WithHerCraving (16 page)

“Humans knew we were in Prince George,” he pointed out.

“But there was the pack. You know there’s safety in numbers.
Our lives might have been perfect up here growing up in our dens, but those
days are gone. We didn’t have the protection of a pack here in the mountains.”

“That pack won’t accept us.”

She shot her attention to him, her blue eyes bright but not
with anger as he’d expected. Instead, her expression turned guarded and her
scent shifted to something wary.

“Because I’m half Malta werewolf,” she said, resigned.

“I can’t change how they feel about the breed.” Jarvis
gestured around them. “No one knows we ran in this direction. And on the
mountain no one will know. You’ll be Cariboo. That’s all.”

“But I’m not just Cariboo,” she said, her tone soft as she
said the words slowly. Her sadness smelled strong, although Katrin was a
compassionate female. It hurt her knowing her bloodline might continue to cause
them problems. But she also wept from his story of his sire and mother. It made
sense she smelled the way she did.

There was the slightest hint of something sour that hung in
the air between them for only a moment. Jarvis looked at Katrin, searching her
face to help confirm what he’d just breathed in. When he inhaled a second time,
it was gone. Remembering how well she had masked her emotions in the past, he
studied her a second more before saying anything. If he’d thought he’d caught a
whiff of disgust it was gone now.

Jaeger stood in what used to be their living room and looked
over at the two of them, sniffing the air. He narrowed his gaze on Jarvis but
Jarvis wasn’t going to dwell on how his littermate felt about their
conversation.

“You and I know that, and Jaeger. But no other litter we
might meet after building our new den here will ever sniff out the truth of
your bloodline.” he clarified.

“You wish this in order to protect me?” she asked, not
looking at him. Instead she stared at the ground while her pretty hair fell
forward and shrouded her expression.

“Katrin, I swear to you that you’ll always be safe running
by my side,” he told her, and thought he understood what he’d caught in the air
a moment ago. “If you wish, we never have to howl to each other that you aren’t
full-blooded Cariboo again.”

Katrin didn’t comment but walked away toward the remains of
the den but stopped before reaching it. She plopped unceremoniously on a round
rock that jutted out of the ground. Once he and his littermate had practiced
leaping over that very same rock as cubs, except then it had been a giant
boulder. Now, with Katrin sitting on it in her wrinkled jeans and dirty
sweater, it resembled a throne. Even with her long hair tangled and darker than
usual since none of them had bathed yet, she was breathtakingly beautiful.

She remained there with her back straight as a board and her
hair falling in wavy strands almost to her ass. Her long, slender legs were
stretched out before her and she pressed her palms on the rock on either side
of her. When Jarvis wandered over to assess the remainder of what once had been
their den, Katrin stayed where she was, staring at the breathtaking view.

He and Jaeger didn’t say much. His littermate’s somber scent
matched his own. Somehow, walking through and around what was left of the
structure brought something that smelled of closure. The past would always be
there, unchangeable and engraved in their memories for the rest of their lives.
Jarvis and Jaeger’s parents were dead. It was an unspeakable tragedy.

Returning here caused the pain of their death to resurface.
As he confronted his loss, Jarvis knew he might never have done so if they
hadn’t returned here. And now, with Katrin by his side, they would replace the
pain and injustice done in his past with happy memories and a new litter.
Together he and Katrin would rebuild, hunt, share their kill, and restore the
wonderful smells created by love to this place that meant so much to him.

When he returned to her side, Katrin hadn’t moved. She still
smelled sad, though. Jarvis wanted to know her thoughts. He also needed to
start immediately on a makeshift den to give the two of them privacy. He wanted
to spend the night fucking his beautiful mate. They would start their new life
here and he vowed she’d never have a sad scent about her again. In order for
the two of them to know true happiness, Jarvis knew it had to begin with
honesty.

“There is something I want you to know,” he began, squatting
next to her.

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at him with her beautiful
blue eyes.

If he stared into them every day for the rest of his life,
it wouldn’t be enough. “When I told you to leave at McAllister’s den, I think
part of me was ashamed of what you’d just done,” he said, whispering. Voicing
the truth out loud damn near made the words choke in his throat.

