This was everything that Rehoboam had feared when Bellona had decided to take up residence in the Lagoon. Everything he had tried to warn Frey about, despite the cocky colt's inability to listen. This. Exact. Threat. was the whole reason he had tried everything in his power short of trading her away to force them to understand how dangerous it was for Bell to be here. Celestine at least had the sense to linger outside of the Lagoon most days and did not have a child at her side that he needed to worry for.

Nor was she deaf.

But Bell was all of those things.

Ripe pickings for a stallion whose motto was I want what I want, when I want it.

Fear for her safety was the only thing that had inspired him to issue such a direct and level challenge. He couldn't stop the world from hurting her, but there were precautions that could (that should) be taken by those that loved her to prevent some of the danger. Precautions that both she and Frey were ignoring out of nothing but stubbornness and misplaced pride.

Rehoboam doesn't have a chance to respond to Işık's mistaken assumptions before the man is on him, but there wasn't much to say anyway. Rehoboam hadn't chosen his family nor was he attempting to play at being a band stallion; in fact, he had mocked Tyr for doing as such in his early days of tenure. He had claimed Celestine, but at the time it was simply what the bachelors did: claiming mares and stallions in equal measure to pad the numbers in the Lagoon. And honestly...if it was just Celestine he needed to protect, he would have probably trusted the wicked little mare to safeguard herself without his assistance, but it wasn't just her. And he couldn't just ignore the fact that Bell and her soon-to-be baby were here too.

In the end, the finer points of his argument were not important. Rehoboam didn't want any of them to be touched, and if he needed to defend that point with his body, he would.

And so with his own teeth bared, Rehoboam met Işık's lunge forward without hesitation. The tobiano raced to meet him chest to chest, and sought to grasp at Işık's ear even as his forehooves lashed out in the limited space between them. Aiming wasn't particularly easy in such a scenario, but he found himself hoping he'd get lucky enough to land a blow on the sooty stallion's leg and slow down his future attacks.