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

Chapter Fifty-Two

A few days later

"See? It's a nice day out." I jostled Maeve, giving her a soft smile. She was in a happy mood today and that made everything seem that much brighter for me. It had been over three weeks since I had gotten her back and her happy days were rare so I was enjoying it with all I had in me. I missed her giggling and her big smiles, I missed her happily babbling at me. So when she was happy, when she had a happy day, I revelled in it. I still didn't know why she was so upset, didn't know what happened to the happy little girl that left and it was an aching bruise that made that anger rise up inside me thick and vicious.

But it was getting harder to deal with it, the anger was there, it was. I was pissed off I missed so much of Maeve's life, that the time had been stolen from me, that she wasn't the happy little girl I remembered. The anger was still there, it was. It was just that the doubt, that I hated, was growing inside me with each passing day. There were insidious whisper from the pack about what happened, the rumors about Getts being a liar were growing even more than that, the judgment from the pack members was nearly getting unbearable. Every bit of it was pushing down on me, making me doubt my position, what I believed.

I still told myself why I was angry. I lost two months of my daughter's life, she wasn't happy anymore. She had more unhappy days than anything else. She came back to me crawling and with a tooth. Those were milestones I could never get back. I was justified in my anger, at being mad at Menza. No matter what the pack said about her being attacked, about the rumours of Getts lying, no matter what story they concocted to try and make her seem like a victim. She betrayed me. She stole Maeve from me, the one thing I had in my life that I loved beyond measure. Menza knew that. She knew it and she did it anyway. That betrayal stung me more than anything else. We had been friends and she betrayed me in the worst possible way.

That was unforgivable.

"Brochan! It's good to see you out in the pack." Stenton sounded jovial and upbeat and I turned my head to look. He and Getts were walking over, Regan trailing behind them both. My jaw ticked at the sight of the male, I didn't want him around me and I certainly didn't want him around Maeve.

"It's a nice day out." I shifted Maeve in my arms and she babbled at me happily and I gave her a smile.

"It really is! Certainly a good day for training." Stenton clapped my shoulder, jolting me slightly and I gave him a strained smile. "Trevor is still being sloppy with the warriors. It would do me a lot of good if you came back." The words echoed the ones he had been pushing on me before. I worked my jaw slightly, knowing I needed to hold my tongue even though I wanted to tell him to fuck off. "You were the best damn Master-At-Arms I have ever seen. You commanded the males with a harsh rule. They needed it." The words rolled over me and I blinked slowly, trying to fight off the urge to tell him to shove the position up his ass.

Maeve fussed slightly and I immediately turned back to her, jostling her and shushing her slightly. "It's okay, little miss." I reached up and smoothed my thumb across her cheek. She looked at me, her bottom lip sticking out.

"She really is a sweet female." Stenton shifted in front of me before reaching out as if to touch her and she buried her face into my jacket. "She will be a great female once she comes of age." I glanced over at him and his gaze was intent on her and that stupid afternoon with the whelp burbled up inside my memory. After Menza had gone inside with Maeve, he had explained what he had heard. That some mutterings had been passed along that painted a not very good picture of the ranks and their attitude towards Maeve, something about how she would usher in new generation once she came of age.

However, the memory of that conversation, and the intent way Stenton was looking at Maeve, unsettled me. I didn't like it, at all.

"She has strong genes." Stenton barely glanced at me before he almost moved to reach out to her again and I jostled her, taking half a step back. Rumors or not, true or not, I didn't like that expression on his face while he looked at her. He was my Alpha but there were some things I would not allow. So rumor or not, my daughter was off limits. She would be with a male who loved her, who cherished her, treasured her.