Even though she had only been away since Thursday, it felt like a lifetime had passed between that fateful night at Club Demiurge and this foggy Tuesday morning.
Lexi Hunter had recovered quickly enough with the help of her new beastess abilities that by Monday night she felt well enough to return to Abraxas Paladin Academy. She had gathered up all of her belongings before she left, including a brand-new chest binder, some brown-colored contact lenses for her disguise, and the magitech dagger she had assumed was confiscated—it turned out that Meg was just giving it a tune-up. All of these items were reminders that Lexi had a mission to carry out once she got back to the academy—stay in disguise and find her pack-mate Mac.
Wow. Right. Find her … pack-mate.
It was crazy to think that she was part of the Pack of Abraxas West now. She would even be back to the den later that week to start strength training and sparring with Syd, to prepare for the Harvest Moon Tournament in a month. Sabrina said Lexi should also come by the den on each major phase of the moon for the next month—last quarter, new moon, first quarter, and the harvest full moon—so that Sabrina could inject her with more strength-enhancing nanobots when the old ones wore off and left her system, to assist the wild magic as it changed her body.
Knowing all of this hadn’t made leaving the den any easier.
Syd had given her a nearly bone-crushing hug and lots of kisses to send her off, and after hugging all of her new-found pack-mates and donning her ‘male’ disguise—ugh, that was gonna take some getting used to—Roxy had given her a ride back to campus. Luckily Lexi hadn’t encountered anyone she knew on the way back to her dorm room, and when she finally had some privacy she had taken off her disguise, brushed her slightly pointier teeth, and collapsed into bed for a deep night’s sleep.
And now it was Tuesday. And now she had to get into ‘boy’ mode all over again and get ready for class.
Fine. Whatever. It was only temporary. Cadet Alexander Carpenter was nothing but a costume now—a role she was quite literally born to play.
At least she could stand to look at herself in her dorm mirror for the first time in ages. Almost a week ago, all she had seen in that mirror was a scrawny, weak, pathetic man—no, a failed man, a boy.
But now? She was one hell of a woman.
She had curves. She had muscles. She was smooth, toned, and Goddess above, she was actually kinda pretty! Especially with those brand-new glittering golden eyes of hers. A shame she has to cover them with the contacts.
Damn. Was she taller too?
Lexi frowned. Syd had told her it was going to gradually get harder and harder to hide her changing body, and she agreed—she had her work cut out for her. Maybe she should slouch more, act more depressed? It would certainly help her get into character as Alex. She needed to act fast this week to help free Mac before anyone caught on that there was something different about her. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about graduating, since she was betraying the other paladins anyway.
… Paladins like Sophie.
Fuck. Lexi should go see her on her lunch break, just like she should report to Bishop Ironside in a few minutes.
She was nervous as soon as she walked into his office, with her contacts in place and her binder keeping her breasts flat inside her slightly tighter cadet paladin uniform. But luckily, she and her pack-mates had rehearsed the story she would tell the bishop to explain her absence.
“You’ve … befriended the target?”
“Yes, Bishop. Sydney Beaumont bought me a drink, and we met over the weekend in Shadow Town along with some of her associates. She thinks I’m just a university student writing a research paper about beastesses, and while she is reluctant to share any potentially incriminating information, she is letting her guard down around me. If I keep meeting with her, she might divulge something the Church can use. I think I even have a lead already.”
All of it was half-truths, which made it easier to keep her story straight.
“Pray tell, Cadet Carpenter,” Bishop Ironside asked, clearly intrigued, “what have you found?”
“I suspect the Pack of Abraxas West is researching how to use wild magic to increase the number of beastesses being born into the general population, or perhaps even how to turn non-beastess women into beastesses.”
Lexi knew that would intrigue the bishop. Alpha Lea had told her all about how the bishop had probably been experimenting on Mac for the past year—maybe even right now. Bishop Ironside shared Lexi’s fascination with beastess biology and wild magic, although evidently in a far more twisted way.
Of course, Lexi had left out a few crucial details—that not only was there already a wild magic ritual to turn people into beastesses, but also that it could work on men too.
