“What’s on my … ?”
Mac’s question caught Sophie off-guard, breaking her out of her spiraling anxiety.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. Focus, she thought.
Focusing was easier if she looked away from the restrained half-jaguar woman. The very buff, very sexy beastess woman in front of her.
“Well, if you must know,” Sophie said, “I came down here to check on you.”
“Check on me?” Mac raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Sophie regained her composure. “Presbyter Talbot said to me that you have been less receptive to his testing than usual. Tell me, Mackenzie—”
“We’re alone in here, princess,” the butch beastess woman said with a fanged smile. “Just call me Mac.”
“…Tell me, Mac,” Sophie said, blushing slightly, “How has your time here been treating you? I’m not allowed to inquire about the presbyter’s classified procedures with you, but I do want to ensure you aren’t being mistreated.”
That was a lie. Sophie knew at the very least that Presbyter Talbot was trying to extract Mac’s wild magic.
“Let me get this straight—you paladins kidnap me, put me in solitary confinement for a whole year, interrogate me over and over, experiment on me, inject me with Goddess knows what … and you want to play nurse and make sure I’m not being mistreated?” Mac pulled against her restraints and stared daggers at Sophie. Her muscles bulged beneath her rosette-patterned fur. “Well, the answer is fucking obvious, isn’t it? For your sake, you’re lucky I haven’t gone completely batshit!”
“All you have to do is—”
“—Sell out my fucking pack. My family. That’s ‘all’ you want me to do.” Mac spit on the ground. “You paladin bitches can go fuck yourselves!” She breathed heavily, taking a beat, and looked around the empty room. Thinking. Considering what to say next.
“Are you quite done?” Sophie asked with annoyance.
Mac grinned. Like she had just thought of an inside joke that Sophie didn’t get.
“Fuck you especially, templar.”
Sophie chuckled.
“Are you saying that because I kidnapped you?”
“No. If it wasn’t you, it would have been some other damn templar. No, I’m saying that because you’re such a fuckin’ liar, Sophie.”
Sophie tensed up.
“I don’t …” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself. “I would never lie to you, Mac.”
[Bullshit, princess. You’ve been fuckin’ lying to me since day one.]
Mac’s mouth wasn’t moving. But her words seemed to come from everywhere at once.
… No, wait.
Mac was speaking inside Sophie’s head.
Sophie staggered backwards and stammered under her breath, “What … what beastess sorcery is this? How did you—”
[Shut the FUCK up!] Mac narrowed her eyes through her muzzle. [I’ll tell you, IF you stay quiet.]
Sophie almost spoke up again, but caught herself and silently nodded.
[I know about the hidden microphone.] Mac jerked her head towards the ceiling to gesture at the light. [He can’t hear us like this, but he’ll know something is up if you keep acting weird. This has to stay our little secret. Now, say something out loud to cover for the silence.]
Sophie, still confused but harnessing her training as a templar paladin to adapt to the current situation as quickly as possible, came up with something on the spot.
“Nice try, pagan scum,” she said confidently. “You almost tricked me by trying to turn the tables of this inquisition. Well, I’m not falling for it. I’ve literally got all day. We can just sit here in silence for as long as you’d like, until you’re willing to talk.”
[Good,] Mac spoke into Sophie’s mind. [That’ll buy us some time. Now listen—what I’m doing right now is speaking directly into your mind. You can do it too. Try it out. Just pretend you’re talking to me, except THINK the words instead.]
Think the words …
[… Instead?] Sophie thought.
[Exactly! You’ve got it!]
[How are you doing this?]
[Wrong question. What you should be asking is ‘how are WE doing this?’ And the answer is simple—because we’re both beastesses.]
A shiver went down Sophie’s spine.
[How did you … I’ve never—]
Wait.
Of course.
[You said—or thought-said into my mind, or whatever this is—that I’ve been lying to you since day one.]
[Yup.]
[So you’ve always known? You’ve been reading my mind?!]
