So Karishma’s painting could hang openly in Payal’s office without anyone noticing it as anything but an appropriate type of decoration for the office of a CEO. Psy might have given up creating art under Silence, but her race had always understood that even the Silent reacted subconsciously to certain elements of their environment.

The book, on the other hand, held pen-and-ink sketches that were nothing if not modern. Payal’d had them bound in a decoy cover that made it appear to be a dusty tome on tax law. Should Lalit ever manage to invade her inner sanctum, he wouldn’t bother to look inside those books, would simply dismiss them as another sign that his sister had no life beyond the Rao business.

Good.

Payal didn’t want him to look deeper. Didn’t want him to remember Karishma, or the others Payal had secreted away to safety. And she never wanted him to find a way to taint the haunting and honest relationship she had with a man who held galaxies in his eyes.

CANTO couldn’t settle after returning home, so he went out onto his deck and brooded while staring out at a landscape of lush, thriving green. Though it might seem like he was in the middle of nowhere, he was actually on the public edge of StoneWater land, near the road that led into their wild territory.

His move to Moscow had been unexpected. He’d been based in a small town in Germany for the past decade. But then, while doing his unofficial census, he’d seen that the aging anchor in the Moscow region had started to show signs of a troubling kind of exhaustion. Worried, Canto had reached out to see if he could assist.

Balance of it was that Canto’s anchor region had proved “smaller” in terms of energy output. He’d offered to swap regions and the other anchor had gratefully accepted. All of this had happened soon after Silver ended up mated to an alpha bear.

Which explained why Canto had been permitted to set up his base in StoneWater territory. He hadn’t asked for it—that would’ve been an asshole move with Silver so newly mated. Instead, he’d moved into a place on the outskirts of Moscow, taking it over from one of his other cousins—Ivan. A security operative who worked under Canto, Ivan had shifted his home base to San Francisco just prior to Canto’s arrival.

Officially, he was there to get up to date on his computronic security certifications by undertaking a highly specialized course. Unofficially, he was there to gather intelligence on the various power players in the area. A lot happened in that comparatively small region, and Ena wanted the family to have a larger presence there.

So it wasn’t as if Canto hadn’t had a perfectly adequate residence.

Then had come that infamous party to celebrate the mating, when Valentin and his bears decided they liked Canto. The bears had liked Ivan, too, but—according to a gossipy older member of the pack—had considered Canto’s suave cousin a bit too “slinky” for total comfort. But since the bears adored Arwen, Canto had a feeling the disconnect had less to do with Ivan’s sharp dressing, and more with the core of distance Ivan carried within.

The bears could sense it but didn’t realize it wasn’t personal: of all the Mercant cousins, Ivan was the most remote. Canto knew the reason Ivan was how he was, but no one unaware of Ivan’s history could be expected to divine it. The only one who could get him to open up was Arwen—and that was enough. Their empathic cousin would never allow Ivan to lose himself to his demons.

Arwen had even convinced Ivan to attend the celebration of Silver and Valentin’s mating.

A month after the event, and Valentin had come to Canto with a proposal. “I think my Starlight should have some more of her family close to Denhome,” the bear alpha had said. “My clan is madly in love with her, but if she needs to yell about us to someone not entangled with a bear, who better than a cousin as loyal as a brother?”

“Valya,” Canto had muttered, “Silver adores your pack. I went to see her in her office yesterday and found a naked cub in human form trying to hang upside down from a curtain rod.” Silver had worked on unperturbed, simply saying “No” when the cub tried to do a dangerous maneuver.

The cub had stopped at once.

And Canto had seen once again why Ena had chosen Silver as her future successor.

“Emergency babysitting when a packmate went into early labor while shopping with her boy,” Valentin had explained, eyes of dark brown aglow with a power usually hidden beneath the force of his warm presence.

“Canto, I know from Silver that the Mercants are as much a pack as StoneWater. I never want to cut my Starlight off from her pack—and I want our two packs to become family.” A smug bearish smile as he sat back, arms folded. “I’m charming your grandmother, you know.”

Canto had snorted. “You wish.” But he’d accepted the offer because he understood that it had been made out of love for Silver.

It had taken the bear clan and Canto’s family a short two weeks to put up the house according to his specifications. He’d managed the project and done all the computronic hookups, while the bears had provided manual labor, transport of materials, and engineering. Arwen had done the architectural drawings, with Magdalene sourcing the furniture, rugs, and other items to outfit the place.

As it was, he had as many bearish visitors as Mercants.

Such as the dark-skinned man who hauled himself up over the balcony railing just now, a small boy clinging to his back like a barnacle. Bears seemed to find using Canto’s front door optional.

“Chaos,” Canto said. “Did you know you picked up a butt-naked hitchhiker?” His Russian was passable despite his relatively short period of study—he had a theory it had to do with being an A. The Net was a constant river in his head, and parts of that psychic river spoke Russian.

Reaching back, Chaos pulled off his son with the casual strength bear parents used with their cubs, and threw the giggling boy up into the air. “Dima and I needed fresh air,” he said after catching his son in his arms. “He had on clothes until he decided to shift without taking them off.”

Dima shrugged, his face mischievous. “I’m a bear. Grr.” Then he jumped toward Canto, having learned that Canto was strong enough to take his rambunctious ways. The first time they’d met, the cub had come up to him and very seriously examined his chair, then asked if they could go “zoom.”

Canto was pretty sure Dima was his favorite bear.

Today, he hugged the boy and said, “Hungry?” because bear cubs were always hungry. Possibly because they never stayed still.