Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (16 page)

“You mean at the ridge?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, well, you’re not allowed to do
that to me again.”

He laughed. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
His eyes softened as he gazed into mine. “That wasn’t the first
time you saved me.”

I thought back, trying to remember when
he had needed me to heal him before the battle on the ridge. I
shook my head. “I don’t remember. What did I do?”

He smiled at me. “You saved me two days
before I first saved you.”

“But we hadn’t even met then. I just
saw you for a second. You were standing on the hill.”

“That’s right. I’m not sure how to
explain it, really. But that day, you looked into my eyes, and
that’s how it felt; like I had just been saved.” His voice was low
and husky.

I melted. The man had a way with
words.

“It’s the same feeling I get every
time.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “Sounds stupid,
right?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I know
that feeling.” I stood on my tip toes and kissed him softly. I
pushed him down so he was sitting on a chair then straddled
him.

He groaned. “By the moons, Shlova, how
do you do that to me?” He ran his lips lightly along my jaw and
down my neck.

I shivered against him. “It’s not me.”
I ran my fingers through his curls as his tongue traced along my
collar bone. “It’s you.” I pulled his shirt over his head. “I need
you.”

He looked at me, uncertainty clear
across his face. “Are you sure? You said you were still
sore.”

I ran my teeth over his nipple and
smiled at the moan that made its way up his throat.

“Hayden, stop.”

I pulled back and looked at
him.

“I’m going to do this the way I should
have done it the other night.” He picked me up and carried me to
our bed.

He took his time, had me begging during
most of it, and by the time he was done, all I could manage was to
lie quivering on his chest.

His breathing started to slow and he
brushed the hair back from my face. “Are you alright?”

I snorted. “Am I alright, he asks.
Where were you during all of this? I’m pretty sure if you were
listening you’d know that it was far better than
alright.”

He started to laugh. “That’s not what I
meant.” He hugged me tightly. “I didn’t hurt you?”

I wiggled up so I could I could kiss
him. “No. You didn’t hurt me.” I glanced out the window and noticed
that daylight was starting to fade. “I’d better start
supper.”

Jasper watched me get dressed. He lay
stretched out on the bed, his arms behind his head. Seeing him
thus, the lines of his muscles showing under his skin, his curls
sticking out at odd angles, his sky blue eyes half closed, he was
beautiful to look at. Hell, he was always beautiful to look at. My
gaze dropped down and I grinned at him. “Again?”

His stomach growled and he laughed. “I
think supper might be more important.”

My stomach picked that moment to agree
with him. I headed to the kitchen and decided what to make for
supper. I grabbed some vegetables I had brought in from the icebox
and swore under my breath.

Jasper wrapped his arms around me from
behind. “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to pull out meat. Can you run
outside and get some from the meat cellar?”

“I suppose I could do that for you.” He
stopped kissing the back of my neck long enough to turn me around
and tilt my face up so he could kiss me softly.

He looked up when the door opened and
started to laugh. “As if Dodge and the bird weren’t enough, now we
have to worry about Alex.”

I looked behind me to the door and
burst out laughing. “Alex! It’s ok. We were just kissing!” I
thought about how it was a good thing he hadn’t gotten back ten
minutes sooner. Thankfully, Jasper had pulled some pants on before
coming to the kitchen.

Alex was beet red. He started to say
something, stopped, then cleared his throat. “I got a couple of
rabbits. I thought you could use them for supper?”

I gave Jasper a quick peck on the cheek
before taking the rabbits from Alex. “Thanks.”

Jasper picked up the painting and
brought it over to show Alex.

“Oh, wow! Mel wasn’t
exaggerating!”

I blushed. “The only problem is that
I’ve never drawn or painted something from memory.” I got the
rabbits ready for a stew. “I guess that’s not entirely true,” I
thought out loud.

Jasper and Alex looked after me as I
disappeared into the bedroom. I came back out with my art pad,
flipping through the pages as I walked. I found the last thing I
had drawn and handed it to Jasper.

“That’s the trail I first saw you on.”
Jasper smiled. “All I could think was ‘get down there and kiss
her’!” he laughed.

I started laughing with him. “Is that
why you ran away?”

He nodded.

“You and your sense of
duty!”

Alex was looking at the drawing. “Why
just his eyes?”

“Honestly, that was the only part of
him I could remember.”

I looked into those perfect eyes and my
heart did a flip. “Those are the eyes that changed the entire
course of my life.”

Jasper grinned. “Well, I’m glad that
they were enough to get you to follow me here. Though I never
really thought there was anything special about my eyes. A good
percentage of cats have blue eyes.”

I looked over at Alex. His were almost
the same shade of blue as Jasper’s. I looked back and forth between
them, trying to see the difference. Alex’s eyes had a ring of
darker blue around them. Jasper’s were a bit lighter and had specs
of darker blue in them.

Alex’s eyes were beautiful, but
Jasper’s took my breath away.

“I’m not sure what it is. Your eyes are
something else, Alex. But yours, Jasper, yours make me forget to
breathe.”

I got up and stirred the stew. I smiled
as I watched the two of them. In a lot of ways, Alex reminded me of
Jasper. Appearance wise, they were completely different. Though
both had blue eyes, Alex’s hair was the color of honey and
straight. He was also a couple inches shorter than Jasper and his
build was thicker.

And yet despite the difference in
looks, the two of them were identical. It was the way they both
thought before they spoke; the way they looked intently at whoever
was talking to them and you knew they were really listening to what
was being said. It was in the calmness that they both radiated, no
matter the situation.