“Those damned pagans! Of course they’re trying to grow their numbers. Hmm … any hard evidence?”
“Nothing yet, just speculation from what she was alluding to in our conversations. However, I can try to pry her for more information later this week, if that’s all right with you, Bishop.”
“Permission granted, Cadet Carpenter. See if you can bring back any magitech or documentation related to their wild magic research.”
“Yes, Bishop. I just wish …”
“Hmm?”
It was a gamble, sure.
But she had to try it.
“… I just wish I could speak with someone on campus who might know more about beastesses. What makes them tick. If I could ask a paladin or a presbyter who has direct experience with beastess physiology and how they use wild magic, maybe I would be able to figure out what the Pack of Abraxas West is researching.”
Bishop Ironside wiped some sweat off of his shaved head with a cloth and rubbed his chin in thought. Suddenly he snapped his fingers.
“You know who might be able to help? Presbyter Talbot.”
“Really?” Lexi said. “I thought he only specialized in magitech.”
“Yes, but he has a … scholarly interest, shall we say, in human anatomy and wild magic research. He is a very busy man, but he should be available for a meeting next week—I’ll arrange it for you.”
“W-wow! Thank you, Bishop! You’re so thoughtful,” Lexi said, pretending to be grateful and obsequious.
“Of course. You’ve impressed me with your report, and your due diligence in this mission deserves to be rewarded. You’re quite the double agent, Cadet Alexander Carpenter. I, too, am starting to see the potential that your friend Templar Ryder sees in you. Maybe you’re not a completely lost cause after all. Perhaps you have the makings to be a great spy some day. Dismissed.”
Ha!
If only he knew.
Leaving the bishop’s underground office and returning to the surface grounds of the campus for her classes, Lexi’s nervous energy from earlier had turned into confidence. She almost forgot to slouch from how proud she was, giggling as she caught herself.
She’s got a lead! Not the fake one she gave the bishop, obviously—she now had a lead on finding Mac. If what the archbishop said to Alpha Lea over their dinner together is true, Mac’s being used as a lab rat for the academy, and talking to Presbyter Talbot will be one step closer to finding out where Mac is being held and what, if anything, they’ve done to her.
Now she realized why the pack needed her help. There was no way Bishop Ironside was going to give anyone outside of the Supreme Church this kind of privileged access to information and staff at the academy. She was lucky that Sophie had advocated on her behalf, or she might not have even been assigned such a confidential mission to begin with, much less as a cadet paladin with a positively abysmal academic record outside of pagan studies.
Speaking of academics, Lexi had classes to attend. She picked up the pace and jogged past the Academy Cathedral to the classroom building. The cathedral, which she had once held a holy reverence for, was nothing more to her now than a pretty-looking tourist attraction.
Classes were boring, as per usual. Her bullies harassed her after class, also as per usual.
What wasn’t usual was that when one of them called her a faggot and tried to shove her into the wall, Lexi … held her ground. The other cadet was a bigger dude, and had put a pretty fair amount of strength into his shove.
But to Lexi, it felt like she was a brick wall, and his shove was nothing more than a soccer ball bouncing right off of her. Both of them stood there, bewildered for a moment. Nevertheless, the bigger cadet shook his head angrily and tried again, but harder. Luckily Lexi remembered just in time that she was supposed to still appear weak, and pretended to stumble backwards into the wall. Satisfied, her bullies laughed and headed down the hallway before any instructors could see them.
For all of the pretensions of the fancy uniforms they wore, for all of their talk about how it was such an honor to join the Supreme Church’s holy cause to cleanse the country of sin and restore moral order, Lexi knew who her fellow cadets really were. Not just her bullies—pretty much every other cadet as well. Deep down, her bullies weren’t the only ones at the academy who held hatred in their hearts for weak people, people like who she used to be. They were just the cadets who were the most open about it. Lexi was sure that everyone else in her graduating class would gladly look the other way or even cheer on her bullies for humiliating Lexi for her weakness.
