotten bred, you should be okay.”

I’m still outside the Goddess’s will, Jo thought grimly. But since the strange feeling inside her was growing, she didn’t see what else she could do but go with it.

Closing her eyes, she tried to reach out to the deity she’d worshipped since she had first found her way to Avalon.

“Please Goddess,” she prayed. “I’m sorry for breaking my vows and defiling your Sacred Glade. Please be merciful to me . . .”

As she prayed, she tried to surrender herself to the will of the Goddess, to give in to the tingling moonlight and let it do what it wanted with her.

And then she began to change.

First she felt her arms and legs shorten and then her knees bent the opposite direction they normally did. This seemed like it ought to be painful but somehow it wasn’t. Her nose and mouth elongated into a pointed muzzle and her ears moved from the sides of her head up to the top. Her hair vanished and instead, she felt a coat of soft, luxuriant fur flowing all over her body.

Last and perhaps strangest of all, a long, puffy tail with a white tip popped out of her backside. Jo twitched it experimentally from side to side, trying to get a good look at it. It was hard to see the color, other than the white tip, but she thought it might be the same shade of orangish-red as her hair when she was human.

When I’m human—what a strange thought! Now that she was a Fox, it felt like she’d always been one. She scampered in a circle, chasing her tail, then held still to listen to the rustling in the undergrowth. There was mouse out there, digging in its burrow. Jo had the sudden urge to hunt it and pounce on the tiny creature—some fresh meat would taste good right about now.

“God, darlin’—you’re beautiful. Knew you would be.”

The deep rumbling human voice made Jo jump, her entire, lithe body leaving the ground as all four dainty black paws came up at once. When she came down, she saw Reese, still sitting beside her in human form, and looking down at her with a smile playing around his lips.

“C’mere,” he murmured and patted his thigh.

Cautiously, Jo approached him. He was so big when she was in this form—even bigger than when they were both human. But his voice was familiar.

“Here, Jo—here my little vixen-witch,” he said and rumbled laughter as he held out his hand.

Jo came closer and sniffed at his offered fingers. Immediately, his scent told her all she needed to know. Even in her new Fox form, she had no trouble recognizing her mate.

With a happy yip, she jumped into his lap the way he had jumped into hers so many times in his own Fox form.

With a soft exclamation Reese held her close and cuddled her to his broad chest. His hold on her was gentle and light—she could have gotten away at any time. But Jo didn’t want to get away—she only wanted to be close to the big man who was somehow also her mate.

Making a soft sound in the back of her throat, she pressed herself against him and nuzzled her head under his chin. Gently, very gently, Reese scratched her behind her ears.

“That’s right, little girl, little vixen,” she heard him murmur. “You can have all the hugs and cuddles you want.”

“Well, well—isn’t this a touching scene.”

Jo looked up with a shock—even in her Fox form she knew that voice. Knew it and distrusted it.

Bianca was back, standing at the edge of the Sacred Glade with a cruel smile on her lips.

“Well,” she said, looking at Jo as Reese held her protectively close to his bare chest. “I guess there’s no question if you’ve been bred now. There’s no way you could have Shifted otherwise.”

“You leave her alone.” There was a low, warning growl in Reese’s voice that seemed to vibrate Jo’s entire body. “Jo wants nothing else to do with you and neither do I. We’re done with you.”

“Isn’t it a pity, then, that I’m not done with you?” Bianca remarked. “Or more specifically, with Jo. Now that she’s Shifted and claimed her power, I can take it from her.”

“The hell you will.” Reese rose to his feet in one fluid motion, still holding Jo close to his chest. “We’re getting out of here and if you try to stop us, I’ll Shift and rip out your fucking throat.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Fox,” Bianca sneered. She made a motion with both hands and spoke some words in Latin. “My circle has not been broken and the two of you are trapped within. You’ll be helpless to do anything but watch as I suck Jocasta’s pretty little life away.”

She began to speak the words of a spell Jo could barely understand in her Fox form, but she felt their effects almost immediately. It was as though a pair of huge, cruel hands had grabbed her and were squeezing as hard as they could.

Jo gave a yip of pain and began to writhe in Reese’s arms.

“Stop it! Fucking stop!” he roared at Bianca. Rushing forward with Jo still cradled close to his broad chest, he tried to push his way out of the glade. But the spell Bianca had put around them held strong.

Next, he tried putting Jo down and Shifting himself. She was dimly aware that he was in his biggest form—what he called his “holy shit” form. He jumped at the invisible barrier again and again, teeth out, eyes flashing. But he couldn’t get through and all the time Jo could feel the pain growing.

Closing her eyes as the invisible hands squeezed her and wrung her out like someone might wring out a dishcloth, she howled, a high, pitiful sound even in her own ears.

This is how I die, she thought. The Goddess didn’t forgive me for defiling her Sacred Glade after all. This is the end . . .

And then she felt her body go limp as everything went black.

* * *

Reese felt her life-force leaking away through the new bond they shared.

“Jo!” he sent to her urgently. “Jo, hang on—you have to hang on. Don’t die on me!”

But the fucking evil witch was standing there chanting, sucking away Jo’s life with every word she spoke. Jo let out a pained, desperate howl that tore at his heart and then went limp.

No—no she can’t die! Not when we’re finally bonded! She can’t!

He put up his muzzle and howled in confusion and pain—a cry that was more than half prayer.

Lady Moon help me! Help me save my mate!

Suddenly, he heard an answering howl coming from beyond the trees. It was a familiar cry—the sound of his friend Jase Saunders, the Alpha of the dire wolf pack. Immediately, Reese knew what to do.

Lifting his head, he howled again, this time making it a plea for help.

