Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

TWO WEEKS LATER

“ D o you think we should rescue him?” Paige murmured to Leonie.

“Are you kidding?” the head counselor replied, watching the chaos unfolding in front of them. “I’ve never seen him happier.”

“Conleth, look at me!” Nancy hollered, waving both hands. “Look how high I am!”

“Oh, for the love of—” Abandoning his attempts to coach Beth through some complicated spinning move, Conleth dashed across the gymnasium. “Nancy, I said nobody was to go above shoulder level!”

Nancy reluctantly slid back down the aerial silk. “But you went all the way to the ceiling.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Conleth caught Nancy, returning her to the crash mat. “Practice at ground level, all right?”

“I would love to,” Ignatius said, somewhat muffled. “Would one of you idiots stop snickering and help me down?”

“I’m trying!” Finley tugged futilely at the silks cocooning his friend. “How did you even do this?”

Conleth darted to reposition a crash mat more squarely under Estelle. “I’ll be there in a moment!”

“Oh, please, take your time.” Ignatius revolved slowly, upside down. “I’ll just be hanging around.”

Leonie chuckled. “Looks like our first aerial silks session is a roaring success. Tell Conleth to come see me later. I want him to run this for the other packs, too.”

“Will do,” Paige replied, grinning. As Leonie sauntered off, she turned to Hetta. “Are you sure you don’t want to join in?”

“No, it’s okay,” Hetta replied, though her eyes were wistful as she watched Nancy wind herself up and down the length of silk like a yo-yo. “I’d better not.”

Paige repressed a sigh. As far as she knew, Hetta still hadn’t told any of the other campers that she could shift. The girl joined in most of the activities now, but only when Conleth was available to whisk her out of sight.

“You really don’t have to keep it a secret, you know,” she murmured, for Hetta’s ears alone. “No matter what kind of shifter you are, your friends won’t care. And I don’t, either.”

Hetta shook her head stubbornly. “My dad might find out. It’s better if nobody knows. Not even you.”

Across the gym, Conleth finished untangling Ignatius. “You want to wrap the silk around your leg, not your whole body. Like this, see? Does anyone else need another demonstration?”

“Nope!” Estelle announced cheerfully. “We got it. Archie, it’s your turn.”

Grinning, Archie seized the silk in both hands. “WRECKING BAAAAALLLLLLL!”

Miraculously, they made it through the session without anyone breaking their neck. As Conleth unhooked the silks from the ceiling, the campers helped Paige put the crash mats away, talking animatedly the whole time.

“That was great!” Nancy hauled a mat into the equipment storage, dropping it with a resounding thud. “Almost as good as mountain climbing.”

“You should have joined in, Hetta,” Finley said. “And you, Paige.”

“Maybe next time,” Paige said, smiling. “I’m glad you all had fun.”

“Thanks to Uncle Conleth,” Beth said proudly. “He’s always teaching us interesting things.”

“Yeah,” Estelle agreed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually glad he’s our counselor this year.”

A general chorus of assent went around the pack—with one notable exception. Paige’s heart sank as Archie’s smile vanished.

“Come on, kids,” she said, before any of the other campers could notice her brother’s clear lack of agreement. “Let’s get these put away. Conleth’s waiting for us.”

“Archie seemed subdued this afternoon,” Conleth murmured into her ear, much later. “Something I should know?”

Some of Paige’s happy post-coital glow fled. She leaned back against his chest, steam curling around them. (Conleth, as she had been delighted to discover, really did have a hot tub.)

“It’s nothing,” she said. “Beth made a comment after the aerial silks session. Archie took it the wrong way, that’s all.”

“Ah.” Conleth’s fingers traced slow spirals over her hip. “Do I need to have a word with Beth?”

She shook her head, her hair waving in the bubbling water. “She didn’t mean anything by it. She’s your niece, of course she’s going to be proud of you. And I don’t want her to feel she has to censor herself for the sake of my brother.”

“Mm. Still.” His chest rose and fell underneath her as he drew in a long breath, letting it out again. “Remind me to have a word with Leonie tomorrow about scheduling some campers- versus-counselors activities. I’m sure Archie would appreciate the opportunity to hit me in the back of the head with a water balloon.”

She snuggled against him. “I’m all in favor of you arranging more activities that involve you running around in a wet t-shirt. Just make sure it’s on another day when neither of us are on night-time cabin duty.”

He chuckled, his hand dipping teasingly between her thighs. “Want me to pull some strings to clear more time in our evening schedules?”

The honest answer to that was yes please , but she shook her head. “Better not. The kids would be bound to notice that we were never in the cabins overnight. It’s hard enough to sneak back in before they wake up as it is.”

His finger circled, making her gasp. “Then I’ll just have to make the most of our limited opportunities to be alone together. And look forward to the day when I’ll finally be able to take my time with you.”

After camp . The thought was like a bucket of cold water, dousing her building pleasure. All the worry she’d been trying to repress came roaring back.

Is Conleth right about Archie’s shifting problems being due to ADHD? What if he gets treatment, but still can’t control his bear? How am I going to explain all this to Mom?

“Paige?” Conleth must have sensed her tense, because he stopped, pulling his hand away. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” She brushed a quick, apologetic kiss against his jaw. “Just thinking. Got pulled out of the moment.”

His arms encircled her, as though to block out the future. “We still haven’t really talked about what happens after camp ends.”

“I haven’t wanted to talk about it.” She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. “The other day, I overheard Estelle telling the other kids that she wished summer camp could last forever. I guess part of me feels the same way.”

“Because you’re worried about the future, and your family?”

She gazed up at the stars, far more numerous and brilliant than any back home. Her body felt weightless in the warm water, as if she might float into the sky. All around, leaves whispered in the breeze, surrounding them with the quiet murmur of the forest.

