WithHerCraving Page 6

  The Cariboo curled his lip in what might have been interpreted as a smile, but there was no friendliness in it.

  “Just to talk,” he answered easily.

  “Talk? Like humans?” Jarvis snarled. “Shall we be civilized about it?”

  “Not with you.” The Cariboo started to walk around Jarvis. “I want to speak with her.”

  Jarvis stepped between the male and Katrin. “You’ll talk to me,” he warned.

  “What do you want?” Katrin demanded.

  Jarvis should have known Katrin wouldn’t remain silent. Suddenly the smell of her anger was spicy enough to burn his eyes. It didn’t sway him. Whether she was pissed at the cop, him for shoving her behind him, or both didn’t matter. The male didn’t smell mated and Jarvis would be damned if he spoke to Katrin. That human uniform held no jurisdiction in his world.

  “Back off, Cariboo,” he warned. “Don’t think for a minute a shiny badge or loaded gun is going to gain you any power right now.”

  “I don’t need a shiny badge or loaded gun to speak with the female.” He stepped around Jarvis again. “Why are you running, Katrin?”

  “I’m not running,” she informed him, putting her hand on Jarvis’ arm and pushing him when he tried stepping between them again. “I’ve simply decided I don’t want to live on Toubecs’ ranch anymore. I’m leaving to go to my littermates in the States.”

  Jarvis looked down at Katrin. He checked his surprise, not allowing its smell to drift off him. Katrin held her head high. She was telling the truth. He was able to contain most of his emotions but the weight that swelled in his chest was unbearable. The urge to grab her, haul her away from this Cariboo cop, McAllister, and demand an explanation was too strong. Jarvis wrapped his arm around her shoulders, feeling her still damp hair through the sleeve of his shirt.

  “I can’t think of any other questions you might have for her.” Jarvis pulled her close. “We’re out of the motel. That is all you demanded of us.”

  “I didn’t make that demand,” he growled, the bitterness in his tone all that indicated he wasn’t pleased with it. “We’ve come a long way, Cariboo. I’ve lived in Prince George for many years and I won’t have anyone damage the progress we’ve made.”

  “What progress? Assimilating with humans?” Jarvis curled his lip and glared at the cop. “I’ll never allow any of my litter to ever stoop so low.”

  McAllister stepped into Jarvis’ space. He was inches from his face and so damn close Jarvis smelled the fresh meat he’d eaten for breakfast. The male’s blue eyes glowed silver as he growled fiercely at Jarvis.

  “I wear this uniform to protect my city. Protect a city filled with lunewulf and Cariboo lunewulf. The fact that humans live here doesn’t concern me a bit. If they get out of line, I put them back behind it. And if a Cariboo crosses over to their line,” he growled and nodded toward the motel, “I’ll guide them back to the other side. We will always live among humans. You don’t want a human entering your ceremonies or trying to live among your pack or hunting your kill.”

  “What’s your point, cop?” Katrin demanded. “I’m out of their motel. There’s nothing for you to howl about now.”

  Jarvis felt her stiffen and wished she would remain quiet. Not because he believed she should do so. His little female would never be one not to snarl louder than anyone else in a pack. But because the less attention drawn to her the better. In spite of this cop’s nice little howling job, Jarvis wasn’t distracted enough not to see the picture he should have sniffed out the night before. Katrin had run from the ranch to the bar where he’d successfully been getting drunk to tell him she was leaving. It hadn’t taken much to conclude she’d run from the ranch, not after he’d seen the clothes and personal items in her backpack. Jarvis hadn’t considered she planned on running from Prince George, or from him.

  “My point is there are some humans in our community who don’t want werewolves on their property. We allow them that prerogative.”

  “Seems to me if this were your town you would just run them off,” Katrin said flatly.

  McAllister growled and it might have been a chuckle. Jarvis really didn’t care.

  “If they didn’t want us in their motel, they wouldn’t have given me a room last night.” Jarvis made a show of looking around him and didn’t care if his words smelled a little sarcastic. “Here’s what I think, cop,” he stated, and stressed the human line of work the Cariboo had. “I think you don’t want the two of us in that motel room. And I also think it shows very little honor to use humans wanting us off their property to get us out of that room.”

