At first, Christiana thought it had to be another bear shifter. After all, they were at Bear Buns. But, once Christiana caught sight of the telltale colors of the shifter, she realized she couldn’t’ve been more off the mark. Orange, with stripes of black, a long whip of a tail, and a roar that could scare man and beast alike, it was a tiger. The tiger barreled in toward the wolves and roared loudly in their faces before lunging, grabbing the biggest of the wolves in its mouth and shaking it. The other two wolves jumped toward the tiger, but the bears pulled the smaller wolves off of the tiger and pushed them, keeping them isolated from one another. In a pack, the wolves were strong, but on their own, they weren’t more than scrappy, mangy dogs.

The wolves were confused. It was a state of mind that left them vulnerable to attack because they’d made a potentially deadly mistake. They’d gotten stuck inside their heads for a second, trying to calculate why the heck there was a tiger in a strip club that featured dancing bears, trying to think if they’d heard of a zoo’s animal escaping that day, but that split second was all that the mysterious interloper needed. The tiger let out a mighty roar, a roar that was feline, crazed, nearly resembling the yelp of a female cat in heat, a cry that exposed its great white teeth, glossy with a coat of its clear spittle, to the wolves. Although this had been a fight between the mangy street dogs and the dog-like bears, now, a big cat had entered the fray.

And to this big cat, the wolves were mere mice.

And that big cat intended on catching them like mice.

The big cat lunged, reaching out both paws at once, extending its sharp, talon-like claws, claws that were meant for scratching and catching, and caught the wolves by their fluffy tails.

The wolves tried to scramble away from the big cat, but their padded feet couldn’t get a grip on the tiled kitchen floors. One slipped in a puddle of the ruined icy dessert and landed head first into the same pool, its vision blurred. Once it had managed to move out of the tiger’s grasp, the wolf ran around the kitchen, its head leaving spots of melted ice cream wherever its forehead made impact with the walls, cabinets, and miscellaneous appliances of the kitchen, before the wolf ran out the kitchen door, presumably toward the street.

Now, the bears and the tiger finally outnumbered the wolves. While the tiger took care of the wolf it had a grip on, pushing that wolf onto its back and holding it in that position, resisting the urge to take the fight any further, the bears circle the other wolf. When the wolf made the error of staring at Chad and not focusing on Barrett, Barrett swatted the wolf down, and Chad finished the job, holding the wolf down with one robust and firm paw.

The bears and the tiger looked at one another, exchanging knowing glances before they each roared a deafening roar in the faces of the wolf they were holding down. The wolves squeamishly struggled against the force of the mighty alphas. Once each wolf uttered the tell-tale whimper of defeat, the alpha bears let the wolves go, but the bears stepped back, allowing the tiger take over. Who was this mysterious tiger, wondered Christiana, and why were the bears showing it deference in this situation?

The tiger circled the two wolves and then roared again at them, but the wolves, holding themselves in submissive positions, heads down, didn’t dare look up at the tiger, until the tiger patted the ground with one giant paw and then, pointed to the door and nodded its head in the direction of the exit. The wolves knew what they had to do, and they meekly started to walk away.

That wasn’t good enough for the tiger. The tiger stalked behind the wolves quietly before pouncing again, the thud of the giant mammal on the floor and the roar it emitted from the depths of its belly scaring whatever bejeesuses were left from the wolves, who quickened their pace while yelping in fear. They hadn’t realized they’d been given a five-second head start, and now that their head start was up, it was tiger time.

The tiger left the kitchen, chasing the wolves out of the strip club and roaring all the while. The bear shifters shifted out of their animal forms and grabbed two of the spare aprons from the wall. Upon spotting the change of fur to flesh, Christiana turned away. It had been bad enough that she’d been staring at them during the fight. Now was not the right time to ogle the two handsome men, even if, yes, they had just put on the most stunning performance she’d ever seen, if one could call the display of brute strength in the brawl a mere ‘performance.’ What the heck was she going to say to them? How could she ever thank them for what they’d done for Angelina, what they’d done for her?

“You can come out now,” said Chad, tying the apron behind his back.

Christiana and Angelina unlocked the door to Christiana’s office and walked back out into the kitchen.

“Great, another mess to clean up,” said Christiana, looking around the kitchen…and then, she caught sight of Chad and Barrett. She felt her cheeks burning. She’d felt like a voyeur, watching Chad and Barrett fight in their shifts, as if she was watching something meant to be secret, confined to the world of shifters…but Chad and Barrett, clad only in aprons, was a-whole-nother sight to behold!

