Page 52 of Bear My Heart

"Don't forget to send your resume in."

"I won't!" Shanti left with Peter, smiling in astonishment. "It's really nice. As comfortable and welcoming as a medical facility can be, and there's a lot more specialized equipment than I expected."

"We're on the far edge of nowhere," Peter said with a nod. "Getting an all-purpose clinic in place has been a really important long-term goal here. We still can't do a lot of the bigger stuff, but it used to be that we had to fly people to Juneau for even minor emergencies, and we can handle all of that now."

Shanti threw her arms around Peter's neck and held onto the hug a while, beaming. "It's great. I hope they'll hire me."

"They will," he promised, and ten days later, he was proved right.

CHAPTER 26

The days between arriving in Shkalnik and the new year were the happiest Pete could ever remember, and it wasn't as if he'd had a tragic life and the bar was low. It was simply that being with Shanti, sharing his hometown and his family with her, was better than he could ever have imagined. They'd had three days of sunshine, like the town itself was happily welcoming Shanti, and given that it was the darkest time of year, Pete was particularly grateful for that.

To be fair, though, the dark didn't seem to bother Shanti, even if there hadn't been any more spectacular auroras to fill the night sky with. She only shrugged easily and said, "The sun will come back, and in the meantime I can see the stars so clearly," as if that was a gift in and of itself.

Pete, in a fit of wry honesty, said, "It's not usually clear enough to see the stars like we have the past few nights," and she laughed at him.

"It's like you're trying to convince me of all the bad things about living in Shkalnik. Why is that?"

"Because I don't want you to be disappointed when reality sets in! I love it here, but it's dark and damp and cold for more than half the year, and damp and cold by most people's standards the rest of it!"

"And it's absolutely beautiful," Shanti replied simply, then added, "So there!" like a kid.

"I guess you've told me," Pete said with a laugh. They spent Christmas with his family, and Peter was pretty sure that if Shanti hadn't been otherwise convinced, the quilt that Nan gave her—red and white and black, with a Native Alaskan bear motif and smaller eagles, ravens, and whales around the bears—would have kept her in Alaska forever. It was gorgeous, and Pete found Nan later and hugged her until she squeaked, as thanks.

Then it was the new year, and Shanti had her interview, which went as well as Pete had expected. She almost danced out of the clinic, shining with excited joy. "They really did offer me the job on the spot. Is this what it's like all the time in Alaska?"

"It's what it's like most of the time in the villages, anyway," Pete said. "So what's the plan?"

"I'm going to start Monday! They know I've got all the estate stuff to deal with in Virtue, so I'm going to spend six weeks getting my feet under me here, then go back home and see what I can get through there. If that works for you?"

"I don't have another job lined up right now," Pete murmured. "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth, if that's what you want."

"I'm pretty sure you've got that backward and I've followed you to the ends of the earth." Shanti sighed happily and leaned in his arms. "Honestly, Peter, I've never been so content before. I've spent so much time doing things I had to do. Now I feel like I'm doing what I want to do. Maybe what I was born to do. How will we tell people that I'm safe, though? For shifters to see, I mean?"

He nuzzled her hair, inhaling her sweet scent and sighing with his own contentedness. "I've been telling people you're my girlfriend, but if I let the shifters know you're my mate, they'll know you're safe."

"Then you should do that," Shanti said firmly. "But how will I know my patients are shifters? Is there a secret handshake?"

Peter threw his head back and laughed out loud. "Not that I'm aware of, but now I'm really tempted to invent one! I assume they'll tell you if it's relevant. If blood needs to be drawn, or…well, whatever."

"How do you deal with that? Are there shifter markers in the blood that need to be protected? Who does the tests, if that's the case? Or do you just avoid going to doctors?"

"Mostly that. Like I said, we heal from most things, but if it's serious…" Peter frowned and shook his head. "I don't know what the safest process is. There must be one."

"You said the veterinarian here treats shifters?" Shanti asked cautiously, and Pete smiled.

"Yeah. Again, not for the big stuff, but yeah, he knows about shifters and since we can be animals, sometimes it's helpful to just be able to see a doctor that way. Although a grizzly still has to sneak in."

"Oh my gosh. I bet. Well, I should talk to him, then, and see if he's got secret medical contacts for his shifter patients."

"If you're starting at the clinic on Monday, maybe we should go talk to him now?" Pete suggested, and Shanti called the vet's office as he drove them over.

The vet was an older local woman named Sue Carlson with a quiet presence who took her work seriously. Seriously enough, as it turned out, to see Peter and Shanti on her lunch hour, though she looked pleased when they didn't come in with a pet, and chuckled when Pete explained, in a low voice, what they needed. "I can eat and tell you that," she informed them. "Come on into my office."

It was a simple office with quality shelving, a desk, extra chairs, and medical credentials on the wall kitty-corner from the room's one large, well-sealed window. Pete made sure the door was closed behind them as Sue shook Shanti's hand. "It's good to meet another medical professional in the know. I am going to eat, if you don't mind, but there's a short answer to your questions, which is: yes, there's an entire medical database run for and by shifters and that's where I send bloodwork and biopsies to be processed." She sat down at her desk and gestured to the extra chairs.

Pete held one of them for Shanti, then sat beside her, watching her relax so completely that he realized just how worried she'd been about how shifters got safe medical care. She said, "That's great to know. I'll want to get all the contact information from you, but—I'm assuming this is all very out-of-network medical care? How on earth do people afford it if their insurance can't be told that they're shifters?"