Having already noted the positions of those five, Silver watched Valentin throw his cub, noted Fitz’s landing position, then looked down at the little boy she held in her arms. “Ready?”

A quick nod, eyes bright.

She threw.

Screaming in joy, Dima sank into the foam, bounced up an instant later, chortling so hard he fell back down and his friend—a cub who’d returned with the dissenters—had to pull him up. “Is there a trampoline below?” Silver asked, realizing the children were bouncing around like rabbits rather than heavy-boned bears.

“Not quite, but close enough.” Valentin came to stand beside her as the children began to throw the foam balls at one another. “Part of the safety system—not a single accident here in the twenty-five years it’s been running.”

The furnace of his large body tempted her to edge nearer, sink into his warmth. “You did your research.”

“I’m alpha,” was the simple answer.

And these cubs were his responsibility.

She went to answer when a ball hit her on the nose. Startled, she looked toward the pool, saw several innocent faces. Arkasha began to giggle a second later, the sound quickly spreading to all seven cubs. “Come play!” sensitive little Sveta said. “Siva, Mishka, come play!”

Silver never saw it coming. One minute, she was standing on her own two feet disturbed by her compulsion toward the large bear alpha with whom she’d once shared skin privileges; the next minute, she’d been scooped up in his arms and was being launched into the air. He’d thrown her so gently that she barely felt the impact before she was bounced up. Much taller than the children, she ended up with her head above the balls even sitting down. Her hair tumbled out of its twist.

Around her, the children began to swim over. Valentin, meanwhile, was standing outside the pool laughing. She blew the hair out of her eyes, closed her hand around a ball. When the children reached her, she whispered, “Let’s get Mishka.” That was all the encouragement they needed.

They pelted Valentin with the foam balls.

Throwing out his arms and making the face of an enraged bear, he jumped into the pool and began to chase the cubs. They screamed and ran from him. Silver, meanwhile, continued to pelt him with balls. Valentin suddenly changed direction and dived toward her. She twisted out of the way, but he was too fast and she found herself pinned under him, his body keeping the foam off her face and his arms caging her on either side.

“Gotcha,” he said, the bear in his eyes, a playful presence.

Silver couldn’t speak, her stomach suddenly so tight it was difficult to breathe. The laughter faded from Valentin’s face, a slow slide into something deeper, more tender. “Lyubov moya, solnyshko moyo.” A harsh whisper colored in unconcealed, primal emotion . . . before he was assailed by balls from every side, the cubs coming to her rescue.

Backing off with a lionish roar that delighted the children, he began to chase them again. Silver, her heart a drum, simply sat in place. Her ears caught the sound of the children’s laughter, Valentin’s growls of mock pursuit, the odd noise from other areas of the play center, but nothing unusual. Her audio telepathy was under control.

The rest of her, however . . .

“Siva?” A small body scrambled into her lap. “I’m tired.” Giving a big sigh, Arkasha collapsed against her.

She wrapped her arms around his body and said, “I think you need a drink of water.” Getting up with the tiny gangster trustingly holding on to her hand, she walked to the edge of the pool and they got out. Arkasha drank deep of the glass of water she poured at their table, his eyes on the play in progress.

He was back in the pool seconds later.

Silver should have gone, too. She’d promised to participate. But it was too dangerous to her sense of stability, her mind in confusion, caught between who she believed herself to be, and who she was becoming. Though it was impossible not to watch Valentin, not to hear his deep voice as he played with the cubs, she stayed by the table using the excuse of being ready to give the children any sustenance they needed.

That afternoon passed by in a heartbeat—and it stretched forever.

Lyubov moya, solnyshko moyo.

My love, sun of my heart.

Valentin didn’t touch her again, but when he dropped her off at the complex, the children having been picked up by Yakov and Anastasia, he said, “Remember who we were, Starlight. Choose us.” His voice was unusually solemn, his gaze amber.

Silver couldn’t reply, her blood a roar in her ears. She certainly wasn’t in the right frame of mind to receive a telepathic contact from Ena. I’m just leaving Alpha Nikolaev’s vehicle, she said when her grandmother asked if she was free to talk.

Valentin needs to hear this, too. Ask him if he is available to meet at your current home. Kaleb will bring me in.

Silver’s fingers curled into her palm, her body half-out of Valentin’s vehicle. “Grandmother is asking if you’re free for a meeting.”

His expression changed, became deadly. “Akshay Patel?” Not waiting for an answer, he said, “I’m free. Where?”

“My apartment.”

This time, she didn’t wait for him to reach her, jumping out of the vehicle and beginning the walk to her apartment before he’d opened his own door. It didn’t take him long to catch up to her, of course. He was a big and warm presence at her side, his energy so vibrant she could almost touch it.

“Valya!” The call came from across the grass and two floors up, the woman hanging out the window a beautiful blonde Silver had seen around the complex but never met.

The blonde blew Valentin a kiss.

“Careful, Irina,” Valentin called back. “My mate is the jealous type.”

Clearly unabashed, the woman blew Silver a kiss, too. “Any woman worth my alpha would be!”

“She’s clan?” Silver asked after the woman drew back inside the apartment.

“Half human, all bear.” He winked. “Fariad has the biggest crush on her I’ve ever seen a man have on a woman.”

“Oh? Does he knock on her door at the crack of dawn?”

A scowl. “I didn’t have a crush. I was courting you. There’s a difference.”

“Right,” Silver said, her shoulder brushing his arm as they walked.

Valentin pretended to bite her. “Grr.”

“I quiver in terror.”

“I’ll have you know I do make people quiver in terror,” Valentin pointed out with a sulky look on his face that made her want to—

Silver shook her head, attempted to calm her skittering pulse.

Searching for a distraction, she pointed out the sun-lounging area below. “Look.” Several bears—in that form—lay lazing about on the lush green grass. The wolves lay on the other side of an invisible line of demarcation.

Every so often, they’d give one another a dirty look, then get back to sun worshipping. The first snowfall was forecast to hit any day. It wouldn’t stop either bears or wolves from being outside, but they were making the most of the grass while it still existed.

Several bear heads went up at that instant, their noses turning unerringly toward Valentin. They began to rise; she knew they wanted to come to him, touch him, have that tactile alpha-to-clan-member contact all bears needed. But Valentin waved them down. “I’ll be back after I take care of my mate.”