But she wasn't poking the mind of the newcomer. She'd made an effort recently to keep her hands to herself, so to speak, and was focused on the mob. When the man shifted into a wolf, Phaedra swore, under her breath, and she left the cover provided for her by the shadow she stood in.
There was no way they were going to be okay with a man turning into a wolf right in front of them, if they'd strung her up for.... well, Phaedra still wasn't sure. But she didn't trust them as far as she could throw them.
And she could probably get some distance out of each of them.
As the men scrambled to find things to hit the wolf with, Wyatt ran. Phaedra cut him off, grabbed him, and brought him back, her speed making her a blur as she did it.
"Hey, you're... we hung you. You're dead!" Wyatt said.
Phaedra smiled, standing just to the right of the wolf. "You did hang me. And since you're all such gentlemen..." Her eyes slid around the circle as she said that word, making it a slur. "... I'm sure you won't mind if I take my friend here and leave before you can do the same to him. --------------------------- At first Peter's attention was focused on the men surrounding him. The blurry figure caught his eye, though, his ears lying flat against his head as he snarled, taking a prancing step forward just to push the men back. That step brought him up alongside the woman as she stood beside him, one hip cocked.
Human words were a lot harder to parse as a wolf - he understood, mostly, but he had to concentrate hard to get the nuances. Something about the woman was familiar, and it wasn't just because 90% of the women he knew had dark hair and an attitude problem. There was a harsh bite to her words, a thread that ran through them that reminded him of campfires, of a bottle of Jack still moist from the lips of the last person to drink, of the rolling of the road under him as he slept in the passenger seat.
That could wait for now; right now they had to not get killed. He had no idea why she'd stepped in, and right now she was just one more problem he had to deal with. If he had to protect her, as well as himself...things were going to get ugly. He took another slow step forward, lips curled back in an ugly snarl, the sound a continuous rumble as he very purposefully placed himself between the woman and the circle of men. ------------------------------ Phaedra was not used to anyone, or anything, trying to protect her. It hadn't been that way for a long time. Not since she was human. Harry had tried to protect her, a little bit. Lindsey, too. But mostly, anything that breathed recognized her as a human battering ram and let her take the punches.
So when the wolf put himself between her and the circle of locals, she almost made an audible noise. But she caught herself.
"Dudn't make sense," one of them said. "What the hell are you?"
Phaedra's head tilted to the right, a sheet of hair falling into her eyes, which had bled to a vibrant, otherworldly green, with the motion. "I'm angry. And we," she said, turning to look the wolf in the eyes, "are leaving."
She began to move forward, reaching a hand down to gently stroke the wolf's ear, and the men parted like they were the Red Sea.
"If you follow us," she began, "you will be exceptionally sorry."
She waited for the wolf to fall in step next to her before giving the men her back and leading him away.