Masseuse, hedgewitch, healer… Although Missouri Hess can take pain and illness away with her touch, and pull truth from a liar every time, she considers her strange talents a curse. Being a healer is a lonely existence when the people you help, shun your truth-telling side. Nevertheless when misery calls, Miz is compelled to answer. Thomas Hunter is a government agent and a member of an elite Special Forces team—emphasizing the word special. In human form, Thomas is a mouth-watering hunk of rippling muscles. Since he’s in Bitter Creek Holler to meet the local werewolves, he’s spending most of his time prowling the woods as a jaguar, ready to greet shifters in parlay or meet the enemy with fang and claw. But Thomas doesn’t know the area, or realize until too late, that he’s become prey. When Miz rescues his furry form from a conibear trap, the beast in him claims her as his own. It’s up to Thomas to work out the details and convince the bewitching healer she’s his mate.

It takes all hell breaking loose in Washington DC for hedge witch Missouri Hess to leave her mountain retreat and join her lover in the nation’s capital. Someone has unleashed a snake-eyes death hex against Thomas’s boss, Shep Buchanan. And if the spell doesn’t kill Shep, his own crew might. Nothing in his military, shapeshifting, Special Forces background has prepared Thomas Hunter for the torture of jaguar mating-heat or the wrath of a furious witch. Though he’s on a mission in DC, his beast wrests control, racing to the mate he’s left behind. After Thomas delivers his own brand of healing, Miz returns with him to duty. They’ve got forty-eight hours to figure out the twisted magic at work—and time is not on their side.

My name is Rhee Hess and I come from a long line of witches. Reunions aren't a Hess strong suit, so I don't really know family members all that well. But when my cousin requests my help, it coincides with my need to drop off the grid, and I agree to house-sit for her in Bitter Creek Holler. I'm a city girl and consider visiting in the back of rural beyond, a sacrifice. However, I'll be earning a paycheck. Call it fate, karma, or justice…I've been hired to tinker with the mind of the miserable jerk who recently fired me—billionaire, Shep Buchanan. Hi. I'm Buchanan. Nice to meet you. After listening to that tirade, I promise to be rational. It's true that I'm tough, terse, and have the temperament of a grizzly—because I am one. But I'm usually also steady and calm. Things have been strange since someone tried to kill me with a death hex spell. I didn't accommodate the assassin by dying. My bear took over and remains in charge of my human form while I offer suggestions from inside. This is not a good situation. It gets worse. The woman sent to help unscramble my brain, is a witch. Not just any witch either. She's a conniving, brain-stalking, Hess Witch...and she smells divine.