"I know, I know. Not the best thing but it was the only thing I could do and this guy is stubborn as hell. I almost put a collar on him so I could tie him to the floor." Ruby had to continually remind herself that Layken had been alone doing this, given that he managed to wrangle two grown male shifters she was surprised he wasn't injured.

"Did you at least give them the talk?" Ruby asked, not taking her eyes off the guy.

"Of course I did but I might as well have been speaking alien for all these two knuckleheads heard," Ruby called out for Amber's help, they could do it the hard way but things were going to get messy before they got better.

"Hey, Ruby what do you need a hand with? Hi, don't think we've met, I'm Amber. Ohh he's an angry one." Amber muttered as she came to stand next to Ruby, the beta in the truck was clearly growing angrier the longer he sat there in his humiliation. Just as he pulled his head away from the window Amber muttered something that rendered him immobile but not unconscious."You were supposed to knock him out," Ruby muttered as she pulled the passenger door open, the poor guy nearly flopped right out of the truck. Layken was behind Ruby, helping to catch the guy as they pulled him from the truck.

Her shoulder still hurt but she ignored it as she helped get the beta inside and cleaned up."Yeah I know he was supposed to be knocked out but look at him, he's so angry he'd probably fight in his sleep. This way he can still see his alpha, his neighbouring alphas and know that we're not going to kill him." Ruby shrugged at the logic, go figure Amber was trying to do this to preserve the guy and set his nerves at ease a bit.

"Oh Amber, answer my phone will ya," Ruby said as she felt it vibrating in her pocket.

She moved around a little to let Amber into her pocket and nearly laughed out loud when a frustrated scream came through the receiver. "Ruby, we're about twenty minutes out. Have the superglue and straight jackets ready! Argh, these two are worse than weasels. Ouch! If you bite me again I'm going to slam your face into the asphalt so hard!" Amber whispered something through the phone and it went quiet for a few seconds.

"Holy sh*t, what happened? They're both out cold." The relief in Jonah's voice was palpable, Amber hung up on him and returned her attention to the beta.

"Just a little trick I learned, seems they had their hands full." Amber said as if it were no big deal, Ruby wondered just how much more powerful Amber had become since parting ways. Had all that office time given her an advantage when out in the field? Was her energy that pent up that a click of her fingers resulted in a natural disaster of some kind?

"We better tone it down, I think this guy is starting to freak out. Relax...what's his name?" Ruby asked as he was set down on the bed next to his alpha and strapped in.

"I'm going to go up and get some work done before the others get in, Layken go get cleaned up. Amber, you're okay to sit tight down here and make sure we don't have any incidents?" It was highly unlikely that any of the four restrained shifters would break their bonds but it was always a never say never thing when dealing with the magical folk.

Instead of going to do the work she initially had in mind, Ruby instead went in search of Mali. She realized as soon as she began climbing the stairs to Topher's office that she hadn't even gone to see if he was sound of mind or if the curse or his demons were still trying to claw their way out of him.

She found him as expected, restrained in a soundproof room.

"Mali? Are you coherent?" She asked as she came to stand in front of him, Ruby was unsure if he'd been strapped to the chair since their encounter. When she saw the state of his face she winced, they hadn't even cleaned the blood from his face.

"What's going to happen to me?" There was no emotion in his voice, it was dead, likely because he expected the worst. No one attacked their superior and got off without any punishment, that's not how the world worked.

"You're not going to judgment, I know that much. Allorian seems to think the attack was influenced by the magic swirling around and that our unresolved past is making you vulnerable to Nyssa and Charlotte." Ruby swallowed when Mali's gaze narrowed at her, he wasn't angry but obviously something she said displeased him. She knew what it was, it had been a massive roadblock in their working relationship for years.

"Well then explain it, tell me why I'm wrong." Ruby sighed, annoyed at the defensive way that Mali was willing to kick this off with. He wasn't wrong and she wasn't right, but his thoughts and memories were clouded by what he saw happening and what actually happened.

