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a glance and Toby bristled. “What I do is none of your business.”
    Mia interrupted. “No, but you’re a minor, so what you do is your parents’ business.”
    That same glance was exchanged and Dana lifted her hand to her mouth and started to chew on a hangnail.
    Peter frowned. “Are we missing something?”
    Toby’s father gave the boy a glance, somewhere between pride and frustration. “Toby is a bit of a whiz with computers. If there’s something available to find, I can guarantee he’s already found it.”
    “Is that true?” Mia asked Toby.
    The boy’s normally pale skin heated with color. “Yeah, of course I’ve seen what that other shifter did. And either him or some other dude has been putting out a call on a couple of private, coded message boards for local shifters to meet and get organized.”
    “Get organized?” said Mia. “For what?”
    Toby gave a nonchalant shrug. “To let the world know shifters exist and that we won’t be pushed around anymore.”
    “That must be what happened in the shooting downtown,” Peter said. “The one in the warehouse. Other people must have got wind of the meeting and tried to break it up.”
    Dana had paled. “Shooting? You mean people like Toby were involved?” Something dawned on her face and she turned to her son. “You didn’t go, did you?”
    Toby rolled his eyes. “No, Mom. I stayed in my room all night just like I promised.” The hint of sarcasm in his tone didn’t go unnoticed by Mia. “Anyway, that meeting was small fish compared to everything else happening.”
    Peter frowned and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “What do you mean?”
    His eyes shifted to the ground and he started to jiggle his knee. For a moment, he said nothing, but then he lifted his head, his eyes narrowed as he took in Peter. “You still work for the government, right?”
    Peter held his gaze and nodded. “For the moment, though I’m on suspension. I am the subject of several internal inquiries because of what happened with you and the two other shifters. But as far as I’m aware, the government doesn’t know what I am. The one person who might know, I haven’t seen or heard anything of since that day.”
    “So if you’re working for the government, does that mean you’re still involved with shifter research?”
    Peter frowned. “With Dumas dead, there shouldn’t be any shifter research.”
    “But what if I told you there was? Where do your loyalties lie?”
    “My loyalties are always with my people, with other shifters. Despite what you might have thought, they always have been.”
    Toby’s glance shifted to Mia.
    Despite only having known Peter for a few days, she thought they could trust him. He was steady, grounded, as if nothing rattled him. Plus, the man had saved her life.
    She nodded. “It’s okay, you can trust him.”
    Toby took a breath. “Okay, but if I end up in juvie, I’ll hold you to blame.”
    His father groaned and put his head in his hands. “Oh, God, what now?” he muttered.
    Toby ignored him. For the first time, the boy appeared confident, his gaze direct, his jaw tight. “I’m not just good with computers, I’m practically a fucking genius with computers.”
    “Seriously, Toby, watch your language!” his mom said.
    He shrugged an apology. “The thing is, I found out all your names from the police and news reports, which was easy enough—anyone could have done it—then I hacked into the Department of Defense.”
    His father leaped to his feet. “You did what? Toby, you could end up in prison for that, never mind juvenile detention!”
    “So? I figured I’ve been locked up for a whole lot less.” He got to his feet. “Let me show you what I found.”
    They followed him into his bedroom. Mia was taken back to her school days, to the musty, boy-smell of the locker room. Despite Toby’s unkempt appearance, his bedroom was surprisingly tidy. A couple of posters of rock bands were pinned above the single made-up