Something swelled in my chest, scalding and powerful, expanding to fill my whole body. I ran at the guy. He didn’t notice me, focused on getting to his buddy who was waiting for him at the curb on a dirt bike.

I’m built for strength, not speed, but I was powered by raw, primal rage and I was accelerating with every step, coming at him like a freight train. Five strides away, four, three…the guy finally heard me coming and turned to look but, by now, it was far too late. I slammed into him and rammed him up against a wall. See how you like it. Admittedly, I might have done it a little harder than he’d done it to the woman. I heard a rib break. Good.

He slid down the wall and slumped on the sidewalk. “You just stay there, sunshine,” I told him. I glanced at the guy on the dirt bike to let him know he was next, and he went sheet-white and roared off.

I marched over to the woman. For a moment, all I could see was the deerstalker she was wearing and then she looked up at me and—

Something happened. That feeling I’d had when I saw her being shoved, that protective need, came back even stronger. She was just so small, so…vulnerable. Her eyes were big and innocent and they were this very pale shade of blue that I could imagine on a butterfly’s wing. They peered out at me from behind big, gold-framed glasses. And how many layers was she wearing?! There was an old denim jacket, covered in sew-on patches, then a soft cotton shirt, then another shirt, then a t-shirt and I could see the collar of another t-shirt peeking out from beneath that. It was like she was trying to keep warm, but she hadn’t any cold-weather clothes to put on. She’s not from around here.

I could feel myself smiling. Not my usual flirty smirk, more like the stupid smile I got when I was driving, that good feeling that bubbles up from down in your chest when you’re having fun. I’d never had it with a woman before. But then she wasn’t like any of the women I normally met. They were all confidence, perfume and hair flicks: they knew what they wanted and they knew how to play the game. This woman…I wasn’t sure she even knew what the game was. She reminded me of some small animal, nose twitching the air nervously.

She was…cute. Adorable, in fact. And I didn’t go for adorable, but…