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It had been a long and at points intense conversation with the fey court. Still, Mal's passion and the recognition by many of the members of the court that had joined within the last hundred years that the town was rapidly approaching an irrevocable point of no return had won the day in the end. They hadn't been able to come to a decisive conclusion on how best to revive the town's economy, but when the brainstorming had turned to bickering, Mal had called a halt to the proceedings with directions to the various members of the court to write up their best suggestions, and that she would review them.

After everyone had left, she sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead and chuckling softly, "A bit like herding cats, isn't it?" She looked to Alex, who laughed and came over to snuggle into Mal, purring deeply.

"Yeah. They've always been like that, but there've been a lot of new members... and they're a lot more willing to listen than the ones that came here with me," she said with a little laugh. "I wouldn't be surprised if any of them got a new start the way I did. Change comes one way or another. I learned that the hard way."

Mal laughed and smirked, shaking her head. "I won't argue with you there. And, at this point, the entire fucking town is going to have to change in order to survive," she said, pausing as she weighed the gravity of that statement.

"Don't worry, hun. You've got it." Alex said, patting Mal on the shoulder as Stephanie snuggled in against Mal as well, giving her silent support.

"Alright. Thanks, you two," she said with a deep breath, wrapping her arms around her two pets. "Let's get home." She opened a doorway into her house the way Alex had shown her how to, walking through with her pets, only to be greeted by a muffled (though still quite loud) moan of pleasure. They looked at each other in confusion, eyebrows raised before they followed the sound to Helen's bedroom door, which had been left open.

In the doorway, they could see Lynn bound in Japanese rope bondage, her arms behind her back and legs held apart by a spreader bar, with ropes hanging from the ceiling to help hold her up while Helen was flogging her from behind. The trio stared in dumbfounded awe as Lynn whimpered loudly at the sight of them, her cheeks going bright red.

Her whimper prompted Helen to look up and see that the girls were there in the doorway. She laughed and smiled brightly at them, her ears perked up nice and high. "Ah! Welcome home, girls!"

Mal laughed a bit dazedly, shaking her head, "Really, mom? You just don't waste any time, do you?" She smirked at her mother before she walked around Lynn to give her a kiss, chuckling softly. "I had a feeling about you two... I'm really glad to see that I wasn't wrong." She turned to look at Lynn, unable to help but let out a giddy little laugh. She could see the joy filling the two of them, and it was... it felt really good. She'd always seen the need in Lynn since she'd met her, and her mother... she knew damn well how badly it had hurt her soul when her father had died, and she could almost feel the healing that was taking place in both of them.

With Helen's direction, Alex and Stephanie helped get Lynn down from her restraints. Though, poor Stephanie made the mistake of getting curious about the hose hanging from Lynn's pussy. She fussed with it and the bulb at the end of it before the seal released and a rush of air gushed from it. The dildo deflated quickly and fell out, leaving Helen's cum to rush out of Lynn's cunt. Steph yelped in surprise, whimpering loudly as she looked up at Helen, her ears folded back hard.

Helen laughed and grinned broadly as she let them help Lynn take a seat on the edge of the bed. "You had better help clean her up from the mess you made..." she tutted at Stephanie, who quickly moved to clean up the mess she made.

All in all, though, they worked to tidy up from Helen and Lynn's fun before they made their way to the dining room, where Helen started work on a quick dinner, with Lynn dutifully assisting her in the kitchen. When the meal was done, they all sat around the dining table and relaxed together, all of them in their fey forms, and not one of them wearing any clothes.

"So... one ally in the school system down," Mal said with a little laugh, getting a sweet blush from Lynn. Not that she was upset, she was still just processing what had become of her life, her mind working to move past the limitations her previous way of looking at the world had dictated the way that things should be. Mal gave her a reassuring smile before she looked at the others around the table, asking the big question. "So. What next?"

That quieted the table for a long moment before Lynn looked up from her plate, her brow furrowed. "I think I know someone who needs help."

Mal's ears perked up, her eyebrows raising in surprise. "Yeah? Who's that?" She was curious, and she was taking Lynn's statement seriously.