Mac grinned beneath her metal muzzle and slowly said, [Since. Day. Fuckin’. One. Sweetheart.]
Sophie blushed. Fuck, her confidence was so hot.
… Wait, what else did she know?
[Not everything,] Mac said in response, which made Sophie jump, [but a lot of juicy bits and pieces. No one else knows this, but beastesses can talk to each other with our minds, and you’ve been broadcasting random thoughts to me since I woke up here and you started visiting. Considering you’re a templar, considering you’ve been doing it unconsciously, and considering you never knew you could do that until just now … You’ve never told anyone you’re a beastess before, have you? I’m the first one to find out you’re a beastess, and the first one to teach you about this ability. Am I right?]
Sophie nodded solemnly.
[And,] Mac continued, [did I read your mind correctly a few minutes ago that you came down here to ‘interrogate’ me today because you’re secretly fed up with the Church, and you want to try to break me out of here?]
Sophie sighed. [Fuck. Yes, you’re right about everything.]
Mac chuckled and said, [I’m sorry for prying into your deepest darkest secret, but if it’s any consolation … it’s kept me going down here. Kept my hopes up in this hopeless prison. When I figured out from the start that the only female paladin visiting me down here was secretly a beastess too, and a templar at that, it all made sense! How you were able to overpower and capture me, why you were going easy on me compared to the others … and why you were such a catch.] Mac winked at Sophie, who turned away.
Trying to recover from Mac’s flirting, Sophie said, [But Mac … if you knew I was a beastess since our first inquisition, why didn’t you say something earlier?]
Mac sat back in her chair and relaxed her shoulders, raising one eyebrow.
[There’s cameras, microphones, and guards everywhere. Even if I used mind speech, you would have pushed back. You were just too damn loyal to the Church at the start. But I knew your secret, and I knew you would crack eventually if I was patient.] Mac shrugged. [The Church can’t keep a wild beast on a leash for that long.]
[Says the one sitting in chains right now.] Sophie smiled and put a hand on her hip.
[Point taken. But I’m always free in my mind, and I knew you could see that the Church couldn’t take that away from me. If I nudged you along slowly, planting little seeds of doubt, getting along with you, being friendly with you—as a fellow beastess, you’d come around to my side.]
[Don’t give yourself too much credit for my mutiny,] Sophie said, her smile falling. [You’re just the straw that broke the camel’s back.]
God above, it felt so good just to talk for once. To confess her sins. To talk with someone who could actually understand what she had been holding back for so very fucking long.
It all came pouring out.
[I’ve always felt ashamed of myself for being a beastess, but that was easy enough to push down. And I could rationalize killing and arresting criminals if the Church ordered me to do it, if it was God’s will to punish sinners. No emotions necessary. But with you … I don’t know. Something in me just couldn’t handle seeing you locked up and tortured. I couldn’t get rid of those emotions anymore. I started feeling guilty for the first time in my whole life. Guilty about capturing you, guilty about following orders … guilty about choosing to become a templar.
[All these doubts and all of these guilty feelings have only grown more and more lately. Getting send on more and more violent secret missions … seeing how careless Bishop Ironside has been with my friend Alex’s safety … learning what Archbishop Steele is doing to beastesses … finding out the Church has kidnapped my fucking sister … Shame was familiar, but all this guilt? All of this bullshit I’ve been complicit in? All of the people I’m hurting?! It’s just … it’s all too much. Everything’s too fucking much, Mac. I can’t take it anymore.]
Sophie’s face was wet with tears, and it took effort to breathe slowly so her whimpers didn’t get picked up by the microphone. Mac simply stared into her eyes—not from judgment, but with a softness, an empathetic gaze. They remained in silence for a few moments.
[I want to ask you something,] Mac said finally, [and please don’t take offense. Do you hide your emotions and keep your secrets because you’re afraid of what would happen if someone saw them like I can? Are you afraid of being … vulnerable, Sophie?]
