“Can I borrow your phone? I need to call them. They’re searching, too.”

Canto passed over the device and Valentin made the call. The cub’s ears pricked up at whatever he heard from the device, because Valentin pressed the phone to one furry ear afterward.

The sounds the cub made were—okay, fine, they were cute. Though Canto would go to his grave never saying that word aloud.

Valentin ended the call by assuring the boy’s parents he’d bring their boy to them.

The cub went through two pieces of toast loaded with the spread before curling up against Valentin’s chest and falling fast asleep.

Small snores erupted from his furry body.

The bear alpha shook his head, his eyes still the amber of his bear. “Canto, never ever have cubs. They will drive you insane, I promise you this. I am swearing off them.” The words were a verifiable lie, because the alpha then pressed his lips to the top of the sleeping boy’s head.

“Will he be all right?” Canto hated seeing children afraid.

“A little scare won’t keep this future tiny gangster down for long.” A petting stroke of the boy’s back. “But he is going to be grounded for a while to teach him that cubs have to follow rules set for their own good. He’s barely beyond a baby, far too young to go roaming on his own.”

Bear eyes held Canto’s, the power in them a primal thing that made his skin prickle. “It’s good you’re here. To have a friend on our public border, it’s something we appreciate.”

“Like you said, we’re family.” Canto’s grandmother had famously said that trust to a Mercant was a “complicated thing” that required “years of acquaintance, several background checks, and a probationary period.” The bears had flown way over that barrier—and not simply because Silver was mated to Valentin, and Arwen was tangled up with Pavel.

“It’s because of their innate goodness,” his grandmother had said to Canto after she first visited Denhome. “I know they’re big and tough and that Valentin could bloody us both in battle—and yes, there might be some with evil in their hearts, but that isn’t their natural inclination.

“Now that Silver is part of their pack, they’ll defend her with their own lives without hesitation—and they will love her with every cell of those big hearts. We must honor that—for one of us to betray one of StoneWater would be a grave insult against the integrity and loyalty that is at the core of our family.”

Canto hadn’t understood then. Then he’d met the bears, seen the openness with which they embraced the world, and wanted to put up a fence around their entire territory so no one could ever hurt their huge hearts.

Valentin’s was the biggest of them all.

Mercants, in comparison, were cynical and skeptical when it came to dealing with anyone outside their family unit. Now Canto and the others had taken on the task of being cynical on the bears’ behalf, too. He felt the same protective urge toward Payal, but it was deeper, stronger, more primal.

“I better go,” Valentin said, but it was only once they were downstairs and by the front door that he added, “Canto, I scented a stranger in your living space. Is all well?”

“A friend. A teleport-capable Tk.” It was too simple a word for what was going on with Payal, but it’d do as a placeholder. “I didn’t think you’d consider it a security risk on this part of the border, but after this …” He nodded at the cub.

“This doesn’t alter the security situation,” Valentin said. “To have a cub stumble so far out without being spotted by a sentry is so unusual that this is the first time it’s happened in my memory. You can feel free to invite your friends.” He raised an eyebrow, a faint smile edging his lips. “A woman, yes?”

Canto scowled. “I hate changeling noses.”

Valentin’s laughter was a boom that made the cub in his arms startle awake and try to join in, its voice far higher-pitched. And goddamn it, adorable. Chuckling, Valentin kissed the cub’s head before handing him over to Canto and dropping the towel aside. He shifted in a shower of light.

When Canto next looked, a huge Kamchatka bear stood where the man had been. It shook its body as if settling its fur into place. Waiting until the bear glanced at him, Canto placed the cub on his back, where the boy took a solid grip. Valentin left with a nod, a predator who could move with lethal speed despite his size.

Canto watched after him, still with that inexplicable sense of protectiveness in his gut. Sometimes danger didn’t come from the biggest and most obvious predators. Sometimes it came from the quieter, deadlier ones.

He knew Payal was one of those quieter, deadlier threats.

He also knew that she’d fight with vicious fury to protect the innocent. It was part of her core, unalterable and forever. His 3K was still alive beyond the carapace Payal had created to protect her bruised and abused heart.

His wrist unit vibrated discreetly. A surveillance alert. Lalit Rao had just made an interesting financial maneuver. Canto’s eyes narrowed. He knew what the other man was doing—attempting to box Payal out. He wouldn’t succeed, but he might make things difficult for her if he got enough others on his side.

He tapped out a message to Payal with the info.

PAYAL didn’t teleport to her apartment after leaving Canto’s house. She went to the desert oasis. Her brain was a place of jittery chaos; she needed to find her cool, calm center again. Locating an area in the garden she hadn’t already mathematically balanced, she began to move things around.

As she restructured and reconfigured under the brilliant desert sun that almost hurt the eye, she didn’t try to think, just let herself be.

Until at last she could breathe, her heartbeat no longer irregular and her skin temperature even.

You’re not a child anymore.

Canto’s words reverberated in her soul. She’d never considered that there might be another way, that controlling her aberrant tendencies didn’t have to be a brutal crushing hammer, that a more subtle approach might work as well.

Nothing but a false hope, whispered another part of her. It’s a thing of madness you carry inside you. That’s why your father put you in that place.

“No.” Payal would not permit that old voice to rear its ugly head. Yes, she’d been unstable, but she’d also had a brother who’d tortured her, until the only way she could fight was to lose herself and turn into a berserker.