That light caught the teens’ nonchalant progress. Valentin glared at them until they hunched their shoulders and, scowling patented teenage scowls, went back to their studies in another part of the Cavern. That part happened to be next to a natural spring-fed pool, where the rain fell when it came in through the same cracks that brought them light. Sand swept out from the gleaming green clarity of the pool, the water shallow enough that even the cubs could play in it without fear.
Lush moss grew on the rocks around the pool, giving that part of the Cavern the feel of being a world within a world. The rest of it was more rocky, though with its own beauty. Veins of sparkling quartz ran through the entire area, while the wall where each of the cubs placed his or her palm print when they turned five was a riot of color.
What would Starlight think of this home he loved with all his heart and soul?
“Silver needs to be cut out of the line of fire for a short period,” he told those of his seconds who’d gathered here—three were out of Denhome on long-range patrol missions to ensure no one got ideas about encroaching on StoneWater territory. His bears might like to live on top of one another, but they needed a wide range to wander in.
Zahaan, Taji, and Inara would be back in two weeks. Until then, Valentin kept in touch with them via various comm points the clan had hidden throughout their lands. It was Pavel who’d brief the three after this meeting. “Silver’s grandmother knows no one can get to her here, and Silver’s agreed with her verdict.”
“Silver Mercant listens to her grandparents?” Nova whispered, eyes wide. “She’s like us?”
“Yes—and her babushka is as scary as ours, so don’t mess with her.”
“You talking to yourself, Valya?” Pavel asked slyly, his cheeks creased and his eyes glinting behind the clear lenses of the spectacles he insisted on wearing; the otherwise audacious bear was scared the readily available corrective surgery would damage his already less-than-perfect vision.
Everyone laughed; Valentin’s men and women were well aware of his fascination with Kaleb Krychek’s dangerous aide. It had been hard to miss after Valentin suddenly began volunteering to act as courier anytime documents needed to be delivered to Silver—or to Kaleb. Because, somehow, it was always far more convenient for him to drop them off with Silver rather than her boss.
“Don’t you all have work to do?” he grumbled.
Pavel raised a hand, clearly being an asshole. But Valentin happened to like this asshole. “What?”
“Teleporters.”
“Not a problem,” he told them. “Silver’s grandmother confirmed Silver has some type of shielding that means even the ones who lock on to faces won’t be able to find her.” It had been part of the final conversation they’d had in the hospital, before Ena left Silver in Valentin’s care.
“Huh.” Stasya purposely bumped Pieter’s shoulder, her height of six feet only an inch less than his.
Subtle, Valentin’s sister wasn’t. It had become obvious over the past month that she wanted to jump Pieter’s bones. Valentin pretended to be oblivious to both the bump and Pieter’s responding glance. A man did not need to know about his sisters’ intimate lives.
Ever.
“Not surprising, really,” Stasya added with a self-satisfied smile when Pieter didn’t break the physical contact. “She has to have picked up a few tricks working with Krychek all this time.”
“You want us to change the security settings?” Pavel asked, his shoulders pulling against the dark brown of his shirt when he thrust his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I’ve had the technical elements running at Defcon 5 since we haven’t had any major threat warnings.”
“Defcon 5?” Yakov—his own outfit a black tee that hugged his biceps, and dark green cargoes—made a face. “Really, Pasha? Have you been playing those American hologames again?”
Pavel made a rude gesture with his hand. “At least I don’t lose to ten-year-old ponies from Tajikistan.”
Yakov clutched at his chest. “Oh, how you wound me. To think I carried you on my back when we were children.”
Used to the twins hassling each other over nothing in particular, Valentin ignored their byplay to focus on the question. “Raise it up a notch,” he said. “I want to make dead sure no one can sneak in.”
It was an extra and probably unnecessary precaution. Their rugged terrain would, as always, act as their biggest line of defense. Long settled in this region, StoneWater hadn’t permitted civilization to advance much farther than a dirt track that they could destroy in a matter of minutes if it came to that.
The only other way to get to Denhome was to teleport in—or to hike in on foot. Good luck with the latter if you weren’t trained for uneven terrain set with all kinds of booby traps. Yakov hassled his brother about hologames, but the two of them came up with the best traps when they put their minds together, the hunt a game in itself.
“I’ll make that happen now,” Yakov said. “We’ve got more than a few dominants just lazing about in the sun. Time to kick their asses.”
“Hey,” Nova said, hands on her hips. “They earned that lazing about, and as the clan’s healer, I prescribed it.”
Yakov was too smart to sass Nova in a disrespectful fashion. Rather, he bowed from the waist. “I will kick their fat beary asses gently, my lady.”
“Pasha.” Valentin called their technical expert closer as the others began to disperse, Nova stomping beside Yakov to make sure he didn’t get too enthusiastic in his ass-kicking. “Anything?”
Chapter 8
THE OTHER MAN pushed up his glasses, his eyes a crystal-clear aqua green. Unfortunately, those pretty eyes had crap night vision. Pavel also couldn’t see two feet without his glasses. But his brain was a razor. He also had the same dominance as his brother. Leaving him in a lower position in the clan simply because he had imperfect sight would’ve been a recipe for trouble.
Now, he shook his head, his shaggy dark brown hair several shades darker than the mid-brown of his skin. That brown came from his and Yakov’s paternal grandfather, a bear who was a native of Angola—what the hell a bear clan had been doing in Angola before they moved to a colder clime, Valentin still hadn’t figured out. Pavel’s dedushka just laughed like a lunatic whenever he brought it up. The aqua-green eyes came from the twins’ black bear mother.
Déwei Nguyen’s genes appeared long buried, but they were there in the intuition that had marked the twins since birth. If either Pavel or Yakov told Valentin to more heavily guard a section of border, though there was no apparent reason to do so, he listened. The last time that had happened, they’d caught Selenka’s wolves trying to sneak in, no doubt to spy on StoneWater.
Déwei Nguyen had been a foreseer.
“Comm traffic shows no suspicious signals that might mean the Consortium has a plant in the clan.” Pavel’s eyes lit up as he slipped into geek talk. “I’ve bugged it three ways to Sunday—”
“Pasha.” Valentin pinned him to the spot with his gaze.
His second raised his hands. “I’m not breaching anyone’s privacy. It’s all done by a computer program. Got Brenna from SnowDancer to help me with the code. Man, that woman’s brain.” He sighed. “If only she didn’t have the bad taste to be a wolf, and wasn’t madly in love with her psycho assassin mate, I’d seriously consider switching teams.”
Valentin slapped him on the side of the head. “Focus.”
“Right.” Pavel shook off the firm hit with bearish insouciance. Any less strength behind it and he’d have taken it as an insult to his honor. “Anyway, it’s all automated. Programmed to send up a bright red flag if anyone starts getting cute trying to contact people who mean the clan harm. Nothing so far.”