“It’s more than that,” she said softly, admitting the truth to herself for the first time. “I’m just…happy here. I love waking up to birdsong rather than traffic, and getting to spend all day outside instead of being crammed into some windowless office. And the kids always make me laugh, even when they’re driving us both up the wall. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye at the end of summer. To them, and to the camp.”

Conleth went still. She turned her head, and found him staring down at her, gaze oddly intent.

“Do you really mean that?” he asked.

“Well, yes,” she said, somewhat puzzled. “Why?”

“Would you want to come back to camp next year?”

“What, as a counselor?” That possibility hadn’t even occurred to her. She sat up, hope rising. “Do you think I could?”

“I’m certain Zephyr would be delighted to hire you in any capacity. As a pack counselor, or even a more senior activity leader, if you’d prefer that sort of role. Buck covers general hiking and survival, but his knowledge of plants only extends as far as how to put out ones which are actively on fire. We could do with a nature specialist.”

“I’d love that,” she breathed. “But would you be okay with that? I didn’t think you’d want to come back to camp.”

“Well.” He looked away, fiddling with the hot tub control panel. “This place is still going to need a manager. And it would certainly solve my recruitment problem if I could go back to my original candidate.”

“But you said he wasn’t available,” Paige started, and then felt unbelievably stupid. “Conleth. It’s you, isn’t it?”

He shot her a rather sheepish look. “I’d hoped you might be open to the idea of spending future summers here.”

“But you’ve been looking for other candidates. Why didn’t you tell me you’d planned to do the job yourself?”

“I didn’t want to put you under any pressure. Not after I learned about your mother. I assumed you’d want to stay close to her.”

“She’s been fine on her own this summer. I’m sure she’d be okay in the future, too. Especially if she doesn’t have to worry so much about Archie.” She hesitated. “But—are you really sure you’d be happy to go back to your old role? I know you care about this place, but that doesn’t mean you should be stuck in a job you hate. Do you want to be the camp manager again?”

Conleth didn’t answer straight away. He drew her back into his arms, resting his head against hers.

“Yes,” he said at last, sounding a little surprised by his own answer. “It was hard being around kids, and having to pretend that I believed in Joe’s prophecy. But the actual job suits me, oddly enough. I get bored easily, and in a small business like this, there’s always something new to learn or a fresh crisis to solve. It may be less prestigious than running an international corporation, but it’s a lot more interesting. And it’s certainly for a better cause. The work means something.”

“I’m sure everyone will be glad you’re staying. Especially Zephyr.” She kissed him, then pulled back to fix him with a stern glare. “Though you are going to tell him the truth rather than come up with some complicated scheme to explain why you’re taking your old job back, right?”

He looked a little evasive. “Well, since you want to stay, and shifters always want to be close to their mates, I thought I could tell everyone I had no choice?—”

“ Conleth. ”

He groaned, sinking a few inches into the water. “Fine. I’ll tell Zephyr the truth.”

She jabbed a finger into the center of his chest. “ And you’ll come clean about the prophecy. He won’t take it badly if you also admit you actually enjoyed working here. And I want everyone to appreciate what you did for the camp.”

“You’ll ruin my reputation,” he grumbled, pulling her down for another kiss. “People will stop thinking I’m a ruthless, self-centered asshole. How will I get anything done?”

“I’m sure you’ll manage somehow.” Something belatedly occurred to her. “But camp manager is a full-time role, right? You’d need to be here all year. Not just in the summer.”

He stroked her back. “I can do a lot of the work remotely. It’s not ideal, but I’ll manage. We can still spend the rest of the year near your family.”

That should have been reassuring…and yet it wasn’t. When she tried to picture dividing their time between her family and the camp, it somehow felt wrong, on a gut-deep level. She knew Conleth would go wherever she did, but he couldn’t actually want to spend most of the year in her run-down hometown.

In fact, if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to live there. After the wide-open skies of Montana, going back to looming apartment blocks and cracked concrete made her chest feel tight. If it hadn’t been for her mom…

The answer came to her, so simple that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before.

“Conleth,” she breathed. “What if my family moved here?”

She had the rare delight of taking him utterly by surprise. For a moment, he simply stared at her, mouth ajar.

“You think your mother would be willing?” he asked.

“She’s always been reclusive. She doesn’t really have any close friends back home, and I don’t think she’s particularly attached to the area. It’s just where we could afford to live.” The more she thought about it, the more perfect it seemed. “I’m sure she’d like Thunder Mountain a lot more. And Archie would love it.”

“There’s certainly a thriving shifter community here. Good schools, too.” From Conleth’s abstracted tone, she suspected he was already making a mental to-do list. “And many of the teachers are aware of us, even the ones who aren’t shifters themselves. Even if it turns out Archie’s struggle with his bear isn’t due to ADHD, your mother wouldn’t have to worry so much about him accidentally shifting in public.”

“The hard part’s going to be convincing my mom to accept financial help with moving here.” Paige grimaced. “And persuading her that I haven’t lost my mind. She’d think I was crazy for wanting to upend my life for any man, let alone one I only met this summer.”

Conleth draped an arm along the side of the hot tub, fingers tapping in the restless pattern that meant his thoughts were racing down new paths. “You haven’t told your mother about us yet, have you?”

Guilt stabbed her. After that first night together, Conleth hadn’t raised the topic of mating again, but she knew it had to be on his mind. It had certainly been on hers.

“No,” she admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have any doubts about us. It’s just…going to be complicated to explain to my mom.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Good. Don’t.”

Uh-oh . She knew that look. It was his ‘I am preparing to do something completely insane’ expression.

“Conleth,” she said suspiciously. “What are you thinking?”

His eyes gleamed. “That I may have a plan.”