This time, the problem wasn’t a laughing matter.

Chapter 21

To be alpha is to have a heart big enough to love every single member of your pack or clan. That is the one constant of all the strongest alphas I’ve ever met. They are men and women with an astonishing capacity to love and to forgive.

—Adrian Kenner: peace negotiator, Territorial Wars (eighteenth century)

VALENTIN DIDN’T NEED Pieter to lead him to the group of sullen teenagers; he could’ve followed their scents across the territory. He did, however, need his friend in other ways. “They’re reacting to the fracture in the clan,” he said to his third-in-command as they stalked through the forest.

Pieter had ordered all seven teenagers to stay where he’d left them, and he was dominant enough that they’d have obeyed. Now, the other man nodded, the sunset colors of his hair glowing in the late afternoon light. “Yes. It’s messing with their heads.”

The other man blew out a breath. “Mina apparently attacked Olive when words were exchanged about Mina’s aunt’s family being traitors. Friends of both jumped into the fray.”

“Fuck.” Valentin had tried to keep the problems to the adults, but while the cubs just asked after their missing friends, sad they couldn’t play with them, the teens were old enough to understand this separation was shaping up to be permanent. “This isn’t right, Petya.”

“You know what I think.” His friend’s voice was hard. “They made their choice. You’ve been too patient.”

Valentin rubbed a fist over his heart. “I can’t let them go without trying everything. They’re part of me.” So many tiny threads, alpha to clanmate. “Cutting them loose will bloody us all.”

“The dissenters did that when they made unfounded accusations.” Pieter had never had any sympathy for the clanmates who’d turned against Valentin. Perhaps because Pieter’s entire family had joined StoneWater when Pieter was a child of eight, after they’d left their previous clan because the asshole alpha had wanted Pieter’s much older sister, and she’d said no.

The alpha had made Pieter’s sister’s life so untenable that the family had made the decision to move. That alpha had soon been toppled by a far better bear, but Pieter’s family had never returned to their old clan. They were violently loyal to StoneWater, which had taken them in with open arms. Pieter, in turn, was violently loyal to Valentin.

“Your heart’s too big, Valya,” his childhood friend said. “No one has the right to stomp on it just because you have a capacity to forgive that shames the rest of us.”

Valentin squeezed his friend’s shoulder, his heart full of love for this man who was his brother in every way that mattered. “The time is coming. Until then, I need you to help me watch over them.”

Pieter said nothing on that point. It was understood that he’d always be there for Valentin and vice versa. “What about the girls?”

“They’re wounded, too.” This wasn’t ordinary teenage rebellion and angst. “Let me see them before I decide what needs to be done.” The instant he did, he realized battle fury was riding them yet. Changeling bears didn’t often fight among themselves, but when they did, they were bloody-minded about it.

Three girls sat on one side of the forest clearing, four on the other. They glared daggers at one another. All their eyes were different shades of amber, their claws out and raking furrows in the earth. “Eyes here,” Valentin said in a tone that rumbled with his bear’s presence.

Seven heads snapped toward him, the girls getting to their feet and coming to attention. Not a word escaped their lips, though he could all but see the hot air building up in their brains, ready for an explosion. “Follow me,” he said without warning. “Petya.”

“I have the rear.”

Valentin took them on a run so grueling that by the time they returned to the clearing, every single girl collapsed into a limp heap. The anger was gone, extinguished by the burn of their lungs and the whimpers of their muscles. Someone moaned. Valentin ignored it, well aware of what these girls could take—they were dominants, every single one. Even more, they were all extremely physically fit.

Hunkering down in front of them afterward, he said, “We’re clan. We’re strong only when we’re clan. When we’re one.”

Mina looked at him with tears swimming in her eyes. “But they left us,” she whispered. “My own aunt and her family. They left us.”

Her erstwhile opponent, Olive, put her arm around Mina’s shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she said, her throat working as she swallowed. “I didn’t mean what I said. I’m just mad because your aunt took Temür with her.”

Temür was a teenage boy with whom Olive had been flirting up a storm before his family made the decision to move. As Valentin watched, Mina sniffed and patted Olive’s knee. “I’m mad at them, too, but they’re my family. I have to defend them.”

“I know.”

Valentin ran his hand over Mina’s hair, then Olive’s. “I’m working on the situation.” They had a right to know what was going on. “There’s still time.” Not much, but it wasn’t all over.

He wasn’t about to give up on his divided clan.

And he was never going to give up on his Starlight.

His babushka Anzhela had once said to him that his middle name might as well be “obstinate.” He’d taken it as a compliment.

• • •

WHEN he finally saw Silver again near dinnertime, he had to bite back a rumbling growl. Purplish bruises under her eyes, lines of strain, it all spoke of exhaustion. She simply hadn’t given her body and mind enough downtime after the poisoning.

At least she appeared to be heading to her room.

“Have you eaten?” he demanded, unable to help himself. “Here.” He gave her a chocolate bar from his pocket before she could respond. “Think of it as fuel.”

“I did eat.” She didn’t return the chocolate bar despite her statement.

His bear settled. “Rumor is a group called HAPMA is taking responsibility for all four attacks.”

Silver blinked, her fingers tight around the chocolate bar. “What?”

“Inside, sit down.” He pushed open her bedroom door. “Do you block off all other data while you’re handling EmNet?”

She entered, took a seat on the bed without argument. Chert voz’mi, his Starlichka had to be exhausted to the bone if she was following his orders. Placing the chocolate bar on the bedside table, she began to take off the little ankle boots she seemed to love. Valentin had asked Nova where she’d bought them, had placed an order for Silver so she’d have her own pair.

“It’s the only way to handle the deluge,” she told him. “I have to focus on facts and figures, on numbers of responders, on medical triage.” One boot off, she worked on the other. “I do need a team, and I need it quickly.”

He bent down to pull off the second boot for her, barely restraining the urge to take her slender foot in his hands, work the tension out of it. “Nova’s mad at you for going so hard when you haven’t recovered from the poisoning.” He was mad, too, but mostly, he needed to take care of her.

Since she was letting him, he could forget the mad.