Amanda covered from neck to toe in a colourful beach robe. The two women made their way around the pool edge.
Caroline called out reassurances to some of the ladies in the water. Tyler moved as close as possible to where Caroline had spoken to him earlier. “Do you need my help?”
Caroline’s cheeks were flushed. “Tell her how I got the marks on my skin.”
She twisted a hip to showcase a spot where finger-shaped bruises marred her flesh. He could clearly picture gripping her, riding her hard from behind as they went wild the previous day.
Only the passion faded as Tyler glanced at Amanda, his stomach plummeting. In being free with Caroline had he destroyed his case and lost all opportunity to make things better for the bears in the long run?
Attempting to explain the marks on Caroline in less-than-graphic words wasn’t going to work—he was damned no matter what.
The fire in Caroline’s eyes caught his attention as he considered what to say. One of her first taunts returned. What he was known for—honesty. She thought the truth would help.
“Caroline and I were playing. Sexual games.” He undid his shirt collar and pulled it aside to display one of the more explicit scratches she’d left on him. “We both got overexcited.”
Amanda stared at his chest. “You’re not in the habit of beating women?”
Caroline slipped her arm through Amanda’s. “I told you he’s not.”
The group of men in attendance had crowded forward, and Tyler motioned for them to step back. “You can watch just as well from across the courtyard. Give the ladies some privacy.”
“I’ve been offered sanctuary by your girlfriend,” Amanda piped up. “Do you agree to protect me?”
“Takhini wolves also offer protection,” Caroline spoke loud and clear, obviously to the gathering of men behind him. “And if there’s any of the lot of you who think you can mistreat your women, I offer them sanctuary as well, even if I have to personally find them beds and jobs.”
One of the clan leaders pushed forward. “See here. This isn’t right, going around Ainsworth like this. He should at least be able to stand up for himself.” The man shook his finger at Amanda who cowered against Caroline’s side. “Asking for sanctuary without reason.”
Caroline was between the bear’s pointing finger and Amanda at the same moment Tyler stepped to the man’s side and laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.
“He forbid her to come,” Caroline snapped.
The clan leader nodded righteously. “Then we need to ask him to join us. Allow him to be a part of this.”
“You bastard.”
Caroline would have hauled back a fist and swung if Amanda hadn’t stopped her. The woman patted Caroline’s arm reassuringly before stepping into the open. “He didn’t want me to come because there’s no swimsuit that can cover this…”
The cover-up dropped to the tiles underfoot, and the sound of protesting that had begun amidst the less charitable bears cut off like a cord had been severed.
The marks on Amanda’s body were far more brutal than the shadows of lovemaking on Caroline’s flesh. For the damage to stay on a shifter, she’d been beaten hard, more than once, and recently.
Caroline grabbed the cover-up and draped it around Amanda’s shoulders, turning the woman in her arms and holding her close. “That’s enough. They’ve seen. You have a home with me, because bastards don’t deserve a woman like you.”
“Thank you.” Amanda nudged their cheeks together gently, then straightened her shoulders. Lillie was there, tucking Amanda against her side and leading her away.
Caroline glared past Tyler, her expression one of total distain as she took in the clan leaders at his back. “I don’t know why you’re bothering to complete conclave. If any of you still think Todd Ainsworth is a serious candidate, you’ve lost your bloody minds. You’re voting to decide who can best guide you into the future. Are you really contemplating handing control to a man like that? He doesn’t deserve to be in charge of a cage full of rattlesnakes. Not unless he was staked in place and they’re dumped on top of him.”
A flash of pure passion whipped through Tyler, his bear rattled and roused. It wasn’t sexual, but pure sweet admiration plus a desire to grab hold of her fire and never let go.
It might have been insane, but at that moment? Tyler fell completely, and utterly, in love.
Chapter Seventeen
She was on a make-friends-and-influence-people roll. The kind where she didn’t give a shit who was standing at the end of it.
The women behind her? They were the ones who needed to be standing on their own two feet when the air finally cleared, no matter what.
Tyler moved toward her, leaping the railing in one smooth motion. He smiled for a brief second, before stepping to her side and turning to face the men.
“I stand with her. Clan Harrison will not tolerate the abuse that’s been allowed. Not anymore. It’s one thing to blame our violence on our bear nature, but instincts go beyond the urge to beat the hell out of someone.”
The wind picked up, whipping back her wet hair and raising goose bumps. Or maybe that was an excuse for the reaction she had to the conviction in his voice. Tyler examined his contemporaries, the lot of them shifting uneasily on their feet.
“We’ve been idiots. Instincts don’t just tell me to fight, they tell me to fight for what’s right. To be there for the people who I love and care about.” Tyler slipped his hand into hers. “Instinct should make us hold back when our bears want to rip another to shreds for stupid reasons like financial or political gain. We’re more than our instincts. We’re humans as well as bears. Isn’t it about time we bloody well started acting like it?”
Her sense of pride was ridiculous—what she felt for Tyler at that moment was way out of proportion. Still, that he’d been listening to what she’d said and put it together without a two-by-four to the head made her beam.
He was a good man, or good bear, indeed. She squeezed his fingers, and the brief glance between them meant so much more than acceptance of her actions and his words. It was an affirmation that together, they were better.
The squeal of tires in the parking lot pulled everyone’s attention to the taxi jerking to a stop by the front gate. Fear flared as Todd Ainsworth leapt from the back seat, slamming the door behind him.
Caroline pushed down her panic, darting a glance over her shoulder to where the ladies were slipping from the steamy water, Amanda Ainsworth staring with terror-filled eyes.
Todd Ainsworth left his jacket on the ground of the parking lot, his shirt at the stairs leading to the observation area. Around her and Tyler, clothes fell to the ground as the men prepared to shift.
Caroline regretted the swimsuit thing even more as she had no choice but to back away. Unarmed? No claws? She wasn’t a fool. This was no place for her.
Tyler dropped her hand to strip off his jacket and shirt. “I’ll deal with him. Find a safe spot.”
She snatched up his jacket, slipping it on. “I’ll take Amanda—”
“Find a safe spot,” Tyler bit out, his voice softening as Ainsworth closed the gap between them. “Please, Caroline. I need to deal with Todd, but I need you to be safe. I can’t… God, don’t let anything happen to you.”
Half the men had shifted, half stood naked in human form listening as Todd crossed the final feet toward them, cursing loudly. It was an eerie sight, bear and man mixed, violence simmering.
Caroline ducked away, not waiting to hear what complaints Todd wanted to make.
The view to the back of the pool was equally frightening. Most of the women had already shifted, making their way toward the assumed safety of the trees. Only their path of retreat was blocked. Dark bodies emerged