“We are of one blood, you and me,” he sent desperately. “Come to my aid, Brother, for my hour of need is on me!”

“I’m coming!” came the answering howl. “Hold on, Brother!”

There was a crashing in the forest, the sound of a huge animal bounding through the woods, not caring who heard it coming.

Anyone within a mile would have heard the noise, Reese thought, but that bitch, Bianca, just kept chanting. There was a cruel smile curving her lips and a hungry, greedy expression in her eyes. Clearly she was so focused on her spell she’d blocked out everything else. Beside him, Jo’s small furry body was completely limp.

Reese howled again. “Hurry!”

Suddenly an immense black shape came bounding out of the woods. Jase Saunders was an Alpha in every sense of the word and absolutely huge in his dire wolf form. His golden, glowing eyes took in the scene before him and he directed a short, sharp bark at Reese.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Reese barked back. “The witch—the woman chanting—she’s killing my mate! Draining her life! Stop her!”

Saunders didn’t need any urging. With a low, snarling growl he turned on Bianca.

She, for her part, seemed to suddenly notice him for the first time. Reese saw her startled expression as she took in the horse-sized wolf that was suddenly facing her down. But still she wouldn’t stop chanting. Though her eyes grew wide, her mouth kept moving, saying the spell that was draining Jo’s life.

“Get her!” Reese shouted, only dimly aware that he had shifted back to his human form. “Stop her before she kills my mate—before she kills Jo! I can’t get to her, Jase—she has us trapped in here. Kill her!”

With a snarling growl, Jase sprung. He landed with his forepaws on Bianca’s chest and bore the witch to the ground. Then, with a quick, decisive motion, he ripped out her throat.

As soon as the chanting stopped, Reese felt something—some heaviness in the air—lift and dissipate. He was certain the magic circle was broken now and the spell that had been draining Jo was gone as well.

But though the malevolent magic had been stopped, she didn’t move. Still in her Fox form, she looked like nothing more than a limp bundle of fur.

Stooping, Reese scooped her into his arms. Stroking her silky coat tenderly, he spoke to her.

“Jo?” he whispered into one furry, pointed ear. “Jo? Come on, darlin’—wake up. Please.”

But no matter how he talked to her and stroked her, Jo didn’t move and Reese couldn’t feel her breathing either.

“Jo!” Her name was a cry of anguish, torn from his throat, and there were tears, hot and hard as bullets raining from his eyes onto her soft fur. “Jo, don’t leave me—I love you!”

The words, which he had felt for some time but hadn’t dared to speak aloud to her, seemed to break something inside him. He fell to his knees, cradling the limp bundle of fur to his chest.

Too late. Help had come too late. Jo was gone from his life forever.

Across the glade, Jase Saunders, still in his dire wolf form, seemed to understand what was happening. He threw back his head and howled—giving voice to the sound Reese’s heart was making.

Reese wanted to rage and scream and howl too. But then he felt a flash of guilt.

My fault. I took her too hard when I bred her. This is my punishment from Lady Moon. I lost her because I never deserved her in the first place . . .

“Reese, what are you doing? And where is Jocasta?”

The familiar voice made him raise his head. Across the glade he could see three shapes coming towards him. One was a huge Irish Elk with an immense rack of antlers. The second was a sabertooth cougar, gliding noiselessly over the grass. Between them walked the slim, petite figure of Fiona, clad in one of her colorful, flowing muumuus.

“Fiona?” He felt a stab of hope but he tried to push it down. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, when I saw Jocasta’s note—”

“No, never mind,” Reese cut her off. “I don’t care why you’re here—I need your help.” He motioned to Jo’s limp body, still cradled to his chest.

“Is this Jo?” Fiona stroked the little Fox’s fur gently with one beringed hand. “What happened to her? Tell me everything.”

Rapidly, Reese explained what had happened, recounting the spell Bianca had been working and its effect on Jo.

In the moonlight, Fiona’s face grew graver and graver. She put her ear to Jo’s furry chest and frowned.

“There is still a tiny stirring of life in her,” she told Reese, straightening up at last. “But we need to get her out of her Fox form and into her human form at once.”

The sabertooth cougar Shifted and suddenly Keller was standing there naked.

“Samantha’s in the car,” he said to Reese. “If anyone can help Jo once she Shifts back to human, she can. Come on.”

“Lead the way,” Reese said.

They hurried across the glade and back through the forest. Once under the deep shadow of the trees where even the moonlight couldn’t penetrate, Reese felt the tiny, furry bundle in his arms quiver.

“Wait!” he said urgently. The whole party paused and in a moment, he was holding Jo—the human Jo—in his arms.

“She changed back by herself? Good, that’s very good.” Fiona nodded and

Reese began to feel the faint stirring of hope in his heart again. But he pushed it away savagely, afraid to let himself expect the impossible. After all, Jo was still out cold and when he put his ear to her chest he could barely make out a heartbeat—it seemed slow and uncertain, as though her heart hadn’t made up its mind if it would keep working or not.

“Do you think you can save her?” he asked Fiona, almost afraid to hear her answer. “Please, Fiona . . .”

The wise woman frowned. “I hope so, Reese. Only Lady Moon knows for certain, but between myself and Samantha, I can promise you we will do our best.” She motioned to the huge buck and cougar—Keller had Shifted back to his animal form. “Come on—we need to hurry.”

Reese clutched Jo tight to his chest, shielding her pale skin from the moonlight as well as he could. But as he walked, he was saying a silent prayer.

Please, Lady Moon, he prayed. Maybe I didn’t treat her as I should—wasn’t gentle enough when I bred her. But if you’ll only let Jo live, I’ll do anything—anything at all. I’ll even give her up. Just please—let her live!