Falling For the Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 24

Anastasia's P.O.V.

"Stoppppppp ittttttttt," I laughed as Asher and Ari swung me between them. Asher had my hands and Ari was swinging me by my feet and neither of them were showing signs of letting me go.

"She's going to get dizzy and feel sick," Damien warned. "And when she does, she'll be riding with you."

"That's okay," Ari grinned as he and Asher started to swing me faster, singing Rock-A-Bye-Ana loudly.

"Guyssssssss," I wailed. "You're gonna pull my arms out!"

I shrieked loudly as the damn devils let my arms and feet go. I sailed through the air briefly and I braced myself for the hard impact but I was caught instead by a pair of strong arms.

I squinted in the sunlight and grinned as Luke grinned down at me. "Hey baby hey baby hey," I sang to him as he set me on my feet.

"Hey baby baby," he sung back, kissing his mark and sending a jolt of electricity through my body as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Who gave you three coffee?" Dad inquired as he entered the clearing with Jonathan and Harvey and a couple other Blackwell council members who were on good terms with us.

"Axel!" I giggled while Ari and Asher nodded in agreement.

"What the fuck? I did not!" Axel defended himself as he closed the trunk on one of the Pathfinders.

"I know," I grinned, "but Rowan and Jared told me to say that."

"Why you two timing lil sneak sister rat." The guilty ones cursed as I grinned and settled into Luke's chest as he thumbed my navel. I let his calming thoughts wash over me and my wolf.

Remind to me to put the coffee on the highest shelf when we're living together. Luke said in my mind. I loved our new connection, it was so deep and it was relieving to finally have someone understand what's going on in my head when I couldn't put it into words.

I'll just find some way to climb but I'm not much of a coffee person. I answered back, watching my brothers and Dad talk to Jonathan and Harvey.

Tea for Tasie please. Luke smiled against my neck as he tested out his newfound name for me. I caught some dark thoughts with a flash annoyance. Luke sighed as he let me in, after all, he couldn't hide it from me anymore. He hated the fact that he was left in the dark on why they were here.

"Ana-bear," Dad commanded my attention. "It's time." I whined softly, my stomach rolling with dread. I shrank into Luke more and his arms tightened around me. I felt his confusion and his wariness about receiving an answer.

Dad nodded in understanding. "Gentlemen, I have brought you here today to share a secret that we have being hiding from you."

"Over the past couple months we've been here," Damien continued, "we have made several expeditions back to our territory in the north." I winced as Luke's shock hit me like a truck, drowning the other Blackwell members out. I took a deep breath and tried to placate him, just as Dad was doing everyone else.

"We have never been attacked, nor have encountered the Nightwalker pack during our excursions," Dad continued once everyone had settled down. I looked at my brothers, they were on edge and any little outburst would set them off. "I am sorry that we have kept this hidden from you but we have decided not keep it a secret no longer."

"Who's brilliant idea was it to keep it a secret in the first place?" Jonathan spat.

"Mine," I answered slipping out of Luke's embrace. I crossed my arms and met his gaze. Luke was behind me in an instant, his wolf not liking the hostility radiating from his father. "On my brothers' advice, of course. Our missions are very high risk, the less the better. We have always stuck to small groups of 3 or 4 for these missions given that the Nightwalker pack has patrols just on the border however, as of last week, that changed."