Wild Craving

Wild Craving

Marisa Chenery

Edited by Marisa Chenery

Cover design by April Martinez

Copyright 2014 Marisa Chenery.
Published by Forever More Publishing, 31 Wycliffe Place, Kitchener, Ontario,
N2M 5J6, Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-92785-929-2

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If
you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an
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your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. The
characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s
imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual
events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

Blurb

Born a wolf able
to take on human form, Kiel loves the freedom of the mountainous forests on his
family’s lands. But his life is about to change as the mate brand appears on
his skin, which sets off a countdown. He has a short time to find and claim his
mate before he loses his humanity for good. Expecting her to be a wolf shifter
like him, a chance encounter with a human woman shows she’s the one meant for
him.

As a model, Neha
had seen a lot of good-looking men, but Kiel took her breath away at first
sight, while his intoxicating scent had her body going into overdrive. Only
passing through, circumstances happen that have her staying longer than she
intended, and gives her the chance to let nature take its course.

With time
ticking away, Kiel takes steps to bind Neha to him, and gives in to his wild
craving. Once claimed, he must keep his mate at his side or face a lifetime of
loneliness.

Chapter One

In his wolf
form, Kiel ran through the forest that was part of his family’s one hundred
acres in Canyon Creek, Montana. He slowly worked his way toward his log cabin.
His immediate family, his parents and five brothers, who were the members of
his wolf pack, all had built homes of their own as well.

Kiel stretched
out into a loping run, sniffing the air and picking up the scents around him.
Born a wolf and able to shift into human form, he felt more at ease in the skin
of his animal self.

He was just
about at his cabin when a surge of need, the urge and craving to mate, slammed
into him, almost taking his paws out from under him. Kiel whined and came to a
sudden stop, his sides heaving as he tried to breathe through the almost
crippling sensation.

He shifted to
his human form, willing clothes onto his body at the same time, and hissed at
the burning sensation on his neck where it and his shoulder met on the left
side. Kiel covered the spot with his hand and panted through the pain. Once it
eased, he hurried toward home. The burning had ended, but arousal still rode
him.

It seemed to
take a lot longer than it should have to reach his cabin. Kiel threw the door
open and stalked across the room to the bathroom. He went to stand in front of
the mirror that hung on the wall above the sink, then tugged the collar of his
dark gray t-shirt aside. What he saw caused him to suck in a sharp breath.

Where shoulder
and neck joined, the mate brand had appeared. All in black, intricate Celtic-styled
knot work in a circular design surrounded a pair of wolves that stood and faced
each other with their heads thrown back on a howl.

Kiel traced the
brand with his gaze. He was thirty years old. The males of his kind were marked
around his age when it was time for them to find their mates. They had no
control over it, and once it happened, the urge to claim the ones meant for
them would ride them, causing them to become solely focused on seeking out
their other halves.

He took a deep
breath as another wave of intense arousal surged through him. Even though Kiel
had the urge to mate, his body was another story. Until he found the woman
meant for him, his cock wouldn’t harden, no matter how turned-on he became. It
was nature’s way of “pointing” him in the right direction, almost like a damn
dousing rod.

He stared at the
brand again. Once he claimed his mate, the black knot work would change color,
taking on the jewel tones of reds, blues and greens. And the same marking would
appear on his woman in the exact same place on her body.

Kiel turned on
the faucet and splashed some cold water onto his face. He would have to go in
search of his other half, the sooner the better. With the appearance of the
mate brand, it started a countdown. He had three weeks to find his mate and
claim her. If he failed to do that before time ran out, he’d lose his human
half, become all wolf. He’d be no different than the wild gray wolves that roamed
free in this part of Montana.

As he stepped
out of the bathroom a loud knock sounded on his door. It was then followed by
it being opened. Kiel’s five brothers came walking in as if they owned the
place. Not that he minded. That was the way they always were with each other.
All born from the same litter, they’d grown up doing everything together. They
weren’t identical, but shared enough of the same features to show they were
siblings. They had inherited their father’s black hair and their mother’s light
green eyes. They also were well over six feet tall, again thanks to their
father.

Memphis, who’d
been born fourth, sniffed the air, then made a show of waving his hand in front
of his face. “Man, it stinks in here. What were you doing? Jerking off?”

