Page 12 of Strays
“The grass here’s just as bad as it was there,” I reply.
“Crunchy and patchy,” Shane agrees.
The three of us smile like idiots at the memory. Back then, we used to stay like this for hours, daydreaming about the day we’d become a pack.
“You think Balls knows?” Jay asks, dragging us back to the present.
I blink. “What?”
“About the meeting. You think he knows?”
“If he doesn’t already, he will. I wish he wouldn’t. I don’t know if he’s low enough to set us up to sabotage our shot at this, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Four weeks on thin ice,” he replies.
Silence again.
This time, I’m the one who breaks it. “I meant every word I said earlier. I’m ready to leave the force. Leave this city. If the meeting goes sideways, if she isn’t the one, we still leave.”
Shane stares at me for a long moment before speaking. “It’s a start, at least.”
I sigh. I know what he and Jay want. And they know I’ll never agree to it.
“I’m sorry, Shane. But if she’s not our scent-mate, we’re done with her. You know I can’t do a bond without the scent.”
“I figured you wouldn’t change your mind. And I’ll always hate that if we never find her, you’ll make us stay unmated for life." He exhales slowly. "I get it.But part of me still resents you for it.”
Jay glances at him. “Yeah, it’s shitty. But Kory making us stay away from nyras he knows he can't bond with is the decent thing to do. Me and you are two bastards who’d never agree to anything serious with a human woman, but we don’t stop our pack from messing around with them. We just make sure it never means a damn thing.”
I stare up at the sky.
“We all have our reasons. Your mothers were human. You’re just trying not to repeat what your fathers did to them. Same way I can’t do to a nyra what my fathers did to my mother. And I’m not innocent either. I was there with you most nights you spent with a human. As much as we want to do the right thing, we aren’t saints. We need someone to take the edge off, like anybody else. Even if it’s just for one night.”
I pause. “So yeah. If this nyra isn’t ours… we’ll just keep being three resentful assholes, shutting down every real connection we could have. Still better than making the same mistakes our fathers did.”
TheArtificial Packs Revolution
Excerpt from Emergent Divergence: The Evolutionary Path of Homo Gregalis by Dr. Steve Bureau, Ph.D. (4th ed., West Kempton Institute Press)
The Artificial Packs Program enabled, for the first time in gregalis history, the formation of stable packs composed of unrelated males. This initiative also resulted in the emergence of a new class of highly trainable operatives, subsequently integrated into law enforcement and military structures.
The Program fundamentally altered the evolutionary trajectory of Homo gregalis. More significantly, it brought the formation of pack identity under institutional oversight, thereby allowing a generation of aegis to be shaped according to principles most conducive to social order and human-led governance.
CHAPTER THREE
Too Many Walls and Too Many Assholes
By the time we finally leave for home, I’m so exhausted that I’m ready to pass out for a few hours before worrying about food, but Jay makes us stop by Silva’s to grab takeout.
Out of the three of us, Jay had the shittiest childhood. Going to bed hungry reminds him too much of those days, and he hates it, so he’s always been the strongest advocate for stopping to eat, no matter how tired we are.
Normally, the downsides of our living situation don’t bother me. But today, everything grates: the overflowing dumpster in the alley next to our building, the empty bottles littering the base of the stairs, the faint sour smell in the stairwell.
When we actually step inside our apartment, it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time.
We barely have any furniture, just an old couch, a small TV, and a termite-infested wardrobe that needs serious treatment. The nicest thing we own is the nest mattress that we bought years ago, right after the Matching Program was announced. We thought a match would come soon, so we spent most of our savings on a decent nest. Back then, it felt like a smart investment.
But we didn’t have the money for a proper platform underneath, and by the time we could afford it, our hope had shrunk enough to keep us from bothering. So we left it on the floor.
