“The human implant to block psychic intrusion?” At Ashaya’s raised eyebrow, Silver had shrugged. “I’m a Mercant.” Information was their business. “I know you can’t discuss the project, but you have my full support. If humans can block Psy intrusion, the world becomes an even playing field, and Trinity might actually succeed.”

On this morning, however, a morning that might be the last one she had when her mind wasn’t in danger of a catastrophic breach, Silver pushed all thoughts of politics and treaties out of her head and snuggled closer to her bear. He grumbled at her. “I’m mad at you for the bond.”

“Can I have naked skin privileges anyway?” Turning in his possessive hold, she drew her leg up the hair-roughened skin of his.

His erection was stone hard against her thigh, but he scowled at her, dark and beloved. “You’re not taking this seriously.”

“I’ve decided to adopt the bear approach to life.” She kissed him.

He kept scowling but he still kissed her back, he still touched her with rough tenderness, he still loved her until she was limp and drenched in sweat. Silver knew Valentin would always love her—even when she forgot the meaning of love.

Her heart broke.

• • •

THE next twelve hours were a blur of scans and tests.

Aware of how much Valentin carried on his shoulders, Silver had convinced him that she could handle this phase on her own. “I’ll call you when I need you,” she’d said in a tone with which even a bear couldn’t argue. “Treat me like a simpering fragile flower at your own risk.”

He’d given a short bearish roar before pressing his nose to hers, his eyes narrowed. “You,” he’d said, “are an impossible woman.”

“Exactly what you need.”

After dealing with her bad-tempered mate, she’d told Kaleb what was happening, and he’d provided both the medical facility and the teleport for Ashaya and Amara Aleine and their guard, a white-blond male with lethal blue eyes who Silver recognized as Dorian Christensen.

A leopard sentinel and Ashaya’s mate.

With Silver’s permission, Ashaya had also looped in Samuel Rain, a brilliant scientist who worked in experimental biofusion. As for the telepathic scan to verify the truth of Silver’s request, Ashaya did that herself—the scientist was only 1.1 on the Gradient when it came to telepathy, but as Silver was cooperating, she didn’t need anything but basic telepathy to do the scan. For it, Silver had to drop her external shields, but she could only keep them down for three seconds before the telepathic noise of the world threatened to crush her.

Ashaya staggered physically back at the same time that Silver slammed down her shields. Christensen caught his mate, his eyes no longer human but a dangerous green that spoke of the large cat that lived under his skin. “Shaya?”

“I’m fine,” the scientist said, though her breathing was erratic, the pulse in her neck rapid. “My ears are ringing. The sound . . . it’s dual layered.”

Shocked or not, Silver realized, Ashaya Aleine was a scientist first and foremost, one who was already analyzing the data she’d gathered.

“The first,” Ashaya added, “is the telepathic noise all Tps hear when their shields are down—and it’s violent because Silver is a pure telepath of incredible strength—but below that is actual sound.”

Amara spoke, her affect curiously flat. “Can’t we simply remove her capacity to hear? It would be a far more efficient exercise than neurosurgery.”

Silver went still. “Will it work?”

“No,” Ashaya said after a thoughtful minute. “You’re not hearing through your auditory canal or any other part of your ear. The input is definitely coming in via a psychic pathway.” She looked at Amara.

Purest quiet reigned for thirty seconds, the two sharing data.

“My twin is correct,” Amara said afterward in the same flat tone.

And so it went.

All the while, she felt Valentin inside her, a huge presence full of an intrinsic wildness wrapped around her like a living shield.

• • •

HAVING received a message from Silver that she was on her way home after “having her brain mapped to the last neuron,” Valentin had intended to wait for her at the border to StoneWater lands. He’d planned to see if he could pull off a modified tiny-gangster trick just to make her laugh.

All his plans changed when he felt a painful yank inside him just as night began to fall. That sensation was of a healer reaching out desperately for their alpha’s strength. Not Nova. A younger healer who was nonetheless bonded to his alpha.

Valentin didn’t delay even long enough to send his Starlight a message. He headed straight for the healer in distress. Silver would understand. She was an alpha, too.

“Sergey,” he said, stepping out of the trees in front of the cave system that held those of his clan who’d left him. “Who’s hurt?”

The tall man of his father’s generation, a man who had been first second to Mikhail, folded his arms. “You have no right to be here.” White lines bracketing his mouth, he stood his ground, though he was having difficulty meeting Valentin’s gaze.

While Sergey’s human half had rejected Valentin, the animal knew he was alpha, knew that Sergey shouldn’t be trying to oppose him. But Valentin wasn’t here to win by force. If it had been about that, he could’ve subjugated this group eight months ago, when he’d taken over from Zoya and they’d broken away.

“I don’t have time for a pissing contest.” Valentin was too angry to watch his words—if what he suspected was true, Sergey had let down not just a clanmate but a healer at that. “Someone is badly wounded, and you have only a trainee healer.” That trainee, Artem, had come with the splinter group because Sergey was his father—and because a healer needed to come with them. “Why haven’t you called Nova?”

“Artem is helping him,” Sergey insisted. “There’s no need to further stretch Nova. She’s already been to see us twice in the past week.”

That statement might’ve softened Valentin if not for one thing. “Your son is killing himself for you.” Claws shoved at his fingertips, his bear enraged. “Nova warned me that Artem is already worn down to the bone. I knew you were a stubborn durak but I didn’t think you’d be stubborn enough to put your own child’s life at risk. Now, who the fuck is hurt?”

Sergey went white under the roaring force of Valentin’s dominance. “It’s Jovan.” His shoulders slumped. “He got into a fight with Laine and they both shifted. It went to hell in a heartbeat. Laine is scratched up but otherwise fine—he got Jovan in the gut with his claws.”

Valentin saw the pain on the other man’s face, saw the stress. But he also saw the guilt: the teens were becoming aggressive in the absence of an alpha to calm their bears, and Sergey knew it. They would discuss that later. Right now, Valentin had other priorities. “Take me to them.”

Sergey didn’t argue again, just turned and led Valentin into the cave system. Pinched faces and stark eyes met his when he walked in. A few jerked toward him, held themselves back at the last minute.

Valentin’s bear raged, wounded and angry, but Valentin couldn’t force this. These clanmates had to come to him, had to choose to trust him. He made eye contact with every bear he passed, and he smiled at the cubs—who did run to him, crying “Mishka! Mishka!”