A/N: So here is the next one. 7th one done. I never intended this to take place during 'The Beast Within' (a little spoiler for you), it just turned out that way. It deals with, well, you'll have to read to find out. Admittedly, I kind of like this one. Please enjoy.
Summary - 'Protect' is just another instinct.
3. Protect
To him (or it as he was sometimes referred to), 'protect' was just another instinct. It came as naturally to him as all the other ones, like hunting or sleeping. Protecting was ranked right up with the most important ones.
It was a very strong urge and one of the few the boy within him didn't resist. He was thankful that the boy at least found that one expectable. The need to protect oneself, one's home, pack, mate. The boy found that desire good enough, even for those he did not know.
Of course, he didn't know of his existence. The boy unconsciously sealed him in a very small corner of his mind. Those urges he fought so hard to ignore were there, the beast drove them. All he wanted was to do what came naturally, to submit to those instincts. The boy, even if the knowledge did not reach him, would not allow it.
Now the beast within the boy had been released after being locked up in that place the boy did not know about. Now he could submit to what the boy thought to suppress. That boy was locked in that same place in his mind, asleep and unable to control his actions.
But then she was attacked. He couldn't recognized who it was but there was something vaguely familiar about him. Though he couldn't shift through the hazy human memories to find the answer to who this other beast was. He had to help her.
In truth, he couldn't place her into any of the normal animal categories for things. She of course wasn't prey or a predator (at least to him, she did fight to help humans, like the boy). That made her his pack mate. But what else?
She was also his... what did the boy call it? Friend? That was it. His friend. Yet she wasn't. She was more than that. Not his sister, she didn't fit right into the category. His mate than? No, she didn't mean that much to him. So she was something between a mate and a friend. What was that called?
He couldn't think about that now. He had more important things to do, he had to protect her.
None of his other pack mates were coming, not even his alpha. Hadn't they heard her scream? Or even his roar? Surely they heard that.
But they weren't coming, weren't charging around the corner to help him defend her. So he had to protect her himself. He could do that. He would do that. Until he breathed his last breath and the life-blood stopped flowing through his veins, he would protect her if she was in need.
Because he knew, even in this form, that if anything were to happen to her, he would never forgive himself.