Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (30 page)

“One on one, hand to hand. No shifting
for you, no magic for me, no weapons for either of us.”

“When?”

“We’ll meet in one hour in the
courtyard.” Hayden smiled. “The winner gets Jasper and the loser
disappears.”

Leah took a fraction of a second to
think it over before nodding. She turned and stalked out of the
pub.

“By the moons, Hayden…” He stopped
short at the look on her face. He took her hand and led her out
into the street. Once they were alone he pulled her to his chest.
He felt her take a few deep breaths. “Are you alright?”

She shrugged. He tilted her face up. It
was pale and he knew that the strange Hayden he had seen in the pub
had been an act. He searched her eyes.

“What was that?”

She looked down. “Matthew told me about
her. What she was to you. How she acts now that you’re not together
anymore. It was going to come to this anyway, I think. I’m just
getting it out of the way.”

“Hayden. Once we leave here, we’ll
never see her again. This is stupid.”

She shook her head. “No. I saw the look
in her eyes, Jasper. When she talked about getting rid of me, she
meant it.”

He had seen it too and couldn’t argue
with her.

He pulled her close again. “I’m
sorry.”

“About what? This isn’t your fault. The
woman is obviously certifiable.”

“I saw the look on your face when you
saw us on the ground together.”

She surprised him by smiling. “I won’t
lie. It was a bit of a shock.”

“You’re not upset?” He tried to feel
any hint that she might be.

“About the kiss? Why would I
be?”

“I just thought it might have
seemed…well, I should have told you about Leah when we decided to
come to Pinsaber.”

“Would you be upset if you found me
kissing Matthew?”

“Why would you kiss Matthew?” He
frowned and felt her amusement.

“Just humour me.”

“Alright, then. If I caught you kissing
Matthew, I’m sure I would think there was a very good reason for
it, not to mention that I would feel what you were feeling and in
that sense be able to determine what was going on.” He glanced down
at her. “But you don’t have the luxury of feeling what I do. You
couldn’t tell how I was feeling.”

She started to laugh. “Jasper, I didn’t
need to feel what you were feeling. The pissed off, shocked look on
your face was enough of an indication that you weren’t a willing
party.”

He blushed.

Hayden stood on her tip toes and kissed
him softly. He pulled her tightly against his chest and let his
tongue play lightly with hers. She moaned and his stomach tightened
at the sound. She sighed that small internal sigh that she felt
whenever he held her and all he wanted to do was take her home;
away from Pinsaber, away from Leah.

“She won’t fight fair, will
she?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She nodded. “Ok.”

“You know, even if you lose, I can’t go
with her. I’ll still be fated to you.”

“I know. That’s why she’ll try to kill
me. She knows it too.”

“Hayden?” Matthew walked over and shook
his head. “Are you alright?”

She nodded. Jasper’s temper flared. In
one hour, Hayden would be fighting for her life and he was sure
that the cause of it was something Matthew had told her.

“What did you tell her?”

Matthew didn’t seem surprised at the
outburst. “Just that Leah had been determined to get you back since
you’d left her; that every time you came to Pinsaber she found you.
By the moons, Jasper, she’s even tracked you down to some of the
smaller towns around here.” He looked his friend in the eye. “You
know damn well that it was just a matter of time before Leah
decided Hayden was the obstacle she was going to have to get rid of
to get you back.”

“So you told Hayden to fight
her?”

Hayden put a hand on his arm. “He
didn’t tell me to do anything. He gave me the facts and I decided
this was the way to go.”

“I honestly didn’t mean for this to
happen. I was just trying to explain to her why she shouldn’t be
upset about seeing you lying on the ground with another woman’s
tongue in your mouth.”

Jasper felt the blood creep into his
face. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “Alright.
Here are a few things I remember about her fighting style. She’s
not very good at hand to hand, but she does fight
dirty…”

*****

I handed my dagger and boot knife to
Jasper and watched as Leah did the same. She let her hand run down
his arm knowingly. I tried not to let my anger show. Jasper tensed
at the touch and his eyes, hard with anger, bore into hers. She was
either oblivious to the fact that he wanted nothing to do with her,
or she simply chose to ignore it. She gave his hand a
squeeze.

“Just you wait until we’re done here,”
she breathed sexily. “I have big plans for you tonight.” Her hand
traveled down his hip and Jasper growled low in his throat as she
patted his rear. She winked at him, glared at me, and went to stand
in the middle of the circle that was starting to form in the
courtyard.

“Bitch.”

Jasper looked at me,
surprised.

“Well, what? You can’t expect me to not
be more than a little pissed off. Shit, she’s not even trying to
hide it. She’s just doing it right in front of me.” The red waves
were moving in front of my face and it was taking a lot of effort
not to grab one and throw it at her.

Jasper must have sensed this and pulled
me to him. “You need to calm down.” He tilted my face and brought
his lips down softly to mine. The kiss got harder, hungrier. I
moaned and melted against him. His hand ran up my shirt in the
back. I shivered and dropped my shield. It was his turn to
groan.

A few whoops and hollers could be heard
as our kiss was applauded by the crowd. I pulled back on my
feelings and felt Jasper smile. The kiss softened and he placed his
forehead against mine. His thumb ran over my lips.

His voice was husky. “A shlova
yan.”

I took a deep breath. “A shlova yan
jer.”

He kissed me again before
straightening. I slipped the gold band off of my finger and placed
it in his hand then looked to the middle of the circle and tried
not to laugh at the shocked look on Leah’s face. I put on my brave
and obnoxious Hayden mask and walked to stand in front of
her.

“He’s my mate. Even when he was with
you, deep down, he was already in love with me.”

She glared. “I’m going to kill
you.”

