Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (24 page)

“Because I love you, Jasper. Because I
want to be the mother of your children; a little person that’s just
yours and mine.”

“It didn’t work the first time. What
makes you think it would work a second time?” He closed his eyes
and I knew he was remembering. “You were so scared, Hayden. I would
touch you and you would cringe.” He brushed the hair back from my
neck and touched where he had bit me. “And I hurt you.” He put his
forehead against mine and took a deep breath. “I won’t do that to
you again. By the moons, Hayden, I can’t.”

We clung to each other. “I can’t,” he
repeated, his voice a hoarse whisper.

I had to swallow a few times before my
voice would work. “I know.” I held his face in my hands and kissed
him softly. “I know.” I cleared my throat and tried to smile. “So
instead, let’s go save the world.”

He kissed me just as softly. “Are you
sure? About going to Pinsaber?”

I nodded. “It’s time.”

He pulled me to his chest and took a
deep breath. “I hope this works.”

The plan was to go to Pinsaber and talk
to Melana about what we should do about the humans. When we were
done getting her opinion, we would head to Howel and try to talk
with Rainen. We knew Damian was on our side. His second in command
was a different story. From what Jasper had told me of his last
encounter with Damian, he might not even be around anymore to put
Rainen back in her place.

I wasn’t sure if it would work. All I
knew was that I was tired of running, of hiding. If I had been born
the Chosen One, it was time to start acting like it. I still wasn’t
entirely sure what this would all entail, but uniting the Majs and
the Namaels to take out Braw and his evil staff of Laif seemed like
a good start. Of course, in my perfect world, no one died and the
staff simply shattered or disappeared, though that wasn’t very
likely to happen.

I smiled at him. “Of course it will
work. I thought it up.”

He laughed. “I don’t doubt you at all,
Shlova. And I know Melana won’t be hard to convince. The wellbeing
of her people is what is most important to her. It’s Rainen I have
no faith in. And if we do happen to find she is a reasonable
woman…well, we’ll deal with Braw when we get to him, I
suppose.”

“Are you guys ready to go?” Zane gave a
wave as he left the cover of the woods. Dawn stayed in fox form
until they had reached us.

She shifted and I gave her a hug, then
knelt and put my ear to her belly. “Hello in there. I hope you’re
being nice to your mama.”

Dawn giggled and stretched her back.
“They’ll be nice to me when they come out. I’m the size of a house
and move just as gracefully as one when I’m human.” Her belly
bulged. It was still amazing that she had two months to go. She
spent most of her time being a fox. In this form, she was much
smaller and could still maneuver quickly.

“We’re just waiting for Dodge, Prense,
Shanus, and Phlann. They were going to stop and pick up Tara and
Ben. Kacey, Alex and Leslie are meeting us at Luke and Mel’s.” I
made sure I wasn’t missing anyone. “Oh. And Brinnan and Fillian
sent a note yesterday. They’ll be staying. Fillian is dealing with
four Burries that have some sort of chest infection.”

Dawn groaned and rubbed her
back.

Jasper frowned. “Are you sure you
should be coming?”

She glared at him. “Don’t you start. I
already had this discussion with Zane. I’m fine.”

He looked up at Zane, who shrugged.
“Alright then.”

Hey, there!

We all looked up and Dodge circled
before landing by us.

I gave him a hug. “Hey, Buddy. Are the
rest far behind?”

He shook his head.
They should be here shortly
. He lifted his wings and I started to strap on the harness
Ben had made for him. It was a simple harness not unlike the one
he’d had to pull the wagon, though this one stayed out of the way
of his wings and had saddlebags built into it. There were also two
loop handles over his withers so that if he had to move quickly in
the air I had something to hang on to.

By the time I was done, the others had
arrived.

“No, really, Dawn. I don’t mind. That’s
why I offered.” Phlann was looking a bit uncomfortable under Dawn’s
gaze.

“Fine. But just for a bit.”

Phlann smiled and Zane gave her a boost
onto his back. In the two years I had known the young Scannove he
had matured considerably. He still had the palomino coloring, but
the scales that covered his body were a darker shade of blond. His
yellow eyes weren’t quite as innocent as they had been the day I
had first met him. He also stood almost as tall as his
father.

I swung onto Dodge.

After one quick stop at Luke’s den to
pick everyone else up, we were on our way.

*****

The first twenty days of the thirty day
journey were peaceful ones. Day twenty one reminded us that just
because we were on Namael territory it didn’t mean we were out of
reach of evil things. Once we had crossed the pass that got us over
the mountain, we crossed paths with more and more Namaels. Melana
had obviously recalled the order to capture me and most of the cats
we ran into greeted us with amusement, curiosity or awe.

More than once I had to keep from
laughing when Jasper was saluted and referred to as
captain.

We had stopped for lunch when Dodge
looked up from his grass patch. The rest of us turned to see what
he had heard.

“Hello, camp!”

Jasper stood to acknowledge the new
comers. A pack of twenty came to stand in front of him.

“Jasper.” A short black haired man
nodded to him. My mate nodded back.

“Robert.”

“We were told you were in the area. I
thought we’d stop by and let you know to watch yourselves. You’ll
recall Nicolas of Beash?”

“I do.”

“We came across his pack a few days
ago. They were about a day’s travel from here to the south.” He
frowned. “His pack is fifty strong now. Whatever they ran into…” He
took a deep breath and glanced at me as I came to stand beside
Jasper.

“What happened?” My heart was pounding
a mile a minute and was making its way up my throat.

