WithHerCraving Read online

  With Her Craving

  Lorie O’Clare

  A Lunewulf book.

  Cariboo werewolf shifter Jarvis Alger must be crazy. He’s fallen for a Malta werewolf—the most-despised breed, due to a rumored penchant for violence. The more he tries to get Katrin out of his mind, the more he wants to drag her into his den for blistering-hot lovemaking. And when Jarvis proves he cares about her, not her background, she quickly succumbs.

  Katrin Keller actually is only half Malta werewolf, but she’s accustomed to the hate thrown at her by ignorant Cariboo and humans. That hatred killed her parents, and sent her littermates Leisa and Magda on the run. But the law doesn’t care about her half-breed status. Even the Cariboo cops will stop at nothing to eliminate her.

  Torn between the man she loves and the heritage she won’t ignore, Katrin may have to choose between Jarvis and the very blood that runs through her veins. But as their passion grows, she’s certain of one thing—she’s willing to fight for both.

  A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  With Her Craving

  Lorie O’Clare

  Chapter One

  Jarvis Alger pressed his boot against the side of the trailer for leverage then pulled on the strap until it was secure. It required a bit more muscle than his human body was capable of in order to secure the straps in place. He gritted his teeth, growling low under his breath. Out in the middle of nowhere with the forest behind them and rambling meadows in front of them, no one would know if Jarvis allowed the change to aid in pulling off his task. Besides, the last thing they needed was for their load to fall from the truck on their way back to the ranch.

  His muscles bulged under his flesh. Blood rushed through his veins. The primal side of him, his stronger side, rose up from deep within as he pulled on the straps. Just before the seams began popping in his jeans and threads snapping in his shirt, Jarvis forced the change to stop.

  “Control,” he ordered himself, and endured the pain as he forced the change back into the recesses of his brain.

  The straps were now secure. His palms burned and he focused on how he’d rubbed his skin raw instead of the fire in his veins from not allowing his body to complete the change once it had started.

  The afternoon sun scorched his back. His shirt clung to his body. Droplets of sweat trickled through his hair and down his spine. His entire body smelled of freshly cut wood that now was stacked in the back of the work truck. Paying attention to his surroundings helped ebb the raw urges still simmering inside him. Ten years ago he wouldn’t have been able to control the change into his fur as he had just now. Ten years ago he never would have believed he would be where he was today, either.

  Jarvis straightened and assessed their load of thick logs. Who would have thought he would be working for another Cariboo lunewulf for wages and living in a den he hadn’t built with his own sweat and blood?

  “Think it’s good,” he hollered to the other side of the loaded truck.

  Jaeger Alger, his littermate, yelled back. “Good and tight. Ready to head back?”

  Jarvis opened the driver’s side door to the truck. ”More than ready.”

  “Sure hope I don’t stink as bad as you,” Jaeger muttered, climbing in on the passenger side. When he wrinkled his nose it caused the scar on the side of his nose to twist like a streak of lightning.

  “You smell worse.” Jarvis didn’t look at his littermate, who would argue the point if Jarvis smelled even a bit confrontational. Instead he reached for the key to turn on the truck. “We’ve worked our tails off today.”

  “Toubec runs us like mutts,” Jaeger complained.

  Jarvis curled his lip. “Honor the male.”

  Jaeger growled instead of backing down as he always had in the past. His littermate might need a good ass kicking soon just to remind him who was the elder.

  “Toubec gave us dens. We live among Cariboo lunewulf who run with more freedom than we’ve ever known. Not to mention we don’t have to worry where our next kill will come from or if we’ll be attacked in our sleep.”

  “And we run on his land,” Jaeger snarled back.

  “Run off his land and claim your own den. No one is stopping you.”

  It was an argument the two of them had at least once a week since running down from the Yukon Territory to British Columbia and settling outside Prince George. Rock Toubec, a Cariboo with respect among the very large lunewulf pack that controlled Prince George, allowed Cariboo lunewulf to live and run free on his land if they worked.

