Free WithHerCraving by Lorie O'Clare

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 her 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,