WithHerCraving

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

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 glossy 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.