“I don’t have much time, Ashaya.” Silver’s voice was crystalline in its precision.
Valentin crushed her closer, aware the pain was ripping her to pieces. He willed the mating bond to take more, give it to him. He could take it, take anything for his Starlight.
“The sound level is close to unendurable,” she continued. “I’m having trouble distinguishing your voice from the others screaming in my head. Valentin’s is the only clear one.”
“That’s the mating bond kicking in to assist.” The other woman picked up an organizer, appeared to be flipping through pages of data. “How long before you can no longer maintain?”
“Twenty-four hours.”
Valentin’s bear staggered. “Can you organize the operation that quickly?” he asked Aleine.
The scientist pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb, thinking so hard he could almost hear it. “Yes,” she said at last. “But we need Silver for those twenty-four hours for scans, observation, brain mapping.”
“Tell me where,” Valentin said. “I’ll make sure she gets there.”
Surprisingly, the operating suite proved to be only a short drive away, the surgeon having already been in the region when Ashaya contacted him. It was in the same private hospital where Silver had had her scans. Owned by Krychek as it was, Valentin had no concerns about the staff’s discretion—the cardinal might be ruthless, but as Valentin had noted long ago, he inspired loyalty among his people.
“How will you and the others get there?” Silver asked Ashaya.
“Don’t worry about us. Just make your way there ASAP.”
“Let’s go,” Valentin said, already moving to grab his socks and boots.
“You can’t come with me,” Silver argued, even as she changed. “The clan needs you today more than it ever has.”
He wanted to roar at her like one of the damn lions who went around telling people they were the kings of the jungle. He’d like to see the peacocks strut if they pissed off an alpha bear. All Valentin’s bear would have to do was sit on one and he’d win. “My mate comes first!” It came out a yell. So did his next words. “That’s how a clan works! It all flows from the top!”
Of course she didn’t give in, his Starlight with her spine of steel and her capacity to embrace an entire clan as family. “Your clan—our clan—is hurt, Valyusha. The normal rules don’t apply.”
“Fuck yes they do.” Ignoring the mess of his own hair, he pushed his hands through the silk of hers. “I am not letting you go through this alone.” It was a growl of sound.
“They’ll be testing for the entire day.” Silver stood toe-to-toe with him, the infuriating, beautiful woman. “Arwen can stay with me for that, and you need to allow him that. He’s an empath. He’s had me within telepathic contact his entire life.”
Valentin kissed her lush mouth. “You don’t have to convince me about family, you maddening woman. I understand.” It was obvious Arwen adored Silver, idolized her. Valentin understood family. Understood that, sometimes, a man had to share his greatest treasure. “Scans and tests only?”
A nod. “I’ll contact you the minute they confirm the time of the operation itself.” This time, she was the one who kissed him. “You can be there in under an hour.”
The latter was true, Krychek having located his private facility on the outskirts of Moscow, on land that was otherwise unoccupied except for trees and wildlife.
“Before I go,” Silver added, “I need to see the clan, quietly tell my friends that I have to be away from Denhome for a while.”
He sensed no sadness or bleakness in her, only a fierce determination. “Don’t betray your secret,” he said. “It protects you.” It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his clan, but they were a big group, and people could let things slip without any bad intentions behind the slip.
“Agreed.” Silver smiled. “We’ll do this. We’ll beat it.”
“Hell yes, we will.”
EXHAUSTED by the tests and the level of noise in her head, Silver nonetheless continued to hold on to hope. It was hard, but she refused to surrender, to give in—if she did, it was Valentin who’d hurt. And that was simply unacceptable.
After the long day, she was almost surprised when the surgeon stated that he had enough data to perform the operation. “Three hours,” Dr. Bashir told her. “You should inform the large male who dropped you off. I certainly don’t want him coming after me for lack of notice.”
Silver nodded and, sitting up on the examination table, waited for the surgeon to leave before saying, “Arwen.” Her brother had waited outside while Dr. Bashir completed his final examination—a full-body workup.
Her overall health would factor into her recovery.
Are you clothed? her brother asked.
No, I’m stark naked and looking to involve you in an incestuous orgy.
Pushing aside the privacy curtains, her brother walked in with a faint scowl, his designer gray suit paired with a tie in a darker gray, his shirt white. “Those bears are a bad influence on you.” But there was no humor in his face, in his eyes. “So?”
She just nodded. And opened her arms.
He jerked into them, holding on so tight she could barely breathe. She held him back as closely, her sensitive, gifted brother who had kept her “human,” even in the depths of Silence. The empath who would make sure she didn’t turn into a psychopath, even if she lost the capacity to feel. “I’m Silver Fucking Mercant, Arwen. This won’t beat me.”
Arwen’s jerking tears came to a sobbing stop before turning into muffled laughter against her shoulder. “Those bears again?”
“Valentin.” The thought of him made joy fill every cell of her body, made her know what it was to be fully alive. “Are you saying he’s wrong?”
Arwen shook his head, his arms still locked around her. “You are Silver Fucking Mercant.”
She stroked his hair until he lifted his head. Wiping off the remnants of his tears, she said, “I love you, Arwen.” She’d never said that to him, to her twin who wasn’t a twin.
His throat moved as he swallowed convulsively. “Me, too,” he said, his voice a rasp. “You know Grandmother will never forgive you if you do this without telling her.”
“I’ll talk to her after I tell Valentin the time of the operation. Grandmother will handle it much better now that I can present her with a solution.”
Arwen’s eyes held hers. “Come back, Silver. I can’t do life without you.”
“You should call Pasha. He knows how to do life, and I’m sure he wants to do certain things to you, too.”
Color flooded Arwen’s cheeks. “You’ve definitely been corrupted by the bears.” Lifting her phone off the side table with that accusation, he handed it to her. “You’ll want to call Grandmother and your alpha bear yourself.”
“Yes.” She waited until he’d stepped out before making the call to Valentin. Then, she called the woman who’d been the defining force in her life.
TWO and a half hours later, Silver sat prepped and ready on a hospital bed, Valentin in front of her.
“Promise me something,” he said.
When she tilted her head questioningly to the side, he said, “If the operation takes your emotions, I want you to promise me ten dates afterward. A chance to win you back.”
“I promise,” Silver said without hesitation. “But Valentin, you understand nothing will win me back if my emotions are permanently suppressed?”