Beastess

The massive wolf and tigress beastesses, both half-shifted and about to pounce so they could tear each other apart, stopped in their tracks and turned to look at Lexi at the same time in their shock.

Meg tried to put her bionic arm up again to stop her, and Sabrina shook her head at Lexi, as if to say, ‘Let them fight it out, don’t get involved’. But Lexi pushed Meg’s arm away and ignored the lynx woman.

Lexi had to stop them from fighting. She had to.

… Lexi had already lost Rosie. Way back then.

And with the Goddess of the Hunt as her witness, she sure as hell wasn’t about to lose two more of the best women she’d ever met in her life.

“See these, Syd?”

Lexi pulled down on the collar of her cropped tank top along with the middle of her bra, exposing just the top half of her breasts. In the center, faded but still barely visible on the surface of her pecs, was a group of long parallel jagged pink lines carved directly into her flesh.

“These are the scars I got from Alpha Lea, to extract my blood for the ritual that turned me. I got them because I doubted Alpha’s strength. I got them for thinking that no one could ever hurt someone as strong as Sophie. Do you wanna prove her right, Syd? Prove you can hurt someone who hurt you, for no other reason than just because you can? Even when they are willing to undergo penance, to make things right, to accept responsibility for what they’ve done to hurt you? Wanna take another swing at me, add some more scars to my chest? Wanna show me just how much you want to hurt my best friend—who, yes, fucked up big time, but is trying to make it right, trying to help us? Because Alpha was just trying to scare me, but you sound like you really wanna hurt her, Syd, so fucking show me!” Lexi slapped her scars with her free hand. “Just like you said—remember, Syd? Full! Chest!”

“Lexi …” Syd raised her eyebrows and put out a clawed hand in protest.

The coyote girl stared at Syd for a few tense moments. She blinked a few times rapidly—either she hadn’t wiped away as much eyeliner earlier as she thought, or the tension in the room was starting to affect her too. She took a deep breath, stepped back, pulled up her tank top, and sighed.

“Look—my point is, you aren’t that kind of person. I know you aren’t.” Lexi paused. “What would Mac say?”

Syd stayed silent. She looked at the ground, as if she was searching for the right words but coming up short.

“You said that Mac taught you what real strength is,” Lexi continued. “And it means caring about your pack. Sophie is a beastess too. And she may have hurt our pack, but she was being forced to. She wants to undo what she did. She wants to help us. And … and she needs our help too, Syd. From what you’ve told me about Mac, they wouldn’t want you to turn away a beastess in need.”

Sophie, still keeping her focus on Syd while occasionally glancing at Lexi, slowly retracted her claws and cautiously stepped back.

“Needs our help?” Syd asked. The half-shifted werewolf’s gaze returned from the floor to Lexi, then to Sophie, then back to Lexi. Still half-shifted, she tilted her head to one side in such a puppy-like way that Lexi almost lost her composure. Almost.

“Why do you think she told me her whole life story in that closet?” Lexi said. “Why do you think she would spill all of her deepest darkest secrets if she didn’t think she could trust me with them, or that I could help in some way? All I’ve been trying to get you to understand this whole time is that we all have scars, Syd. You, on your face. Me, on my chest. You of all people should know that there’s more kinds of scars than just the ones you see. The things Sophie told me about her life ... what she’s done, what she’s been ashamed of … Goddess above, Syd, can’t you see she’s just like us? And I don’t just mean that she’s a beastess too. I mean that … she’s got scars, Syd. Deep ones. Just. Like. Us.”

Syd looked down at the floor and frowned, her eyebrows pressing together. She traced her fingers over the three scars that diagonally crossed her face like dried-up rivers, slowly and delicately.

Both Syd and Sophie shrank in size as they shifted back into their human forms. Good, Lexi thought. They’re both calming down. That’s progress, at least.

The room stayed quiet for a minute, no one really knowing what to say next.

Then, behind Lexi, Meg said, “Y’all wanna talk ‘bout scars? Well … y’all remember how I got this, right?” The massive ursine beastess raised her magitech-augmented left arm.

