It had been a wild night.
Syd had gone from seducing an undercover paladin spy, to kidnapping them, to learning more about them … to realizing they were just like her … all in the span of a few hours.
She was standing in an elevator, feeling slightly closed-in, having had to duck awkwardly to get her huge frame inside the doors. It was a tall building, even by Abraxas’ standards, so she had a long way to go.
Plenty of time to think.
She couldn’t deny it. Despite all of her changing feelings towards Lexi over the course of the evening—suspicion, anger, condescension, curiosity, empathy, and now pride—there was scarcely a moment that night where Syd wasn’t thinking about Lexi. Hell, she still can’t stop thinking about her.
That shy, naive, closeted trans girl obsessed with beastesses (especially ones like Syd), who nervously waltzed into her nightclub and her life, and was now part of her damn pack.
And fuck, was she cute.
Syd was so happy when Lexi accepted their offer to join, and the swelling pride in her chest still hadn’t worn off. Syd was no stranger to one-night flings and catching the occasional flirty feelings for girls, but they usually wore off pretty quickly.
This was different. She couldn’t shake this.
One memory after another replayed in her brain in a loop over and over, rekindling the butterflies in her stomach anew each time—the clear admiration Lexi has for Syd, the difficulty of convincing her to join the pack, her enthusiastic acceptance of the Goddess’ gift once she realized it was possible … the way Lexi had accepted her bite so passionately, the sheer joy on her face when she thanked Syd …
Goddess above.
Syd decided she needed to sleep on it. But before then, she needed to clear her thoughts.
And so here she was, crammed in this (relative to her size) tiny elevator, heading to the very top penthouse suite of a luxury condo building in downtown Abraxas. It was approaching the wee hours of the morning, but Syd was fairly nocturnal anyway.
And lucky for her, so was her alpha.
A chime rang once the elevator arrived at the top floor. The doors opened, and Syd ducked under the entrance to step into the short hallway, lit dimly with sconce lights. There was only one door, located at the very end. It had a gold-colored lock and doorknob.
Syd unclipped a carabiner holding a ring of keys from the belt loop on the hip of her jeans. She found the key she was looking for—a golden skeleton key with an ankh on the flat end—and inserted it into the lock, without turning it. The key shimmered with cyan runes and the ankh blinked for a second, before turning green and fading back to the key’s original gold metal. Syd removed the key, placed the carabiner back on her belt loop, and opened the penthouse door.
The condo was two levels, with the upper level forming a long semi-circular glass-railed balcony, with doors on the balcony leading to rooms beyond. The entrance to the condo was located underneath the middle of this semicircle, also flanked by various dark-paneled doors.
This balcony surrounded the open atrium of the lower level that Syd stood in front of. The atrium was dim, save for the edges of almost every major interior facet of the penthouse that looked as if they were drawn with neon lights.
The floor was white marble tile with rugs and expensive furniture dividing the main floor into various spaces— a music-listening area, a minibar, a parlor room, and a kitchen with an island.
What caught Syd’s eye first, however, was the absolutely gigantic window pane in front of her, on the end of the room directly opposite from the entrance. It was several times higher than Syd, and took up an area larger than a drive-in movie theater screen. It was pouring rain outside and muffled distant thunder could be heard from behind the glass. In every direction were gigantic glass-and-steel skyscrapers and buildings of various sizes, neon-coated and monolithic, divided by criss-crossing streets at various elevations, as well as thousands or perhaps millions of twinkling dots of light, like fallen stars embedded in the cityscape. From up here, facing eastward while located in the western part of the megacity, at the top of one of the city’s tallest luxury buildings, Syd could see all of downtown Abraxas from up here.
Hell, Syd felt like she could see the whole world from up here. Is this close to what the Goddess of the Hunt sees every night?
Standing in front of the window on a wall-to-wall red carpeted ledge with steps in front of it, turning around to face Syd and reverted back to her human form, was none other than Alpha Lea.
Well, actually … almost everyone else in the city would instead know her human face by a different name:
Genevieve Andromeda. The current CEO of Gnosis Industries.
