Chapter Seven: A Wolf, A Panther and A Bunny.

Amusing. That was the first thought that came to Blake's mind when she watched the young wolf. Ruby never seemed to stop moving when she was outside of class. She would bounce about the open courtyards from flower to flower like a flighty humming bird, or would flop down on the ground to watch the clouds roll past. Usually the panther and wolf spent little time together with out Yang or Weiss around them but today the two were absent of their respective partner.

Weiss had muttered something about having to go to the library again for a research paper for her Dust Manipulation class and to prepare for a test that was coming up in their Grimm Studies class. "But Weiiiis." Ruby had pouted towards her partner, "The test isn't for another two weeks and your paper isn't due till the end of the month." The wolf gave the Heiress the largest puppy eyes Blake had ever seen, the panther could see the resolve slowly crumbling in the white haired girl.

"Ruby that test will be here before you know it and at the end of the month we get our first field assignment and I do not want to have to deal with the paper before hand." Weiss huffed putting her noise in the air as stalked off towards the library. Ruby gave a small pout at her partner's back almost pleading her to turn around.

Yang on the other was stuck in the infirmary having caught a wayward grenade to the back of her head courtesy of Nora. "I'm fine." The brawler had kept insisting even as she wobbled around trying to focus her eyes. While there was no visible damage thanks to her semblance activating it was apparent something in her inner ear had ruptured and was causing problems with her balance. "Nothing like a small explosion to knock the cobwebs loose." As soon as she spoke those words the brawler had turned green and rushed to the trashcan releasing her lunch into the bin. She would be fine after some rest and an Aura boost.

So Blake was now for the lack of better words in charge of watching the wolf. She sighed from her spot under a tree as she watched the red head out of the corner of her eye stalk a squirrel. Wolves were notoriously difficult to understand and it appeared that Ruby was even more so with her bubbly and cheerful personality.

The panther briefly wondered what the scene looked like to an outsider who didn't know that the red head was a wolf. They would probably see an odd girl in her red cape hunched over as she continued to try and sneak up on the squirrel and brush if off as her just being a quirky Huntress in training, they weren't wrong but they wouldn't be entirely right. With a roll of her eyes Blake returned to her book.

"Hey Blake." The sudden closeness of Ruby made the black hair girl jump with a yelp. "Something wrong?" She asked cocking her head to the side.

"Don't do that, Ruby." Blake hissed covering her chest feeling as if her heart was about to leap to her throat. "For Gods sake did no one ever tell you not to sneak up on people?"

Ruby blinked in confusion at her, "Didn't you hear me come up to you?" A quick flick of silver eyes to her black bow.

Blake felt a small amount of heat on her cheeks, it was a bad habit of hers when she was sitting down reading a book she would become so engrossed in the pages that she would ignore the world completely. Fortunately she had a partner that was loud enough when she was reading in their dorm room that it was impossible to ignore a trait her sister didn't seem to share. "Sorry I was in my own world reading."

"Oh." The wolf nodded crossing her legs and playing with a blade of grass it was very obvious to Blake that she had something on her mind, and with out Yang around it fell to her to find out what was on Ruby's mind.

"Do you want to talk?" She asked making the red head's head snap up. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Yeah, kinda." Ruby chuckled still fiddling with the grass. "I was just wondering what you knew about Alphas." Her voice was quiet as she mumbled her question.

Blake raised an eyebrow at the wolf didn't she know about them? She was one so why did she ask? Figuring there more to the question the panther closed her book and turned to face her leader. "Honestly not much." She started, "I know that they have become exceedingly rare over the past two hundred years and very few species are capable of being them as well since the decline has started. Supposedly back before the Grimm Wars Alpha's were much more common in our race but with the rise of the Kingdoms the need for that kind of leadership became irrelevant. Most Alphas now a days are seen as archaic." She looked away from the wolf at her last words but she saw Ruby nod in agreement.

With a sigh Blake hesitated on her next words but the wolf had asked, "Honestly Ruby the few experiences I've had with Alphas have been bad." Ruby looked up at her, Blake could she a small amount of fear in her silver eyes. "I know it's hard to hear but it's true. I've seen an Alpha kill a person just for looking at them wrong. I've seen people challenge an Alpha only to be dismembered in the most painful way imaginable. From my experience Alpha's are cruel and rule through fear." As much as she hated saying the words to young girl Blake felt that she needed to hear it especially if the wolf claimed she wanted to be different. "But I don't see that in you so I'm not sure if my impression is correct."

