His soul full of a sadness that was more than a decade old, he got back into the rugged all-wheel drive and drove on.

It took Monique Ling three minutes to open the door after he knocked. Her mahogany brown hair was damp but combed straight, her bangs a thick wedge across her forehead, and her body clad in loose white pants and a white top. “Oh!” Her bow of a mouth curved. “You’re Silver’s man! I saw it on the comm channels!”

“I am.” Valentin leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded and a smile on his face. Bears could be charming. Today, he’d be charming. He had a feeling Monique would react better to charming than to Ena’s brand of frosty politeness. “I was wondering if I could talk to you?”

“Sure!” She opened her door wide, all girlish happiness, despite the fact she was thirty-three years of age. “How’s Silver?” Big and round brown eyes looked at him with an earnest expression. “She’s icy, you know, in that Psy way. But she was always nice to me, even when I bothered her about random things like which color of cream was her favorite.”

Valentin quickly reevaluated his first impression of Monique Ling; she was far more emotionally perceptive than she might appear on first glance. “She’s my mate,” he said with a wicked smile. “So by definition she’s doing great.”

“Ha! That’s bear logic for you.” Clapping her hands, Monique walked him in. “I dated a bear once. Most fun I had in years.”

Monique’s living area was set up in a way similar to Silver’s neighboring apartment, with the windows overlooking the city. But that was where the similarities stopped—where Silver’s was elegant gray and pristine, Monique’s was a startling chaos of colorful clothes and objects against white: white sofas, white walls, white table, white chairs. One shoe he could see was bright red, a purse on a sofa vivid blue.

“Excuse the mess,” Monique said with the bubbly insouciance of a woman used to men doing as she wished.

Valentin found her sweet the same way he found other pretty, harmless things sweet. His bear would eat her alive in a second. That same bear wouldn’t dare even take a bite out of Silver unless they were playing. His mate was titanium fire to Monique’s gentle flame.

“This is nothing compared to Denhome after a big party,” he said with a grin. “Imagine a whole clan of drunk bears and party decorations. I once saw my second-in-command fast asleep in bear form—some wit had decorated her with string lights and crepe paper after painting her claws pink.” Stasya had not been amused at the twins’ stroke of drunken genius—after she stopped laughing. “Just when the bears responsible thought she’d forgotten the incident, they happened to get drunk at a party and woke to find themselves encased in melted chocolate that had gone hard.”

“Oh, that sounds like so much fun.” Monique glowed. “You want coffee? I was just making some.”

“I wouldn’t say no.” He followed her to the kitchen area, keeping things casual. “You know Silver’s moved out?”

“I heard.” Monique’s lips turned down. “I really liked her as a neighbor—she was the kind of person I knew would respond if I ever screamed, you know? She wouldn’t just ignore it.”

Yes, that was his Starlight. “Part of the reason she moved was because of a possible security breach.”

“Her grandmother asked me about that on a comm call.” Monique pushed the Start button on her coffee machine. “I was so surprised—this place is locked up tight.” She turned, leaning her hip against the counter. “Did they steal anything important?”

Valentin knew from Ena that she’d framed the breach as aimed at stealing restricted data rather than an attack against Silver. “Doesn’t look like it. Silver had taken all her electronics to work with her, so they were out of luck.”

“I do that, too,” Monique confided as the rich scent of coffee filtered into the air. “I deal with so much classified corporate information that it’s just not worth the risk.”

“Silver said you had a high-powered position.” He couldn’t quite marry this bouncy woman with a suit-and-tie corporate. “In fashion, right?”

“She remembered!” A beaming smile as she turned to pour their cups of coffee, her machine one of the fastest brewers on the market. “I wish I could help you figure out who might’ve breached her security, but I swear I didn’t see anyone suspicious. I would’ve remembered—my mom always says my mouth might be a runaway train, but my memory is a steel trap.” She handed him a mug of coffee. “And the people I’ve brought home with me have all been people I trust.”

There it was. “You’re searching for a mate?” He quickly followed with, “My eldest sister’s doing that at the moment.” Rolling his eyes, he added, “I have to mop up all the broken hearts she leaves in her wake.” Thankfully, Pieter’s wasn’t one—a single kiss and the two had realized they were meant to be friends. “The woman’s giving bears a bad name.”

Laughing, Monique said, “I just can’t find the right man or woman.” She took a sip of her coffee, sighed. “I’m totally open to anyone, but most people can’t handle the fact I easily earn five times a normal income. Or if they can handle it, they want me to spend all my money on them. I love buying gifts, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want it to be expected.”

Valentin nodded, suddenly realizing he and Silver had never once discussed finances. She probably made ten times a normal salary. As alpha of StoneWater, he was the CEO of their business ventures, but he didn’t think of that money as his—it was the clan’s. He drew the same income as his senior staff, nothing extravagant. The rest of the money went toward raising and educating their cubs, keeping their territory strong, and further developing their business interests to the betterment of the clan as a whole.

He wondered what Silver would say to that . . . and realized she’d understand exactly how the clan worked. From all he’d seen, the Mercants functioned the same way. “I had the same trouble until I found Silver,” he said to Monique. “Then, boom.” He thumped his fist against his chest.

Monique made a melting face. “Oh, that is so romantic.”

“Of course, she made me work for it,” Valentin admitted before casually asking, “You didn’t have any luck the last time you were in Moscow? There might’ve been an earlier attempt to get into Silver’s apartment, so we’re looking at anyone who was in the building during the time frame.”

“Not really.” Monique bit her lower lip. “I mean, there was Jai Shivani from work, but it never went anywhere and he’s hardly the type to do industrial espionage. Straight as a ruler, you know?”

Valentin’s instincts stirred. “Was he the only one?”

“Yup. I was really busy with work, hardly any time to play. Even Jai was only here maybe four times.” A conspiratorial grin. “One time, the power went out when some big-deal processor melted down or something. That was fun. Too much fun. I ended up with the worst hangover.”

Power didn’t usually go out in buildings like this one; there were fail-safes upon fail-safes. Which was why Ena had come to suspect that someone had made very sure the power would hiccup that night. To date, however, she’d found nothing to confirm that Silver had been the target of that hiccup—the building housed countless high-profile individuals.