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? "
"The group I work with is a non-profit and care for shifters is free," Dr. Carlson explained around bites of her sandwich. "It's always safe to recommend treatment through them."
Shanti shot first Peter, then Carlson, a skeptical look. "Free? Who's picking up the bill?"
"Are you familiar with the Gladiator Foundation?"
Now Shanti gave the doctor, then Pete, a baffled look. "No, but the architecture firm that just finished the train station in Virtue was Gladiator Architecture. Are they related?"
"Maybe. GLUM is under the foundation's umbrella, and the foundation is part of some kind of huge corporate conglomerate."
Pete laughed. "GLUM?"
"Gladiator Longevity and Universal Medical," Sue said with a crooked smile.
"I think the acronym keeps people from looking into it too deeply.
But they're the people you'll want," she said to Shanti.
"They offer everything from dental care to cancer treatments, if shifters need them.
I'll put you directly in contact with them, because as you may imagine, it's a quite need-to-know provider.
And there's been trouble lately," she said, eyebrows drawing down.
"I've heard there've been exposures. I'm not sure what that might mean for our more unusual patients going forward, but I'll keep you in the loop. "
Pete sharpened and leaned forward. "I'd heard something about that, too. Do you know what's happened?"
The doctor shook her head. "Not much. A number of shifters helped with a natural disaster last year and were seen shifting.
Things seemed to have smoothed out, but I just heard about a raid on that town, and a corporation I hadn't previously heard of was involved.
Do you know the…" She paused, moving paperwork around, then read, "Corpus Corporation? " off a piece of paper.
Pete exchanged a look with Shanti and they both shook their heads.
Carlson sighed. "Me either, except it turned out I know dozens of companies they own, across every field from coffee shops and grocery stores up to incredibly specialized medical equipment.
I can't figure out what their interest in shifters is, but then, we can't kid ourselves, can we?
If the general public knew about you, what wouldn't they want to know? "
Pete growled, "Yeah," and Shanti, at his side, set her jaw with determination.
"I know there's probably not much I can do, but I'm not going to let any shifters under my care come to harm. Even if it means fighting a corporation."
"That's how I feel about it," Sue agreed.
An upswell of relief, pride, and gratitude filled Pete's chest, although he expected nothing less of his mate.
Hearing the veterinarian make equally heartfelt promises, though, was a gift, and in both cases, he found himself saying, "I wonder if a new cruise liner dock here is going to make all of this that much worse," with worry he hadn't felt before.
"I don't think so," Carlson said slowly. "My experience is that shifters are cautious, and we're so many years away from the new dock being fully developed that whatever might be going on in the bigger shifter community will probably be resolved before then."
Shanti began, "Do you think…" but hesitated before going on, as if reconsidering what she wanted to say. Then she shrugged, though. "Do you think there's any chance that there's a future where shifters don't have to hide?"
Even she shook her head along with the other two.
Peter just couldn't imagine it. He really believed that most true humans would be safe allies, but the smaller percentage of enemies would be so unpredictable and dangerous that he couldn't see how it would be possible for shifters to show themselves.
"It's just that it must be getting so much harder every day to stay hidden," Shanti said, still mostly as if speaking to herself. "I want you all to be able to be safe, and also to still be yourselves."