Conleth made a disapproving sound. “Irresponsible of him, and that’s being charitable. But I’m getting distracted. It seems the situation is even more complicated than I thought. We really do have a problem, Paige. Archie’s clearly convinced I have a terminal case of this so-called mating fever.”
“I’ll try to make him see sense. Though he might be more willing to listen to another shifter. Do you think one of his old counselors could speak to him about it? Set him straight?”
Conleth covered his mouth. Sounding somewhat strangled, he said, “You want me to ask Buck to give your little brother the birds-and-the-bees talk?”
“Not a good idea?”
“Under most circumstances it would be the very best of ideas.” Conleth scrubbed his palm across his face, then dropped his hand back to the desk. “Alas, not in this particular case. Since Archie is not, in fact, wrong.”
Paige stared at him. “What?”
“He may have come up with his own unique terminology, but he’s correct in broad essentials. For shifters, soulmates are veryreal. Call it pheromones or instinct, but a shifter instantly knows when they’ve met the right person. Their fated mate, their one perfect match.” His gaze met hers briefly, then skipped away. “And when we do, we experience certain…urges.”
No. Oh no, no, no.
The whole world seemed to drop out from under her. Surely he couldn’t be about to tell hershe?—
“There’s no need to look like that,” Conleth said dryly, though Paige couldn’t even begin to guess what her face had been doing. “I was speaking of shifters in general. I’m not about to ravage you against the nearest wall in an uncontrolled fit of animal passion, if that’s your concern.”
Paige had a sudden mental image of Conleth doing that exact thing.
“Uh,” she said. “No. I’m not…concerned about that.”
“But Archie is.” Conleth swiveled his office chair from side to side, still drumming his fingers against the desk. “That presents us with something of a conundrum.”
Paige tried to focus her thoughts on her brother rather than Conleth in the grip of some primal mating urge. “Can’t you simply tell him I’m not your mate?”
He gave her a sardonic look. “Do you think he’d believe me?”
“Probably not,” Paige had to admit. “Once he’s got hold of an idea, he tends to hang onto it.”
Conleth nodded. “He’d think I was lying, in order to fool him into relaxing his guard. Your brother is understandably protective of you. That’s another shifter instinct, unfortunately. We defend our families just as fiercely as we do our mates. More so, even.”
No wonder the man was looking so twitchy. Paige would be too, faced with the prospect of an entire summer dodging bear attacks.
“I’ll do my best to explain things to Archie,” she assured him. “Though, uh…please don’t take this the wrong way, but it would help if we avoided each other in the future. That way, he’ll be able to see for himself that there’s nothing going on.”
“Ah.” His fingers tapped faster. “I was afraid you’d say that. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible.”
“Why not?” She couldn’t imagine that a man in charge of managing the whole camp would have much to do with a lowly counselor like herself. “It’s a big camp, and it’s not like we’ll be working together.”
“As a matter of fact…” Conleth opened a laptop, turning it around to show her the screen. “We will.”
Paige found herself looking at an organizational chart showing the camp’s staff. There was a long list of counselors… but her own name wasn’t included. Instead, it was a little off to one side, under a different title: STAFF LIAISON.
“Staff liaison?” she said in confusion. “I thought I’d been hired as a regular counselor.”
“There were some last-minute assignment changes.” A slightly pained look flashed across Conleth’s face. “Something which seems to happen a lot around here. I don’t know if Archie told you about the issues we had with staffing last summer, but this year we made sure to hire a few more counselors than we actually need to supervise the children. So rather than being assigned to lead a pack, you’ll have other duties at camp.”
“Oh.” Paige wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden hollow sensation in the pit of her stomach. “Okay.”
She’d become accustomed to Conleth’s restless fidgeting; the way those beautiful hands were always in motion. Now, however, he went absolutely still.
When he spoke, there was a new note in his voice; something that she couldn’t quite name. “You sound disappointed.”
“No!” The last thing she needed was for him to question her dedication to her job. She hastily injected more enthusiasm into her tone. “No, of course not. This is perfect, actually. Archie wasn’t keen on me being a counselor. He’ll be happy I’m not working with the kids. Less chance of embarrassing him.”
“Your brother’s opinion is relevant, but not the most important one.” Conleth’s eyebrows drew down a little. “You told me you’d only taken a job here so Archie could come to camp. I assumed that meant you didn’t particularly care about working as a counselor, and wouldn’t mind the reassignment. If that’s not the case?—”