Lynn felt encouraged by Mal's reaction, and she looked around the table at the others, "Garret Bender." Stephanie's eyes went wide, "That skinny kid from our class?" Her ears were perked high as she asked the question. There was recognition for Mal, even if Alex wasn't as familiar with him.

Lynn nodded her head seriously, "I'd spotted him in the corridors long before he was in any of my classes... and it's more than just the fact that he's skinny. He's anxious... twitchy like someone's going to come after him at any moment. And if it was just a matter of his build being on the skinnier side, he'd still be better filled out than he is. There's something going on, but I've never had the proof to get any resources mobilized, and he's always refused to help" She sighed heavily. She was very much worried about the kid.

Mal nodded her head, her brow furrowed intensely. "Yeah..." she said, processing Lynn's description of him, "You're right... I mean, he's easy not to notice, but I think that's because he doesn't want to be noticed... but now that you point it out..." she trailed off for a moment, tapping at the table in agitation, "You're right. There's something nasty going on... I can feel it." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting it out slowly as she let her fingers dance on the table, visibly processing through a few things in her head.

Stephanie looked at Mal and Lynn, concern in her eyes as her ears folded back, "So... what do we do?"

Mal was looking across the table into the distance rather than at anyone in particular. "We bring him into the family," she said, her voice full of resolve. "We make a fey of him, and then we get to the bottom of what is going on that is leaving him like that." Her eyes came back into focus as she looked at the others around the table one by one, letting them show their support before continuing on to the next. "It's settled, then. I'll pull him aside tomorrow at school, and see what I can do."

The next morning was quite interesting, with the five of them having breakfast together, Lynn even opting to sit at Helen's feet at the kitchen table rather than in one of the chairs. She really was a complete sweetheart and far more of a natural sub than anyone would have believed. Still, she made sure to head to the school well ahead of the others, since they didn't want the school to know yet that Lynn had hooked up with Helen. That would be acceptable in time, but at the moment, the administration was entirely too closed-minded to accept that kind of relationship with one of their teachers.

Steph, Alex, and Mal chilled out for a little while before heading to school. But unlike... almost any other day, Mal's eyes were on the lookout for Garret. Now that she was trying to see him, he was easy to find, but the kid really did have a knack for going unseen. It had to have been a finely developed survival skill, but survival from what?

The school day went on as it usually did, but at lunchtime, Mal briefly lost track of Garret. It took her a good moment, but she found him tucked very well out of the way. She waved the other two off before she quietly made her way over to where he was sitting, taking a deep breath as she sat down... not right next to him, but a good ten feet away, not facing toward him as she set down her hat as she opened up her lunch bag, getting some food out to start eating.

He jumped in surprise as she sat down, but when he saw that she wasn't there to get right up on top of him, he relaxed a little. He started to eat again for a moment but tensed once more as she said, "It's a nice, quiet place to have lunch. I can see why you like it over here."

Fuck. She was here to talk with him. Still... it was just her... a good ways away... and she wasn't facing him. This was okay. "Yeah... I don't really like having loads of people right on top of me while I eat, so it is really nice.

Mal smiled, turning her head so that he was in her peripheral vision, "You're Garret, right?"

He laughed nervously, "And you're Mal... ringleader of the school... here to see why I'm not playing my part among the clowns?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Oh, there's way more to a circus than just clowns... but... in some ways, you aren't completely wrong." She laughed softly and sighed, hanging her head, "I'm worried about you. Worried that there's something going sideways in your life that's eating you alive."

He jerked at that, his head snapping up to look right at her. "Yeah? And what if there is? You're just a kid like me." His tone was defensive, his eyes looking right at Mal.

Mal chuckled and shook her head, "Not quite. Not anymore, at least. But... the story is a lot to swallow."

"Try me."

Mal sighed and waved her hand toward the field as a bit of a shimmer appeared filling the gap from his little alcove. She stood up and stretched, groaning softly as she let her human disguise drop, her fey form rippling over her body. "Not just a kid like you. Funny thing is, Garret, fairies are real, and I learned that the hard way the other night when I ran that stupid overnight dare."

His jaw dropped, and he just stared blankly at her, his brain just trying to process what he was seeing. "I... you... WHAT?" To be fair, it was fairly coherent given the way this was all playing out.