  It was a good-smelling deal. Lunewulf, a pure-bred, completely white werewolf, had once had strong packs running up and down the entire Canadian Rockies. Even the Yukon Territory had once been overpopulated with the conceited-smelling, small lunewulf. Humans had burned out their packs, or done their damnedest trying.

  Cariboo lunewulf were a much larger breed, and didn’t adhere to all those damn rules lunewulf inflicted upon themselves. The humans didn’t differentiate between breed of werewolf though when they went on their rampages. When the remaining lunewulf ran from the Yukon Territory, Jarvis and Jaeger ran as well, along with their cousin, Luther. There had been nothing left for them up there. Their hunting grounds had been burnt to a crisp. Life here was a hell of a lot better.

  They hadn’t been here much more than a week when Luther sniffed out a female lunewulf for his mate. It wasn’t unheard of for Cariboo to mate with lunewulf, but that didn’t make it completely acceptable either. Luther and his mate had left Prince George and had run down to the States. Jarvis missed his cousin but the last he’d seen him, Luther and his new mate had smelled happy.

  If things didn’t work out for him and his littermate, they now had the option of joining their cousin down in the States. According to the howlings, the U.S. government had formed a new agency known as Werewolf Affairs. WA was supposed to be preventing humans from trying to burn out werewolves.

  “What the fuck?” Jaeger muttered.

  Jarvis quit letting his thoughts wander and saw why Jaeger just cursed. A couple males in their fur ran up a hill into the meadow that spread out in front of the forest where they’d worked all day. The males were chasing a female, who was also in her fur. One of the assets of living on Toubec’s thousand-acre ranch was being able to run in their fur before dark, something none of them would risk doing where humans might see them.

  “Do we have a show?” Jaeger asked, his scent suddenly smelling excited.

  “Who’s the female?”

  Jarvis studied her. It wasn’t easy sniffing out single females who lived on Toubec’s land. They were damn near kept on leashes by their litters or mated werewolves who cared about them. Although females did join in on communal runs, a single male had to officially howl interest in mating to get close enough to sniff one of them out. It was easier to run into Prince George and find a piece of tail there. Jarvis had no intention of publicly howling his interest in getting his dick wet.

  He didn’t recognize this one but it was broad daylight. Single females seldom ran alone. If they did, they risked tarnishing their reputations. Toubec was as backward and righteous as many of their laws and traditions were. This female didn’t seem to care.

  She was beautiful. Jarvis stared at her and how the late-afternoon sun gleamed against her thick white coat. There were streaks of burnt orange stained across her shoulder blades and hindquarters. She was slender. With his human eyes, Jarvis couldn’t see her as well from this distance, but she didn’t look as muscular in her fur as many Cariboo females did. She was too big to be lunewulf though.

  Jarvis liked a bit of muscle on his females. This one looked damn good just the way she was. Her body was sleek, tall and graceful. He watched her tight form ripple under her gloss
y coat and had a hard time not getting hard. Not that he worried about Jaeger picking up on Jarvis’ aroused scent. His littermate stunk too much from a day’s work for Jarvis to worry about any other smell dominating the space in the cab of the truck.

  As the female ran in their direction, he noticed how narrowed her eyes were. Her lips were curled in a snarl, revealing the sparkling white of her long, sharp teeth. She looked pissed. Jarvis cranked the handle to roll down the window. The female was too far away to pick up her scent. He breathed in the thick smell of fresh-cut wood and growled.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Jarvis didn’t expect his littermate to answer.

  Both of them sat in the cab and stared as the curious scene turned deadly. Jarvis wasn’t the type of male to enjoy watching a single female being attacked by despicable males, regardless of whether or not she broke rules by running without an escort. When he heard the slight sound of plastic cracking, he released the door handle he hadn’t realized he had a hold of with a death grip.

  Two more males appeared over the hill, racing to join the two in front of them.

  “Crap,” Jaeger hissed.

