Ruby couldn't shake the feeling for the rest of the day, she would need to ask Jonah and Topher later on in the evening if they could investigate. As nothing had happened to either she or Kenny she pushed it to the back of her mind, if someone had been spying they would learn very little that wasn't common knowledge by the usual town folk.

The rest of the day passed by without much fuss until it came to history when Ruby realized that Mali was in the same class as she.

When Topher entered the classroom, she noticed Topher's angry expression and wondered briefly what had happened. His expression changed however when he took notice of Mali sitting at the back of the room with an arrogant smirk on his face.

Mali too had adopted a damaged image, though it seemed to be more natural for him to be an absolute *sshole, even the popular kids knew he was out of their league. They didn't even tease Ruby about him like they had with Kenny earlier in the day, it was odd to see them worship such an idiot.

"New kid, front and centre." Topher glanced at Ruby for a few brief seconds before turning his attention back to Mali. Ruby knew that Topher was about to be shocked, they could play their profiles however they saw fit. So long as they didn't break the human laws, didn't reveal the magical world to humans and didn't take an innocent life they were largely free to act as they wished, within reason though.

Mali stood slowly from his desk and strolled towards the front of the room, on his way however he purposefully bumped into Ruby.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby kept quiet. She'd be training Mali hard later that evening for the way he was acting, he knew he couldn't be reprimanded for small things if it stayed within his role.

"How's it going, sir? I can introduce myself from here. So my name is Mali Highland, I'm related to that thing over there...my sister and I are orphans and yeah. Whatever." Ruby could tell that Mali purposefully cut his speech off early, the way he was talking it seemed as if he could talk for an hour or two. Retelling his life's story to the whole class, though Ruby also guessed that he would use it to lure in more information so couldn't fault him for that.

When Mali walked by her desk again Ruby made sure to lean away from him but stuck her foot out at the last moment. Mali hadn't been expecting it and face planted heavily between desks, there were a few sniggers but Ruby also received a few glares from female students.

More than likely they were going to end up being his fan club that sheltered him from all insults and praised him despite his major flaws. Ruby decided then that she was going to give Mali as much hell as he gave her, after all, he was the one that had left her high and dry then showed up with a heart full of hate when it used to be full of love.

"Well then, welcome to Hillcrest high. We're at the beginning of a rather large assignment, you might as well join your cousin and Sevyn in their endeavours to understand the Cavendish swamp. Girls, have we formed a research question yet?" Ruby looked to Sevyn, whose eyes turned as round as saucers at the sudden attention on her. If she were being honest with herself Ruby had put absolutely no thought into the assignment and felt bad for putting so much pressure on Sevyn.

"No sir, not yet." Sevyn hung her head when Topher glanced at Ruby she shrugged.

"Sorry sir, we'll come up with something this week," Ruby added as she looked from Topher to Sevyn, she had a feeling with Mali being in their group things would develop quickly. As it was, Mali wasn't the kind of guy to sit around and waste time.

"Alright everyone, break into your pairs or group and continue working on your research questions." There were a few groans, Ruby and Sevyn began talking about their research project. Ruby expected Mali to shimmy on over but after twenty minutes of talking she looked up to see Mali swarmed by several female students.

"Mali you're not off to a good start here, into your group's girls or you're all heading to detention. Mr Highland maybe you'd like to go to detention instead of sitting in history?" Topher held out a slip of paper towards Mali, Ruby knew exactly what it was but it shocked Mali as he registered what had just happened.

"That's not fair sir! I was just getting to know a few people." Topher didn't look like he was budging from his decision.

Mali snatched the piece of paper, grabbed his bag and stormed out of the room.

"Right, the rest of you get back to work. How are you two doing? You know you could always do a timeline of the swamp from creation to now? Add in the significant human events that have revolved around it?" Ruby nodded, she was letting Sevyn run this assignment as she seemed tone deaf to most of Ruby's suggestions.

"Yep, that sounds good. What do you think about that Sevyn? It's better than anything I've managed to come up with." It was the truth, all Ruby could think about was the magical side of the swamp and not the human side. But Topher's suggestion was actually the best thing they could do, swamps tended to attract early human civilizations.

"Okay, yeah that'll be cool. Ruby, you can come up with the actual question." Ruby frowned, Sevyn was getting too comfortable.

"Easy, 'How has Cavendish Swamp shaped the town and people of Samson and what effect has human impacts had on the swamp.' Or something along those lines, that way we're not only talking about the history of the people around Cavendish swamp but we're also talking about the history and morphology of the swamp too." Ruby realized she'd begun to sound a lot more put together and mature than she had since arriving in town. It caught Sevyn off-guard if her slack mouthed expression was anything to go by.

"Uhm yeah, sure. We'll go with that one, what do you think Mr Fysher?" Topher nodded with a smile at both girls before moving beyond to his next few groups of students.

Sevyn eyed Ruby curiously after that, everything that Ruby said seemed to suddenly be of interest to Sevyn. It somewhat made Ruby regret ever opening her mouth, but she couldn't help it. She'd been thinking about the question for several days now.

Once the bell had rung that was the end of the school day, Sevyn was gone before Ruby could say anything and Topher didn't ask her to stay and chat.

That ended up being a good thing because an hour later Ruby was standing over Mali as he lay on the ground stunned that Ruby had bested him in a fight.

She knew not to be smug around him, she knew that if it were necessary that Mali would resort to dirty tactics so she moved away from him and prepared for another round as Mali pulled himself up off the floor.

His pride would not let her win, she would need to knock him out cold and that was difficult to do on a good day.

