WithHerCraving (17 page)

Jaeger held up whatever was in his hands. “This,” he said,
as if that would make sense out of things.

Jarvis ran his hand over his face and instinctively looked
toward Katrin again. For a moment he didn’t see her and leaned away from his
littermate, sniffing the air. Then he spotted her just as she pulled off her
shirt. Auburn hair tumbled down her slender, arched back.

If she thought she would run back down the mountain…

Katrin bent over and again disappeared from Jarvis’ line of
vision. When he took several steps toward her, leaving his littermate and
whatever nonsense he was babbling about, Jarvis saw Katrin wasn’t changing. She
walked into the pool of water surrounding the waterfall. His groin instantly
ached knowing how that impact of icy cold mountain water would feel against her
human flesh.

“Jarvis!” Jaeger demanded.

Jarvis spun around. “You aren’t leaving,” he informed his
littermate, pointing a finger at Jaeger and starting toward his female at the
same time. “Fucking tail! My mate needs my attention. If this bothers you then
you and I can fight about it later. Right now, I’m going to Katrin and you’re
staying right where you are.”

“Pull your God damn tail out of your ass,” Jaeger snarled.
“I’m running back down the mountain. I ran up here with you and helped haul
supplies needed to get us started living up here again. A few days alone with
your new mate will hopefully allow the two of you to at least smell mated, and
not pissed off at each other. It stinks. I told you I would return and I will.
But there are matters to take care of. Be a smart werewolf and quit worrying
about me. Take care of her,” he stated, and pointed over Jarvis’ shoulder
toward Katrin.

“A few days alone would definitely do both of us some good,”
Jarvis agreed, and hoped he’d be able to soothe Katrin’s hackles sooner, and
not later. He looked forward to making up, then seeing how many ways he’d make
her come. “But what matters do you have to take care of?”

“This.” Jaeger opened the box.

Jarvis gawked at all of the cash inside. “Where did you get
that?”

“I had hoped it would still be here,” Jaeger whispered,
sounding almost reverent.

Jarvis stared at him, then at all of the money. “Where did
that come from?” he asked again. It smelled stale and musty.

“It was years ago,” Jaeger began. “Mom told our sire that
the money our litter was given from time to time, whenever our sire did some
job that paid in cash instead of fresh kill, was useless. She told him she
would bury it. Mom said maybe someday it would be useful.”

“How come I never knew about this?”

Jarvis had never had much use for human money, any more than
their sire had. The only time had been when living in a pack where humans lived
also. Humans loved money more than they did each other. It made the crinkled
pieces of paper stink, as if all of those bile emotions toward the currency
were saturated in it. The box of money didn’t smell though. Maybe being buried
in the earth for so many years had cleansed it. Not that Jarvis thought that
put more stock in it. All of the cash in the box his littermate held, and it
did look like a lot of money, wouldn’t raise the walls of their new den or
enable them to hunt their kill any better.

“I wasn’t supposed to know about it. I heard our sire and
mother talking about it one night when we were supposed to be asleep. Honestly,
I thought it wouldn’t be here. Mom hadn’t smelled like she was lying and there
hadn’t been humor in her words either.”

“Okay. Damn.” Jarvis shook his head but easily conceded.
“You found it. This is now your money.”

“It’s our money. Money that belongs to our litter.” Jaeger
put the box in the bag he’d hauled up the mountain. “I’m heading down for
supplies. I think there should be enough money here to buy a trailer, or some
way to haul everything back up the mountain.”

Jaeger would be gone longer than a few days if he planned on
driving back up the mountain. Jarvis nodded once and returned his attention to
Katrin.

“Go tell her you’re going down the mountain. Find out how to
contact her littermates.” Mentioning them to Katrin had been the only time
since they’d been up here that she’d smelled happy. “Maybe spend some of it to
buy her some dresses. Mom had always been thrilled when our sire brought her a
new dress.”

It had to be said. She was getting damn good at using her
gift. Many scenes from her running as a cub made sense now.