Gnosis was one of the most powerful corporations headquartered in Abraxas. It wasn’t as big as the more multi-national megacorps, whose influence extended well outside of the megacity and rivaled even the Supreme Church’s power and influence. However, within Abraxas city limits, through Miss Andromeda’s shrewd business acumen, it has out-competed the megacorps to become the industry leader and most widely known manufacturer in its particular market niche—magitech.
The ankh logo of Gnosis was a cultural fixture of the megacity, and almost synonymous with the image of Abraxas itself. Some residents would go so far as to say that if you visited the megacity, you gotta get some Gnosis magitech and show off that ankh. No surprise that, of course, the CEO’s penthouse key had one too.
Syd looked up and down at what Miss Andromeda—what Alpha—was wearing. Her knees nearly buckled and gave out from underneath her, as her jaw hung open slightly, her eyed widened, and her face flushed. She shifted from foot to foot as her already-tight jeans got even tighter in the crotch.
Miss Andromeda was wearing a leather corset and a black lace bra that just barely managed to contain her prominent breasts while showing off most of her muscular upper body. The corset accentuated her already perfect hourglass figure, which was complimented with a matching black lace garter, panty, and stocking ensemble adorning her curvy hips and powerful legs. She was wearing black leather stiletto-heeled thigh-high boots, polished to a shine.
Her dirty blonde shag cut hair fell loosely on her shoulders—like a lion’s mane—to frame her face with its perfect make-up, and hanging down just over her cleavage was her necklace with the golden crescent moon pendant. She extended one of her hands, wearing fingerless leather gloves, and beckoned Syd with one finger.
“Come here.”
Syd obeyed.
“Kneel.”
Syd obeyed again.
Her arousal and strong emotions at the sight of her alpha meant that she was fully tapped into her instincts. Her alpha commanded, and as her beta, she listened and obeyed.
Miss Andromeda smiled at Syd. It was a combination of genuine affection and confident superiority. She uttered two words that were like a salve to Syd’s troubled mind, the two words that always helped clear her thoughts.
“Good girl.”
The massive Amazonian woman whined like a little puppy.
As much as Syd would refuse to admit it to anyone outside of her alpha … it was hard being large and in charge all the time. Sometimes she needed a break. Sometimes she needed her insecurities soothed. It had been several years since she started her transition, but Syd still loved feeling validated and valued by another woman. Especially by another beastess.
And especially by Alpha.
At six-foot-six in her human form even without heels, Miss Andromeda was a foot shorter than Syd, but right now Syd felt like she was kneeling in front of a mountain of a woman.
“Good evening, Beta,” Miss Andromeda replied, still smiling at Syd. She reached out a hand to caress Syd’s cheek, who shivered at her alpha’s delicate touch.
“G-g-good evening, Alpha,” Syd managed to stammer, awestruck.
“As much as I would like to get right to the fun,” Miss Andromeda said, “you can drop the honorific and stand up. For now. We have important matters to discuss first.”
“Yes, Miss Andromeda,” Syd said, bringing herself off of her knees to her full height. Standing atop that ledge, her alpha was still eye level with Syd.
“Now you’re just teasing me, Syd,” her alpha said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve been my acting beta for a whole year now! How many times have I told you to call me Genevieve? ‘Miss Andromeda’ makes me sound like a schoolteacher.”
“I’ll never get used to that,” Syd replied with a smile, “but I’ll do my best.”
Syd only learned Alpha Lea’s true identity last year, when she personally selected Syd to be her acting beta until they could find Mac. Even as she’s gotten to know … Genevieve, she’d be forgiven for still being a little nervous around her, even after a year.
“So,” Genevieve said. “Lexi.”
“Yes.” Syd shuffled in place a bit.
“Is she doing well?”
“Yes,” Syd replied, “she’s staying the night at my den. We had a bed free anyway, since Mac … well, you know. Audrey, Roxy, Meg, and Sabrina said they were all cool with Lexi staying with us for the weekend. Some of them were kinda excited about it, actually.”
