Paige grinned. “Believe me, Archie’s already tested him enough.”
“We’ll see about that,” her mom said ominously. “Speaking of Archie, any updates? I thought this man of yours was meant to be fast.”
“He is.” Paige checked her phone and discovered that it was later than she’d thought. “Conleth could have flown halfway across the state in the time we’ve been talking. He should have been back with Archie well before now.”
With a deafening crash, the office door flew open. Archie hurtled into the room like a very small tornado.
“Mom!” He threw himself into her arms, talking a mile a minute. “Mom, you gotta listen to me, this is really important! Paige and Conleth are mates!”
“Archie!” Paige exclaimed.
“It’s too late, Paige! I’m gonna tell Mom the truth, and you can’t stop me!” Archie fixed their mom with earnest eyes. “She doesn’t want you to know because he’s a shifter and she’s scared you’ll pretend that’s okay when actually having shifters around makes you sad. Which sucks, but Conleth says he knows some doctors who maybe can help you feel better, and anyway, it’s stupid for everyone to just mope around being sad andmiserable instead of justtalking. And it’s not right for Paige and Conleth to break up, or live apart, or sneak around trying to keep their relationship a secret. They have to be together!”
“Archie,” Paige tried again. “You really don’t need?—”
“Because they’remates!” Archie yelled at the top of his lungs. He paused, face crinkling in consternation. “Oh. Except you don’t know what that means.”
Mom cast Paige an amused look over the top of Archie’s head. “Actually, I do.”
“It’s okay, Archie,” Paige said patiently. “I already told her.”
Archie looked between them. “Really? About being in love with Conleth and mating him and everything?”
Well, not quite everything.
Paige was uncomfortably aware that she hadn’t yet confessed to her mom therealreason for Parents’ Day. But it was a moot point now, anyway. After learning about her mom’s long-buried trauma, she was hardly about to ask her to consider moving to Thunder Mountain. Maybe one day, after a lot of therapy, Mom would be able to live in a community filled with shifters—but not anytime soon.
She repressed a wistful pang. “Mom knows Conleth and I are mates, and what that means. Everything’s going to be all right. We’re good.”
“Oh.” Archie digested this. “Well, that’s okay, then.”
Their mom kissed his forehead, her arms around him. “I’m glad you decided to make sure I knew, though.”
“So am I.” Paige went over to hug her brother as well, heart swelling. “Thank you.”
Archie tolerated the gesture of affection for a whole five seconds before squirming free. “Mom, Paaaaaaige! Enough with the mushy stuff already!”
“All right, all right.” Their mom released him. “Where’s Conleth? I feel I should meet him properly, now that I know what’s been going on.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Archie brushed himself off. “We should probably go rescue him.”
“Rescue him?” An alarm bell began ringing in Paige’s head. “Rescue him from what?”
Archie looked rather shifty. “Wellll…I thought that if he had a chance to talk to you, you’d probably convince him to do something really stupid, like splitting up for Mom’s sake. And I didn’t want him zipping in here to stop me from telling Mom the truth. So when we got back to camp, I made sure he’d be kept busy.”
“Archie Patrick Brown,” their mom said sternly. “What have you done now?”
“Um.” Archie fidgeted. “Paige? You know that thing you told me to never, ever do?”
CHAPTER 40
“My baby!” Nancy’s mother shrieked. She clutched at her mate’s arm. “Don’t move a muscle, Nancy. Oh, I knew we should never have let you come to camp.”
“Now, now, honey,” Nancy’s father said, though he didn’t sound as calm as normal. “There’s no need to panic. Look, he’s nearly reached her.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Peakes,” Conleth called down. “Everything is under control.”
This was something of an exaggeration. Nancy had really outdone herself this time. The longest ladder the camp possessed was still a good six feet too short.
