Page 25 of Bear My Heart

A brief, loud silence filled the bookstore before Luke said, "That one's for Peter here to handle, sorry."

"Peter?"

He stepped forward, heart thumping nervously. He definitely had not planned to explain fate in front of other people, but nothing was going according to plan anyway. To his surprise and relief, though, Shanti put her hand up so he could help her to her feet. Her fingers were cold, but she'd had quite a shock.

And it's winter, his bear reminded him. She doesn't have a fur coat.

That was true, although she was still bundled up in her winter gear. Her fingers warmed up quickly in Pete's hand, and she didn't pull away, though her expression was searching and uncertain as she studied him. After a moment, she said, "Maybe we should take it outside?"

On one hand, not explaining fate in front of several other people seemed great. On the other, Pete wasn't sure walking down a snowy sidewalk was the right place for it either. On the third, it would be a very awkward silent walk to anywhere else, too, if he didn't address it once they were outside.

Regardless of how many hands of choice there were, he nodded. "That sounds good, I think."

Shanti shot a nervous smile toward Hannah, who was still sitting on the checkout counter. "I'll come back to shelve books later?"

"It's okay if 'later' is in two days," Hannah said with a wry smile. "You might need time to process."

"I've never processed so hard in my life," Shanti said equally wryly. Without taking her hand from Pete's, she led him from the bookshop, then stopped on the boardwalk, looking up and down it uncertainly before saying, "I get the idea that maybe we should go somewhere private-ish to talk? I live a couple blocks away and that seems…"

"You've just had a lot thrown at you," Pete said hastily. "If you'd rather I didn't know where you lived right now, that's fine, I get that."

"What? No." She turned a startled glance up at him. "No, I was going to say, that seems better than, I don't know, going to a cafe? Not least because I'm full of doughnuts and don't think I could even manage to drink a cup of coffee right now."

Sheer relief swept Peter. If Shanti didn't mind showing him where she lived, she was probably adapting okay. Which was what was supposed to happen, but it turned out that knowing fated mates usually adapted easily was very very different from experiencing the moment where they had to. Sure, everybody else's mates adapted, but what if his didn't?

Then she wouldn't be your mate, and she is, his bear said.

That's logic and logic doesn't have anything to do with freaked-out emotion, Pete told it, half-severely and half laughing at himself.

His bear certainly agreed that he was freaking out. It, however, was entirely calm, which helped a little. It let Pete take a deep breath and smile at Shanti. "That sounds good, if you're sure you're okay with it."

"I am. I don't…well, we'll talk when we get there. But I'm okay. Come on. It's just this way." She led him down the stairs at the end of the boardwalk and across the street, then past the courthouse to turn right into what became a residential area almost immediately.

"This is a nice town," Pete said without really meaning to. "It's so well laid-out. Everything's so central. Shkalnik is spread out all over the place."

Shanti smiled. "I read once that older East Coast towns are built like European towns because the settlers here hadn't gotten their heads around the idea of how much space there was to expand into, and that the farther west they went, the more spread out things became. I don't know if it's true but I liked the idea. That, and Virtue specifically was planned around that huge town square." She fell silent as they walked up another block, and then passed her hand over her face. "A huge town square which was probably on purpose for all the…people like you?"

Her voice softened and his heart went out to her, appreciating that she'd done what shifters always did: avoided referring to themselves by the shifter name where there was the slightest chance of being overheard. "Maybe, but it's just a big field, which wouldn't provide any kind of cover, so I'm not sure. Maybe they just liked huge town squares."

"It used to be wooded, though. For centuries, apparently. It was cleared a long time ago—long enough for the gazebo to have been here more than a hundred years—but it did used to have trees. And they're putting them back, now. This is me." She turned up a driveway to a pretty little two-story house with a veranda and steps leading up to it that had grown slightly tilted with age. The drive led past the house itself to a two-car garage nearer to the back of the lot, snuggled into trees there, and the whole place looked comfortable and cozy.

"This is nice," he said with admiration.

Shanti nodded as she led him up the front steps and opened the door, gesturing him inside an equally cozy interior. A staircase rose against the wall only a few steps in front of the door, and a living room that clearly hadn't been updated since the nineties spread out to the left. "Thanks. It's a good little house. Sorry for the mess."

It wasn't nearly as bad as the word 'mess' suggested, but it wasn't sparklingly tidy, either. "It looks lived-in, that's all."

And it did: there were big, heavily-cushioned couches with pillows and quilts thrown over them, and an older television than Pete had seen in years, and a bulky wooden coffee table that looked like it could withstand a hurricane that was covered in books, magazines, and papers. Shanti closed the front door and stood there staring at the living room a moment before exhaling. "You really turn into a bear?"

"I really do." Pete gestured at the coffee table. "If I pushed that out of the way there'd be room, if you want me to show you?"

"I think I have to see it," Shanti said quietly. "I watched those women turn into cats, and that was a lot, but…bears are big. Even black bears are big. I've never seen a…did you say grizzly?"

"Grizzlies are much bigger than black bears, and shifter grizzlies are even bigger than that," Pete said almost apologetically. "Is it okay if I move the table?"

"It's fine, it slides easily even if it's made divots in the carpet." Shanti moved as if to help him, but Pete pushed the table out of the way and took a couple of steps back, gauging the size of the space. It was big enough, but he wouldn't want to try anything much beyond standing there.

"Ready?"