Archie rolled his eyes. “Do wehaveto have this argument again? It was old two weeks ago.”
“Yeah, it’s too late to back out now, Finley,” Estelle said. “Besides, we do too have plenty of evidence. Rufus has been watching them all morning, and he still thinks they’re mates. Right, Rufus?”
Rufus rubbed his fingertips over the chip of bark in a nervous, repetitive motion, avoiding everyone’s eyes. His chin moved in the slightest of nods.
“There you go, then,” Estelle said, in the tones of someone laying down a winning poker hand. “If Rufus says they’re mates, they are. Now we need to figure out how to make Leonie realize the truth.”
“Well, that’s easy,” Archie said. “She just has to look into his eyes. Then she’ll know.”
“It’s not that easy, though,” Finley said. “If they are mates, it’s clear he doesn’t want her to find out. I don’t think he’s going to take those sunglasses off voluntarily.”
“Okay, so we’ll need to knock them off,” Estelle said, matter of fact. “Who’s got the best aim?”
Archie thrust a hand into the air. “I’ll get some rocks!”
Finley winced. “Archie, the man is a special agent trainedto deal with deadly threats. Perhaps we shouldn’t hurl rocks at his head.”
“Does anyone have anysensiblesuggestions about how to get him to take off his sunglasses?” Beth asked. “Rufus, how about you?”
Silence fell, broken only by the slight sound of Archie shifting position restlessly. After a moment, he prompted, “Come on, guys, you know I can’t hear Rufus in my head. What’s he saying?”
“Nothing,” Beth said, frowning a little. “Rufus? What’s wrong?”
Rufus didn’t reply for a moment, staring at his hands. Then he sighed.
“Rufus says,” Finley began—and then stopped, blinking. “What do you mean, you’re not sure we should do anything?”
“Of course we have to do something,” Estelle said to Rufus. “If we don’t, your aunt will never even know that tiger guy’s her mate.”
“Rufus says, that’s his point,” Finley relayed for Archie’s benefit. “Maybe it’s better if she doesn’t find out.”
Archie scrunched up his nose. “Huh?”
“But they’re fated mates, Rufus,” Beth said, just as baffled. “They belong together.”
“But if it wasn’t for us, he wouldn’t even have come back to camp,” Finley said slowly, struggling to grasp Rufus’s point even as he spoke the words on the griffin shifter’s behalf. “He took one look at Leonie and ran away.”
“But he didn’t even know her,” Archie said. “They spent like, two seconds together before he took off. How could he decide so fast that he didn’t want to be with her?”
“I understand now,” Finley said to Rufus. He turned back to the other kids, speaking for himself rather than his friend. “That’s just it. He didn’t know anything about her, yet he rejected her on sight. No shifter would do that lightly. If he’sso determined to stay away from Leonie, he must have a reason.”
“Well, duh,” Estelle said, in tones that could have withered grass. “Of course he has a reason. It’ll just be a stupid one.”
“I agree with Estelle,” Beth said. “He might believe there’s a reason he can’t mate Leonie, but that doesn’t mean there actually is one. Plenty of shifters start off determined to resist the mate bond, only to end up head-over-heels in love. Just look at Buck and Honey.”
“Yeah, or your parents, Finley,” Estelle said. “Your dad tried to reject your mom at first. And he thought he had a good reason, too. If everyone had just shrugged their shoulders and trusted that he knew what was best, you wouldn’t even exist.”
Finley hesitated. “I suppose that’s true.”
“That’s why they need us to help them.” Estelle sat back, folding her arms. “Grown-ups are always coming up with reasons why we shouldn’t do things. They do the same to themselves, too. It’s like the older you get, the more you convince yourself that anything you want probably isn’t allowed.”
“Grown-ups care too much about rules,” Archie said sagely. “That’s the problem.”
“Somerules are important,” Beth said. “Like, to pick a purely hypothetical example, not keeping a bucket of frogs in the camp shower block,Archie.But anything that separates fated mates can’t be right. The agent may think he has a good reason for staying away from Leonie, but they’re still meant to be together.”
Rufus hugged his knees. He rocked, shaking his head in short, emphatic arcs.
Finley sighed. “Rufus says Leonie should have a mate who wants her with his whole heart, and who always puts her first. Not someone who lies to her face. If we have to forcethe agent into revealing the truth, he doesn’t deserve her. So Rufus still thinks we shouldn’t intervene.”