Katrin stared at the two fires burning, one on either side
of her. She was proud of herself. No amount of muscle added would have allowed
her to have such beautiful fires burning in such short time. She had made both
of them by willing branches into two piles. Now she wouldn’t freeze in the
water.

It had been as simple as cubs’ play. Katrin had focused on
branches lying nearby on the ground and had willed them where she wanted the
two fires to be. When she’d had enough wood, she’d brought two sticks together
in the air in front of her. Then Katrin had made them rub against each other
faster and faster, until a flame ignited. She’d laughed and done a little dance
over her success once the fires were going. Jarvis hadn’t seemed to notice but
instead had been intent on grumbling over something with his littermate.

Malta werewolves had a gift, one that should be revered and
not scorned. It wasn’t magic, but simply a part of her mind and her senses she
hadn’t explored before. If only she could get Jarvis to see it that way.
Instead, he hung on to previously conceived odors howled by werewolves neither
of them would ever know.

Katrin admitted she hadn’t howled about being Malta werewolf
very well to Jarvis. She had known it was a subject the two of them would
eventually have to battle out. There had been no avoiding it. Jarvis hadn’t
known she was half Malta when he’d first sniffed her out. Katrin hadn’t known
her sire’s blood flowed this powerfully through her veins.

“Thank you, sire,” she whispered, and watched bright yellow
and orange flames do a wicked dance over the twisted branches beneath them.

Maybe if she preached to the flames, growled her thoughts
and new understanding out loud, she’d be able to make sense of them and help
Jarvis accept her gift too. Katrin glanced toward Jarvis and Jaeger. She was
too far away to smell them. Were they fighting about her?

“I just turned a branch into a spear and sent it flying
across the meadow,” she declared to herself. “Which was amazing!”

Jarvis would see how incredible her gift was. And practical.
Fucking tail, she’d just built two fires without raising a paw. That should
impress anyone.

The same ignorant odor had existed around Malta werewolves
when she’d been a cub. Katrin just hadn’t known about it. Her sire and mother
raised all three of their cubs to believe they would grow up and run however
they chose. At least that was how Katrin had thought she’d been raised. She
hadn’t thought Cariboo were any different than Malta werewolves. Anything her
sire had done had always been perfect. Katrin had never given a thought to him
behaving a certain way because of his breed. Nor had her sire or mom ever
pointed out that when they ran this way it was Cariboo and that way was Malta.

Now, thinking back to when she’d been a cub, there were
times she remembered that were proof her sire had used his gift and simply not
let his cubs know. There had been a shed built overnight, snow cleared
unbelievably quickly after blizzards, all due to her sire’s gift. It had to be
true. Katrin hadn’t ever sniffed out deception because she’d never questioned
the act. She’d been too wrapped up in being a cub.

Her sire had passed this gift on to his cubs. At least Katrin
guessed her two littermates had the gift as well. They looked a lot more like
Malta werewolves than she did. Katrin hoped they did. Leisa and Magda had left
her in a pack she didn’t know, which had terrified her. But they had taken off
running across the country, and across the border into a new country none of
them knew a lot about. Running with the gift would give them all the protection
they needed.

Katrin moved between the trees, watching Jarvis. She
couldn’t sniff him or Jaeger out, especially now with wood burning and the
smoke making it harder to tell what emotions were at play between the two
males. They looked as if they were snarling at each other. It made her sick
that it might be over her.

“No,” she said out loud when the smell of her curiosity was
suddenly stronger than the wood burning in the two fires.

She was tending to practical tasks always performed after a
really long run in their fur. Katrin had washed her clothes in the cold
mountain water underneath the waterfall. They now all hung on sticks she’d
stabbed in the ground near the fire to dry. She had gotten into the water to
rinse off her flesh. Although she was cold, there were things to do. Her mother
had never let her or her littermates change into their fur to be warmer after a
run when they’d returned with supplies. Those were working runs and her mother
howled that the cold air would make them work faster. She hadn’t had the
advantage of flames on either side of her keeping her warm against the frigid
mountain air as a cub either. Katrin would tend to her tasks and quit thinking
about Jarvis.

