Chapter 230

"We're going to have to hide your coffee." Mae huffs out when they had finally gotten Ruby down to the car, she was currently in loose pants and a simple t-shirt with a sun shining in front, finding spare clothes for her hadn't been too hard but getting her in them was a chore.

Shana is quick to automatically lock all the doors when they're all safely in, Mae choosing to sit at the back with Ruby, mostly to make sure she didn't crawl over to the front seats and try to drive.

"Because if she's this energetic, imagine how bad it would be if she takes a sip of caffeine." Mae continues.

Shana winces, the image of that would be the stuff of nightmares.

Everyone at the clinic had already been easily enamored by the bubbly child, they didn't even mind her running around, she cheered up the other children who were around.

Shana had gotten the day off, maybe two, she was very dedicated to the clinic and they had all been trying to get her to take some time off anyway.

The paperwork would be set up by Jaxon, she also had to introduce the newest addition to their family to the others.

It was crazy that she was just building up the courage to ask Mae to be her mate and boom! They get a child, a sweet little girl who is currently tangling up Mae's hair, a price that had to be paid to keep her distracted so she wasn't crawling up the dash.

"Shana, for the love of all things wonderful, drive faster or I'm going to have to shave off my hair if she keeps this up." Mae half groan, the fondness in her eyes betraying her sentence.

Ruby on the other hand is kneeling beside her on the car seat, brows furrowed in concentration as she carefully tangled up Mae's long and curly hair.

"You'd look beautiful even without hair." Shana smiles at her through the rearview mirror.

"Keep that up and you'll wake up tomorrow without any hair." Mae glares at her.

Shana grimaces but clamps her mouth shut, she knew Mae adored her hair like a pet and was grateful for the sacrifice.

Mae studies Ruby's open face, from the evidence they had, she had lived a really rough life and Mae was immensely grateful that she was spared the memories.

She had recently escaped from the foster home she was put in so gratefully she hadn't been a nomad for too long.

"Ma? Don't look at me, look forward." Ruby scolds her, adjusting her head to better tangle up the long hair that she was rightfully fascinated with.

Mae chokes at this, face red as she shares glances with Shana in the mirror. "What did she just call me?" She splutters to her girlfriend who was driving.

"She's probably mispronouncing your name." Shana quickly clears up.

"Well, I'm not complaining." Mae grins widely.

Ruby turns her head to the side to look at Shana, curiosity in her faux serious eyes as she pretends like she's doing something important on Mae's hair.

"Nana? Where are we going?" She asks cutely.

Shana wheezes at this and Mae laughs at her reaction. 

"She's going to kill us with sweetness overload." Shana mutters and Mae can't help but agree.

"Um, baby, we're going shopping." Shana explains.

"Food?" Ruby immediately asks with wide eyes. "We're getting food? I've never had enough of it." She mutters more as an afterthought to herself and not for the first time that day, Mae finds herself on the brink of tears.

She lifts a hand to pet Ruby's hair, the little girl leans into the touch like a touch starved pup, although they had enough food stacked up at home she would buy more, just to see Ruby's slightly toothless grin.

"Yes, love, we are but first we'll buy you new clothes..." Mae trails off as she sees Ruby's smile fade away. "Ruby? What... What's wrong?" She asks, cupping her small face.

Ruby's beautiful brown eyes go glassy, tears brimming. "Are you going to give Ruby away?" She asks with sad eyes.

Shana turns around sharply at this. "What? No! Of course not!"

"But you're buying me new clothes?" She asks with a frown as if confused, her lower lip wobbling.

Shana and Mae share a look at this, it must be the effect of one of her lost memories, it would add up that whatever foster home she had been to would want her to look nice if they were about to give her away, although for the life of her Shana couldn't imagine why anyone would want to give the precious little girl away.

"Yes, so that you can come back home with us, would you like that?" Mae asks kindly, wiping away a tear that tracked down her porcelain cheek.