There was the fact that they both could
read my moods and even if they weren’t in the same room, would
somehow sense if I was worried. This last dream had been the
perfect example of that. Jasper had woken, knowing too well what
was happening though I hadn’t made a noise until I had whispered
“Rainen”. Then Alex had shown up, simply knowing something was
wrong.

I was fated to Jasper, so the bond
between us explained how he could touch on how I was feeling. What
was Alex’s reason?

I hadn’t realized I was still staring
at him until Alex turned red. “What?” he asked.

“Oh! Sorry. I was just
thinking.”

“What about?”

I was quiet for a minute, trying to
organize my thoughts. “I was wondering how we are
connected.”

His eyes widened and he looked quickly
at Jasper and back to me. “What do you mean?”

“It just seems to me, that every time I
feel worried, or scared, or anything off like that, you can sense
it. Not as well as Jasper does. But you still can. Like this dream.
Or when Jasper was out hunting a few weeks ago and I started to
worry because he was taking a bit longer than usual. You showed up
and told me not to worry because you were sure he was fine...but I
hadn’t told you how I was feeling. I’m sure if we thought about it
hard enough, there would be other times it’s happened.”

Alex started to look
worried.

Jasper put a hand on his shoulder.
“What’s wrong? You know something you’re not telling us.
Why?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?” Jasper didn’t sound mad,
just curious.

“Because you will kill me.”

Both of us looked at him
incredulously.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut and shook
his head as if trying to make this situation go away.

“Alex,” I walked over to him. “Why
don’t you just explain what you think you know. We’re not going to
kill you. Honestly, it can’t be that bad!”

He shook his head again and looked at
the floor. “You won’t. He will.”

Jasper’s jaw dropped. “Why in the world
would I kill you? I imagine that if you were to put Hayden’s life
in danger, I might consider it, but no, I...” He stopped short and
looked closely at Alex. “Did you do something to put her at
risk?”

Alex shook his head no and Jasper
visibly relaxed.

“Ok. So now that we have established
that Jasper won’t kill you, why don’t you tell us what you think is
happening?”

Alex looked uneasily at
Jasper.

“How about I go sit over there. If you
think I’ll come after you, you should be able to make it out the
door before I finish reacting.” Jasper was grinning. He gave Alex
one last pat on the back and went to sit at the opposite end of the
room.

I went to stand in front of Alex and
took his hands. “Now. What’s going on?”

He took one quick glance at Jasper then
looked down at our hands. He frowned, looked up and his eyes met
mine. “I don’t understand it at all.” His voice was quiet, almost a
whisper. “It’s my dreams.”

I smiled at him, trying to get him to
keep going.

“There’s a girl in my
dreams.”

“So you’re fated.” I frowned. “Have you
told Leslie?”

He shook his head. “No. Because it
doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, do you know who she
is?”

Alex nodded and glanced nervously at
Jasper before looking back down to me. “She’s you.”

My mouth dropped open and I saw Jasper
tense on his chair.

Alex was still talking. “It doesn’t
make sense, though, does it? We can’t be fated because you are
fated to Jasper. So why do I see you? Why can I tell when you need
someone?”

He looked over at Jasper. “I wasn’t
going to say anything. I was perfectly happy just being around her.
I love Leslie and would rather not have to ruin what we have,
honestly. I don’t plan on doing anything about it. Really. I just
want to be here if she needs something and you aren’t
around.”

I could tell Jasper was thinking hard.
My hands were still in Alex’s and I was too shocked to pull
away.

All three of us were quiet.

Jasper cleared his throat and Alex
jumped and dropped my hands.

Alex’s blue eyes darted between Jasper
and I. “I had better go,” he muttered and started to walk towards
the door.

“Alex, stop.” Jasper stood
up.

Alex hesitated. “No. I don’t think it
would be right for me to stay.”

“We have to figure this out. If there’s
one thing I have learned since Hayden has entered my life is that
things don’t just happen when it comes to her. There is always a
reason. So there has to be one for this.”

Alex relaxed a bit. “I really don’t
know what that reason might be.”

“I can think of one, though I rather it
not be it.”

I looked at Jasper. “What?”

“What if the two of you are fated
because I won’t be here much longer?”

I felt a lump rise in my throat. “Don’t
talk like that. We’re not fated because I didn’t dream of
him.”

Jasper raised an eyebrow at me. “You
didn’t think you had dreamed of me until you kissed me. Then you
remembered.”

I simply stared at him. “You’re not
allowed to leave me. You promised.” It sounded childish even to
me.

“Maybe this is out of my hands.” He
turned to Alex. “There’s only one way to find out,
really.”

Alex’s mouth dropped. “You want me to
kiss her?”

Jasper nodded. “There’s a reason for
this and I want to know what it is.”

“No.” Both Jasper and Alex turned to
me. “I won’t do it.”

“Hayden, we have to see. Maybe that’s
not why. Maybe nothing happens to me, but whether you kiss or not
is not going to change why this is happening. We need to see if you
are fated and if you are then figure out why.”

“You want me to kiss him?”

“No, of course I don’t want you too. I
just don’t see a way around it.”

“And what happens if we are. What does
that do to us?” My voice was small.

Jasper looked miserable. “I don’t
know.”

“Fine!” I strode over to Alex whose
eyes widened. He took a few steps back and stopped short when he
ran into the wall. I grabbed his face in my hands and pulled him
down to me. The kiss was short and not terribly
engaging.