She clenched her fists in anger. It wasn’t worth hunting such easy prey. They didn’t deserve the dignity of her true strength. Besides, she had a disguise to maintain.
No, what made her angry was how carelessly these bullies, these assholes, brandished their strength. Past Lexi—Alex—resented and envied her bullies in equal measure. It was similar to her envy towards beastesses, just minus the admiration. Her bullies took their natural strength and privilege for granted.
It was just like Syd had said—they were takers. They wanted to be paladins so they could take more, with immunity provided by the Church, by the law. Taking without consequence.
So naive. Every action has a consequence. If they ever encountered her outside of this academy, they’d learn that lesson really fucking quickly.
Lexi realized she had not only grown physically stronger in such a short period of time, but emotionally stronger as well. She had things her bullies lacked—restraint, empathy, and resilience. Most of all, she had a community based on loving others, regardless of strength. A community that wasn’t based on stomping on the weak to get a leg up on the social ladder.
She had people she deeply cared about. People like Roxy, Audrey, Meg, and Sabrina. People like Alpha Lea. People like Syd. People like—
Sophie!
Fuck, she was going to be late for lunch!
Lexi sprinted back across campus, through the front gates, down the street a couple of blocks, and just barely made it on time to the coffeeshop they had agreed to meet at. Thank Goddess for her beastess endurance, or she’d have been completely out of breath by now.
“Alex! Over here!”
Sophie was sitting at a table in the back corner of the coffeeshop, smiling and waving at Lexi with one hand. She had apparently just lowered the hood and mask of her templar uniform so she could fix her ponytail.
Lexi’s deadname stung extra hard coming out of Sophie’s lips, but she grinned and waved back anyway as she made her way over to the table. Mustn’t break character.
They exchanged hugs, and after Lexi had gone back up to the counter to order coffee and a turkey BLT with extra bacon—she was craving meat way more nowadays—she sat down opposite Sophie, who was munching on a tuna salad sandwich of her own.
“So,” Sophie said expectantly, “how did the mission go?”
“Better than I expected,” Lexi said, honestly. “I think I’m close to getting some incriminating evidence against the target,” she said, dishonestly.
“That’s amazing, Alex!” the templar said with a grin. “You can gimme the details later—” Sophie glanced around the lunch rush crowd in the coffeeshop, “—but I’m just glad it went well. More importantly, how are you? You said over the phone you encountered some beastesses. They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“No, I’m fine, Soph. Actually, that’s the funny thing.” Lexi leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “I’ve befriended a couple of them so I could spy on them more closely.”
Sophie blinked her eyes twice.
“I’m sorry, you what?”
“Yeah,” Lexi said with a grin. “I befriended some beastesses. Including the target.”
“… Who are you, and what have you done with Alex?”
Lexi laughed out loud at the irony of her question. “Maybe I’m finally starting to get the hang of this whole paladin thing. The academy’s training is finally paying off. Only took four years and the right kind of mission, I guess.”
Sophie just stared at Lexi for a moment, then shook her head and smiled.
“Well I’m just glad you’re okay. Wow, Alex … after all these years of me pushing you to get out more, I guess you finally found some confidence in that anxious head of yours. Look at you, Mr. Social Butterfly over here!” Sophie lightly slugged Lexi on the arm and laughed.
The misgendering hurt more than the punch, but all Lexi could do was grin and bear it. It was weird that Sophie was suddenly so happy that Lexi had been talking with beastesses, when a few days ago over the phone she sounded so wary of them. It was probably just as she said—Lexi was never one to befriend anyone, so even pretending to befriend the enemy was a step forward for ‘Alex’, in Sophie’s eyes.
Lexi wondered if one day she would be able to tell Sophie who she really was. What she really was. But sadly, in all likelihood, a templar like her would probably never accept a beastess like—
Hold on. Right.
The other reason Lexi wanted to meet with Sophie.
“Hey Soph, uh … I wanted to talk with you about something I learned over the weekend while on my mission.”
“I have something to ask you too, actually—about specifically which beastesses you met up with—but can we do it when we’re not in public?”