Sophie nodded. [Is it that obvious?]
[Only because I used to be like that too. See these scars? Under my fur?] Mac nodded her muzzle down to her body. [Besides the ones that fuckin’ priest gave me this year, I got most of these before my first transformation. I was in a lot of fights growing up, and I used to hate my scars. Thought they made me look ugly. Like a monster. I hated my scars until I got older and realized I was being a fuckin’ idiot! None of my pack-mates gave a shit about them like I did, and I care about my pack so fuckin’ much, so what the hell was I even doing getting all bent out of shape about it? Sophie … while you hide your emotional scars away from the world, I wear my scars on my flesh with pride. The physical ones, the emotional ones—all of them. People wanna think I’m a monster? Fine, let ‘em! Only I know who I REALLY am, and who I am is Mackenzie fuckin’ Fiero. I know where I’ve been and I still keep fuckin’ going. I wear my scars on my skin with honesty and pride, because I want to show the world that I don’t give a SHIT what people think of me. The people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind. It’s pretty damn nice. You should try it sometime, cutie.]
… Huh. Sophie had never thought of it that way.
[And I’m so sorry to hear about your sister. From what I gathered about the archbishop’s ‘proclivities’ before you captured me …] Mac trailed off. [I can help you get her back. But first you gotta figure out a way to get me out of this shit-hole of a prison.]
Right! The escape plan! Obviously if Mac could read Sophie’s thoughts, she must have known as soon as they entered the inquisition room that Sophie wanted to get Mac out of there.
[You’re right,] Sophie said. [Sorry for getting carried away, it just feels so good to talk with someone who just … gets it, you know?]
Mac smiled warmly behind her muzzle cage. [I understand completely, princess.] Sophie’s heart fluttered.
The jaguar beastess’s expression turned serious. [I don’t think we’ll be able to come up with the whole escape plan right now, unless you’ve got any ideas?]
[Not at the moment, unfortunately.]
[Hmm …] Mac closed her eyes, then opened them. [Either we’ll need to meet again, or you need to come up with the plan on your own from the outside. I can’t do much here to help unless you get me out of these damn beastess-proof shackles.] She tugged at the holographic chains for emphasis. [While I have you here though, I want to ask you—why did you kidnap me?]
[Fuck, Mac, I am SO sorry about that—]
[Shush. I forgive you, sweetheart, don’t worry. You’re just as much a victim of the Church here as I am—your prison was just inside your mind. But that’s not what I’m asking. Why did the Church order you to kidnap me instead of arresting me?]
Sophie had never really thought about that before. Then again, she hadn’t started questioning orders until recently.
[I don’t know. Y’know, it’s funny … Bishop Ironside ordered me to kidnap you, but he just sent my friend Alex—he’s a cadet paladin a bit younger than me, almost ready to graduate—on an undercover mission solely to gather evidence for an arrest. He must not have wanted me looking into beastess activities for more evidence, because it would have been more likely I would have discovered what you were investigating about the archbishop’s … affairs. The bishop probably wanted to wait until he was certain he could use my sister to blackmail me into compliance. But still, it’s a risky move sending a cadet paladin like Alex to spy on Sydney Beaumont of all people—]
[WHAT?] Mac pulled against her restraints hard, startling Sophie. [They’re trying to arrest Syd now too?!] The jaguar woman relaxed, quickly trying to process this, searching her eyes around the room. [So they had no evidence against either of us, but they only sent a templar to kidnap me …]
This must be why Mac is such a good beta for her pack, Sophie thought to herself. Mac has a knack for taking charge of a situation.
Oh, what Sophie would do to see that jaguar woman take charge of her …
Suddenly Mac snapped her head up.
[Goddess above … the Church must have gotten some secret intel on me. They must have known I was trying to figure out what that perverted archbishop was up to. And I covered my tracks well, so no one fucking knew—no one that is, except for the Four Packs.] Mac spit on the ground. [There’s a fuckin’ rat—metaphorically speaking—hiding within the Four Packs of Abraxas. I’m sure of it.]