Ruby rubbed a tear out of her eye at her words. "Yeah I've been told that before. And your right Alpha's have been becoming more and more rare, actually true Alphas are even more rare." Blake gave the girl an inquiring look, "The way my Uncle and Ozpin explained it to me is that most Alphas now aren't actually born with the Alpha gene or something like that. So that's why they become cruel, they don't have whatever it is that makes Alpha an Alpha. I don't understand it all myself but from what I did understand Alphas use to not be like they are today, they didn't use to be cruel." Ruby bit her lip as she considered her next words. "Uncle Qrow was the one who told me I was an Alpha, so does that mean I'm going to be cruel too?"

Blake was taken back by the sudden question. She hadn't considered it before now but that she had been asked it did cause her to wonder. Yes Ruby was in fact an Alpha there was no doubting that just a simple touch from the wolf sent off all sorts of warning signals in the panther but would she become cruel? So far Ruby had been the face of kindness to everyone even Weiss. But would that kindness remain. "I don't know, Ruby. You're different from any Alpha I've encountered, any wolf for that fact actually." Ruby gave a sad smile but nodded in agreement, the future of the wolf was uncertain.

"Have you encountered many wolves?" Ruby asked as the sadness faded from her silver eyes.

Blake shook her head, "Besides you I've meet three other wolves."

Ruby gave a small chuckle rubbing the back of her neck, "Yeah we're kinda a reclusive species."

"Not to mention sparse." Blake added. "Which has never made sense to me, wolves are pack animals so why does your kind seclude themselves so much? Is it because of what can happen to you?"

"Yeah." Ruby nodded, "While the wolves are pack animals and are fairly social it's different with wolf Faunus." Blake raised an eyebrow asking the red head to elaborate, Ruby sighed leaning back against her arms. "You know wolves have a higher chance of succumbing to their instincts right?" Blake nodded though she had never understood why. "It's because wolves are to close to our animal counterparts, for some reason we share a higher genetic lineage than other Faunus species. With my kind it's even greater." Blake blinked in confusion making Ruby laugh again, "What kind of wolf do you think I am?"

Blake blinked at the wolf unsure what she was getting at. Hedging her bet she went with the most common wolf, "Gray?" Ruby burst out into loud laughter rolling on the ground causing the black haired girl to stare at her leader in confusion, "What's so funny?"

"Blake do I look like a gray wolf?" Ruby continued to laugh, pointing at her hair.

"Well they are the most common." Blake deadpanned.

Ruby smiled, "Yeah you're right but no I'm not a gray wolf. I'm a Red wolf." Blake blinked. "Never heard of us?" The panther shook her head. "Don't feel bad, I thought I was a gray wolf until I was told otherwise."

"Who told you that?" Blake inquired; she felt there was a long story that Ruby was not telling her.

"Have you ever heard the story of the Calling?" Blake nodded, she had had a book when she was very young about a wolf worrier who was called into nature to find a refuge where all wolves were called to learn who they were. "Well it's not a story, it true. When wolves start to mature we hear this whispering calling us and it's so compelling that you can't ignore it. I actually started to sleep walk towards it."

"That's amazing. I had been told a story like that when I was younger." Blake smiled at the wolf. "So where did you go?"

Ruby smiled wistfully, "Can't tell you. I can only reveal that information to the person I trust above all others." Blake gave the girl a disbelieve look, "I'm not lying, it's something I'm bound to, not even Yang knows where I went for those two years."

"T-two years?" Blake sputtered, the blonde could barely stand to let the red head out of her sight for a few hours how had she gone two years without seeing her?

"Yep, from fourteen to sixteen." Ruby nodded, "We stay for as long as we have too, when we're younger wolves have an even higher chance of succumbing to our instincts so until we feel we like we won't we stay but even then there's no guarantee that we won't."

"So what makes Red wolves so susceptible to succumbing to your instincts?" Blake questioned recalling Ruby's comment.

