WithHerCraving (15 page)

More than a day passed with the three of them running at a
fairly good clip. They’d reached the top of the first mountain then ran at high
altitude through the night and into the next day. Katrin must have grown up
toward the top of a mountain similar to his. The high elevation didn’t affect
or slow her down. Seeing how easily she leapt over jutting boulders or raced up
incredibly steep inclines somehow made him even more excited to show her his
den.

What used to be my den.
In spite of the familiarity,
Jarvis needed to remind himself the den where they grew up was no longer there.

They had only stopped to hunt twice, and both times small
game. Even for Cariboo, the mountains could be a dangerous if not deadly place.
Once they were in their corner of the Canadian Rockies, and not running through
someone else’s territory, things would be different.

Jarvis’ tummy rumbled and Katrin looked at him. Her eyes
glowed and she smelled happy, relaxed and content. She was even more beautiful
than when he’d first met her. If that were possible. He hadn’t noticed before
the dark, burnt-orange coloring in her fur that streaked down her shoulder
blades. The shades reminded him of how her hair flowed past her shoulders in
her human form.

Cariboos often had streaks of red or orange in their white
fur. Katrin’s might be a shade or two darker, but it only made her more
captivating. Now, watching her in the early afternoon sun, as she stared at him
with pure contentment in her eyes, Jarvis felt truly blessed. He didn’t care
how dark her fur was. It was the way she looked at him, possessive, satisfied
and hungry—for more than his kill.

Jarvis wanted to mount her and fuck her right where they
were, on the top of the mountain under full sunshine. He wanted to feel her
underneath him, her body tight with his. More than once on their trek he’d
tried mounting her. Each time she’d darted out from underneath him. He’d chased
her up different parts of the mountain. She’d run faster than the wind each
time.

One thing he’d noticed, his adorable little Cariboo never
made a tree fall or tried shoving him or Jaeger away from her with some
unnatural force. She hadn’t tried anything to get rid of the bears but had
trusted his ability to handle the situation.

Katrin had used those Malta werewolf abilities twice. Both
times had been to prevent or end something bad. While he chased her, sparred
with her or played on their run, she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary.
Katrin only used the Malta werewolf part of her when in a panic. He was sure he
had smelled it on her in front of McAllister’s den and on Toubec’s land, now
that he thought about it. As long as he made sure she always felt protected, that
side of her might not surface again.

Jarvis wasn’t sure if he would have drawn that conclusion in
his human form. But in his fur, with all of his human emotions at bay,
everything smelled very clear. Katrin was who she was—half Cariboo and half
Malta werewolf. He’d made the choice to run here instead of any other location
for a reason. Possibly at first, it was to hide her from the world. He’d chosen
this location so he could love her without a pack smelling disgusted over it.

As he stared into Katrin’s eyes and saw how much she loved
him, a type of acceptance settled inside him. It no longer mattered if she were
different from other females. She was his. All his. He knew she smelled his
pride, and yes, his love. There was no reason to hide how he felt when he would
feel this way about her for the rest of their lives.

He started toward her when his littermate yelped like a pup.
Katrin looked at Jaeger, confused. Jarvis didn’t understand at first either.
But then he breathed in the fresh mountain air. He stared at the huge open area
scattered with wildflowers and tall, swaying grass.

In a way, this secluded spot, buried high on the mountaintop
with the Canadian Rockies creating steep, erect sentinels around them, was
similar to other meadows they’d ran through on their way here. A cool breeze
blew across the isolated paradise. Ice-capped mountains were a better backdrop
than any wallpaper or painted walls could provide. The smells were crisper up
here. The sky bluer.

It was this meadow, these mountains, this sky and the grass
brushing against his legs that made their long run and the perils of this
journey all worth it. Jarvis yelped and sprang forward toward his littermate.

This was
their
meadow, where he and his littermates
had learned to hunt, learned to track and what each different scent meant. This
was where they’d learned about danger and what the fresh flow of blood tasted
like after a kill. They had licked their wounds here and relished in each
victory.