I shook my head. “You’ll try.” I threw
a right jab and caught her by surprise. Her head snapped back with
the impact and I tried to ignore the pain in my hand.

Leah stumbled back before putting a
hand up to her nose to see if it was bleeding. It wasn’t. She
growled and rushed at me. I saw her crouch low, looking to tackle
me, and I brought my knee up as hard as I could. It connected with
her chin and she fell to the ground with a cry of pain. The
collision knocked me backward and I fell under her. She surprised
me by quickly straddling me. She rained punches down onto my face
and chest. My head exploded with pain.

I heard Jasper growl and hoped he would
have the sense to stay away. If anything, I was sure that our
friends would hold him back if the need arose.

Leah leaned forward and hissed in my
ear.

I took advantage and brought my elbow
up to the side of her face as hard as I could. My arm went
numb.

She growled low in her throat and tried
to reposition herself on top of me. I rolled the other way and
scrambled to my feet. I chanced a quick glance at Jasper and saw
him standing between Luke and Matthew, each of them with a hand on
his arms. His hands were clenched, every muscle in his body
taut.

I took two steps forward and swept my
foot behind her legs. She fell to the ground with a thump. It was
my turn to rain punches and elbows onto her. I hit her over and
over, my arms and hands past the point of hurting.

“Wait! Stop! You win!”

It took a few more punches and one last
elbow before Leah’s words registered in my head. I stopped with my
arm raised, trying to catch my breath.

Leah moved her arms away from her face
and even I was shocked at all of the blood that was covering it. I
brought my arm down to my side and tried to relax.

“Say it again. Loud enough for everyone
to hear.” I stood and took a few steps away from her. I put my
hands on my knees and took deep breaths. Blood drops fell to the
ground under me and I wiped the cut under my left eye.

She gave a hard laugh and I
straightened in time to see her jump toward me. She shifted in
midair and I found myself under a tiger with nothing but my hands
to defend myself with. I pushed my forearm up as she brought her
jaws down to bite me. I jammed it sideways into her mouth as hard
and as deep as I could. She clamped down and I felt the skin break
under the pressure of her teeth.

Somewhere behind us, I heard a scuffle
and knew that Jasper was trying to get to me.

“Hayden! Dagger!” Mel’s voice was
accented by the sound of my dagger planting into the ground a
couple of feet away from me.

Leah pulled back and swiped at me with
her massive paws. I rolled toward my dagger and screamed in pain as
her claws raked over my thigh. I scrambled awkwardly and ran,
grabbing the handle as I passed it. I heard her heavy footsteps
behind me. I caught a quick glimpse of Jasper, his eyes wide with
fear, struggling against Matthew and Luke. I jumped and twisted in
the air so that I could see Leah. She launched herself at me and we
collided in midair. The air left my body as I hit the ground, the
three hundred pound tiger on top of me. I gasped for breath and
tried to wiggle out from under her.

“Let go!” Jasper’s angry yell broke my
concentration. Leah sensed my distraction and stood, ready to press
her paw down on my chest; obviously she was planning on making me
suffer. Her movement gave me room to manoeuvre and I thrust the
dagger up into her belly. I grabbed the handle two handed and
pulled it toward me. She collapsed on top of me, her blood soaking
into my clothes and the ground. Her weight kept me from breathing
and my dagger handle was pressing into my thigh painfully. I
managed to get a hand out from under her and made a ‘come here’
gesture.

“Hayden!” Jasper ran toward us and
pushed Leah off of me. He knelt beside me, his eyes wide, and I
tried to suck air into my lungs. “Are you alright? What
hurts?”

I looked into his sky blue eyes and
smirked. “Everything.” I groaned and sat up. The longer I sat on
the ground, the more injuries I was starting to feel. I looked at
Leah and knelt beside her then ran a green wave over her. I shook
my head and wiped the tears from my cheeks with my arm. I looked up
at the sound of footsteps running into the courtyard.

“Hayden! By the moons, what were you
thinking?” Hanna knelt beside me, ran a green wave over me and
looked to Jasper. “You’ll need to hold her.” She shook her head.
“You’re lucky those claw marks aren’t deeper, Hayden. I might not
have gotten here soon enough.” I sucked in a breath as my leg
healed.

“Three broken ribs, a broken nose, a
broken forearm…” Hanna listed off the body parts as she healed
them. She patted my shoulder when she was done. “Off to bed with
you now. Just because you stay up all night defending your mate’s
honor doesn’t mean you get to avoid getting your tattoo tomorrow
morning.” She laughed at my smirk.

Jasper cradled me against his chest and
kissed my forehead before carrying me to our room. I must have
fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was feeling him
take my clothes off. I heard him thank Tara for getting the bath
ready and he set me in it. I kept my eyes closed but smiled to show
him I was alright as he washed the blood off of me. Once that was
done he laid me down, climbed into bed, and pulled the covers up.
His arms went around me and I felt him smile against my
neck.

“What?” I hugged his arms to me and
kissed his palm.

“Oh, I was just remembering. Do you
recall when you first crossed over and we were talking about
fating? You had asked me if I had anyone else before you kissed
me.”

“I do. You told me not since you had
started dreaming of me six years before.”

He nodded. “You said that was a good
thing because you didn’t think you would win a fight against a big
cat to win me.”

I smiled as he kissed my shoulders. He
turned me around and kissed me deeply. “You were wrong, Shlova. You
won me.” He reached down and pulled my leg up so that it was hooked
over his hip. “But never again, do you understand?”

I started to laugh. “Well, so long as
you don’t have any more psychotic ex-girlfriends I should know
about, I think it’s safe to assume this won’t happen again.” I
pushed him onto his back and straddled him.