She dragged a cauldron and old jugs that she’d spotted at
the edge of the trees—utensils very likely used by Jarvis’ litter while he was
growing up—over to the fire. Katrin warmed some of the ice-cold water and with
the jugs would be able to wash her hair. All sensible litters cleaned
themselves and the clothes that had been twisted around them after a hard run.
Her mama had made Katrin and her littermates follow the ritual after each run.
It was something she would someday teach her own cubs.

“My own cubs,” she whispered, and a quickening deep inside
her swelled into desire. The flames in both fires grew larger and swayed
seductively as if they knew her thoughts. “See that I’m normal,” she said,
directing her comment toward Jarvis, who didn’t hear her. “See that I’m exactly
how I’m supposed to be.”

Malta werewolves were feared because they were different. As
Katrin stared past the trees at Jarvis, she understood how her breed might have
abused that difference. Just now, as she studied her mate’s broad shoulders and
tall build, she had ached to alter his thinking so he would sniff out the truth
as she did.

That would have been wrong. The air around her suddenly
reeked of the dishonor she had just allowed into her thoughts. Katrin had
manipulated the trees. But manipulating someone else’s mind, coercing their
thoughts so they ran the same way hers did, might possibly be the most
dishonorable thing ever. Is that what had happened to the werewolves on Malta?

She knew her sire’s breed had originated on that island,
hence the name. Katrin knew little about the details that had led to packs
agreeing her breed was too dangerous to live.

“The past is the past. It isn’t what matters.” She sifted
out the negative thoughts that had festered in her brain and promised herself
they would never return. Having the gift was a privilege, and one that needed
to be treated with great care and respect. “What matters is this day forward,”
she whispered under her breath.

Forcing her attention to her task, Katrin dipped her hand in
the water in the cauldron. It was warming up, definitely not ice cold anymore,
but would feel that way if she dumped it over her head. It would be nice to
have shampoo, even conditioner. A bar of soap would be wonderful. Katrin
imagined it would be a while before they had luxuries like that. Some
werewolves roughed it daily in the mountains. Katrin never had. Any time they
needed toiletries, her sire had always done some task for one of the old widows
who spent their days making soap and other items, such as lotion, shampoo and
conditioner, and even aftershave. In return for the items, litters on the
mountain provided these women with fresh kill.

Would it ever be that way for her and Jarvis? Were there
even still litters living on the mountain? If so, there were undoubtedly quite
a few less than there had been when she was growing up. Her mountain wasn’t too
far from here.

She remained lost in thought until, testing the water again,
Katrin decided it was warm enough. She’d mastered tearing limbs from trees
without any thought. It had come naturally. However, she couldn’t pour the
water out of the cauldron and into the jugs with her mind. But then a week ago
she hadn’t known this gift existed inside her.

Katrin suddenly saw how this gift might be dangerous. A
werewolf might smell too much of a good thing. Already she had tried making
something other than wood move through the air. It had taken several tries,
with her staring hard at the cauldron and trying to lift it without touching
it, before understanding hit her.

“You just told yourself you’d respect your gift then you
turn around and believe you should be able to do more than what you can already
do,” she scolded, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Katrin.”

She jumped at the sound of her name. She’d been too lost in
thought to smell Jaeger approaching.

“What?” she snapped.

“Impressive setup.” Jaeger wrinkled his nose and sniffed the
air. A small scar across his nose looked like a tiny streak of lightning.

Katrin hated to guess what emotions he might pick up in the
air. No way the fire would hide the smell of all of them.

“What do you want?” she asked, forcing herself to sound
calm.

Jaeger took in the two fires, the clothes drying on sticks
alongside one of them. A moment passed before he returned his attention to her.
She’d never noticed before how alert his gaze was. Jaeger studied her face with
bright eyes. His eye color was an opaque shade of hard, flat blue. She barely
smelled him over the two piles of burning wood. Katrin hated not being able to
sniff out another werewolf.

“Jarvis asked me to come over here.”

“Oh really?”

