Later, when he kissed Silver and kissed her and kissed her until she was drunk on him, she knew she’d do anything for him. Face down feral bears. Face the chaos of emotions. Battle the world itself.

“I love you, Valyusha.”

“I’ll be your teddy bear anytime, Starlight.” Taking her hand, he pressed it to the bass beat of his heart. “It’s yours. Forever and always.”

Shadows

AKSHAY PATEL’S BODY was found in his study, the CEO dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Silver scanned the photos and report her grandmother had been able to gain from her Enforcement contact, Valentin reading over her shoulder as she sat in the computer center of Denhome.

“He didn’t do that to himself.” Valentin’s tone was definitive.

“It’s a picture-perfect scene,” Silver said. “That alone makes me doubt it, but why are you so sure?”

“Patel was a man used to power, but he bargained away his freedom for his children—yet according to this, he shot himself while his children were home and the door to the study unlocked.”

Silver nodded. “You’re right.” No loving father would want his children to discover his mutilated body, the high-power projectile weapon having destroyed most of the back of his head. “Further to that, Akshay Patel might’ve been broken, but he was an intelligent man. I would’ve expected him to begin thinking about how he could somehow make the situation work to his family’s advantage.”

“Consortium?”

“It makes the most sense.” She tapped her finger against the desk. “But it’s far too soon for them to have known he was broken by my grandmother. We kept the information within a trusted and extremely small circle. And I’m certain Patel wouldn’t have told anyone.”

“Too proud,” Valentin agreed. “Maybe the Consortium never knew Patel had been turned.” He began to play with her hair, Silver having kept it down for him since they were in Denhome, where she didn’t have to wear her armor. “Cracks might be appearing among the co-conspirators.”

“The psychological profiles of the kind of people who’d join a group like the Consortium are also not those of people who’d do well in a group that requires long-term cooperation.” Arrogance, narcissism, control, they were the hallmarks of the Consortium’s higher echelons. “The ones we’ve run to ground have all been the heads of their family groups or business empires, people used to making their own decisions.”

Bear claws touched her neck but she didn’t flinch. Valentin would cut off his own hand before harming her. Sometimes the bear just rose to the surface and wanted to play. Reaching back from where she sat in the work chair, she ran her fingers along his thigh. “The person who created the Consortium would’ve done better to reach out to people in my position.”

“You can’t be bought, Silver.”

“No.” She gave her loyalty not for power or influence but because it was deserved. “I meant people who are close to those in power—the seconds-in-command or the senior aides. The vice presidents. People with ambition but who aren’t yet used to being in charge.

“Collect the right personalities into a group, and the leader of the Consortium could’ve had a stable and powerful network.” Instead, that person had gone for those at the top, believing they could control the vicious dogs she—if Akshay Patel had been right in his deduction that the architect of it all was a woman—had brought into the mix.

“I’m glad you’re not on the side of evil,” Valentin said, rubbing his jaw against her cheek. “You’d make a deadly evil genius.”

“I will put that on my résumé.”

Laughing, her bear mate scooped her right out of the chair and threw her up before catching her snugly against his chest. She glared at him, though her lips wanted to curve at the joy on his face. “I am not a cub.”

“Grr.” He pretended to bite her.

“Valyusha!” She pulled at his hair to get him to stop.

He tickled her.

And Silver laughed so hard that she snorted. Throwing her hands over her mouth at the inelegant sound, she found her eyes locked with those of a bear who was delighted with her. She dropped her hands, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed the life out of him. “Let’s go or we’ll be late.”

“Definitely can’t be late for ice cream.”

It was after their ice cream date, as they were walking through the fading light of Moscow, the air bitingly cold, that Silver updated Valentin on her search for information about his father, specifically whether Mikhail Nikolaev had been the subject of a terrible Psy experiment. “I haven’t yet discovered anything concrete,” she said, “but I’m following several data threads.”

“You’re being careful?”

She didn’t chide him for his rumbling concern. Her mate was an alpha bear—he couldn’t help being protective of those he loved. Neither could she. “Yes,” she said. “This data is old, that’s why it’s so difficult to unravel. I don’t think there’s any real risk of attracting dangerous attention, but I’m taking maximum precautions.”

“Good.” He ran his hand over her hair, a wild peacefulness to him even as they discussed this emotionally wrought topic. “No information is worth your life.”

Silver interlaced her fingers through his. “I know, but as you know,” she added in a cool tone, “I can be just slightly relentless in pursuit of a goal.”

His chuckle was warmth wrapping around her, an acceptance so deep she knew nothing could ever shake it—Valentin Nikolaev saw every part of her and he loved every part of her.

Before he could speak, however, her phone lit up with a call from Lily Knight.

“Bo is degrading,” Lily told them, her face stark on the small screen, but her voice clear. “The doctors are giving him days at most.”

“I’m very sorry, Lily.” Silver had a brother she loved; she knew Lily would be devastated by Bo’s death—but the impact of his loss would spread far beyond the other woman. First and foremost, it would leave the Alliance with a huge power vacuum. The previous leadership had been swept away by Bo and his group when they came in fighting for the Alliance’s future, and Bo hadn’t had long enough to train a successor.

The Alliance stood in real danger of collapsing right when it was needed most. Their world was a triad; it could not stand strong if one part of that triad was missing. “Is there any way EmNet can assist?” Their mandate was to offer help in all emergencies; to Silver’s mind, this qualified.

“Smoke and mirrors if you can,” Lily said. “Anything that’ll keep the focus off the Alliance and off Bo.” Huge gray eyes met Valentin’s. “If it all comes tumbling down, we may need a place to hide certain vulnerable people.”

“No need to ask, Lily,” Valentin said. “StoneWater will protect them.”

“We’re standing on a precipice,” Silver said after Lily signed off.

His face grim, his fingers warm and rough around her own, Valentin spoke her concerns aloud. “Trinity, EmNet, your PsyNet, it could all collapse if humans withdraw from the playing board.”

“Yes.” Humans needed Bo, needed the Alliance, needed to know they had someone in their corner who’d protect them should the Psy or changelings become aggressive. “Right now, all we can do is give Lily what she’s requested. Any ideas for the smoke and mirrors?”