Jarvis’ heart pounded as he raced after Jaeger. The two of
them ran at high speed, circling the outer edges of the meadow as if they were
running laps on a track. The air made Jarvis’ eyes water. He panted, tasting
every scent the mountain breeze carried. His fur fluffed out and moisture that
sifted ever so lightly in this high altitude clung to him.

Then he saw Katrin. She was still standing where he’d left
her. Her tail wagged slightly and she panted, her pretty pinkish-red tongue
draped lazily out the side of her mouth. Her body was slim. He knew her muscles
were toned. She was a female entering her prime, perfect in absolutely every
way.

Her off-white coat was dirty but it gave her a rather
seductive appeal, he decided. Her burnt-orange highlights streaked down her
shoulder blades and made her look rather wild. His Katrin would be able to
seduce him with a blink of those deep silver eyes that stared at him right now.
He’d already had a good taste of her wild side and planned on knowing her
seductive side just as well.

Jarvis stared at her a moment too long and ran into the
backside of Jaeger.

His littermate spun around in mid-run.
Watch where you’re
going, motherfucker
, he snarled and snapped.

Katrin’s tail wagged furiously and she barked, rising onto
her hind legs for a moment before jumping in place. She looked like a werewolf
desperate to get in on the fun. Jarvis barked in return and left his littermate
to strut over to her, as if he’d just performed some heroic feat and would now
accept the praise and adoration from his female. He wouldn’t deny it. He was
head over tail for Katrin and had damn near just proven it.

It was time to get those clothes off from around her waist,
which from the looks of it, would be more work than it had been when they’d
still been on Toubec’s land.

* * * * *

“So this is your land you grew up on?” Katrin asked.

After the three of them had changed back into their human
forms, they’d started exploring. He wanted to show his mate every blade of
grass from where he’d been whelped.

They trudged to the other side of the meadow, all of them
looking worse for wear in clothes that had been tied to their waist for the
duration of their run.

“Yup,” Jarvis answered, his thoughts already spinning over
the many things they would have to do over the next week or so. “Our den was
just on the other side of those boulders.”

“The two of us had quite a few adventures in this meadow
when we were cubs,” Jaeger offered. “Although I swear it used to be the size of
a football field.”

Katrin’s laughter was melodic and she willingly slid her
hand into his when Jarvis led the way over the rocky terrain.

“We’ll camp here tonight and tomorrow start rebuilding.”

“What?” Katrin looked at him, surprised. “You want to set up
a den here? But, the humans—” she began.

“We’re as safe living here as we would be anywhere.” He
leapt off a boulder then turned and reached to help her down to the ground.

“Because of me,” she murmured, looking at him a moment
before reaching out with one hand. She slipped her hand in his but jumped to
the ground without holding on.

He hated how she suddenly smelled sad. Jaeger gave him a
side glance but his littermate wouldn’t step in and growl during their
conversation. Jarvis cared too much to be caught smelling of a lie. The
conversation would happen sooner or later but he had hoped it would be later
and in a different setting. Not that he’d conjured the ideal way to discuss her
being half Malta werewolf.

In truth, she was perfect in so many ways that he didn’t
want to focus on her faults. He accepted who she was and knew that was why they
were here. But this was ideal land, incredible, unscathed territory, and he
doubted humans would come around twice. Jarvis would be ready for them if they
did.

“All of us were happy living on the mountain,” he said,
searching for a way to say what was in his heart so she wouldn’t smell sad.

“All of us were happy living with our litters. But all of
our litters aren’t around to run with us anymore.”

“Once we’re settled in and have established our territory up
here again, we can go down the mountain so you can contact your littermates.”

Katrin’s face lit up. He had said the right thing. But
Jaeger’s growl and sudden spicy scent threw all of them into silence.

Ahead of them, with the thick patch of trees still
surrounding it, was the burned remains of Jarvis and Jaeger’s den.

