"What are you going to do about it Sparrow? Cry to your dad?" Ruby heard laughter as she walked out towards the gym, the voices were familiar but the name was not. Still Ruby found it odd that those talking were not in a more public area so made it her business to investigate when she came around the corner however her blood began to boil almost instantly when she spotted a group of boys around a single figure.

She noticed Jude holding the girl against the wall, one hand holding a wad of her clothing and the other hand covering her mouth.

"Leave us alone new girl," Jude didn't even glance over his shoulder she noticed, which confirmed that this was pack business and that Jude was too confident for his own good.

When Fysher's sister came around to stand behind Jude, a smug smile on her face Ruby couldn't help the thoughts that ran through her mind. She really wanted to hurt these two, it was obvious they were not fit to be anything other than pack omegas...or worse, outcasts. But Ruby guessed that both would perish without pack support, Jude especially.

"Not until you let the girl go. I'm not leaving her to you animals." That was rich coming from Ruby, the irony almost had her smiling. Wait until they saw what a real animal looked like, she was sure they knew what her lycan form looked like but she also guessed that all would wet themselves in fear of seeing her other form.

Patience.

A thrill of excitement ran down her spine at the thought of transforming, she would easily shred Rebecca Fysher to shreds.

But that wasn't how her abilities worked, it wasn't what she stood for. So, for the time being, she reigned in her excitement to resemble an overconfident, totally naive school girl who had no idea what she was getting herself into.

"You should leave now before I really hurt you." The alphas sister said as she walked towards Ruby with a smug smirk on her face.

Ruby could see the cogs turning in the girls head, she thought she had the upper hand. She thought Ruby didn't have a clue what she was in for, she thought she'd be able to harm the human girl that stood before her and as Rebecca reached a hand out towards Ruby she caught hold of it and twisted without warning.

Often a human taking on a shifter was something to laugh at, shifters were a lot stronger than the average human. The move that Ruby had just performed and the result sound of pain from Rebecca made her fellow pack members look on in surprise...any normal human wouldn't have been able to twist a shifters arm to the point of breaking it, especially with the speed of a kung-fu master.

"What did I tell you about touching me again?" Ruby twisted Rebecca's arm to emphasize her point, Rebecca let out another cry as realization set in.

"You wouldn't! You can't break my arm...ah!" Rebecca let out an ear piercing scream as bone cracked, Ruby let go as soon as she heard the crack. A fracture was better than an arm hanging on by a bit of muscle and skin, at least this way Rebecca got an idea of what Ruby was capable of.

"How is that possible?" Jude turned, shock on his face when he realized what had happened to Rebecca.

For a few moments Ruby thought that Jude would attack her but his worry was squarely fixed on Rebecca, cute. They were mates, he went to her but she swatted him away just as he knelt to pick her up.

"Don't touch me! Do something with her! I won't let you get away with this new girl, how dare you." Ruby made a show of listening, she wasn't worried at all about what Rebecca was capable of. At best all she could do was attack Ruby in wolf form and Ruby had been up against too many shifters to be taken by surprise.

"You know you should really get that arm looked at before it sets and heals at the wrong angle." Mentally kicking herself Ruby turned and walked away, she was sure the girl that had been bullied would be left alone from now on but she had just exposed herself as not being human. She guessed if questioned further she could act innocent about the remark after all humans broke bones all the time.

The rest of the day passed as it did the other days of the week, though Ruby noticed that some students gave her a wide berth. She knew they would have to be pack members, that was the only way to explain why they walked the long way around her. The only student that appeared to be from the Cavendish Swamp pack that didn't mind being around her was the girl that had been bullied.

Ruby felt nothing but sympathy for her, she appeared to be that down-trodden that she couldn't meet most peoples glance and yet she had moved Ruby out of her seat on their first day of history class. An odd thing, it made Ruby wonder just who the girl was and how she came to be the runt of the pack.

History class was as boring as ever except Mr Fysher handed out homework, many of the students groaned. Homework for a Friday afternoon, Ruby's assignment had an extra note stuck to the cover page.

'Stay after class. We need to talk.' - Fysher.

When the bell rang Ruby made no move to pack her things up, instead she and Fysher watched as all other students exited the room. The girl that had been in the confrontation earlier in the day hovered at the door, Fysher gave her a quizzical look before she scuttled out of the room.

Once the girl was gone Fysher rose from where he'd been sitting behind his desk, went and shut the door then made his way over to Ruby.

He was far too comfortable closing the door without fear of rumours starting.

"About the incident with Rebecca, Jude, Sevyn and a few of Jude's teammates. They say you snapped Becca's arm easily, I want to know how you came to know those sorts of moves and why you'd use them against my sister." Ruby wasn't surprised that only half the story was told, at least she assumed the story was told to benefit Rebecca and not what actually happened.

But then, Ruby suspected they were all still in shock that a mere human could break a shifters arm.

"One of the reasons we were home-schooled was because my mom feared that we'd be targeted by bullies, once upon a time she'd been a martial arts expert and had taught both Oli and I had to defend ourselves. Oliver is kind of a well-built guy and has been for a few years now, you have to learn pretty quickly how to get around and outmaneuver someone his size. Your sister tried touching me again, she was warned the other day what would happen if she touched me uninvited again." The way Fysher stood, he seemed as unconvinced about her backstory as he did the other day but Ruby wasn't going to make things easy for him. She wasn't just going to spill any sensitive information just because he seemed to be a little suspicious of her and her brother.