The pair’s taught, firm muscles were covered in a slight sheen of sweat that made their every curve glossy. Sure, Christiana had curves, but while hers were long and soft, Chad and Barrett’s arms and shoulders consisted of small wavelets of muscle that formed mountains and valleys on the landscape of their skin. Those dips and heights were begging to be licked, preferably with a coating of freshly whipped cream or some decadently dark chocolate, with sticky caramel tossed in for good measure.

How the heck could Chad and Barrett make something as simple as an apron look like frikkin’ lingerie? It had to be the way they were holding their bodies. They exuded an alpha male confidence that came from being true alpha males, like the other dancers at Bear Buns…and like a certain stagehand who had a striped friend living inside his skin.

Christiana swallowed and tried to focus on the kitchen, taking stock of the damage that had been done. Nothing expensive had been destroyed, although now, there were depressing looking puddles of melted ice cream and a few dented aluminum cooking bowls. Luckily, no glass had been shattered in the brawl. Christiana put her hands on her hips and shook her head as she scanned over the damage and thought about just how long it’d take her to get it cleaned up before dinner prep.

“Don’t worry,” said Angelina. “Things can be replaced. I’m sure that I can ask Thomas to have some of the stagehands help us clean up.”

“Yeah, once Thomas calms down, takes a cold shower, and gets changed,” said Chad.

“Wait, what?” asked Angelina. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?” asked Barrett. “The tiger that was in here…that was Thomas.”

“Pardon my French, but holy shit,” said Angelina. “Did Thomas frikkin’ shift to save us? He’s always so cool and mellow. I didn’t think he’d shift to get in a fight. I thought it was another one of the employees. But…Thomas shifted to help you two save us?”

“To save you,” said Christiana.

“I’ve never seen him like that before,” said Chad. “I mean, I’ve seen him in his shift. I knew that tiger was him. And I’ve seen him shift, but…”

“…Never for something as important as a mate,” said Barrett.

“A mate?” asked Angelina with a laugh. “You can’t be serious. Thomas and I, we’re just friends.”

“For now,” said Barrett.

“What do you mean?” asked Angelina.

“We’ve seen the way Thomas looks at you, Angie,” said Chad. “He thinks of you as a lot more than a friend. The only question is, how long are you gonna make him wait to have the chance to prove that he’s serious about you?”

“There’s no frikkin’ way Thomas is into me,” said Angelina, blushing. “He would’ve said something about it by now.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Chad. “And take it from us, no man would shift and take on two crazy wolves if he wasn’t real frikkin’ serious about the woman he was protecting.”

“How the heck am I gonna pay Thomas back?” asked Angelina.

“You could let him take you on a date, for starters,” said Barrett.

“Are you two seriously telling me that Thomas, big, funny, cuddly Thomas, is into little ol’ me?” asked Angelina shyly. It took Christiana all her strength to keep from giggling. Angelina was usually so sassy and confident, but apparently, the thought of Thomas taking her on a date was enough to make Angelina’s cheeks redden.

“Look, you call it what you want, but he’s totally into you,” agreed Christiana. “Give him a shot. I’m sure that even though he’s ‘just’ one tiger, he’s more man than those three wolves put together.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. We’re totes meant to be or whatever,” said Angelina. “I guess I should just wait for him to ask me on a date then.”

“I’ll give him the good news,” said Chad.

“And here I was, thinking that the messenger system between the girls and the boys ended in middle school,” said Barrett.

“Well, hold on a second,” said Angelina. “What about you and…?”

“Angelina!” said Christiana sharply, getting her assistant’s attention. “We’ve got to get back to work and salvage the ice cream. It’s melted, and we’re going to have to remake that version of the ice cream to ensure we’ve been thorough with our testing.”

“Fine,” said Angelina, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms before walking back to the counter.

“You two gonna feel safe enough in the kitchen?” asked Chad.

“We can hang back with you two if you’re worried,” said Barrett. “We can even get you two security details.”

“It’s fine,” said Christiana. “You two and Thomas got those wolves turning tail in a heartbeat. They’d have to be idiots to come back and try to mess with us. They’d have twelve dancing, biting, clawing bears to have to deal with.”

“They abso-frikkin’-lutely would,” said Chad.

“You’ll holler if you need anything…right?” asked Barrett.

“Right,” said Christiana. “I guess I better let you two get back to practice.”

“We’re on for dinner though, right?” asked Chad, shooting Christiana finger guns.

