Silver touched her hands to Nova’s. “It’s all right, Nova.” The warmth of the other woman’s skin against hers, it didn’t feel wrong. And her heart, it felt so strange inside her chest. “I’d like you to meet my grandmother. Grandmother, this is Nova, the clan’s chief healer.”
“Grandmother,” Nova said respectfully. “You are most welcome.”
Ena received the same response no matter which part of Denhome she visited, until they reached Sergey; the older bear was helping build a bed in the area of Denhome set aside for carpentry and other such projects. He held Ena’s stare without welcome. “Come to see how the lesser races live?”
“Your low opinion of your own race is not my concern,” Ena said, cold as ice.
Sergey narrowed his eyes . . . then threw back his head and laughed a big bear laugh of which Silver wouldn’t have believed him capable. “That’ll teach me to poke a bear straight out of hibernation.” He swept out his arm in a wave. “Would you like a tour of our workshop?”
Ena took her time answering. “I suppose,” she said at last, “a bear of your years is apt to have at least some useful knowledge. You may proceed.”
Silver felt a living warmth at her back as Ena and Sergey walked off deeper into the cavernous space. “He seems in a far better mood.” Even though he had baited Ena, the man had given Silver a welcoming glance.
Curving his hand over her hip, his chest brushing her shoulders, Valentin said, “I’m his alpha—he needed to understand that and accept it. We had a discussion. It’s done.”
“By discussion, do you mean a fight?”
His chuckle vibrated against her, the heat of him sinking into her to warm parts she hadn’t known were cold. “Since your grandmother has a guide, do you want to catch up with your clanmates? Nova and the others are making drinks so you can sit and chat.”
Shifting on her heel, Silver looked at the hard edges of his face, touched her hand to that thick black hair he never bothered to comb, felt her heart squeeze. “Valentin.”
He lowered his head, his hair rough and tumbled. “Starlight.” A ragged word.
She touched her fingers to his lips, saw her hand was trembling. “Who are you to me?”
“Yours,” he said. “I’m yours.”
AN hour later, Nova showed Silver into her old room. Ena had made the unexpected decision to stay at Denhome overnight, so Silver didn’t have to return to Moscow—especially since she could hook into EmNet systems using her devices or the StoneWater network. The latter she knew she could trust; to these bears, she was half of their alpha pair.
No one would treat her as an enemy.
No one would spy on her.
No one would do anything but defend her to their last breath.
And Valentin . . . he’d die to keep her safe. She felt that knowledge in the very core of her being, as if she were inside his mind, inside his soul.
“I made sure all the clothes you left in Denhome stayed in good condition,” Nova told her. “I figured you could change here, and then if you and Mishka . . .” A sudden pause, her smile fading. “I don’t know what to do or say. Mates are usually for life unless one dies.”
“He’s still mine,” Silver said at once. “He told me so himself.”
A dangerous edge to her that Silver had never before seen, Nova said, “Don’t break my brother’s heart, Silver. He’s a big lug, but where you’re concerned, that heart of his, it’s like glass. You could shatter it with a few careless words.”
The visual was an unforgiving one, shards of glass crimson with Valentin’s blood lying at her feet. “I would never hurt Valentin.” The words came out hard, a rebuke as brutal as Nova’s words.
Nova’s eyes went amber, searched Silver’s face. “You still love him,” she whispered. “My God, Seelichka. Even though they cut into your brain, even though they rewired you, you held on to him. No wonder Mishka calls you Silver Fucking Mercant.”
Silver didn’t answer the healer, but after Nova left, she exited her bedroom and looked until she spotted Pieter. Making her way to the quiet male after ensuring Nova and Stasya were nowhere nearby, she said, “Petya.”
A suspicious scowl. “Why are you calling me Petya? You always call me Pieter.”
“You asked me to call you Petya.”
“But you never do.”
“I’m doing it now.”
“Why?”
Bears.
Deciding not to go any further down that rabbit hole, she said, “Will Valentin return soon?” He’d made it a point to find her after dinner, tell her that he had to go speak with Selenka.
In his gaze had been an unhidden need that clawed at her, his love worn openly, though she might yet kick at it. He wasn’t budging in that love, wasn’t building walls behind which he’d be safe, wasn’t doing anything but inviting her back into his warmth, despite the pain she’d caused him.
Alpha bear he might be, but he had no self-protective instinct when it came to the people he loved. If he wouldn’t protect himself, she’d do it for him. That was why she’d hunted out Pieter.
“Valya? I’m guessing he’ll be back in two hours.” Hazel eyes watched her, Pieter the most difficult to read of all of the seconds. “Why?”
“I need you to take me to Galina Evanova.”
No change in Pieter’s expression. “Why do you think I can track her?”
“You’re one of Valentin’s best friends,” she said, gaze resolute. “You keep an eye on her because it matters to him and his sisters.”
Folding his arms, he looked bear-stubborn for a second before admitting, “We all do—Inara spotted her a hundred meters from Denhome earlier today.” Flinty eyes. “If you get hurt, Valya will tear off my head and stomp on it.”
“I’m a high-level telepath, Petya. I can smash back a rampaging bear.” It’d stun the bear, but it wouldn’t do harm unless she literally sought to kill. Psy couldn’t breach changeling shields, but they could kill changelings with a massive psychic surge.
“A-hem.”
“And, of course,” Silver added at that pointed cough from the bear in front of her, “I’ll have your big, strong self with me.”
Scowling at her, Pieter nonetheless snuck her out of Denhome and into the trees. “You won’t be able to approach her,” he said in the soft dark green of the trees, the sky above dotted with stars. “She doesn’t even let Dima close, and he’s her only grandson.”
“Leave that to me.” Silver had things she wanted to say to Galina Evanova.
A glance from Pieter, his eyes glowing a faint amber in the darkness. “You could wipe the floor with me, couldn’t you?”
“What do you think?” she asked, steel and ice in her tone.
“I think,” he said with unexpected solemnity, “my alpha chose well.” He raised his hand a second later, then put his finger to his lips.
Nodding, Silver tried to walk in his footsteps, so she’d avoid crunching a branch or making any other noise. He stopped five minutes later and, hunkering down, pointed into the darkness. Silver didn’t have changeling night vision—it took her a full minute to see the outline of a bear seated under the branches of a tree with a large canopy.
She put her hand on Pieter’s shoulder, whispered so low she could barely hear herself. “I need privacy.”
He looked outraged. Putting his hand to his hair, he pulled up the strands and drew a line across his throat, demonstrating what Valentin would do to him if she got hurt. Having half expected that response, Silver dug out the earplugs she’d requisitioned from the medical supplies while Nova was away from the infirmary.