Rhyder's POV.
I leaned down to pick up the bouquette of flowers that Grace and Tate had been making for her mother's birthday.
It was ruined: the flowers were all trampled, the delicate petals crushed and soiled. Some of the leaves still clung to the broken stems.
"She has to be around here somewhere, Alpha..."
Jackson's anxious voice pulled me back to reality. I blinked a few times and let the ruined bouquette slip from my hand and fall to the ground.
"It's not possible for her to have just disappeared without a trace."
I turned to look at him. His expression was strained, his shoulders and back rigid, and a dark shadow hung across his face. He had his hands balled into fists by his sides - his knuckles had turned white.
"She hasn't..."
Even to my ears my voice sounded strangely c