“Dinner?” asked Christiana. “Oh. Right. Uh…”

“You want to put in an order for pizza? Say no more,” said Barrett with a wink. “Trust me. We’ll handle it. You work on the ice cream and come to dinner with a full appetite. After all, a curvy gal like you needs all the energy she can get…especially after a day like this.”

With that, Barrett and Chad made their way out of the kitchen, still clad in the aprons that they’d snagged from the rack of aprons in the kitchen. The aprons didn’t cover much at all, leaving their taut backs exposed to Christiana, backs that gave her a clue as to how firm their pecs must be, and that wasn’t all that was left exposed.

The aprons covered even less of their bodies than a standard hospital gown would’ve covered.

This meant that certain ‘parts’ were left open to being examined…

…Including two pairs of sweet, spicy, firm bear buns that looked spankable.

And in between those two cheeks?

Well, let’s just say that what Christiana saw wasn’t exactly an entire plate full eggs and sausage, but there was also no way that the guys were stuffing their pants. It was clear that their thick, long bulges were all-natural, homegrown, and real as real could be.

“Stare more, why don’t you?” asked Angelina before gently elbowing Christiana.

“It’s that obvious?” asked Christiana.

“Girl, I know you have the hots for those two shifters,” said Angelina. “You’ve been working so hard for the club…don’t you think it’s time for you to enjoy all the benefits this job has to offer?”

“Benefits?” asked Christiana.

“Come on,” said Angelina. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“What, watching one of the practices or something?” asked Christiana. “Heck no. I belong here, in the kitchen.”

“Sexist much?” teased Angelina.

“You know what I mean,” said Christiana. “I just…I don’t want to mix work and romance.”

“Yeah, you do, or you wouldn’t have to tell yourself otherwise,” said Angelina. “Admit it. Those two bears are h-o-t hot, hot, hot!”

“Okay, they’re bona fide hotties, is that what you wanna hear?” asked Christiana. “Yes. They make me ‘feel’ something ‘down there.’ Yes. They make my skin tingle when they brush up against me. But it doesn’t change the fact that mixing work and romance is a bad idea.”

“Who said anything about romance?” asked Angelina. “All I’m saying is, you’ve got to check your needs, and I can tell that you’re hungry for a sandwich.”

“A sandwich?” asked Christiana. “But…we’re getting pizza.”

“You know, a sandwich,” said Angelina. “You mean to tell me you’ve never had a sandwich?”

“Of course, I’ve had a sandwich,” said Christiana. “Peanut butter and jelly; bacon, lettuce, tomato; Italian…”

“I’m talking about a Chad, Christiana, and Barrett sandwich,” said Angelina. “You know. The kind of sandwich that keeps you filled up all night.”

“Angelina!” hissed Christiana. “What the heck are you going on about?”

“What, you’ve never fantasized about two guys at the same time?” asked Angelina.

“The last thing I need is to be taken by two men at once,” said Christiana.

“Don’t think of it as being ‘taken,’” insisted Angelina. “Think of it as…having them. Enjoying them. Remember, you’ve got that honeypot. You’re the one in control. It’s obvious they want you, and those two, well, they’ll do anything for you. They may be bears, but they’ve been following after you like love-drunk puppies. The only question is, where do you want them, how do you want them, and most importantly, how hard?”

“You seriously think I can handle two big, bad bear shifters?” asked Christiana.

“Of course, you can,” said Angelina. “You and I, well, we’re built for shifter men, what with our strong curves, meant for not only childbearing but surviving the very act of making those babies. Ever seen a shifter man with a stick-skinny human? Heck no! They’re always with plump, luscious women like you and me. You own those curves. I know you do. But now, it’s time for you to exercise that confidence somewhere else.”

“And why do I feel you have a somewhere else in mind?” asked Christiana.

“Look, those two have a private room, right?” asked Angelina. “The cocktail room or whatever? Why don’t you plan on having a private ‘dessert’ with them in their cocktail room to thank them for defending you tonight?”

“That’s…not a bad idea,” admitted Christiana. “It’s just dinner, after all. I guess I’ll talk to Thomas, get filled in about these ‘cocktail’ rooms and all. Thanks for the hot tip, Ang.”

“Great,” said Angelina. “We’re having pizza tonight, but tomorrow, you better come to work with your A-game. You know those shifters get hungry and if you don’t make them enough pizza, why, they might end up eating you right up!”

Angelina and Christiana got to work cleaning the kitchen, but that last thing Angelina said was stuck in Christiana’s head. She’d heard of fairy tale gals being eaten up by big, bad wolves…but maybe it’d be nice to get ‘eaten up’ by two big, good bear shifters.