[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter Thirty-Two

"We've swept down the northern border twice last week but the terrain there is harsh, there is no way she went that way barefoot." The male's voice was low and I tried hard to ignore it, anger making my jaw ache. Two weeks. It had been two fucking weeks. I hadn't found anything and I had searched the territory top to fucking bottom. Her scent was nowhere, not that it would have lingered for long but the fact remained there was nothing.

I grabbed the bottom of my foot, stretching out muscles that protested the hell I was putting them through. I scowled. Two fucking weeks and nothing, not a single fucking sign of her or my Maeve. Anger was rolling in my chest so viciously I felt like if I talked too much I would ignite and burn up. Two fucking weeks. If she was lost we should have found her by now. She was one single half-shifter. She couldn't have gotten far, there was no way she had.

"What if she went in the river?" The male asked it low and I glanced over to where the small group of them were talking in hushed tones. They had been doing it every single day at the training grounds. They got together, discussed what they found and where they wanted to look next. That was most of the reason I came to the training grounds most days. I wanted to hear what they were talking about and what they had found.

"She can't swim." The whelp looked about as ragged as I felt. "If she went in, she can't swim." His voice cracked slightly and he cleared his throat roughly as one of the males, grabbed his shoulder as if in comfort.

"We could try following it, seeing if she did go in and hit a bank further down." Another male, Nash, crossed his arms over his chest, frowning slightly.

"That's off territory though." One of the patrol members said it low and I switched legs, stretching the left one out as I listened.

"What if... what if the rogues took her? We have to think of that possibility. She couldn't move that quick or far under her own steam." The words washed over me and I gritted my teeth harder. The words of the rogue bit at me, haunting me.

We helped her. She wanted out. So we gave her an out.

That fucking laugh echoed in my head and it took all I had not to bare my teeth. After the initial anger faded during that first search and the worry and concern grew, that stupid fucking laugh and his words taunted me. Getts said he smelled her on them, enough that she had been around them for a bit. There was a lot that wasn't adding up. Getts was adamant of what he came across and knew and for as long as I knew the male, he had never lied to me, not once.

It was hard to not believe what he said and the rogue's words only reinforced that. Everything was pointing to where it was clearly pointing. That she took my Maeve and ran. That tugging sensation, that little part of me, told me she would never do that but I didn't know her, not actually. She had been with me for what? Four months? That wasn't enough time to truly get to know someone and I certainly wasn't going to listen to her siblings. They were biased and unreliable at best.

Sure, she hadn't seemed like the type of female to be that vindictive but then again she had never been in that position before. We had sex. I grimaced at the thought as the anger rose up inside me sharply. As much as I disliked even thinking about it, we had. Then I had told her there would be nothing between us but being friends. She hadn't said much but she had been upset, I knew she had been. It wasn't as far fetched as her brother thought. She was upset with me and it wouldn't have taken much to get the idea in her head to take Maeve and leave to punish me for it.