AN: WOW! SO SORRY everyone! I didn't realize it had been so long! I hope you're all still here *looks out into the black emptiness* Helllo?!

Well, for those who are still here, here is Chapter 7. It isn't a particularly long chapter, but I hope it gets you by for a little while as the rest of recent events settle in my life.

What recent events? Oh, ya know.. moved to Chicago, been working 2 jobs while taking a college class and then our CAR WAS STOLEN last night. And NO, we do not live in a bad area lol. We just had rotten luck while parked at work. Fortunately, the police have found it and we can go get it tomorrow. But anyway.. yeah.. so that happened..

Anywho.. I will stop unloading and let you guys read. Hopefully after this class is over I can start updating regularly again :)

All errors are my own.

It was early the next morning as Emma stood in front of her floor-length mirror, adjusting the gold buttons on her forest green tunic. The green matched her eyes, which is why her mother had insisted on having it made. Wearing it to this mornings meeting would be the only apology her parents would get from her. Her mood was still rather fowl, the constant fight with her wolf making her more unstable as time went on. She thought her encounter with Ruby would have eased her beast some, but instead she found it had merely encouraged it more. If she didn't shift soon, she'd go mad.

Narrowing her eyes at herself, she turned from the mirror. Why was it so hard after Graham?

"Emma?"

The blonde's thoughts about Graham and shifting were interrupted when Ruby appeared in her bedroom, bathed and dressed in a form-fitting red dress in preparation for the meeting with her parents. Emma's thoughts instantly drifted to the brunette and what had happened in the last several hours. Her eyes drifted over the exposed mark she'd left and she felt her blood heat up in response. Ruby seemed to be baring it proudly.

Emma had dismissed her after last night's encounter, choosing to lay in her bed contemplating what it meant to have claimed Ruby as her beta. Usually, an Alpha wolf claimed a Beta during a sparring match, not during a sexual act. Doing so tied the two of them together more intimately than normal betas. Ruby wasn't her mate, but their relationship had changed.

Ruby would not be able to refuse a direct order from her. They would always be drawn to one another, always be able to feel each other's presence, until the day Emma bonded with her True Mate. If she bonded with her True Mate. True Mate's were rare, which is why these types of bonds between an Alpha and a Beta were more common - still rare, but less so than finding your True Mate. Her parents were True Mates.

Growing up, she had heard nothing but the tale about how they had met and fallen instantly in love with one another. It was gross, and slightly depressing. She was the heir to the throne of the White Kingdom, and the daughter of a very coveted pair of True Mates. If that wasn't pressure, she didn't know what was.

"Emma?" Ruby tried again in response to the dazed green eyes staring at her. "Anybody home in there?" She offered up a lazy grin, trying to ease the whirling emotions fluttering from the blonde.

Realizing that she had spaced out again, Emma blinked and nodded, "Yeah. Let's go."

Ruby bent forward, taking on a dramatic and rather comical pose with legs crossed in sort of a courtesy as she flourished an arm toward the door. "After you, Your Highness."

The blondes lip twitched up in a slight smile as she fought not to roll her eyes at the brunettes playfulness. Despite her troubled feelings, she felt the other wolf was calm and playful and that alone relieved some of the tension in her shoulders. She passed Ruby and lead them to the door, but before opening it she turned back to her Beta. "I know that they want you to go on this mission, but I am going to try to convince them that I offered them the perfect opportunity with yesterday's outburst. Please help me convince them that I am stable?"

Ruby tilted her head, confused. "Are you asking me to lie and tell them that you shifted when you haven't?" Her voice was steady, but Emma could feel her heart racing at the prospect of lying to the King and Queen.

The royal felt her heart respond in kind, reaching out to clasp Ruby on the shoulder. "Not unless they directly ask you if I have shifted, okay? I don't want you to risk your integrity or your place here in the castle, but I need this mission. I can't just sit here and watch as someone else does my job. Graham was my responsibility-" Ruby opened her mouth to protest but Emma shook her head. "- he wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for me and all I want, is to put this threat to rest. The Kingdom will soon look at me to lead them. What kind of leader will they see me as if I cower inside my castle while someone invades my lands?"

Recognition and understanding passed over sapphire blue orbs and Emma knew her Beta understood what she was saying. Smiling slightly, she squeezed her shoulder and continued in a softer tone, "I would not ask this of you if it was not important Rubes."

Ruby seemed deep in thought for a moment, before nodding and stepping forward, wrapping her arms around the shorter wolf's waist and respectively tucking her nose under Emma's chin as best as she could. "You'll always have my support, Em."

Emma accepted the hug, feeling her muscles relax as she returned the embrace. "Thank you." was all she returned, before letting Ruby go and turning back towards the door. Part of her wished to reach out and hold onto Ruby until all of her problems melted away, but she knew she would need all of her strength Without another word, the pair made their way to the Dining Hall.

When they entered the Dining Hall, King David and Queen Snow were perched in their usual spots at the head of a long rectangle table in the center of the room. The table was unlike other tables, as it was wide enough on the ends to accommodate both the King and the Queen side-by-side, something her parents thought provided the palace with a "unified front" from its leaders.

No one else was in the hall, save for their most trusted servant, Alfred.

Emma entered the hall with her head held high, shoulders back, as she strolled over to her usual placement next to her mother. Ruby trailed respectively behind her, and as she slid into the seat next to the blonde, Snow's eyes drifted swiftly to the mark, attention sharp as David talked quietly with Alfred about the quality of the morning's mead.

"Ruby," she asked as soon as the brunette was seated, "are you alright?"

Emma stopped her reach for the bread and jam and turned to look at her mother with the air of a petulant child. "Of course she is."

Green eyes that matched her own flickered to her as Snow exhaled through her nose in disapproval at the interruption. "It is very rude to interrupt a conversation that you are not a part of, Emma. I was asking Ruby, if I were asking you, I would have said so." Snow looked over her daughter's shoulder to Ruby. "Well?"

"I am fine, Your Majesty." Ruby assured with a confident smile as she raised her goblet of mead to her lips.

Snow wasn't satisfied, however, as she never is with matters such as these, and true to her nature, she pressed on. "You look like you've been bitten, were you in a fight?"

"No."

"Well then, please enlighten us this morning. What happened?" Snow pressed, the insistence in her voice getting David's attention. The blonde man stopped his conversation and turned towards the three women at the table, blue eyes curious as to what he'd missed.

Ruby looked suddenly insecure, eyes moving between Emma and her parents. Emma held her eyes on the third exchange, giving a small nod of permission. "I've been claimed as a Cardinal Beta."

Two sets of eyebrows shot skyward as David and Snow expressed their surprised. Cardinal Beta was the term for the type of relationship Emma had thrust between them, a term that singled out the beta's bonded over intimacy over brute strength like most others were.

"To whom?" David asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Emma." Ruby said firmly, both women bracing themselves for the Royal couple's reaction to the news...