Jo waited to see what he would say to that. Most males, she thought, probably wouldn’t have taken it well. Not that she’d had much contact with the opposite sex for the past twenty years or so but from what she remembered they were a thin-skinned, easily offended bunch only interested in one thing besides their egos.

Reese, however, just looked at her thoughtfully for a long moment before nodding.

“All right,” he murmured in that deep voice of his. “If it makes you feel better, that’s all right with me.”

Jo looked at him uncertainly. “Wow, you really do want me to stay.”

“I do,” he said simply. “I honestly don’t know why. I know we just met and this isn’t something I normally do, invite strange girls over to stay at my house. But I can’t help it—I just . . . feel like you belong here.”

Jo studied him carefully as he spoke. If he was acting or pretending she certainly couldn’t tell. He seemed to be thinking deeply about this and his warm, mellow voice was completely sincere.

Why does he want me to stay so badly? she wondered. An even trickier question was, why did she want to stay as well? Because she did. Now that she was (mostly) over her fear of the big Shifter, she felt herself drawn to him, drawn to his house and the grounds around it—and not just because she needed to stay out of the forest and avoid the shadow creature.

Her old mentor, Miranda, had taught her that physical places can hold memories and feelings. The big old Victorian house with its wraparound porch and green trim seemed to echo warmth and joy and love. She didn’t think she would get such happy echoes from a place where anyone evil or wrong-intentioned lived.

“Well,” she said at last, thinking of his comment that he didn’t normally invite strange girls over to stay. “I’m hardly a ‘girl,’ although you might think I’m strange when you see me casting.”

“Why?” Reese raised an eyebrow at her. “Is it weirder than watching someone turn into an animal in front of your eyes?”

Jo felt her mouth quirk upward in a smile.

“Okay, point taken. No, I guess not. Listen . . .” She cleared her throat. “I’m going to cast out here, in your backyard if that’s all right.”

“Fine by me.” He shrugged, his bare shoulders rolling. He had yet to put back on his t-shirt and she couldn’t help noticing that his broad, muscular chest with its dusting of reddish-brown hair was very attractive. Not that she was attracted to men—not after her past. But still . . .

“Okay well, I’ll need some time to get ready. And . . .” Jo bit her lip, wondering if he would accede to her next request. “And I need something of yours to use to bind you from touching me. Something personal that you’ve worn next to your skin.”

He regarded her quietly for a moment, then nodded and held out his T-shirt to her.

“Will this do?”

Jo took it from him, scarcely believing his willingness to go along with her request.

“Yes,” she said, clutching the warm, soft cotton to her chest. It had a spicy, masculine fragrance that must be the scent of his skin. “It . . . this will do fine. But I don’t understand . . .” She shook her head. “Why are you so all right with this? I mean, I’m preparing to cast a spell specifically to keep you from . . . from touching me the wrong way. Any other male would have been insulted.”

“I heard what you said back in the shed,” Reese said quietly. “Somebody hurt you, darlin’—hurt you bad. I can understand you wanting to do everything in your power never to let that happen again. And if this is what it takes to make you feel better—to help you trust me—then I’m all for it.”

His quiet response surprised Jo more than she could say. She clutched the warm t-shirt to her chest and stared at him with wide eyes. Reese met her gaze and looked back, his brown eyes filled with quiet understanding. For a moment, Jo felt like she could fall into those eyes and stay there forever. Then she pushed the idea away—it was ridiculous. He was a male and therefore inherently untrustworthy. Plus, even if she had been interested—which she absolutely was not—he was way too young for her.

“I’ll need some time to prepare,” she said briskly. “Casting under a full moon is best but since Lady Moon is new right now—”

“You know about Lady Moon?” he asked, interrupting her.

Jo frowned. “It’s a name for the Goddess—yes, I know about her.”

“It’s just . . . that’s the Shifter deity. The one who looks after Shifters and supposedly started our race in the first place.” He shrugged. “Just never heard of a non-Shifter who knew about her.”

“Oh, well . . . we Wiccans think of her as just one aspect of the Goddess, but there’s definite power in the moon. Although I never heard of her creating a whole different race of people.”

“It’s a Shifter legend.” He smiled a little. “I’ll tell you later if you want—since you seem to like myths and legends so much.”

“Okay, I’d like that.” Jo found herself smiling at him. “I love to learn new lore. Now . . .” She cleared her throat. “As I was saying, it’s better to cast under a full moon but since I can’t, twilight will have to do. That’s a time of power as well.”

