The Alpha’s Dark Revenge
Chapter 48

Liyah's

POV

It was hard to keep a straight face when you were with Drew. Add Margaret and Annalise into the puzzle and you've got yourself a perfect day. I don't remember the last time I had laughed this much. I don't think I had ever laughed this much in my entire life. And it felt really good. My ribs were literally hurting. I was actually starting to feel like part of something... part of a family. With people who cared me, who supported me. Sometimes I would wake up thinking it was all a dream, and then to reassure myself that it wasn't, I would race to the nearest person's room, which happened to be Annalise. When she recognized me and was her usual nice self I would sigh in relief and go about my day like normal.

"I'm serious though," Drew said still laughing. "The last time I stayed up so late. My parents had no idea I had hid in a corner. When I saw them start to pile up the presents under the trees and in the stockings, I nearly had a heart attack."

Margaret spit out the coffee she was drinking, letting out a loud laugh. "Andrew, I've been trying to drink this coffee for twenty minutes now. Please let me," She begged, wiping tears out of the corner of her eyes.

Everyone else laughed in response. But Drew continued. "Let me finish the story at least."

"When I really lost it was when they sat at the table and began to swallow the cookies and milk that had taken me four whole hours to make. I cried my eyes out."

Annalise pushed her bangs out of her eyes as she wiped her eyes. "He woke us all up in tears. We were so confused," She laughed.

"You both grew up together?" I asked, surprised. No wonder they were so close. They were so close that I was envious of their friendship. I never had anyone to play with or talk with growing up. They made me grow up so quickly... too quickly. I didn't even have any fun childhood memories.

"Yep," Drew answered me. "Me, Annie and Nikolai. We were best of friends, inseparable I tell you. They even started to call us the Three Musketeers."

"Those three made a lot of trouble, I can tell you that," Margaret added.

"Who's Nikolai?" I asked out of curiosity.

They exchanged looks.

"The Alpha," Drew finally answered.

I was pretty sure my eyes were as wide as saucers. "You guys were best friends with him?"

They nodded.

Nikolai.

Now there was a name to his face. I tried to picture him as a child but I got nothing. I couldn't picture him even having fun. He looked too serious for that, and as hard as I tried the only image that popped into my head was his stoic, passive expression. For some reason, I wanted to know what he was like as a child. As if to save me the trouble of asking, Drew began to laugh.

"Nikolai was the crazy, stubborn one. He had all these crazy ideas. Once we built this ant farm in our bedroom."

"What?!" I asked unable to control myself. "Isn't that dangerous?"

Annalise laughed so much that her face reddened. "We all had these swollen, red bites on our butts by the end of the week."

"Remember when Nikolai wanted that pet snake?"

My eyes widened. Wow. He sure had a lot of fun as a kid. It also began to seem kind of sad as I wondered where this fun side had disappeared to. Well, I guess adulthood does a lot to you.

I let out a loud laugh as Drew plunged into the story of how the alpha used to chase them with booger fingers when they did something annoying to him. It was so adorable picturing it. I could never imagine him like that in my head. I laughed again as I wondered what Eve would think of all of this. She would surely replace it even more fun than me.

"And he was such a crybaby," Margaret added.

Okay this was the height of it. A crybaby? I tried to picture him having a tantrum and it was so embarrassing that I couldn't help the laughter that escaped my lips.

"What was your childhood like?" Annalise asked all of a sudden.

My heart fell. As if she had just realized, she clapped a hand over her mouth. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm so sorry."

I managed a smile. "That's okay. It sure wasn't as fun as yours," I said, trying to downplay the whole thing. "You guys really did have a lot of fun, I'm jealous." They both laughed.

"And it's so cool how you're all still very good friends..." I trailed off as my mind went to the alpha.

Oh. Right.

Drew scratched the back of his neck. "Well, we all grow up don't we?" He laughed, but I could tell that they were affected by it. But it was obvious that they didn't feel like talking about it. So I didn't push the topic.