WithHerCraving (21 page)

Her eyes burned as she looked at her limited view inside her
rocky hiding place. The cave walls were cold. They’d chilled her straight to
her bone marrow. And her body was stiff. She ached to stretch, to loosen her
cramped muscles and find water. Her stomach growled, reminding her she needed
to eat too.

But that wasn’t the sound that grabbed her attention.

Katrin’s ears perked up. Someone was walking toward the
cave, and they weren’t in their fur. She heard two sets of footsteps, not four.
In spite of how stiff she was, Katrin tensed, ready to attack if need be. She
sniffed the air and found in spite of exhaustion and pain she was suddenly very
alert. Survival meant honing in on every skill she possessed. She needed to
protect herself from anything or anyone who might bring her harm.

The footsteps grew closer, crunching over dead twigs and
brush that littered the ground. Then she heard voices.

“Over here,” a man yelled, sounding excited. “It’s right
over here. I never saw anything like it.”

“We’re coming,” another man, who was closer than his
footsteps made him sound, sounded calmer, if not a bit exasperated. “I told you
we’d check this out. But I can’t believe it’s like you said.”

Katrin held her breath when two males, both Cariboo by the
smell of them, walked right past the entrance of her small cave. She dared
stretch her neck far enough to peer out the hanging brush that concealed its
entrance.

The man who smelled excited pointed in a direction slightly
down an incline outside her cave.

“Over there. I told you. Oh my fucking tail,” he wailed, his
excitement suddenly mixing with anger and sadness. It was so strong the smell
of his emotions flooded her small cave.

“I’ll be damned,” a third man spoke, and slowed directly
outside her cave.

Katrin looked up at a tall good-looking male with straw-like
hair that fell straight past his ears. It was blond but the beard covering his
broad jaw was tinted with red. He rubbed it with long, scar-puckered fingers
and stared ahead of him. She gave small thanks that the males were in their
flesh and not their fur. If they’d come running here on all fours they would
have sniffed her out long before now. As it was, she was surprised the male
didn’t smell her already, as close as he was.

“The asshole was right,” he muttered under his breath.

The second male stood down the incline just out of her
sight. “Come on. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Looks like we have a dead male
to burn.”

Just one dead male? Were they talking about the males she
killed the night before?

Katrin inched forward in her cold, damp hiding place and
stuck her nose through the hanging brush. She strained to see as far as she
dared and watched the males slow and stand alongside each other not too far
from where she hid.

Holy crap! She hadn’t gone any distance at all from where
she’d killed the males. The three Cariboo began moving, bending over then
mumbling amongst themselves about how to lift the tall tree that most
definitely had been uprooted from the ground to remove the dead male trapped
underneath.

“See! Look over here. Just how I howled it would be, isn’t
it?” The excitement had returned to his voice. “Brutus didn’t make it out but I
hauled Bart back to our den. He might not live either. That female is the
devil. She made it fall on all three of us. Look at the bite she took out of
me. We need to hunt and kill that bitch. Retribution for my den and all that.”

The excited male kept going on but Katrin focused on the two
males standing closer to her. She heard the crunching from the first male as he
kept rambling and stomping over the hard, cold ground. But it was the
conversation of the other two that grabbed her attention.

“We need to strip down and change to move this trunk off
him,” one of the males said quietly.

“I know Bennie isn’t all right in the head.” The third male
had a deep, serious tone and sounded older than the straw-haired male with the
beard. “But David, do you know what this looks like?”

“I know what it smells like,” David returned. “Stefen,
there’s no way one little female—who, by the way, you know as well as I do that
Jolip litter was chasing down to rape—did this. I don’t care how bad I smell
saying it but I’m glad one of them is dead. My two pups would run a lot safer
on our mountain if that litter all burned in hell.”

“And you aren’t the only one who feels that way.” Stefen
paused for a moment and the two males continued standing side by side, their
heads lowered as they stared at the dead male under the tree trunk. “But this
tree was uprooted. It’s a healthy tree. It didn’t rot out and coincidentally
fall on all three of them.”

“Now I know you don’t believe some devil-bitch is haunting
this mountain,” David retorted and chuckled dryly. There was no amusement in
his scent.

“Nope. I sure don’t. I think a Malta werewolf is on our
mountain.”

“Fucking tail! Stefen, I’ve run on this mountain all my
life. My litter runs on this mountain. Don’t you think I would know if a Malta
werewolf were here among our dens?”

