“What?” Becca jerked her hand out of Mr. Max’s grip. Well, she tried to anyway. There was no escaping him.
“So you think he changed?” asked Mr. Max, his voice tight.
Bryn shook his head. “Not here. And not at the school. But it’s coming. Soon.”
Which is when Becca lost it. They were talking like they knew something about Theo. Something important that she didn’t know. And damn it, she was his aunt and his only family. “Somebody better start explaining things to me now or I’m going to start screaming.”
“I will, Becca, I swear,” said Mr. Max, but his eyes were on Bryn. “What about that other thing? The reason you were here, in Kalamazoo, to begin with.”
Bryn shrugged. “Don’t know.” Then he flashed Becca a rueful smile. “It’ll be okay, Miss Weitz. Theo will be fine.” Then he pulled up the hood on his jacket and headed for the door. “And, Max…”
“Yeah?”
“You’ll get my bill in the morning.”
She heard him grumble, deep in his chest. “You’re all heart,” he said, his tone wry.
“Someone’s gotta feed the pack. Might as well be you.” Then he was gone with a jaunty wave that was oddly graceful, given his general loose-limbed gait.
As soon as the door shut, Becca was ready. She tried to jerk her wrist out of Mr. Max’s hand, yanking hard, but she was too slow. He’d already released her, which meant she stumbled from the force of her movement. He caught her by the elbow, steadying her with a firm grip, but she glared him away.
“Start talking. Why was he in Kalamazoo? What does it have to do with Theo?”
“Other business and nothing. He was just nearby, so I called on his talents.”
“As a sniffing tracker.”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
He scratched at his beard again, looking the most awkward she’d ever seen anyone appear. “Yeah,” he said, drawing the word out. “Buckle up ’cause it’s about to get weirder.” Then he gestured to the couch. “Do you think we could sit down?”
She didn’t want to sit. She was too keyed up, but she nodded because she figured arguing about this would delay things further. So she perched on the edge of a cushion while he sank into the sofa like an anchor into the seabed. And he still sat taller than she.
“What did he mean about Theo about to change?”
He leaned forward, setting his elbows on his knees. His gaze was steady—weirdly so—and there was no softness in him anywhere. “Surely you’ve noticed a difference in Theo. He’s gotten surly, eats a ton, sleeps like the dead, then rouses like an…an angry bear.”
“He’s a teenage boy. Isn’t that all of them?”
“Not like this. I heard he got into a fight at school. For no reason.”
How the hell did he…? Amy, her next-door neighbor and confidante. “That’s it. I’m never talking to Amy again.”
“Don’t blame her. She was keeping an eye on Theo for me.”
An icy fist slid through her body. He’d been spying on her and Theo? “Just what kind of stalker creep are you?”
Mr. Max shrugged. The gesture would have been endearing if she wasn’t so freaked. “One that has known about Theo since he was a boy and wanted to look out for him. In case this happened.”
“What’s ‘this’?” she almost screamed.
“Theo’s entering the First Change. He’s a little young for it. It doesn’t usually hit before sixteen, but with steroids in foods nowadays, kids are maturing faster.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Theo. Your nephew is a grizzly bear shifter.”
