Not an easy student

She blinked at that stark, honest rebuke. At least his expression was one of wry amusement and not anger or annoyance. She found herself not wanting to disappoint him. Not because she was afraid he would turn her anger onto her, but because she didn’t want to see such an expression cross his face, or feel the guilt she would for putting it there.

His next, equally honest statement startled her just as much. His admittance that he didn’t think she should need to learn, because he didn’t wish to lose her. “Well…” she said, still reeling from the emotion she could feel coming off him. “There goes my plan to be the slowest runner and the soonest meal” Her lip turned up slightly in a smile at the deadpan delivered joke. Well… mostly a joke.

He wasn’t done yet. He showed his Princeliness by delivering a rousing speech that actually made her believe him when he said she was important to him. She wasn’t sure she understood why, or that she ever would. But she mattered, and he wasn’t going to lose her easily. She found herself looking into the fires of his eyes and feeling things churning in her gut again.

“I don’t want to let you down, My Lord” she said it as a soft whisper, barely meeting the intensity of his eyes. But her conviction was there, put in her by him. “I want to always be your wolf.” she admitted, getting to her paws, and following him into that ring. No, she was not going to enjoy it. She hated the idea of learning to fight, but she would damn well do it anyway. And she would do it well.
When she stood in that ring, she lifted her own fiery orbs to him, filled now with determination

Speech