“It has nothing to do with the target, don’t worry,” Lexi said. “I won’t break the confidentiality of the mission. It has to do with the Church. The templars, specifically.”
“Yeah, what about them?” Sophie asked.
Lexi brought her voice down to a whisper. “Have you noticed any other templars acting … strange, recently?”
“Strange? I mean, Templar Collins has gotten really into sports betting recently, but—”
“No, not him. That’s not what I mean. I mean from any of the templars who are women.”
Sophie shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
“What are you implying, Alex?”
Lexi closed her eyes, then opened them and looked away. It was harder than she thought to look at Sophie while she lied to her face.
“At the bar in Shadow Town that the target took me to—”
“You went to Shadow Town?! Alex, do you know how incredibly dangerous—”
“Let me finish.” Lexi’s interruption surprised Sophie, who immediately nodded in apology. “At that bar, I met some other pagans and their criminal associates. We chatted for a while and they all had a bit too much to drink, so the topic of conversation switched to how much they missed one of their betas. ‘M’-something. Mary? Mackenzie?”
Sophie nearly knocked over her coffee.
“Sorry! Sorry. Please, continue.”
“Their beta had been kidnapped about a year ago and they had been looking for her. But, being as drunk as they were, and thinking I was just a no-name university student, they let me in on a little secret.” Lexi looked back at Sophie. This was the easier part, because it was pretty damn close to the truth. “They had just recently obtained surveillance footage of when she was kidnapped. And they showed me what was on it.”
“And … what did you see?” Sophie asked slowly.
Lexi leaned forward and whispered, “Their beta being kidnapped by a templar. But not just any templar … a templar with a tiger tail.”
Sophie gripped her mug with both hands, white-knuckled, her expression strained.
“D-did you see who it was?”
“Unfortunately no. They had their mask and hood up the whole time. That’s why I wanted to ask you if you know anyone who it could be, if—”
“That’s impossible, Alex. You know that’s impossible. It was probably just a beastess in a costume with a grudge against M—against the beta.”
“I thought so too, but no one can just get templar uniforms like that, even in Shadow Town. And why would they dress like a templar and kidnap one of their own, anyway? If they were just a regular beastess with a grudge, they would have just killed them. And the way she moved …” Lexi drew on her memories from her conversation with Ripley. “They were the real deal, Soph. She had the training of a templar—there was no mistaking it from the way she overpowered the beta in the footage.”
Sophie just stared down at her coffee.
“Soph … there’s a beastess hiding in the templars.” Lexi reached out and put her hand on one of Sophie’s. “And I don’t want you getting hurt. You always look out for me, and this time I wanna look out for you. We should try to figure out who it is together—”
Sophie stood up suddenly, placing her coffee mug down and recoiling back from Lexi’s touch.
“Remember what I told you over the phone?” Sophie said tersely. “Beastesses. Cannot. Be. Trusted. Don’t listen to their lies. None of the templars are beastesses, Alex. I would know if they were. They would be dead if they were.”
“But Sophie—”
“I don’t need saving from something that doesn’t exist. Those pagans were probably just playing a trick you. Don’t let your guard down just because they were nice to you. ‘Nice’ doesn’t mean ‘good’. There’s … more to it than that. God above, Alex, you’ve been spending so much time around them that you’re even starting to smell like a beastess. Use extra soap in the shower tonight—and that’s an order, Cadet Carpenter. I’ll see you later.”
She gulped down what remained of her coffee and used a napkin to grab the remaining half of her sandwich before heading out the door of the coffeeshop without another word.
… What the hell was that all about?
Why didn’t she believe Lexi? Why did her mood swing from happily congratulating Lexi on getting out of her shell to shutting her down coldly when Lexi said she thought the beastesses were telling the truth? And did Lexi really smell that bad, or was that just Sophie’s way of warning Lexi—no, ‘Alex’—to not lose sight of ‘his’ mission?
Lexi Hunter was left with just the tinkling of the bell above the door, the chatter of the other customers, and the echo in her mind of her own unanswered questions for company.