Page 41 of Bear My Heart

"I accept. If you're serious."

Of course she's serious! She's our mate!

Shush, Pete told his bear. We're not rushing things, remember?

The bear rolled its eyes and settled back down as Shanti, her own eyes still huge over her hands, whispered, "I think I am?" through her fingers. "I mean, not right now, but…?"

It was as if his heart filled with joy so uplifting that he could fly away with it. "Name the time and place and I'll be there. I'd love to marry you."

"Even though we've only known each other two weeks?"

Pete raised a finger. "Two weeks and one day. Makes all the difference."

"It doesn't," Shanti said, eyes bright. "You'd have married me the minute we ran into each other outside the train station."

"Yeah," he murmured, reaching across the table to take her hands. "Yeah, I would have, because I trust fate, but let's face it, that would have been weird. What was I going to do, throw you over my shoulder and cart you off to the courthouse? Ask the judge to perform a ceremony while you threw things at me and tried to run away?"

Shanti curled her fingers between his. "Maybe not. I can't imagine what I would have done. I did think you were gorgeous, but I'm not sure that would have been enough to make me say an instant yes to a 'death do us part' kind of commitment."

"I think that probably says good things about your judgement," Peter said very solemnly, and Shanti's shoulders shook with amusement even as she asked, "Your family won't think it's crazy? Not that we have to tell them, since it is in fact crazy, but…"

"My family are like me," Pete said, lowering his voice even though he avoided saying 'shifters' out loud. "They'll understand and think it's great. But we don't have to tell them if you don't want to. I mean," he said, putting on a mock-injured air, "you didn't even get me an engagement ring."

Shanti burst out with one of her rare big laughs that he adored. "What was I thinking! I'm a terrible fiancée!"

"I'll take 'swept away by the moment,'" Pete offered, and she ducked her head, giggling now.

"I suppose that works. Are you sure?" she asked more softly. "I know that we can trust fate, but we haven't actually talked at all about anything like marriage or kids or…anything big like that."

"I'd like both," Pete said with an easy shrug. "I like the idea of marriage, of standing up in front of everybody and saying 'we want to make this official.' I'm guessing it means something to you, too, since you just proposed. Kind of." He winked, and she put her hands over her face again, but she was smiling behind them. So was he, as he went on with, "I would like kids, but that's mostly up to you, especially since we, uh, we usually breed true."

Shanti's eyes went big again and she sat up, expression warring between astonishment and realization. "Right, of course, you almost have to, don't you? Or you'd die out. So…cubs?"

Pete promised, "They're very cute," and then, wanting to clarify, added, "they do start out human, just with the ability to shift, though they don't usually do that until they start being more mobile. Especially if their shifter parent doesn't show them it can be done."

"Oh, thank goodness. How would you explain your baby turning into a bear at play group?"

They both giggled, and were startled when the waiter brought them a dinner Pete barely remembered ordering. He left Shanti's side reluctantly after dinner, but the anticipation of taking the train and going to Alaska together got him through the next day. The overnight tests on the rail line had passed with flying colors, and the workday was spent with more cargo trains testing the line and a sense of a job well done from the crew.

By that time, most of them knew Pete was taking the train out of town with a girl on the following day, and he endured good-natured teasing and real envy from his coworkers, who unsurprisingly loved trains as much as he did. He packed up his gear that afternoon, and, heart hammering with excitement, headed for Shanti's house.

Unexpected chaos met him at the door. There were clothes, bedsheets, movies, plates, for heaven's sake, and dozens of other weirdly random things all over the living room, like a tornado had swept through the house and dropped it all there. Shanti was wild-eyed, nervously stressed out, and collapsed into his arms when he arrived. "I used to be able to pack for a trip without a problem," she wailed. "Now I'm trying to fit everything but the kitchen sink into my suitcase! I don't know what's wrong with me!"

Peter put his own bag down and swept her up into his arms, carrying her across the living room to plunk down into the couch with her. "Breathe. It's okay. Just breathe for a minute. I'm here."

"Why can't I pack? Why am I trying to bring everything? What's going on?" She did take some slower deeper breaths, though, gradually matching his own deliberate breathing and finally starting to relax.

Only then did he murmur, "I promise we have toothbrushes in Alaska," which made her give a little snort of pained laughter.

"Okay, that's probably part of it. I might feel like I'm going to the ends of the earth and who knows what I might turn out to need. But honestly, Nepal is farther and I used to do that trip alone as a teenager!"

"It's probably a bunch of things," Pete suggested. "For one, when was the last time you actually left Virtue?"

Shanti stiffened in his arms, then groaned and shook her head. "I don't know. More than five years ago. I mean, I've gone out to Syracuse—I did that just a couple weeks ago—and down to the city a couple of times for medical stuff for my grandparents, or paperwork, or…but it's been a long time since I've left the state, anyway."

"That's probably part of it, too," he murmured. "But I think I probably know the big thing, if you want me to make a guess."

She nodded against his chest and Pete exhaled, trying to choose his words carefully. "I'm guessing you've never gone very far at all without having someone here to come back to. It must feel a little like you need to take everything with you now because there's no one else here to keep an eye on it, and maybe you're a little afraid you won't ever see it again if you don't bring it with you."