Page 2 of Bear My Heart

Pete Baranov grinned at her. "You'd be surprised. If you'll let me buy you a cup of coffee I can tell you all about it?"

Shanti said the first thing that came to mind, which was, "At five in the evening? I'll be awake all night!" Only after that did other conflicting thoughts crash together: that she'd just refused a casual date with the first person who'd asked her on one in longer than she could remember, that she'd just refused a casual date with an extremely attractive man, that she couldn't go on a date with a total stranger she'd just met, and for that matter she couldn't go on a date anyway because she had the most boring life in the world and didn't want anybody to know how pathetic she was⁠—

"Dinner, then," Pete said easily. "Or out for some other kind of drink. You'll have to tell me where, though. I'm new in town."

"I'm…" An overwhelming sense of exhaustion rose in Shanti's chest. She carefully took her hand out of Pete's, tucked it in her pocket, and said, "I don't know much about where to go out, either. I don't really get out much, so maybe⁠—"

She'd been going to say, maybe another time, knowing that she didn't mean it, knowing that she would never ever try to see this big handsome oddly kind man again. Instead, somehow, she heard herself say, "Maybe Hold My Bear. It's a newish gastropub in town that I've never been to?"

"Sounds perfect. I have a truck. I can meet you there?"

"Oh." Shanti's gaze darted toward the parking lot, then returned to Peter. "There's not much parking in town. If you've got a space here you might want to just keep it and walk over, except…" She made a vague gesture at the big man, who still wasn't wearing a coat. In December. In Virtue, New York, which had gotten colder and snowier over her lifetime as the climate had changed.

Peter glanced down at himself, then smiled. "I run warm. If you're walking, I can walk with you? Or I can just happen to be going in the same direction you are, and meet you there. Or I can take another route." He palmed his phone long enough to indicate he was prepared to look up a town map and find a way to the gastropub on his own, which made Shanti smile. A real smile, not just the polite one she usually used.

"Might as well walk with me, if you won't freeze. It's not that far. Nothing in Virtue really is. Unlike Alaska, I guess?" Shanti was proud of herself for creating an opportunity for a conversation. She was out of practice, but she thought that had worked. And it meant Peter Baranov talking about himself, instead of her having to admit anything about herself.

He chuckled as they went down the station steps and across the parking lot. The sun had set almost an hour earlier, leaving the parking lot and streets to be lit by pools of amber light from the streetlamps. They crossed from one pool to another, walking on mostly-cleared sidewalks with snow piled up at the edges. Pete's breath steamed on the air, but he certainly didn't seem cold. "Everything in Alaska is very far apart, but everything in Shkalnik, my village, is pretty close. Except the airport. And the dump."

"Sh—" Shanti didn't even try to repeat what he'd said, not before asking, "Say that again?"

"Shhh call nick," Pete repeated, drawing each sound out, then saying it again the way he'd said it first, with shorter vowels: "Shkalnik. Derived from a Tlingit word, shkalneek. Pretty, isn't it?"

Shanti couldn't help smiling as she echoed, "Shkalnik," to get it right. "Yes, it is. Is it…it's a Native village? Left here," she added as they reached School Street, before the town square, which would let them cut across to the gastropub.

Peter veered left. "It was a Native village, but these days most of the people there are white. Smaller than Virtue, and you can only get there by boat or plane."

"Oh. Oh, wow. That sounds…" Terrifying fought with wonderful in Shanti's mind, and Pete suggested, "Isolated?"

"That too. So how on earth did you end up in Virtue?"

"I'm working on the railroad," Peter said, and for some reason, all at once, he seemed like the very embodiment of Shanti's dreams.

CHAPTER 2

Pete had known going in that Virtue was a shifter town. It was part of why he'd wanted to take the New York Northern Line railway job: it would eventually bring him to Virtue, and in his fondest dreams, to the shifter who would be his fated mate.

Now he wondered why he'd imagined his fated mate would be a shifter. Most mates weren't. More importantly…

More importantly, it was incredibly clear that no shifter could be as perfect for him as the very human Shanti Davis was.

He'd known almost before she walked around the corner and nearly into his arms. His bear, usually a big sleepy lump, had suddenly become alert, as if waiting for something special. That had made Pete sharpen up, too, so when Shanti exited the train station in a blind turn, he'd been prepared for something to happen. It had let him stop short so she wouldn't actually run into him.

Though, honestly, he wasn't entirely sure he remembered how to walk anymore anyway. Maybe he hadn't stopped on purpose. Maybe he was just too thunderstruck.

Even entirely bundled up against the cold, she was simply stunning. She had very wintery ear muffs over cute pixie-cut hair that shone black, a fluffy scarf nestled around her jawline, and a big coat that disguised her figure thoroughly. Between the ear muffs and the scarf were full lips, amazing cheekbones, and the biggest, darkest, saddest brown eyes Pete had ever seen. He wanted very badly to gather this woman in his arms and promise everything would be all right.

Instead, he found himself asking her to dinner, and could see that she was surprised at herself when she agreed. But something lit up inside her when he said he worked on the railroad, and she was smiling as he opened the door to the gastropub she'd suggested.

They both stopped short just inside the door, though, exchanging a silent, startled glance. Pete didn't know exactly what he'd expected, but a vibrant, cheerfully noisy, busy Thursday night crowd hadn't been it. Virtue was a small town. He guessed he'd thought that at five o'clock, even a pub would be quiet enough for an intimate evening of getting to know his mate.

But it was clear the gastro part of gastropub was heavily emphasized here. It had a good old-fashioned log cabin interior pub with a bar dominating the room they'd just walked into, and at least one back room visible beyond it. And there were beers being pulled at that bar, obviously, but the scent of food was in the air and the whole place smelled heavenly. Pete's stomach suddenly roared, loudly enough to be heard over the general din, at least by the woman standing next to him.

That woman shot him a quick glance as she tried to hide a smile. "Smells good, doesn't it? I didn't know. I've never been in here. I said that," Shanti added, her hidden smile fading. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for. It smells fantastic. I didn't even think I was that hungry."

"I am," Shanti said, again like she was surprising herself. "I haven't been doing anything but sitting in the cold, but now that I smell food, I'm really hungry."