The child known for being a barnacle immediately let go, the tone in Valentin’s voice clearly that of an alpha speaking to one of his clan. “Bye, Siva.” A big kiss pressed to her cheek. “Did you drink your food? Uncle Mishka says it’ll make you strong.”

Releasing the boy’s weight as he scrambled off her lap, Silver picked up the cup and took a long drink. “I’ll finish it,” she promised. “Try not to fall off any more walls. You’re only a small bear.”

“I’m going to be big like my papa!” Running around to Valentin on that determined declaration, he said, “I got no clothes now.”

“What’re you going to do?” Valentin asked. “We are in Moscow—you might be busted for public nakedness.”

Dima shifted again.

Laughing, Valentin picked him up, holding the cub against his chest. “You think you’ll be free tonight?” he asked Silver.

She shook her head. “I’m likely to be here all through the night.” She’d have to send her assistant home for a change of clothes at some point.

Valentin just nodded and left holding Dima, who was waving madly with one paw over his shoulder. Her office felt strangely empty after they were gone, as if all the air had been sucked out of it. Silver tried to shake off the odd sensation, but she found herself getting up and standing by the large window behind her desk, the drink in hand.

Valentin and Dima exited the building a few minutes later. Valentin paused, looked up. So did the small white bear. They both smiled and waved. Silver lifted her cup in a silent salute, her free hand rising to press against the glass. Seconds later, they were gone, swallowed up in the flow of traffic around the building—or they should’ve been. She saw them every step of the way, irrespective of how many others walked around them.

When they finally disappeared into the bullet-train station in the distance, Valentin likely having left his vehicle in the parking garage below the station, she felt the loss like a cut inside her. The wrench was startling and it had her listening. But there was nothing she wouldn’t normally hear. Her audio telepathy was dead.

Her comm began to beep. A telepathic alert sounded in her brain.

Turning away from the window, she got back to work. But she made sure to finish the drink. Right when she would’ve begun to run out of energy again, a delivery was made to the office from the same café. Sandwiches and drinks for the entire office.

“Signed for by Alpha Nikolaev,” the Psy deliveryman said. “All prepared under the watch of a StoneWater employee.”

Devi took care to scent all the food regardless. “Valentin told me to make sure,” she said to Silver. “It’s sooooo cute how he looks after you. I hope my mate feeds me, too.”

Silver ate the sandwich marked with her name—the spread was the same one she’d enjoyed in Denhome—and she drank the accompanying nutrients.

When Valentin messaged her two hours later to check how events were developing, she removed her earpiece and took the call on her personal phone. “The humanitarian situation is under control,” she told him. “The death toll currently stands at five hundred and seven.” That was five hundred and seven too many for Silver. “The majority died in the initial blasts, but we’ve lost at least a hundred people as a result of the injuries they sustained during the attacks.”

“You doing okay, Starlight?”

“Given my tiredness, my efficiency is no longer at its peak, but I haven’t made any errors.” Silver’s eye fell on the empty drink container on her desk. “The food was appreciated.”

“You’re being sneaky, thanking me by using fancy words.”

Silver toed off her heels, flexed her feet. “I was brought up to be polite.”

“Hang around with me long enough, and we’ll change that.”

Hearing a horn in the background, she said, “Are you in the city?”

“Ran in some of the young clan soldiers for a party. One of us will be coming back in to pick them up in a few hours.”

“If you’d rather just stay in the city, you can use my apartment.” Her offer had nothing to do with emotion; she was just repaying the favor StoneWater had done her.

“You know what, Starlight? I’m going to take you up on that. I need to crash anyway—did a double shift yesterday.”

“I’ll call complex security, clear you in. Not that you need it.”

A deep chuckle. “Hopefully my bigfoot-sized body won’t break your couch.”

“Take the bed. You’ll be uncomfortable on the couch.” Not thinking too hard about what that would mean for her when she went to bed, she said, “I have some information I need to give you. It’s from Lily Knight.”

Another urgent call lit up her comm screen just as she finished briefing him about the Patel Conglomerate. “I have to go.” It was ten minutes later that she contacted complex security to let them know Valentin was cleared.

They laughed, delight in their tone.

“Of course he is,” the woman on the other end said. “He’s your mate. Your scent imprint is all over him.”

Silver was still thinking about the latter when she finally left her office. It was now five in the morning, and she’d sent her local staff home three hours earlier. They’d return to the office at eight, while she’d come in at nine—and she’d be on call to her human deputy her entire rest period.

Her phone rang just as she reached the complex. “Sergeant,” she said. “A problem?”

“No. I saw you’d logged off and wanted to let you know I appreciate the vote of confidence. I know this incident is way beyond anything else I’ve handled.”

Silver wasn’t used to delegating, but her team wouldn’t function at peak efficiency if she insisted on doing everything herself. “I trust your readiness for the task,” she told the human male. “But don’t hesitate to call me if it’s something that needs my input.”

“Will do.”

“I’ll speak to you after I wake, so please make sure you’re ready to deliver a concise briefing to bring me up to speed.”

“Consider it done, Chief.” He signed off before she could remind him her actual title was Director of EmNet—not that she expected her team to use that. She’d learned from watching Valentin lead, understood that informality did not mean a lack of respect and that it could form deeper bonds over time.

Clearing herself into the complex using the retinal scanner, she didn’t jump when a wolf prowled up off the grass inside and, loping up to the pathway, padded beside her all the way to her apartment. She recognized that black coat with its fine threads of bronze as Margo Lucenko, head of complex security and senior member of BlackEdge. “Spasibo,” she said once she reached her apartment.

The wolf didn’t leave until Silver had opened her door and it had padded inside to check out the scents. Only after Margo was satisfied the area was safe did she step back and give Silver a nod before heading out. Silver shut the door, kicked off her shoes, and, going into the bedroom, placed her organizer and purse on the bedside table.

Her bed was made, with no visible signs of Valentin’s presence. But when she slipped into bed after completing her nightly routine, the warm, earthy scent of him seeped into every cell of her body. Silver slipped into sleep in a heartbeat, Valentin wrapped around her like a blanket.