“Okay, well I have to get back to work for a little while.” Reese rose from the porch steps. “I own Fox’s Auto Body Repair here in town and I have a car up on the rack I promised would be done by closing time tonight. Do you need anything else before I go?”

“No, I think I have everything I need to cast in my pack. But . . .” Jo bit her lip, uncertain how to ask.

“But what?” Reese said patiently. “Just ask, Jo. I’ll get whatever it is you want—as long as it isn’t a million dollars in small unmarked bills.” He grinned, that warm, easy grin she was already beginning to like more than she wanted to.

“I don’t need anything,” Jo said. “I’m just . . . really thirsty. And I’d, uh, like to use the facilities.”

Which was a nice way of saying she had to pee. Of course, she’d been managing by peeing in the woods for weeks now—more often than not she hadn’t been near a bathroom when she had to relieve herself. But she was tired of that—so damn tired. It would be nice to act like a human for a while instead of living the life of a hunted animal. Plus she really didn’t want to go back into the forest—not even during the daylight hours—if she could help it.

“Oh sure.” Reese walked up the porch steps and opened the back door for her. “You want to go before I leave?”

“Um . . .” Jo hung back. She didn’t want to enter the house with him until the binding was set. He seemed like a nice guy and every instinct she had said she could trust him but still . . . she couldn’t risk letting the past repeat itself. She just couldn’t.

Reese seemed to understand her reluctance.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Tell you what, I’m going to run upstairs and pull on a shirt before I drive back to work. But I’ll leave the back door open for you—you go in and, uh, do what you need to do while I’m gone. That way you don’t have to feel worried.”

“Thank you,” Jo said. “That’s very kind of you but you just met me. Aren’t you placing an awful lot of trust in a complete stranger?”

Reese gave her a long look.

“I guess I am, darlin’,” he said at last. “But my Fox says you’re trustworthy and he hasn’t steered me wrong yet.”

Jo thought of the adorable little red fox he turned into and got a sudden case of the warm fuzzies. It was hard to believe that such a huge, muscular man could turn into a fluffy little ball of fur with those big brown eyes and that unbearably cute pointed muzzle but Reese had proved he could do it.

“I like your Fox,” she said impulsively. “He’s so—”

“Cute? Cuddly? Adorable?” Reese grinned at her.

“All of the above,” Jo agreed.

“Well he is actually me, you know,” Reese pointed out. “The other half of me, anyway.” He frowned. “This spell—once you cast it, I won’t be able to touch you at all? Because . . .” He cleared his throat and got red in the face. “Well, because my, uh, Fox really likes the way you scratch behind his ears. He doesn’t take to many people that way. In fact, you’re pretty much the first.”

“No, no,” Jo hastened to assure him. “You’ll still be able to touch me in your Fox form. And um, in your human form too. Not that we would have, uh, reason to touch.” She felt her cheeks getting hot as she tried to explain. “You just won’t be able to touch me the wrong way.”

“Sexually, you mean?” Reese raised an eyebrow at her.

Feeling her face heat even more, Jo nodded.

“Right. Look . . .” She cleared her throat. “Why don’t you watch me cast? It might clear up some of your questions and it’s only fair that you know what the binding keeps you from doing since I’ll be staying in your house.”

He nodded. “I was going to ask if I could watch but I wasn’t sure if it was, uh, polite.”

Jo smiled. “Nothing about casting a binding spell is polite, but it would be rude of me not to include you in the process—especially since you’re being so nice about it.”

“Hey . . .” Reese spread his hands. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m a nice guy.”

That remains to be seen, Jo thought, but she didn’t say it aloud. Instead she just nodded her head.

“All right. Well . . . I’m going to grab a shirt and get back to work,” Reese told her. “I’ll be back sometime between five and six. But . . .”

“But what?” Jo asked, seeing him hesitate.

“Well, don’t take this the wrong way but you’ll be all right, won’t you?” There was genuine concern on his face. “I mean, when I found you, you were just about to . . .” He mimed cutting his wrist. “You’re not just waiting for me to go so you can finish the job, are you?”

“What?” Jo was startled. “No!” she exclaimed. “No, I . . .” She paused and took a breath, thinking about it. “I don’t know why I tried that,” she admitted at last. “I think I was feeling overwhelmed and trapped . . . kind of hopeless.”

“And now?” Reese’s warm brown eyes regarded her quietly.

“Now, well . . . I guess I don’t feel so hopeless anymore.” Jo surprised herself with the words but it was true, she didn’t feel so dejected and depressed. When she’d had her suicidal moment in the shed, she’d been feeling like she had nowhere to go, no hope for the future. She didn’t feel that way now.

