My wife Becky and I were trying to give Sasha a pill this morning. It must have looked to Marlow like we were trying to kill his buddy. He leapt up onto the table in Sashas defense. This protective behavior from a still mostly wild cat amazes me.
Good boy Marlow, defending his buddy from the evil human monsters!
I don't think that this behavior is any indication of pecking order. I've seen alpha's defend lesser cats, and I've seen lesser cats defend the alpha. In a male pride, all members of the pride will defend its members.
I was cat sitting a neighbor's cat in my house one time when it got scared and bit my husband. One of my cats, who happened to be the house ambassador and loved every cat he ever met in his life, went after the neighbor's cat to the point that I thought he wanted to kill it. So cats can defend the human members of their pride also.