Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three)

by Chester, Mireille

  “Alright, everyone!” called Matthew. “Supper is served.”

  I went to stand in line beside Jasper.

  “Is everything alright?” he asked.

  I nodded. “If it weren’t for the fact that we have to fight Braw, I’d have to say that everything couldn’t be more perfect.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, we have both the Majs and the Namaels on our side.”

  “Yes, that is a plus.”

  “You’re not hurting anymore.” I looked into his eyes and smiled. I hugged him tightly and brushed my lips against his. “In a few more months we’ll be home. We can spend all winter snuggled in our cabin.”

  “That will be nice.” He smiled

  “Of course, by the time winter comes, I’ll be as big as a cow and all I’ll be able to do is lay around.”

  He chuckled. “You’ll still be beautiful.”

  “I wonder how long you’ll carry for,” added Luke who was standing behind us.

  “Hmm. I don’t know. Dawn carried for six months, or was supposed to anyway. Is that typical of all shifters?”

  My brother-in-law nodded. I turned to Tara. “How long are Wedelves pregnant for?”

  “Thirteen months.”

  I wrinkled my nose at the thought.

  “What about humans?” asked Jasper.

  “Nine months.” I smiled. “Let’s hope it takes after you.”

  Jasper cut pieces of meat off of the deer and placed them in our bowls. We went to our blankets and I passed him some cheese from our packs. Dodge came walking toward us.

  Hayden?

  “Hmm? What is it, Bud?”

  Before we crossed, when we told you about the fight in Sageden you were so upset, I didn’t think I should mention it… Dodge swished his tail. The thing is that, well I suppose there isn’t going to be a good time to tell you. He looked to Luke as if asking for help. When Luke sat beside Jasper and put a hand on my mate’s shoulder my horse blew out of his nose. Honestly it slipped my mind what with everything that happened since you crossed back. And you did just wake up again…

  My stomach was doing flips and my heart was jumping in my chest. “Spit it out, Dodge.” Jasper put a hand on my knee.

  When the humans came to Sageden, the first place they looked for you was your cabin.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s gone, isn’t it?”

  I’m sorry, Hayden. I was with Luke and Mel. We saw the smoke, but by the time we got there, it was too late. We were trying to put it out when the blue bird flew to us from Sageden to tell us it was under attack.

  Tears flowed down my face and I found it hard to breathe. “What about Tiny? Where was she?” The thought of my little white Tairat perishing in the fire had my chest tight with fear.

  “She’s fine.” Luke leaned over and put a hand on my shoulder. “The twins have been taking care of her since Tantara and Roben left to meet you. She was at the cave.”

  Jasper pulled me to his chest and rested his chin on my head. “Shush. It’s alright, Shlova.” The words were reassuring but his voice was tight and I could hear his heart beating hard under my ear. I looked up and had to keep back more tears that threatened to come at the sight of him. His eyes were closed, his jaw clenched.

  “I’m so tired of this,” I whispered.

  He took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s almost over.”

  Dodge moved closer and nuzzled my face. I’m sorry, Hayden.

  I brushed the tears from my face and rubbed his nose. “It’s not your fault, Bud.” I heard a chirp from up above and I looked up as a blue bird flew down to sit on my knee. I pet the little head. “Hey, you.”

  She looked from me to Jasper.

  “She says there are no packs of any kind for a day’s travel in any direction.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Could you do me a favor? I need to get a message to Melana.” I could feel everyone looking at me. I focused on the bird so I wouldn’t change my mind. “Could you let her know that we are heading to Howel to see if I can help heal Damian? Tell her we’ll be marching straight from there to Paradin. Enough is enough. I’ll let her know when we leave Howel and we’ll meet her somewhere.”

  She bobbed her head and flew away.

  “Hayden?” Tara’s caramel colored eyes looked straight into mine. “Are you sure?” I knew she’d been secretly hoping we could delay the fighting until after the baby was born.

