Meadow’s p.o.v. “Let’s divide the teams.” Captain Miles says. It doesn’t take long for the majority of the Squad members to walk over to their team leader and then there are only nine members left who don’t belong to a team. My team is the largest by far and I have already made it clear that the five additions I made at the start of this case would be divided among the other teams. I already have five extra Shifters following me around, thanks to Alpha Lincoln. However, I believe that if he hadn’t convinced Elder Chelsea of this earlier, I would still have those five Shifters following me to Grand Valley Pack. “Why are you placing your team members with us?” Another team leader asks. “I don’t need a team of fifteen Shifters on this mission. You can all use an extra set of eyes, so you get one of my team members.” I answer, but don’t explain why I have a team of fifteen Shifters. Captain Miles keeps quiet; he knows who will be joining my team and if anyone else had paid attention, they would know too. “Oh, damn. I forgot about your Mates, but that only adds up to two Shifters.” The team leader responds. “She is the future Beta female of Gold Moon and her future Alpha will not let her go without him; neither will the future Gammas.” Myka replies. Each team has a few different Shifters in them, but my team has the most. Four Lycans, One Wolf, One Lynx, Three Mountain Lions and Two Bears. After Captain Miles has dismissed us all, I stay behind with my team, and the last three members join us shortly after. I need to explain my gift to everyone and hopefully start training with this gift. Rebel is really interested in knowing if we can hear everyone’s thoughts. Our Mates can breathe easy, because I can’t hear their thoughts and that is probably a good thing. Even though, I wouldn’t mind knowing what Makay is really thinking from time to time. “How do you plan on practicing, if you don’t want anyone to know about your gift?” Lyndy asks after I have explained my gift to them. “No idea.” I answer honestly, because I don’t have a clue on how to do this without giving myself away. I let my mind open to the thoughts around me, but quickly shut it down. Damn, that could have fried my brain if I hadn’t stopped it. “Okay, I know at least one thing I shouldn’t do and that is to open my mind for everyone’s thoughts. No picnic, I can guarantee you that much.” I say when Myka looks at me a little worried. Not sure how to explain to anyone what happened, but I think being on your last legs inside a kindergarten would be getting close to it. “Focus on one person, start with a low rank and work your way up. See if there is a difference in accessing those minds or if there are minds you can’t get into.” Magnus says. He has a good point, because I need to figure out if there are minds I can’t get into.My team members all hold high-ranking positions. Two of them are Elite Warriors and three of them are Gammas. So, I need an Omega and a Sigma to determine precisely how my gift works. “We can ask Brenna to help out, she is an Omega and Luna Leona trusts her.” Malek says, the first words out of that man’s mouth since he walked into the meeting room. Makay calls his Brother to find out if River knows a Sigma we can trust and half an hour later, I can start practicing. Brenna and Phil are aware of my gift, but they were given an Alpha order to keep quiet about it. Brenna’s thoughts are easy to hear, even if she tries hard to hide them from me. We enjoy trying different approaches to her blocking my gift, but they turn out to be useless. I can hear her thoughts every single time. Phil can’t block my gift either and it is clear that most Shifters won’t be a problem for me. “Okay, let's move on to your next victims.” Malek says as he points to Maryan and Raya. Both of them use every approach to block me, but I succeed in hearing their thoughts every time and it doesn’t take much effort on my part. “You do realize that you are going to have a challenge with one rank, don’t you?” Malek asks and I stare at him as I try to figure out what he’s talking about. “I could use your Dad, because I’m not sure if I want to be in the same room as that Idiot they call my Father.” I mumble once I realize that there is no other Beta around to practice with. “However, there is a chance that it doesn’t work on him.” Myka looks at me as everyone wonders out loud why it might not work on Rhys, my Mate seems to be onto something. “Couldn’t you hear Dad’s thoughts? Is that why you think it might not work with Rhys, either?” Myka finally asks. “I didn’t test if I could hear your Father’s thoughts, I was concentrating on Magnus and Malek. Just assumed it would work on everyone else, too. Rhys is my Father and directly connected to me. You are directly linked to me, but your Dad isn’t. We need to figure this out quickly, but I want to do that in Alpha Lincoln’s office. I’m not willing to take any chances before we go after Winston.” I answer him. It makes sense to me that I might not be able to hear Rhys’ thoughts, but it would be best to test every possibility. Ugh, I hate this. I can’t make sense of it and I keep going around in circles. Can I hear everyone else’s thoughts? Is my inability to listen to the thoughts of my Mates limited to them or also my first line family? I have less than four days to figure this all out and I might ask River to come down here to test my theory instead of using Shithat as a test subject.