Diamond Dust

wine.”

Tyler topped it up, examining her closely as he poured. She drew in a deep breath just to watch his gaze stray from the top of the glass to her breasts.

“Whoa, Tyler.” Justin leaned across the table and mopped up the spilt wine.

Caroline hid her smile as she took another swallow and checked out the rest of the room. Served him right for staring at her chest. Again. The man truly was obsessed.

Strangers filled the restaurant, Caroline noted. Not unusual for the tourist destination, but the ratio was off even from what she’d expect in mid-July. Human tourists were far outnumbered by the time their appetizers arrived, as the shifters kept coming. She chatted with Justin and Frank about Whitehorse, answering the typical questions that were always asked, but she also watched the door.

It was simple, really, to tell who was what. Visitors who hadn’t been in the rib joint before paused to look around. They would sniff, the scent of barbeque and deep fried fish filling the air with wonderful aromas.

The humans would then turn to their companions and gush about the tasty smells. The shifters? Their gazes flicked to Tyler and Justin first, then farther into the room to examine the other shifters already seated. The newcomers even ignored the waitresses.

These were some tense shifters to ignore the pretty girls right under their noses.

Their meals arrived, huge platters of food lowered in front of Frank and Justin, the infamous rack of ribs in front of Tyler, and her pasta. They dug in heartily even while remaining alert.

Caroline nodded at Justin’s question regarding the hotel, turning to see what Tyler wanted.

He’d pushed a rib to one side of his plate. “Would you like one?”

Maybe she’d had too much wine. Maybe she’d relaxed a tad too much after all the stress of the day. Perhaps she just wanted to cause him some pain for his earlier stupid moves. Whatever her reasons were, in the end she listened to the devil on her shoulder and not the angel. The angel promptly gave up and slung back the remainder of a teeny bottle of angel wine.

“Sure.” Caroline stared at his face as she licked her lips.

Tyler hesitated, his fork hovering over the rib, his gaze fixed on her lips. She used her fingers to lift the savoury bone to her mouth and nibbled the meat from one side.

“Hmm, very good today.” She licked her fingers clean one at a time, making sure to use lots of tongue.

His jaw fell open slightly, his breath escaping in light pants as she wiped the final bits of sauce from her lips. Okay, maybe the no attention from him for a few centuries was a little long to wait. He was attractive, she was interested. By the time the bears were done their business in town, she’d be ready for a night of adventure with him, as long as he wasn’t into any furry stuff.

Tyler shifted uncomfortably in his chair, the wood creaking under his heavy mass. Caroline picked up her wine glass again, this time to hide her smile.

She still had it.

The volume of noise in the room had increased steadily over the course of their meal, laughter at times, but mostly voices. Male voices, and Caroline frowned as she examined the shifters.

Justin lifted his head. “Something wrong?”

“Your get-together. What is it, no females allowed?” She pointed into the room. “I don’t see a single lady bear dining out.”

Justin cleared his throat. “Well, yes, they are here in town—you should have seen them when they were checking in. But we tend to be protective of their more delicate…”

His words trickled to a halt about the time her brows hit her hairline. Good thing he’d stopped that nonsense before going any further.

Only she needed to know. “Tyler, you think the same way?”

His chuckle sounded sincere. “I believe in protecting those who need protecting, when they need it.”

“Nice political answer. You didn’t tell me anything.”

He shrugged. “I’m a political kind of guy.”

The twinkle in his eyes said more than political, confirming his continued interest in her.

Of course, that’s the moment when the loud discussions at the front of the restaurant turned to shouting.

Chapter Six

Justin was up in an instant, physically blocking her and Tyler from the disturbance that grew louder by the minute.

Frank lumbered to his feet. “I can settle them down.”

Tyler held him back, a hand on his arm. “Wait. It’s not our battle yet.”

Caroline leaned around the mass of bear between her and the fight. Tyler was right. People got in shoving matches all the time, and she didn’t have to feel as if she needed to be the one to solve all the problems.

Only when she spotted who was involved, tables and chairs tumbled to the ground around them, things changed.

“Damn fools.”

She ducked under Justin’s arm, evading his grasp to scramble the length of the room and step in between the two biggest shifters facing off with raised fists. She glared at the wolf in front of her, one of the Takhini pack who had a bad habit of getting in trouble, wordlessly daring him to make one wrong move.

“If you have an argument, take it outside.” Caroline held out a hand to the human waitress trapped against the wall, pulling the girl forward and sending her running for the safety of the kitchens. “This isn’t the place for swinging fists.”

The wolf in front of her backed down, he and his companions all making tracks for the exit door as if she might pull Evan out of her pocket and sic him on their butts. Or maybe they were scared enough of her without the threat of Evan, she couldn’t be sure.

“Leave enough money to pay for half of what you broke,” she called after them.

“Pussy-whipped.” The word growled out behind her from the other half of the problem.

Oh, this would be fun. Caroline twisted slowly, reaching into her pocket as she moved. “You boys enjoying your visit to Whitehorse so far?”

The bear in front of her had a red welt on the cheek where something had hit him in the past few minutes. “Who are you, the RCMP?”

Close enough. She resisted the urge to pull imaginary guns from a holster. “Concerned citizen who wants to get back to my dinner, and all the noise is making it hard to concentrate. So why don’t you guys call it a night as well?”

The bear laughed, then lowered his voice as he glanced around the room. “You and what army going to make us leave?”

She flicked out her left hand, and while he was distracted by the laser light she danced on the floor, she moved in and slammed her fingers around his balls. She squeezed hard enough for him to know she wasn’t going anywhere.

He froze in position, not even breathing. A couple tidbits she’d learned from her years around shifters— dancing red lights were tough to ignore when they weren’t expecting them. And balls made a dandy set of reins, no matter how big the beast.

Caroline leaned toward his ear. “I don’t need an army. Because you’re going to be polite, and not only leave, but you’ll give the nice human waitress you scared a big tip to make up for being a jerk. And then, you won’t come back here anymore.”

Additional pressure from her fingers made him suck in a breath through his nose. “You’re pretty cocky for a frail little thing,” he croaked through his gritted teeth.

“You mean for a human?” She continued to whisper, the rumble of voices in the background covering her