"Are you going to report it to the principal and the cops?" Now it was Ruby's turn to ask, if it were that serious then the logical thing for Fysher to do was report it to the principal. Charges would be laid, she'd get in a load of trouble with the council and probably pulled from the assignment but something told her that he wasn't going to.

He wanted answers to questions that he hadn't asked yet and Ruby was just waiting for the day they were all unleashed.

"No, I'm not reporting it to the police or the principal. But I'm going to ask you one question and I want your honest answer, do you understand?" Ruby nodded, unsure what Fysher was so tense about anyway. He couldn't really ask Ruby what he wanted to, it would expose him to a potential human and Fysher seemed like the kind of guy that liked keeping that secret.

"What are you?" Of all the questions, Ruby wasn't expecting him to ask such a simple question. Of all the questions he could have asked, it really spoke about how protective he was of his identity as a shifter especially when she took into consideration how flippant Jude and Rebecca were with their abilities.

"Human?" She made sure to tilt her head in confusion.

Her answer didn't please the alpha, she could see him fighting to control the anger. It rolled off him in waves, any other person might have been scared by the sudden show of anger in his poster and expression but Ruby knew...she hoped that he wouldn't do anything other than accept her answer.

"Is that the answer you're going with?" Surprise flashed across his face, obviously, he hadn't meant that to come out but Ruby nodded all the same.

"I don't know what you were expecting sir." Reaching for her pens and pencil case and began packing her things away before Fysher had excused her, he'd need to ask more direct questions if he wanted his questions answered. He'd also need to do it in a more secure area as a classroom at school wasn't somewhere Ruby wanted to expose her secrets.

There was always a slim chance that someone was listening that shouldn't be.

"Can I go now sir?" Fysher nodded, dismissing her with the flick of a hand. He was clearly not pleased but at least he'd managed to get the anger under control.

When Ruby reached the door Fysher called to her, he was still standing near her desk. Hands on hips, he eyed her for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"I'm going to get answers one way or another Ruby, you and I both know what you did. It's hard to break an arm..." he died off, Ruby wished he'd continued with his train of thought, '...of a shifter.' she'd heard it before as it wasn't the first shifter arm she'd broken.

Ruby hightailed it home, she didn't want to speak with anyone else today that wasn't part of her assignment.

"Why are you late home?" Ruby came barging into the kitchen, she was thankful food was cooking as she needed to calm down.

"I broke a shifters arm today, the history teachers sister. She was bullying one of their pack members, I couldn't walk by and ignore it but I was so angry that someone with that much power could be so nasty. She was going to put her hands on me so I reacted without thinking and now Topher Fysher is on my ass about it, he suspects even more now but won't ask the right questions." Ruby sat down next to Oliver, she was frustrated as hell and needed to get out of the house.

"Run with me? We can start plotting our perimeter before dinner. I need to get out and clear my head." Now likely wasn't the best time to go out running but Ruby needed it. She was sure they'd have an encounter with a shifter or two if they venture towards the woods so they'd need to stay on the asphalt.

Oliver groaned but didn't protest as he went down to his room and changed, Ruby went to her room and did the same. They met outside soon after and began jogging towards the closest edge of town, the good thing about living where they did was that the forest edge was only a few small blocks away.

"Do you want to split or shall we go the same way? I feel like we'll cover more ground if we split," Ruby suggested, she was purposefully going to run towards the suburb she knew housed the majority of the Cavendish pack. Why she was willing to run that way she had no idea but Oliver nodded in agreement.

"Yeah that sounds fine, I'll see you in an hour? Don't run yourself out, we still have stuff to do this weekend that you need energy for. See you at home." Oliver left her standing there, she knew that he could keep up with her but being as pent up and frustrated as she was she would be running with speed back towards the house and set off towards the Cavendish Swamp pack settlement.

Ruby had been running for the better part of twenty minutes before she started noticing she was being followed by two or three wolves. They weren't running beside her but hung back and followed at a distance, she wondered which of the students they were but didn't slow her pace and continued around a corner.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a single wolf standing in the middle of the road and realized this part of town was a little more remote than she had expected. Looking behind her she noticed the other wolves had closed in around her in a semi-circle with the single wolf standing in front of her.

It wasn't Fysher, that much she knew.

When she began walking again the world snarled for her to keep still but she ignored it, when it charged at her moved away from it's snapping jaw. The other wolves had closed in around her, ready to attack once their leader did as well.

Instead of running Ruby knelt before the wolf so she could communicate with him better, looking any animal in the eye was never a good idea and this wolf let her know that it didn't appreciate the direct challenge.

"Listen carefully Jude, I'm only going to warn you once. Come near me again in this form and I swear to god I'll rip your jaw right off your face, you think I wouldn't but I'll do it the same way I broke Rebecca's arm. Do you understand me?" Ruby asked, reaching a hand out towards the wolfs jaw. He growled twice before quieting down and pulling away from her touch before trotting away.

The other wolves followed him, Ruby figured that was the last she'd see of them today so continued on her way.

Not far down the road, however, she saw a half-naked Mr Fysher walking her way, she saw half-naked guys enter a property not too far down the road and wondered if Fysher had been coming to rescue her or if it had all been a setup.

"Ruby...what are you doing out here?" Ruby shrugged like it was no big deal, she thought it pretty obvious by the way she was dressed.