“The special…?” Paige cut herself off, deciding she was happier not knowing. “Well, I don’t think you need to worry about me catching, um, mating fever. I’m not a shifter.”
“But humans get it too! Honey did. All it takes is one look, and bam!” Archie smacked his fist into his palm. “You’re doomed.”
“So what do you want me to do? Walk around with my eyes closed?”
“No, you’d bump into things.” Archie frowned. “I know a shifter can only give it to you when they look into your eyes, though. Maybe you could wear sunglasses all the time.”
“I don’t think that’s very practical, Archie.” She cast around for some way to reassure him. “Look, you really don’t need to worry about this. You know me, I hardly ever get sick. In the unlikely event that I do somehow get mating fever, I’m sure I can fight it off.”
“Buck couldn’t,” Archie said darkly. “And he’s like, the toughest, baddest alpha ever.”
“Well, he’s a man, and you said men get it worse. Come on, Archie. This is me we’re talking about. Your big sister. You know I’m not interested in mushy stuff.”
This was stretching the truth a bit. Sometimes she would have liked a little ‘mushy stuff’ in her life. It just hadn’t been practical, even before her little brother had started turning into a bear.
Archie chewed on his lower lip. “You swear that if some guy gives you a funny look, you’ll tell me straight away?”
“I swear,” Paige said, privately thinking that this was one of the easier promises she’d ever made to her little brother. “Since you’re the expert on all this.”
“Okay then.” Archie squared his shoulders. “Don’t worry, Paige. Any guy bothers you, just tell me and I’ll sort him out. Since I’m the only shifter in the family, it’s my job to protect you.”
Smothering a smile, Paige pulled him into a sidelong, one-armed hug. “I’m lucky to have such a big, powerful bear for a brother.”
“Paaaaaaaaige!” Archie squirmed against her side. “Not in front of everyone!”
“Sorry.” She released him. “I’ll add that to the list of camp rules. No hugs.”
Archie straightened his faded camp t-shirt like a politician adjusting his tie. “Not in public, anyway. I’ve got a reputation to maintain, you know.”
With a squeal of brakes, the bus bumped to a halt. The doors hissed open, letting in a waft of clean, pine-scented air. Voices rose in anticipation all around them as staff members started gathering up their bags.
“We’re here!” Archie leaped to his feet. “I gotta go find my friends. Promise you’ll hang back a while, okay? We don’t want anyone to see us coming in together.”
“One of us doesn’t, at least,” Paige muttered as Archie dashed off without waiting for a response. “Anyone would thinkyouwere doingmea favor.”
Still, she couldn’t really blame him for not wanting to be seen with his boring big sister. And shewashere for him. If what he needed was for her to stay out of his way, then that’s what she’d do.
Besides, if she was honest, she was hardly in a hurry to rush into camp herself. Archie had his friends from last summer, but she didn’t know anyone here. She didn’t think shifters would be in a hurry to welcome one lone, awkward human.
Not that it mattered. She wasn’t coming to camp to make friends. She was only here for her brother.
She took her time over gathering up her own things, dawdling as other staff members piled out. By the time she stepped off the bus, everyone else was already long gone. Settling her backpack on her shoulders, she glanced around, trying to get her bearings.
Paige hadn’t really known what to expect. Archie’s descriptions of the camp had been enthusiastic, but muddled. He could relate in excruciating detail every single spider he’d seen during the previous summer, but not anything as prosaic as the camp layout.
She’d managed to gather that there was a central area (“with buildings and stuff, I guess”) where the dining hall and main office were located. Further out from that were groups of smaller cabins (“just, like, normal cabins”) for campers and counselors. The camp had forest (“with real trees!”) to one side, and a lake on the other. There was, she had deduced from much patient questioning, a mountain.
Nothing Archie had said had prepared her forthis.
Lush green meadows spread out before her, filled with bright drifts of wildflowers. Cozy log cabins lay in scattered groups, so artfully arranged that they seemed a natural part of the landscape.
Beyond the cabins, meadow gave way to well-maintained forest, with shafts of sunlight streaming between towering pines. The trees swayed in the breeze, leaning together as though whispering secrets. High above, the cloud-wreathed peak of Thunder Mountain watched over the camp like some remote, benign god.
Paige breathed in that fresh, wild air, and felt a strange tug at her heart. For a moment, she couldn’t help imagining what it might have been like if she’d had the chance to come to such aplace when she’d been Archie’s age. To stand here knowing that one of those cute cabins would be her home for the summer, a place to whisper and giggle and swap contraband candy. To look forward to catching up with old friends, and making new ones. To spend the summer roaming those whispering woods in perfect freedom, as much a part of the wild as the mountain and the sky.
But she was coming to camp as staff, not a camper. Paige shook herself, dismissing the ridiculous daydream. She was here to work, not have fun.
Shouldering her backpack, she headed into camp. It wasn’t hard to find her way around. Signs pointed her to a cluster of large buildings lining a wide central square. A huge fire pit ringed with log benches dominated the middle of the space.