Mal chuckled and sighed, giving him a half-smile, "Turns out there's a whole clan of them at the park, and they tagged me to be in charge of them. Well, I mean their magic tagged me because it understood that I had what it took to get this town back on its feet. So, let me ask you again, what's eating you."

He took a long moment to answer her question, his brain desperately trying to reboot. When it did, he shook his head and blushed, looking down at the ground. "It's my dad. No one's ever believed it, 'cause he plays real nice with everyone outside of the house, but when it's just us at home, he's like the devil himself." His face was a mask of pain. "Mom never did anything about it... never called the cops on him, because the one time she tried, he bullshitted them out of the house, and then he made sure she understood just what would happen if she tried that again." He let out a choking sob, bringing his hands up to clutch at his head. "After he did that to my mom, he looked me dead in the eye and told me that worse would happen to me if I ever tried anything like that."

Mal was quiet. Mal was very angry. Worst, Mal was that very dangerous kind of quiet angry. At the same time, she was doing her best not to let any of the anger be directed anywhere near Garret. That was the last thing that the poor boy needed. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a long moment, doing her best to relax herself. After she'd had a moment to breathe, she opened her eyes and looked at Garret, a smile coming over her face. "So. Now comes how to fix this." There was a grim smile on her face that made the poor young man blink a little bit.

"Fix this? What, you go wild tiger on him and rip him to shreds?"

Mal laughed and shook her head, "Nothing so crass... first, I offer to let you become a fey like me. Probably not a tiger, like me, but fey nonetheless. Then, after school, I go and... work my magic on your dad."

He stared at her dumbfounded for a moment, just trying to process that. "I... what... and have magic and everything?"

Mal chuckled and smirked, "Garret... my plan is to make the whole town fey. The park shutting down did a number on the court here, and the magic picked me to fix it."

His eyes went wide and he shook his head, "Not my dad. Don't give him this magic."

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Yeah. No, you're right. I'm honestly not one-hundred percent sure what all I'll have to do to him, but I've already dealt with three bullies... though, with the magic being what it is, you probably don't even remember them as bullies. They're real sweethearts now. But your dad..." She said, frowning. There was something nudging at her, but she wasn't quite ready to wrap her head around it. "I'll know what to do when we get there. For now, are you ready to join the court?"

He thought for a moment, his eyes darting from side to side, "I... won't have to be the scrawny kid I am right now, will I?"

Mal chuckled, "You'll get to be the kid you were meant to be all along."

He took a very long, deep breath, closing his eyes. When he finished letting it out, he opened his eyes again, looking right at Mal. "Okay. I'm in. What do I do?"

Mal grinned broadly, walking up to him as she held out her hand, "Just... let me do my magic," she said with a chuckle as she pressed her hand to his chest. His spark was strong. Hell, to have survived through everything he'd been through, he had to have been strong. She exhaled, letting the fey magic flow into his spark, causing it to explode.

He didn't grow to be a towering, over-muscled young man, but he did grow a bit taller than he had been before. His body certainly filled out, though, becoming quite fit and finely toned. The gauntness vanished from him, even before the fur started to properly spread over his body. When Mal saw the blunt muzzle, small, round ears, and rudder-like tail, she understood that he was becoming an otter, himself. She couldn't help but smile, thinking about the sweet trio of other otters, her mind wondering about a few things.

He took a deep breath, doubling over halfway as he needed a moment to process what had happened to him. He looked at his hands and straightened up again fully. He couldn't help but laugh and smile broadly as he took himself in, even swinging his tail from side to side. He didn't hurt... he didn't ache... he didn't feel weak like he had for so much of his life. He was okay with this.

While he was processing that, he looked up and over Mal's shoulder, tensing and taking a step back as three girls were running toward them, looking rather panicked as they passed straight through the barrier. He was worried that they would have explaining to do, but as they passed through it, they too became otters. On a deep level, his mind registered how cute they were.

The one in the center looked frantically at Mal, whimpering loudly, "Mal... I need your help... real quick... my dad... he's... he's..." Tina whimpered out, her eyes wild with fear.