Of course, that made so much sense. Sophie was starting to put the pieces together too. When Bishop Ironside had ordered her to capture Mac, he had emphasized that it be done as quickly and discretely as possible. When she had asked him what evidence he had for the warrant, he had defaulted to the standard response of ‘it’s classified’, and like the good little templar she was, she didn’t question it.
Turns out there was no evidence at all—they just wanted to muzzle Mac. Seems like they got their wish.
[Who do you think is the rat?] Sophie asked.
[I don’t know for sure.] Mac shook her head.[There’s a few beastesses that come to mind, but honestly it could be anyone.]
[Mac,] Sophie said, taking both of the jaguar’s clawed hands in her own and staring deep into her eyes,[if you promise me that you’ll help me find my sister once I get you out of here, I promise you that I’ll help find whoever this rat is. When Alex returns to the academy, I’ll see if I can pry any info from him about Syd and the other beastesses he encountered while undercover. He may have seen something that could help us track down the rat.]
Mac squeezed Sophie’s hands and said, [I promise, Sophie.] The jaguar woman furrowed her brow with determination. [And once I get out of here, I’m gonna teach that snitch a lesson she definitely won’t forget.]
Sophie smiled and swished her ponytail. [You’re right, you know. About me being such a fuckin’ liar. Wanna know how I know you’re right?]
Mac smiled back up at Sophie and said, [Lay it on me, babe.]
Sophie could feel her face and body half-shifting, enough to match Mac’s own half-shifted state. Her snout, her fangs, her claws, her fur and whiskers … all of them came out.
It felt like taking off a corset that was too tight. Like her soul could breathe again.
The tigress templar said, [Because there’s still one more reason for why I wanna bust you out of here that I haven’t mentioned yet.]
Cocking an eyebrow and flashing a knowing fanged grin, Mac asked, [And what might that be, princess?]
With one swift motion, Sophie swung one leg over the chair so that she was straddling Mac’s lap. She grabbed both sides of the jaguar beastess’ head and unlatched a couple of the straps on the muzzle, pulling the cage off to one side.
[It’s because I’m falling in love with you, Mackenzie Fiero.]
They kissed.
They kissed as hard, and as long, and as passionately as they could.
Two big cats, freed from their cages, just for this moment.
And the moment was a million times better than the countless times she had dreamt about it.
She wished it could last forever—
“Hey Sophie,” came Reggie’s voice from down the hall, “you doing okay in there?”
[FUCKING HELL, OF ALL TIMES, REALLY?!]
[Don’t panic. Put my muzzle back on, shift back to your human form, and act casual.]
Sophie nodded and did as she was told.
“Yeah, I’m doing just fine, Reg!” Sophie yelled back.
[Good girl,] Mac said, nodding approvingly.
Sophie nearly crumpled to the ground from those two words, but gathered herself and said, [I’ll be back again, I promise—plan or no plan. God above, I can’t wait to get you out of this damn prison.]
Mac smiled and said, [Me too. And I want to return the favor and get you out of your prison called ‘the Supreme Church’. When I’m out of here, come with me. Join my pack. Worship our Goddess. We’ll take you in as one of our own, and keep your sister under our protection too. Alpha Lea’s gonna be fucking pissed at you, but I’ll have a chat with her, don’t worry about that.]
“You’ve been in there a while,” Reggie yelled down the hall. “I don’t think she’s gonna talk. I’ll be right there to help escort the prisoner, gimme a minute.”
“Okay!” Sophie yelled behind her, not taking her eyes off of the jaguar beastess in front of her, the most handsome and beautiful butch in the whole world.
[What do you think, princess?] Mac asked with a smirk. [Wanna be a bad girl for once in your life?]
Sophie responded to Mac’s smirk with the biggest, happiest, and most genuine grin of her entire life.
[I’m a beastess and a dyke. I was BORN to be a bad girl, darling.]