WithHerCraving (22 page)

“How do you know that?” the male asked and sneered into what
might have meant to be a smile.

“We aren’t!” the teenage female yelled from behind the male.
“I’m Leta Mercy and this is my littermate, Olivia.”

“Shut up!” the male roared and lunged at the teenage cub.

Jarvis raced into the male when he grabbed the surprised
teenage cub and knocked her to the ground. She started screaming and didn’t
stop. Jarvis credited her on her knowledge of how to shake off a predator.
Neither cub was going to get hurt this morning, though. He’d see to it if he
had to break the male’s neck himself.

He bulldozed the male and sent both of them rolling across
the meadow. As he’d hoped, the younger female wriggled loose in the scrimmage
and raced across the tall grass, a blur in Jarvis’ side vision. There wasn’t
time to check on either female. He glared at the male who hurried to his feet
and turned his fangs on Jarvis.

“You’re messing with a private matter, male,” he snarled.
“We don’t take lightly to that on this mountain.”

“I know what isn’t taken lightly on
my
mountain,”
Jarvis emphasized and prepared to attack.

“Your mountain?” the male’s words were garbled from his
extended teeth.

“I was whelped on this mountain—and don’t want the likes of
you on it.”

The male looked past Jarvis. “Now what do we have here?” he
asked, his voice turning disgustingly sweet.

Someone had moved behind Jarvis. He smelled Katrin and
looked over his shoulder, turning enough to see that she’d raced into the
meadow and now had both cubs wrapped in her arms. She was looking down,
whispering to both of them. Katrin glanced up and met his gaze.

Maybe she shouted a warning. Jarvis wasn’t sure. The male
lunged into him, taking advantage of the distraction. Jarvis went down. The
ground came up hard to knock the wind out of him. At the same time claws and
teeth were scraping at Jarvis’ exposed flesh.

As fast as the male was at attacking, Jarvis fought with
just as much fervor. The male was limp in his arms before Jarvis got a good
blow in. He shoved the male off him, struggled to his feet and looked in horror
at the long branch impaling the side of the male. It had gone clear through.

When he looked at Katrin, tears stained her face.

“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” she cried out. Then she let
go of the two cubs and fell to her knees in tears.

* * * * *

“We’re doing the right thing.” Katrin’s voice was as void of
emotion as her scent. “Those two cubs know our den. You told them your name.”

“I told that dead motherfucker my name,” he amended. “And
for the record, I could have killed him myself.”

“I can’t stand by and watch another werewolf attack you,”
she whispered.

So he’d noticed, twice now. Jarvis didn’t want to fight with
Katrin. Not when the Mercy den was in sight.

And of all dens, why Mercy? Jarvis hadn’t sniffed out David
Mercy in years. The male had run off the mountain before he and Jaeger had
after some female. It actually surprised him to know he had returned. The two
of them slowed when he spotted a cottage, which was buried thick in the trees
not too far from his den—or where their den would be again if he ever got to
finish building it.

“You ran with the cubs’ sire when he was a cub?” Katrin
asked. “You’re sure this is the place?”

“Yes and yes.”

“I smell a lot of werewolves.” Her voice grew quiet.

When he glanced down at Katrin, she was looking up at him
and not at the Mercy den. “Second thoughts?”

“You know this is the right thing to do,” she whispered,
although with the breeze racing around the trees, it wouldn’t take long before
someone smelled them standing just outside the nicely kept yard. “I can’t keep
hiding. And I can’t keep running. No matter how far I run, my blood remains
inside me. And I don’t want to live without you,” she finished, her voice
cracking.

She looked down but Jarvis grabbed her chin and raised her
face to his. “You won’t ever live without me, my little female,” he informed
her. “That much I promise. But we don’t have to do this. We can leave the
mountain. We can build our den anywhere.”

“This is your mountain. We aren’t running.”

Jarvis sighed. “Then let’s return to our den and howl this
out for a day or two.”

“And wait for them to come to us? Which they will do.”