“Don’t howl to me about knowing this mountain,” Stefen
growled. “My den has hunted and bred here for over a hundred years. This is my
mountain,” he snarled. “But I’ve seen Malta werewolves before. They can do
things you wouldn’t believe. You can’t sniff them out either. They smell just
like the rest of us. It’s something in their DNA or something. Hell, I’m no
scientist, just a Cariboo who hunts and lives like any other. But you explain
how a perfectly healthy tree suddenly pulled itself up by its roots and landed
exactly on this entire litter.”

The crunching sound of Bennie rushed toward the two males.
“So you believe me now, right? We’re all going to hunt down that devil-bitch
and rip her hide apart, right?”

“First we’re going to give your littermate a proper burial
ceremony, Bennie,” David said, his voice too calm. But the smell of his anger
was strong. “Then we’ll decide what to do next.”

“Let’s change and get this tree trunk off him,” Stefen said.
He started toward the tree.

Katrin was wired to leap. The moment those three males
changed they would smell her and she would be trapped in this small cave. That
litter’s blood was dried on her fur. She wouldn’t live long enough to run for
freedom. Now was her only chance.

Her heart pounded with excruciating pain against her ribs as
she waited for the other male to move away from the entrance. He’d no more than
taken several strides toward the fallen tree when Katrin tore out of the cave
and ran in the opposite direction of the males. She didn’t slow long enough to
hear what they said as they noticed her haul tail away from them.

In spite of every inch of her aching, Katrin ran at full
speed. It was her only chance to outrun the males before they changed and
chased down her scent. When she hit a rushing spring, she dove into it.

“Fucking tail!” she howled, her throat still scratchy.

The water was so cold and her body temperature was already
low from everything she’d experienced the night before. It slowed her down but
she pressed forward, raising her front legs high out of the water and leaping
against the current. If she stayed in the spring long enough and put good
distance from where she’d leaped in, her scent would be lost. As cold as she
was, even in her fur, she would be too frozen to have a scent.

By the time she climbed out, Katrin knew full-blown pain
from a body of aching muscles. Whatever she’d pulled off the night before in
yanking that tree out of the ground and making it fall on that litter, it still
had her head as worn out as her body. She managed to climb a few rocks, but
then sat.

Sun spilled onto a flat plateau. Katrin doubted she was very
well hidden. She had one hell of a view of the part of the mountain where she’d
just run. A rock wall blocked where she had turned, then gained altitude before
leaping up the rocks.

After sniffing the air and not smelling the males, Katrin
surveyed the mountain around her. It didn’t take long for her to decide she
wasn’t sure how to get back to her den.

Although was there any reason to return? Through everything
she’d endured last night, Katrin had never smelled Jarvis. He hadn’t run after
her. If he had, he would have found her.

She’d run from him without her clothes. Not that changing
into her flesh would help. It was easier to travel across the mountain in her
fur, not to mention a lot faster. But knowing she was stuck on all fours
brought her mood down even further.

She wished Jarvis were here. Even if he was only in love
with half of her, Katrin would howl and fight until he accepted all of her.
They would find terms both of them were able to run with. Somehow they would
make it work. Wasn’t that how two werewolves in love handled things? More than
anything she wished he would find her, protect her and help her figure her way
out of this mess. At least that way they would be together. Their mating might
not be perfect. But the way her heart hurt, knowing she was without him, had to
be proof there was enough in her to fight for him.

Slowly Katrin stretched out on the smooth rock. Unlike her
cave, here it was warm. The sun was working its way higher into the sky. She
embraced the heat and fell asleep. Her dreams were about Jarvis, the two of
them running across the mountain. They were in love, barking and nipping at
each other. She felt his tongue cleaning her after hours of wild, heated sex.
As sated as she was, his long, warm tongue stroked her, running over her coat
with meticulous detail.

He dipped lower, nudging her legs apart with his nose.
Katrin moved, vaguely conscious of the smooth rock underneath her as she
stretched and moaned her approval.

Jarvis responded with a low growl while he scraped her inner
thigh with his teeth. She tightened, her muscles clenching in response to the
abrasion. Katrin thought of rolling him over and giving him a taste of his own
medicine.

It was that long tongue, perfectly rough and soft at the
same time that convinced her to remain stretched out comfortably just the way
she was. He licked her fur. Then he was in between her legs, pressing and
dragging moist heat toward her entrance.