That earned
Memphis a slap to the back of the head from Talon, the youngest. “We all can
smell it, idiot. Unlike you, we aren’t making a big deal out of it. If Kiel
wants to jerk off inside his own cabin, that’s none of our business. It’s not
as if you don’t do it too.”

Cyrus, the
second eldest, laughed. “Yeah, knowing Memphis, he does it every chance he
gets.”

That caused
Rhett, brother number five, to elbow Gage, brother number three, and nod in
agreement before the two of them, Talon and Cyrus burst out laughing. Memphis,
on the other hand, looked none too impressed.

Kiel let loose
with a loud growl that had the others falling silent. As the eldest, the others
tended to listen to him more than they did each other, at least some of the
time.

“Knock it off,”
Kiel said.

“That’s what I
thought you were already doing,” Memphis said, obviously more than willing to
turn the attention back on to Kiel.

Kiel growled
once more. “Enough, Memphis. I’m not in the mood. And to shut you the hell up,
I wasn’t jerking off.”

He bit back a
groan as his arousal surged once more. It would even out by the next day, but
until then he’d have to put up with the surges. And any wolf shifter would be
able to smell it as his brothers had.

Gage stepped
closer to Kiel with a thoughtful expression. “The scent just got stronger.” He reached
out and tugged the collar of Kiel’s t-shirt down, revealing the mate brand.

“Holy shit,”
Rhett said. “You’ve been marked.”

The rest of his
brothers crowded around Kiel, each taking their turn to peer at his neck. He
wondered how long it would take it for them to connect his being marked and
what it would mean to them. They were all the same age.

Cyrus was the
first one to clue in on it. “Crap. That means the brand will appear on us in
the not too distant future.”

The expressions
his brothers wore ranged from surprise, shock and dread. The latter one was
Talon’s. His sibling was known for his wandering eye. Out of the three other
wolf shifter packs that were in the same general area as theirs, and which were
larger since they didn’t just consist of family members, Talon had gone through
quite a few of the available females. Some of them were no longer on good terms
with him because of his playboy ways. His brother’s mate could very well be one
of those ladies and Talon would be screwed as he tried to get her to forget
their past. That thought had a smile tugging at Kiel’s lips.

“I guess you’ll
be visiting the other packs very soon,” Gage said.

Kiel nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll go tomorrow and see what happens.”

“Are you going
to tell the pack leaders?” Rhett asked.

“Shit, no.”

There was no way
in hell Kiel would do that. If he did, the pack leaders would round up all
their unmated females and get them to stand in a row. He’d be expected to walk
past each one, smelling her scent, and see which one caused his dick to harden.
Then he’d have to take her to the first available private place and claim her
then and there. There was no question she wouldn’t be unwilling, because if she
was his mate she would have the same kind of reaction he had to her. He still thought
that whole process was demeaning to a woman, and about as romantic as a caveman
knocking his female over the head and dragging her away.

With their pack
only consisting of his parents, himself and his brothers, it wasn’t necessary
to hold to such an old tradition. His whole family felt the same way Kiel did
about it. Their mother had drilled it into his and his brothers’ heads as they
grew up, over and over again, that they would find their mates without having
her put on display. That was part of the reason why his mom and dad had left
their packs and decided to form their own. His mom had been the one to find
their father. She hadn’t wanted to be forced to stand out in public and wait
for her mate to signal she was the one because she caused him to have an
erection. When she’d felt ready to have a mate, she’d gone to each unclaimed
male once their mate brand had appeared on their necks and let him get a good
sniff of her. She had this freaky intuition that gave her the ability to know
exactly when a male was marked and where to find him. And luckily for her,
their father had been the second male she’d confronted.

Kiel mulled over
his mother’s special intuition. She had to now know he’d been branded. As if
his thoughts caused her to appear, she walked through the still open door. His
mom met his gaze and smiled as she crossed the room to where he stood. Selina
didn’t look her fifty-eight years. Her long, dark blonde hair fell around her
shoulders, her body was slim and she appeared no older than the twenty-eight
she’d been when she became mated to their father. All wolf shifters aged slower
than humans. Their lifespans lasted to a hundred and fifty.

