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

Chapter Fifty-Six

I paced back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, there was a strange, unsettled feeling underneath my skin. It itched at me, scratching deep into my bones, and was enough even my wolf reacted to it. It wasn't right. Everything inside me was screaming that it was all wrong but I couldn't understand why.

Mike had told me Menza was leaving today and all I wanted to do was tell him it was too soon. Everything had happened yesterday and now she was leaving, being taken away, out of my reach and it wasn't right. I was still so pissed off at her but the self-doubt was starting to eat at me. Then the shame was curling around my legs, tugging at me insistently. I pushed it all away but each time those feelings came back, they were a little stronger.

The box Mike gave me was a strange little reminder. I had seen the priest with it, knew it was Menza's, but then Mike had all but tossed it at me when I started to get angry at her, telling me it was mine. He had cut me off and I did understand a bit, she really didn't deserve me getting short with her, she had just been ensuring that it had been my orders for her to go. She didn't just accept Mike's word for it and that did, on some level, make me feel better about it all.

Still, the thought of her leaving was one that grated on me. I didn't want her to leave at all but Mike was right, Regan wouldn't stop, and yesterday showed I couldn't control my anger in her presence. Anger she deserved but the fact my first instinct was to yell at her for something she should have done regardless, wasn't right. She should have come to me to get the words from me, not believed any other male when he handed those orders off.

The doubt curled up in my stomach, reaching for my ribcage. It whispered at me that if Menza was so horrible, so cruel, she never would have asked for me to clarify in the first place, that she would have jumped at the chance to leave the pack. I tried hard to shove it down and away, she was scared of punishment, I said it over and over again, just to reinforce it inside my head, to remind me of what she had done.

Or was any of it even true?

The words had me shaking my head hard. It was all Mike's fault and that dumb fucking box. It taunted me from where I had tossed it on the coffee table. Mike told me to open it when I pulled my head out of my ass and I hated to even know what that fucking meant. I knew the truth of it and the fact he had joined the numbers of people who claimed I was essentially delusional and lying to myself was bothersome. I knew what happened, I knew it. Getts had never lied to me.

Getts is a pretty spectacular liar, isn't he?

Jason's words filtered into my head and I shook them away just as quickly. I didn't need to be thinking like that, there was no reason for me to question Getts' word. He couldn't have lied to me, that would mean that he made it that much more difficult to find Maeve. He told me he never would have done that, would have put Maeve in more danger. I turned my head to look at my little female. She was quietly playing in her saucer and she looked so subdued.

As if she could feel me looking at her she turned her head and gave me a small smile. "Sa." She held out her hand, opening and closing it as if asking for something I didn't understand. "Sa." She was the light of my life, the one thing I had in my life that made it worth living for, the anger was justified. She was taken from me, I had missed so much time.

"Sir, would you like me to clean the living room today?" The female Omega asked it as she moved to stand in front of me and I nearly reared back in surprise. I had forgotten she was in the house. I didn't particularly want her there, any of the Omegas to be honest, but Stenton had refused to listen and it helped with keeping the house clean. I stared at her before looking away and giving a curt nod, she curtsied and immediately moved over to the small pile of toys that I had pulled out for Maeve.