  McAllister growled and appeared to grow inside when he started toward Jarvis.

  “Go back to policing your humans,” Jarvis informed him, holding his ground and glaring at the male. He kept Katrin pinned to his side and turned from the Cariboo, an indication that he didn’t fear the male or believe him a worthy opponent.

  “So I’ll tell the Toubecs you’ve mated so they won’t demand the female returned to them.”

  Katrin stopped walking and refused to budge when Jarvis tried pulling her along.

  “Don’t let him get your hackles up,” Jarvis hissed and used both arms to prevent her from facing McAllister.

  “No one puts a God damn leash on me,” she informed Jarvis. Although held firmly in his grip, she turned her head to the cop. “I’m not part of the Toubecs’ litter,” she roared at him. “They have no right to demand I’m returned to them. I’m not some piece of meat someone has stolen out of their paws.”

  “Katrin, enough,” Jarvis warned.

  She roared, the sound incapable of coming from her true human form. Her incisors grew, garbling her speech, and she flung her arms up, attempting to free herself from Jarvis’ hold on her.

  “Do you think you can wear that human uniform and howl to me about Cariboo laws and traditions? Pick a side, cop,” she snapped and struggled to free herself from Jarvis.

  Her hair flew around her when she fought with everything she had. Jarvis put more strength into it than he wanted. The urge to pick her up and fling her over his shoulder before stalking away from the Cariboo, and the nervous-smelling human cops, was one he almost didn’t want to fight.

  When McAllister lunged at her, Jarvis reacted on instinct. He placed Katrin behind him, barely managing to hold on to her arm. Then growling fiercely at the male, he used his free hand to shove him in the chest.

  “Lay one paw on her and I swear I’ll kill you now.”

  “Katrin, calm down or it won’t be a leash I use to restrain you,” McAllister announced. Then his attention was on Jarvis. “And if you lay a paw on me again, you won’t like the cage I put you in. This isn’t a human uniform I wear. It’s the uniform worn by those sworn to keep the peace in this community. I won’t have you howling like an out-of-control cub where Cariboo can smell you and sniff out the urge for a good fight, and humans can see you and rise up together in a panic. That is your only warning to control yourself, or I will haul you in and put both of you in a cage.”

  Jarvis was actually surprised to see Katrin restrain her emotions. When she managed to slide out of his grip, he turned from the cop to face her. She grabbed her hair and pulled it behind her shoulders, then sucked in a deep breath. Her teeth receded and she stared at both of them with wide-open bright-blue eyes.

  “Tell the Toubecs I’ve mated. Tell them I’m grateful for the protection they offered when I first arrived in Prince George.”

  “This is true?” McAllister puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips. His attention shifted from one to the other. “The two of you have mated?”

  “Are you challenging my words?” Katrin demanded. “Do you smell a lie, cop? Even though you prance around humans all day, certainly you can still smell when two people have mated.”

  “I can smell that the two of you spent the night together in a motel room.”

  Jarvis would have defended his little female, but he was in too much shock over h
er public announcement of their mating. The words were as irreversible as the act of mating itself.

  He should have howled the truth of it, loud enough for more than just the Cariboo cop to hear. Katrin wasn’t going anywhere. At least he’d thought she wasn’t, until she informed McAllister of her intention of running south to the States. In a matter of minutes she’d contradicted herself.

  What terrified him more than her announcement without discussing it with him, was her obvious lie about the two of them mating and his inability to smell it. Not many werewolves were able to hide the stench of a lie.

  * * * * *

  Jarvis hopped out of the police car the moment it parked in the circular drive in front of a sprawling country home just outside of Prince George. Katrin was out of the car on her side before he made it around to her door.

  “This is your den?” Katrin asked.

  “Yup.” McAllister didn’t wait for them. His boots crunched across the gravel driveway toward the front door, which he unlocked then headed inside. “You two will be better off staying at my den while I notify our pack leader, Rousseau, of your mating. You’ll speak with him before leaving Prince George.”

