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“It’s related to healing, but it means he can push his magic into other shifters to check them over. Sometimes, they can communicate, inner shifter to inner shifter… Sort of soul to soul.”

I scrunched my nose. “Soul to soul? That sounds pretty woo-woo.”

She chuckled, jogged back toward the door at the back of the warehouse, and reappeared a few minutes later. “Raise your staff.”

As I did, the keypad at the entrance chimed.

Olivia froze as the door swung open. A breeze stirred the room. Goose bumps broke out over my skin, and her eyes turned brighter.

A red-haired man sauntered into the training area with a shit-eating grin on his ginger-bearded face. He had a dusting of freckles all over him, and his beard seemed as chaotic as the man. “Well, now,” he said. “What do we have here?”

I lowered the stick I’d used to badly defend myself. “Hello.”

He strode toward us. “Who’s she?”

Olivia jerked her thumb toward me. “She’s new. How did you get in here?”

“I’ll give you one guess.” He stuck out his hand. “I’mJasper Sionnach, friend to the Six-Mile Pack, ofteninthem but not of them.”

My hand fit nicely in Jasper’s, and I shook his hand firmly. “What does that mean?”

He winked and held onto me a moment longer than he needed to before he released my fingers. “It means I’m a wily fox shifter complete with skills generally of interest to some of the she-wolves around here.” He paused. “In fact, I’d be willing to share some of those skills with ye.”

Olivia cleared her throat and stepped closer to me, angling herself slightly between us. “None of that, Jasper, if you know what’s good for you.”

He nodded to me. “Are you a fox?”

“Foxy,” I said, “but not a fox.”

“Ye are that, foxy girl. Nice hair. What was yer name?”

“Emma.” I kept theCarterbit to myself, so he wouldn’t have an easy time Googling me. Not that I’d be hard to find in Willow Creek.

He tugged on his reddish beard. “Could have sworn I picked up on some fox shifter energy in here.”

Olivia said nothing.

I only shrugged, feeling more out of place than I’d ever felt in my life.

“What do you need, Jasper?” Olivia asked.

“I have news from the other clans,” he said. “Couldn’t get into the manor for some reason, so I came to find ye.”

“What’s your news?”

“Unrest. Seems everybody decided to test territory borders at the same time. Ravens are scuffling with bears, and Rachel said ye had the mountain lion alpha camped out. Must be something in the air.”

“None of us know where or why Acheron disappeared. It’s got us all on edge.” Olivia leaned on her bo staff. “What about your clan?”

“Ye know us foxies. We dart from place to place, but direct assault isn’t our preference.” Jasper’s gaze flicked to me and back to Olivia. “Do ye know anything about what’s going on?”

“Haven’t got a clue,” she said.

We all knew Jasper didn’t believe her. Even as he stood there, blatantly evaluating us both, he was assembling details into his own version of what was really going on. It took every bit of my vet training to keep my emotions from my face.

“Is Rachel here?” Olivia asked, and her eyes narrowed.

“No, I left her curled up in my bed,” he said.