Robyn pushed her plate away and stood. “I’ll get my life back in what form? Can I finish school? Can I go see my parents, instead of checking in over the phone on approved calls, so they know I’m still alive?”
I shrugged. “Of course.”
“Maybe,” Abby said.
Jace exhaled slowly. “The school thing is complicated, Robyn. You only have one semester left, right?” he asked.
She nodded. “For my bachelor’s, anyway.”
“So you’d need permission from your Alpha—whoever that turns out to be depends upon what Pride you join—for a leave of absence, of sorts. And permission for temporary residency from the Alpha of the territory where the school’s located. That’s Abby’s brother Isaac.”
“My understanding is that that’s routine,” I added, when Robyn’s scowl began to deepen. “My toms will have the same privileges, once our Pride is recognized.”
“It is routine. That’s how I was able to go to school in Jace’s territory. And Isaac will totally give you permission,” Abby assured Robyn.
“Unless the council doesn’t want him to.” Jace drained his glass and reopened the bottle. “Isaac’s the junior-ranking council member, and I can tell you from experience that that position comes with pressure from all sides. You vote with a senior ranking Alpha on something he wants, and he’ll vote with you on something else. Or vice versa.”
“So, to finish school, I’d need permission from two different Alphas?” Robyn glanced from Abby to Jace, then back. “But I won’t get that without approval from the council? How is that freedom?”
“Well…” Abby picked up her glass and stared into it.
“Our society works differently from the human world.” I pulled Robyn’s stool out for her and sat in the one next to it.
“So I’ve noticed.” But she didn’t sit.
“Most of the rules are out of necessity,” Jace said. “The rest are to accommodate instincts that make cats territorial. You can’t walk into someone else’s territory without permission. That would trigger aggression, on both a personal and a societal level.”
“It’s like that for all of us,” I explained. “Even cats with no authority or seniority feel possessive of their own space, be it a neighborhood, a house, or even just a bedroom.”
“I don’t have a space of my own,” Robyn said. “My bedroom used to be Sara’s, and it’s like living in a shrine.”
Oh. Suddenly her impromptu defection made even more sense. “I suspect that’s part of why you’re unhappy with the Di Carlos. You’re living in someone else’s space.” And they’d taken away everything familiar to her. School. Her best friend. True contact with her human family. “When you return, I’m sure they’d be happy to let you make the space your own.”
“Yeah. They’re totally going to want to box up their dead daughter’s stuff so I can hang my own posters and sleep under my own comforter.”
“It’s been five years,” Abby said. “They need to move on.”
“Ineed to move on.” Robyn finally sank onto the stool next to me. “What if I don’t want any part of this territorial system? Can I opt out entirely? Like Abby did?”
“When you’ve completed your sentence, you can try to defect,” I told her. “But that will only get you stuck in one of the free zones, without access to friends, family, and schools in any of the other territories.”
“And that’s why you’re doing this?” Robyn turned to me. “That’s why you’re giving up autonomy in the free zone and subjecting yourself to the rulings of some arbitrarily manned committee?”
“It’s not arbitrary,” I told her. “And I won’t just be subject to it. I’ll be a member of it. Part of the decision making process. I’ll be in the position to make things better for my men. And women,” I added, when her brows rose.
“As long as those men and women are willing to live by your rules.”
“They’re not my rules. They’retherules. And they’re there for a reason.”
“Fine.” Robyn stood again and took a deep breath. “Let’s get this ‘vacation’ started. Where can I shower?”
Abby stood. “I’ll show her.”
As the ladies headed out of the kitchen, I watched Robyn with a heavy feeling in my heart and Jace poured another inch of bourbon into my glass. “You know she has no intention of leaving in two weeks.”
“I know. I have two weeks to change her mind.” And to get myself on board with what I had no choice but to do.
“How are you going to do that?”
