The bear who’d started the violence had a human form under his paws. Caroline waited, her heart in her throat, as she recognized a familiar-looking suit being torn to shreds. Only the flying fabric wasn’t from the attacking bear doing the damage, it was from Tyler shifting. He roared in anger and flipped his attacker to the floor.
Chaos reigned in the elegant room. A mass of furry bodies swiped razor-sharp claws at each other, howls of pain and snarls of rage filling the air.
The servants had retreated to the edges of the room or vanished altogether, fleeing through smaller doors and closing them firmly behind themselves. Caroline eyed the still-open grand entrance and estimated how long it would take for her to sprint the distance. Calculating if it was worth the risk.
So far the fighting remained focused far from her, but she had no guarantees it would stay there. A couple clasped together in a ball of bloody fur rolled toward her escape route, and Caroline’s hopes fell.
A flash of fur appeared to her right, and she swung her knife hand instinctively, jerking the blade back as she recognized the smaller-than-a-bear silver coat.
“Shaun, you idiot. I nearly skewered you.”
He grinned briefly, his sharp teeth flashing white, then turned and stood as a sentinel between her and the bears.
Great. If the bruins did decide to come her direction one of her favourite wolves could get hurt. There had to be another solution. She spotted Tyler systematically working his way through a mass of fighters, headed in her direction.
He’d promised to come for her, and he was keeping his word. In the meantime? She wasn’t sitting on a tuffet and waiting.
The beautiful dress she wore was about to become an issue, as would the shoes. She kicked her heels off then grabbed the skirt of her dress, wrapping the material around her waist to get the long swath of fabric out of her way.
“Once I make it to a safe spot, you get out of here,” she ordered Shaun, returning her knife blade to the holster.
He wagged his tail.
What she had in mind was insanity of a new sort. She put a hand to the decorative brickwork behind her, caught the edge of a protrusion with a toe and made her first move up the wall.
She figured using the light sconce, the bricks and a bit of luck she could make it to the ledge about twenty feet up. High enough no one should be able to get at her.
Caroline reached for a hold when a set of hands closed around her waist, jerking a curse from her lips. She swung a fist, only to have it captured in a huge hand as she was twisted in place, held firmly against Tyler’s naked body.
“You can beat me up later. Let’s get out of here.” A smear of blood on his face made him look like a pirate. He spoke quietly, keeping the attention off them. “I’m going to shift. Climb on my back and hold on as tight as you can.”
Good grief, he was serious. The wall of muscle in front of her vanished as he dropped to all fours and simultaneously shifted. Instead of Tyler’s muscular chest and gorgeous…everything, there was a massive grizzly bear with a thick coat of fur. He glanced over his shoulder as if to tell her to hurry.
The fighting remained loud and violent, and he didn’t have to warn her twice. She crawled onto his back and leaned down, fisting his fur, thighs wrapped around his torso as far as possible. Together, Shaun and Tyler shot forward, headed for the door.
It was a strange sensation, riding a bear. Caroline had ridden horses, but every pace Tyler took involved his torso far more than a horse. As he moved, she moved, the room passing in a blur. To one side, Shaun leapt at an attacker, his teeth sinking into a forepaw and pulling a scream of anger from the bear. Tyler used the distraction to dodge the few bears standing between them and freedom.
Caroline glanced back in time to see Shaun escape through a gap, his smaller body ducking easily around the bears’ larger forms. Tyler leapt over a fighting pair, and Caroline gritted her teeth as she clung for dear life, a grunt escaping her as they landed and Tyler increased his pace.
They were out the front doors and into the darkness. Tyler turned them away from the main road, heading into the trees.
Caroline held on, nestling tighter to the warm fur under her. There was nothing to do except wait and trust.
Chapter Eleven
It was the first time Tyler remembered leaving a fight before it was over. He slowed his pace, working to maintain a level surface for Caroline to rest on as he glided silently through the trees.
He’d never left, but then he’d never had someone to protect before either.
When the bear had charged across the room he’d been distracted, checking to make sure Caroline was still in the protected alcove where she and Lillie had settled. The short lapse of attention had been enough he’d found himself under his attacker, his tie the only thing he’d removed in time.
Blast it. He had really hoped they could use diplomacy to end this thing. Instead, people like Ainsworth were calling the shots. From the bits and pieces Tyler had heard during the short visit, Clan Lucerne was being encouraged to be far too aggressive.
Which put him here, in the bush, a shivering human on his back.
They weren’t far from Whitehorse, not via the route he could take. He topped the ridge and found them a sheltered spot out of the wind, giving her a moment to crawl off before he shifted.
The moonlight shone on the remains of her fancy dress, highlighting her shimmering hair. She was a wood nymph in the beams of silvery light.
Caroline folded her arms. He held her to his torso to provide warmth. “You okay?”
“I’m not the one who was being mauled.” She skimmed her hands over him. A light, delicate touch that turned him on far faster than it should.
“Save that for when we’re somewhere warmer.”
Her expression tightened as she otherwise ignored his suggestion. “Where are you hurt?”
Fuck it. He grabbed her hand off his ribs. “Caroline, stop it.”
Her other hand continued to torment him. “You were crazy. I thought he was ripping you apart.
If she wanted so badly to find something that was wrong, he’d help her. He pressed her fingers lower until her palm covered his erection. “This is the only thing hurting. I doubt you want to do something about it here and now. I stopped to find out where you want to go. The hotel, your apartment? Where?”
She softened in his arms, cuddling in as she shivered. “I’m sorry, I should have known. Not the hotel—it’s too far into Whitehorse for you to make it in your bear, or as a naked man. The apartment is against the tree line. You really plan to carry me the entire way?”
He cradled her to his chest, the flutter of her heartbeat making something inside him quiver. “If I head south we’ll be there in no time. The road had to curve around the mountain. We can go straight down. Look.” He pointed through the trees, and sure enough, the shimmer of city lights answered back.
“That’s closer than I thought.” Her teeth chattered.
Tyler caught her by the chin as he held her against him, savouring her warmth and the scent of her attraction that she was powerless to hide. “You’ll be okay. I’ll take you home.”
He should have stepped away, should have moved immediately to shift, but this called him. The wild part inside him needed a taste, and as she caught his shoulders and lifted her head willingly, he brought their mouths together.
Their last kiss had been violent. Rough, nearly a fight. This was surprisingly soft, shared warmth and passion. Exploring and trying to get closer to each other. He held her, his hands full of her ass, tempted to grind her over his erection but the steady thrill of her hands over his shoulders was enough, for now at least.