“Good. You know, it’s not every day we get a new member. Much less a trans woman … although I suppose we have previous experience in that area.” Genevieve smiled.
Syd blushed and looked away, scratching behind her head. Raising her beefy arm like that caused her leather vest and tank top to lift a bit, which gave her goosebumps on that part of her exposed stomach.
One of many fun little reminders of how big she was nowadays. She loved it.
“Yeah, well … I didn’t know she was trans until Audrey ran that background check on her. I honestly thought we were just going to interrogate her and figure out why she’s spying on us.” Syd looked back at Genevieve. “I’m … really glad you approved my idea of asking her to join our pack, Genevieve.”
“With those big puppy dog eyes of yours? How could I ever say ‘no’ to you, Beta?” Genevieve leaned forward and pet the top of Syd’s head, rustling her purple hair a bit. Syd closed her eyes and leaned into her alpha’s hand with a big dumb smile plastered on her scarred face.
Her foot almost started tapping.
“Besides,” Genevieve continued, “the way you talked about her—you really like her, don’t you, Syd?”
“…Yeah. Like, a lot. Like, a lot a lot.”
“Good. I approve. She’s very cute. She has an inner ferocity that we will help unleash.” Genevieve straightened her posture. “Your care for her will also help you in your duties as the acting beta of our pack. Protect this new girl—she is fragile. You know how you were when you started.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Syd answered, straightening herself as well.
“You will need to protect her from her own doubts, of course … but there’s external threats she will need to deal with as our mole in Abraxas Paladin Academy.”
Genevieve turned around and faced the window, raindrops hammering the glass outside from the storm. She tapped one high-heeled boot on the carpet, lost in thought for a moment.
“Do you remember what I told you Archbishop Steele said to me while drunk out of his mind, at that formal dinner where he had invited all of the corporate executives in Abraxas?”
“A bit, yeah. Why?”
“He leaned over to me—ugh, I still hate how he insisted I sit next to him—and told me with his breath reeking of liquor how he loved the work that Gnosis was doing, how our product research could serve the Church well in the future. He said that ‘you didn’t hear it from him,’ but Abraxas Paladin Academy was also conducting magitech research of its own. He was so proud of Bishop Ironside in particular. He said that the bishop’s research was ‘nearly complete’ into figuring out what makes beastesses tick.”
Her alpha stopped tapping her boot.
“His next words were the ones that made me suspicious. Words that, after I went home, compelled me to double-check the Church’s seemingly random purchases of magitech components from my company. Words that made me realize they were holding Mac at the APA. He said, and I quote: ‘Trust me, if you need lab rats to experiment your magitech on, the academy is full of the best rat-catchers in the city.’”
“Fuck. Do you think …” Syd felt a lump in her throat and tears well up in her eyes. She swallowed and gathered her composure. “… Do you think that’s what they’re doing to Mac right now?”
“I’m not entirely sure what they’re doing to her, I’m afraid,” Genevieve said. She turned her upper body and looked behind her at Syd in sympathy.
Syd clenched her fists in anger. Her massive muscles bulged as she tensed up. The thought of those self-righteous fuckers holding her beta hostage, of putting their grimy hands on her, of experimenting on her … it was only Alpha’s command to wait so they could form a plan to get her out, when she first told Syd about the archbishop’s comments, that prevented Syd from storming into Abraxas Paladin Academy right now.
Genevieve turned and faced the window again, looking out at the city, into the storm-covered inky darkness peppered by specks of light, as if by looking alone she would be able to see Mac, her lost pack-mate, her beta, once again.
“We’re going to get her back. As your alpha, I promise you that, Syd. And you and Lexi are going to help us do it.”
The leather-clad beastess woman turned around, put her hands behind her back, and planted her boots firmly, in that same power stance from when she was talking to Lexi earlier that evening.