  Those were Jarvis’ sentiments exactly. It was now four to one. He shifted in his seat, smelling his discomfort and uncertainty. There was no honor in watching a female being gang-raped. He and his littermate would be honor-bound to leap out of the truck, change and save her hide.

  The two males who had been closest to the female looked over their shoulders. Jarvis didn’t have to hear them to know what they growled.

  We found her first.

  Whatever the warning, there was a moment when all four males focused on each other and not the sleek-looking female. Possibly she had waited for a distraction like this one. Jarvis guessed she would haul ass back to the ranch and the protection offered there. He was as surprised as Jaeger when she didn’t do that.

  The female turned and lunged, charging the closest male and sending him tumbling paws over tail. Instead of backing off from a fight she might not win due to her smaller stature and less strength, she opted for the element of surprise. The female grabbed the male’s neck with her sharp teeth, soaking him quickly in blood, and shaking him as if he were a ragdoll.

  “Fucking tail!” Jarvis stiffened in his seat, the blood in his veins turning hot as his muscles tightened. The urge to change, to leap out of the truck and race to the scene overcame him with a ferocity damn near too strong to control.

  Jaeger let out a growl that didn’t quite sound human and pounded the dash with both fists. For a moment it looked as if he might lunge through the windshield.

  The female dropped the male and he staggered sideways, tried to stand, fell, then finally managed to hold his position on all fours. He wasn’t dead. She hadn’t killed him.

  They’d been breathing fresh-cut lumber all day. Now all Jarvis smelled was blood. The slender female had the male’s blood on her coat. She turned on the three remaining males and roared a challenge.

  What the hell? If someone were to howl these events to him he’d call them out as a liar, even if they did smell of the truth. He’d never heard of a single female attacking four males while all were in their fur. It didn’t happen for a reason. The four males were almost twice her size, which was common in all werewolf breeds when on all fours.

  “That female is out of control.”

  Jarvis didn’t look over at Jaeger. No way would he take his eyes off the blood-streaked female for a second.

  “I’d say she is very much in control. She’s defending herself,” he heard himself say.

  Even as he did, he shook his head in disbelief. Females, even Cariboo females, who were made out of a much tougher stock than female lunewulf, were still to be protected. Their litters kept them under lock and key until they were mated. Then they ran with their mate, hunting and building their den. Single females who ran alone were known to belly-up in a field to a single male, not turn and draw first blood.

  “She’s attacking them.” Jaeger pointed at the scene in the meadow in front of them. “Look,” he added. “That male is retreating.”

  One of the males turned tail and ran down the hill and out of sight. As he did, the female lunged at one of the two remaining males in front of her. The other decided he didn’t like her game. He leapt backward, letting out a deep explosion of barking as he did. Then the remaining two males were running away. Within seconds, she stood alone in the meadow.

  “No one will believe this,” Jaeger said, growling Jarvis’ thoughts.

  “I wasn’t planning on howling about it.”

  * * * * *

  An hour later, their workday finally done, Jarvis enjoyed a hot shower. The little female was still on his mind. Whoever she was, the wild side in her appealed to his imagination. Jarvis imagined her in her human form, what she would look like. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind she would be as sexy on two legs as she was on all fours. It wouldn’t surprise him if she snarled at any male who got too close. Jarvis toweled dry and chuckled to himself. Toubec wouldn’t need to worry about putting a leash on this one. If any male sniffed around that female, she’d probably hand him his nose as a snack.

  Jaeger had joined the other single males by the stables where they drank, fought and howled to each other about whatever topic smelled the strongest that night. There were nights when the ranch hands got their tails in knots over how a job should be done. Other times he heard their growling and snarling over being paid in cash to do an honest day’s work, as if they were human. When they howled over pack issues or drama between different litters he often smelled it clear back at the small den he and his littermate shared on the ranch. Jarvis didn’t always join them but tonight he was out the door before thinking about it.

  “Her name is Katrin Keller,” Jaeger told Jarvis, the moment he spotted him approaching the outbuildings.

