“For your sake, I hope so.” Dismissing Moira entirely, Lord Golden turned back to Zephyr. “Who among your counselors is the most powerful alpha?”
Zephyr hesitated. His gaze flicked to Buck, then quickly away.
“Ah, of course,” Golden said, catching the motion. He examined Buck for a second, then nodded in satisfaction. “Yes. This one will do.”
“I really won’t,” Buck said. He wasn’t sure what he was being volunteered to do, but he sure as hell didn’t like it.
Zephyr cleared his throat. “While my uncle is indeed a strong alpha, perhaps in this case someone else would—”
“Someone else would not,” Lord Golden said in tones that brooked no argument. He raised his voice. “Ignatius!”
The other dragons hadn’t shifted to human form like their leader. Now one of them lowered its head, resting its chin on the ground. A boy slid off the dragon’s neck, expression set in a sullen scowl. He slouched toward them, the living embodiment of reluctance.
“This place is a dump.” The kid eyed the camp, looking even less impressed than Lord Golden. “Uncle, you can’t seriously expect me to stay here.”
“Indeed I can,” Lord Golden said grimly. He put a hand on the boy’s thin shoulder, thrusting him at Buck. “I present my nephew and heir, Ignatius Aurelium Golden. You will personally ensure he has awonderfulsummer.”
CHAPTER12
“Honey, when can we go swimming?”
“Are we allowed to go into the woods all by ourselves?”
“Is there a schedule, or can we pick any activities we want?”
“I want to go on the ropes course!”
“I want to go canoeing!”
“I wanna be a BEAR!”
“Okay, okay, settle down!” Honey lifted her voice, cutting across the din. She cast a somewhat desperate glance across the dining hall, wondering what the heck was taking Buck so long. “I’m happy you’re all so excited to be at camp, but you’re talking over each other. I can’t answer questions if I can’t hear them. One at a time, please.”
A brown-haired, round-faced girl promptly stuck her hand in the air.
“Yes, er…” Honey squinted at the girl’s name tag, which bore an illegible squiggle. “Dorca?”
“Flora,” the girl corrected cheerfully. “It’s okay, my teacher says that my handwriting is theworstand that the only way to read my homework assignments is to pin them up and run past them. When can we go see our cabins?”
“I wanna top bunk!” Archie shouted, and—for the third time in ten minutes—turned into a bear.
“We’ll get you all settled in soon,” Honey promised. “Archie, try to stay human, please. But we have to wait until all your things have been unloaded from the buses and taken over to the cabins. Be patient, I’m sure the staff are working as fast as they can.”
The other girl, whose name tag read CLAIRE and who hadn’t said much so far, shyly put up her hand. At Honey’s encouraging nod, she blushed, shrinking back a little.
“Will you show us around the camp?” she mumbled at the table. “This place is much bigger than I thought it would be.”
“I know it seems overwhelming now, but you’ll soon be able to find your way around,” Honey told her. “I’ll make sure you know where to find everything.”
“We’ll help,” Finley added. He offered Claire a warm smile. “Me and Rufus and Estelle and Beth. We’ve already been here a while.”
“We’ll show you all thebestplaces,” Estelle announced. “The ones even the counselors don’t—”
“Estelle,” Beth hissed.
“Graaaw?” the bear cub said eagerly. “Grr graaw graaaa-”
“Human words, Archie,” Honey interrupted. Unable to resist, she tousled his fur. “I don’t speak bear, remember?”
