“You know nothing of what this clan has suffered.” Fisted hands, a clenched jaw.

“I’m your alpha’s mate,” she reminded him with icy precision. “I know this clan is full of warmth and a wild kind of love that doesn’t hold grudges. To StoneWater, family means everything.” Was it any wonder she’d fallen for the entire clan? “You chose to fracture that. Your choice now is to either fix that error—or walk away.”

“You have no right to say that to me.”

“I will do anything to protect Valentin. If that means eliminating a threat, I’ll do it without compunction and without a single ounce of guilt.” She made sure he saw the deadly truth on her face. “His heart is huge, but that doesn’t mean you get to kick it. Choose.”

Sergey swallowed . . . then subtly broke the aggressive eye contact. A second later, he walked toward Valentin and when Valentin drew him into his arms, he didn’t resist. Instead, he held on hard, his body shaking as tears streaked his face.

The others gave them space.

Silver, too, shifted away, going to help two of the clan who were setting up tables for the food and drink Valentin had ordered. Moira, her baby strapped to her chest, sat with them. “I don’t know what you said to Sergey,” she murmured, her tone a little awed, “but that ornery bear has never showed submission to anyone but his alpha.”

Yakov looked up from where he was on his knees putting up a table. “Valentin found a mate worthy of him.”

Silver took that as the compliment it was meant to be—but she was also bear enough now to say, “I’d say I found a mate worthy of me.”

Eyes amber, Yakov grinned. “Will Valentin punch me if I kiss you?”

“He is more likely to rip off your head.”

“Might be worth it.”

Silver considered the mood in the Cavern, considered the life she’d never have, considered what it was to be a bear—and leaned down to grip Yakov’s jaw. She’d pressed a kiss to his mouth before he recovered from his surprise. Clanmates laughed as the dominant bear fell back on his ass. “Definitely worth it,” he said, a happiness in his eyes that had nothing to do with the skin privileges.

The same happiness infused others around them.

Even Valentin when he ordered Yakov to keep his sneaky paws to himself.

It was about clan, about family, about bonds of the heart.

She understood so much now, saw how it could be, how she and her alpha bear could walk side by side, taking both the Mercant family and StoneWater into a dazzling future. But the noise inside her head, which had dimmed for an hour that had given her a false hope, it started to grow again. And grow and grow.

When Valentin found her sitting on the edge of their bed a half hour later, he was smiling. “There you are. Nova said you popped in here to—”

Cutting himself off midword, he hunkered down in front of her. “Starlight, you’re crying.”

Silver lifted a hand to her left cheek, touched the moisture there. “Oh.” She hadn’t known, hadn’t realized. “The noise, it hurts.”

• • •

THE quiet words from his strong Silver broke Valentin.

Gathering her into his arms, he sat down against a wall with her in his lap. “What can I do?” he asked, because he had to do something. “I’ll take you out of Denhome, deep into the—”

“No.” She raised her head, her eyes still damp and her pupils hugely dilated but her will as steely as ever. “This night is important for our clan.” Her fingers over his lips when he would’ve spoken. “And my range is phenomenal now. I can hear for miles, sound layer on sound layer.”

Valentin’s bear pounded its paws in primal frustration. “Can Nova knock you out?”

“I’ve considered it, but drugs have unpredictable effects on Psy senses—they could smash open my remaining shields.” She took a deep breath and wiped away her tears. “I can hold on.”

So fucking strong.

He rose with her, kissed tiny kisses all over her face until her lips tugged up. “You handled Sergey like an alpha bear.”

No doubt the irritable older bear and Valentin would still butt heads, but the other man had come to him, and Sergey wasn’t two-faced about anything. He’d been blatant in his distrust, and now he’d be as open in his choice to trust Valentin.

“You need to scream, you scream,” he told his Starlight. “This is a bear party. Everyone will think you’re having a great time.”

Silver’s smile deepened, lit her up. “Perhaps I will be rowdy tonight. I am now mated to a bear, after all. It’s required.”

“Exactly.” She was so beautiful in her strength, he wanted to go to his knees, wanted to worship her. “Now let me show you how bears party.”

Pain lingered in the fine lines that had formed at the corners of her eyes, but as he watched, she took a deep breath, lowered her lashes, and when they lifted back, her pain was gone. Shielded. Hidden. Except from Valentin. Inside him, he felt all of her, all her glory and all her hurt.

They walked out to join the party hand in hand. It began in a muted form as reunited friends and family cried and hugged, but then the beer began to flow—along with champagne for the fancy ones in the clan—and the laughter started.

Clanmates caught up, they danced. The small bears were allowed back into party a little past their bedtime, before being laid down on makeshift sleeping nests around the party area. The cubs fell contentedly asleep despite the chaos, happy being in the heart of clan.

Valentin joined in the celebration.

He laughed, he talked, he even entered a beer-drinking contest, but all the while his mind was on the woman with hair of moonlight who had fit so naturally into StoneWater.

When it came time to dance, he danced with her first, tucking her close to his body so she could go limp and abandon her teeth-gritting control for a fragment of time. He held her as she shuddered in pain, the movement hidden by his body and the energetic dancing all around them. “I’ve got you, moyo serdechko,” he whispered, because she was his heart, the idea of a life without his Starlight by his side a nightmare beyond bearing. “I’ve got you.”

He said the same things that night, as she slipped into unconsciousness after putting herself out using a psychic technique. And he held her all night long, his bear’s heart tearing itself into a million pieces.

Chapter 38

I have often been asked what gave me the courage and the hope to continue the peace negotiations in the face of so much terror and bloodshed. The answer is love.

Even in the depths of the wars, even in the deepest horror, I saw lovers kiss and parents hug their babies, I saw brothers and sisters laugh together and I saw enemy soldiers raise an orphaned child as their own.

Love, this maddening, joyous creature of light—it refused to die. So how could I give up?

—From the private diaries of Adrian Kenner: peace negotiator, Territorial Wars (eighteenth century)

THE CALL CAME at six forty-five a.m. the next morning, while they were still in bed. Silver was awake and curled into him, her hair a cool moonlit river over the arms he’d wrapped around her.

This call, however, had to be answered.

Ashaya Aleine’s face was drawn with fatigue, but her eyes were crystal clear. “We think we’ve come up with a solution that has a chance of long-term success.”