  If this had been a human ranch there probably would have been horses in the stables and on the other side of the tall, wooden fence that circled the large barn. Werewolves and farm animals didn’t get along that well. The surrounding ranches advertised their equestrian livestock. Rock Toubec’s ranch wasn’t questioned for its lack of horses or cattle. The humans knew he was Cariboo lunewulf and also knew he had a strong hold on the community around him. Toubec was honored for his success in keeping humans in line. It was a strong reason why his ranch smelled so appealing to so many.

  In spite of that knowledge, and the security of privately owned land, Jarvis’ instincts always ran strong. He never completely let his guard down. No smart Cariboo ever would. So although he smelled his littermate as he approached, Jarvis picked up on another scent right before Jaeger reached him.

  It was the pungent smell of blood. Not fresh, but possibly recently dried. His lip curled as he sniffed the air then instinctively searched for the source. Jaeger already smelled of beer and the rich, somewhat sweeter smell of enthusiasm. He didn’t glance around them but focused on Jarvis once he neared.

  “Her litter ran through a week ago and left her here.” Jaeger smelled self-important as he kept his growl low and shared what he’d learned. “Apparently they felt she would be better protected here but the rest of her litter kept going, supposedly to the States.”

  It was unusual for a litter to split up, and especially leave one of their females behind. Times were exceptionally hard, though, and sacrifices, as well as actions that otherwise might appear dishonorable, had in some cases become necessary. Jarvis wouldn’t judge a litter without knowing their history.

  “Right after I got out here, everyone smelled the blood when several males hauled in a younger pup, barely grown, who was damn near filleted to death. You just missed Toubec when he came out here to sniff out the situation. They hauled the male off to the pack doctor but every single one of those sick fucks, who claimed to witness what happened, didn’t hesitate in howling about a rabid female.”

  Jarvis snorted. “Rabid, my tail. She bested them and that is the simple truth.”
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br />   “I agree with you.” Jaeger nodded and began speaking in less conspiratorial tones. “There was something off about her though.”

  “Because she didn’t turn tail and run like a good little female so those males could chase her down and rape her?” Jarvis asked incredulously. “Or belly-up and be fucked even though she didn’t want it?” Jarvis shook his head. “You run with more honor than that.”

  Jaeger sniffed the air, determining his littermate’s mood by trying to smell his emotions.

  Jarvis stared him down with a cool look. “She did neither of those and all that means is she’s willing to fight. Whether that is the type of female you’re attracted to or not, doesn’t mean there is something wrong with her.”

  “You want to sniff her out,” Jaeger accused, his eyes widening as he inhaled and seemed content he’d called out the truth from Jarvis’ scent. “You think you want to tame a female that wild and out of control? You’ve lost your fucking mind.”

  “The only thing I plan on sniffing out is good kill.” Jarvis reined in any curiosity he’d been entertaining over the female. “I’m going hunting. Enjoy your howlings,” he said, and tried feeling disgusted. Best to cloud the air with pungent emotions than be called out as a liar.

  Toubec offered more hunting ground than most of them had ever known. And it was all Cariboo lunewulf land. Jarvis left the crowd of Cariboo and wandered to the far side of land surrounding the outbuildings. Toubec lived in a large den that sprawled over a flat strip of land near the highway. On the far side of Toubec’s den the trees were thicker and there wasn’t much to offer but rough, rocky terrain. It was still good hunting ground and Jarvis liked the idea of hunting alone tonight.

  They had witnessed something today neither of them had ever dreamed they would ever see. One female not only overpowered one male, she took down four. Jarvis accepted this as the reason why the slender female was stuck in his thoughts. In their fur, females were half the size of males and seldom had what it took to overpower one determined, horny single male. Especially one with little to no scruples. That sexy, little spitfire had impressed the shit out of him. A good, hard run and eating his dinner raw, in his fur, would be perfect therapy to clear the thoughts that were stinking up the air.