“Valentin then,” she said, deciding this small capitulation didn’t send the wrong signal when he was wearing his heart on his sleeve. “You must understand that I’m not the Silver you once knew.” While she didn’t feel emotion, it was important to her that Valentin didn’t have his pride crushed.

He was alpha; he needed that pride.

“I know,” he said with a slow smile. “You’re Silver Mercant point two. Even sleeker and sexier.”

“Alpha Nikolaev.”

“Valentin,” he said in a mock-stern voice accompanied with a wink. “Here are the waffles.”

The male server put a large plate in the center of the table. It was piled high with waffles doused in what appeared to be a sweet syrup, as well as sliced strawberries and cream. He then placed a single smaller plate in front of Valentin.

Silver went to state she had no plate and only then realized they’d forgotten to give her cutlery, too. Before she could point that out, however, the server was gone—moving so fast that it had to have been planned. “I thought you brought me here to eat waffles.”

Valentin cut off a corner that was relatively clean of syrup and cream. “I did.” He held out the piece on his fork. “I know what you can handle. Trust me.”

“We’re in a public location.”

“Changelings know you’re my mate—”

“I’m not.”

“—and the rest of the world already thinks we’re having a hot and heavy affair.” His lashes shadowed the amber glow of his gaze. “Run with it, solnyshko moyo. It’s good for your image.”

That he was right didn’t alter the fact he was once again playing dominance games with her. After taking a second to consider the situation, Silver moved without warning to grab the fork right out of his hand. She then fed the piece into her mouth. “Interesting.” She no longer had trouble with most foods, a holdover of her experiences in StoneWater.

Valentin held out his hand. “My fork?”

“I think not.” Using the edge of the utensil, she cut off a piece that was thick with syrup, before picking it up along with two slices of strawberry. “Here.”

Valentin’s eyes sparkled. Leaning in, he ate the offering. “Good,” he said. “But that was a girly bite. I’m a bear.”

Silver thrust the tines into the top waffle and held up the entire thing to him, syrup and strawberry slices dripping off it onto the plate. “Better?”

Throwing back his head, Valentin laughed. And the sound, it filled the air, filled the room, filled her up. Disturbed by the powerful intensity of her reaction, she went to lower her hand, but Valentin moved with that unexpected speed to grab her wrist. Tugging her forward, he took a huge bite out of the waffle she’d speared.

His throat moved as he swallowed. Then he was back to take another bite. And another.

He’d demolished it in under a minute. “That’s more like it.”

Applause erupted into the air. When Silver glanced around, she saw they were the center of attention. Each and every face wore a smile. As if taking Silver’s glance for permission, the red-lipped maître d’ came over. “I have to admit, I wondered how it would work when I heard Valya had mated a Psy, but you can clearly handle a big hardheaded bear.”

Silver didn’t respond except to incline her head; her and Valentin’s relationship—or lack of one—was their business. Waiting until the woman had left, she lifted an eyebrow in a deliberate action. “I think we’ve eaten enough waffles.”

“Hell no. Try this.” Picking up a whole strawberry, he held it out.

Silver could have ignored it, but doing so would once again call their relationship into question. She bit into the fruit, allowed the burst of flavor to explode onto her tongue before lowering her voice to a level only he’d pick up. “I’m not her.” Not the woman he’d fallen in love with, not the woman he’d mated, not the woman who’d ridden on his bear form through the forest. “I’ll never be her again.”

Shifting forward, Valentin grazed her cheek with his knuckles. “I know,” he said, his voice gritty and that huge heart of his in his eyes. “You’re alive, Starlight. Everything else is secondary.”

She felt the truth of that in every syllable; for her life, Valentin Nikolaev would do anything.

“But,” he added, “I can’t just let go. Give me the nine more dates you promised me. After that, I’ll only bother you once in a long while when the urge to see you, scent you, becomes overwhelming.” A faint smile, too faint for a man as brash and as wild as Valentin. “You can get security to kick me out.”

Silver knew she’d never do that. Not to this man who had given her sanctuary and who’d helped save her life. “You ordered enough waffles for a herd of bears.”

Appearing mortally insulted, he picked up the fork she’d dropped onto the plate. “Bears are never in a herd, Starlight,” he said censoriously. “That’s for the four-legged leaf eaters.” He shuddered. “Have another bite.”

Silver acquiesced. By the time they left the café, she was receiving a steady stream of telepathic alerts on pieces in the human/changeling media about her and Valentin’s “adorable breakfast date.” The PsyNet Beacon had printed a curter description but had given it more space than she’d expected, especially in light of the news on Bowen Knight.

When she mentioned that to Valentin, he shrugged. “We’re the bright, sunny life-interest story to balance out the dark.” Amber retreating from his eyes, his next words were harder. “Stasya messaged me while you were in the restroom. It’s touch-and-go with Bo.”

“That’s not good news for world stability.” Keeping an eye on the PsyNet for further news on the topic, she said, “How have you explained why I’m no longer living in Denhome?”

Valentin touched his hand to her lower back as she got into his monster of a vehicle. She should’ve reminded him of her earlier comment, but it seemed a petty response to what she was certain had been an unconscious act on his part. Valentin touched the people he loved; it was part of his nature.

Asking him to stop was like asking a tree to stop giving shade under its branches. Impossible.

“Our clanmates think you’re staying in the city because you need to work on a big EmNet project that makes it hard for you to be at Denhome,” he said. “They just assumed and I didn’t correct them.” He closed the door and came around to get into the driver’s side. “We’ll keep that going for a while, then I guess . . . I’ll have to tell everyone we’ve separated because you’re really mad at me.”

Silver blinked. Changeling mates didn’t separate. “No.”

“No?”

“To effectively say you were unable to court your mate back to you, it’ll damage your standing in the eyes of not only your clan but other changelings. StoneWater doesn’t need that.” It was the stability of the region, she told herself, that was driving her decision. “We’ll think of something else.”

“Silver Fucking Mercant.” Valentin began to drive on those admiring words. “I’ll leave the solution up to that beautiful brain of yours.” Even as Valentin said that, even as he played with her as the puppy inside him wanted to do, he was scared.