Ruby furrowed her brow, "Ummm that's tricky, usually wolves can find answers where we go but since my kind scarce I couldn't. I only had stories of other Red wolves to go on. I've tried to find more records on Red wolves but I haven't found much. Though I can't really look that much without rising suspicion."

"Yeah I'm still having trouble deciding on whether Weiss is like her family or not." Blake sighed, the white haired girl switched so fast between ice and, not warm but more of a lukewarm.

"Oh she's a good person." Ruby smiled at the thought of her partner, despite her sharp tongue and cold demeanor the wolf was beginning to get a better idea of who the Heiress was. After a few minutes of silence between the two a thought occurred to her and if the panther would go for it then it just might work. "Hey Blake?" The panther gave a small hum of acknowledgement. "Would you be my Beta?" The wolf's words made her whip her head up and face the crimson girl, silver eyes fixing her in place.

Blake's mind froze. Had Ruby just asked her to be her Beta? A wolf was asking her to be her right hand. An Alpha was asking her to stand beside her? Even he had not asked her to be his Beta, he had chosen to simply think of her as a mate and a tool nothing more. And now this small wolf who looked at her as an equal was asking for her to stand with her. "W-wh…What do… Ruby are you… What?" Her thoughts to jumbled to form a coherent thought.

Ruby drew her knees to her chest making herself smaller, "I'm scared." Her voice was small as Blake watched her, "I keep going over everything I've felt since I came to Beacon and how my Alpha side keeps flaring and I'm scared that if it keeps going I'll do something to hurt someone and with you being my Beta I think that would help. I heard once that a good Alpha always had a good Beta and since I want to be a good Alpha I figured you'd make a good Beta." Blake continued to stare at the redhead making her even more nervous, "I mean don't feel like you have to say yes or anything but it's just that Yang trust you and I trust you and trust is like the first thing on they way to becoming a good person so I thought I'd ask."

Blake frowned slightly, "Ruby I'm not a good person." The wolf looked at her in confusion, "I've done things that I'm not proud of and that I never want to relive."

"We've all done thing we're not proud of Blake." Ruby gave a sad smile. A smile the panther had seen before in the mirror. "We all have our pasts and not everyday can a good."

"Ruby…" Blake started placing a hand on the small girls shoulder.

The wolf shook her head, "It's fine Blake. It's just something I don't want to talk about."

With a long sigh the panther let her hand drop, her mind made up. "Alright I'll do it." Ruby instantly perked up at the words, "I, Blake Belladonna will become the Beta of Ruby Rose." Ruby's smile grew exponentially wider as she launched herself at her new Beta.

Blake stiffened at the contact for a second before giving a few awkward pats on the redheads back, for better or worse she had just bound herself to this bubbly wolf and she would do her best to make it for the better. Backing away Ruby flopped back down on the ground staring back up at the sky. "Thanks Blake." Shaking her head Blake wondered just what she had signed up for.

Again the pair lapsed into silence. Blake pulled her book back out and began reading while the wolf closed her eyes taking a deep breath of the air.

Her nose twitched; there was something new in the air, something that the wolf hadn't smelled before. It was a warm smell, like cinnamon. But there was something else there something that made Ruby want to chase the smell. Slowly moving into a crouch the wolf scanned the area for the source of the smell. The wind brought shifted bringing the smell with it. There, through the woods.

Blake had watched the wolf's changes from the corner of her eye. Something had grabbed her attention it seemed and now she was going to investigate it. She had to repress a chuckle at the saying 'curiosity killed the cat' because it seemed that it also would lead wolves into trouble. But what had the girl noticed? Blake didn't hear anything out of the ordinary nor did she see anything that would cause the wolf to stalk off.

Actually where had Ruby gone? Blake turned to where she had last seen the wolf stalking off into the small wooded path to try to find the red head but there was no sign of her. Oh for fucks sake, Blake groaned internally, she wears a bright red cloak how could she disappear so easily? Taking a deep breath she stood up to go to search for her mischievous leader a faint whiff of cinnamon tickled her nose. The panther recognized the scent of girl that it belonged to. She had met her yesterday on her way out of the gym with Yang. Turning towards the source of the smell she noticed the scent of roses and earth in the same direction.

