Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (22 page)

He smiled back at me. “I like to make
your temper come out.” His lips touched mine softly.

I sighed and lay my cheek back against
his chest.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “But do you
know, I think your friend in there was wrong. I still think I love
you more.”

“I guess I’ll just have to keep saving
you until you know how wrong you are.”

Matthew shook his head. “Are they
always like that?” he asked Alex.

Our little group laughed and I looked
over at Zane. “Wanna take bets as to whether he’s fated or
not?”

Zane grinned. “I take not.”

Matthew blushed. “Well, not yet,
anyway. That’s quite the mate you have there, Jasper.”

Jasper smiled. “I can’t argue; she’s
something else. Thanks for helping her.”

Matthew grinned. “Well, now, I couldn’t
very well leave you in the hands of the dogs.”

Alex walked over and put a hand on
Jasper’s back. “Welcome back.”

“Thank you.” Jasper looked around.
“Everybody. Thank you.”

“So do you think you can keep yourself
from near death for another couple of years,

brother?” I stepped back so that Luke
could give Jasper a hug.

Jasper laughed. “I can try!”

“I hate to rush everyone, but the
closer we get to home, the better I will feel about celebrating
this little victory,” Shanus interrupted.

Jasper looked down at me and kissed me
again. “Home it is.”

Zane lift me onto Dodge and Jasper
hopped on behind me with a groan. I looked around until I found who
I was looking for.

“Kacey, are you coming with
us?”

He gave a smile and a nod.

Alex patted him on the back. “Welcome
to our diverse little group.”

We started off at an easy lope, eager
to get home.

“Are you strong enough to hold me? I’m
about to fall asleep. Maybe Luke should ride behind me so you can
rest too.”

Jasper pulled me closer to him. “Like I
could bear to let go of you right now. Go to sleep, Shlova. I’ll be
fine.”

I felt him chuckle as I managed to
mumble the word stubborn before falling asleep.

When I awoke, I still couldn’t open my
eyes. I was lying on a blanket with Jasper’s arms wrapped around
me. I managed to squeeze his hand weakly to let him know I was
awake.

He squeezed me back and kissed my hair.
“Go back to sleep. We just stopped for the night.” He sucked in his
breath as he moved so he could hold me closer. I shivered and he
readjusted the blankets.

“I love you,” he whispered.

I squeezed his hand again, sighed, and
fell back asleep.

I stayed in my half-awake half asleep
mode for two more days.

*****

The morning was cool. Jasper felt
Hayden roll so she was facing him. He mumbled something, positive
he was still sleeping and pulled her closer to him. He felt her
shudder against him.

“Shush, Shlova. It’s alright,” he
whispered. She tilted her face up and his lips found hers as he
crushed her to his chest. He moaned then gasped as her nose touched
his. He opened his eyes at the pain and found himself staring into
deep green eyes filled with grey and gold flecks.

“Thank god, you’re really here,” he
whispered hoarsely. “This isn’t another dream.”

She hugged him tightly. “Of course, I’m
here. If they thought they could just steal you away from me they
underestimated how much you mean to me.” Hayden smiled as she
repeated the same words he’d once told her. “I love you so much,”
she whispered. “When I realized they had taken you, it felt like
half of my whole being got ripped away from me.”

“I tried to come back to you. Every
time they would open that door, I tried.” He kissed her tenderly.
He looked up at the snorting sound coming from behind
them.

Hayden started to laugh. “Zane!” she
whispered loudly. “You’re snoring again!”

Jasper heard him grunt as Alex rolled
closer to him and poked him with an elbow.

“Geez, you guys! Can’t you leave a cat
alone in the morning?”

A few chuckles could be heard as more
people started to stir.

“I don’t want to move,” Hayden mumbled
into Jasper’s chest.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine; still very tired, but ok.
How do I look?”

He leaned back so he could look at her.
She raised an eyebrow at him.

“The truth.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “You’re a
little pale, but not yellow. The dark circles are back under your
eyes, but you don’t look like you’ve lost any weight.”

“Ok.”

“How do I look?” he smiled at
her.

She shook her head and put it back on
his chest. “Horrible.”

He laughed. “Thanks.”

“Your face is swollen, you’re black and
blue and yellow everywhere, your clothes are all ripped and stained
with blood.” She looked up at him. “Should I go on?”

He was still laughing. “No, that’s
fine. If I look that bad now, how in the world did I look when you
found me?”

She frowned and he felt her try to
shield him from the crushed feeling she was projecting. “If it
weren’t for the fact that I saw you breathe, I would have thought
that you were dead.”

He pulled her closer. “Of course I
wasn’t dead. I promised you I wouldn’t leave you,
remember?”

She nodded. “I remember.”

He pulled back again and turned
serious. “Whose blood is on you?”

She looked down at herself. “The
spatters would be when I sliced Nate open in the clearing. And the
bigger drops would be from when I bit his hand when he was trying
to abduct me.”

“Is he still here?” Jasper was ready to
kill.

Hayden shook her head. “Dodge kicked
him in the chest.”

“And then Hayden burnt him to a crisp
and kicked his ashes around.” Luke looked like he would choke with
the effort not to laugh.

Jasper raised his eyebrows at her and
grinned. “Temper!”

“Oh, be quiet! I was a little stressed
out. Remember? I was too busy trying to save you to have some
stupid little fox trying dumb things like that on me.” She grinned
back at him. “Seems to me you just finished saying you let yourself
get caught so you could make my temper come out.”