Lexi had never really taken a good look at Meg’s bionic arm before. She didn’t want to be impolite and stare, of course, but the more important reason was that it had never occurred to her. It was just something she took for granted as a part of Meg, just like Audrey’s eyes were a part of her.

Her prosthetic arm started at her elbow and shimmered with green runic circuits and symbols across the dark-plated surface—with the ankh of Gnosis Industries centered on her forearm, of course. If it weren’t for the mechanical linkages and gears inside her arm shifting with every movement of her hand, visible between the spaces of the plates, it would have looked almost like a paladin’s gauntlet at first glance. Save for the position of her thumb, the hand of her arm more closely resembled a grizzly bear’s paw than a human hand. Her thick mechanical fingers ended in razor-sharp shiny curved claws that gleamed with a fresh polish, reflecting the lightbulbs hanging from the high ceiling of the nightclub.

Her other pack-mates nodded in response to Meg’s question, but Lexi shook her head.

“I don’t think you’ve ever told me, Meg,” Lexi said. “What happened?”

Meg lowered her bionic arm and rotated the hand three-hundred and sixty degrees at the wrist. She flexed the claws in and out slowly, like she was testing it.

“The short version? It got sliced off.” She looked pointedly at Sophie. “By a templar’s blade.”

“… What’s the long version?” Sophie asked carefully.

Meg strode over to Sophie, closing the distance easily with her tall stature, and stopped next to her. Along with her gigantic height, her more heavy-set and broader physique made her the only one in the room who looked bigger than Syd in human form—and that was saying something. She raised her clawed arm again, and a flicker of fear crossed Sophie’s face for a brief instant. But the big bear woman gently placed both of her hands, flesh and metal, onto Sophie’s shoulders, and gazed deeply into her eyes. Meg grimaced, her face made of stone. Lexi knew that face all too well, from herself and others. It was the kind of face one makes when accessing painful memories, while trying not to get flooded in the tsunami of emotions that accompany them.

“The long version is this,” Meg intoned quietly in that slow drawl of hers. “I didn’t used to be in the Pack of Abraxas West. I was originally part of the northern pack of the city. Well … even before that, I was born an’ raised out in the countryside, far away from any highfalutin’ city folk. Never met my daddy. Mama was a beastess but kept it secret, and raised me an’ my little sister Tanya alone. Times were tough, and got tougher when we were both given the gift of the Goddess jus’ towards the end of puberty.” Meg furrowed her brow. “We had to move to Abraxas to stay safe. Y’all think the Church has a stranglehold on the megacity? It’s jus’ as bad, if not worse, out there in the countryside. Surprised we weren’t chased out with pitchforks and torches and all that.”

“Wait,” Lexi said, “I thought that beastesses were infertile.”

“Apparently only after ya get the Goddess’ gift,” Meg said. “Jus’ like Tanya and I, Mama’s gift arrived pretty late—about a year after she had my lil’ sister, when she was really young.” She shook her head. “Too young. Now y’all know why I never met my daddy.”

“… Ah. I see.”

“Anyway,” Meg continued, “we found refuge in the Pack of Abraxas North. Mama rose through the ranks while raisin’ her two daughters, and eventually became the High Beastess of PAN.” With an acid in her voice that Lexi had never heard from her before, Meg said, “She’s still their alpha. And Tanya was their beta. Was.” Meg took a deep breath and removed her arms from Sophie’s shoulders.

“Mama always liked Tanya more growin’ up. I was the big sister, but Tanya was the big sister, if you know what I mean. At least a half a foot bigger. I could repair anything on the farm, but Tanya got all the praise. Never had anything against my sweet lil’ sis, but Mama and I always butted heads. She was strong, an’ expected her kids to be strong too. She pushed me an’ my sister hard, all the time, setting higher an’ higher standards—especially for me. ‘Megara, why can’t you lift as much as Titania?’ ‘Why are ya wastin’ yer time on that magitech crap?’ Bullshit like that.

