Page 23 of Sold Bullied Mate

“Let’s explore your gift first. Tell me about your experiences. When was the first time you experienced it?”

I swallow, staring at the surface of the water and how it shifts, rocking back and forth ever so slightly in the cup.

“It’s hard to say,” I land on, finally. “I’d get headaches and hear things in my mind. The thing is that it happened sometimes when I was a kid, and I just thought that was something that happened to everyone. Hearing voices in your head.”

I pause, closing my eyes and letting the memories come to me. Beth reaches across the table and offers me her hand, and I take it.

“The first time I realized something odd was happening was in sixth grade. I was sitting at the table, and I’d just decided to put off my math homework. Then my math teacher’s voicepopped in my head, and I could hear him saying, clear as day, ‘Happy Wednesday—time for a pop quiz!’”

Everything comes back to me—the smell of the dining room, the feel of the pencil in my hand. I’d heard his voice in my head and it convinced me to study, do the math homework, and the extra questions. Emin was out in the yard, playing with Dorian and the other boys, and I was inside, working hard on the homework.

That night, he’d cuffed me on the back of the head and called me alittle fucking nerdwhile the other boys laughs chugged water and piled back outside.

“Wednesday morning, the next day, I aced the pop quiz. I heard him say those exact words, in the exact tone:Happy Wednesday—time for a pop quiz. That’s when I started to realize something was going on.”

“Very interesting,” Beth says, nodding, and another wave of relief pours through me. She believes me. She’s an expert in this—a psychic herself—and she isn’t questioning my experience. “What it sounds like, to me, Kira, is that you’re a clairaudient.”

It feels like the word hangs between us, palpable and real over the table.

“Clairaudient,” I repeat, voice rough.

“Yes.” She pauses, looks at me, and considers. “I’m well aware of what happened with Harris Fields.”

Dorian’s grandfather. That whole day flashes through my mind, lightning quick, and I push it away, like I always do.

“Here’s the thing, Kira,” Beth goes on, voice impossibly gentle. “Without any training, without understanding your gift, it’s obvious that you’d make a mistake like that.”

“It is?”

“Of course,” she nods. “Your gift isn’t just limited to premonitions of the future—you can also hear from the past. From spirits long passed. The gift of listening includes that of hearing energies, and emotions, too—when you touch someone, you can listen to their inner workings, almost like a mechanic starting up an engine, ears pricking at the sound of an errant belt.”

My heart is skipping in my chest, and things start to fall into place. I can hear from the past. From spirits long passed. I haven’t beenwrong; I just didn’t understand the context of where it was coming from.

“Why don’t you try now?” Beth asks, squeezing my hand.

“Try…?”

“Look inside yourself. See if you can look under my hood, Kira.”

“You’d … really let me do that?”

Beth laughs. “Well, you’re my only protégé. And there’s no better time for you to start learning about your gift than now.”

There’s the strangest feeling inside me, like something finally clicking into place. Feeling like I might just cry again, I close my eyes, squeeze her hand, and try, for the first time in my life, to use my gift on purpose.

Chapter 15 - Dorian

“We’re almost finished imbuing the supply of Amanzite you found for us,” Claire says, her hands shaking as she sets them on the table. “But many shifters in the pack are already requesting their replacements. The patrolling shifters go through the magic faster than others, and with the supply we currently have…”

“Should we go back to the market?” Kellen asks, his brow furrowed as he turns to look at me. “To obtain more?”

My mind is only half in this meeting. The other half is stuck firmly in my kitchen, watching as Kira broke into sobs at the simple gesture of someone believing her. It fucking devastated me, somewhere inside, to realize the pain it had been causing her all this time.

To be denied that part of herself. To feel like nobody understood who she really was, or didn’t care to know.

“No,” Leta says, leaning forward and shaking her head. “My contacts in the territory say there have been some stirrings with the Grayhides. We’re not sure what the exact agitation is, but it seems the alpha leader has been on a warpath. It’s not wise to send anyone—and especially not Dorian—back into that territory.”

“I’m not certain that, even if I did go, we would be able to get Amanzite there,” I admit. “The vendor I got it from seemed to be telling the truth when he said he couldn’t get any more.”

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