Last Guard (Psy-Changeling Trinity #5) by Nalini Singh

Canto, meanwhile, got back in his chair and went to find something Valentin could put around himself. Changelings were confident naked, since they came out of the shift in that state, but Canto hadn’t yet been around them enough to be nonchalant about it. He settled on a large bath towel.

“Spasibo,” Valentin said when Canto emerged with the towel. Leaving the cub to cling to him—the child had half climbed onto his shoulder by this point—Valentin grabbed the towel out of the air when Canto threw it, and wrapped it around his waist.

After which, he kissed the cub on its furry face, then pulled it around to sit on his lap as he took a seat on the sofa. “Eat,” he said, picking up and passing over the half-eaten toast.

Only after the cub was eating with careful paws did Valentin say, “This troublemaker’s family went for a morning walk together, but he decided to wander off while his parents were distracted pulling his twin from a mudhole she’d somehow managed to discover. All my life I’ve lived here and I’ve never found a mudhole that big.” Valentin shook his head. “The cubs have radar.”

When Canto tapped the side of his nose, not sure if he should ask the question aloud, Valentin said, “He’s too young—and he decided to cross a few streams after getting disoriented.”

So his parents couldn’t track him, and the cub’s own sense of smell wasn’t well developed enough to lead him home. Yet Valentin had found him. Because whatever it was that created a pack alpha, it included a wild kind of psychic bond. “His parents must be frantic.”

“Can I borrow your phone? I need to call them. They’re searching, too.”

Canto passed over the device and Valentin made the call. The cub’s ears pricked up at whatever he heard from the device, because Valentin pressed the phone to one furry ear afterward.

The sounds the cub made were—okay, fine, they were cute. Though Canto would go to his grave never saying that word aloud.

Valentin ended the call by assuring the boy’s parents he’d bring their boy to them.

The cub went through two pieces of toast loaded with the spread before curling up against Valentin’s chest and falling fast asleep.

Small snores erupted from his furry body.

The bear alpha shook his head, his eyes still the amber of his bear. “Canto, never ever have cubs. They will drive you insane, I promise you this. I am swearing off them.” The words were a verifiable lie, because the alpha then pressed his lips to the top of the sleeping boy’s head.

“Will he be all right?” Canto hated seeing children afraid.

“A little scare won’t keep this future tiny gangster down for long.” A petting stroke of the boy’s back. “But he is going to be grounded for a while to teach him that cubs have to follow rules set for their own good. He’s barely beyond a baby, far too young to go roaming on his own.”

Bear eyes held Canto’s, the power in them a primal thing that made his skin prickle. “It’s good you’re here. To have a friend on our public border, it’s something we appreciate.”

“Like you said, we’re family.” Canto’s grandmother had famously said that trust to a Mercant was a “complicated thing” that required “years of acquaintance, several background checks, and a probationary period.” The bears had flown way over that barrier—and not simply because Silver was mated to Valentin, and Arwen was tangled up with Pavel.

“It’s because of their innate goodness,” his grandmother had said to Canto after she first visited Denhome. “I know they’re big and tough and that Valentin could bloody us both in battle—and yes, there might be some with evil in their hearts, but that isn’t their natural inclination.

“Now that Silver is part of their pack, they’ll defend her with their own lives without hesitation—and they will love her with every cell of those big hearts. We must honor that—for one of us to betray one of StoneWater would be a grave insult against the integrity and loyalty that is at the core of our family.”

Canto hadn’t understood then. Then he’d met the bears, seen the openness with which they embraced the world, and wanted to put up a fence around their entire territory so no one could ever hurt their huge hearts.

Valentin’s was the biggest of them all.

Mercants, in comparison, were cynical and skeptical when it came to dealing with anyone outside their family unit. Now Canto and the others had taken on the task of being cynical on the bears’ behalf, too. He felt the same protective urge toward Payal, but it was deeper, stronger, more primal.

“I better go,” Valentin said, but it was only once they were downstairs and by the front door that he added, “Canto, I scented a stranger in your living space. Is all well?”

“A friend. A teleport-capable Tk.” It was too simple a word for what was going on with Payal, but it’d do as a placeholder. “I didn’t think you’d consider it a security risk on this part of the border, but after this …” He nodded at the cub.

“This doesn’t alter the security situation,” Valentin said. “To have a cub stumble so far out without being spotted by a sentry is so unusual that this is the first time it’s happened in my memory. You can feel free to invite your friends.” He raised an eyebrow, a faint smile edging his lips. “A woman, yes?”