  I nodded and looked up to see Jasper’s reaction. His eyes were closed. I watched as he swallowed and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes, looked at me and nodded.

  “Tomorrow, Hayden, Dodge, Matthew and I will head to Howel with Rainen, Harold, and Gina.” He looked around at everyone. No one argued with him when he had this look on his face. Well, maybe just me, though at this point in time I agreed with what I knew he had decided. He was thinking ahead and when it came to battles and strategies he was one of the best.

  “The rest of you head back to Sageden. We’ll need everyone ready when we get there. Rally everyone. Send runners to reach those who live farther away. Shanus, alert the Scannoves. Phlann, I need you to get to the Winged Ones’ meadow. Find Taleessa. She’s the black filly who got her wings just before we left last year. Send her to the Northern Regions. She got her ruby from Faren. The two of them need to get together and alert the dragons.”

  Everyone was nodding. Rainen’s eyes widened.

  “You’re in league with the dragons?”

  “I’m bonded to a fire dragon and a water dragon. That’s how I can see auras to tell the humans apart from the shifters.”

  “What of Ternach?”

  I shivered at the mention of his name and shook my head. “He’s with the humans on this one. I don’t think he cares either way who wins. It’s me he wants. He’s promised me a rematch of our powers if he ever gets his hands on me again.” I didn’t mention what else he’d promised to do to me. I didn’t need Jasper turning this into a personal vendetta to protect my honor.

  “Who won the first time?” Rainen didn’t bother hiding the awe in her voice.

  “No one. We were interrupted. Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to it. Had Brice not arrived when he did, I don’t think I would have survived the next hit.” Ternach’s magic was extremely powerful.

  “Now,” continued Jasper. “Do any of us know anyone who has been to Paradin and could give us an idea as to the layout of the keep? Any weaknesses it might have.”

  Rainen shook her head. Everyone in our pack grew quiet as we thought of Brice.

  “Argh. God! Why am I so bad at stuff like this!” I felt Jasper chuckle as I vented about my nonexistent sense of direction. “It’s not funny!” I turned back to glare at him. “I’ve been there. I should be able to tell you this stuff. All I can tell you is when Ternach displaced Brice and I and we reappeared close to the keep. We entered through a big gate. The whole place is surrounded by a rock wall, like Pinsaber. Once you get in there’s a courtyard. Then there are houses, part of the city. You walk down a few streets and then you get to the jail.” I frowned, remembering the walk down the stairs to the cells where Brice had brought me. He’d been my best friend, my over protective little brother until that day. Then he’d turned out to be an undercover human spy whose mission had been to capture me and get me to Braw.

  “When you leave the jail, if you walk farther into the keep, there’s another courtyard. This one has the stage in it; the one where they tie the shifters so they can be separated from their animals.” I shivered. I could still hear the screams of the men and women Braw had used me to kill. Jasper’s arms tightened around me. Everyone was quiet as I recalled the incident.

  “Behind the stage, there’s a break in the wall. That’s how Brice got me out of the city. William stayed at the jail and lied about where we had gone. God, I hope he’s ok.” I took a deep breath. “When we got out of the keep, we ran, but I can’t tell you in which direction. Brice told me to step where he stepped b
ecause there were traps set out in the woods. When it got safe to run, I just followed. We got to some caves, rode an underground river, then used a displacement stone to get to Jasper which was not too far from the Wedelven river.”

  “He helped you escape?” Rainen was frowning.

  I nodded.

  “Did he go back afterwards?”

  I shook my head. “No.” I cleared my throat to clear the lump that had formed there. “We were almost to the river when a human pack found us.” I closed my eyes and shook my head again, unable to go on.

  “Brice sacrificed himself so we could get Hayden back over the river.” Jasper rubbed my arms. “Are you alright?”

  I nodded. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”

  “I’ll be there shortly. There are just a few things I want to discuss with everyone that is going back tomorrow.”

  I kissed him softly, wishing he could just come to bed and hold me. Though I made sure not to project the feeling to him, he was excellent at reading me. He grabbed hold of my hand, squeezed it and gave me a reassuring smile. I squeezed him back and moved my blankets farther into the woods.

