WithHerHunger

by Lorie O'Clare

  Mariah suddenly felt as if she’d been busted breaking some rule. She shook her head, determined to make herself smell confused. “Smell like what? All I smell is that incredible meat. Come on. I’m starving.”

  “You smelled weird.” Marcy wasn’t going to drop it. “Everyone around us was suddenly annoyed and you smell like you were turned-on.”

  Mariah gave her cousin an appraising once-over then shook her head. “Your senses must be all boggled from running for so long. You’ll feel better after you eat.”

  Mariah didn’t wait for Marcy’s response but picked up her pace and led the way to the fires where meat cooked and part of their pack lingered and relaxed.

  “You two don’t have protection,” a male’s voice said, and filled the air around them with the smell of alcohol.

  Mariah pushed her cousin away from the drunk male and growled a warning.

  “You’re the one who will need protection if you don’t sniff out another female,” she snarled, and glared at the male.

  “Is that so?”

  “Oh yes, old male. That is very much so,” she informed him, and allowed the burning in her veins to ignite. She controlled the change, giving over to it only enough to put on a bit of muscle. “Maybe you should go find someone to protect you,” she growled under her breath, her voice a bit raspier than it was a moment ago.

  The male laughed and puffed out his chest as he looped his thumbs through the belt loops on his pants. He rocked up on his heels as amusement with just a hint of annoyance drifted in the air around him. The clean, fresh aroma mixed with the disgustingly sweet smell made for an unpleasant combination.

  “Little female, are you suggesting I need protection from the likes of you? Or is it that sweet little thing behind you who I need protection from?” He started to laugh and glanced around him, as if searching for support in insulting Mariah and Marcy.

  Mariah struck out, her temper flaring. As the spiciness of her emotion clogged the air, her fist connected with his cheekbone. “You tell me,” she howled, and sent a second punch to his stomach just as the male turned and looked at her stunned.

  The male was thick in the waist, not fat, very few lunewulf ever got fat. Mariah’s fist plunged into his gut just below his ribs. She felt the pressure of her punch deflate his lungs. The male stumbled backward from the impact. Mariah ignored the cuts in her palm from her fingernails that had begun to extend from the amount of change flushing through her system.

  She grabbed Marcy and marched away from the asshole before he retaliated. From the surrounding laughter and the smell of his humiliation, she kept sniffing to see if he would strike back or risk walking away with his tail between his legs. Mariah had no intention of allowing him to catch her off guard.

  Mariah would have to get used to surviving in a world where she truly had no protection. Before their pack was burned to the ground, she had run freely, fought and played, knowing her sire and the sires of litters close to theirs were always nearby to prevent them any harm. Mariah couldn’t forget for a moment that the safe, secure-smelling world she’d known all her life no longer existed.

  “That was impressive,” Marcy told her once they’d put several groups of lunewulf between them and the drunk male.

  Mariah glanced around the lunewulf as they walked to the fires, searching for the male or female they’d heard shouldn’t be with them. She didn’t see any Cariboo or anyone appearing upset about anyone else being around them. Whoever it was the lunewulf around them had complained about earlier, was now gone.

  “We’re going to have to always be impressive,” Mariah said with conviction. “Tonight and in the future. From here on out, Marcy, don’t ever hesitate to attack. It’s the only way we’ll stay alive until our pack settles down and we have new dens. Now stay close and let’s get our kill,” she said, and walked purposely to the nearest fire pit.

  The sudden screams and snarls from two females prevented Mariah from hearing Marcy’s response. Her cousin stayed close, though, and the two of them hurried away from the fighting females. They didn’t slow down until they reached the fires. Smoke burned Mariah’s eyes, but the wonderful smell of the deer made her tummy growl.

  The perfectly cooked, not-quite-raw meat filled her tummy and lifted Mariah’s spirits. The two of them could go into Prince George, the city at the base of the mountains. There was a solidly founded, well-established pack living there who had helped settle Fort George in the early eighteen hundreds.