Mal snapped around in an instant, looking to Tina and the others, "Breathe... take a moment and breathe. What is happening?"

Jackie spoke up, "Her dad hasn't been right since the other day... it's like he knows something isn't the way he remembers it... and he's been drinking... real hard..." she explained for Tina, who was practically sobbing.

"And he's been getting violent with her mom," Billy added, "And Tina just got a text message from her mom... we think he's going to hurt her..."

Motherfucker, Mal thought, not hesitating for a moment before she opened a door and strode right through into Tina's living room, not even bothering to drop her tiger form. The others came through the door behind her as a cry of pain came from the bedroom. Mal was off like a shot through the house, kicking the door to the bedroom down, sending it crashing into the wall.

Tina's father was there by the bed, a bottle of liquor in one hand and a belt in the other, standing over Tina's mother who was sobbing her head off. "You stupid bitch! You know somethin's wrong! If I hafta beat it outta you, then by fuck, I wi..."

He had been preparing to swing the belt, but when he went to do it, he froze in the middle of the swing, the belt even frozen as Mal held her hand out at it, a fierce scowl on her face. "You will do no such thing."

Tina's mother looked over at the tigress there in the room with a quartet of otters and screamed. Tina whimpered and rushed over to her mom, letting her human form reassert itself, "Sssh... mom... don't worry, she's here to help..."

"T...Tina?" She asked, her world starting to swim as she lay there.

As Mal stood there, holding the man with her magic, the world around her stopped moving, everyone else in the room freezing just as Tina's father had a moment ago. Mal jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a deep chuckle. She turned her head to see a melanistic tiger standing there in a black and gold ringmaster's outfit with a top hat that was the twin of Mal's.

She blinked in surprise as she turned to face him, even as he bowed deeply to her. "Well, Mallory Jacob Stevenson... a pleasure to finally get to meet you," he said with a great big smile on his face as he held his hand out to her. "I'm Malcolm."

Her jaw properly dropped at that point, trying to wrap her head around that. "Malcolm... but that was... my name... well, before." Still, she took his hand, feeling an intense connection through the touch.

"Oh, I am well aware of that. You see, we're two sides of the same coin, you and I. You are the ringmaster of the light court, and I am the ringmaster of the dark court," he said with a deep chuckle.

"Light... dark..."

"Yes. To make it simple to understand, I'll be the one taking any of the members of the town who would not... work well within the new community that we're working to create."

She looked very skeptical at that, raising her eyebrow. "Awfully neat and tidy..."

"That is rather the intent," he said with a bright, cheerful smile. "Look, you and I both know that not everyone in town is going to be suited to our new, shining court. That is where I come in. Those who would bring harm to the court, or discord... they are for my circus."

"Right... food for the performing lions, I suppose?"

That got a good laugh from him, "Oh no, nothing so crass as that. But some of them might rather have a fate like that for themselves. No, they'll have to face the reality of the pain they've caused... and they will do that until they find it in themselves to be better people... though, that often takes a very long time." Mal frowned, looking sternly at him, "And what then? And it can't be that simple," she said, gesturing at Tina, Billy, and Jackie, "What about them? They were pretty rotten before I got hold of them, and they didn't need to get whisked off to your circus."

"Right you are, there. They had been led astray... but they never fully took it to heart. They just understood that it was what they were expected to do. When provided an opportunity to escape that way of life, they took it without hesitation." He walked over to Tina's dad, patting his frozen form on the shoulder, "People like Thomas here..." he said, his eyes turning to Garret, "And his father, Eric... they have taken it to heart. Once Garry's had a chance to confront his father, he will be coming with me. It's part of the catharsis that Garry needs."

Mal frowned, looking at the others in the room where they stood frozen. "Will they still remember..." Mal asked, not entirely sure how to phrase her question.

"Yes. They will remember. And they will know that their abusers are no longer able to do any harm to them," he said with a chuckle and a sigh. He watched Mal's face as she was very visibly struggling with what he was saying. "It feels like you are just giving up on the ones that I take," he said matter of factly. Mal's face jerked up, looking into his in surprise as though he'd read her mind.

