“Seelichka, if you think that . . .” Nova patted her on the shoulder.

It took Silver a second to realize Nova had softened her name into an affectionate form. Like Valentin did when he called her “Starlichka”—though “Starlight” wasn’t her name, either. Only Valentin ever called her that. She wondered what his friends and family called him. “Valya” would be her guess.

“Can you tell me why I’m wrong?” she asked after realizing she’d been distracted into being silent for too long. “About sex?”

Nova lifted her eyebrows. “I can’t really explain sex, except to say the best is with someone who knows you, someone you can laugh with.” A soft smile. “We don’t say ‘sex,’ by the way,” she added. “We call any touch exchanged between two people who want it ‘skin privileges.’”

“I’ve heard of the concept.” Had been working with EmNet long enough to pick up certain nuances of changeling behavior. “You consider it a gift to be permitted physical contact.” It was a subtle complexity in the tactile nature of the changeling race.

Nova nodded. “Touch ties a clan together—and so it can never be taken for granted. Though, of course, we don’t go around asking permission vocally all the time—like I just touched your shoulder. I wouldn’t have done that if you’d pulled even subtly away.”

It was Silver’s turn to nod. “Communication isn’t always vocal.” As a telepath, she knew that better than anyone. That changelings were as fluent in body language made perfect sense to her. It also brought home that she was in an environment where she was the outsider. “Would you have the time to show me around Denhome?”

“Sure, but first, if you weren’t talking about sexual consent, what did you mean about my brother?” Nova put the fingers of one hand on Silver’s neck, having telegraphed her intent by raising a hand in that direction after they both got to their feet.

Silver allowed the healer to take her pulse, breathed in and out when Nova removed a small sensor from her endless pockets and placed it on Silver’s chest after asking her to undo two buttons on her shirt. “I’ve told Valentin not to come to my door to drop off things, but he does it constantly,” she said once Nova had removed the sensor. “I tell him not to send me random items of food in the guise of a secret admirer named Mr. I. M. A. Medvezhonok—”

Nova snorted out laughing. “Sorry, sorry! I can just see Mishka doing that! O Bozhe! Mr. I. M. A. Medvezhonok!” Wiping away her tears, Nova smiled. “Look, all that’s just dominant bear behavior. You have to push back, and I think you’re quite capable of that. My brother would never pull anything like that with a woman who couldn’t hold her own. Only an equal.”

An equal.

“I’ll show you around. As long as you don’t overdo it,” Nova said as Silver processed the fact that one of the two most powerful changeling alphas in Russia saw her as exactly what she was—a predator as dangerous as himself.

“I won’t attempt more than my body can handle,” Silver promised Nova when the healer looked to her for an answer. “It’ll only cause further delays in my recovery.”

Nova clapped a hand to her chest. “A sensible patient. I might die of a cardiac infarction.”

“Please don’t. You’re the first rational bear I’ve met.”

“Oh, I like you, Silver Mercant.” Sparkling eyes. “Come on then.” She reached out as if to hook her arm through Silver’s, halted midmove. “No?”

“No.” All Psy were trained to avoid physical contact unless it was impossible; in Silver’s case, it also helped keep telepathic interference at bay. Though she couldn’t read changelings, all sentient beings had a surface layer of thoughts that caused a formless buzz in her head.

Contact with one person, even a small group, wouldn’t be painful or detrimental to her psychic reserves, but there was a tipping point. Extreme telepathic sensitivity was one of the disadvantages of being a high-Gradient pure telepath. Those of her designation kept that piece of information well under wraps; it was a vulnerability that had, once upon a time, been used to torture pure telepaths.

Just put them in a room with too many people and have those people touch the Psy continuously. At the same time, refuse to give the telepath any food to refuel his or her energy. Sooner or later, the pure telepath would run out of the psychic strength necessary to maintain his or her shields.

It was simpler and safer to avoid all contact.

“Okay.” Nova opened the door to Silver’s room and the two of them stepped out into the hallway. “From here you turn left to head toward the Cavern. No way to miss it. Turn right and you’ll end up in the residential section on this side of Denhome.”

Voices drifted down the hallway, followed by three large juveniles. Spotting Nova, they called her name while looking at Silver with wildly inquisitive eyes. Before they could utter the questions they’d parted their mouths to ask, however, Nova gave them a quelling look.

Scrunching up their faces, the trio, every one of whom outweighed Nova by at least fifty pounds, passed in silence.

“That was impressive.”

“Healer,” was Nova’s response. “Unfortunately, the look doesn’t work as well on nosy adults. The last time I tried it, Pasha and Yasha picked me up and threw me from one to the other until I threatened to doctor their food with a stomach virus.” The other woman gave an exasperated sigh. “Bears.”

Silver barely heard her, having not expected the massive cavern into which Nova had led her. The ceiling soared high above, the area lit by the haze of early morning to reveal a fresh body of water in the distance, while around her, vines with tiny green flowers wove their way over the rock.

“Does your entire clan live in this complex?” Because it was a complex—Denhome might appear rustic, literally a hole in a mountain, but she’d already noted the thread-fine wires high up on the walls interspersed with nearly invisible silver “buttons.”

Data connections. Signal boosters.

All on the cutting edge of technology.

“A lot of us do live here,” Nova said after a small hesitation. “Bears aren’t as much for roaming as a lot of the other predatory changelings, but we do get a few—like my younger sister, Nika—who want to go out.” A fond smile. “And with all our business interests, there are smaller groups scattered here and there.”

“They don’t miss home?” The changeling race’s clan-minded nature was both a strength and a weakness.

“We take home with us wherever we go—at least ten other bears tag along.” Nova shook her head. “Hard to find privacy sometimes, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

As if to underscore her comments, multiple voices called out Nova’s name.

“Later!” Nova called back. “I’m showing our guest around.”

A hundred questions came at them, all to do with Silver.

“Act like bears, not wolves.” Nova’s stern statement had the entire group laughing big belly laughs. The laughter sent a couple of children rolling around on the rugs scattered across the floor in a riot of well-worn color that somehow wasn’t jarring to the senses.

Ignoring the cacophony, Nova led her across the vast expanse and toward what appeared to be an entrance to the Cavern. “Go through this, along the passage, and you’ll be outside,” the healer told her. “If there’s an emergency and you can’t reach this entranceway, head for that one or that one.” She pointed them out. “Then follow StoneWater bears out through the back way.”