Chapter 238

Mae feels her heart plummet to the ground, it was so easy to forget that Hayden wasn't one of them, she starts to step forward, planning to use her body as a shield but Hayden is already crouching in front of Ruby and nothing short of body slamming him out of the way was going to fix this.

She shares a frantic look with Mae who's looking like she had just seen the light as well, horror painting her face.

Hayden on the other hand was unaware of all that was going on, excited to meet the little girl.

He holds out a hand with a smile and waits for her to take it.

Ruby on the other hand is as clueless as Hayden, she freezes up when the man in front of her holds out a hand, something is off but strangely she isn't scared and that makes her reach out as well, very gently placing a chubby hand in his open palm.

Hayden practically beams at this, laughing softly. "How are you?" He asks cordially, shaking her hand a little.

Ruby finds herself smiling at the soothing laugh. "Fine, thank you." She mumbles, replying instinctively from lessons drilled into her that are now long lost.

"She's so sweet..." Hayden praises Ruby to her new parents looking up at them to see the strange expressions on their faces and falters, a furrow forming between his brows.

"What's... What's wrong?" He asks, biting his lower lip in worry.

Shana and Mae share another look and instantly start grinning.

"Absolutely nothing!" Shana exclaims, beyond happy that a scene hadn't happened, she had really wanted Hayden to be close to their daughter. 

"Sure..." Hayden mutters uncertainly, rising up slightly only to get tugged down by Ruby who is staring up at him with wide eyes, a question dancing at the tip of her tongue.

"What is it, Ruby?" He asks patiently, leaning down.

Ruby glances down at her new shoes shyly before looking up again with a nervous smile. "Ma and Nana said, Hayhay had a kitty?" She phrases as a question.

Hayden glances up at his friends who clear their throats and move over to the table.

"Yes I do, do you want to see her?"

"Yes, please." She nods enthusiastically.

Hayden takes her over to the table and calls for Apple who lumbers over from where she was wrapped around Virgil's leg at the sound of her owner's voice calling her name.

Ruby outright squeals when she sees the chubby, white cat, hands thrown out in joy as she stomps excitedly, running over to scoop Apple up who is abruptly disgruntled with this treatment.

"Get the girl a pet." Dale immediately drawls, casually sitting beside Dream although they were a lot of empty seats.

Jaxon still hasn't recovered, eyes wide as his gaze remain fixated on Ruby who is currently drowning Apple in smoochy kisses.

"I'm sorry... you adopted a daughter!" He exclaims to Shana, staring at her in, disbelief. "How? When? Where?..."

"Calm down, Jax." Shana replies dryly. "It's still in process and she's also the patient we emailed you about."

This makes Jaxon and Virgil swivel their heads around to Ruby, obvious shock on their faces.

"It was a little girl?!"

"Yep." Mae affirms Virgil's incredulous question.

Hayden manages to maneuver Ruby to the table, Apple finally getting freedom as she scampers out of the room, no doubt going to charm the kitchens to give her lots of food.

He settles her on his leg, which she accepts happily, swinging her legs as she leans over in Dream's direction, sniffing appreciatively with clear eyes.

Dream smiles at this, forgetting for the first time all evening that Dale was sitting right next to him, he tried really hard to not look in that direction but he couldn't help the feeling that he failed horribly.

But Ruby easily distracts him, he knew that Omega scents were calming to pups so he wasn't stunned about her leaning in his direction.

The dinner commences with little more dramatics than that, Ian wasn't here and Leon makes himself scarce after a while, saying he had something to attend to.

Jaxon stares over at him in worry as he leaves but makes no move to follow or offer any words.

Virgil just casually ate, watching Hayden get engrossed in humoring Ruby with an uncomfortable tightness in his throat.

With Dream on the sidelines and Ruby comfortably sitting in Hayden's lap, the three of them were in a bubble of happiness.

Ruby trying to feed Hayden some of her food and not much later, Dream who had been the one mostly spoon-feeding Ruby.