If being eaten out by a male in her human form brought
exquisite pleasure, the same while in their fur was absolutely off the charts.
He made his tongue stiff and impaled her with it. Then without notice, he made
it soft and reached deep inside her to stroke her pussy walls. It was the most
fantastic experience and one she hoped would never end.

Katrin opened her mouth. For some reason, she knew better
than to howl her pleasure. Although the reason why escaped her at the moment.
She arched her back so her hind legs were in the air and allowed Jarvis to devour
her.

He obliged willingly. With his paws against her outer hind
legs, he prevented her from rolling to one side or the other. He lay down on
her tail, which aided in keeping her pinned. Katrin had no desire to go
anywhere. Nothing had ever felt better.

Never had she known a male with an ability to bring her to a
climax so easily. The pressure built, taking her over the edge until she was
beyond thought, beyond knowledge of anything other than what he was doing with
that tongue.

She exploded, curling her body into a ball as rapid waves of
pleasure released throughout her body. She did howl then and opened her eyes.

Katrin stared straight into dark, almond-shaped silver eyes
that were laced with fury. Jarvis looked anything but happy to see her.

Jarvis knew a mixture of anger and relief when he found
Katrin sleeping so soundly that his scent didn’t wake her as he approached.
He’d been furious over the good chase she’d given him through the night. He had
held on to her scent, lost it, found it again, only to find himself damn near
running in circles around the mountain hunting for her.

He had no idea what she’d endured through the night. When he
first smelled her scent, and knew it was strong enough that he’d really found
her this time, he’d raced up the ledge to find her sleeping. When he’d picked
up the other smells still thick in her coat, he’d started cleaning her.

Katrin hadn’t woken up. Even when she’d stretched out on the
plateau and let him bathe her, she’d remained asleep. He imagined she’d run
through the night, fighting the demons inside her just as he had. It had been
in the darkest recesses of the night that Jarvis had realized he would take
Katrin back on any terms she wanted.

Running across the mountain he’d known so well as a cub,
Jarvis began understanding how it had to be between the two of them. Katrin
wasn’t just another female. He might have found one, if he’d kept running and
hunting until some placid female lifted her tail and beckoned him. She wouldn’t
have been Katrin though.

Maybe she was half Malta werewolf. There wasn’t a bad bone
inside his adorable female. She had howled that there were more ways for her to
help with their den. Didn’t males and females work side by side in all tasks
taken on in a mating? If one of them excelled in doing something then that was
the task they took on. Everything from building their den, furnishing it,
providing kill for it, and yes, eventually raising cubs in it. That was how a
den became rich with the smell of love and happiness. It was all those chores,
labored over together with the two of them side by side that provided a full,
successful mating. And that was what he wanted with Katrin.

At first he’d regretted taking time to gather her clothes as
well as his before chasing after his fiery-tempered little bitch. Her scent had
faded with the speed in which she’d raced away from him. Jarvis had persisted
though, willingly backtracking, slowing to sniff rock after rock until he’d
picked up on her again and ran in the direction in which her smell had come.

By dawn he’d almost decided to return to their den, hoping
she would come back to him. It wasn’t in his nature to cave simply because
something became tedious, or too hard to pull off.

Katrin stood, backing away from him slowly, and growled low
in her throat. She wouldn’t escape him a second time. Both of them knew it. He
held his ground, letting her sniff out his conviction to keep her by his side.

Her coat glistened in the morning sunshine. He’d bathed her
a good twenty minutes before she’d woken. Katrin had moaned a few times in her
sleep. He tasted the saltiness of her own bath. She’d tried cleaning herself.
Apparently exhaustion had won over. Jarvis wouldn’t admit that if she’d still
had the energy she’d embraced last night, he might never had tracked his
adorable mate down. There was no way in hell he’d ever let her get that far
away from him again.

Jarvis shook his head, lowering it until the bag holding her
clothes fell from around his neck. He nudged it toward her.

Change
, he ordered, then began letting the fire erupt
deep inside him. It sparked up his spine, fueling his body with adrenaline to
allow the change to take over his own body.

Jarvis never took his eyes off Katrin. Even as his sight
changed along with his other senses, and he no longer saw the intense
glistening through every hair of her beautiful coat, he continued watching her.
He breathed in deeply, feeling the shift of his bones, his spine changing to
hold man instead of beast, and the popping of joints as they changed inside
him. Her scent no longer smelled deeply of the earth, of the rock she’d been
sleeping on…

Or the pungent odor of another werewolf’s blood.