  Jarvis shot Katrin a side glance as he started toward the open front door. She didn’t look at him but moved ahead of him inside. She hesitated the moment she entered, causing Jarvis to stop right behind her. He pulled her back against him when he smelled what she smelled.

  The source of that smell walked into a spacious living room and greeted McAllister with a kiss.

  “So this is our company?” a small human female said, her arm around McAllister as she smiled at Jarvis and Katrin.

  “This is my mate, Heather,” McAllister announced.

  Jarvis gawked. Before he came to his senses and showed proper respect upon entering a new den, or even decided if he wanted to, Katrin found her ability to speak. She stated the obvious.

  “You’re mated to a human.”

  “Guilty as charged.” Heather continued smiling. “I’m told I make a fairly decent raw steak in spite of my inability to change into a wild creature and run at the speed of light.”

  Jarvis prickled and swore Katrin did the same.

  “Did you just try to appease us and insult us in the same breath?” Katrin asked, her voice dangerously soft.

  Heather glanced up at her mate, her emerald-green eyes searching his face for guidance. McAllister ran his large hand down the back of the human female’s strawberry-blonde hair and smiled at her. Jarvis was shocked, if not a bit disgusted by the open smell of affection as the male stared at the tiny female at his side.

  “My mate tries very hard to understand who and what we are.”

  “We don’t need an explanation. We are grateful to be welcomed to your den.” Jarvis damn near had to spit the words out of his mouth but he needed to not be watching these two hugging each other in order to get his brain to wrap around what he was seeing with his own eyes.

  “You’re both welcome. Let me show you where you’ll be staying.” Heather walked to a flight of stairs that opened into the living room. She reached for the large, polished wooden banister and smiled at Katrin. “Come upstairs with me. Let the men, I mean the males, have their talk. We can talk upstairs.”

  “I don’t think—” Katrin began.

  If Jarvis weren’t just as bewildered by this whole thing, he might have actually found it comical to see his precious female so speechless and stunned she couldn’t finish her own sentence.

  “I mean, of course, and thank you. Your den is very nice.” Her words were stiff.

  They were probably forced out of her mouth just as his had been. Jarvis decided it was a good thing the human female couldn’t smell Katrin’s disgust when she followed Heather upstairs.

  Jarvis was left alone on the back patio with a cold bottle of beer while McAllister went to change out of the human uniform, or so the male told him. The Cariboo had a very impressive den. The rolling hills and thick patches of trees were not only an incredible view but made Jarvis ache for a good, hard run. After a night in Katrin’s arms at the motel, then a morning from hell—listening to McAllister inform the human cops he would take care of the two of them—then being driven to this den, Jarvis had earned a run. Not to mention Katrin’s public announcement that they were mated.

  Jarvis hadn’t had a moment alone with Katrin since she’d howled about being mated. During their ride out here she had sat silent in the backseat, staring out the window, her emotions once again nestled behind her thick wall of security.

  According to their laws and traditions, fucking constituted being mated. There were some who interpreted the ancient laws to mean a male and female had to fuck in their fur and their flesh to truly be mated. But howling about the mating out loud, with one or more witnesses present to smell the truth of it, would bond them together for the rest of their lives. Werewolves didn’t get divorced.

  It dawned on him that Katrin hadn’t smelled of a lie when she’d announced their mating, but she hadn’t smelled happy either. Jarvis enjoyed Katrin. He had wanted her the moment he’d first seen her. She’d intrigued him further during those nights she’d watched in the window as he changed for his nightly run. Her fiery nature, her unique coloring, her willingness to take on anyone who got in her way—everything about her appealed to him.

  Staring at his tranquil surroundings didn’t help soothe the turmoil growing inside him. Jarvis wanted Katrin with him. He easily lay claim on her. But mating—that was serious business. Very serious. Did he want her running by his side for the rest of his life?

  “Ready for another?” McAllister interrupted his thoughts when he came out on to the terrace with two more beers.

