Page 23 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
“Only because he splashed me!”
“What’s going on here?” Felix asked, crossing his arms across his chest and leveling the children with his sternest glare.
Thea sniffed, instantly cowed, but Danny raised an accusatory finger towards her. “She started it!”
“Did not,” Thea muttered.
“Did too!”
“Did not!”
Felix groaned. “Where’s Logan?”
Danny scuffed the ground with his shoe. “Further downstream, trying to fish his socks out with Dane and Cassie.”
“I’m sorry,” Felix asked, “exactly how many articles of clothing got tossed into the stream?”
Daisy huffed a small laugh. “That’s what I’d also like to know.”
“Right, come on,” said Felix, hauling his son down the pathway, Daisy and Thea behind him. There were plenty of other pack kids about the place, running and jumping over the stream, splashing each other and shrieking. One or two had even decided to go swimming. If it weren’t for the headstrong tempers of his kids, the scene would be rather idyllic.
Danny was just telling Felix all about how Thea was the absoluteworstand he hated her and she smelled like pondweedwhen they turned round a bend and were met with Logan and Dane shouting encouragement as Cassie waded, water up to her midsection, through the stream to rescue various items of clothes.
“Cassie?” Felix asked, his mouth falling open.
She glanced up and gave a surprised, slightly sheepish smile. “Oh, hi Felix!”
“Woah,” Danny said, his eyes bright as he watched her brush through some reeds, “she’s so cool! Dad, can I—”
“Not a chance,” said Felix. “Stay here with Daisy.’
With one slight grimace at the cold water, Felix sighed and kicked his shoes off, wading into the water to join Cassie.
“Oh, you don’t have to get in!” she protested, eyes wide with panic, “I just…there’s quite a lot of stuff that ended up in here, but it’s okay, I can get it!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied, joining her in collecting various shoes and socks and the odd wooden sword, “they’re my sons.”
“Enjoying the swim, boss?” Dane crowed, pointing and laughing in delight.
Felix’s eyes narrowed as a sly grin spread over his face. “Come over here a minute and grab these shoes for me, I can’t hold too many.”
Dane sauntered down, winking at Daisy as he held his hands out for the various items. Felix lunged forward and grasped his forearm, pulling with all his might until Dane landed with a bellow in the water, sending a great spray arcing over everyone.
“You absolute bastard!” Dane sputtered as he came up for air, flicking his long hair out of his face.
“Enjoying the swim?” Felix countered with a grin.
Dane tackled him, and soon the two were wrestling and laughing in the water. For a brief moment, Felix caught sight of Cassie. Her head was thrown back in laughter, her eyes alight with pure delight, her cheeks pink, and her smile wide.
The moment was broken when the kids decided that Dane getting pulled in was more than enough permission for them to cannonball into the stream, and soon everyone was laughing and splashing each other. Everyone except for Daisy, of course, who instead had her hands on the shoulders of a tiny, chestnut-curled little girl, who was watching them all in the water with a look of barely concealed yearning in her eyes.
Felix dodged a splash from Dane and grinned at her. “Evangeline! It’s so lovely to see you, how are you?”
Rick’s daughter hid further in Daisy’s arms, her cheeks turning red. Felix sighed. Eva had always been such a shy girl. So reserved, so scared of Rick’s disapproval. No wonder she’d resisted the urge to jump into the stream with them.
“I’ll get her back,” Daisy said. “Felix, would you be a dear and make sure Thea doesn’t drown?”
From the shrieks of his sons, he thought it was much more likely that Thea would be the one doing the drowning, but he smiled at Daisy. “Of course. Tell Rick to grab some towels, would you? I have a feeling we’ll need them.”
