“I’m not going anywhere,” he announced. “Tell Leonie to put Beth in a different pack.”
Beth had gone pale with anger, her red hair standing out starkly. “Youtransfer to a different pack!”
Nancy raised a hand. “Can I go to a different pack?”
Before Paige could argue further, yet another camper joined them—this one a handsome boy with short gold hair and a faintair of superiority. Seeing them all gathered next to the sign, he rolled his eyes expressively.
“Oh, wonderful.” He heaved a long-suffering, theatrical sigh. “So I’m stuck with you idiots again.”
“Ig!” Estelle squealed, then seemed to check herself. She affected an indifferent shrug. “I mean, oh. You’re back.”
“It’s good to see you, Ignatius,” said Finley, smiling at the other boy with genuine pleasure. “We weren’t sure your uncle would let you come back to camp this year.”
“At this point, he’s willing to try anything that might help me finally shift.” Ig frowned at Conleth. “What’s the walking tax return doing here? Are we being audited?”
“Good news, Ig!” Beth announced loudly. She fixed the boy with a look that promised instant death if he didn’t get the hint and fall in line. “Conleth is one of our counselors this year!”
Ig treated Conleth to an incredulous stare. “Did he lose a bet?”
“No.” Finley sighed as well. “He met his mate.”
Ig’s expression slid from disbelief to outright horror. “Our counselors are going to spend all summer making cow eyes at each other like braindead idiotsagain?”
“No, they aren’t.” Beth bodily dragged the boy over to her side of the impromptu battle lines. “Because we’re going to help them. Just like we did Buck and Honey.”
Conleth buried his face in his hands, muttering something. Paige didn’t quite catch what he said, but it sounded an awful lot like, “Oh please God, no.”
“Hang on, hang on.” Nancy waved her hands for attention. “Our counselors are fated mates?”
“Yes, they are,” Beth said, simultaneous with Archie’s heated, “No, they aren’t!”
“Okay, I’m officially confused.” Nancy turned to Hetta. “Do you have any idea what’s going on here?”
Clearly, Hetta not only didn’t know what was going on, she didn’t want to know. She shook her head in mute consternation, edging away from everyone else.
“Theyaremates!” Beth clenched her fists, glaring daggers at Archie. “No matter how much you try to deny it, they’re destined for each other! Why can’t you just accept that?”
“Because he can’t take her away!” Archie yelled back. “He can’t—I can’t—GRAAAAAW!”
Paige had been expecting Archie to turn into a bear.
Hetta, however, had not.
The girl, finding herself in unexpected proximity to a snarling grizzly, did what any sensible person would do. With a piercing shriek, she leaped away. Unfortunately, this meant she bashed into Ignatius, who stumbled into Nancy, who?—
Abruptly wasn’t there anymore.
“Nancy?” Paige called, wondering if the girl could have shifted into something tiny. Yet there was no sign of her clothes… “Where did she go?”
The rest of the group were also looking around in confusion… apart from Conleth and Beth. Both pegasus shifters were staring in exactly the same direction.
Up.
“Don’t worry!” Nancy’s face appeared over the edge of the office roof. “I’m okay!”
“Nancy?” Paige shaded her eyes. “How on earth did you get up there?”
“I jumped.” Nancy looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. My animal can be a little nervous, and its instinct is to try to get as high as possible when startled.”
