I wanted to pass out. I wanted to scream, cry, disappear. The air was filled with the clanking of my jewelry. That was how hard I was shaking. Instead, all I could do was look at the Prince in absolute terror.

The self-depreciating smile was gone. In its place was a sneer that was the most hateful I have ever seen. His eyes glowed from his fury, and I could see in the light that some of his hair was raising, like attracted to static.

Glancing to my right, I could see Otto standing next to the dias, watching us without a hint of emotion on his face. I wanted to scream at him to help me, to help Quatre, but I knew it would fall on deaf ears.

"Where IS she?"

I tried to speak, bit my tongue, and tried again. I tasted metal in my mouth, a sure sign of blood. "I-I I don't know w-who you're t-talking about."

Angered, he grabbed me by the collar, and yanked me up so fast I hollered. He didn't stop until we were nearly eyeball to eyeball. I grabbed his wrists to ease some of my weight off of my neck. My feet dangled uselessly.

"Am I to believe," he growled dangerously, "that as Chang's lover, you have never overheard him discuss his business?"

Ha! I would've laughed if the situation wasn't so dangerous. Wufei told me his business dealings like the Swiss gave out bank account numbers. "Yes!" I said, in a few octaves higher than usual. "He keeps me out of... that part of things."

That wasn't what the Prince wanted to hear, apparently. Without warning, he hollered at me, yelling so forcefully he was blowing my hair back. Startled, my hands slipped. I grabbed his wrists again, but I couldn't get as good a grip as before. In fact, I was choking. Mother Nature's survival instincts kicked in, and for a moment I forgot all about being afraid. And in that moment, I did the only thing I could do.

I kicked the Prince right in the balls.

As expected, he released me. That was the only thing that went according to plan. What I didn't expect was the astronomical pain in my foot. It felt like I kicked a brick wall! Those elf-slippers didn't provide any protection. As soon as I hit the floor, I grabbed my poor, abused foot, and held it as close to my chest as possible. I hopped around on the other foot, swearing. The Prince only stood there, and stared at me in open-mouth shock. That pissed me off. The son of a bitch could at least be in pain!

Otto stood in open-mouth shock too. In fact, I thought his jaw hit the floor.

And this was how Wufei found us. The door to the throne room nearly shattered into splinters as it slammed against the wall. Wufei entered first, cloak billowing wildly about him, with Trowa, Catherine, and Heero in tow. They paused as they looked the scene over: the Prince and Otto were standing slightly hunched forward, with their eyes bugged out and mouths catching flies. I was dancing around on one foot, squawking words that made sense every now and then. The only thing that revealed something bad had happened was Quatre's crumpled form in the corner. And as soon as Wufei's eyes landed on him, all hell broke loose.

Wufei launched himself at the Prince, claws and teeth out. Trowa threw himself at Otto, his anger so tangible it knocked me on the floor. Catherine immediately flew across the room to snatch Quatre up. Before she even got past me, Heero had me in his arms, and was hauling ass out of there. I held onto him as if I would never let go.

If I doubted my first impression, I didn't now.

***

The thing about having the living hell scared out of you, was that you didn't feel safe for quite a while afterwards. Heero had brought me back to my designated room, and Catherine had taken Quatre to his. But we were still on enemy turf. Because of that I wanted the fuck outta here, but I was terrified to the point where I was too terrified to try and leave! I couldn't help but think that at any second, the Prince would come in and kill all of us.

What frightened me the most was how easily Quatre had been hurt. I mean, shit! Darlian threw a god damn car at him! And hit him over the head with it, repeatedly! Not only did the shape-shifter get back up and kick Darlian's ass, he complained afterwards about how 'hard' the car was! That was it! Quatre was the type of hard-ass that would scare the devil.

But one backslap from the Prince sent him flying across the room, and down for the count. The power in one hand was enough to hurt my best friend. I never thought that the Shenlong were invincible, but I've never seen them lose so easily, either. Quatre was more powerful than I could ever, ever be. The only reason I could figure why I was still alive, was because I wasn't worth enough effort to kill.

That... kinda pissed me off.

"Duo?"

Heero's quiet voice interrupted my mental bitching. I felt the bed dip as he climbed on. Then he started rubbing my back in a soothing circle, and my angry thoughts melted away. "Damn you and your magic hands."

He chuckled. "How do you feel?"

I thought about that. "I don't know." I could feel him nodding. "Did I sleep?"

"Off and on," he said tiredly. "You kept having nightmares."

"Really?" I blinked. "I don't remember."

"Good."

I agreed with him. "How long has it been?"

He sighed. "Two hours, and I think that's not even the beginning. There's no way we're leaving now without a great deal of trouble."

Trouble, huh? Hell, I knew that when I first laid eyes on the bastard.