"Oh no." Blake realized what was going on, the wolf had decided to follow the scent. Shaking her head the panther rushed off to stop whatever the wolf was up to. While she wasn't worried that Ruby would so something she was worried about how the other girl would react to Ruby. She wasn't totally sure of the full responsibilities as a Beta but Blake was pretty sure babysitter wasn't one of them, but then again it was Ruby. A small squeak of surprise made Blake sigh again as she made her way through the trees to find the wolf.

Finding a peculiar sight in front of her Blake had to bite back a chuckle. Ruby had found the source of the scent, a rabbit Faunus named Velvet Scarlatina who had her back up against a tree standing on her tiptoes trying to meld with the bark while the wolf invaded her personal space looking up at the rabbit ears. "Ruby stop terrorizing Velvet." The wolf looked back at her with a questioning look making Blake sigh again as she gave her an unamused look. Sheepishly Ruby backed away from the rabbit. "Sorry Velvet."

Once the wolf had backed away Velvet had started to relax. She had smelled her scent around campus but hadn't counted on actually encountering her, let alone on a wooded path while she was alone. At first she had just thought it was another student who had appeared from the side of the path but when she got closer the scent of wolf was overpowering. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to run but by then the smaller girl had backed her up to the tree, why hadn't she brought Coco? Now that she could see the wolf looking slightly embarrassed next to the panther she left out a soft sigh. "It's fine Blake she just took me by surprise."

Ruby looked up at the new Faunus with a small smile, she had only wanted to get a better look at the girl's ears. She wanted to ask her why she didn't try to hid them like she or Blake did but now that she was getting a better look she could tell that hiding them would be much harder than hers' or Blake's.

"Yeah she does that, but she's…"Blake hesitated, she was about to say that Ruby was harmless but Ruby was a wolf and the distinct picture of the younger girl dismantling Team CRDL flashed in her head, "Mostly harmless."

"Hi." Ruby smiled bouncing back up to the rabbit getting a small flinch from the girl, "My name's Ruby, nice to meet you Velvet."

"Hello Ruby." Velvet responded extending her hand, the same thoughts that Blake had had when she met the wolf playing through her head as well.

"Sorry if I scared you earlier I just wanted to get a better look at your ears." Ruby grinned again widely look up at her ears.

Velvet gave Blake a confused look making her sigh, "Yes she's always like this." The wolf pouted.

"Hey Velvet." A new voice called out making the three Faunus look over at the new person. "You forgot your bag." The new girl gave the rabbit a tie bag before looking over the other two girls through dark sunglasses. "And you are?" The girl stepped beside Velvet an arm dropping over the rabbit's shoulders pulling her slightly behind her.

Ruby unfazed by the action bounced up to the new girl, "Hi I'm Ruby Rose." The wolf stuck out her hand.

"Oh so you're the wolf that Velvet's been smelling." Ruby was taken back by the sudden and accurate identification, she still had her ears in her hair and her tail tucked against her back. Seeing her reaction the new girl began to laugh. "Hey I'm dating a Faunus she tells me everything and when she said there was a wolf around I knew you'd show up eventually. Name's Coco Adel."

Blake approached the pair behind Ruby looking cautiously at Coco, "How did you know Ruby was a wolf though? She's not showing her features."

"Same way I know you're a panther." Coco smiled taping the side of her glasses as if that explained her reason.

"Coco that doesn't tell them anything." Velvet shook her head.

"Shush you." Coco smiled giving the rabbit a peck on the cheek, instantly Velvet's face turned red making Coco laugh. "Oh come on bunbun not like they wouldn't have found out eventually. Anyways come on, Yatsu and Fox are going to play with that first year team of asshats that's been harassing you."

Velvet gave her leader a disbelieving look and Ruby could see the irritation rising in her eyes. "Coco I told you to-"

"Stay out of it." Coco shook her head, "And I am. Those two are acting on their own," A roguish smile crossed the brunette's face. "It just so happened that the blue haired idiot thought it would be funny to try to trip Fox, poor bastards." The smile and lack of concern in her voice told the wolf and panther that she had no care if Team CRDL was hurt.

"Fine." Velvet shook her head. "I'll see you around Ruby and nice to see you again Blake."