He worried they were in that den right now forming a hunt
for his mate while the two of them stood outside and made the job easy for
them. Jarvis would bite and claw to the death for Katrin. But he’d rather have
the odds slanted slightly in his favor. There were a lot of werewolves inside
Mercy’s den, and he seriously doubted it was a party.

“At least then we’d be on home turf.” Jarvis sighed. His
words sounded cowardly even to him, and he’d like to think he didn’t run like a
coward. “Fine. We go in.”

Gripping his mate’s hand, which was clammy and cold in spite
of the good front she was putting up, Jarvis led the way to the well-worn path
alongside the cottage. The front door to the den opened before they reached it.

“Alger,” David Mercy said. He grinned and stepped outside
his den and closed the door behind him. “I’ll be damned, it really is you.”

It had been years since he’d seen his friend. Jarvis stared
at the male facing him, at the weathered lines around his eyes, at how tall and
muscular he’d become. And he smelled the worry that hung heavily on him. He
wondered if this was how he would look and smell once he became a sire.

He shoved the thought out of his head. Before he would honor
that line of thinking he needed to secure the safety of his mate, or there
never would be cubs.

“I wish this was a social call,” Jarvis said, aware of
Katrin trying to squeeze the life out of his hand.

“We wanted to make sure your cubs made it to your den
safely,” Katrin said, her voice still scratchy.

Jarvis should have at least argued that he take her to their
den for a hot shower before running here. His stubborn mate probably would have
argued until he’d given in to her on that one too.

“I owe both of you a huge debt. This is your mate?” David
smiled down at Katrin. “Leta and Oli are fine thanks to you, if I hear it
howled right.”

“That same male attacked me last night,” Katrin whispered.
“Your cubs shouldn’t have had to endure what they did. I’m sorry we didn’t
sniff him out sooner.”

“You saved their lives,” David stressed, and returned his
attention to Jarvis. “Leta told her mother and me a rather fantastic story.”

Jarvis sighed. There was no way around the truth and he
would never dishonor his old friend by stinking up his doorstep with a lie.

“Which I’m sure had the smell of truth,” he said, and stared
his friend in the eye while breathing in his scent.

“Do you remember Stefen Runner?”

Jarvis frowned. He hadn’t been ready for the question. He’d
been ready to defend Katrin’s honor, and her life.

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“He and I went with Bennie earlier this morning to see where
a tree had been unearthed and had fallen on him and his littermates. Stefen
smelled the work of a Malta werewolf.” When David looked at Katrin, he didn’t
smell accusatory. If anything, he smelled sad.

Jarvis had the overwhelming urge to yank Katrin away from
David and run. She’d told him what had happened to her before he’d found her
asleep on the mountain. He remembered her telling him she’d run out of the cave
after listening to the males howl to each other and walk past where she’d been
hiding.

“I’m Malta werewolf,” Katrin said, her voice clearer than it
had been since Jarvis had found her. She stood taller and smelled proud as she
spoke. “My sire was Malta werewolf and my mother was Cariboo.”

David studied her a moment and nodded. “So you’re
responsible for Bennie’s death?”

“The male was about to take off with both of your cubs,”
Jarvis insisted and took a defensive step between Katrin and David. “I argued
with my mate all the way here that we were walking into a werewolf hunt.”

“And you are,” David said without hesitating.

Jarvis was sick inside. He didn’t see an out for him or
Katrin.

“But my mate insisted we come make sure that your two cubs
made it to their den safely.”

“Like I said, I owe you so much. It’s a debt I can’t repay.”
David held his hands out in surrender. “You saved the lives of two females I
would lay my own life down for. When the two of you have cubs, you’ll
understand. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for either of you. Thank you.”

The door to his den opened behind David and the male spun
around. If Jarvis didn’t know better, he might think his friend had been ready
to help defend Katrin against whoever would step out of his den.

A young female with big blue eyes and straight, long blonde
hair looked at her mate and sniffed the air before studying Jarvis and Katrin.

“Why are you standing out here?” she asked. She spoke,
looked and sounded just like the teenager they’d saved from Bennie in the
meadow.

“Molly, I’d like you to meet one of my best friends.” David
reached over his mate and pulled their den door closed, then wrapped his arm
around his mate. “You remember me howling about the Algers?”

