Free Diamond Dust by Vivian Arend Page A

next couple days, deal?”
    Frank nodded and stretched. “Nice evening. Think I’ll take a walk before heading back to the pack house. See you later, Caroline. Justin—hang loose.”
     
    His brother ambled off happily as Tyler wrestled with the knot of tension inside him.
    Caroline blinked at him from her spot on the bench, taking control of the wine bottle he’d grabbed from the table. She raised it in a silent cheer before putting the bottle to her lips.
    He tore his gaze off her mouth and focused on his guard. “Go home.”
    Justin didn’t move. “I don’t think so.”
    Fuck it. What was the use of being the head of the biggest bear conglomerate when he couldn’t get anyone to listen? “Justin. I don’t need a babysitter.”
    “But you do need a chaperone.” Justin motioned to Caroline. “Take your time, remember you’re in public, and I’ll be right over there just out of hearing, waiting until you get whatever the hell is wrong out of your system.”
    Tyler wanted to rip something to shreds, preferably his best friend’s head, but the noncompromising stance Justin took forced Tyler to accept the truth.
    As much as he wanted to vanish with Caroline, he couldn’t. He’d been over the line hauling her ass out of the restaurant, and that was only forgivable because she’d laughed and made it all right.
    He dipped his head briefly at Justin then joined Caroline on the bench, collapsing without much hope of holding up his limbs any longer.
    She sat quietly, the two of them looking over the smooth flowing river. She held out the bottle, and he accepted it, swallowing down a number of gulps like some street person.
    “What a day.” Caroline stretched her legs in front of her and leaned back.
    Tyler switched from watching the water to examining her legs, mesmerized. “It’s been interesting, yes.”
    “So, what’s the most recent thing on the ‘this day can’t possibly get any weirder’ for you? Me, I got carried out of a restaurant by a cranky bear.”
    He went for honest. “It was carry you out, or shift in public.”
    “Shit.” She leaned closer, peering into his face. “Really? Well, I’m glad you went Tarzan on me then, but what the hell? I wasn’t in any danger, you know.”
    Tyler wasn’t as sure of that as she seemed to be. “You know why we’re in town?”
    She nodded. “Conclave. You guys vote for leadership then somehow the leader deals with territorial-distribution issues. You had the first part of the meetings in Dawson City earlier this summer, and you’re supposed to finish them here.”
    Not bad. “You’re well informed.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “I’m…kind of well connected in the Takhini pack. That was part of the reason I stepped in at the restaurant. I knew the wolves involved in the potential rumble would listen to me without an argument.”
    Tyler glanced at Justin, but his guard was being true to his word. He’d stepped far enough away he could keep an eye on what was going on around them, but he mustn’t have heard her comment, or he would have given Tyler an “I told you so” look.
    “Well connected means you understand how typical shifters react in power situations?”
    “Considering I just had my fingers wrapped around a bear’s gonads, uh, yeah. Violence is not the option of last choice, it’s usually the first. Getting physical is like breathing to shifters, or at least to wolves.”
    Tyler watched her take another drink, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she offered him the bottle again.
    “Bears are worse.”
    Her snort of disbelief only made his bear more agitated.
    “I’m serious. You mention getting physical as a first option. Bears do that, step in and fight before trying to talk things through. But there’s a violence built into us beyond protecting or wanting to win. Most bears don’t give a damn if they get hurt during the power exchange, as long as their opponent ends up hurting harder.”
    She was thinking it through.