“I just need some time to make a plan,” he said, as much to convince himself as anyone else. “This is too important to risk making irreversible decisions on impulse. In the meantime, I need you all to promise you won’t say anything to Paige about us being mates. Let me do this my way.”
Leonie sighed, but nodded. “Okay, Conleth. Just let us know if there’s anything we can do to help, okay? We’re all here for you.”
“Behind you one hundred percent,” Buck said. “Eating popcorn.”
Honey kicked the side of her mate’s foot. “We’ll be careful what we say around Paige. But Conleth, what about the kids?”
“What about him? I told you, I can handle Archie.”
“Not Archie,” Honey said patiently. “I mean the others. Finley, Rufus, Estelle, and especially Beth. They’re Archie’s friends. You can’t ask them to keep secrets from him.”
Conleth frowned, not seeing Honey’s point. “I’m not going to ask them to do anything. I’m not even going to tell them that Paige is my mate. Unlike a certain anonymous individual whose name rhymes with a common expletive, I don’t require the assistance of a bunch of children when it comes to matters of the heart.”
Honey and Buck looked at each other.
“Oh, please,” Buck said. “Pleaselet me be the one to tell him.”
Honey kicked him again.
“Tell me what?” Conleth asked.
“I’m so sorry, I thought you already knew. Otherwise, I would have told you straight away.” Honey hesitated, her hands twisting together. “Conleth, you may have to rethink your plan. Archie wasn’t the only camper who saw you meet your mate.”
CHAPTER 7
“Graaaw!” The bear cub on Paige’s bed waved his paws, shedding clouds of brown fur over her sheets. “Grrrr graaaw grrr!”
“Archie, if you want to tell me something, you need to calm down.” Paige hung up the last of her camp staff t-shirts in the small closet. Her housing assignment had turned out to be much nicer than she’d expected. As staff liaison, she apparently rated a private cabin with its own bathroom. “You know I can’t understand you when you’re shifted.”
The bear wrinkled his muzzle at her.
Paige knew that look:Yes, you can.After two years of living with a brother who spent half his time on four paws, she’d become something of an expert in bear body language.
“Well, I’m still not having a conversation with you in that state.” She put her hands on her hips, frowning at him. “What did you do with your clothes?”
The bear looked down at himself. “Graw?”
Paige sighed. “We’ll go and find them later. Now, can you shift back?”
The bear set his paws, claws digging into her sheets. His ears flattened in concentration.
Nothing happened.
After a moment, the bear let out a huff. He looked up at her with sad, teddy-bear eyes.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’ll get there. Just try to keep thinking human thoughts.” Paige fished in the pocket of her jeans for the spare pair of Lycra shorts she always kept somewhere about her person. “Here. Put these on. Maybe getting dressed will help.”
Her brother grumbled, but let her wrestle his fuzzy body into the shorts. The effect was, as always, both endearing and somewhat ridiculous, like a children’s cartoon brought to life.
“I think you’re getting bigger. We’ll have to get Mom to make you some new shifting shorts soon.” Paige tugged the waistband up as best she could around the bear cub’s round belly. “There. Now you can shift back without flashing me. Try again, okay?”
The bear scratched fretfully at the shorts with a back paw. He wriggled as though trying to get comfortable—and then Archie was back, scowling.
“I hate the shifting shorts,” he muttered, plucking at the stretchy fabric. “They make me look stupid. None of the other kids wear anything when they’re shifted.”
“The other kids are able to remember where they left their clothes.” Paige moved her now empty backpack to the floor so she could sit next to him on the bed. “Now, what were you trying to tell me?”
Archie drew up his legs, wrapping his arms around his knees. “I changed my mind. I don’t wanna go to camp this summer. Let’s go home.”