“Beta, this is a direct order—protect Lexi from being discovered by the Church as a beastess at all costs. You had no connections to anyone when you underwent the ritual and Mac turned you, but Lexi is different. She is thoroughly embedded in the Church’s clutches. There’s no telling what they would do if they got their hands on someone who went from being a man to being a beastess. Our secrets must remain secret, for the safety and protection of all our kind, including her now.”
Syd nodded. All those years of loneliness and isolation before she was turned had become a blessing in hindsight—security in obscurity. Even if, Goddess forbid, Syd was ever captured by the Church, there’s no record of who she was before. The secret of the ritual would be safe, they wouldn’t even think to ask why she had been a man before.
Lexi didn’t have that luxury.
“The full transformative extent of the Goddess’ gift to Lexi will take place over the course of one lunar cycle, just like yours did—full moon to full moon. She will only pass as ‘Alex’ for a week or two, before the changes to her human form become too difficult to hide. While she is our mole—before her development into a woman, into a beastess like us, becomes plainly obvious to everyone—no one must find out: not her teachers, not her classmates, not Bishop Ironside, not even that templar friend of hers.”
Genevieve raised one hand from behind her back and tapped her chin. She looked down at the floor and frowned as her eyebrows furrowed.
“Lexi was already their church mouse. We can’t risk her becoming their lab rat as well.”
Syd stepped forward and Genevieve looked up in surprise. Syd was mere inches from her alpha’s face. The wolf beastess stared into the eyes of the leader of her pack with absolute, unshakeable determination.
“I will protect her, Alpha. You have my word. I’ll do it for you, for Beta … and for Lexi. She’s one of us now.”
“Thank you, Syd,” Genevieve said, smiling kindly. “I knew I could count on you. Have you made the arrangements for tomorrow’s excursion to Shadow Town?”
“Yeah … although it would be easier if you could lend us some magitech from Gnosis’ B-stock …”
“Too risky on such short notice. The magitech and funding that I provide to our pack requires meticulous planning and paperwork—so much fucking paperwork, Goddess above—to cover my tracks. A fully finished product from our medical augmentation line, even B-stock or refurbished, is much harder to ‘disappear’ from our books than your average everyday spare part. It’s best she gets it from one of our trusted connections in the underworld.”
“Understood,” Syd said with a nod.
“Now, now, now …” Genevieve—no, Alpha—said slowly, tracing a single gloved finger down the center of Syd’s abdomen, from the top of her chest down to her belly button, before removing it with a flourish on the last word.
A nervous chill ran down Syd’s spine, sending a ripple of tingling pleasure radiating from where Alpha had touched to the rest of her body.
“Since we are done discussing business matters, we can get to the fun. I want to let you know, Beta, that you’ve been such a good puppy for me lately. So loyal, so protective, so strong. I’m so proud of you, my beautiful guard dog …”
Syd’s golden eyes glimmered in the dim neon penthouse lighting for a moment. Her ears grew long and pointed. Her fangs and claws grew longer. She brought her limp hands up to her ample chest, as if they were paws. A fluffy gray tail shot out of the top of her jeans within seconds, and started wagging rapidly back and forth.
If the words ‘good girl’ delivered soothing serotonin to clear her mind, the words ‘guard dog’ were like pure dopamine being injected into her nervous system.
Syd had half-shifted right there out of sheer euphoria.
Alpha chuckled.
“So eager to get into puppy mode, I see! That’s my good girl …” Her alpha ruffled the hair on Syd’s head and scratched a bit behind her ears. This time, her foot did tap on the ground repeatedly, as her leg bounced uncontrollably from Alpha’s divine touch.
“We’re going to have such a nice time together to close out this crazy evening,” Alpha said, walking down the steps off the ledge.
She walked past Syd, her high-heeled boots clacking on the marble tiled floor. Her footsteps were muffled when she reached an area rug in front of an elegant side table with a mirror on the wall above it.
“Heel, puppy. I have a surprise for you.”
Syd obeyed. She was at her alpha’s side in a flash. Now that she was closer, she could see that there were two objects laid out on the side table—a black leather spiked collar, and a matching black leather leash.
