“Give us a minute.” Valentin’s tone was alpha in the truest sense.

Stepping away, Nova went around to cuddle the boy who was peeling mandarin oranges, while Pavel returned the way he’d come.

“You can’t take this too seriously,” Valentin said with unusual quietness. “Making up stories out of thin air is what tabloids do.”

“It’s not only in the tabloids.” Silver had already scanned the PsyNet, found multiple other reports along the same lines—albeit less hyperbolic in tone. “Bring up the Moscow Daily.”

Valentin hissed out a breath at first sight of the newspaper’s home screen.

“Bl—” Glancing over at the little boy with Nova, he cut off the rough word she was sure he’d been about to utter. “I thought this was an actual news site.”

“The EmNet director’s connection to a powerful changeling alpha is considered news.” The Moscow Daily article was nowhere near as melodramatic or as long as that in the tabloid, but it was more dangerous. “They did their research—it states that you’ve been spotted leaving my apartment building multiple times.” Valentin had enough bear arrogance to have walked boldly past security on his way out, taunting them with the knowledge that he’d once again skirted their systems.

Valentin’s body rumbled beside her, the bear in him apparent in the primal timbre of his voice when he spoke. “It says the information came from a woman named Monique.”

“My neighbor—it’s unlikely to have been malicious on her part. She talks about everything to everyone.” Silver didn’t quite understand how Monique Ling held such a high-powered position in the fashion world, but perhaps fashion people all talked without pause. “We were once trapped together in a malfunctioning elevator for ten minutes. At the end of it, I was aware of her entire life history.”

• • •

VALENTIN couldn’t read Silver, but he guessed she was coldly angry under her precise exterior. His Starlight did not like being at the forefront of the public’s consciousness. She preferred to be in the background, tugging strings, gathering information, ensuring things moved in the direction she wanted.

Valentin wasn’t exactly a happy bear, either. He knew the best way to lose their private battle was to, in any way, corner Silver. Like a wild falcon, she’d fight to the death to get free.

That was the whole reason why he’d launched plan “sneaky like a cat.”

“Starlichka,” he said gently, trying to fix this. “The interest will fade—the pictures aren’t exciting enough.” Though Nova had been eerily accurate about the body language—when the tabloid photo was taken, he’d been fighting the urge to wrap Silver’s exhausted body in his arms and haul her off to his lair.

His Starlight was brilliant and she was tough, but she was still flesh and blood.

Silver’s response to his rough attempt at reassurance wasn’t what he expected. “From the comment thread on this article, it appears humans and changelings are responding well to the possibility of such an improbable romance.”

“Unexpected.” Valentin’s bear scowled inside him. “Not improbable.”

“With Silence having fallen,” Silver said, rather than replying to his grumble, “I believe a percentage of Psy will also find it intriguing—there’s certainly significant chatter in the PsyNet for what should be nothing but a fringe topic.” She ate a bite of the food on her plate. “It could end up being a positive.”

Valentin’s bear roared to the surface at this hint that she might be open to being his, the animal’s thick fur attempting to erupt out of his skin. “What if I asked you to have a real romance?” he said, abandoning sneakiness for a directness that fit far better.

Her response was quiet, potent. “I’m not like Sascha Duncan or Faith NightStar, or even Vasic Zen.”

“No,” he said, unable to look away from that crystalline gaze that made the bear inside him rise to the surface, his vision shifting to that of his animal. “You’re Silver Fucking Mercant, a woman who makes her own rules.”

“That woman chooses Silence.” No hint of an expression on her face, her eyes searing, unreadable starlight. “I have access to all the data on the pros and cons of breaking Silence, and I’ve downloaded all available information about what it is to be in a relationship. I’ve also had a close view of a highly stable relationship.”

Kaleb Krychek and his mate. “None of this changes your mind?”

“No.” She continued to hold his gaze.

Not many people could do that, changeling or not. Yet Silver had never flinched, her dominance his equal. Thunder in his heart, man and bear both in her thrall.

“The one thing that is often forgotten in the discussion about Silence,” she continued in that same quiet tone, “is that terrible as it was for the many, for a small minority, it worked exactly as intended. I am one of that minority.”

Chapter 20

To be Silent is to be without emotion. This emotionless state allows for a statistically significant increase in psychic control while having the opposite effect on any tendency or inclination to be violent.

The Silent will be an intelligent, controlled people who do not waste their energies on battles or wars or interpersonal aggression. They will be perfection.

—Arif Adelaja’s first speech to the Psy Council on the matter of the Silence training proposed by the Mercury group (late twentieth century)

VALENTIN KNEW SILVER expected her statement to be the final word on the subject, but, while he was conscious he could never make Silver Mercant do anything she didn’t want to do, he also knew she’d never been up against an alpha bear who was fascinated by her on every possible level.

“You sure you have all the information?” Catching an apple Chaos threw over, he bit into it with a crisp crunch.

Silver’s eyes went to his mouth, flicked away as fast. “I’m very good at research.”

Valentin’s cock wanted to react, react hard.

Chewing and swallowing the bite he’d taken as he fought his hunger for this smart woman who smelled more delicious than his favorite honey, he pulled out his pocketknife and began to cut a slice from the part of the apple he hadn’t bitten into. All the while attempting not to fall into erotic daydreams of licking honey off his Starlight’s skin.

He’d die and go to beary heaven should that ever come true.

“I don’t doubt your skills,” he said. “But you’re not the kind of woman who lets other people make her decisions for her.”

“You’re being extremely subtle for a bear.”

Valentin smiled inside because he was certain he could almost hear aggravation in her tone. Right now, he’d take any emotion. And aggravation was a good one. Mates to bears often got aggravated.

He held out the slice of apple.

When she accepted it, he had to stop himself from beating at his chest like a gorilla. Or a bear who’d succeeded in feeding his mate. Watching as she took a testing bite, her lips derailing his honey fantasy for another one that was all rough heat, Valentin had to scramble to find his brain cells again. “All I’m saying is, how can you possibly have all the data if you’ve never let go of your Silence to see what happens?”

“I wasn’t born Silent.”