"But his behavior is so out of character."

That made my train of thought stop. "What?" I rolled over to face Heero. He was sitting pretty close to me, and had to scoot back or risk having me roll into his lap. "Say that again?"

"He's acting out of character."

I could feel my eyebrows pulling down. "Who?"

"The Prince."

This time my eyebrows shot up. "The Prince is acting out of character?"

"Yes."

I waited a moment for an explanation. Damn him and his literal ways. "How is he acting out of character?"

He frowned at me. "He is not acting his normal self."

I sat up. I was three seconds from smacking him. "How is he 'not acting his normal self?'"

"Well," he frowned, "he's being very... aggressive."

"For real? He's not usually aggressive?" I thought that was... strange. As the Packmaster of Packmasters, I thought for sure he would have to show his Big Daddyness every so often.

"Not aggressive like that, no." Heero frowned. "The Prince tends to be very sly and covert. You wouldn't know he was responsible for something unless he wanted you to know."

"Oh," I said absently, trying to reconcile that with the violent creature that was before me.

"Plus, he's a nymphomaniac."

THAT brought my thoughts to a screeching halt. I had to shake my head to clear it. "Excuse me?"

"He's a nymphomaniac," he said calmly. "I've never met with him where he wasn't having sex, or just finished having sex with someone."

I shook my head again to clear it. Those eyes, that body... oh my. "Heero, that bit of info, I could've done without."

He shrugged. "Well, you asked."

I opened my mouth in shocked outrage. "I don't remember asking if he's a nymphomaniac!"

"But you did ask how he is not acting his normal self!"

"Because you were being too damn literal!" I said, trying not to laugh. How I got into these bizarre discussions with Heero, I will never know. "Do you remember our discussion on discretion?"

"Why be discreet about that?"

"Nevermind," I said, waving the question away as I succumbed to chuckling. "Just, nevermind." Dropping my face into my hands, I laughed. All of the stress I was feeling left me through my laughter. I could hear Heero chuckling quietly. Then, without my permission, my laughter turned into dry sobs. Heero placed his hand on my shoulder, and squeezed in silent support. When I finally stopped, I was so drained that I felt I could sleep for a year. "He scared the shit outta me," I whispered hoarsely.

"I'm sorry," Heero whispered, to match the mood. "How did you get there in the first place?"

So I told him how Otto came when the Prince summoned me, all the way to when they entered. When I told him how I kicked the Prince in the balls, Heero's eyes bugged out before he nearly laughed himself off the bed. That startled me. I'd never seen Heero crack up like that before.

"Wow," he said, choking on his laughter. I had to pound him on the back. "Gah! Thanks."

"You're welcome," I said, still looking at him like a pod-person.

"Wow," he said again, shaking his head and smiling. "I wish I could've seen that." Then his smile melted into a frown, and a deep one at that. "So Noin is missing, and she's an Untouchable."

"Yeah," I confirmed. "Who is she?"

He sighed, and ran his hand down his face. "Lucrezia Noin is an Alphagué, like Otto, and one of Prince Milliardo's Privileged." His voice took on a softer tone as he went down memory lane. "She is from an unbroken aristocratic and military line, like the Prince and Otto. She's also been in love with the Prince for a millennia, but he either doesn't return her affections, or won't for some reason." He took a relaxing breath, and came back to the present. "But it's unheard of to make an Alphagué an Untouchable. It just doesn't make sense."

Well, from my point of view, none of this werewolf shit made sense. But I decided not to tell Heero that. "So, you didn't know she was an Untouchable?"

"No," he said, complete bewilderment on his face. "The last time we saw Noin was before we came to America, and she wasn't an Untouchable then."

"So, in a few months that changed." I chewed on my lip in thought. "Maybe it was a secret that she was an Untouchable?"

"It shouldn't have been," he said with a frown. "At the very least, even if we didn't know who the Untouchable was, we should've known the Prince had one. Just like Wufei did with you." He shook his head to himself. "We didn't even know that much. And now she's missing."

I couldn't help but think back to Darlian, when he told me how wars had been started, and species wiped out, because of the harm or death of an Untouchable. I shivered in the warm room. "He blames us," I whispered.

Heero frowned at me. "Are you picking up a thought?"

"No," I told him, staring into his too-blue eyes. "I'm not--and can't--read anyone's thoughts here. But I think he thinks we're responsible."

"No. He can't!" Heero said with heat. "We didn't know she was missing! He must've called us here to search for her!"

"No," I said sadly. "He wouldn't have treated Quatre and me the way he did if we were to look for her." I dropped my face into my hands again. "Somehow, he thinks this is our fault."