Ruby practically beamed at this, her eyes twinkling, a burning desert trapped in the glossy orbs. "Yes!"

Shana sighs in relief at this, they would have to be careful and study her carefully on what could trigger her. She knew just the store to go to, there would be an almost zero chance of running into a human, that was evidently one of Ruby's biggest triggers.

Mae throws her arms around Ruby to hug her tightly, she didn't even mind the tangles in her hair, not when Ruby was laughing so happily at being able to come home with them.

They spend the rest of the drive explaining to Ruby who kept insisting on hearing how many wolfies there were.

Shana couldn't blame her, not if she thought she was the only one of her kind and perhaps even thought of herself as a monster at least until she met the elderly man and his wife.

"Hold my hand, Nana!" Ruby invites happily when they get to their destination.

Mae had immediately grabbed onto her hand when she opened the door to stop Ruby from running off and Ruby had thought it was some kind of game, inviting Shana to join in on the hand holding session as well.

Shana doesn't hesitate, holding her hand securely as they make their way into the small unassuming shop, the clothes shop was mostly for kids which was just perfect.

The shop was a perfect find, not too many people and the people present were all Werewolves, mostly from their Pack.

Plus they were mostly left to their devices, after asking a shopping helper where to find certain things they were all set.

Shana and Mae let Ruby pick out the clothes she wanted, the only thing Mae picked out was a pair of bowties, noting how Ruby's long hair kept obstructing her vision.

She had plans for styling Ruby's beautiful hair so she might have gone all out while buying hair accessories.

"So what shoes would you like?" Shana asks when they get to the show section.

Ruby makes a face at them, looking down at the flip-flops on her legs she looks up again at the both of them with a very solemn expression on her face like she was about to admit to doing something wrong.

"Ma? Nana? I don't like shoes." She announces with full honesty.

Mae hides her laughter behind her hand while Shana looks traumatized.

"But baby, you can't walk around without shoes, your feet will hurt." Shana tries to entice her but Ruby looks steadfast, shaking her head in refusal, brown eyes shining with sincerity.

Shana nearly cracks at this but she remains steadfast. "Don't make up your mind yet." Shana cajoles. "Why don't you try then on first?"

"Plus then we can go but socks, those are fun." Mae tags on.

"Socks? I've not worn socks." Ruby frowns, liking she's trying to place the word.

Mae and Shana share another look, barely suppressed anger on their faces.

"We'll buy you all the socks you want, it's like gloves but for your feet." Mae explains.

Ruby brightens up at this. "Like the ones Doctor Laura had?"

"Yes just like that." Shana smiles at her, her aimless widening when Ruby makes a move towards the shoes.

They end up towing a lot of bags to the car, Ruby bouncing around their legs when they told her that they were getting food next.

Shana tries not to think about how Ruby's past would have been like for her to be so excited at the thought of food but the one thing she did know was that she would never lack anything else again.

"We're going home first right?" Mae inquires. "I mean after buy food." She quickly corrects when Ruby shoots her a look.

"Yeah." Shana affirms, locking up the car doors again, she would have to remember to always do that whenever their daughter was in the car.

"It'll be best if we go with her to the Pack House today, I know a lot of our friends that would be pissed if they find out about this much later."

Mae smiles at this, this time she had to stop Ruby from upturning all the bags to show Mae what had been bought although they all did the shopping together, her excitement too much for her little body to keep in so it kept brimming out.

"I'm homeschooling her." Mae blurts out, a goofy grin on her face... God, she was so happy.

Shana had never whipped her head around so fast. "What?"

Mae immediately backtracks. "I mean..." She shrugs. "I'm not the biggest fan of school, even though now it's mostly Werewolves plus I want her to catch up with her mates first, she'll go to school, maybe high school." Mae continues grudgingly.

Shana just shakes her head fondly, homeschooling was a big task, if Mae was willing to sacrifice that much then she would support her, all the way.