Now, he shook his head, his shaggy dark brown hair several shades darker than the mid-brown of his skin. That brown came from his and Yakov’s paternal grandfather, a bear who was a native of Angola—what the hell a bear clan had been doing in Angola before they moved to a colder clime, Valentin still hadn’t figured out. Pavel’s dedushka just laughed like a lunatic whenever he brought it up. The aqua-green eyes came from the twins’ black bear mother.

Déwei Nguyen’s genes appeared long buried, but they were there in the intuition that had marked the twins since birth. If either Pavel or Yakov told Valentin to more heavily guard a section of border, though there was no apparent reason to do so, he listened. The last time that had happened, they’d caught Selenka’s wolves trying to sneak in, no doubt to spy on StoneWater.

Déwei Nguyen had been a foreseer.

“Comm traffic shows no suspicious signals that might mean the Consortium has a plant in the clan.” Pavel’s eyes lit up as he slipped into geek talk. “I’ve bugged it three ways to Sunday—”

“Pasha.” Valentin pinned him to the spot with his gaze.

His second raised his hands. “I’m not breaching anyone’s privacy. It’s all done by a computer program. Got Brenna from SnowDancer to help me with the code. Man, that woman’s brain.” He sighed. “If only she didn’t have the bad taste to be a wolf, and wasn’t madly in love with her psycho assassin mate, I’d seriously consider switching teams.”

Valentin slapped him on the side of the head. “Focus.”

“Right.” Pavel shook off the firm hit with bearish insouciance. Any less strength behind it and he’d have taken it as an insult to his honor. “Anyway, it’s all automated. Programmed to send up a bright red flag if anyone starts getting cute trying to contact people who mean the clan harm. Nothing so far.”

“Good.”

“We have had four false negatives that tripped the slippery, sneaky keywords I programmed in,” Pavel added. “Juveniles arranging hookups outside of parental view.” The other man made a sulky face. “I almost turned them in because no boy ever wanted to hook up with a vision-challenged bear, but I restrained myself.”

“I’ll cry you a river when I give a shit.” Pavel might be vision challenged, but he was never bedmate challenged. Many, many bears and humans found him adorable. Especially when he flashed the dimples he had in both cheeks. Whereas harder-edged Yakov hated the dimples, Pavel had been known to take shameless advantage of his.

Those dimples were nowhere in evidence when Pavel said, “You really think someone in StoneWater could betray us?”

“No, but I’d be stupid not to listen to Lucas’s warnings.” A good alpha had to take every precaution to protect his clan. “Apparently,” he said, “this Consortium group has a way of getting under people’s skins.”

“You said they’re all about money and power.” Pavel scratched his head. “I don’t get it, Valya. I can’t believe they’d disrupt peace just for that.”

“That’s because you’re a bear.” The people they loved were everything to them, happiness not found in power or money. The latter two things were only useful because they helped protect the clan, helped keep their cubs and mates safe.

“I don’t know what would possibly entice a bear to consider betrayal,” Valentin added, “but I’d rather catch anything while it’s still small.” While he could still save a clan member who’d been led astray. “We do have people who don’t want me to be alpha.” It hurt every cell of his alpha’s heart to say that, but it was a fact.

Pavel’s face grew grim, the adorable lover replaced by the powerful dominant born with the same lethal drive to protect as Valentin. “None of those people are in Denhome.”

Valentin’s bear, too, roared that his people were loyal, but the lost part of his clan was a splinter in his soul that reminded him not everyone loved him as bears should love their alpha. “Keep the program running.”

“Consider it done.” Pavel folded his arms. “I also think the way you’re updating the entire clan on this should help protect us. Leaves no shadows for the Consortium to exploit and burrow into.”

Valentin nodded. Bears were terrible at keeping secrets . . . except for the very rare outlier, and the secrets the last outlier had kept had been horrific. “Spread the word about Silver, let people know outsiders might mean her harm.”

“I know you wouldn’t bring a threat into the pack.” Pavel’s gaze was unusually solemn. “But, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask if you’re sure she’s safe.”

“About as safe as Nova on a rampage,” Valentin said dryly. “But she won’t hurt us.” Valentin was alpha partly because he could read people, and he knew that in saving Silver’s life, he’d earned a certain loyalty from her and her grandmother. Neither woman struck him as the kind who’d forget that act of friendship.

Pavel nodded, taking his alpha at his word. Like all of Valentin’s circle of seconds, the other man wouldn’t ever hesitate to question him, but he’d also back Valentin when Valentin made a call. “I’m off-shift for the next eight hours. Unless you need me for anything specific, I’m going to go catch some shut-eye in the sun. If Yasha dares kick my ass, I’ll tear him a new one.”

“Go for it.” The other man slept less than any other bear in the clan except for his brother, but it was a natural inclination. Five hours and they were both revved up to go. It had made them little terrors as children. As adults, it made them annoying on occasion, but at least they didn’t commit the cardinal sin of being morning people.

After Pavel left to shift into bear form and snooze in the sunshine, Valentin took a look around the Cavern. His tiny targets—gangsters and all—were sitting on a plush rug in the far corner, playing a game under the watchful eyes of two elders. Crossing the massive span of the Cavern to reach the currently sweetly behaved group, he hunkered down. “Can I join in?”

Happy faces lifted up to his, tiny bodies shifted, and small hands patted at his arms as he took his spot on the rug. He listened as they explained the rules of the game; then, as a powerful, fascinating, dangerous telepath slept not far from him, he played with the children of his clan . . .

Not all of them.

Not the ones who’d been ripped from his heart by their parents and guardians.

Aching inside at the loss that was getting closer and closer to becoming a permanent scar, he opened his arms to a cub who wanted to crawl into his lap. The boy’s small body, the rapid beat of his heart—it all reminded him of the vulnerable he couldn’t protect within his arms, the ones who were out in the cold.

He had time yet. Not much. But some.

The Human Patriot

THE SILVER MERCANT situation concerned him. The plan he’d set in motion when she began to do an increasingly stellar job with EmNet was a good one, but the unpredictability of it chafed. He was a man used to control, and he had none in this. He just had to wait for her to consume the poison.

The outcome of which would now be further delayed unless she had taken her own food with her into the bear clan that was hosting her for a diplomatic stay. It had ostensibly been organized through Trinity and was linked to her position as director of EmNet.