  Right now, and probably at least for the next month, Mariah’s new pack was as out of control and barbaric as the Cariboo lunewulf they had always turned their tail on. It might be part of their traditions for males and females to attack each other when setting up the boundaries for a new pack. That didn’t mean Mariah had to enjoy it.

  The option did exist to run down the mountain into Prince George and sniff out their pack leader. Since that leader had already agreed to this new pack building dens in his territory and establishing a new pack there, he would undoubtedly agree to Mariah, and possibly even Marcy, joining his pack. If she ran into Prince George, she wouldn’t do it alone. She had too much honor to leave her cousin, who was barely eighteen, alone to fend for herself within this new pack.

  Any orphaned cubs had immediately been put in the care of a litter who would care for them. But Marcy was almost grown. She was on her own, just as Mariah was. They wouldn’t be offered protection. Mariah looked over at Marcy, who was almost drooling over the fresh meat as they waited their turn to take part of the kill, and accepted she was now Marcy’s protector.

  Mariah and Marcy would immediately be under the Prince George pack leader’s protection if they ran into town. He would be honor-bound to provide a den for them and ultimately would have final say over all of their actions until both of them found mates. Then she and her littermate would howl only to their mate.

  It was odd sniffing out the truth. Right now, Mariah knew more freedom than she might ever know again in her life. As uncertain as their future was, Mariah had choices. She didn’t need to wait for someone else to sniff out and have final say over what they would do next.

  This was their first night in their human form in over a week. When running in their fur, all mated females in their new pack had run, forming a circle around the unmated females. It was yet one more annoying tradition, or possibly even a law that smothered single females and prevented them from sniffing out their own path. Mariah was almost exhilarated with the reality of her sudden freedom right in front of her nose.

  She and Marcy would sleep where they wished tonight. They would howl to whomever they wished to howl. They would run in whichever direction they chose. She and her cousin reached the fire and took the wonderfully smelling meat to a patch of grass where no one else was. They sat companionably. Neither wished to speak. Both were too eager to fill their bellies. Mariah sank her teeth into the meat she held in her hands and stared wistfully toward the north—well, in almost any direction she wished. But then she gave herself a stubborn mental shake and silent thanks to the thick smell of the fire and cooked meat. The rich aromas covered the smell of her longing over something she would never have again.

  “Do we really want to go back to the other side of the fires?” Marcy asked after they’d had their fill of venison.

  Mariah laughed. Her enthusiasm to take on the night fully charged. “I say we go find a secluded spot and claim our temporary den for the night.”

  “That sounds great.” Marcy smelled as fresh as clean laundry just pulled from the line. Her happiness lit up her face and made her pretty eyes glow. “Thanks for letting me crash with you,” she added under her breath, although her humility was sincere. “Obviously forming a new pack is dangerous work.”

  They reached the other side of the fires just as blood-curdling howls ripped through the night air. The large fires cast streaks of dancing light across the meadows. There were torches burning now too. They offered additional light. The howling turned to whimpering
as a male crashed to the ground, shaking the earth, and remained there, still.

  “Your point is made,” Mariah said dryly.

  She and Marcy continued staring in that direction when a group of lunewulf leapt to the side and howled loud complaints. They were shrouded by shadows from the giant evergreen growing close by, but it was clear they weren’t pleased with a new fight starting so close to them.

  When Anton Huber shoved his way past the lunewulf around him, who scattered or shoved back, the murmuring quickly reached Mariah and Marcy. Many approved of him being their new pack leader. The male was young, in his prime, and the howlings grew louder as he bolted into the middle of the clearing.

  “Oh shit,” Marcy whispered, and brought her hands to her mouth.

  If she was trying to hide her interest in Anton, Marcy sucked at doing it. Mariah reached for her cousin and gripped Marcy’s slender shoulder. Mariah did so without looking. She focused on Anton. Or tried to. The male was powerfully fast and moved like a sleek blast of white light.

