What? “Say again?”
Tyler sat up, cradling her in his arms. He gestured around the room. “It’s yours, Caroline. If you want anything changed, we’ll renovate. But I figured if you didn’t say yes, I’d need a place in Whitehorse to woo you from. So I bought it.”
“In less than one freaking day you bought me a house? That should have been on the list.”
He smiled. “You do know I have a bit of money, right? You won’t hold it against me?”
There seemed to be less oxygen in the room than before. “Oh, I-I knew you had money, but I think I need to add a few zeroes to my mental math.”
“You can fly with me to Europe when I go. And the South American trips will be much more pleasurable with you along.”
Caroline’s head swam with excitement. And then, a flash of an idea. “I feel terrible I don’t have a ring for you to wear.”
“That’s fine, we’ll find one later,” Tyler assured her.
Caroline shook her head. “Nope, this is important to me. And since it’s got to be shifter safe, how about this?” She leaned over and snatched up the ribs that had fallen to the floor. Off the top of the bone she pulled the decorative silver ring.
“You’re not serious.” Tyler laughed and hid his hands behind his back. Or at least he did until she raised a brow.
He sighed. Brought forward a hand and allowed her to slip it on.
Caroline took advantage of his momentary distraction to escape his lap and race for the stairs. Tyler was up and after her in a flash. Chances of her making it to the top without getting caught were slim to none, kind of like her chances had been of not falling madly in love with the big brute.
If it was her house, she was going to enjoy christening each and every part of it with her fiance. And there was no time like the present.
Chapter Twenty
It wasn’t the wedding she’d thought she would have.
Love was what she wanted, far more than the trappings of the occasion.
Although, in a kind of “ode to bear timing”, blessed by Caroline’s organizational skills and aided by Tyler’s money, the trappings had come together in only three days.
As she and Evan finished the long, slow walk to the front of the room, as she pulled away from Evan’s unexpected farewell kiss, she turned to discover Tyler stood only inches away from her. Heat poured from him, wrapping around her and protecting her from more than the cold of the world.
He would always ask her what she
Tyler had lost his smile, though, as he examined Evan coolly. “Good friends who don’t
With his usual
Tyler stared him down. Nodded. Then shifted his gaze to meet Caroline’s. “You ready?”
He held out his arm, elbow raised high. She pulled herself together once more, and rested her hand on his tuxedo-clad arm. Left Evan standing behind as she and Tyler walked up the short flight to the dais. Left her old life behind.
Emotions of panic had no place in this. What she’d done, she’d done for love. Tyler stood beside her as they repeated the words they’d picked for the ceremony. Simple and short. Vows to cherish each other. To be there for each other.
He was slipping another ring on her finger far sooner than she expected as a buzz began in her ears, the murmur of wolf and human voices rising to fill the hall. People she’d known her entire life all smiling and enjoying her good fortune.
The bears watching? Out of the corner of her eye she saw some pleased expressions, some unreadable. The only face she was completely surprised to see was Ainsworth, three rows back flanked by Nadia and her guard.
The shock was forgotten in a wave of happiness as she spotted Amanda safely in the front row, Justin at her side.
A throat cleared and Caroline’s attention snapped back to the woman leading the ceremony. She’d missed something. “What’s that?”
The justice of the peace smiled. “Do you have a ring for Tyler?”
“Oh, yes.” She reached into her bodice, smirking as Tyler’s eyes widened.
He whispered. “You did not…”
Caroline held out her hand, the heavy weight of the diamond cluster he’d already slipped on her ring finger unfamiliar and yet right. Definitely there, making her aware something had changed.
Tyler eyed her warily, but she slipped the shiny silver cooking decoration over his knuckle, keeping her expression serene. “I bought a caseload. So when you break them, you’ll have spares.”
Lillie and Jim Halcyon met them at the doors following the service. Lillie hugged Caroline tight, then handed over an envelope. “The final count was a joke. Most of Clan Ainsworth took off the night before the vote.”
Jim lowered his voice and leaned in close. “I heard they’re trying their best to distance themselves, and their finances, while we still have him here under surveillance.”
Tyler chuckled evilly. “Well, let’s make sure they have enough time to prove their real colours before Caroline and I go check things out. Ainsworth is staying as a guest here in Whitehorse until we’re back from our honeymoon, Nadia babysitting him. Once we return we’ll accompany him home and start guiding changes.”
It wasn’t as bloodthirsty a justice as Caroline would have liked, but it would have to do.
A wedding dinner followed, bears and wolves filling the banquet hall at the Moonshine Inn. There was no fighting. Caroline almost felt not herself, surrounded by shifters and yet no simmering violence to have to put down.
The only destruction caused at the wedding dance was when Evan rushed into the room, all his earlier fooling around vanished. He knocked over a table covered with small desserts, darting out and looking around frantically. Staff rushed to clean it up, as Evan ignored the mess and stomped straight across the dance floor. He tapped on her shoulder, interrupting what was supposed to be her and Tyler’s final dance before they snuck away.
“Caroline, I need your help.”
Tyler refused to let her go, and she refused to stop dancing, so Evan slipped an arm around both of them and joined in, light on his feet in spite of the panic on his face.
Tyler grumbled softly. “Find someone else to put out your fire. She’s mine now.”
Caroline shivered at the possessiveness of his words. She definitely liked getting to decide what she wanted. But sometimes what she wanted? Was a big, growly, domineering bear who knew how to listen.
Evan snarled at Tyler, two Alphas refusing to give an inch. Then Tyler laughed and let go of Caroline as he dipped Evan toward the floor, sheer shock twisting the wolf’s face.
Tyler snapped him back to vertical, twirled Evan away, and without skipping a beat, slipped his arms around Caroline to finish the dance.
Caroline was going to die.
Evan turned his most beguiling smile on Caroline as he wandered like a puppy at their side. “I opened an email attachment, and suddenly the computer is frozen. I can’t get at the bank accounts, so the bill payments have gone to hell. And somehow it transferred to the hotel computer as well and all the bookings for the hotel are fucked up.”