“Yes.” Molly leaned against her mate and smiled at Jarvis.
“Welcome to our den.”

“Jarvis Alger and his mate have come to make sure that Leta
and Oli are okay.”

“How nice of you.” She had a pretty smile. “Now that both of
them are the center of attention and aren’t being run off while howling around
so many grown werewolves, I think both of them are going to be fine.”

“Molly, I’m Katrin,” Katrin said, and snuggled against
Jarvis. “I’m not very presentable right now. The male who tried attacking your
cubs tried to attack me during the night. Jarvis and I sniffed him out while
returning to our den. I recognized his scent because he had led your mate and
another male to where his litter had tried attacking me. When we smelled your
cubs in the meadow, we didn’t get to them fast enough before that male had
grabbed your youngest cub.”

Molly’s hand went over her mouth and her large blue eyes
grew even larger.

“My cubs can exaggerate the truth from time to time but
you’re howling it just as they did.” David glanced down at his mate and
squeezed her tighter against him.

“Jarvis charged into the meadow to save your cubs,” Katrin
continued, and looked up at him.

In that moment, seeing her personal fear mixed with an
overwhelming amount of pride for him tore at Jarvis’ heart. He had to show
Katrin she wasn’t going through this alone. She might be the one with the Malta
werewolf blood in her veins, but he loved her and every bit of who she was. He
wrapped both arms around her and crushed her to him before looking over her
head at his lifelong friend.

“My mate has a hard time watching me fight another male,” he
explained to David.

“My mate is the same way,” David agreed, and ran his hand
down the back of his mate’s head.

“She saved your cubs’ lives,” Jarvis pointed out. “And a
full-blooded Cariboo female wouldn’t have been able to hurl a branch through
the air the way Katrin did and impale that waste of werewolf flesh who tried
taking your cubs from you.”

“Wait a minute,” Molly said, understanding hitting her as
she straightened and pushed free of her mate. “You’re a Malta werewolf?” she
whispered, then hurriedly sniffed the air as if her words might cause everyone
inside the den to come rushing out.

Jarvis wasn’t so sure whoever was inside might not be
listening on the other side of the door. He fought not to back away from the
two of them, and their den.

“Katrin is half Malta werewolf and half Cariboo,” Jarvis
explained. “She was whelped on the mountain next to ours and ran to Prince
George with her littermates when their litter was burned out. She and I met
there and fell in love. We’ve just returned to the mountain and are rebuilding
our den. We can smell that you have company, and we aren’t going to bring any
more trauma to your cubs. But your litter is welcome to run up the mountain and
visit us.”

Katrin looked up at him. She didn’t move in his arms and
didn’t speak. Jarvis decided this was going to be the way of it. He wasn’t
going to enter the Mercy den and try to convince werewolves he didn’t know, and
who didn’t have a personal stake in what had happened that morning, that his
mate was a good female. They had come to do what they had agreed to do.

“We would be honored to come visit.”

David’s words meant more to Jarvis than he could ever howl.

He glanced down when he smelled the tears on Katrin’s face.
She wiped them away and smiled at David and Molly. “If you would honor us with
that visit, then I feel very safe in saying any debt that you feel you owe to
me or Jarvis is paid.”

David didn’t smile at her but understood. He met Jarvis’
look and his expression was grave. “Not everyone on the mountain will be as
understanding,” he said, voicing what was already on all of their minds. “Malta
werewolves are feared. The government ordered their deaths.”

“I’m sure there were some very bad ones,” Katrin said, and
all three of them looked at her. “But my sire was a good male. He raised my
littermates and me to run with honor. I didn’t understand before but I do now.
I found out while in Prince George of my true heritage and the gift that my
sire left me.”

“A gift?” Molly asked, smelling as if she really wanted to
understand.

“Yes,” Jarvis said. “Katrin’s gift is her ability to move
trees. She only recently found out she could do it. Although if she’s terribly
upset, she has been known to send a werewolf flying,” he added, and gave his
mate a squeeze. “We’ll leave now. Neither of us wish to upset your cubs by
going inside and possibly making trouble for your den.”