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Luckily, the hospital just outside of Angel Fire, a teaching hospital aligned with the college and the only facility available to treat all the surrounding little towns, had a position for him to fill. He put in a transfer request and soon found himself in Angel Fire.
To keep himself from getting pulled into the clan’s drama, Blake had purchased a home outside of Angel Fire, on the other side of the hospital. The distance was good for him, though it had kept him from integrating with the clan. Sure, he knew most of them on a first-name basis now. Yearly physicals were a must for growing shifters, and after the disastrous events with those horrible cougars last winter, when their old doctor had been sent away, all the bears were in need of appointments with him. Blake had his hands on just about every bear shifter in the area.
He hadn’t known as he was catching up with the children over the past month that his fated mate was sitting right under his nose. Given how busy his day-to-day job was as a regular doctor just looking after the humans—and also teaching a few classes at the community college, a requirement for all doctors at the hospital—he just didn’t have time for much else.
The arts scene hadn’t been on his radar for years, since well before medical school, but after he saw Tanith Ravenna, local gallery owner and renowned artist, at Ivo and Alani’s wedding, he realized he needed to change his tune and make an effort. Fast. After all, Tanith was single—for now—but there was always the risk of another man, human or shifter, swooping in and claiming her, whether she was destined for him or not.
So, a few days after first scenting her at the wedding, Blake rearranged any appointments he had, pawned off two of his classes on another teacher friend, and buckled down to do a little research on his fated mate. He had acquired her name from a black bear shifter named Maria, who seemed to know everyone and everything in Angel Fire, and from there went to the world wide web to start looking.
She’d been a prominent artist in New York City years ago and was heavily involved in the arts scene, both from a production standpoint and a teaching position. All of her photos from gallery openings and tabloid articles—apparently, she’d dated some high-profile men in her time—were beautiful, but they were nothing compared to Tanith in person. His fated mate had a glow about her, like she was positively bursting with life.
He had never expected that in his mate. On the whole, Blake considered himself reserved. Not shy, necessarily, but quieter until someone got to know him. He needed to trust people before he showed his true self, as not everyone deserved to meet him.
Most of all, he had never thought his fated mate would be a human. It wasn’t rare for shifters and humans to be destined for one another, but he had always felt drawn to other bears romantically speaking.
Yet the second he saw Tanith at the wedding, in her black cocktail dress and spiky studded heels, it was like the rest of the female species ceased to exist. It had taken every ounce of self-restraint not to march right over and claim her right then and there. Just being near her, his inner bear had had no idea how to react.
In fact, his inner bear still had no idea how to react. Hell, Blake didn’t even know how to react. He had spent the last five years, since he had turned thirty, just assuming his fated mate wasn’t out there. In no way, shape, or form was he mentally prepared to engage with her without sounding like a complete idiot. Unfortunately, that resulted in him coming across as stilted and quiet, something he was sure a vivacious woman like Tanith noticed right away.
In all honesty, he was surprised she hadn’t found a subtle way to get rid of him by now. Instead, Tanith had been the perfect hostess: utterly charming, attentive to a fault, and staggeringly beautiful.
How on Earth had destiny paired him up with a woman like that?
As he finished the rest of his wine—he hated white, but it was all she had and he couldn’t bear to refuse her anything, which couldn’t be a good sign—he realized she had asked him about working in the emergency room and all he’d done was smile and nod.
“I do,” he said. Clearing his throat, he crossed his arms and met her beautiful emerald eyes, trying to appear more engaged in the conversation than he was. “I knew during my final few years at medical school that ER was where I wanted to specialize. Many of my classmates consider it either supremely boring, as most nights you deal with people who have a horrendous chest cold or something equally less pressing, or they thought it was too high-stakes for them and wanted an easier, more lucrative field to go into it. I feel fortunate that I found my passion early, as it gave me focus.”
“That seems to be a specialty of yours,” she noted, head tilted slightly to one side. “Focus.”
Her voice had this absolutely stunning husky quality to it, like she ought to be a jazz singer at a boozy back alley bar during prohibition. It was hard not to get lost in it, honestly.
“Well, I do what I can,” he managed with a slight shake of his head. “Sometimes I succeed, sometimes not.”
“But that’s life, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.”
His inner bear yearned to be close to her, and had started to give him heartburn as a means of expressing his discontent that Blake hadn’t gotten up and moved to the other couch yet. Unfortunately for some shifters, their animal and human sides didn’t always mesh well. Blake’s bear form was bolder, more outgoing, more inclined to play with others. Luckily for the human portion of things, Blake was the one who had the final say. Still, the bear could make things uncomfortable if he wanted.
“So, listen,” Tanith started, and Blake sat up sharply. He knew that tone. It was time for her to get rid of him. She offered what he thought was a kind, perhaps dismissive smile, and he felt his heart fall—but not for long. Not when the words that followed were: “I hate to end the evening already, but I’ve been up since three this morning and I have about a thousand things to do before I close.”
Blake stood hastily to mirror her graceful rise to her feet, mildly panicked that he’d fucked this all up already. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you—”
“Not at all,” she insisted, smiling in that easy sort of way that made him relax in a heartbeat. “This has been fun. I think we should do it again…but maybe not where I work. Maybe a restaurant or a theater or something.”
Like a date? He didn’t voice the question because he didn’t want to come across like some inept preteen who had zero experience with the opposite sex.
“That sounds wonderful.” There. Very mature, adult sounding. He dug his phone out of his pocket and offered it to her. “Why don’t you add your number and we’ll figure something out on a day you didn’t just relaunch your business.”
“I might be able to imagine a night off sometime,” she agreed with a laugh. The sound was exquisite—and it followed him long after he left, well into his dreams that night.
A melody he could listen to forever.