"Elsie! Topher's here to see you!" Ruby glanced away from Mali and in that split second, she knew she'd made a mistake. Her eyes connected with those of Hollis' and as they did she felt Mali wrap his arms around her torso and tackle her to the ground.

He pummeled her mercilessly, Ruby could do very little other than block most of his blows. She had to wait and when Mali began to use less force she struck him square in the stomach, the left side of his head and then the last blow she landed to his groin.

Ruby smiled with smug satisfaction as Mali collapsed on top of her, "that was a low blow, even for you." Mali said between breaths as Ruby rolled him off her none too gently.

"Whatever loser, Topher what can I do for you? I guess now is as good a time as any to introduce you to the rest of the team. Mali, Kenny, Jonah and Farf can introduce themselves as they please but guys this is Topher and his second in command Hollis. They're part of the local magic population, Topher is the alpha of Cavendish Swamp. Mali you can spar with Kenny," Kenny groaned but neither said anything as they wandered off towards the others and began taking pot-shots at each other.

Ruby knew that the two needed to let some steam off and what better way than to do it physically, they could beat each other as they pleased without committing a murder.

"I see your previous injury isn't holding you back." For a moment Hollis' comment confused Ruby until he motioned towards her chest area.

"Oh, that! It was just a scratch, already healed." Ruby tried to make it sound as casual as she could, it was the truth that she could heal faster than most shifters. Though that was down to the magic she wore to protect her, if she were to be Lettice, with no magic the wounds would take months to heal.

"I wish we were here on a social visit but two of our pack members have gone missing, one is Jude and the other is Rebecca. They may have left town but there is no sign of them, they're both on a strict schedule and it is unlike them to go anywhere without letting someone know. I can't get in contact with either of them and when I tried walking I...it was weird. But I kept getting forced away by something," Ruby's eyes went round and Topher's description of what had happened to him only solidified the idea that whoever they were dealing with knew what they were doing, knew how to control more than the present and was likely going to use one or both of the pack members as a sacrifice.

"Jonah!" Ruby called over her shoulder, the training stopped almost immediately.

When Jonah appeared next to her Ruby turned to him and in a language that Topher and Hollis couldn't understand explained the situation and asked several things of him. "Time walk back to midday today, Kenny and I were out at the edge of the sports field at school talking. Someone was there, I need you to see who. There are two pack members missing. Take two of your teammates with you and use the emergency protocols if you end up trapped."

Jonah only nodded, motioned for Kenny to follow him and they left, Topher and Hollis were left wondering what they'd just heard as the other protectors came closer to Ruby for instructions.

"Mali, I need you to pick up any weird scent you can and follow it. Topher may I borrow a pack member to accompany Mali, it's a safety precaution. Farf I need you to stay here and keep communications running between the teams, we'll need to keep in contact. Ben, Oli I need you guys out too. Check the perimeter and get back to me, someone or something is going to happen and we need to stop it before it does." Everyone left without saying a word which left just Ruby, Topher and Hollis at the house.

"Let me grab a shirt and we'll head over to your place Topher." Ruby brushed past Hollis who seemed to like standing in the way. She didn't know what he was doing but there was a serious frown on his face when Ruby went to pull a shirt over her naked torso she happened to look down and see the bruises she'd earned over that spar session.

When they arrived at Topher's home, Ruby got a distinct feeling that Hollis suspected something. He kept glancing at her like she'd lied to him but he wouldn't voice his query so Ruby didn't ask, he'd likely ask when he was ready. She knew that Hollis would ask eventually, he didn't seem like the type of person to keep things to himself.

"I take it you've questioned those closest to Rebecca and Jude? They also have no idea where two teenagers have gotten to?" Ruby knew that Topher wasn't stupid, he also had the ability as the pack alpha to demand more information from his pack members than anyone else in the town, so when Topher shook his head 'no' it surprised her.

"Rebecca cut ties with everyone after she was punished for how she and the others treated Sevyn. No one knew anything of what was going on with her, least of all me." Ruby nodded in understanding, it must have been hard for Topher to discipline his sister whilst being an alpha. Especially when the punishment was so severe, Ruby had seen what that sort of things people were driven to when demoted to the least valued members of the pack.

She had seen alpha's being overthrown in the past because a brother, sister, daughter or son had been relegated to the bottom of the pack ranks.

"What do you suspect Topher? That they've run off?" Ruby knew it was a rhetorical question but she had to ask it, given that so much was happening in the town however she wondered if Rebecca and Jude had other ideas. There was no way of knowing for sure but Ruby suspected that they hadn't left town at all, she hoped that someone would come back with something.

"What else would they have done? They were both high ranking pack members had the best grades in school and were each a captain of a sports team. I think that would be enough to drive most teenagers to do something drastic." The tone in which Hollis spoke to her annoyed Ruby, it wasn't so much the thick sarcasm but the stupidity with which he spoke.

Was he honestly trying to make her look stupid?

"Exactly, they're teenagers. Teenagers are prone to doing stupid things when they've been punished, but there's not a whole lot of...ohh wait." Topher began with a hopeful smile that quickly turned to a very worried frown.

"Oh, what if they went across the river? What if they went to the others?" Ruby wasn't so sure who the others were, from their research the others were on the same level as Topher and his pack. They were essentially the same people, though one pack was slightly larger than the other.

"What's so wrong with the other side?" Ruby found herself asking, she would have demanded it outright but felt it would achieve nothing and make her look like a b*tch.

"The other side is ruled by Topher's older illegitimate half-brother." It was Hollis that replied and with that reply Ruby understood why Topher was so worried...going over there exposed just how incapable Topher was of being a good pack member.

"F*ck." Was the only response Ruby gave as she turned to look in the general direction of 'the other side.'