“Stay here, Ed.” She unfolded and rose, leaving me suddenly cold in her absence on the seat. She smiled down at me, but there was something in her expression that I didn’t quite like, something that worried me a little. “Don’t want to spook the neighbours. You’re quite the impressive sight.”

Something in the pit of my belly felt warm and fuzzy at that. It was rare that I received praise, hadn’t since I was a babe, and to know she found me impressive tickled me. It distracted me for a moment, as she disappeared into the hall. But quickly the pensiveness returned, and I found myself sitting up, ears twitching to hear the conversation beyond.

Six’s tone was easy, filled with the sunny brightness that had left me a little breathless the first time I had heard it. She could be so quiet, so measured, that when she did speak, it was like being struck. There was a natural sweetness to her that made my fingers itch to touch her. But that sweetness soured, a note of doubt creeping in. She sounded unsure in a way that had me rising to my feet.

The man’s voice was not made of light and sweetness. I was so fixated on her, on how she sounded that I almost didn’t hear him at all. He was background noise. But I did hear what he hissed, as I heard him move and Six backed up, stumbling over the shoes we had left piled by the front door.

“Fucking slit your throat, you little fey whore. Your lot won’t corrupt our royal family no longer.”

I had always been quick on my feet, even before the change. I was wiry and gangly. Not built for power, but definitely built for speed. The wolf made me faster. I rounded the corner before I really had a chance to think of what I was doing. All I knew was that all of me - wolf and no - needed to put itself between her and this new threat. My lips curled and I lept.

Six had always been so measured around me, always slow and deliberate with her movements like she knew she was working with a barely tame animal and didn’t want to spook it. I’d never suspected she could react so damn fast. An arm shot out, blocking my leap, catching me across the face. I felt meat in my mouth, and a small explosion of blood as sharp canines pierced flesh. Shocked and horrified, I dropped like a stone. She stood over me, arm still outstretched, eyes locked on the intruder in the doorway. She never even made a sound, not a whimper, though the gouges on the flesh of her forearm looked deep and painful.

“I suggest you take this opportunity to leave, before I let this fellow here open you a new hole to breath through.” Six’s tone was level, much deeper and more serious than I had ever heard her speak, even when she had found me in that cage having told my keeper that she would pay ‘any price’ to have me. The man’s eyes were wide, and he panicked. He turned tail and bolted, and if it wasn’t for the tiny woman moving between me and the door, I would have chased him down and done something unspeakable.

Only when he was gone, and she had bolted the door shut, did she exhale and slide down the wall in a heap. My panic surged to new heights, and I could feel my throat starting to close over even as I staggered towards her. I could feel my furred coat melting away, and when I reached out, it was with human fingers. My fingers closed around hers where she gripped her own arm, trying to stem the flow of blood. The sound I made was strangled, and my mouth hung openly uselessly. I was supposed to protect her, and here I was, damaging the one thing I wanted to keep safe.

“Oh hush,” her voice was still low, so low and rough that I could hear the edge of her accent creeping in. The fingers of her free hand reached for my cheek, and the warmth of her hand was incredible. It somehow helped center me, to help me claw back a little bit of control from the panic that threatened to overtake me. I leaned into her touch, even as tears pricked my eyes. “It’s just blood. Go fetch me a towel and we’ll get this cleaned up.”