Page 78 of Strays
I nod. “At least they found the drug and ran the tox screen. It’s on record, so he can’t deny he was high and drunk as hell.”
“Yeah,” she says, voice dry. “But it doesn’t change how everyone sees it.”
“And how do they see it?” I ask.
She doesn’t hesitate. “A man in the hospital, and three aegis who put him there.”
Her voice isn’t angry, just cold. She leans her head back and closes her eyes. “I doubt he remembers much. He was too far gone. But I’m sure Kacy will fill him in.”
“I thought she was your friend,” I say.
Jo looks at me. “I thought a lot of people were my friends. But after I bonded with you, I stopped being Doctor Johnson and became a weird nyra who thinks she’s a doctor. And today I changed again. I became the crazy nyra who married three violent aegis.”
“I’m so sorry, Jo—” I start, but she cuts me off.
“Dr. Lindstrom called me into his office this morning. Said he just wanted to ‘check in’ and warned me — verbatim — that men who are aggressive toward other men are statistically more likely to be aggressive toward women too.”
Shane’s voice is harsh. “Are you afraid of us, Jo?”
“Of course I’m not,” she snaps. Then, quieter: “I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid to look my coworkers in the eye when I know they’re thinking that I’m not just sleeping with three men, but that I accept being knocked around by them too.”
My voice drops. “I’m sorry, Jo. I really am. But that’s what they were already thinking from the beginning. They just didn’t have the guts to say it out loud before.”
She stands up, and then she’s gone, heading upstairs, leaving us alone in the living room, surrounded by silence.
We give her space again.
Later, when Jay goes up to check on her and see if she wants to eat, she’s already asleep.
Scent-Bonding in Gregalis: Mechanism, Mythology, and Evolutionary Cost
Excerpt from Emergent Divergence: The Evolutionary Path of Homo Gregalis by Dr. Steve Bureau, Ph.D. (4th ed., West Kempton Institute Press)
I maintain that scent-bonding is ultimately a maladaptive trait.
The issue lies not in its biological function but in the mythology that surrounds it. Genetic modeling indicates that only 55 to 70 percent of packs are biologically capable of forming a scent bond. For a significant portion of the gregalis population, a scent match simply does not exist.
Yet the cultural belief that “every pack has a destined nyra” persists. As a result, some packs delay or reject viable non-scent bonds in pursuit of an unattainable ideal. Likewise, some nyras hesitate to stabilize, waiting for a match that may never materialize.
From an evolutionary perspective, the dominant theories explaining the persistence of this unstable trait emphasize survival optimization: scent-bonded packs demonstrate heightened sensory integration, emotional cohesion, and neurophysiological enhancement, which may have conferred reproductive or defensive advantages in ancestral environments.
Scent-bonding is real and measurable. It is, under certain conditions, highly effective. But it is neither universal nor necessary. It is an adaptation — and adaptation, by definition, is not perfection but simply what persists.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Three Thousand Miles Away
We barely sleep again.
Jo wakes the second we settle into the nest and squirms nonstop until she gives up and leaves. I follow a few minutes later to check on her, and catch her asleep on the couch.
The next morning, she doesn’t even sit for breakfast. Just gets ready and leaves. The three of us agree to sleep in the sleeping bags again, so the nest is free if she wants it.
When we get to the unit, Sergeant Wilsbone calls us into his office. “IA’s done their first pass,” he says. “The use-of-force report is still under review. Until Command says otherwise, you’re cleared for duty, but restricted assignments only. No public-facing calls. Stick to low-visibility patrols.”
As the morning goes on, we catch pieces of conversations about us here and there. In the break room, I hear Cole say to Higgs, “I mean… the guy was drunk, but still. He ended up in the hospital.”
No surprise there. What surprises me is Higgs’ reply: “I don’t know, dude. If some drunk guy said that about my wife and tried to touch her, I’d break his nose too.”