“I say all this ‘cuz this scar—” Meg held up her magitech arm, “—came from bein’ raised by that kind of mama bear. One day, ‘bout a year ago now, Mama wanted to send Tanya on a mission alone. We’d gotten a tip that a buyer wanted to give us a buncha money for some illicit magitech we’d stole not too long before. They said to come alone, an’ meet them at the top floor of a construction site in the north end of the megacity. Now, Tanya’d never gone on a mission alone as a beta before. I was always there to back her up. I begged Mama to reconsider, but she was stubborn as a mule. She said Tanya could handle it herself even if the buyer got feisty, an’ that I’d jus’ get in the way.” She sighed and crossed her arms.

“Turns out it was a sting. I secretly followed my lil’ sis anyway, just to watch over her, an’ I saw her get swarmed by a bunch of paladins hiding out at the top of that construction site. They must’ve tranquilized her real bad or somethin’, ‘cuz she dropped like a sack of taters after puttin’ up a fight. They were draggin’ her away, so I half-shifted, came out of my hidin’ spot, an’ ran over to grab her.

“One moment I had her jacket in my hand, an’ the next …” Meg held out her bionic arm, and with her other hand held flat, she mimed the action of a blade slicing into the seam where flesh met metal. “A templar must’ve come outta nowhere an’ cut my fuckin’ arm off! I didn’t even see ‘em! Them magitech blades are sharp as hell. I backed up a couple of steps outta shock, an’ the next thing I remember is wakin’ up on top of a dumpster three stories below. My back hurt like a sonuvabitch, an’ I could see a couple of them runnin’ down after me, so I … I panicked an’ ran.” Meg frowned, with her hands on her hips. “I’m not proud of that, but there was no way I was getting Tanya back at that point.”

“I lost ‘em by duckin’ into the boiler room of another building somewhere. Kept my jacket ‘round my arm to hide the blood an’ not leave a trail. In that there boiler room, on pure adrenaline, I cauterized my wound. And yes, it fuckin’ hurt. I don’t ‘member how, but by the grace of the Goddess I stumbled back home to Mama an’ told her everythin’ that happened. And of course, Mama blamed me for disobeyin’ orders an’ followin’ Tanya there. Didn’t believe me when I said they drugged her. Mama said Tanya got captured because I musta stepped in too soon, an’ distracted her long enough for the paladins to knock her out—which is not what happened, but she wouldn’t listen! She said I was an idiot fer gettin’ my arm cut off! I said to her, ‘Mama, you sent my lil’ sister on a mission alone, an’ now you blame me fer tryin’ to help her? Fuck. You. I’m leaving.’ And so I did.

“I reckoned I’d try to find Tanya myself, an’ if Mama wanted her back, she could look for her on her own. I joined PAW not long after, through some connections. Mac put in a good word for me. Alpha Lea gifted me some magitech to work with, an’ I made myself a new arm. I … still haven’t found Tanya, though. All this ramblin’ to say: I lost my arm the same day I lost my little sister. And I gotta live with both of those scars.”

Sophie took a sharp intake of breath when Meg finished her story. Meg noticed.

“So you get it,” Meg said. “And I get you.”

“I had nothing to do with that mission, just so you know. Still … I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. I believe you.”

Syd looked back and forth incredulously between Meg and Sophie.

“You believe her? Just like that?” Syd asked.

“Just like that,” Meg affirmed, shooting a side eye at Syd. “I can see the pain in her eyes whenever she talks ‘bout or thinks of her lil’ sis. It’s the same pain I see when I look in the mirror. She ain’t lyin’, Syd. I think she really wants to change.”

Syd crossed her arms, frowning, and paced around in silence while looking at the floor and tapping her elbow with one hand. Everyone else in the room looked at each other, then back at Syd in anticipation.

C’mon, Lexi thought to herself. You can do this, Syd.

Do the right thing.

“Goddess above!” Syd eventually howled, making Lexi jump. The massive wolf woman walked back over to Sophie and said, “You said you care about Mac, right?”

“I don’t just care about her,” Sophie replied, her jaw set. “I’m in love with her.”

Syd pointed one finger at Sophie and bared her fangs in a snarl.

“Then we better fucking get her out of there, alive. If we don’t, I swear to Mother Moon—you will regret it, Sophia Ryder.”

Sophie shifted her gaze from Syd’s finger to her eyes. Without breaking eye contact, on instinct she brought her hand up in a salute, but hesitated. She instead placed her hand over her heart.