He laughed. “Yes, well, pity I didn’t
get to see it.” He tried to hide a cringe when she moved against
him.

Hayden got on her knees and pushed him
onto his back. “Lay still.”

“No. Not until you’re
better.”

“Jasper, I’m just going to see if the
safe one will work.”

Zane and Luke came to hold him
down.

She laid the wave over him and he
hissed as everything finished healing. When it was done he closed
his eyes and lay still, his breathing heavy.

“I think it definitely hurt less to be
hurt.”

Hayden took his hand and stood, pulling
him up with her. She shook her head. “You guys are something else.
I heal you, and all you can do is complain. Next time you can all
just lay around half dead and bleeding.”

Jasper pulled her into a hug and
laughed. “We’re not saying we’re not grateful, Shlova. We’re just
saying that it hurts.”

Matthew walked over to them.
“Hayden?”

She looked up at him.

“It’s not that I don’t enjoy your
little group’s company, but I would like to get back to Queen
Melana.”

“Yes, you’re right. And I am dying to
sleep in a bed again.”

Jasper squeezed her hand. “Lest nouth
allais mairen, Shlova.”

She swung onto Dodge and he hopped on
behind her so she could sleep. “Let’s go home,” she
agreed.

*****

Three days later we crossed over the
Wedelven Bridge and everybody breathed a sigh of relief when we
finally reached the edge of our clearing.

Mel and Dawn came running out of the
house. Luke fell to the ground as Mel ran into him without
slowing.

Zane caught Dawn in midair as she
jumped into his arms.

Jasper gave me a quick kiss and I
leaned my head on his shoulder.

“Welcome back!”

I turned to the house with a smile as
everyone but our little group dropped to their knees.

“Was there ever any doubt?” I asked
with a laugh.

Melana walked up to us and looked at
Jasper. “I’m glad to see you’re fine, Jasper, though from the looks
of your clothes that wasn’t the case when they found
you.”

Jasper laughed. “That’s the nice thing
about being fated to a healer.”

Melana turned back to me. “I must say,
I’m impressed, Hayden.”

I grinned and gave her a hug. “Piece of
cake, really. I do have to thank you for loaning me Matthew and his
crew. They were a great help.”

She nodded, her eyes still slightly big
at the fact that I had hugged her.

“Were there any casualties?” she
asked.

“Just Nate, the fox I healed at the
clearing.”

She looked at Matthew who had made his
way over to us. He bowed to her.

“What of the dogs?” she asked. “How
many were killed.”

“None,” he reported.

“I beg your pardon?” Melana’s jaw hung
open.

His mouth twitched as he tried not to
smile. “None.”

She regained her composure and turned
back to me. “How about you go get cleaned up and then you can catch
me up on everything. I thought about making tea, but thought some
sloan might fit the occasion a bit better.” She grinned. “A little
bird told me you were coming.”

The blue bird landed on my shoulder and
bobbed her head.

“That sounds great.”

We said goodbye to Tara and Ben who
wanted to go home and get some sleep. Shanus, Prense, Phlann and
Dodge followed after them, offering to stop by Fillian’s to fill
them in on everything that had happened.

Melana’s guards went off into the woods
in search of a place to rest. Only Matthew stayed
behind.

Jasper and I sat on the floor. I leaned
back against him, loving the feel of his arms wrapped around
me.

Melana was laughing at Alex who was
putting on a demonstration of me taking care of Nate after the
abduction attempt.

Luke took over explaining when we
entered the cave.

Melana’s eyes widened and she looked
over at Kacey.

“So how did you do it, then,” she asked
him.

“I’m not sure, really,” he answered,
his eyes still down.

“It’s not just will power. Nate told me
before he tried to take me, that if that was it, he would have done
it,” I thought out loud. I looked up. “With Jasper we just assumed
it was because he was fated to me. Luke because of Jasper and Mel
because of Luke. With Dawn it was obviously because of
Zane.”

I looked over at Alex. “What about you?
Now that Melana is here, do you feel your bond again?”

He shook his head.
“Nothing.”

I felt Jasper shrug. “Maybe there is no
particular reason why it happens.”

I looked up at Zane. “Did you tell
Jasper yet?”

“Not yet.”

“What?” Jasper glanced at his
friend.

Zane grinned from ear to ear. “I’m
going to be a daddy.”

Jasper laughed. “That’s
great!”

“Can you tell how many you’re having?”
I asked.

Dawn shook her head. “No, but foxes
usually have two or three pups at a time.”

Zane looked over at her. “Panthers only
have one.”

Jasper looked at them and laughed.
“Well, however many you have, it will be interesting to see who
they take after.”

“Maybe they will be red panthers!” Alex
was grinning at the thought. Leslie gave him a playful slap to the
shoulder.

I got up and gave them both a hug.
“Whatever they look like, they’ll be perfect.”

I looked at Melana, suddenly curious.
“Do you shift?”

She nodded. “I’m a tiger.”

“So are all the queens tigers? And is
it always a queen?” Now that I had met her I could think of a
million questions I hadn’t thought of asking Jasper.

“No.” She went on to explain. “Before
me there was a king. He was a lion.”

“So how do you pick who gets to
rule?”

“You’re just born to it. I’ll get to
rule until the next in line reaches the age of twenty. Then I will
step down. I’ve been queen for almost fifty years now. Most get to
rule about thirty. It’s a little odd that another White One hasn’t
been born yet.”

My jaw dropped. “How old are you? You
look like you’re twenty five!”