Anticipation danced inside. She was somewhere between being disgruntled that she was
She clicked open Tyler’s email to formulate an acceptance.
Part Two
Ye who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it,
Though it lead to glory or the darkness of the pit.
Ye who take the Lone Trail, bid your love good-by;
The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow till you die.
Bid good-by to sweetheart, bid good-by to friend;
The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow to the end.
Tarry not, and fear not, chosen of the true;
Lover of the Lone Trail, the Lone Trail waits for you.
“The Lone Trail”—Robert Service
Chapter Eight
The hushed voices around them were a good thing. Tyler sat in his appointed section, high along one side of the room, Justin at his right. All around the perimeter were special seats for the nominees to use as they observed the proceedings. The rest of the space was filled with a mass of bears sauntering in to disappear behind the screen and mark their choices in this round of the elections.
“Everyone’s behaving so far,” Justin noted, moving his gaze around the room, keeping alert for any surprises.
“There’s no need to make a fuss at this point. We’re still using approval voting. Out of the eight clans left, there are clearly four who have the power to not be eliminated.”
“Agreed. After this vote is complete, the real juggling begins.” Justin turned to face him fully, his voice lowered. “You done being distracted? Ready to get your mind on the task of winning this thing?”
“Shut up. I’m not distracted.”
Justin snorted, then went back to sweeping the room for trouble. “Sure, that’s why you were singing in the shower this morning. I kept waiting for you to break out into Julie Andrews or something.”
No one was supposed to have heard that. “Mention it again and I’ll shove a spoonful of sugar down your throat until you choke.”
His friend chuckled, but Tyler didn’t bother to correct his manners. He was too busy being distracted by the phone vibrating in his pocket. He whipped it out and snapped to messages.
Oh, yes. Finally, Caroline’s response.
“Does that ‘
“She’s on board.” His bear did the equivalent of a fist pump. Tyler glanced around the room. “How much longer do you estimate?”
Justin scratched his side. “An hour until they close the poll. Another thirty until they lock down the official counters in the safe room, and we can leave. Why?”
“She wants to know our plans for the evening.”
Justin whipped out a plain black book. “You are so lucky you hired me. Here. Everything you need to keep you far too occupied until we’re set free.”
“I didn’t hire you, my father hired your father. I inherited you, like the family estate, so don’t blame me. And a black book? How is that—?”
Tyler had slipped open the notebook, not expecting the lacy underwear and skimpy bras that assaulted his eyes. He slammed the cover tight and glanced around the room to see if anyone seated near them had noticed.
Good so far. Clan Fairmont on their right were busy chatting, and Clan Riondel on the left were busy moping, utter dejection in their body language and faces. They were certain to be eliminated this round.
Tyler had other issues to deal with. He leaned closer to his friend. “What the hell did you hand me? A Victoria’s Secret catalog or something?”
Justin grinned. “Well, you have a couple of hours to waste. I figured you might want to get started on that ‘sharing the plan for the evening’ thing with your woman.”
“You’re going to get me killed.” Still, Tyler cautiously opened the pages, this time realizing there was a fake cover over the official sale catalog. “Oh, mercy…”
Justin tapped the pages, seemingly uncaring his fingers were covering a mostly naked woman. “Local shop. You can order things, or text in your favourites, and send Caroline to get fitted. Unless you think you know her size well enough to order for her?”
Right. He wished he had more than a rough estimate of her size. Wished he had a much more intimate knowledge of exactly how those breasts of hers looked without any layers between them, even soaking-wet ones.
Holding out his hands at approximately the shape of her ass wouldn’t help her fit into a formal outfit, though. “I should probably warn her it’s a social event tonight.”
He turned the page, and his tongue got stuck to the roof of his mouth. The lingerie bursting from this page included a corset. One piece, barely there, hot pink. All thoughts of warning Caroline about
“Nothing doing. You be distracted, I have to stay alert to keep your ass intact.”
Fine. Tyler felt a touch of guilt at not giving the proceedings his full attention, but this was important as well.
Strange how his conscience was far too easy to appease.
He settled in, his big thumbs hovering over the tiny keyboard as he prepped a greeting message to the shop. Then he flipped through page after page, slightly incredulous at the variety of garments available for a remote location. “We don’t have a shop like this in Yellowknife, do we?”
“No.”
“Look into sponsoring some eager entrepreneur. This could end up as lucrative as the family business.” He spotted the prices discreetly written in full numbers at the base of each garment’s description. “Correction, they could end up richer than me.”
He fell silent for a few minutes, adding page numbers to the email before sending it off, along with a message to his limo driver.
He’d just tapped out Caroline’s phone number when a rumble began in the line. A bit of push and shove. Justin stood immediately, stepping forward.
“Hello?” Caroline’s sweet voice sent a shiver down Tyler’s spine.
Someone swung a fist, and Tyler swore. “Sorry to call and run, but there’s a fight starting. I can’t explain. Limo will pick you up at the hotel at five.”
A loud clatter rang out as one of those lined up tackled the two bears in front of him, and the entire group