On the collar’s ring was a golden crescent moon-shaped dog tag—to match Alpha’s necklace—with the inscription: Alpha’s Guard Dog.
The sight of the collar and leash made Syd extremely excited. In her jeans, her cock throbbed. She knew what came next. Her tail wagged even faster somehow.
She would still be in complete control and could take the collar off any time she wanted as a last resort. But why would she? While the collar was on, it meant she could relax and think of nothing else for a bit, nothing else besides being a good guard dog for her Alpha.
Syd would figure out the ramifications later of both having a domme and starting to crush—was that the feeling she couldn’t shake?—on a trans girl she only just met.
But that was for tomorrow. After how fucking stressful this evening has been …
Oh yeah.
Syd really needed this.
“Kneel,” Alpha ordered. “Face the mirror. I want you to see this, my pet.”
Syd kneeled, her upper body still visible in the mirror due to her sheer height.
“You’ll be guarding Lexi starting tomorrow under my orders,” her Alpha continued, “and a beautifully strong guard dog like you deserves an equally beautiful collar around her pretty neck. The surprise is this—from now on, you will wear this magitech collar at all times, even after our little session tonight, even when you shift into your full beast form as it grows to fit you, so that everyone can see exactly what you are: a big guard dog owned and collared by your Alpha.”
Syd’s cheeks turned beet red, and she bit her lip lightly with her fangs.
Holy FUCK, that’s hot.
Alpha grabbed the large spiked collar, walked behind Syd so they were both looking in the mirror, and placed it around Syd’s thick neck. The buckle on the back clicked into place. Alpha held up a small golden key with an ankh rune engraved into it, and gently tapped the buckle of the collar with it.
In the mirror, Syd could see the entire collar shimmer, crackling with cyan sparks of magical energy. Runes, the largest being ankhs, and circuitry lines illuminated in-between the spikes of the collar.
Syd could feel gentle periodic pulses of magic coming from the collar.
In fact … those pulses … were … kinda …
… Hypnotic …
A single word entered her mind. It echoed louder than the thunderclaps outside the window.
[Drop.]
Syd’s consciousness fell into an abyss, sunken out of reality like she had suddenly plummeted into a hidden mental trap door. It was a wonderful dissociation that obscured her peripheral perception and enveloped her like a warm fuzzy blanket. The feeling also focused her attention directly onto her Alpha. Her primal instincts took precedence over her higher brain functions as she completely surrendered her will and let Alpha’s dominance wash over her. She was subservient to her Pack Leader, and it felt so good to let Her take the lead, to let Her give Syd what she so desperately needed right now—to let go.
In this blissful altered state of relaxed trance, she saw her Alpha smile in the mirror at her, rubbing Her own breasts sensually over Her black lace bra, and looking so aroused at the sight of Her obedient puppy. Syd couldn’t help but give a dumb happy grin back at Her. She loved how she made Alpha happy.
And Syd definitely loved how she looked now. Her eyes traced over a truly gigantic body she never thought she would have inhabited in a million years. All of her muscles, her breasts, her hips, her thighs, her dick … all of her was so fucking huge!
She had such a strong body. A powerful body. A woman’s body.
The body of a beastess.
Alpha picked up on Syd’s dreamy self-admiration and commanded without speaking a word.
[Flex for Me. Show off your big strong body, My beta. My beautiful wolf. My guard dog.]
In her hypnotic trance, the wolf beastess welcomed the reprieve from having to think so hard, and let her Alpha’s thoughts become her own. She was just a big guard dog, after all. Better to let her Owner do the thinking right now. She always knew what was best for Her pet.
Syd gave a flex of both of her absolutely monumentally massive tattooed biceps in the mirror, jerked her head to swish her purple hair back a bit, and grinned a wicked fanged grin.
She was such a loyal guard dog.
A good puppy.
[And such a good girl.]
Alpha picked up the black leather leash, and Syd heard the distinct click of the leash as She attached it onto the ring of the collar. It was pure music to her lupine ears.
It had been a wild night.
And for Alpha and Her beta, these next few hours would be even wilder.