That was the first scent to leave the air when he began
straightening to stand on two legs. It was also the smell that bothered him the
most. There were many questions that needed answering. Jarvis needed to know if
he had to go find a male and kill him to maintain his mate’s honor, or protect
his little bitch from an angry den that might sniff her out.

As much as he needed to know all the things she’d done
through the night, Jarvis needed even more to know that Katrin would always run
with him. His primal side insisted he make her remain where she was, close to
him, so her scent was always fresh with every breath he took. The man side of
him knew it had to be Katrin’s choice.

Katrin began trembling uncontrollably the moment she stood
in her flesh. She immediately squatted down, her long auburn hair tangled and
stringy as it fell over her face and down her bare back. Jarvis stared at her
full, ripe breasts. Her nipples were so puckered they were like pointed,
mouthwatering beacons.

There were a few scratches on her that weren’t there before
she ran from him. Katrin wasn’t injured though. That was a relief. He hadn’t
smelled
her
blood when he’d cleaned her. That took a load off his mind.

He zipped his jeans then squatted. Katrin’s fingers shook so
badly she struggled with the drawstring around the cloth bag he’d worn around
his neck that had her clothes in it.

“Let me,” he said softly, putting his larger hands over her
smaller, cold ones.

“Thank you.” Her voice was scratchy.

More questions surfaced. Jarvis would wait. First he’d get
his beautiful female dressed, then back to the den where he would feed her and
take care of her. After that she would answer all his questions, and he would
howl to her how he had to have her with him, no matter what concessions that
meant on his part.

Jarvis opened the bag and began pulling out everything he’d
grabbed before running after her the night before. First came the hairbrush.
Even though her matted hair hung around her face, Jarvis saw her smile. Her
lips were chapped. Another thing he would make sure was remedied.

He handed her underwear, socks, bra and long underwear. As
much as he wished he had time to keep her naked and ravish that beautiful body
of hers, Katrin needed time to recover from her night. Part of being mated was
always keeping his mate healthy and happy.

“Are you okay?” He had to know at least a few things right
now.

Katrin plopped down on the rock after putting on her
underwear and long underwear and accepted the heavy sweater he had for her.

She pulled it over her head then tugged out her long hair
with one hand. She really needed a bath.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted, and stared up at him with so
much pain in her eyes it tore at his heart. “I…I killed a male last night,” she
stammered.

“Fucking tail,” he hissed, tensing at her confession. Jarvis
looked around them at the peaceful surroundings. He sniffed the air and didn’t
smell any other werewolves nearby. When he looked back at Katrin, tears stained
her dirt-covered cheeks while she yanked her jeans up her legs. “Let’s get you
back to the den. My mate needs a hot bath and meal. We’ll figure everything out
after that. Come on, it’s not more than a quarter-mile hike. Are you okay to
walk?”

Katrin nodded and began attacking her hair with the brush.
Jarvis continued surveying their surroundings as he helped her to her feet and
held her close as they began the walk to their den.

A few minutes later Katrin balked, freezing in her steps.
Jarvis picked up on the scent of other Cariboo nearby at the same time she did.

“That’s his scent.” Katrin dug her fingernails into the back
of his hand.

“His? Who?” Jarvis sniffed the air again, turning into her
when he smelled her fear. Other than Katrin, he had picked up on the scent of
another female, possibly two. Katrin’s scent was dominating the air around him.
“I smell females.”

“What?” Katrin hissed, turning into him and pressing her
hand into his chest.

Her hair was still wild around her face and streaming over
her shoulders. But there was color back in her cheeks. Jarvis slipped his hands
around her but she twisted, sniffing the air. Her expression turned frantic and
the smell of her fear escalated when she looked up at him.

“He’s going to do it again,” she whispered. “Jarvis, we
can’t let him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That litter last night,” she began, and again pressed her
hand to his chest. “They chased me. If I hadn’t pulled that tree out of the
ground and dropped it on them, they would have raped me. You smell them. We
have to stop that litter from attacking another female.”

Jarvis stiffened. The thought of another male touching his
mate was enough to create a fiery rage inside him. “Who tried to attack you?”

