Lunatic Fringe (31 page)

Lexie rubbed Anna’s back, smelling the
moisture in her armpits and the remembered fear underneath it. She
dreaded to hear what she knew was coming.

“
Brian and his friend
started mocking me, calling me a ‘fat slut’ and stuff like that. I
told them to leave me alone. I tried to leave again, but Brian
pushed me down. He held me by the throat and nearly choked me out.
Then they took turns raping me. Some time during it I guess I
passed out. I woke up the next morning in the same spot with vomit
on my clothes. Unfortunately--or fortunately, I guess--it all
belonged to me.”

“
Jesus,” Lexie whispered.
“What did you do?”

“
Exactly what they say to.
I called Dr. Fern. I reported to security. I went to the doctor.
Everything.”

“
And?”

“
Nothing. Just nothing. The
judicial board doesn’t care. There are no witnesses, no proof, just
my word against theirs. The board chair even said that because I
had sex with Brian before that he may have just ‘misinterpreted’
something, that it couldn’t have been rape.”

“
That’s insane.”

“
Well,” Anna shrugged,
hopeless. Her face burned red. “I swear to god it’s because that
little prick is so rich. This wouldn’t have happened if it was some
townie. His hick-ass would be in jail, but Brian, that smug jerk,
is walking around like it’s no big deal.”

The knock at the door startled them
both. “Anna?” a man’s voice called. “Your brother and I have the
van packed, hon. Time to go.”

“
Okay, Dad,” she called
through the door.

“
Where are you going?”
Lexie asked.

“
Home. I’m probably going
to transfer to State next semester. Everyone on campus is choosing
sides like it’s some sort of reality show. It’s humiliating. If I
get called a fat slut one more time . . .” Her jaw tensed,
shoulders squaring. She sniffed back her tears. “Whatever. It
wasn’t even that bad, the rape. It was . . . stupid. Pointless.
It’s the way I’ve been treated since that drives me
insane.”

Lexie squeezed her shoulder, utterly
clueless of the appropriate way to handle such a
situation.

“
I’m so sorry,
Anna.”

“
Yeah, well. It’s this
world. Nothing’s gonna change that. May as well get used to it and
just take a karate class or something.” She stood, picking up her
suitcase. “You’d think we would have evolved past it as a species,
but here we are, the same animals we always were.” She managed an
ironic smile. “It was nice to see you again before I left. Take
care of yourself. Don’t take any crap from anyone,
okay?”

* * *

Campus was eerily quiet, and few
students walked through the quad. Lexie wandered over the grass,
wondering where Duane had been during all of this. She worried that
Duane was the unnamed frat brother Anna mentioned. Lexie regretted
not pressing for more details, though she was glad she had resisted
being so callous. She kicked a tuft of grass and dismissed the
idea. Duane couldn’t have been involved; it was absurd. She scolded
herself for entertaining such a thought.

Jenna stood outside the Sociology
building, scraping caked mud from her boots.

“
Oh, hi!” she said, waving
at Lexie’s approach. “You okay, sweetie?”

Lexie shrugged. Jenna opened her arms
to offer a hug, and Lexie walked into it, eager for the comfort of
touch. She held on longer than would perhaps be customary, but
Jenna didn’t protest. Lexie relaxed into her embrace, understanding
for the first time what it meant to call someone a “good hugger.”
Lexie sighed.

Arriving at their
classroom, they found it dark and the door locked. A handwritten
sign was taped to the frosted glass of the door:
Class cancelled. Campus-wide meeting at 4pm in
Hunter Hall
.

“
The heck?” Lexie
asked.

“
That’s odd,” Jenna
said.

“
Is this about Anna?” Lexie
whispered.

“
No way. The administration
is trying to pretend that never happened. This has to be something
else.”

Lexie crossed her arms in front of her
chest, unsure what she should do.

“
Do you want to come with
me to the Den?” Jenna asked.

Lexie shook her head. “No. I think I
need to be . . . somewhere else.”

