“Six?” Robyn’s voice was practically a squeak.

Patricia nodded. “Five sons before I finally got a girl.” She turned to me. “That’s about the average, wouldn’t you say?”

I nodded. Like Melody, I was the youngest of six. Dams almost always stop breeding once they get that precious daughter.

“Okay, but what’s with the gender imbalance?” Robyn asked. “Why are girls so rare?”

“Doctors have been trying to figure that out forever,” I said, as the car engine rumbled closer. “And you’re the very first human woman—at least the first confirmed in the US—to survive being infected. Which means you’re our only female stray. That makes you very precious, somewhat of a commodity, and a success story to be studied.”

Creating strays was forbidden, but understanding why Robyn had survived could only benefit us all. Which I knew. But I also knew that…

“I don’t want to be studied.” Robyn’s pulse was racing. She was terrified, and I wondered if she could hear the car. Her senses were as good as mine, but she’d had much less practice using them. “I don’t want to be part of your weird shifter mafia club. I don’t need to be protected—”

“You’re wrong about that,” Jace insisted. “At least for the moment.”

“—and I certainly don’t want to be some kind of anomalous freak baby machine, just so you guys can even out your fucked-up gender ratio.”

“I know.” I reached for her hand, but she pulled away from me. “That’s part of why I hid you from everyone else.”

Jace stood as the car pulled to a stop out front. “She broke several very serious rules to protect you, and because of that, Abby is in a lot of trouble.”

Robyn turned to me with wide, scared eyes. “What kind of trouble?”

A car door slammed out front, and Jace’s brief exhale was his only outward sign of tension. “The kind that might get her executed if she were a tomcat.”

“Executed? They would kill her if she were a boy?”

“See?” Patricia stirred creamer into a mug of coffee. “The gender imbalance does have its advantages.”

“Not the point, Mom.” Jace listened as one of his brothers let my parents in through the front door, before they could even ring the bell. “The most likely penalties, if she’s found guilty, include losing her incisors or her claws, both of which would be permanently disfiguring, not to mention painful. Or incarceration in the capitol of a neutral territory. Which means she’d be locked up in the basement of one of the Alphas who has no blood or personal connection to her.”

“Wait, Abby only killed one bad guy.” Robyn’s heart beat so fast, I was afraid she was about to keel over. “I killed four of them. Does that mean I’m in the same trouble?”

“Yes.” My father stepped into the kitchen from the hall with my mother on his heels. “But I believe the council will go easy on you, considering the mitigating factors, if you’re willing to make a serious concession of your own.”

My dad pulled me into a hug, then held one hand out for her to shake, with his left arm still around me. “It’s nice to see you again, Robyn, though I am sorry about the circumstances.” They’d met a few times before when my parents had come to see me at school.

Robyn took his hand, and for the first time since she’d been infected, she bowed her head, as if the urge felt completely natural. She could not have picked a better time to display her new respectful instinct. “Nice to see you,” she said. “I think.”

“Robyn, this is a man you want to have on your side,” Jace said as she took my mother’s hand. “Abby’s dad is the council chairman, and if he says he can help you, he can. If you cooperate.”

“What would I have to do?” Robyn asked as Patricia handed fresh mugs of coffee to each of my parents in greeting.

My father nodded to thank Jace’s mom, then turned back to Robyn. “You’d have to agree to remain in one of the US Prides voluntarily and to let our doctor run a few simple tests. And you’d have to undergo training with one of our Alphas until you learn to control your new urges and instincts.”

“I don’t have to have any babies?” Robyn said, obviously relieved.

My father chuckled. “Of course not. Though no one would object if you were to change your mind. I’m not going to lie—there are council members who see your existence as a precious opportunity for that very reason.”

“So, if I agree to belong to one of your Prides, you won’t try to execute me? Or lock me up? Or break off my teeth or anything?”

My father nodded. “That’s the gist of my offer, assuming it gets enough support from my fellow Alphas.”

Robyn looked to me for an opinion, and I nodded. That was the best offer she was going to get. “Okay, then.” She held her hand out for my father to shake again, and that time, he looked relieved.

“Now, let’s talk about what you can do to help my daughter…”

NINETEEN

Jace

Ed Taylor gripped the arms of his chair and glanced at the Alphas seated on either side of him at the Lazy S’s formal dining room table. Then he turned back to the woman sitting at the far end, her hands clasped nervously in her lap. “And is it your sworn testimony that Abigail Wade never scratched or bit you, nor injured you in any way that broke the surface of your skin?”

“That’s right.” Robyn Sheffield took a sip of water from the glass on the table in front of her, then met Taylor’s gaze. “Abby would never hurt me.”

I exhaled softly from my folding metal chair against the wall. The infection charge was Abby’s biggest obstacle, and even though I’d known how Robyn would answer, hearing her official statement was a big relief. She’d been prepped for the hearing, but there was no way to truly prepare someone who’d been born human to sit in a room full of people her brand new-instincts labeled as dangerous, powerful, and commanding.

The Territorial Council was the shifter equivalent of the United Nations—except that our leaders could rip each other’s throats out with the flick of one wrist.

“Ms. Sheffield, would you please tell the council how and when you were infected?” Rick Wade followed up, from Taylor’s right.