Page 31 of Strays
“I’m a nyra. And I’ve been in your schools my whole life.”
It was the first time anyone — faculty or students — had any idea.
University officials later confirmed that Johane applied and enrolled with legally valid documentation: a state-issued birth certificate, a Social Security number, and complete academic records.
“The university fulfilled all its legal obligations,” a spokesperson said. “There was no indication or legal basis to question her species.”
The bigger question now is how a nyra obtained official human documentation in the first place.
Sources say Johane was born in Idaho and raised by an evangelical pastor from the age of two. Public records show he registered her birth through a late home-birth certificate. Idaho law validates this process, but only human families can use it to register a child not initially recorded at birth.
Gregalis children follow a separate process that assigns them a Gregalis Registration Number (GRN), which is a mandatory ID for all gregalis births and is used to issue their gregalis ID card.
Legal experts say Johane’s case exposes flaws in how the system verifies species identity.
“She should have had a GRN and a gregalis ID from birth,” said Adolf Malish, an attorney who specializes in birth registration and identity law. “But her guardian used a loophole to register her as human, which gave her a Social Security number instead.”
Meanwhile, advocates for gregalis inclusion argue that her case challenges long-standing assumptions about gregalis potential.
“For years we’ve been told that gregalis simply lack the cognitive ability to succeed in human schools,” said Rafael Mendez, director of the InterSpecies Equity Alliance. “Turns out one already did.”
Neither Johane nor her family has agreed to interviews. A brief statement from her legal representative reads only:
“Ms. Johnson wishes to continue her studies in peace.”
The university has confirmed that she will remain enrolled.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Thank Fuck
Jay whistles, long and low.
Yeah, that explains everything.
It’s extremely rare for a nyra to even consider a solitary aegis as a mate, and even rarer for one to be capable of bonding at all. Her father somehow managed it with her mother, but the bond was so weak he didn’t even bother to stay.
“They were both really young, and I think my mom was kind of rebel for a nyra back then,” Jo continues. “She says her fathers hated my dad, so she ran away from home to bond with him. But he was too unstable. It didn’t work.”
“Was he violent with her?” Jay asks, and I know this story hits close to home for him. He knows all about unstable fathers.
“Not that I know of,” she replies. “But from what she told me, he was restless, always looking for something, drinking, hooking up with human women. I actually have a bunch of brothers out there. I managed to track down two. One was donated to the Strays Program when he was seven; the other died a few years ago.”
I can’t stop myself from feeling disgusted. My brothers and I were always extremely careful to avoid pregnancy whenever we were with human women. Without a nyra mother around, there’s no way for a pack to form, so sons of aegis and a human are always strays, even if they have brothers. If you bring one of them into this world, there are only two outcomes: you either hand them over to the Strays Program or watch them die.
So hearing Johane talk about her father going around knocking up humans makes acid rise in my throat.
She pokes absently at the leftover food on her tray with her plastic fork. “My father used to disappear for days at a time, and then one day, he just never came home again,” she continues. “Not long after, my mother couldn’t feel their bond anymore. That’s how she knew he was dead.”
“I’m sorry,” I say without thinking.
“I’m not,” she replies softly. “She could’ve died if she’d gone into heat while he was off doing God knows what for days, without caring what was happening to her at home. But after he died, the bond was gone, so she never went into heat again. It was the best thing for her.”
A question pops into my head, one I want to ask and don’t want to ask at the same time. “Do your parents know you came to D.C. for a match meeting with astray pack?”
Jay and Shane look at her intently. They want to know too.
“No,” she sighs.