Jenna lowered her eyes. Lexie
recognized the look from her own face. Jenna had something she
needed to say.

“
Do you need anything from
me?” Lexie prodded.

Jenna’s face softened into the sweetest
smile Lexie could imagine. “Can you walk me to the
library?”

Lexie nodded and waited in the way that
Archer waited with her.

The afternoon sun cast the campus in
copper. The stucco façades of the modern buildings and the stone
walls of the older ones all reflected warmth, despite the chill in
the air. Jenna wore a hand-knit shawl over a light camisole, the
yarn’s colors changing from blue to purple to green as the stitches
lined up.

Lexie said, “You look cold. May I?” She
wrapped her arm around Jenna’s shoulders as they walked.

“
Thank you,” Jenna said,
the warmth returning to her skin and her eyes. “You’re so sweet.”
The gesture surprised Lexie as much as it pleased her to even
suggest it.

Lexie felt strong and big as she warmed
Jenna’s soft curves. In that moment, Lexie felt as though she
understood Archer just a little bit more.

“
Everyone’s been worried
about you lately, Lexie,” Jenna said, as though the safety of
Lexie’s arm gave her the courage to speak.

“
Me? Why?”

“
Ever since that night.
Renee said you guys fought, and no one’s heard from you since.
You’ve been missing a lot of class. We were afraid we scared you
off.”

“
You did,” Lexie admitted.
“I wasn’t expecting . . . all that.” The gruesome night felt like
years ago, overshadowed by so much wonder since.

“
So, what then?” Jenna
prodded. “You got a new girlfriend?” she smiled as slyly as her
angelic face would allow.

Lexie’s heart pushed into overdrive,
causing her ears to burn red, answering Jenna’s question for
her.

“
Ha! I knew it!” she
bounced, her curls celebrating her winning guess. “Sharmalee didn’t
think so, but I did.”

“
Really?” Lexie asked,
feeling more naked than when in the treehouse.

“
You just seem, I don’t
know, sexier,” Jenna giggled. “Like you have a new
swagger.”

Lexie nodded with a non-committal “Hm.”
As much as her strength and sex drive were clearly byproducts of
her lycanthropy, she credited plenty, particularly her newfound
confidence, to her relationship with Archer. The woods were so deep
and thick, they made her feel safe to release shouts and moans she
would never have dared voice in a dorm or her father’s home.
Moreover, in one week, Lexie had given Archer twelve orgasms in
four different ways. It certainly bolstered her ego, especially
since she had started October as a virgin.

Jenna’s exultation ebbed and she
lowered her voice to a whisper. “Things have been really tense at
the Den lately. Blythe and Renee have both been completely off the
rails. We used to do everything together, and now it’s just the two
of them, making secret plans, doing their own thing. We’re all
feeling left out and it just feels . . . off.”

“
Oh?” Lexie
asked.

“
I won’t pretend that
things weren’t tense before, but everything was really nice when
you were around. You seem to have a calming effect on
us.”

“
Fresh blood,” Lexie
joked.

“
I guess so.”

They arrived at the cement ramp leading
to the library’s glass doors. Jenna smiled, though it lacked her
usual luminosity. “This girl treating you well?” she
asked.

Lexie smiled and nodded, blushing with
the flood of recollections.

“
Good, ‘cause you’re a
catch,” Jenna said. “Thanks for listening. I really hope you stay
around. You’ll be good for us.” Jenna caught Lexie by her shoulders
and looked up into her eyes. “I know that Blythe and Renee are on
their own tracks, but I want to let you know that no matter what
happens with any of this, I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Lexie wished this kind sentiment could
enter her heart, but Anna’s sordid tale sat fresh in her mind,
tarnishing her view of the world. For the first time, someone else
seemed naive to her.

But Jenna was too nice for such
admissions. “Thanks.” Lexie smiled. “You too.”

Lexie turned to leave as the sound of
crying attracted both their attention. At the far end of the
deserted sidewalk, two boys sat on a bench, one crying, the other
consoling.