”Ashamed?” she choked. “I reacted on instinct. I didn’t even
know I was able to do that,” she told him, her words coming faster as she held
his gaze. “Why would it shame you to have your female protect you?”

Katrin started to stand but Jarvis grabbed her arm and
forced her to sit back down. “Everyone was so shocked, stunned even. You threw
McAllister and me through the air when we were just getting a good fight
going.”

“You were fighting because of me.”

“I’ll always defend you, my sweet red bitch,” he swore.
Jarvis dug his fingers into her tangled hair, then forced her to tilt her head
and look at him. “McAllister was trying to howl a comparison in his mating and
ours. I think he turned out to be a good male. It was their pack leader who
smelled outraged. We can’t live in a pack like that.”

“I never said I wanted to stay there,” she said, barely
moving her mouth as she spoke. “No matter where our den is, humans might turn
on us just as they might with our den up here.”

Jarvis shook his head. “Humans know they’re supposed to get
along with werewolves. They won’t make a scene in their city when it isn’t
politically correct. That’s why they climb the mountains and search for an
outlet to release their hatred toward us. They find a den. They start it on
fire.”

“You just made my point for me.” Her smile smelled dangerous.

Jarvis wasn’t daunted. He put his hand over her clasped
hands. “No. Not this time. This time we know of their hatred. They won’t try
burning us out a second time because we’ll attack before they can.”

“Do you mean like this?” Katrin looked up at the trees.

When Jarvis heard a loud crackling sound he leaped in front
of Katrin and growled protectively. Jaeger had been hunched down inside the
burned-out shell of a den and leaped to his feet, his expression instantly
wild. When the cracking sound became louder and Jarvis got a whiff of fresh
bark just torn from the wood, he stepped to the side and gave Katrin a hard
stare. She wasn’t looking at him, or at the trees that were thick around the
clearing. Instead she seemed intent on staring at her hands, which were clasped
on her legs.

When he looked around them once again, noticing his
littermate doing the same, Jarvis waited in silence to see which tree would
topple to the ground. Katrin was making a point. He smelled the truth there.
What he didn’t smell was a single emotion coming off her at the moment. She’d
been sad a moment ago but now there wasn’t a shred of the thick smell lingering
in the air. He picked up on his own reaction. But only because she was ripping
large branches from a tree and sending them toppling to the ground with her
mind. It shocked the fucking crap out of him.

He would also have to point out to his thickheaded and
high-spirited little Cariboo that knocking trees to the ground would only help
them if the humans attacking just happened to be standing in the right place at
the right moment. Unless she expected him to herd the humans over an X marked
on the ground, put there just in case they were attacked, all this proved was
that she was definitely half Malta werewolf.

There was no point in snarling it out with her until her
tree fell. Jarvis glanced across the meadow at his littermate. He didn’t smell
Jaeger from where he stood but he’d bet his hide the male would howl the same
argument that Jarvis would over this.

Glancing up again at the trees, Jarvis waited for part or
all of a tree to clamor to the ground. None of them did. Instead a large branch
ripped free from the side of an old tree standing next to a fat juniper. It
flew through the air with so much energy, as if it had suddenly learned to fly
and embraced the gift with a fierce and animated excitement. Jarvis swore he
heard it whistle in the air as it raced between him and his littermate. The
branch then crashed at the far end of the mountain.

Any leaves that had once been on the branch had been
stripped from it during its short but high-speed journey. The branch stuck out
of the ground like a spear, its warbled and crooked end reminding him of
arthritic claws.

Jaeger let out a low whistle. “Damn. I didn’t know she did
parlor tricks.”

Jarvis snarled, curling his lip at his littermate. He needed
to have a serious discussion with his mate. Obviously she’d been practicing,
unless possibly once unleashed this Malta werewolf side of her began
escalating. Either way, Katrin had to somehow contain it. If he needed to howl
over the necessity of suppressing her tree-throwing ability, Jarvis sure as
hell didn’t need his littermate snarling jokes in the background.

