Phoebe sighed as the elevator came to a halt on the seventh floor. She had left Wendy and the Raver Twins behind one floor down, so they could check in with Carla.
Meanwhile, she had a roommate to meet.
Moving with an unintentionally sexy sway, she strode down the carpeted halls. She grumbled at the way she was walking; as if it wasn’t bad enough that she was a woman, now she was beginning to enjoy it!
“Jesus in a birchbark canoe,” she growled. “Fuck.”
Room 7-15 finally came to be, and she slid her key in the lock. With a sigh of apprehension, she creaked the door open.
The dorm room was flawlessly made up, crisp and fresh. A set of books lay on the oak desk, presumably her textbooks. To her surprise, a laptop rested on the desk. Her laptop, from the news van.
She smiled wickedly. “Fuckin’ A,” she whispered.
She made a point to close and lock the door behind her, and to brace the adjoining bathroom door shut. It was surprisingly easy to move the heavy dresser; she didn’t even have to strain. Hauling the second desk in front of the room door was an equally easy task. Her strength surprised her, and she had to admit, it felt good to be a powerhouse.
She took note of her appearance, the long amber hair, her tiny fangs, the curves of her nails, the points of her ears. She would get worse tonight, but how much worse?
Just as quickly, she shrugged it off. She couldn’t think about that now.
She ran a quick diagnostic, finding a slow but serviceable dial-up connection. Her typing was awkward, thanks to her claws, but she managed nonetheless after several hours of searching to find what she wanted amidst the video archives of WOLF Channel 5.
“Gotcha, bitch,” she smiled, rotating her cap in triumph.
“Ready?” Wendy asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Penny sighed. “Let’s go die.”
“We’re not gonna die,” Susan snapped. “Just gonna become snarling animals.”
Wendy shot her a glance as she prepared to open the door…
“Hiya!”
The three turned to face the speaker, a black-haired girl they recognized from the tour. Several more pre-frosh girls stood behind her, all sporting lupine features. “Missed ya at the party last night.”
“Um, yeah, well, we…” stammered Penny. “Y’see, we wanted to…”
“We took a walk,” Susan interjected. “Y’know, fresh air, great stuff, ain’t it?”
She nodded. “You know what’s better?”
Wendy pressed herself against the wall. “I, uh, I give up.”
The girl laughed. “Why, being a werewolf, of course. God, it’s so wonderful. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Penny jumped. “Oh, yeah. Fabulous, you bet!”
Susan contemplated making a break down the hallway, before seeing another group of wolf-girls walking toward them. Wendy sought escape in the opposite direction, stopping after seeing reinforcements from that direction.
The girl cocked her head. “Then you won’t mind joining us tonight, will you?” She leaned in close to Wendy’s face, her eyes narrowed in venomous fury. “Sisters?” She spat out the word like a curse.
Wendy fumbled with the lock on the door, finally managing to get the knob working. Desperately, she flung it open, and dove for cover inside her room.
She landed in the waiting arms of Carla.
“I’m happy to see you, too,” she snickered. Her grip tightened around Wendy as she struggled, paining her flesh until she stopped fighting the embrace.
Outside, the skirmish between the wolf-girls and the half-wolves was a short and lopsided one. Susan and Penny were trapped firmly in the custody of the pack.
“Tonight, we expose you three fully to the moon. You will join us, completely.” She leaned into a deep kiss, passionate despite Wendy’s struggling. “And you will become my mate.”
“Pheobe Reardon is attempting to break into the WOLF database, my Queen.”
Queen Swiftfang strode over to Stronghowl, busily tracking the signal on her desktop computer. She leaned over the ex-reporter’s shoulder, eyeing the screen. “Has she succeeded?”
“I’m afraid so. She is currently downloading footage from Thursday’s news report.” She looked to her Queen, lowering her eyes. “Footage she shot of my change.”
The Queen nodded. “Where is she now?”
“In her dorm room. I have a hunch what she plans. With her computer skills, she could synchronize a low-bandwidth broadcast of her own with WOLF’s 6 P.M. news feed. She could be preparing to expose everything.”
Queen Swiftfang nodded, patting her charge reassuringly on the shoulder. “You have done well in discovering her plan. It must not come to pass.” She wandered to the refrigerator, opening the door to expose the remains of the would-be werewolf hunter who had delivered Brightmoon to her. She tore the lungs from the corpse, offering one to Stronghowl.
“Sundown will be early tonight. You will have a half-hour before the broadcast time to find Pheobe, and make her one of us.” She tore into the organ, chewing hungrily. She swallowed, and licked the cold blood from her lips. “She must be convinced that our way is best. Destroy her equipment, and you may claim her as your mate.”
Stronghowl’s blood-stained lips parted in jubilation, baring her fangs. “As you command, my Queen.”