She was naked, but he would have known that when he
approached her. It was too late to cover herself, not that she had anything to
put on. Her clothes wouldn’t be dry for a while. Males and females in packs saw
each other naked in their human form many times during group runs. There was a
difference between being naked as part of their culture, and being naked
sexually. Katrin wouldn’t be prissy and cover herself. But she wasn’t going to
stand and give him an eyeful either.

“Yes, really,” he snarled, matching her biting tone. “The
male cares about you.”

“So he sends you to howl at me?” She wouldn’t let him smell
her pain and clamped down on her emotions. Then squatting in front of one of
the fires, she picked up a stick and began poking at it. Already the heat from
the flames made her flesh tender.

“Yes.” Jaeger didn’t elaborate.

Katrin finally sighed, deciding if he were waiting for her
to stand and face him, this would be a very long, drawn-out conversation. When
she glanced over her shoulder, Jaeger’s attention was no longer on her face.

“There a reason why he sent you to me?”

“I’m running down the mountain.”

“Why?”

“I have some cash. We need supplies to rebuild.” He tilted
his head and this time his dense blue eyes noticeably took their time traveling
down her body. He smelled curious, almost fascinated. “I’ll be gone a while.
You two need that time.”

“Suddenly you’re an expert on relationships.”

“It doesn’t take an expert.” He sighed and his curiosity
faded. “Are there any supplies in particular that you’d like to have?”

“Toiletries would be nice. Of course a bathtub and toilet
would be nice too.” She managed a smile. Jaeger was sent by her mate, his
intentions sincere. “I admit I was just wishing I had shampoo and conditioner
and soap.”

Jaeger nodded toward where the burned den was. “There’s a
bathtub and toilet over there,” he told her, and offered a small half-smile.
“Our sire had brought them to our den but never was able to give our mother
indoor plumbing.” Instead of sounding sad, he made a face at her and his tone
turned teasing. “Of course they’re covered with soot. Maybe you can put your
talents to good use and lift them from over there to underneath the waterfall
and clean them off.”

“Only if they’re made out of wood.”

“You can only move wood? Fucking tail. The howlings were
right.”

Jaeger shook his head but then met her gaze. He didn’t smell
guarded anymore. Her gift fascinated him. If only Jarvis would feel the same
way.

“I’d heard that Malta werewolves have specific gifts. Some
can make it rain or throw water from creeks, others can cause avalanches, and
apparently you can break trees.”

So she had some kind of an explanation now. Did Magda and
Leisa have the gift the same way she had? Although thinking back, it seemed her
sire had been able to do anything, move anything, build anything faster. Maybe
he had simply been a super Malta werewolf. Or maybe it diluted down through
generations.

“Wait a minute,” he said, and wagged his finger at her. “My
littermate isn’t made out of wood.”

She almost cringed remembering how she’d sent Jarvis and
McAllister flying away from each other when they’d been ready to fight because
of her. “That was the first time I’d used my gift.”

“Gift?”

She sighed, shaking her head. Katrin didn’t feel like
explaining how blessed she was to have part of her sire in her to Jaeger.
“Thanks for asking if I needed anything.” Then after a moment, muttered, “I’ll
thank Jarvis.”

“Jarvis also said I was to ask how to reach your
littermates.”

“He did? I’d love them to be on the mountain with me again.”

She shifted more to face Jaeger. “Please try and find them.
They ran the same day they left me at the Toubec Ranch. There is a sanctuary
run by owls in Washington State. We’d heard it howled that all breeds were
welcome there as long as they didn’t smell of trouble.”

“I’ve heard of this sanctuary.”

“Magda and Leisa were going to run there first. Once in
America they had planned on remaining in their flesh and taking a bus to
northern Minnesota. There are leopards in that area but my littermates didn’t
think it would be a problem if they kept a low profile and stayed in their
flesh. My littermates were pretty sure that the leopards also have a
sanctuary.” Katrin wished she had demanded more information from her
littermates before they had run, leaving her on her own. “It might take a while
to sniff them out. There is one way to find them faster but it might also bring
danger to both of them.”