  Many of the lunewulf howled their approval when Anton changed into his fur, after tossing his clothes to the side, and leapt on the males who were currently fighting. Within seconds both were bleeding out on the ground. He turned his attention on two other males. His white coat gleamed under the large moon that slowly rose beyond the mountains. Blood shown off his deadly incisors. One fierce growl was all the warning he offered before leaping on them, his thick, pointed claws extending toward his targets.

  “Enough!” Anika Klein howled at the same time Anton landed on the larger of two males who sported only a few bruises and cuts so far from their fighting. “I have declared how it will be,” she shrieked, managing to howl louder than the screams from the male under Anton. “As your current queen bitch, I order the fighting to cease!”

  Anika, the widowed queen bitch from the pack who had lived up in the mountains near Whitehorse, pranced out into the middle of the circle. A female a few years older than Mariah, Anika had shaken her tail for any male to sniff during their run down the mountain range from Whitehorse to Prince George. Anika thought her shit didn’t stink, but where Mariah stood, it appeared to have quite a stench.

  Some of the litters around her began snarling their disgust. Others, however, were howling their support. Mariah guessed any support that female might receive was out of loyalty to her dead mate. Mariah accepted how those remaining from her pack were forced to unite with the packs in the mountains around Whitehorse. There just hadn’t been enough of them left from any of the packs to do otherwise. This didn’t mean she accepted Anika’s rank as their current queen bitch.

  Mariah curled her lip, deciding she didn’t care if she smelled disgusted. Regardless of how many had died in the fires, their laws and traditions still existed and needed to be honored. Just because they’d been burned out of their dens didn’t mean they should now all behave like mutts. Mariah might not know every word of their written laws. She probably couldn’t howl every tradition. But she was pretty damn sure there was nothing written allowing Anika to now prance around like a bitch in heat, drooling over every male and claiming her rank as queen bitch over this new pack.

  “He just killed three males and the stupid bitch would howl for him to stop,” she said to Marcy. “I have half a mind to take her down myself and do our new pack a favor.”

  Mariah thought she whispered, and in truth she might have, but several males and females sniffed in her direction. Anika didn’t hear or notice Mariah. Instead she paraded back and forth and around the dead males while Anton snarled off to the side.

  “Is this how we would choose our new pack leader?” Anika howled, her high-pitched, annoying tone doing well to silence everyone surrounding her. “Would you howl about laws and traditions when it demands our males in their prime, ready to hunt, mate, reproduce and create a strong pack must instead die until there is only one?”

  Anika looked pointedly at Mariah, which meant so did a few others. Mariah held her ground, refusing to smell reprimanded or humiliated, because she was neither. That bitch wouldn’t get a rise out of her unless Mariah decided it was time for her to do so. If Anika wanted to parade around like a fool with her tail cocked in the air, that was her business. Mariah would have nothing to do with it. Now, if Anika wanted to assert a challenge, Mariah would have no problem responding.

  After a two-second stare down, Anika bored easily and began howling again. “So what if we saw first blood or if a male killed another?” she screamed. Anika shook her long, thick mane of almost-white hair so it flowed down her back to her ass.

  She shook her ass too as she strutted from one end of the grassy clearing to the other surrounded by all the lunewulf now. Even those who had been at the fires joined the circle. If Mariah could smell the discontent along with the approval, so could Anika.

  The bitch wore cut-off shorts and one of her legs had a thin, puckered white line going down it. She had on a button-down collared shirt that was unbuttoned. Occasionally the breeze blew her shirt open, and showed off large, firm breasts, indicating she hadn’t birthed any cubs before her mate died. She howled as if she’d done this before, which made Mariah wonder what type of leader Anika’s pack had. If Anika did most of the howling instead of her mate, the bitch would be sniffing for a male with less of a backbone, one she could mold to her suiting. That wasn’t the type of pack leader their new pack needed.