Without giving it thought, he and his littermate had walked
to their den, or what remained of it. The black skeletal shell of what once had
been the den he’d been whelped in and in which he had hundreds of happy
memories now turned his stomach. Jarvis stared, unable to look away.

The last time he’d seen his den, it had been up in flames.
They had run the night of the fire, as had a lot of litters. It had been
something he’d blocked out, seen no reason to dwell on once they’d arrived in
Prince George. Now, staring at the charred remains, something jerked against
his heart. He wasn’t able to move but simply stared, that entire horrific night
when he’d believed his world had ended flooding back into his brain.

“Jaeger and I, and our sire and mother, had done everything
in our power to try and put the fire out and save our den,” Jarvis began, his
throat suddenly so dry it was hard to speak. It was as if he still breathed in
the heavy smoke billowing from their den.

He wasn’t sure why he growled out loud but he’d started, so
he continued explaining. “There’s a small waterfall through those trees and we
ran back and forth, hauling water in the large water buckets Mom had always
used for laundry and to cook. We never had inside plumbing in our den.”

“There wasn’t a moon that night,” Jaeger continued, as if on
cue. He didn’t smell of anything, not sad or angry. His scent was as flat as
Jarvis’ tone had been. “There was so much smoke it was hard to see. We all put
a bit of muscle into it, letting the change take over just enough to make it
easier to fill those buckets then pass them on to each other to douse the
fire.”

“Mom was at the end of the line, closest to the house. She
screamed at us, continually howling to move faster, bring water quicker. Her screams
were so desperate for more water I think it took us all a moment to smell
through the smoke and realize her screams had changed,” Jarvis told her.

“She shouldn’t have been the one closest to the den,” Jaeger
snarled fiercely.

Once again Katrin’s hand slipped into Jarvis’. This time it
wasn’t for support on uneven rocky ground, but support when the flood of
emotions suddenly filled the air around them. Suddenly he understood his sire’s
reaction to what had happened. He hadn’t the night of the fire. But now, with
Katrin there next to him, willing to shoulder his pain when she’d endured so
much of her own, made everything smell so clear to him.

“We weren’t succeeding in stopping the fire.” Jarvis started
walking. He wasn’t sure why but he led the way up to their den. “The flames
were out of control. Mom caught on fire and we didn’t realize her screams had
changed. When we did she was rolling on the ground, trying to put them out. Our
sire reached her first, and he’d been the one filling the barrels at the
waterfall. He doused her with an entire barrel of water, which did the job. But
it was too late.

“I’ll never get the sound of him howling out of my head when
we realized she was dead. And I couldn’t stop him. Fucking tail, I tried,”
Jarvis snapped and stormed ahead of them to the ruins that remained of their
den.

“What happened?” Katrin whispered, the pain in her words as
strong as the smell of her sadness.

Jarvis looked down into her pretty blue eyes. They were
bright, rimming with tears, and she didn’t blink as she stared up at him,
waiting to hear the rest of the terrible story.

“When my sire realized Mom was dead, he picked her up into
his arms and began howling. It was the worst sound I’ve ever heard in my life.
He loved her so much.”

Katrin nodded as if she knew this to be true in spite of
having never met either one of them.

“My sire ran into our burning den with our mother.”

“Oh my God!” Katrin wailed. Her hands covered her mouth as
the tears that had welled in her eyes slid down her cheeks.

“Fucking tail,” Jaeger muttered under his breath and stalked
away from both of them.

Jarvis stared at the remains of what had been his litter’s
den. Katrin moved next to him and he smelled the salt from her tears. She put
her hand on his back but there was no consoling the pain from the loss of his
sire and mother.

“We need to tear all of that down,” he said with conviction
and sliced his hand through the air. It didn’t cut the horrific memories of
that night from his brain though. Nothing would. “Our den will be built closer
to the waterfall.”

“I’m not sure building our den here is a good idea,” she
said, looking away from the charred remains. Remains that had once been solid
walls and were now jagged spears facing the sky. “Humans know we are here.”