Stone Cold Fox Read online

  Reese sighed unhappily. “What if she doesn’t want to be bred?” he asked. “You know about her past, Fiona. I can’t . . . I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “You have to give her body what it needs,” Keller said, frowning. “It was the same with Samantha—she didn’t want it even though she was begging for it.” He shook his head. “I certainly found that out the hard way.”

  “Yes, but everything came out right in the end, dear,” Fiona said to him. She pointed a finger at Reese. “But everything will not come out right for Jocasta if you don’t do as the Goddess commands.”

  “Well . . .” Reese sighed. “She has been warming up to me lately. The, uh, ritual helped,” he murmured to Fiona in a low voice.

  “It’s good if she’s gaining trust in you because I fear she is in very great danger—from this strange male as well as from her own unchecked breeding heat,” Fiona said. “But I’m afraid you might have forfeited some of Jocasta’s faith in you just now.”

  “What?” Reese frowned and looked over at the patio furniture where the other women were sitting. Jo wasn’t there. “Where is she?” he asked Fiona. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, dear—only you can answer that,” the wise woman replied steadily. “And I think that Jocasta is inside the house right now, waiting for answers.” She nodded at the back door of Keller’s palatial home.

  Reese shook his head. “I still don’t understand.”

  “Apparently there was something on the news?” Fiona said delicately. “Something about an ex-convict who was out on parole getting his throat ripped out by some kind of very large beast? Perhaps . . . a very large Fox?” she added pointedly.

  “Seriously?” Reese suddenly felt his stomach drop to his boots. “Fuck,” he growled.

  “I saw that report,” Keller said, frowning. “You know something about it, Coop?”

  Reese felt his blood start to boil.

  “It was vengeance,” he said, his voice dropping down to a growl. “Righteous and well deserved.”

  “Well, if somebody hurt your female—” Mathis began but Reese just shook his head.

  “Excuse me—I’ve gotta go.”

  Pushing past them all, he headed into the house, wondering what in the name of Lady Moon he was going to say to Jo.

  Chapter Sixteen

  But when Reese got in the house, Jo was nowhere to be found. He searched all over Keller’s palatial mansion of a home—damn, did the male really need four fireplaces?—but he couldn’t find her anywhere.

  At last, he checked the burnished walnut key peg hanging in the entryway of Keller’s home. With a frown, he saw that the keys to his truck were gone. Not the wrecker—that one he kept mostly at the shop. His smaller two by four was the one he and Jo had driven over in and now its keys were missing.

  Going out on the front porch, he saw that the truck itself was missing too. He wasn’t worried about the truck, though—Jo was his main concern. Damn it, had the little witch gone off by herself when it was almost dark?

  With a low curse, he decided it must be so.

  Damn it—should have told her. Should have come clean about the whole thing.

  But he hadn’t wanted her to worry or be upset. She’d claimed that she had released her wish for vengeance along with all the pain of the rape to the Goddess, but how could that be true? Reese had seen for himself the pain she still carried inside her. And anyway, even if she didn’t want revenge, he and his Fox did.

  It was part of the Shifter code of honor—an attack on a beloved female must be answered in kind. It didn’t matter that the rape had happened twenty years ago—there was no statute of limitations when it came to redressing harm done to one’s mate, which was how Reese saw her.

  He had felt not an ounce of shame or remorse for ripping that asshole Drummond’s throat out. He’d relished the act, reveling in the act of vengeance. And of course, before he’d Shifted and done the deed, he had made certain the bastard knew what was coming to him and why.

  “This is for Jo—Jocasta Ferrell,” he’d told Drummond. “For what you and your buddies did to her. It’s time to pay.”

  “What?” The other man’s eyes had grown wide as Reese had Shifted into his largest form in the blink of an eye. Before the rapist could even begin to run, he’d shredded his throat with a single bite.

  Drummond had died almost immediately—really, it was a much more merciful death than he deserved, at least in Reese’s opinion. But now he had to deal with the aftermath of his vengeance and he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be easy.

  With a sigh, he stripped off his clothes—he could pick them up the next time he visited Keller—and opened the front door. Looking up at the nearly full moon, he took a deep breath and let the moonlight release his Fox. With a bound, he was off the front porch and headed home, hoping that Jo would be there, waiting.

  * * *

  Jo paced in her room, running her fingers through her hair. She’d gotten home and gone straight for the Internet to verify what she feared.

  Unfortunately the story was true.

  Someone with a cell phone had snapped a few photos of the crime scene and apparently had no problem putting them up. The bloody, gory images had gotten into Jo’s head and now she felt like she wanted to scrub her eyeballs out with soap. The horror was something she couldn’t unsee, no matter how hard she tried.

  If she’d had anyplace else to go other than Reese’s house, she would have gone there. But she had no place of her own—no place she belonged.

  And to think for a little while I was beginning to think I belonged here . . .

  But no more.

  For the first time in a while, she thought of Avalon with longing. The community of sister witches . . . the female-only environment . . . the freedom from fear and the absence of the lust and desire which had troubled her almost ceaselessly since she’d left . . . Goddess, but she missed it so much! But most of all, she missed Miranda. Her mentor’s calming presence was what was absent from her life.

  For a time she’d thought that Reese might fill that hole in her heart. But he’d proven that he was not to be trusted. Now all Jo wanted was to go home . . . but she had no home to go to.

  A scratching sound and a soft whining at her bedroom door drew her out of her troubled thoughts. Jo frowned . . . she knew who was out there. She ought to ignore him. But the scratching came again and she found she couldn’t.

  Walking across the room, she flung open the door and frowned out into the hallway. Down by her feet was the Fox, but not in the huge, “holy shit” size, as Reese called it. No, the Fox was back to his teacup Chihuahua size—the one that had charmed her in the first place, comforted her, and helped ease her pain before she’d trusted Reese enough to let him touch her in his human form.

  The little Fox looked up at her with big, sad eyes and whined softly in the back of his throat.

  Jo crossed her arms over her breasts and glared down at him, determined not to be moved.

  “You can stop the act, Reese,” she snapped. “I know what you did, and trying to manipulate me with your cutest form won’t make me any less angry.”

  The Fox whined sadly and came forward to press his pointed nose against her calf.

  “No!” Jo said, even though her heart was trying to melt. “No, absolutely not!”

  The Fox took a step back, shook itself, and abruptly there was a very large, very naked man standing in her room instead.

  “Fine,” Reese said. “You’re right—coming to you in my little form was low. I just . . .” He shrugged, his broad, bare shoulders rolling. “Wanted to soften you up some before we talked.”

  “Well, it didn’t work. And there’s nothing to talk about.” Jo tried not to look at him—at his big, masculine body—or smell his spicy scent, which was always especially strong after he Shifted. It drew her like a magnet and reminded her that her headache was coming back, throbbing in her temples, demanding the touch of an Alpha to ease it. Grimly, she i