  “Standing here while four or five more males shred the life out of each other will only make us a smaller pack than we are right now, and with less males to go around,” she added and chuckled. Her tone was sickeningly sweet as she continued. “I’m sure every single female here agrees with me that there should be as many single males around as possible if we are to find mates.”

  Mariah curled her lip over the female’s crude attitude and foul smell. She didn’t care if those around her approved or disapproved of her reaction to the bitch. The female wasn’t their pack leader. Her rank of queen bitch didn’t hold now that they were so far from where their litters had run free, or at least it didn’t in Mariah’s opinion.

  “I need a new mate,” Anika howled, and held her arms outstretched toward the night sky overhead. It seemed the stars dimmed for a moment, as if they pulled back their light in an effort to remain as far from her as possible. “Who will mate with me and be our new pack leader?”

  Anton growled loud enough to bring silence to the secluded area they had chosen to handle pack business. Mariah growled her disgust as well. From the quick smell of disapproval around her, Mariah knew she wasn’t the only one who didn’t agree with Anika taking the law into her own paws.

  “She runs with no honor,” Mariah complained under her breath. “This is not how our laws and traditions are written. Why does she get to howl amendments to them now?”

  “Come forward single males,” Anika continued, keeping her arms raised but lowering her head and casting her gaze at the lunewulf surrounding her. “May the best male win, but not by first blood, unless I choose to bite you.”

  “Are we going to let her do this?” Marcy snarled, leaning against Mariah so only she would hear her.

  The air around them smelled sour, like curdling milk, and almost strong enough to turn her stomach. But Mariah also smelled lust and sniffed the air to narrow in on it. Obviously everyone didn’t agree with Mariah when it came to amending their laws and traditions. Before she could narrow down which of the males around her smelled hungry for the stupid bitch, a tall male standing on the other side of Anika strutted toward her.

  “That’s it, pet,” Anika growled and did a half-circle type of dance, arching her back and shaking her ass. “Show me how hungry you are to lead the powerful lunewulf. Our pack might be smaller now but our race will never be conquered.”

  The male was tall and thin, barely grown and definitely not at full maturity. Mariah guessed he was one of the younger males from Anika’s pack. Although since they’d begun their run south along the Canadian Rockies bas
e line, Anika had shown the same friendliness toward every male, whether she knew him or not. This male grinned broadly at her and walked into her open arms then bent her over for a hungry kiss.

  They had barely embraced when another male, who stood in a small group close enough for her to smell, damn near leapt over the lunewulf in his way and strutted toward Anika. This male wasn’t thin like the first male. He was a male in his prime. Mariah found herself watching his bare leg muscles flex and bulge with his purposeful walk toward Anika.

  As if she could smell him over the rising lust, anger, disgust and curiosity growing among all of them, Anika stretched one arm out to the approaching male the moment he was within reach. Their disgraceful queen bitch turned her head as she grabbed the second male’s arm.

  The first male began feasting on her neck. The second male took Anika’s shirt by its collar and tore it from her body. Anika yelped. The first male straightened, panting at the sight of her ample breasts bouncing before his eyes. He reached for them and whined in protest when the second male pulled Anika into his arms.

  “Fucking tail,” Mariah hissed in disbelief when all three of them collapsed to the ground. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The howling grew louder by the moment, but Mariah swore she heard Anika cackling like the insane bitch she was. The female deserved whatever she got. Mariah turned her back on the idiots publicly fucking, and grabbed her cousin’s arm. She marched away and noticed she wasn’t the only one leaving.

  It seemed the farther they hurried from the insanity that had taken place before their eyes the louder the lunewulf in the clearing became. The wind shifted direction, but Mariah still picked up on the smell of lust with almost every breath.

  “Where are we going?” Marcy demanded, and pulled her arm free when they reached the edge of the mountain.

  Mariah let go of her and sniffed their surroundings. Something in the air brought the tiny hairs on the back of her neck to attention. She turned, searching the darkness beyond the well lit circle of fools. Mariah saw nothing but couldn’t shake the overwhelming sensation she, or both of them, were being watched.