Jarvis wasn’t able to tell if Jaeger smiled or not. His
littermate ducked his head and returned to whatever the fuck he had been doing
before Katrin decided to give them a show.

Katrin’s blue eyes had darkened so that they were almost the
shade of violet when she twisted her neck to look up at him. She smelled of
more than anger now. Silently, she challenged him. For a moment he was stumped.
She was attacking, but not physically. His little female was attacking for
control over this new power of hers. It was new territory to him and one he
needed to fight his way through, but with caution.

“No, I don’t mean that we defend ourselves like that.” His
voice was too soft, too gentle, as he battled to restrain his temper. “I meant
with tooth and claw. We know they might come so we’ll be ready to attack the
way we’ve always fought, the way our sires fought and their sires before them
for thousands of years. It will also be the way our cubs fight after we’re
gone.”

Katrin raised one eyebrow. “So you’re saying we’ll fight the
Cariboo way and not the Malta way.”

“We’ll fight the honorable way,” he stressed, no longer able
to contain his frustration. How did she not understand that the world hated
Malta werewolves?

“Malta werewolves aren’t honorable?” she retorted, standing
and facing him. Silver streaks laced her incredibly dark blue eyes. She fisted
her hands on her hips and glared up at him as her tangled hair flew around her,
making her look erotically wild.

Jarvis hesitated, glaring at her. “You aren’t thinking
clearly,” he grumbled, clenching his teeth so he wouldn’t start howling at her.
Fucking tail! Of course Malta werewolves weren’t honorable! That’s why everyone
on the planet had tried euthanizing them. It was the only time in werewolf
history where genocide had been used and had smelled honorable and justified.

“Go to hell, Jarvis,” she screamed then stormed off into the
trees.

“Katrin!” he barked.

She ignored him. Jarvis spewed out expletives as he watched
his female leave a trail of anger when she marched away from him.

“Handled that well,” Jaeger muttered when Jarvis walked over
to his littermate.

Jarvis saw Katrin through the trees. It appeared she’d
stopped by the waterfall. “She started howling nonsense,” he said tightly. “Did
you hear her demand to know if I believed Malta werewolves had honor? Fucking
tail! Their breed altered themselves so that their offspring were whelped with
strange powers.” He pointed at the branch still sticking out of the ground.
“Like that,” he snarled. “Even their own kind who weren’t altered wanted their
breed wiped out.”

“So it’s howled.” Jaeger squatted on his haunches and his
hands were covered with dirt and debris from their burnt den.

“So it’s howled?” Jarvis shook his head, not grasping what
his littermate was saying any more than he understood what the fuck he was
doing. “Once she’s calmed down we’ll work our way through this. It’s not like I
haven’t come to terms with her breeding,” he explained, deciding voicing his
thoughts to someone who wouldn’t fly into a rage, or turn branches into spears,
might help clear his head. “Katrin is my mate. I love her. We’ll run and hunt,
have cubs, grow old together.”

It was a good thought and one that helped cool his temper as
he imagined what their cubs might look like. Letting his thoughts drift to cold
nights in their warm den, working to make those cubs, relaxed him even further.

“Katrin is who she is.”

“Yup,” Jaeger agreed.

“She didn’t ask to be only half Cariboo.” Jarvis admitted to
himself that he hadn’t handled their conversation that well. But damn it, this
wasn’t a conversation he had ever thought he would have. Glancing over to where
Katrin was, he knew he would have to take care with the next round. Before she
flew into another rage he would have to let her see his mind, show her he loved
her. “She’ll come around,” he murmured. Then with conviction, because it was
true, he added, “Katrin is still trying to understand who she is.”

Jaeger stood. He held something in his hands. It was covered
in mud, with wood shavings stuck to it. “How do we know what happened to that
pack? And why do we care? All you need to sniff out is how honorable
that
female is,” he said and pointed in Katrin’s direction. “I need to go. I should
be back in a few days.”

“What?” Jarvis gave himself a mental shake. His anger had
simmered inside him. He wasn’t sure if his female was through howling like a
crazy werewolf. Now his littermate was telling him he was leaving right after
they’d reached their old den? “What the fuck are you howling about?”