  I lay down and bundled myself up, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep until Jasper was lying next to me to warm me up. I didn’t have to wait long.

  “Sorry, Shlova.” He pulled me to his chest and kissed my forehead. “How are you doing?”

  “Better now that you’re holding me.” I tilted my head up. “Kiss me.”

  He smiled and brought his lips down to mine. I sighed and closed my eyes. His tongue gently found mine. It didn’t take long until all I could feel was the heat of his body against mine. I was engulfed by the taste and the smell of him. He pulled back slowly and kissed the tip of my nose.

  “Did it work?” He looked searchingly into my eyes.

  I nodded. Jasper could always kiss me better. Of course, now that we had started I was finding it hard to stop. I poked my head up and looked around. We were nicely hidden by the bushes I had placed the blankets behind. I ran my hand under his shirt and played my thumb over his nipple. His mouth claimed mine again, this time just as softly as the first. My head started to reel.

  “This is where wearing a dress might have its advantages,” he whispered in my ear as he undid the laces on my pants and helped me wiggle out of them. I tried not to laugh out loud. I returned the favor and pulled him free of his pants. He was hot and hard in my hand. He groaned low in his throat as I stroked him. I rolled so that I was straddling him and lay flat on his chest before lowering myself. I caught my breath as he entered me. His hands held me in place and I could tell he was trying not to make any noise.

  “I could stay like this all night,” I whispered in his ear. “I love how you fill me.” I pushed myself lower and smiled at his small gasp. “How you stretch me and I can feel your heat deep inside of me.” I moved my hips from side to side and was rewarded with a moan.

  Jasper shuddered then rolled so that he was on top. He pulled back and thrust back into me before pushing his hips down, pinning me to the ground. He brought his mouth down to mine and ran his teeth over my bottom lip before nibbling his way along my jaw, to my ear, and back again. It was my turn to shudder. He rocked over me lazily, not really moving, simply content to be in me.

  I felt the heat building up deep inside of me. I tried to arch my hips up to meet his but his weight held me down. I shook under him. He pulled almost completely out before pushing back in slowly. A tremor ran through me, starting deep in my core and spreading outward. I felt myself clench around him as the blood rushed to my head and every other extremity of my body.

  He caught his breath and crushed my mouth with his, each of us swallowing the other’s groan of pleasure. He rocked over me a bit longer, waiting until the aftershocks of our coupling stopped running through me to pull out.

  I pulled on my pants and let him pull me to his chest. He kissed the back of my neck softly.

  “A shlova yan,” he whispered softly.

  I sighed and linked my fingers with his. “A shlova yan jer.”

  *****

  “There!” I pointed down to a cluster of rocks below us.

  Dodge angled his wings and turned in that direction. The wind blew my hair in my face and I brushed it out of the way.

  Are you sure? I didn’t see anything.

  “I’m positive I saw something. There were at least three of them.”

  Were they human?

  “I don’t know. I didn’t have time to check.”

  Dodge beat his wings and took us higher into the air to avoid arrows if any were to be shot at us. He made a lazy circle around the boulders.

  They’re running.

  I spotted the three beings running through the trees. I sent a nudge towards them and shuddered at their lack of aura.

  “Humans!”

  Why aren’t they shifting? They could at least pretend to be Majs.

  “I don’t know.” I glanced down and behind us where a tiger, a leopard, two grizzlies and a wolf were running to keep up to us. Jasper looked up and I pointed in the direction of the three we were chasing. “Do you think these ones will just surrender?”

  Dodge blew out of his nose. Probably not. It’s almost as if they have orders to die if they get caught.

  We had been travelling a week towards Howel and had come across four packs. Out of the hundred Majs I had scanned three of these had turned out to be human spies with shifting stones. All of them had decided to fight when they had been discovered. None of them were alive.