I have a place to stay . . . if I want. My options aren’t so limited. And inside a dwelling the shadow creature can’t get me. She hoped, anyway.

“So you’re feeling better?” Reese asked.

“Yes . . . I guess I am. But thank you for asking. I . . .” She cleared her throat. “I guess it must have been weird for you, finding a strange woman about to slit her wrists in your shed.”

Reese grinned. “Well, it is one of the weirder things that have ever happened to me but I’m a Shifter—I’m used to weirdness. And I’m glad you showed up here.”

Jo bit her lip. “Me too,” she admitted quietly.

“Good.” Reese nodded at the house. “Okay, I’ve gotta go. Make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” Jo said. “I . . . I will.”

With a final nod, he left her, going into the big old house and letting the screen door bang shut behind him. But Jo noticed that he didn’t close the back door itself—he left it standing open, a clear invitation for her to come in whenever she felt safe to do so.

But do I feel safe? Jo asked herself. Not just to go in the house but to stay there? To stay there with him?

She honestly wasn’t sure, but it seemed she had committed herself. And surely it was safer here with Reese than out in the forest with the shadow creature.

Jo scanned the dark trees of the forest, just beyond Reese’s backyard and shivered. Whatever it is, it can’t get to me here.

She hoped.

* * *

Reese whistled as he drove back to his repair shop. What a bizarre lunch hour. Speaking of lunch, he was still hungry. A few french fries in his Fox form did not make a filling meal. Never mind, he could grab something on the way home. And he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so good.

She’s staying! the Fox yipped excitedly inside him. She’s really staying!

Reese hoped his other half was right. He supposed that he might get back to an empty house and find that Jo had changed her mind and decided to leave after all. But somehow he didn’t think that was going to happen. There was something there—some connection he didn’t quite understand yet. But it was definitely real. His Fox was ecstatic about the girl—about Jo—and that had never happened before. Never, though he had dated around plenty when he was younger.

When he got to the garage, his longtime best friend, Liam Keller, was waiting for him.

“Hey, problems with your Porsche again or is it the Mercedes this time?” Reese asked, grinning as he stepped down from the cab of his tow truck.

Keller was a bio-tech wizard who could probably buy and sell everybody in town five times over. But he didn’t flaunt his wealth—well, other than a penchant for fast, expensive cars.

“Neither.” Keller was leaning against a wall of the garage with his arms crossed and a curious light in his eyes. “I just came to see if you liked the take-out you got from the Cougar’s Den. Did it taste good?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Reese said cheerfully. “I gave it away. All but a few fries, that is.”

“Gave it away?” Keller’s eyebrows shot up. “To who?”

“Who do you think? The girl in my shed Fiona told me about.” Reese shook his head. “Goddamn—how does she know things like that? I’d pay good money to spend time inside her head.”

“You’d be wasting your hard earned cash. I don’t think anyone but Fiona could figure out what goes on in there,” Keller said dryly. “But tell me about the girl. What is she like? What’s her name?”

It was Reese’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

“You checking up on me, Keller? Or is it the Cat inside you that’s so curious you can’t help asking?”

Keller shrugged easily. “A little of both, maybe. Mostly I just wanted to be sure everything was okay.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you what I know—it’s not much though,” Reese said. “Her name is Jocasta Ferrell. She looks to be nineteen or twenty and she’s a witch.”

“A what?” Keller looked startled.

“You heard me.” Reese laughed at his friend’s expression—Keller wasn’t easy to rattle. “Oh, and she’s staying at my place but only under the condition that she can cast a binding spell on me so I won’t touch her.”

“What?” Keller frowned at him. “And you agreed to that?”

Reese was surprised at his friend’s extreme reaction.

“Take it easy, buddy. You and I know I’d never hurt a female but Jo doesn’t know that—she’s been, uh, hurt before. So this spell thing is just to help her feel better about staying in my house, that’s all.”

Keller frowned. “You don’t believe in witches or witchcraft, do you?”

“Well, I mean I believe that the people who call themselves witches believe it,” Reese said. “But I don’t think there’s much more to it than that. It’s like the power of positive thinking, you know? Jo thinks she’s casting a spell on me to keep me from hurting her—which I would never do—so she feels more comfortable around me. There’s no actual effect except for the mental one.”

“That’s really what you think?” Keller shook his head.

“What? You don’t mean to tell me you believe in all that stuff—do you?” Reese asked. “I thought you were a man of science and all that.”

“I am but I’ve learned not to discount anything—especially someone else’s beliefs, no matter how far-fetched they may seem,” Keller said. “Ask yourself this—would you still let this girl cast a spell on you if you knew it was going to have an actual physical effect?”