“That’s just it, miss. We don’t know.
It was over the top even for one of Rainen’s packs. You know how it
is. If we run into each other, we fight, and we all walk away with
our wounded. But here, no one was left alive. They were all tied
together for starters.” He swallowed hard and my stomach did a flip
at the thought of what would make a seasoned warrior
blanch.

Jasper pulled me closer to his
side.

“They were burnt. Alive.” He looked
behind us at the rest of our group that had come to stand with
us.

“Are you sure?” I shivered at the
thought.

Robert nodded. “You could tell they had
been struggling. Some of them even tried shifting with their arms
tied behind their backs to get away.”

Jasper shook his head, shocked. If a
shifter turned into an animal with its arms tied, it was guaranteed
to break them. Not many were brave enough to try it, even in life
or death situations. There wasn’t much a person could do with two
broken arms.

“We’re on our way back to Pinsaber. I
thought we could travel together.” Robert glanced back to his pack
and I knew what he was thinking. If a pack of fifty could be tied
and burnt alive, our two groups might stand a better chance
together.

“That sounds like a good idea.” I saw
that everyone in our group was packed and ready to go. No one was
hungry after this new bit of information. I swung up onto Dodge and
we started off again, eager to get to the safety of the
keep.

“So what would be able to tie fifty men
without any of them being able to get away?”

Dodge shook his
head
. I’m not sure. There are a few
creatures with the ability to paralyze their prey, but these would
have taken one, maybe two of the men and simply eaten them. Not to
mention that none of these have the need to tie anybody up before
helping themselves to a meal. I tend to agree with Robert on this
one. It wasn’t the Majs. Even this is too sadistic for
them
. He blew out of his nose.
Whatever it is, I hope we manage to avoid running
into it
.

A shiver ran up my spine as I thought
about this information. I tended to agree with Dodge.

*****

When we finally reached the keep, news
of our arrival had preceded us. Melana met us at the gates and our
little group was escorted through the throngs of people who had
come out to get a glimpse of us.

Looking at all the people, I felt
overwhelmed. One little girl peeked up at me from behind her
mother’s skirts. Her blue eyes widened when she caught me looking
at her. I smiled and gave her a little wave.

Melana glanced back to me. “I imagine
you could all use a rest. You will be shown to your rooms where you
can freshen up. I’ll send up your lunches. Tonight, you will be my
guests of honor for supper.”

I smiled and thanked her.

Our room was magnificent. Everything
was covered in green and gold. I walked around the room, amazed.
Jasper laughed at me.

“I can’t believe you used to live like
this!” I glanced at him. He was so humble and content that it was
easy to forget he hadn’t always lived in a two bedroom cabin. I
could see him standing by the window in his best jacket, curls all
combed into place, getting ready for a meeting with generals,
captains, and of course, the queen. I smiled at the mental
image.

“What?”

I looked away from the window and back
to him. My smile widened. His brown deerskin pants had streaks of
mud on them and his white shirt was definitely not white anymore.
This was courtesy of a wrestling match with the twins that morning.
His month long beard covered his cheeks and jaw. His curls were
sticking out every which way, a few of them falling into his
eyes.

I walked over to him and brushed them
away. “I was just thinking about how much I love you just the way
you are.”

He laughed and kissed me. “Well, that’s
good. I was getting scared for a second there that you were going
to tell me you wanted to stay and live a fancy life from now
on.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and
wrinkled my nose. “That means I would have to wear
dresses.”

He laughed even harder.

There was a knock on the door and
Jasper went to answer it. He came back carrying a large tray
heaping with meat, cheese, fruit and bread. He set it on the bed
and we lay on our stomachs, picking at the food.

There was another knock and Tyler and
Trent let themselves in.

Within minutes, Kacey, Luke, Mel, Tara,
Ben, Leslie and Alex had joined us as well.

Leslie looked nervous and Alex kept her
hand in his. He kissed her softly. “Are you sure you’re
alright?”

Her eyes darted to his then to the
door. “Yes. I just…it is strange enough having our own cabin. But
this. This is something else altogether. There are so many people.
And things. Every cell in my body is screaming at me to get out. It
feels wrong.”

I imagined that for a Fairend born to
be a solitary nomad being stuck in the middle of a keep was quite
the shock to the system.

“Uncle Jasper, Uncle Zane said to tell
you he’ll see you at supper. Auntie Dawn needed to lie down.” Trent
relayed the news then went to join his brother on the
balcony.

When time for supper did come, Dawn
still looked tired. All of us sat at the head table with the queen.
I looked around and for the first time in my life felt like maybe
owning just one fancy dress wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The dress
Tara had made for me for my first Wellfore celebration was at the
cabin, but even it would have looked plain compared to the ones
being worn here.

Oh well, I thought to myself. At least
I’m clean. I looked at our little group and shrugged. All clean and
wearing the best of our travelling clothes.

We all stood as Queen Melana walked
into the room. She made her way to our table followed by her
personal guard of three cats.

I recognized the jaguar from my dream
that had been at the clearing with Melana. I smiled at her and she
blinked at me.

I looked around to the other tables
hoping to see Matthew but couldn’t find him. There had to be at
least a hundred people in the hall.

Melana sat beside me and everyone was
poured a drink.

“I trust you had a good trip,
dear?”

I took a sip of my drink and
nodded.

“I don’t imagine this visit is simply
for pleasure.”

I smiled. I liked a person who didn’t
beat around the bush. “No. It isn’t. We were hoping to talk to you
about what we had discussed before. Have you had a chance to think
about the possibility of forming an alliance with the Majs in order
to defeat Braw?”