Chaos, who’d been walking toward them, shot Nova a scowling look. “Eat this.” He thrust a plate across the counter with that terse command in English. “And stop telling lies about me.”

Blowing him a kiss, Nova beamed at the small, perfectly decorated cake Chaos had given her before answering in the same language he’d used. “Chocolate cake for breakfast? I love you, honey bunny.”

Scowl deepening, the changeling male reached over and, gripping Nova’s pointed chin, kissed the healer on her lushly painted lips. When he drew back, she lifted the cloth napkin he’d brought over and wiped the hot pink color off his lips. “Good morning to you, too, moy dorogoi Alik,” Nova said, alerting Silver that Chaos had a given name quite different from how he was usually addressed. “Now go be your sexy, tall, gorgeous, and silent self.”

Chaos gave what Silver read as an exasperated sigh before he moved back toward his work crew—who did a very bad job of hiding their grins. “You all want a second kitchen shift?” he growled and got a wave of shaking heads, grins still wide. “Then back to your jobs.”

“He’s your mate?” Silver asked under the cover of industrious activity.

“Yes.” Nova’s smile was gleeful. “All mine since we were eighteen.” Forking up a bite of cake, she made a humming sound in the back of her throat that had Chaos watching her with intense interest from the other side of the kitchen. Nova blew him another kiss. “My love always says he won me by winning my stomach.”

“Did he?”

Nova gave a throaty laugh. “I knew that grouchy polar bear was mine the day I first saw him in Babushka Caroline’s birth clan, when she took all us grandchildren along for a visit when I was sixteen.” A dreamy smile. “But I had to play a little hard to get, didn’t I? Give him a chance to court me.”

Another bite of the cake. “Boy, does that man know how to court a woman.”

“Do you have children?”

“The Barnacle is ours.” Her eyes shimmered with maternal love. “Stasya looked after him last night, so he’ll still be cuddled up in bear form with her—he likes sleeping over at his aunt’s because, like aunts the world over, she spoils him silly,” Nova said before raising her voice. “Talking of small bears, I see someone is still sneaking out of bed before dawn.”

The little brown-haired boy giggled.

Smile wide, Nova nudged her plate toward Silver. “You want to go wild and try some?”

Shaking her head, Silver replied to an urgent message on her phone. “I apologize,” she said to Nova afterward. “I’m receiving EmNet updates.”

“Sure, I get it.” Nova’s expression turned serious. “I did a shift at the hospital while you were asleep—I’m officially on staff in case of emergencies where a bear is taken in, but I figured they could use all possible backup with so many badly wounded.”

Silver met the other woman’s eyes. “I haven’t had a chance to read the report on the survivors.”

“Thirteen made it past the first few hours.” Nova put down her fork. “Eleven look like they might recover fully, but it’s contingent on no infections or complications. The other two are hovering in that twilight that could go either way.”

Chaos moved across the kitchen with a mug of coffee. After placing it in front of Nova, he ran his hand over her hair. Though the couple exchanged no words, Nova’s sadness no longer seemed as heavy a black cloud when her mate returned to his work.

“I don’t understand people who carry out these crimes,” she said. “I mean, what does it achieve?”

“Logic isn’t what drives them.” Silver had seen evidence of that truth over and over again. “The Pure Psy fanatics who attacked the SnowDancer pack in the Sierra Nevada mountains were convinced theirs was a righteous war that would make the world turn in the direction they wanted.”

They’d believed the Psy race was stronger and more powerful under Silence, that any alternate existence was untenable. “It never occurs to them that others may not agree with their goals.” Silver needed Silence, but that was her choice. No one had the right to dictate it.

Nova’s lips parted before she looked over her shoulder without warning. Silver didn’t need to turn to see what had caught the other woman’s attention. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck had just reacted as if electrified, her heart slamming against her rib cage. Not in primal warning. In an awareness she’d been attempting to stamp out since the day Valentin Mikhailovich Nikolaev first entered her life.

“You look terrible, Mishka.” Nova got up, slipping a scanner out of the—now expected—large pockets of her calf-length dress. “Sit, let me take your readings.”

“I’m fine, just tired.” Valentin grabbed the stool beside Silver’s, sitting with his back to the counter, elbows braced on the granite and his big body humming with energy.

His scent washed over her, clean sweat and more, a layer that was distinctly earthy. Distinctly, roughly Valentin. Ignoring the telepathic and electronic messages pinging at her, none of them urgent, she took in the lines of strain on his face, the bruised shadows under his eyes. “You haven’t been to sleep.”

“I got four hours. We had a senior sentry go down with a broken leg, and another because of idiocy.” Pure aggravation in every word. “I covered for them rather than put someone less experienced on the perimeter.”

Silver knew she was a big part of the reason he’d made that decision. She’d changed the balance of his clan, needed to leave before she caused any damage. About to suggest she move out today—her physical state not at a hundred percent but far better than it had been yesterday—she was interrupted by the sound of running feet.

Pavel all but fell into the kitchen. “Did you see this?” he cried before the distinctive aqua green of his eyes landed on Silver.

He snapped his left hand behind his back with bear swiftness, the dark brown of his hair falling over his forehead. “Um, never mind.”

“Spill it before I beat it out of you, Pasha.” Valentin’s voice was a growly rumble.

“Remember, you asked for it.” Pavel placed the organizer between Valentin and Silver before retreating out of reach. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

Valentin swiveled in his stool so he faced the counter and the organizer that lay on it. His shoulder brushed her shoulder, but Silver’s attention was on the headline that took up the entire screen but for the square reserved for a full-color photograph: THE MOST SURPRISING PSY-CHANGELING ROMANCE YET!

A telepathic contact touched her mind at the same instant that the meaning of the headline actually penetrated. The contact was from one of the few people who had direct access to her, the telepathic pathway between them nearly twenty-nine years in the making. Silver? Should I take these reports of your romance with the StoneWater alpha seriously?

Of course not, Arwen.

Her brother withdrew, needing nothing other than her word. Silver, however, was still staring at the article. “Where is the romance in this image? We’re both dusty and sweaty and standing at the incident command center speaking with Kaleb.”

Nova leaned between them to look at the article. “Body language,” she said in a definitive tone. “Turned toward each other, standing closer than Psy usually stand to other people, way closer than either one of you is standing to Krychek.” She tapped her lower lip. “Also, Mishka’s body is angled as if to protect you from anything that might come.”