“Well . . .” Reese, frowned, mulling it over. “She told me the spell is just to keep me from touching her, uh, the wrong way.” He cleared his throat. “You know what I mean. So yeah, I guess I’d still let her, if it helped her feel better.”

“You said she’s been . . . violated in the past?” Keller asked.

“Pretty sure she has.” Reese nodded, his jaw clenching at the thought of someone hurting Jo like that. He hadn’t known her long but his Fox had already laid claim to her and he felt a powerful feeling of protectiveness growing inside him where she was concerned. “Plus, she’s been attacked twice since she left Avalon.”

“She lived at the females-only Yoga retreat?” Keller asked.

“Apparently it’s more than just a Yoga retreat. Anyway, she was attacked by a pack of dire wolves just outside of Asheville. She thought they were ‘Skin Walkers’.”

“Jase Sanders’ pack?” Keller asked, frowning. “Why would they attack her? Did they mistake her for prey?”

Reese shrugged. “Don’t know but I didn’t get the sense she was lying about it. She’s really, really distrustful of males. That’s why I agreed to let her cast the uh . . . the binding spell on me—it was the only way she’d agree to stay.”

“And you think that was wise? Inviting a strange woman into your house and your life? A witch who’s already admitted she intends to cast spells on you?” Keller demanded.

Reese frowned.

“Get over it, Keller,” he growled. “I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m not sure you do,” the other Shifter retorted. “Look . . .” He put a hand on Reese’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’m just worried about you.”

“Well don’t be. I have it under control.” Reese shrugged off his friend’s hand, then thought better of it. “Look, Keller,” he said, trying to make him understand. “How did your Cougar feel about Samantha? Not now—back when you first met her?”

Keller sighed. “My Cat loved her—claimed her—almost right from the start. But we formed an early bond so—”

“It’s the same with my Fox,” Reese interrupted him. “He loves Jo—in fact, he’s fucking crazy about her and he’s never, never reacted that way towards a female before.” He shrugged. “I like her too and well, this just feels right somehow. I can’t explain it, I just feel it in my bones, you know?”

Keller looked at him for a long moment and then shook his head.

“All right, forgive me for butting into your business. I just worry about you getting mixed up with witches. Their powers are real, you know—as real as ours.”

Reese felt a wave of unease roll over him. Could it be his friend was right? Was he walking into some kind of a trap, allowing Jo to cast this spell on him when he barely knew her?

But his Fox insisted loudly that she was good, that she was right and trustworthy.

He shook his head.

“Sorry, Keller, but I’ve got to go with my gut on this one. Or in this case, my Fox’s gut. He really likes her.”

“All right.” Keller took a step back, a doubtful look on his face. “I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“Don’t worry,” Reese said stiffly. “I do and I’ll be fine.” He cleared his throat. “Look, Keller, I’ve got a lot of work to do, so . . .”

“Of course. Sorry I bothered you.” Keller sighed. “Look, at least promise me one thing—take her to meet Fiona. She’s the one who told you about this girl in the first place. She’ll know what to do with her—where to put her.”

Reese frowned. “Where to put her? I already told you, she’s staying with me—that’s where she belongs.”

Keller sighed. “I can see your Fox has already claimed her, but just talk to Fiona—will you at least promise me that?”

“I’ll go by her shop tomorrow if it’ll make you feel better,” Reese growled, thoroughly pissed off by his friend’s high-handed behavior. He was beginning to be sorry he’d ever told Keller anything about the little witch. “And I’ll bring Jo with me—if she wants to come.”

“Good,” Keller said shortly. “Look, I can tell you’re angry at me, Coop, and I’m sorry. I just . . . want you to be okay.”

Before Reese could answer, he went to get behind the wheel of a candy-apple-red sports car sitting just outside the shop. After sliding his muscular bulk into the low-slung vehicle he poked his head out and looked at Reese.

“If you need anything—any help—just let me know.”

“Will do.” Reese tried to keep the irritation out of his voice. He and Keller were good friends but the other male could be all kinds of nosy and officious sometimes. Then again, Reese reminded himself, Keller was a Cat. It went with the territory.

He went about the rest of his day, trying to forget his friend’s words of warning. But even as he worked, he couldn’t help hearing what Keller had said to him echoing in the corners of his mind.

“I just worry about you getting mixed up with witches. Their powers are real, you know—as real as ours . . .”

Could Keller possibly be right? And if so, was he doing a foolish thing, allowing Jo to work her magic on him?

Reese didn’t know, but he thought he was about to find out.