"But you aren't. The simple truth is that you will do an amazing job helping the people who have it in their hearts to be helped. But there are those who won't let themselves be helped. To force the change needed on them in an instant would be like erasing them and creating a new puppet to inhabit their bodies. That would be giving up. This way, they are removed from the ability to do harm to those in our care, while being afforded time to come to terms with the harm they've done... the people they've become. And they will have the time to create themselves anew, rather than having it created anew for them."

"Fuck." Mal swore under her breath as she looked to the man frozen in mid-swing with the belt, the bottle of liquor clutched in his other hand. She took a long moment to think about him, doing her best to look into his heart. She saw the paths of his life in there, trying to disentangle them in her mind, but... the knots were entirely too complex. "Alright. You've got a point."

He smiled... actually quite gently as he stood there by her, reaching out to put his hand on her shoulder. He wasn't being arrogant or condescending about it, and he wasn't gloating in some kind of victory. "It is the weight of the responsibility we bear. The best thing to do is to focus on the joy of those who we are able to help, and trust that, in time, those who were not able to be helped quickly will find their own path to healing with our help."

She couldn't help but give Malcolm a lopsided smile. "That's a low blow, and you know it."

"That I do. But it is the plain truth. Bittersweet, but that is the way of life."

"Alright. So, how does this play out?"

Malcolm laughed and grinned, and in a blink of the eye, Mal found herself standing back where she had been when time had frozen for everyone else. Time started to move once more for the fey and shadows like great, black wings rose from the ground to envelop Thomas before exploding into shadowy feathers to the sound of beating wings. Mal's jaw dropped at the sight of that before she looked to the others in the room, every last one of them staring at the spot where Thomas had been before they slowly turned to look at Mal.

Garret blinked, cocking his head to one side, "Did you just..." he said, pointing at the empty spot in the room.

Mal shook her head, taking a deep breath. "Not me. I'm still learning all of this as we go along, and what I just learned is that I've got a... dark counterpart... who'll be taking care of people that I can't help, myself."

The others stared at her with wide eyes, trying to take that in. Tina, Jackie, and Billy in particular seemed very heavily sobered by that. Was she saying that... if they hadn't been willing to change... that could have happened to_them_?

Mal sighed heavily and looked at Annie where she lay on the bed with Tina by her side, brushing her fingers gently through her mother's hair, "It's alright, Mom... everything is just fine..."

She was doing her best to soothe her mom, but with a tiger in the room like that, soothing wasn't working out... exceptionally well. "What the fuck?!? Who the fuck is she?!? What did she just do to Tom?!?"

Mal took a breath, changing back into her human form as she stepped a little closer to Annie, holding her hand out, "Do not be afraid, I'm not here to hurt you. Your daughter was worried about you from the message you sent her, so she came to me for help. I'm Mallory from her school. And yes, I am a tiger as well. I'm... this is going to be hard to believe, but I am a fairy." Annie looked at her, her jaw hanging open as she took a moment to process that. "I... no... I think that after what happened... I... don't have a hell of a lot of trouble believing that..." she said, sitting up and rubbing her head as she looked to Tina with a kind of thousand-yard stare. "But... what the hell did happen?" Mal laughed softly, giving Annie a sheepish smile. "As I was starting to explain to the others, it seems that I've got a counterpart that oversees those who are not able to be part of our court. As he explained it, he gives people the time and opportunity to learn from their mistakes and come to change in their own time... while not being able to harm and disrupt the rest of us."

Tina furrowed her brow, still rather bothered by that. "So... he's pretty much just... gone?" Her mouth worked a bit as she sat back heavily on the bed, dropping back to her otter form because it was a lot more comfortable at that moment, "And... but... you changed... us without a problem..."

Annie looked at her daughter, "What do you mean... changed you?"

Mal sighed and laughed softly, "It'll be easier if I just..." she said, walking up to Tina's mother, lightly touching her fingers to her forehead. She allowed her to have a clearer memory of Tim from before Mal had changed him into Tina.

Her eyes went wide, and she jerked, staring at Tina. "You... it is so weird... I remember you both ways..." she said, reaching out to touch her cheek gently, "You took so much after your father before... but you are so much nicer... now... you... chose to make the change to Tina?" She wasn't upset, just... definitely surprised.