Heero put his hand on the back of my neck, and squeezed gently. I leaned against him and put my head on his shoulder, taking comfort in the fact that he was just as lost as I was.

"There's no way now. Someone is going to die for this," Heero said sadly.

I squeezed my eyes tight from the truth of that statement. "I know."

Heero and I sat on the bed, and worried.

***

It wasn't until I woke up that I realized I fell asleep. I was on my side, facing Heero. He was on his back, one arm thrown over his head while the other rested on his stomach. I closed my eyes and rested for a moment, trying to absorb the tranquility of the moment. My mind's eye was quiet, but whispers crept across it every few seconds that were tendrils of the werewolves' essences. Strangely, it was comforting. It was like having an apartment to yourself, but knowing you had neighbors to help you if need be.

The problem with clairvoyance wasn't reading the thoughts of others; it was keeping the thoughts of others out. The werewolves' minds were controlled (even the weak ones) to the point where it was like they had shields of their own, keeping their thoughts in. I thought that maybe that was one of the major reasons I was attracted to Wufei; I didn't have to guard myself with him. I didn't have to worry about a thought of his crossing my mind that I didn't like, and having to pretend that I didn't hear it. I didn't have to worry about accidently answering a question he hadn't asked out loud. Those were problems I had when I was a child. I didn't explain so good then, and I was no better now.

The door opened. I immediately sat up, expecting it to be Otto, or worse, the Prince. Fortunately, it was Wufei.

Heero slowly sat up, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. With a nod to both of us, he left for his room, closing the door behind him. Wufei calmly took off his cloak (which now was nothing but strips of fabric), and hung it on the back of a chair. As he started to undress, I stood and went to him, a million questions flying through my head. When he wore nothing more than his red pants, he pulled me to his chest, and kissed my temple. I buried my face in his neck, and held him so tightly I thought my arms would shatter. "Is Quatre okay?" I asked as I pulled back. He smiled at me, and nodded. I breathed a sigh of relief. "So, what happened?"

The smile went away. "We had a disagreement," he answered, rubbing my back.

I snorted. "No shit." He chuckled. "Why did he hit Quatre?"

"Quatre spoke out of turn," Wufei said gently. "But that is beside the point. He may be the Prince, but he is not to touch anything that belongs to me. *I* will punish my Pack and their mates for their infractions, not him."

"But Quatre spoke out of turn to protect me!" I briefly gave Wufei a once-over. He didn't look hurt, but I knew there was no way he left his fight without an injury. I was sure the Prince gave it as good as he got.

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "To protect you? Tell me what happened."

And I did. When I told him how he asked about Noin, his face closed off. I thought that was interesting, since a second before he was baring his teeth in anger. "What?" I asked.

"Noin is an Untouchable?"

Shit. I should've known that if Heero didn't know, then Wufei didn't either. "Yeah."

"Really," he said, eyes narrowing in thought. "What else?"

I told him how he grabbed me, and Wufei began growling in renewed anger. So I went on to tell him how I kicked him in the balls. Wufei stilled for a moment, then burst into laughter so strong I flew across the room.

"Wufei!" I yelled, as I tried to pick myself up. The chair I landed on was completely wrecked, and it kept getting caught around my ankle. "Help me, damnit!" I shouted, as I tripped--again--trying to get back up.

"I'm-I'm, ha ha! I'm sorry!" he laughed, sounding many things but sorry. Nevertheless, he stumbled forward and freed my feet, picking chips out of my hair as he helped me stand. Still laughing, he wrapped his arms around me, and put his face in my hair as he held me close. I didn't return the embrace. I was pissed (and slightly embarrassed) about getting tangled up in a chair. But my anger soon morphed into concern when I felt tears along my face. "Shit Wufei! It's not that funny..."

"You have no idea," he said, getting his breath back. "I don't think anyone has ever done that to the Prince." He wiped his face with his hand, and looked at me with a warm, happy smile. "I would've given an eye to have seen that."

I snorted, then shrugged, losing the fight to keep the smile off of my face. I didn't think about it like that, but Wufei was right: I had kicked the Prince of all Werewolves where the sun didn't shine, and lived to tell about it. I thought that today should be named a holiday. Hell, I deserved a parade at least.

Then Wufei started caressing my hair juuuust so, and I knew what was on his mind. But when I looked into his eyes, for some reason, I saw something there I hadn't seen before: love. Wufei loved me. Completely, head-over-heels, flaws and all, loved me.

The realization took my breath away. Swallowing thickly, I opened my mouth to say something. Hell, I didn't even know what I could say. But his lips latched onto mine, I quickly forgot about talking. Then I felt my back touch the mattress, and all coherent thought left me. I forgot about Quatre, the Prince, my fears and my worries.

The only thing that mattered, was Wufei.

(tbc)