“They’re baby bears.”
Silver watched as those baby bears turned toward her and rose up on their back paws, as if in challenge. A stern sound from their caretaker, and they dropped down and scrambled to catch up with her. Their bodies disappeared into the trees as dusk began to turn from orange to shadowy gray.
Beside her, Valentin sprawled out, bracing himself on his elbows. His drenched T-shirt clung to the ridged muscles of his abdomen, pulled tight across his pectoral muscles, shaped itself over his shoulders. His jeans weren’t much better, outlining the raw muscle of his thighs.
Valentin Nikolaev was a man of violent physical strength even in human form. Yet he clearly had iron control over it; when he’d played with the children, they’d displayed zero fear of their alpha.
To be alpha is to protect.
Words Lucas Hunter had spoken once, according to a media report. It explained much about the dynamics she’d witnessed: Valentin was the most dominant individual in StoneWater by far, but his clanmates understood his strength would only ever be used to protect the clan, never to harm it.
He was like Silver, like Ena.
“You thought about where you’re going to live when you escape the bears who’ve kidnapped you?”
When she raised an eyebrow at him, he grinned. “Fringe netter with his own Internet channel sent out a breaking report last night. Pasha—who obviously needs more work duties—made up a fake account and posted a comment swearing to have seen you being pulled into a black van by six burly bears in bear form.”
“You don’t seem too concerned.” Amber eyes and deep voice, he remained very much a bear in human form.
“Well, according to this ‘eyewitness,’ the getaway driver was in bear form, too. Must’ve been tough for him to steer with one paw since he was drinking a beer at the same time.”
“Bears,” Silver said, making Valentin throw his head back and laugh that huge laugh that wrapped around her.
Hit by the last rays of the setting sun, he was . . . magnificent. It was the only word that applied.
“As for the question of my residence,” she said when he stopped laughing and turned to look at her with his cheeks still creased. “I’ve decided my apartment has some technical issues that require maintenance.”
Valentin nodded. “Clever.”
“There are a number of secure buildings in the city I can relocate to in the interim.”
Valentin made a dubious sound. “Your building was secure, too—and all the negatives your grandmother pointed out still apply.”
Unfortunately, Silver agreed with him. “You have an alternative suggestion?”
“There’s a changeling complex that might work,” he said. “Your relatives won’t be comfortable enough to drop by, and it gives you an easy cover story. No need to set up fake long-term repairs in your apartment.”
“That I’m further immersing myself in changeling culture to better run EmNet?” Silver guessed. “That means I’ll eventually have to live in a human group to ensure no ill feeling across the races.”
“Good trade-off for safety. You could reach out to the Alliance to set up a future stay in a mostly human enclave to head off any cries of favoritism . . . even though we bears are your favorites.”
Silver didn’t react to his wink; that would only encourage him, and Valentin Nikolaev didn’t need positive reinforcement. “Is it the BlackEdge complex you’re suggesting?”
A rumbling sound from deep in his chest, his hands suddenly sprouting lethal claws that dug into the earth as he sat up, palms braced behind him. “Yes. You’d be surrounded mostly by wolves, and that’s enough to make anyone deranged, but there’s no chance of a stranger getting to you without someone noticing.”
“Are there bears in the complex?”
“A few poor souls.” Valentin’s tone was mournful. “Nowhere else suitable in the city for those strange clanmates who want to work in city-based professions. Like that rebel cousin of mine who’s convinced he loves being a prosecutor.”
Valentin’s “rebel” cousin was actually one of the best young Enforcement prosecutors in the city—and Silver knew full well Valentin had taken him out to celebrate after big victories, the proud older cousin and even prouder alpha. “I’ve always thought the larger and more predatory changelings must find it difficult in the city.” The most dangerous predators lived for wild places.
“That’s why the BlackEdge development was so important.”
“Don’t you mean the BlackEdge-StoneWater development?” At Valentin’s sharp look, she said, “I have my own spy files.”
A scowl that was all dark eyebrows and bear arrogance. “The wolves and leopards out in California gave us the idea,” he said in a grudging tone. “Wolves are mangy and they probably give my clanmates fleas, but we decided a while back that there are certain things it makes sense for us to work on together.”
“Ah, this must be the source of your deep and abiding friendship.”
Scowling deeper at her reference to his comment the morning he’d come to her apartment, he shuddered. “I don’t know how Lucas Hunter does it. Then again, he’s a cat. They find the strangest things funny. Maybe he thinks an alliance with wolves is a hysterical joke.”
Silver wondered how much of the bear antipathy for the wolves—and vice versa—was real and how much was habitual. “I’d have to check if the complex has any openings.” It wasn’t built like a Psy or human apartment building—the homes were spread out amidst a large amount of green space; raised pathways that doubled as elevated runs meant every residence, even those sized for single individuals, had a personal exit directly onto a path.
“I already checked. One apartment available on the third floor of a four-story building. Wolves and bears around you. My rebel cousin would be your neighbor.”
Silver realized that this was a neat trap into which she’d been gently nudged, but since it happened to be an excellent idea, she had no reason to protest. However, her relocation would be only until they’d unearthed the traitor. She’d permit no one to force her out of her home.
The two of them sat in silence for long minutes, the water flowing below and the birds raucous as they finished their business for the day.
Valentin was the one who broke the quiet. “If you want to go for a run after you feel better, Starlight, I can show you a running track through the woods. I know you go running on Moscow streets after dark.”
“It’s quiet then, the streets comparatively empty.”
“Being around so many bears must be driving you crazy.”
“No, I’m having no difficulty being in Denhome.” Silver had expected to feel suffocated, but she’d forgotten to factor in an important variable: she’d grown up in a tightly integrated extended family unit, had spent her entire childhood sharing quarters with others.
The bear setup didn’t stress her on any level.
“My family has a version of Denhome,” she found herself telling him. “On a much smaller scale, of course.”
“Ena?”
Silver nodded. Her grandmother’s home was a place where they were all welcome, and where they gathered multiple times a year.
“Look.” Valentin nodded up. “Stars are starting to appear.”
Her vision wasn’t as acute as his. She couldn’t see the stars against the gray of the sky, but she could feel the cooling air, hear the rustling of the trees. “I’ve never been in this type of environment.”
VALENTIN took in her profile, bear and man both deeply contented at being here, beside her. “There’s beauty in the night, in wild spaces filled with life.” It sang to his soul; he could tolerate the city, but sooner or later, his heart began to keen for the primal forests that were his home.