Tina nodded her head softly, giving her mother a gentle smile, "It was strange... it was like I... could see what I had been doing... super clearly... and I could see where it was going to take me... and I understood that I had a choice," she said, looking gently into her mother's eyes, "I... did all of that because I looked up to dad... but when I understood what it all meant to the people I touched... I couldn't. Not anymore. I kind of knew I had to get away from being Tim."

Annie was visibly taking a moment to wrap her head around that. "I... it broke my heart the way you and your friends acted... I knew you three were better than that... but Tom..." she said, turning her eyes to Billy and Jackie in turn, "And... I'm sorry, honey, but your mom, and your dad... just... killed me to see what was happening to all of you..."

The other two otters looked very uncomfortable, their tails flicking nervously from side to side before they looked to Mal, "Are you... going to give our parents chances, too... and if they... can't take them... are they going to... be taken away, too?" Billy was unsure how to feel about those possibilities.

Mal sighed and walked over to the otter, brushing her fingers through her hair, getting a little whimper from her as she looked up into Mal's eyes. "I'm afraid so, Billy. But taken by the dark circus doesn't mean gone, and it certainly doesn't mean dead. I don't know all of the details of what happens there, but they told me that their entire purpose is to bring change. I can't promise that your mom won't end up with the dark circus, but I can say that if she is, it will only be until she finds her path back to the light."

Billy sobbed at that, even as Garret came to place his hand on her back. In an instant, she spun around and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, even as the other two otters came over to her, joining the hug, surrounding her in their love, even as they too leaned on Garret.

Annie watched the four of them there for a long moment before she looked at Mal, things seeming to click into place for her. "So. You're going to turn the whole damn town fey? Is that what I'm understanding? Build us back into a community with life in us? One with a future?"

Mal gave Annie a lopsided smile, nodding her head gently. "That is the plan. The more I look, the more I see just how badly the town is dying. And, if the town goes, that leaves the court high and dry, and even we wouldn't survive that."

Annie looked back to the otters, taking a deep breath and nodding her head. "Alright. I'm in." There was strength in her eyes, and resolve. She pushed herself up to her feet, coming to stand in front of Mal, looking down into the tigress' eyes.

Mal nodded her head, holding out her hand, which Annie took, gripping it firmly before her spark flared with the fey magic coursing through it. Annie had once been quite the woman in her own right. But that was when she was a much younger woman than she was now. Before Tom and the years of pain that had ground her down. As fur rippled over her body, her tired form seemed to have life breathed back into it. Her body grew with muscles that had long since fallen into disuse, even as a broad, gray, bushy tail sprouted from behind her. She threw her head back and let out a howl as the transformation ran its course.

The otters watched the change, just entranced by the sudden rush of life that was coursing through Annie, finally ending as the wolf slumped forward, panting as she could feel the strength in her bones again. She looked up at the others, smiling at the adrenaline coursing through her body. Tina disengaged from the others, coming to pounce onto her mother with a great big hug, squeezing her tightly as she buried her face in her chest, sobbing in joy. Annie breathed for a moment before she looked at Garret. "You're... Cecilia's son, aren't you?" It was only part question, her senses now able to see through things more acutely.

He nodded his head. "Yeah. That's me."

She looked off into the distance, nodding her head slowly, her nostrils flaring a little bit as her brain started to race. "Seeing as we've already got you kids off-campus, we should probably take care of her. Not like she's in danger the same way I was before you got here, but Eric's got to be dealt with."

Mal grinned, nodding her head, "Yes, ma'am," she said with a laugh as she opened a doorway for the lot of them.

---

Unlike Annie's house, Garret's home was quite nice and tidy. It was mostly quiet, but they could hear sounds coming from the living room. Mal, Annie, and Garret led the way, with the other three otters trailing behind. Garret's father, Eric, was sitting in his armchair. The one that he never let anyone else sit in, on pain of a good ass-whupping. And, to be fair, even now he was the only one sitting in the chair. Cecilia was on the floor in front of the chair, her hair gripped in Eric's hand as he was forcing his cock down her throat. "That's a good little bitch... not much longer, and I'll be done, and you can get started on dinner," he sneered at her.