  “There’s a clearing up ahead. Let’s fly ahead and cut them off. Jasper and the others shouldn’t take too long to catch up to them if they don’t shift.”

  Dodge veered off and headed to the open ground, circled back and hit the ground running just as the humans came scrambling into the meadow. I pulled my swords and Dodge folded his wings over my legs to keep them out of the way. One of the humans gave a shout and the three of them came to a stop then spun around as the rest of our pack charged out of the woods behind them.

  They put their hands up and stood back to back. Our pack circled them. Rainen shifted so she could talk.

  “Identify yourselves!”

  One of them, the smallest of the three, it was hard to tell the color of his hair because of the hood he wore, jumped and tried to sprint away.

  “Don’t!” This came from the blond human as Matthew launched himself at the hooded one. He drove his shoulder into the leopard’s side and knocked him off of his friend. The third man, this one with hair so pale it was almost white, stayed frozen in place.

  Jasper crouched low, ready to spring at the blond man who stood between the shifters and his friend. The latter was still lying on his stomach, his head in his arms.

  “Your pack,” said the blond man. He had his back turned to me. “It’s different.” He looked from one animal to the next. “There’re both kinds in it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “God, what did she call them? Nommies? No. Nimals?” He shook his head, frustrated. He turned to the light haired man. “You know this!” His friend stayed quiet. “The other ones. It sounds like magic. Mage? Mag. No, that’s not it either.” He took a deep breath.

  The more he talked the more familiar his voice sounded. “Look, I’m looking for Hayden. You’ve got to be one of her packs.”

  Jasper growled low in his throat and stalked closer to the human.

  “What is your interest in Hayden?” asked Rainen. She did a great job of not looking in my direction.

  The man hesitated. “I just need to find her.”

  Jasper shifted still ready to strike. “If you were to find Hayden, what would be your purpose with her?”

  “I need to talk to her.”

  “What would you say to her?”

  “What? Umm. Well, honestly, I guess the first thing I would ask her is if she’d had a chance to have a shower lately.”

  My heart jumped in my throat as the voice and the sentence suddenly made up my mind abo
ut who the man was. I sheathed my swords and slid off of Dodge. The man turned at the sound of me landing on the ground and his hazel eyes locked with mine.

  “Hayden!”

  William’s eyes widened as Jasper’s dagger pressed against his throat.

  “Don’t! It’s William! He’s the one I told you about. The one who helped Brice get me out of Paradin.”

  Jasper relaxed his hold on my friend but didn’t remove his dagger from his throat.

  “Why are you here, William,” he asked.

  “I’m looking for Hayden. I’ve been looking for her for the past nine months. I just followed the rumors until they led me here.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question, William.”

  “Jesus. You must be Jasper.” He swallowed hard and looked at me. “Will you tell him I’m on your side?”

  “Jasper. Hun. Please.”

  Jasper’s eyes met mine and I could see the uncertainty in them. They narrowed and he turned his attention back to William. “Why didn’t you shift? Where are your stones?”

  “We don’t have any. We just left. I couldn’t stay there knowing that what he was doing was wrong!”

  Jasper’s hold loosened and William pressed on. “I was there, Jasper. I saw what it did to her when Braw touched her with that staff. I saw what it did to the others. I won’t be a part of it. I’m not much of a fighter. I’ve never had to learn how, but I’ll stand by Hayden and do my best to help her cause.” He pulled at his tunic and stopped when Jasper’s hold tightened again.

  “Look! Let me show you.”

  Jasper took a step back and tears started falling down my face as William pulled his shirts over his head. I walked to him and traced the scars on his back he had gotten from being whipped.

  “You said they wouldn’t hurt you if we made it look like Brice attacked you,” I whispered.

  He looked at Jasper and back to me. “I knew you wouldn’t go along with the plan if you knew what they would do.”

  I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. He returned the hug. “It’s alright, Hayden. It was my decision. Don’t go blaming yourself for this.” He turned to Jasper. “I wouldn’t have put myself through that if I didn’t give a damn about her.”