Virgil could almost see the gears in the blonde Omegas head working as he looked pained at how slender Ruby actually was even if she hadn't lost her childish fat, he looked like he wanted to get in a kitchen and cook for her until she looked like the human version of Apple.

Shana and Mae on the other hand were engrossed in a discussion with Jaxon on the procedures of adoption, Jaxon was saying that they could try to get information on Ruby's past if they wanted that.

Shana and Mae found themselves unsure of that and Jaxon understood that.

"You're going to spoil her harder than us at this rate." Shana speaks up when Ruby gets passed to Dream.

"I fail to see the problem." Hayden raises a brow, midway feeding Ruby another spoonful of food.

"Well, she can sit by herself." Mae mumbles sheepishly, they were seated on the other side of the table and it was clear that they were beyond happy at the fact that Ruby was getting along with their friends.

Although they were keeping the little girl too full to chatter, she found that she didn't particularly mind. She had even gotten over the surprise that Ruby hadn't freaked out at Hayden and was now currently being spoon-fed by him, she just chalked it up to one of those things about Hayden.

You couldn't not like him.

"I'm honestly surprised she took to you, Hay." Shana finally speaks up.

Hayden glances at her at this, carefully dabbing off a food stain beside Ruby's mouth with a napkin. "Hmm? Why?" He asks curiously.

Virgil was watching him with a piercing gaze. "Because she's a trauma victim." He says softly, blue eyes gentle as he stares at Ruby.

"What?" Three voices say at the same time, the ones who were not aware.

"She has a phobia of humans." Mae adds and horror briefly sweeps through Hayden's face as he stiffens.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" He scolds them. "It couldn't have been much worse." He glares darkly at them, relieved that Ruby hadn't been triggered by him but also worried, would she get affected by something he did reminded her...

"Hayhay!" Ruby taps his wrist to get his attention, reminding him that he had gotten so distracted that he had forgotten to feed her. "Food."

"Sorry, Ruby." He apologizes to her, giving his friends a discreet glare as he resumes his task of feeding her.

Now that the novelty of Ruby was largely discussed another elephant sat at the corner of the room waiting to be addressed.

Shana notices it first, a frown on her face. "I heard something about a riot?" She asks in her usual blunt way, not noticing the way Dale and Dream flinches.

Mae glances at her in confusion. "What?" A riot? Why?"

They had both need so occupied with Ruby all day that they hadn't gotten a chance to get any news.

Everyone avoids their gaze which only intensifies Shana's and Mae's confusion.

Dale decides to step forward and take responsibility for his actions. "Ah... It's actually all my fault."

"What he said." Dream immediately quips, placing a soft kiss on Ruby's hair when she shows him that she was done with her food, a soft mumble of 'good girl's tumbling from his lips.

Dale winces at this, Shana and Mae still looking confused.

"You organized a riot?" Shana questions in disbelief.

"Not directly..." Virgil starts to shrug.

"V!" Dale cuts him a dark look.

Shana and Mae's brain seems to kick into gear for the first time all evening and they both swivel their heads in Dream's direction.

"A male Omega." Mae breathes in awe.

"I can't believe it!" Shana whispers as well, eyes shining.

Dream reels back a bit, surprised at their reaction, female Werewolves didn't usually react to him like he was some kind of unicorn so it was stunning.

It hits Shana first. "No, don't tell me..." She trails off, sniffing for confirmation. "He's Jasmine?!" She exclaims with wide eyes, staring at Dale who looks like he might like to die, Virgil just snickers behind a palm while Dream and Hayden look confused.

"And this is my cue to leave." Jaxon immediately gets up. "Nice to meet you, Ruby, say bye to your uncle Jaxie." He says sweetly to her.

To which Ruby replies cheerfully, unaware of the tension brimming on the dining table. "Bye, uncle Jaxie!" She waves him off excitedly.

Everyone turns to look at Dale after Jaxon takes his leave, Shana looking at the ceiling to escape Dale's death glare.

"Who's Jasmine?" Dream asks tightly, thunder simmering in his voice as he stares right at Dale.