His mom gently
worked her way around her sons to Kiel. She pulled the collar of his t-shirt
aside and looked at his brand, then cupped his face and kissed him. “It’s
started,” she said. “I’m going to lose my babies to their mates.”

Kiel groaned.
“We’re hardly babies anymore, Mom.”

“I’ll still
think of all of you that way no matter what age you are. The six of you are the
only children I have.”

After having
them, their mom hadn’t been able to conceive again. Most wolf shifter females
only had two to three pups per litter. It was very rare that one bore six. His
parents figured it’d been too much of a strain on their mother’s body and made
it so she no longer could get pregnant. Not that Selina minded. She always said
she’d just had all the children she was meant to have at once rather than over
time.

“With Kiel soon
to be mated,” Talon said, “you’ll have grandchildren to look forward to, Mom.”

“That’s right,”
she answered with a nod. “More babies to love.”

Kiel groaned to
himself. He was ready to become mated, had actually thought about it since his
last birthday six months before, but the idea of being a father was an entirely
different matter. He wanted to have some time with his mate without kids thrown
into the mix. The chances were more than likely he wouldn’t know her all that
well or at all. He wanted at least a year to have her to himself before the
next generation came.

Another surge
went through Kiel and he had to bite back a moan. The rest of the day wasn’t
going to be fun. And it wasn’t as if he could jerk off, as Memphis had accused
him of doing, to get some relief. His cock remained limp without so much as a
twitch, but his blood ran hot and the urge to have sex was hard to ignore.

His mom took one
look at him and then made shooing motions toward his brothers. “All right,
boys. Time to leave Kiel alone. He doesn’t need all of you crowding around and
bugging him. Your time will come. He’ll be up to having company tomorrow.”

His siblings
left, arguing over who would be next to be branded, even though it was known to
go by birth order in siblings. Once they were all outside, Kiel felt as if he
could breathe a little easier. He loved his brothers dearly, but there were
times when they could be huge pains in the butt.

Kiel turned to
his mom. “Thanks.”

She smiled. “No
problem. You take it easy today. Tomorrow you can try to do something about it.
And remember when you visit the other packs, don’t announce why you’re there
and hide your brand.”

“I know. I
already planned on doing those things.”

“Good boy.”

His mom gave him
a kiss, then headed out the door. Once she reached the porch, her body blurred
and she took on her wolf form. She bounded away, more than likely going to meet
up with his father, who would be out somewhere on their expansive property. All
his family lived off the land by hunting for their food, growing what
vegetables they needed and trapping in the winter to sell the furs for what
they had no choice but to buy in Helena, the closest city.

Kiel shut the
door, then sat on the couch. He didn’t have a television to watch since there
was no electricity in his cabin. Not that he missed those things. He’d never
had them. He looked around his home, thinking what his future mate would think
of it. For wolf shifter standards, it was very rustic. Depending on where her
pack was located, he might have to modernize. There was one located inside
Helena where they lived more human than wolf. If his mate came from there, she
definitely would balk at living in his cabin the way it was now.

He blew out a
breath and relaxed with his head leaning against the top of the back of the
couch cushions. He’d worry about all that when the time came. There was always
a chance the one meant for him would be from one of the packs that was almost
as secluded as his. Tomorrow would hopefully end the way he wanted it.

* * * *

By the following
morning the surges of arousal had stopped. Kiel’s libido was still working
overtime, but he could tolerate it. Once he found his mate it would only start
up again until he’d claimed her as his. To her, his scent would become like an
aphrodisiac and would have her more than willing to sleep with him. It was
nature’s way of guaranteeing the mating would progress as it should.

After a quick
breakfast, Kiel headed outside to the outbuilding he kept his older-model
pickup truck. Modern transportation was one thing that wasn’t smart to do
without in the environment they lived in. His parents and brothers all owned
vehicles that were suited to the roads in this mountains area.

Once on his way,
Kiel drove to the wolf shifter pack that was closest to his. It wasn’t a very
large one, and all the members lived on one big section of land, their homes
near one another’s. Unlike his family’s cabins, which were spread out with five
acres between each of them.

Luckily it was
the pack’s day to hold their weekly farmer’s type market. Even though their
homes were close together, they all worked a community field and sold or traded
some of the produce they grew. They also had items such as handmade furniture
for sale. Kiel had come on several occasions to buy different pieces for his
cabin.