“Last night,” she explained, whispering and continuing to
sniff the air as she glanced around them. “There were three males who started
chasing me. When it was obvious I wasn’t going to escape them, I attacked one
of them when he charged at me. It drew blood and I couldn’t get all of it off
my coat. But that just pissed them off more. They were all coming at me.
Jarvis, I didn’t have a choice. But now there are other males who saw the dead
male under the fallen tree. I guess two of them lived. But I smell one of them
now. That’s him. We have to help those females.”

Someone ran over a wedge of rocks not too far into the trees
from them. Jarvis spotted the figure, a male, and pushed Katrin behind him.

“Stay here.”

“No. I’m running with you.”

“Okay. But stay right behind me.” He took her hands in him
and she looked up at him. The concern he saw in her eyes overwhelmed all fear
he’d smelled on her a moment ago. “No one is going to get hurt.”

“Except maybe that rogue Cariboo who has no respect for
females,” she snarled.

Jarvis pulled her to him, kissed her forehead and vowed
silently to kiss a lot more of her very soon. “Stay close,” he ordered, then
took off in a sprint across the rocks.

Katrin paced alongside him. He glanced at her once. It was
just long enough to put the image of her alluring figure, with sensual hair
blowing behind her and her pretty face tight with determination, to memory.
Along with lots of great sex, every male dreamed of his female running by his
side to hunt.

Katrin’s scent changed. He smelled her determination, and
when she met his gaze, for that brief moment, he also smelled her happiness.
Their scents became one.

Jarvis stuck out his hand, slowing Katrin as he slowed. The
male they were chasing had stopped and now walked across a grassy meadow. It
didn’t surprise him to see how disgusting the male looked. The Cariboo’s
clothes hung on his tall frame, dark and wrinkled. Jarvis didn’t care how many
days the male had slept and hunted in those clothes. But by the easy stench he
left behind him, making him easy to track, it had been more than a few.

“Now don’t get skittish on me,” the Cariboo yelled, and
slowed in the middle of the meadow. He held out his hands and beckoned. “Both
of you come here, you sweet little females.”

“Who are you?” a female asked.

“Oh crap,” Katrin whispered and grabbed Jarvis’ arm. “Both
of them are no more than pups. That mutt can’t get his paws on them.”

Jarvis agreed. He stared through the pines where they’d
stopped after following the male’s stench. Two females, and the one who had
just answered the male was a teenager. She gripped the hand of a younger female
no older than ten. Jarvis’ hackles rose when the male continued beckoning to
them. The faint smell of lust ripened his already disgusting scent. Katrin put
one hand over her nose and looked up at Jarvis, her eyes large with questions
as to how they should best get the pups away from that lowlife Cariboo.

“Oli, run to the den,” the teenage cub told her littermate.
“Run real fast right now!”

The younger cub took off running but the male was faster. He
leapt across the meadow and grabbed the younger cub.

“No! Let her go!” the teenager yelled, lunging toward him.

She leapt back when he tried grabbing her too.

The cub tried yelling but the male put his grubby paw over
her mouth and kept a tight grip as he held her against the side of her body by
her waist. The poor little female kicked frantically with her legs but was no
match for the despicable beast.

“I told you to come here,” the male said, stalking the
teenage female. “You don’t want your younger littermate hurt, now do you?”

The little cub squealed when the male squeezed her. From
where Jarvis and Katrin stood, Jarvis smelled the salty aroma of the teenage
girl’s tears.

“Stay here,” he told Katrin and stormed out into the meadow.
“Let both of those females go,” he barked at the Cariboo.

The male spun around and snarled at Jarvis, his teeth
growing in his mouth. He had a death grip on the poor little female, who was crying.
Jarvis’ heart swelled painfully at the sight of her terrified expression.

“Who the fuck are you?” the man snarled. He then spun and
pointed a finger at the teenager. “Don’t you move or I’ll kill your
littermate,” he yelled.

“I’m Jarvis Alger.” Jarvis extended his hand to the female
pup in the male’s grip, although he was still a fair distance from the two of
them. “Put the female down and get the fuck out of here. What kind of male
messes with pups?”

“I don’t know any Alger litter,” the male stated, ignoring
the rest of what Jarvis said.

“You do now,” Jarvis said, and intentionally calmed himself
so his scent wouldn’t further terrify the two young females. “And I told you to
put her down.”

“Go on your way, Alger,” the male said, curling his lip. He
was one ugly son of a bitch.

“I can’t do that,” Jarvis said. “These aren’t your pups.”