“She’s not well, Jace. In human form, Robyn seems mostly okay, but in cat form, she’s practically feral. She’s at the mercy of instincts and urges she didn’t grow up expecting. She doesn’t yet know how to think like a human when her brain is structured like a cat’s. It’s like there’s a disconnect between the two halves of her.”
Uh-oh.
Abby studied my grim expression. “What? You know what’s wrong with Robyn? What is it?”
I took a deep breath, then squeezed her hand. “It’s a dissociative disorder that’s specific to the unique psychology of a shifter, and almost exclusively suffered by strays whose introduction to our world was particularly…devastating.”
“Dissociative disorder?” Abby’s brown eyes widened. “Like…multiple personalities?”
“Not exactly. Shiftersliterallyhave two forms, and sometimes, the trauma of that initial shift—or of the infection itself—leads a new shifter to disassociate his feline self from his human self. You actually put it pretty well. When Robyn’s a cat, she’scompletelya cat. In those moments, she may not even remember or understand that she’s also human, which means she doesn’t have access to her human conscience and probably lacks the ability to think beyond her immediate needs.
“Kaci had the opposite problem when puberty brought on a shift she had no way to anticipate. She hadnoclear boundary between her human and feline halves.” Which was why we’d found her in the branches of a tree, munching on a fresh corpse—in human form. “But Kaci got better, and so can Robyn.”
What I didn’t add was that dissociated strays were the ones enforcers were most often required to dispose of. They were the ones we couldn’t control. The ones who couldn’t controlthemselves.
But things could be different for Robyn. For all strays, if our resolution passed. They’d have the support system they needed to regain control over their bodies and their lives.
“I thought she was getting better. Starting to acclimate.” Abby picked at my comforter. “I didn’t know she was still killing, at first.”
“Wait,stillkilling? You knew about the first one?”
“Yeah, but you guys don’t. She’s actually killed four hunters, not three, but the first one was in self-defense. He followed us into the woods the first time I took her for a run. He was hunting us, but we didn’t know about the large-scale operation at the time. We just knew someone was shooting at us. Robin was in cat form, and she didn’t hesitate. She just…took him out.” Abby shrugged. “It was a totally justified kill. And I thought that was the end of it.”
“But she kept killing?” I prompted.
“I thought she was going for solitary runs, and I thought I should let her, because that looked like progress. Adjustment. I didn’t realize she waskillinguntil she called me from Hargrove’s house last week. She shifted back to human form after she killed Joe Matthews—though I didn’t know his name—and she wastotallyfreaking out. I went there to bring her home. To calm her down. But I swear that’s all I did. I didn’t even go into the basement that night. If I’d realized who her victims were, and that they were stalking us, I would have called you, Jace. I swear.” She shrugged miserably, and her curls bobbed with the motion. “Then you came to get me and told me about the murders, and I realized she might be the stray you were looking for.”
“So, you went along in her jacket to sabotage my investigation.”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry. I knew you’d find both her scent and mine at Hargrove’s house, and I didn’t know what else to do. Then we figured out who Hargrove was, and I realizedwhyRobyn’s instinct had pointed her at those men in particular. Her human half was scared of them, but didn’t know what to do about it. Her cat half knew what to do, but not why sheshouldn’t. I was hoping that since she’d only killed our enemies, everyone would be more concerned with the human hunters than with the stray who was doing our job for us.”
“It’s not that simple, Abby.” Nothing waseverthat simple.
“So it seems.” She exhaled slowly. “How much does Robyn know?”
I shrugged. “We had to tell hersomething.” The previous night clearly hadn’t been the time to explain to Robyn that she was now a member of my Pride and thus subject to a long list of rules and responsibilities. But she’d woken up before Abby and had wandered downstairs on her own, where she’d found a kitchen full of shifters—a scent she’d recognized. “She knows this is my house, and that we’re all shifters. She knows that the guys work for me, but not in what capacity. We wanted you to be there to explain the bulk of it to her.”
“Okay.” Abby nodded. “I’ve been having this discussion with her in my head for weeks.” Yet she made no move to get out of bed. “Jace, how much trouble am I in, exactly?”
“Well, the easy answer is ‘A lot.’ But really, that depends.” She’d covered up an infection, disobeyed a direct order, sabotaged an investigation, and murdered a witness in custody—a list of offenses that made her infamously shrewish cousin look meek and agreeable by comparison. But the most serious of all the potential charges was… “Abby, did you infect Robyn?”
Her eyes widened. “No! How could you even…?” She frowned. “Is that what people think?”
“What else are they supposed to think? She’s your roommate, and you hid her from us.”
“I hid Robyn to protecther, not to protect myself. She was infected at the hunters’ cabin in October. They had a stray in a cage, in the basement. He was dead by the time I got there, but he swiped at her through his cage before he died. It was just a scratch, but by that night, she had a fever.” Abby shrugged. “If you’d been there any longer, you’d have known about this all along.”
I blinked, stunned. How could I have missed it? Robyn had been bleeding from several minor wounds, but I’d assumed they were all from being dragged through the woods or being roughed up by her abductors.
“Okay.” My mind raced, reassembling the puzzle with the new pieces. If I’d paid alittlemore attention, I could have prevented the whole thing. Robyn wouldn’t have killed in a maladjusted dissociative state. Abby wouldn’t have committed crimes to protect her. “Assuming Robyn will testify to that, that’s one charge they’ll have to dismiss. And if we can verify her feline dissociative state, they’ll probably dismissallthe charges against Robyn, in light of her temporary…insanity.” And because she was the first verified female stray, and Abby was right; they would want to study her. “Which is why I think you should encourage her to let Dr. Carver do his thing. So he can testify on her behalf, if necessary.”
“Okay.” Abby nodded. “What about the rest of it?”
“Your hearing will be in two weeks, at the ranch. They’ve already excluded me from the proceedings.”
“Because ofus?”
I nodded. Ed Taylor had been particularly unhappy to hear about my involvement with his son’s ex-fiancée. That—coupled with the fact that on my watch, one tabby been infected, one had gotten pregnant, and two had been kidnapped—had painted my leadership in a less-than-flattering light. “And because I failed to report you missing when you didn’t get on your plane. But your dad and Faythe will be there, and they’ll do everything they can for you. So, you need to cooperate and make it easy for them.”
