Page 89 of Strays
“Can you forgive me?” she asks, her voice cracking as more tears slip down her cheeks.
I don’t remember the last time one of my brothers truly shocked me, if it ever happened. But Jay manages to do it.
His voice is low and gentle. “No, Jo. I don’t think I can.”
MEMORANDUM
TO: Leadership Board
FROM: Commander Elias Eneas
Deputy Commander Julius Eneas
Deputy Commander Leon Eneas
SUBJECT: Operational Risk Response
DATE: May 27th, 2025
We acknowledge receipt of the Leadership Board’s directive dated May 23rd, 2025, regarding the Larsen pack. For the record, we note that Internal Affairs investigators from the local police department have concluded that the pack’s actions in the incident were operationally justified and consistent with standard use-of-force protocols.
With the utmost respect for the Board’s mandate to safeguard institutional integrity, we strongly advise that no administrative action be taken to suspend the Larsen pack’s transfer to the Special Operations Garrison.
Operational protocols dictate that once a pack bonded to a Prime nyra achieves physiological progression to Tier-Two benchmarks, reassignment to a dedicated Special Operations garrison is standard. Any deviation from this process, in the absence of a legal finding of misconduct, risks setting a precedent for punitive administrative holds not supported by Internal Affairs findings.
Furthermore, we assess that retaining a pack actively progressing toward Tier-One status within a standard human law enforcement precinct presents heightened risks to civilian chain-of-command cohesion, personnel safety, and public perception. Transitioning such a unit to Special Operations, under intensive training and oversight, aligns with established risk containment protocols.
Regarding the concern that the Larsen pack may be operating under covert human-aligned directives due to its origin in the Artificial Packs Program, we reaffirm that this risk was fully investigated when the pack was first identified as compatible with a Prime nyra. Command conducted a comprehensive background review, and no active or latent ties to the Program have been found since the pack’s formal release in 2016.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Thread That Held Us Together
Absolute silence.
Then Jo starts to sob, and the hum in my chest gets louder and louder. When Shane and Jay keep up with me, the hum is so strong I feel the vibration under me on the couch.
I’m speechless. Shane is staring at Jay, his face shocked, but Jay’s face is hard and resolute.
Jo’s voice, rough and broken, cuts through the humming. “Pack rules, remember? You told me we don’t punish each other, even when one of us screws up!”
Despite his expression, Jay’s voice is still calm. It’s so striking, the cold voice paired with his harsh words, that it’s unnerving. “I’m not punishing you; I’m being honest. You left us. You shut us out. You ran away and didn’t even talk to us, except for those shitty texts you sent.”
He looks straight into her eyes. “We were all fucked up and hurting, but I was the one who threw the punch and got us into this mess. I knew my brothers would never blame me, but I needed to hear it fromyou. I was the reason you weren’t there, so I was the one who needed you the most. And you couldn’t even pick up the phone once, out of the hundred times I called.”
I didn’t even know he had been calling her. The truth is, once she left, Jay shut down too. Even for us.
Jo is shaking as she cries, her voice raw. “I’m sorry, Jay. I know what I did wasn’t fair to you, but I was falling apart—”
“Youwere falling apart?” he cuts her off, standing and putting himself in front of her. I’m relieved that finally that cold, detached edge in his voice starts to crack, anger replacing it. “My mother left me on the doorstep of that piece of shit who was my father, and I spent years asking myself if it was because of something I did. Shane’s mother fucking killed herself and left him alone with her family of Jesus-freaks. Kory’s mother vanished after being by herself for just a couple of hours, after those motherfuckers who call themselves Kory’s fathers left her alone.”
His voice gets louder and louder as he speaks, until he’s yelling at her. “Then you ran away, and this time it was even worse because I didn’t get to wonder if it was something I did: I knew it was. How do you think Shane felt knowing you were back in your bible-thumper parents’ city? How do you think Kory felt knowing you were alone, without us, the same way his mother was when shedisappeared into thin air? You aren’t the first one to abandon us, Jo. But you hurt even deeper because you cut on top of the old scars.”
The air is hard to breathe, saturated with Jay’s aggression and Jo’s sour, acidic scent. My stomach twists, bile rising and burning my throat.
I start pumping soothing pheromones into the air, and Shane follows immediately, a flicker of panic in his eyes. I want to hit pause on the whole thing and run until we calm down, but I can see Jay’s carrying something heavier than the hurt we all feel. It’s the kind of anger that eats you from the inside. He needs to spit it out before it rots him.
Shane probably reached the same conclusion, because he doesn’t intervene either. We both look from Jo to Jay, the two of them silent now, but breathing hard.