"You're not wrong, I'm not right...you're not right either. What happened was my fault, I should have had tighter control over those on the mission. Call it whatever you want but the order to attack in the way that we did...it didn't come from me and I'll forever blame myself for the outcomes and lack of concentration." Ruby felt herself blush, only the judgment panel knew what had caused her lapse in concentration or rather who had caused the lapse.

Right now, he couldn't even look her in the eye.

It had been hard, more difficult than Ruby ever let on.

At one point in time, she'd been in love with Mali, she had thought the ground he walked on was blessed and she would have thrown herself at his feet if he'd asked it of her. But he'd assumed the wrong thing, had never stopped to listen to anything she had to say and it had killed her inside.

Her original bubbly, happy personality had survived 300 years intact and all it had taken was several extremely well thought out sentences to change Ruby's heart into something almost unrecognizable. It was because of Mali that she was closed off to anything other than professional relationships, she could never imagine hurting that much again and never wanted to.

"You know now that Jamieson and Catrice had been in a relationship, what you don't know is that they broke up the morning of the attack. Neither one told me, neither one wanted to jeopardize the mission. What you don't know is that right before the attack they were both arguing, neither one heard the retreat call. Jamieson stormed off and got himself killed, right in the middle of the god damned battlefield. Of course, it was my fault, sending my own out into the middle of a slaughterhouse with no other protection or backup? Yeah, I'll own and wear that for the rest of my duty, service and life." Ruby had long ago accepted what had happened, it was the only way she could move forward with her life and let everyone else think what they wanted about her and the case.

Most other protectors who she had worked with since that case knew the truth, there were some, like Mali that didn't bother to find out the truth. They never bothered to question anything, simply came to a conclusion and stuck to it despite the evidence staking against them."And it is as simple as that? Jamieson was upset and walked off, only to be unsuspectingly killed? That doesn't make any sense, I knew Jamieson. I knew what he was like. The last thing he'd do is lose his head on a mission and storm off unseeingly like that." Ruby sighed, they had all known Jamieson or they thought they had. When he was killed, it left everyone reeling, none more so than Catrice and Ruby.

"We all knew him Mali, we all knew what he was like. He had a head for military tactics, he would never compromise his own safety let alone that of his teammates and the woman he loved. But he did! He did. The council think that in his more fragile state of mind something happened...something got to him and it altered his thinking. You think you knew everything about that day but really, you knew nothing and you've let it fester into something ridiculous. You're angry with me, I get that but I'm not going to allow you to blame me for something that was far out of my control. I've lived with your anger and my guilt for the past fifty years and it's impacted my leading and my life. I'll not let it do that to me anymore." The longer Ruby spoke the angrier and louder she became, she couldn't believe that Mali only thought of himself. That his anger was festering from something so misunderstood, that he kept that anger because he had been a friend to Jamieson..they had all been close at one point, none more so than Catrice and Jamieson.

Ruby was prepared for an argument, she was fired up enough for one. But the way Mali clamped his mouth shut, the tick in his jaw working overtime. She knew that he'd say nothing further so left him to stew, clearly he needed time to himself, time to reflect and time to think. He'd have all the time in the world, aside from letting him go Ruby had no idea what else to do with him or how else to deal with him.

Leaving Mali to his confined space, Ruby went up to Topher's office and sat there. For a long while, she tried to think, tried to figure out what they were going to do.

Her conscience couldn't handle another even like Catrice and Jamieson, this time around there was double the risk as she had to think of Hollis. He by far was no one to sit back and let others do the fighting, she knew that if she tried to restrict him he would grow angry and try to show her just how capable he was. But in showing her there was the risk he could be injured or worse.At the thought of him dying, Ruby wiped a stray tear away and felt momentarily appalled that such emotions had risen during her absent-minded thinking. But the thought of him unsettled her and she stood suddenly, something of an epiphany hitting her as she left the office and made her way back down to the medical room.

She burst through the door, her eyes going straight to Hollis before finding Amber's, some amount of understanding gleaming in her eyes.

"Can you wake him for me...I need to talk to him." Ruby muttered, she couldn't even look at the pack doctor and was barely able to meet Ambers eye as she left the room just as quickly as she'd entered.

Going back up to the office, Ruby began pacing mindlessly from one side of the room to the other. She didn't hear Hollis enter, didn't hear him approach and only stopped when she felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her into him.

