Page 37 of Bear My Heart

Pete held the tree up and turned in different directions around the room, pretending he was searching for the perfect place to put it. Shanti swept some envelopes and folders off a sideboard unit and did a game-show-hostess presentation motion, indicating he could put the tree on top of it. With as much pomp and ceremony as he could manage, Pete walked the tree over, placed it carefully on the sideboard, and found the power cord hidden in the branches so he could plug it in and bring the tiny white lights to life. "Well," he said, stepping back and regarding their handiwork proudly, "I think we've done a good job with it this year."

"It took hours," Shanti agreed solemnly. "But it's perfect. Good job."

They both started snickering, then retreated to the couch for a movie dimly lit by the glow of the little tree's lights. This is good, Pete's bear thought sleepily. This is like a den. Warm. Cozy. We should sleep until March.

"Can't go to Shkalnik that way," Peter murmured aloud.

Shanti half sat up, blinking at him. "What? We can't?"

"Oh. No, not you. Yes, we can. My bear thought we should sleep in our warm den here until March and I was arguing with it."

Shanti's eyes widened. "Can you really sleep that long? In your human form, I mean?"

"I don't think so, not really. Not exactly. Bear shifters are great sleepers, especially in the winter, but I'd probably have to spend all summer fattening up as a bear to be able to sleep through most of the winter, and even then I'd probably have to do it mostly as a bear. But I can sleep most of a week without much effort, anyway."

"I. Wow." Shanti sank back down against his side, making thoughtful noises. "That sounds both wonderful and awful. I'm afraid if I could sleep like that I'd just use it as an excuse to stop human-ing at all, and I'm pretty sure it's called 'clinical depression' when people do that."

Pete turned his head to chuckle into her hair. "That's true. Maybe it's for the best that even bear shifters can't sleep all winter easily. Besides, you'd want your mate to be another bear if you were going to do that, because unless you could hibernate together, you'd be missing out on months of their life and that would suck."

"Oh, yes. I hadn't thought of that. Where do your clothes go?"

Pete's eyebrows rose and he swore he could hear a blush in Shanti's voice. "Sorry, I know that was out of the blue, but I started thinking about it a couple of days ago and I couldn't figure it out. Does the magic think clothes are like fur?"

"Kind of, yes," he answered, amused. "We have to learn to shift with our clothes, but it's like potty training, it was so long ago nobody remembers having to learn. Anything we're carrying will shift with us, as long as it's not alive. You wouldn't become a bear along with me if I shifted right now."

"What about a…a cactus?"

"…I've never tried shifting with one. But it's alive, so it wouldn't change with me. A plant pot would, though. Maybe," he said dubiously. "A backpack will, so if a pot was in a backpack it would, but if I was just holding it in my hands I feel like it wouldn't."

"So the magic is finicky," Shanti murmured. "Opinionated."

"Maybe a little! Or maybe it's just that it wouldn't shift with me because I feel like it wouldn't. It might for somebody else."

"That's finicky," she announced. "Do you celebrate Christmas at home?"

"Yeah," he said fondly. "Nothing like the show Virtue puts on, but there's the New Year's fireworks that are always good."

"Fireworks? Really? Well, that seems like a good way to bring in the new year, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Well, there's no point in fireworks in Alaska on the Fourth of July."

"There's not?"

Pete grinned. "The sun doesn't go down. You can't see them."

"Oh. Oh! Oh, wow, really?" Shanti sat up, eyes wide.

"Really. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little for Shkalnik, because it does technically set there," he admitted, "but it never gets darker than twilight, so we basically don't do fireworks until midnight because you really can't see them before that. Anywhere much north of us and there's really no point. It doesn't stop people from shooting them off, of course, but you're mostly in it for the noise at that point."

"I can't really imagine. I thought the sun set late here!"

Pete couldn't help snorting dismissively, and Shanti laughed. "It does, though, compared to Nepal, anyway! But it's the opposite at this time of year, right? The sun must not rise until…when?"

"Almost nine, and then it goes down at about three."

Shanti's voice rose. "In the afternoon?"

"Yes? It doesn't get dark-dark until about four or four-thirty, but…yeah?"