Page 16 of Bullied Mate

That piercing supernatural stare told me I was correct.

But she wasn’t about to admit it.

She sighed. “I’m sorry about this morning, Xavier. I wasn’t myself.”

Alright, that was a shock to my system. I mean, I wasn’t opposed to her holding herself accountable, but I guessed we’d both had a rough go of it.

I scratched the back of my head and shrugged. “Yeah, well…same here. I was having a hard time. I’m sorry.”

“Would you care to accompany me to the pond?”

“I was just there.”

She cleared her throat while brushing past me. “Yes, I saw that.”

Something about her exceptional confidence zapped my cock to life. Being that I was already back to human form, it probably wouldn’t look good to waltz around with a boner near Galanthia, no matter how much either of us was used to seeing people naked. It was just poor manners.

I kept a bit of a distance as we wandered back the way I’d run. My head swiveled around. “Wait, what if Leo—?”

“He’s alright. I promise.”

“How do you know?”

More throat-clearing. “I dropped by your house. Then I visited Andres. Leo was upset when I had to leave.”

“He seems to like you.”

“I seem to like him too.”

Dizziness set in randomly as I stepped between two trunks. The pond rippled with the breeze while I lowered myself to the ground, keeping my knees up to my chest in case my confused libido decided to act up again.

Galanthia sat next to me. “I’ve been having nightmares.”

“Is that what I felt?”

“You felt something?”

Shame burst through me. And I wasn’t even sure why. “Well, I feltsomething. Like panic. Concern. I don’t know. Usually, it’s Leo or one of the others.”

“You felt my fear.”

“I mean, maybe. Possibly. I don’t know.”

She rested her hands on her knees. “The nightmares have been getting worse.”

“What are they about?”

“When I wake up, I don’t remember. Pain remains without the memory of what caused it.”

I hummed curiously. “Do you think Etta would be able to root around in your noggin for the cause?”

“I don’t trust anyone with my mind.”

“Now that’s something I can fully support. Magic is great and all, but once you get into memory spells and things like that, well, it can get messy.’’

Quiet observation resumed until she took a sharp breath. “You sound like you speak from experience.”

“Actually, I don’t. I’ve just run into a few people who have meddled with the memory stuff. Messy business.”

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