Though Lexie had had enough of tears
for one day, she and Jenna couldn’t ignore the boys. They
approached, and Jenna knelt as Lexie hung back. Jenna spoke softly
to the boy who was consoling the other.

“
Luke?” she said, as if to
a small, injured animal. “What’s going on?”

His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen,
as if he himself had just stopped crying, or was just about to
start.

“
It’s Brian.” He swallowed
hard, and Lexie shifted. “He was camping with the new pledges. They
were attacked.”

“
A wolf?” Lexie
asked.

He nodded as his companion buried his
face in his fists.

Lexie teetered. Her head felt miles
above earth, as if when she stumbled, the fall would take eons.
“Duane?” she managed to squeak out.

Luke shook his head. “They only found .
. . pieces. They don’t know for sure, but they’re assuming the
worst.”

Jenna squeezed Luke’s shoulder and
stroked his friend’s shoulder once in a silent benediction, but
over his head, her eyes caught and held Lexie’s, and there was no
naivete there now.

Chapter 17

Lexie ran through the woods from the
campus to Archer’s cabin, heedless of the nettles tearing at her
skin and the low branches snagging her hair. Though she knew she
wasn’t being pursued by anything but her own terror, she ran
anyway.

Archer was hammering a shelf to the
wall next to the fireplace, humming to herself as she worked. As
Lexie burst through the door, Archer dropped the hammer, nearly
shifting to meet an attack before seeing Lexie’s panicked face. She
rushed to meet Lexie, holding her shoulders, trying to calm her
with her touch.

“
Duane. An attack. Brian.
They’re dead,” Lexie said through heavy breaths. Her lungs burned,
and she dug her nails into Archer’s biceps, squeezing as Archer
begged her to calm down.

“
Who is?”

“
My friend, Duane. His
friends. They were camping. I have to--we have to--”

“
Breathe,
Lexie.”

Lexie saw her knife and sweatshirt,
sitting at the edge of the fireplace where she had left them weeks
ago. She rushed to them, throwing the sweatshirt on and sighing
with the comfort it gave her. The sheathed knife felt warm and
powerful in her hand.

Archer looked at her. “Okay. Let’s
go.”

It was impossible to tell the hour from
the sunlight, diffused behind a thick blanket of clouds. The trees
darkened the scene further, casting the hike in twilight. The trees
here were nearly bare, interspersed with flame-topped
birches.

They jogged along, following only the
vague description of the campsite that Duane had shared with Lexie
and their powerful senses of smell. The woods were quiet here, and
lacked the moist, fecund smell that Lexie appreciated most about
the western woods.

“
Archer,” Lexie asked.
“Would you change for me?”

“
Are you sure?”

Lexie nodded. “It would make me feel .
. . safer.”

Archer raised her hand to stroke
Lexie’s face. She curled her chin to her chest and inhaled deeply,
releasing both the breath and her human body. Her hands curled and
lengthened, her snout slowly extended from her face. Her creamy
gray fur emerged as fine and soft as spider silk, covering her body
with a coat both slick and soft. She stood solid on her two hind
legs, towering over Lexie as her spine curved and lengthened. At
the peak of her transition, she overbalanced, her forepaws hitting
the earth with a soft thud. The wolf Archer blinked up at Lexie,
her fire-and-ice eyes in an expression of vulnerability despite her
physical strength.

Even in her panic, Lexie felt blessed
to share such an intimate moment with her lover.

Archer’s footpads barely touched the
ground, improbably supporting her massive frame. Each toe was
tipped with a great claw, like a shark tooth. Her eyebrows shifted
as she peered through the dim light, more expressive than her human
ones. Her ears never stopped moving, either. They swiveled,
shifting like satellites, scanning the air for notable sounds and
pinpointing their locations.

Between those brows, ears, and
bristlefur tail, Lexie found it easy to read Archer’s meanings
without verbal communication. With her great pink tongue lolling
out of a lupine grin, Archer looked off in the presumed direction
of Duane’s campground, ears alert.