As the two older girls disappeared Ruby and Blake made their way back to where they had been before the wolf stalked off. "So what do you want to do now?" Ruby asked looking up at Blake.

"I'd like to go back to reading." Blake sighed, she was just gotten to a good part in her book and she really wanted to continue but she kept getting distracted.

"Boring." Yang's voice carried over the air as she walked over. "Come on Blake you can read later we've got daylight to burn." Blake looked over at her partner who strutted up to them, hips swaying as soon as she looked at her. The panther rolled her eyes as Yang caught her looking causing the blonde to smirk. As the brawler reached the pair she threw arm around Blake causing the black hair girl to feel heat radiating off the blonde. "So come on lets go to the gym and blow off some steam."

"Yang you're supposed to be recovering." Blake sighed pulling the arm off her. The heat had been to tempting to snuggle down into and if she didn't remove the offending appendage then she might have actually started. The blonde would not win that easily.

Lilac eyes rolled, "I'm fine Blake just needed a few hours to get my equilibrium back. But I'm all good now." Blake gave the blonde a skeptical look but chose to not comment.

"I highly doubt that." The Heiress huffed as she approached the group as well. At the appearance of her partner the wolf instantly perked up and bounced over to her.

"Weiss you came back." Ruby smiled up at her, "Did you get your essay done?" Blake saw a twitch of material at the red heads back causing a small smile to cross her lips.

"Yes dolt I finished. It's not like it was hard see what you can do when you apply yourself." Weiss flipped her hair looking at her partner.

Ruby pouted up at her partner, "Hey I've been starting to apply myself. I'll show you my notes if you don't believe that."

"Ruby I've seen you take notes during class," Weiss rolled her eyes. "Even if you have improved your note taking you keep doodling your wolves, you should focus more instead."

"You watch me take notes in class?" Ruby asked cocking her head to the side. She had only showed her partner her notes after class never during the class.

A light blush graced Weiss' cheeks as she quickly looked away from the sliver eyes. "I-It's not like I stare at you while you take notes it's just that sometimes when I'm not taking notes I sometimes look over to see how your doing and I've notice you doodling."

"So you watch my baby sister while she doesn't know you're watching. Should I be concerned?" Yang smirked at the Heiress causing more blush to grace her pale face.

"I just said it's not like that." Weiss snapped giving the brawler an ice full glare. "It's just I've noticed Ruby tends to draw in class more than take notes."

"But I've been taking better notes right?" Ruby looked at her partner.

Weiss sighed, "Yes you're notes are much better then what they were at the beginning of the semester."

"So why'd you bring up the doodling then?" Yang continued still giving her a teasing smirk.

"I did not bring up the doodling." Weiss seethed through clenched teeth.

"Yes you did." Blake pointed out, she knew the blonde was trying to rile up the frosty girl and seeing the chance to tease the Schnee was just to hard to pass up.

"I… But… She…ARH!" Throwing her hands into Weiss stalked off towards the dorms.

"You really shouldn't tease Weiss that much." Ruby groaned towards her sister.

Yang shrugged throwing her arm back over Blake's shoulder, "Probably but it's just too much fun." With another groan the wolf took off after her partner who was practically giving off an artic blast through the air. Turning back to the panther Yang gave her a wide grin, "So what do you say Kitty Cat, wanna go to the gym?"

Knowing there would be no way to convince the blonde that she needed more rest Blake settled for reading her book while she watched her partner workout, "Sure sounds like fun."

A/N: So I hope that cleared up some of the confusion around wolfs and Alphas. We'll come back to this eventually though with a bit more details and but for now this will have to do. So I have this fun head cannon as to why Coco always wears sunglasses other than they make her look cool, and we'll see what that is later as well. Anyway Velvet's character in here was written way before we got to see her kickass weapon so that wont be popping up. And as to why Ruby hasn't been revealed as a Faunus yet, I at least want that to happen on her terms. And believe me I wish I had time to write more it's just school keeps me ridiculously busy and while I know I said that this story is mostly fleshed out I know where I want to go and how I have to get there I still actually have to you know write it...

With that: A million thanks is to few for me to give, say what's on your mind, and may your days be full of smiles.