“You have my word. I swear that we will bring her back,” Sophie said. “I swear on my life, Sydney Beaumont.”

Syd glanced over at Lexi, her expression softening. Lexi smiled warmly at her.

[Thank you,] Lexi spoke to Syd’s mind. Syd smiled back, sincerely, for the first time that day.

“And I swear,” Syd said, returning her gaze to Sophie and gesturing towards her pack-mates, “we’ll help get your little sister back, too.”

Sophie blinked away tears in her eyes and swallowed.

“Thank you.”

“Awesome!” Sabrina piped up out of nowhere, making Lexi jump again. “Now that we’re all besties, what’s the game plan?”

“I would hypothesize that we are more akin to strange bedfellows than ‘besties’ at this current juncture,” Audrey said.

“Sabrina’s right, though,” Roxy said. “Let’s get down to brass tacks—how are we getting Mac and Zoe outta the grubby little clutches of these perverted presbyters and paladins?”

“Not just Mac and Zoe,” Sophie said, placing a hand on Meg’s magitech arm. “My guess is that Tanya’s probably being held captive by the Church somewhere too.”

Meg nodded and said, “To be honest, I’d been hopin’ that we’d find my lil’ sister along with Beta. Are ya sure ya didn’t see a big-ass girl down there in the academy’s cells, who kinda looks like me, but with bleach-blonde hair an’, y’know, both of her arms?”

Sophie shook her head. “Unfortunately not. I don’t think I could have missed someone like that, either.” She paced back and forth, scratching her chin and thinking. “Couldn’t we just get some evidence ourselves that the Church is kidnapping beastesses? Take it to the press and force the Church’s hand into releasing their captives? You all hacked into Pluto Sebastian’s files, so why not do it with the Church?”

Audrey replied, “It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. Hacking the unsecured computer of an imbecile is one thing, but the Supreme Church’s databases are far more difficult to infiltrate by many orders of magnitude, especially since they updated their cybersecurity and internal protocols after Mackenzie was kidnapped for probing into their secrets. And with a rat hiding in the Four Packs like you said, Sophia, the Church is now reliably informed that beastesses are trying to look into the archbishop’s affairs. In fact, that is precisely why we realized we could use someone like Lexi—we needed an insider double agent who could covertly get us crucial information we could never acquire ourselves, without alerting the Church.”

“And if the rat was one of us,” Syd added, “The Church would have known Lexi was a double agent by now.”

“Good point,” Sophie said. “but that still leaves us stuck and without any leads. Not just about who the rat is, but also about where Mac, Zoe, and Tanya could be.”

Lexi wracked her brain to remember anything useful from what Sophie had shared with her in that janitor’s closet.

Mac was being held in the academy. Underground, in cells only accessible to paladins and templars with proper clearance.

Zoe was being held captive by the archbishop, somewhere, as a … play-thing. Bishop Ironside had told her as much, for what he thought would be a method of blackmail for Sophie’s compliance. Funny how that turned out.

Tanya was being held captive by the Church as well, for Goddess knows what reasons.

C’mon, Lexi Hunter. Think!

Is there something she hasn’t thought of yet?

…

Wait a second.

Yes.

Yes, there was!

“Sophie!” Lexi blurted out. “You told me that Bishop Ironside was the one who blackmailed you by saying the archbishop was holding your sister in captivity somewhere, right?”

“… Right?” Sophie said.

“Didn’t you say there was a reason he decided to spill the beans? Because you knew too much? Because you overheard something you shouldn’t have?”

Sophie furrowed her brow for a moment.

But then, both of her eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened.

She gasped.

“YES!” Sophie ran over and hugged Lexi tightly—a little too tightly, as Lexi wheezed in her arms. “Lexi, I think we’ve got ourselves a lead!”

“Care to indulge the rest of us with what you’re thinking?” Syd asked, with her hands on her hips.

Sophie released her vice grip on a grateful Lexi, who took deep gasping breaths.

The tiger beastess clasped her hands together and asked the whole group, “Do any of you think that you could get me in touch with Cece Dunaway?”