She went willingly, too willingly for her liking but she wasn't going to fight things as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in the crook of his neck. They stood there for a few moments, each unsure of how to progress from this milestone.

Ruby pulled away from Hollis, blushing a little as he looked at her with unchecked emotion. Everything reflected in his gaze as he stared at her, for her part, Ruby had no idea what emotion shone in her eyes. She was so unsure of herself, like a blushing virgin despite the fact she had seen and done things that would put a concubine to shame.

This new ground made her feel uneasy but her mind pushed her forward and refused to let her linger on what 'this' was.

"You can't die." Was the first thing she said as her eyes connected with Hollis again.

His only response was a broad grin, Ruby rolled her eyes but felt a responding smile begin to tug at the corner of her mouth until hers too was as wide as Hollis' smile.

"I know this is weird, I've been weird, distant and probably not what you've been expecting. I honestly didn't expect to meet a soul mate...I didn't even know my kind had that sort of thing and I have no idea how it'll impact me let alone you. I just...please don't die, I couldn't imagine losing you." The last bit, it came out wrong. Ruby could imagine losing him but hoped it never got to that point. She'd spent so long blocking emotions out that suddenly she was in Hollis' arms and everything was flooding back in, her mind was a mess, her heart was beating wildly out of control and she didn't know how to proceed.

"For someone who has been alive as long as you have, you're giving off an anxious vibe." Ruby could hear the humour in his voice and smiled again as she pulled away completely and began pacing the room.

"It should be understandable, I'm over 500 years old and this has never happened before. I mean, of course, it hasn't...but I'm immortal, my soul mate wouldn't be. I would have thought I'd have met you in a past life, that this wouldn't be the first time I met you. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm glad that it's now. If it were any other time I doubt I would have been prepared." Ruby said to try and settled any uncertainty Hollis might have, but the question still remained...why now? Why throw her mate into the mix now? It couldn't just be a coincidence, could it?

"I feel like you're going to turn around a reject me as I'll never be enough for you. Slowly since meeting you, I've been trying to accept that I can never keep you here. That you're meant for bigger things and that a mere mortal such as myself is being selfish in thinking that you'll give all that up to remain here." Ruby stopped pacing, she'd not thought about what Hollis might be feeling and going through. How was she supposed to respond to something so emotionally charged as that?

"Hollis..." Ruby started but stopped when Hollis shook his head.

"Don't make promises or speak words that are not true. I know you've barely thought about me, about us and I can accept that. Even if it hurts knowing that I barely register on your radar when you take up all of mine, you've been this way for so many years that you don't know how else to be. The moment I met you, I knew what you were to me...but you didn't even know what I was to you. It took so long for me to penetrate through your focus and your walls that now when I have a glimmer of hope I'm willing to give it up. If it means you'll be happier..."Ruby hated the emotion in his voice, the uncertainty. She silenced him with a kiss, hopefully, one that told him what her words could not.

She wasn't giving up on them, but there was something bigger than the both of them and if she didn't focus things could potentially go pear-shaped.

"Don't make excuses for me Hollis, you don't deserve excuses. I'm selfish, I'm self-centred but I'm also scared. I'm so scared that if I show any amount of emotion towards you that you'll be ripped away in an instant and I don't know that I can live with myself if anything happened to you. So when this all kicks off...fight for me because I'll be doing everything I can to fight for us." Hollis smiled sadly down at Ruby, he leaned in for one final kiss. Ruby couldn't help but melt into his as Hollis deepened the kiss, burying his hand in her hair and yanking lightly.

"As much as I want to continue...and I do, you've given me hope Ruby and you can be damned sure I'll be fighting to see you again. I can smell a few other alphas in the house now, everyone will be coming in soon so I need to be with my pack alpha. Don't look for me on the battlefield, it won't be pretty." Ruby nodded dumbly as Hollis gave her a peck on the cheek before turning to leave the room.

That encounter lightened her soul a little and settled her nerves.

She waited in the office though, waited for her wildly beating heart to calm down before she left the room to see what sort of reception the other alpha and betas were receiving.