  Jarvis glanced down at his beer, realizing he’d barely taken a drink. “I’m good,” he said, then chugged the cold brew. On second thought, he’d earned at least a few beers.

  When he looked away from the surroundings he wasn’t truly able to appreciate, the frustration mounting inside him seemed to dissipate. Maybe he did want Katrin by his side always.

  McAllister, who now wore jeans and a t-shirt, put the unopened bottle of beer on a small table between two patio chairs, and opened the other bottle with his teeth. He spit the crumpled lid onto the table.

  “Your female isn’t a Cariboo.”

  Jarvis was still wound too tight. He forced himself to shift gears, get mating with Katrin out of his head. Which proved almost impossible to do. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked.

  “Toubec had me research her den shortly after she arrived at his ranch. Apparently she killed a male while on a run on his land.”

  “While on a run?” Jarvis shook his head, remembering that night and talking to his littermate about it when he’d first left his den to join the other werewolves. “Wait a minute. No one died. The male was hauled off—injured but definitely not dead.”

  “He died,” McAllister said flatly. “You know about it?”

  “I saw it happen,” Jarvis growled.

  “Interesting.” McAllister nodded once then took a long, slow drink of his beer. “Anyway, after she killed the male, he wanted to know more about her. There were a few other incidents too, all minor, but combined they piqued Rock and Simone’s interest in Katrin Keller.”

  “What other incidences? Trust me, Katrin is Cariboo. I’ve known her over a week.”

  “Not a long time to decide on a mating.”

  “True.” Jarvis didn’t elaborate. Instead, he tilted his bottle and downed half the beer. He would hear this werewolf out, his curiosity and desire to learn more about Katrin strong enough to remain silent.

  McAllister possibly smelled the truth of the matter. He continued talking without demanding more information on this mating Katrin had howled about.

  “The other incidences weren’t as big a deal, as I said,” McAllister continued. “Some dishes breaking, locks on doors jamming, and she sent another one of the males there flying over a fence when he tried sniff
ing around too close.”

  Jarvis didn’t try hiding his grin. His pride smelled strong.

  McAllister grinned as well. “I take it she hasn’t sent you flying.”

  “Umm…no.”

  “I guess that makes you lucky.” McAllister downed the rest of his beer and placed the empty bottle on the small table. “Katrin Keller and her littermates, Leisa and Magda, ran here to Prince George from the mountains after humans burned their den. Both their sire and mother were killed in the fire.”

  The explanation hit Jarvis hard. No wonder his fiery little female was so hard to read. She’d been through one of the worst experiences, losing her parents, and probably very recently. Suddenly he wanted to push past McAllister and race up the stairs. He wanted her hot little body snuggled against his. He wanted to fuck her until her pain was gone forever.

  No matter what he did, Jarvis wouldn’t be able to remove pain cutting that deeply. He understood and knew that pain very well. But letting her know he would be there, would run by her side and never leave her as her littermates had, would be something.

  “Where are her littermates?” he asked.

  “Rock and Simone Toubec never met them. Katrin told them she was the only survivor of her litter. I don’t know yet why she lied about her littermates leaving her at Toubec’s.”

  Let the werewolf play investigative cop on another Cariboo. Jarvis simply stared him in the eye, willing to hear the rest of what he knew about Katrin.

  “Why do you say she isn’t Cariboo?”

  “The Keller den was buried high up in the mountains. I’m rather amazed humans found them at all. But there was a reason they were such a secluded den. Her litter wasn’t even part of a pack. Katrin’s sire was a Malta werewolf.”

  “A Malta werewolf?” Jarvis shook his head. “The only remaining Malta werewolves are all reduced to a pack in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. You know that as well as I do. The howlings were quite clear. There aren’t any of that breed around here.”

  “True. I don’t know why her sire wasn’t sniffed out and forced into that pack. He apparently kept his litter well hidden high up in the mountains. I’ve heard howlings of rogue Malta werewolves from time to time. None of them have ever run into Prince George though. I would know if they had,” McAllister said fiercely.