Before Mal could react, Garret rushed his father, punching him right across the face, knocking him down out of the chair. Annie wasn't far behind him, snatching Cecilia away from him, placing herself over the confused half-choked woman, growling fiercely as her eyes were fixed on Eric. Garret cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward to stand over his father. "You leave her alone," he said, his voice full of strength.

Eric looked up at him, hearing the voice and recognizing it. "Garry?" He laughed as he lifted himself up off of the ground, smirking wickedly at the otter. "The fuck happened to you, boy? Think that growing a tail means you grew a proper pair of balls? Just makes you a freak."

As Mal stood there, knowing that this was Garret's battle, she watched and heard a familiar dark chuckle from over her shoulder. "Ooh... this will be fun to watch... good and cathartic..." Malcolm said with a chuckle and a grin. Mal sighed and shook her head a little.

Garret swiped his thumb across his nose, getting down into a good fighting stance. "A freak? If a freak means not treating women like garbage in your book, then yeah, I'm proud to call myself a freak."

Eric snarled and came at Garret swinging, but the otter was quicker than the older man, dodging under his fists before he brought his own right into Eric's gut, knocking him back and winding him. He didn't stop there, though, his foot swinging up to connect right between Eric's legs, causing him to double over, clutching at his unprotected crotch. Annie chose that moment to lunge at him, knocking him to the ground, taking him by his shirt, and slamming him down against the ground. "You piece of filth... Cecilia's always deserved better than you..." Her teeth were bared as Cecilia watched, thoroughly confused, but registering that the wolf had the voice of her friend, the otter the voice of her son, and they were both fighting to protect her from Eric.

"I think that's quite enough... don't want them to tear him to shreds... they don't need that on their consciences..." Malcolm said as the shadow wings seemed to wrap around Eric as he lay prone under Annie. She gasped sharply as her hands were suddenly holding nothing at all, and she dropped down to the ground with the flutter of the feathers. She looked down at where Eric had just been laying under her, knowing that she'd been ready to deal with him for the harm he'd caused her dear friend. She lifted her head and looked to Mal for a moment before she looked at Cecilia, her expression immediately softening.

Cecilia was panting hard, on the one hand trying to catch her breath from being half choked on Eric's cock, but also just from the adrenaline of the moment. "I... wh... Annie... Garret... but you're... not... not them..."

The wolfess came over to Cecilia quickly, taking hold of her hand and looking into her eyes. They were Annie's eyes looking into her's. "Cecilia, it's me. I know what I look like now, but I swear to you... it's still me," she said, and the dazed woman couldn't help but smile and reach out to touch Annie's cheek with her free hand.

"Looks good on you... I... suppose someone's going to explain what's going on?" Mal laughed softly, coming over to crouch beside Cecilia, getting down onto her level before she started to explain. Cecilia listened closely, carefully taking it all in before she nodded her head. "So... I get to change... to be like my son... and my sw-friend." It wasn't a question, just a recognition of where things were at this point. She nodded her head, holding her hand out to Mal. She'd seen the strength of these two since their transformations, and she had spent entirely too much of her life on her knees. She was ready.

So, Mal granted her wish, letting the magic transform her. Most striking were the tall, pointed ears atop her head, along with the tufts at the sides of her face. She purred deeply and stretched her paw out, flexing her retractable claws. With the wolf's help, the new lynx rose to her feet, looking into Mal's eyes. "Thank you... very much," she said, even as the clock chimed, drawing their attention to the time. Cecilia cursed softly, "You had better get back to school... Annie and I have some serious conversations to have..."

Mal chuckled and smiled, nodding her head as she took the otters back to the school, where Alex and Steph were waiting in Garret's little alcove for them, looking worried. "Everything alright, mistress?" Stephanie was looking worried, but she still turned her eyes to look at the new addition to the court. Garret standing there, handsome and tall. She smiled, raising an eyebrow at Mal.

Mal laughed and patted Stephanie on the shoulder, "I'll fill you in on the day I've had. In the meanwhile, we need to get to class."