Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three)

by Chester, Mireille

  *****

  “Alright, Ternach. What do you see?” All five of the primary packs, Rainen’s, Ben’s, Shanus’s, Damian’s, and ours, were all crouched low in the woods that ran along the edge of the Wedelven River. Our secondary packs were lined up behind us. I looked across the river, past the light blue grass that grew tall along its banks, and into the woods I was certain contained something we weren’t ready for.

  Absolutely nothing, my love.

  Jasper gave my hand a squeeze. I noticed he’d stopped reacting every time the immortal used his pet name for me. I saw movement along the bush line and tensed, but even from this distance, Ternach’s white green eyes were easy to recognize and I relaxed.

  I’ve checked a good mile in every direction. If there are any packs beyond that perimeter, you’ll all have time to make it across before they get here.

  I bit my lip, still unsure.

  “It’s now or never, Shlova.”

  I took a deep breath. “Can I pick never?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then I guess I pick now.” I gave Ben a nod and he gave a signal to his Wedelves. They all ran out of the cover of the trees and lined themselves on either side of the invisible bridge. When the bridge was clearly marked, the rest of the earthy colored beings lined themselves along the opposite bank, bows and arrows trained at the woods.

  Rainen and Damian had already started displacing Scannoves with their spells. I saw Phlann cringe as the sorceress moved on to him, then turned to look across the river and saw him reappear beside Gabbynn, a black haired Scannove filly covered in scales so black they shimmered with greens, blues, and mauves when the sun shone. It seemed to be if you saw one you saw the other these days. Phlann shook himself and Gabbyn laughed. I watched as Winged Ones took to the air, flew over the river, dropped off their charges and returned to do it all over again. Any being that wasn’t traveling by magic or Winged One was running across the bridge, making sure to stay between the lines of Wedelves to avoid falling into the river.

  I swung onto Dodge and Jasper hopped onto Truin, a six year old buckskin from Dodge’s herd.

  “Alright, Bud, let’s do this.” I gave him a pat on the neck and braced myself as he dug in and launched himself into the air. I could feel Ternach’s energy simply hanging around me, waiting to move me should the need arise. I looked for him and found him still at the edge of the woods. His eyes met mine and didn’t look away until Dodge’s feet hit the ground. His magic, however, didn’t leave me. The skin along my arms started to tingle.

  Sorry. He pulled back a bit but not much. The problem wasn’t the fact that we weren’t shielding; it was the fact that we were both projecting, trying to feel for anything that seemed out of place. My nudge bumped Rainen’s and Damian’s. I glanced around until I found them. We all gave a small apologetic smile. Under all of the more powerful nudges I could feel the other magic wielders, all of them doing their part at searching with their magic. I recognized Teean and looked for him. He had just finished helping a young woman slide off the back of a dappled grey mare.

  The process of getting everyone over the river was a much faster one than I had anticipated and we were soon all in the cover of the forest once again.

  I sat on Dodge’s back, tense, still expecting something to jump out at us and go ‘boo!’.

  A shiver ran through Jasper. “Could you tone it down a bit, Shlova? I’m about to jump out of my skin.”

  I agree with your mate on this one. I almost disintegrated one of your blue birds and all it did was land on a branch over my head.

  “You know, the two of you sure are agreeing on a lot of things lately.” I let my annoyance show.

  I’m serious, my love. I’m going to go see how many humans and captives there are in the prisoners’ camp and I’d rather not destroy them all just because a rabbit hops across the trail I’m on.

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. When that didn’t work I closed my eyes and tried to think happy thoughts. I almost screamed as Jasper pulled me off of Dodge and pulled me into his arms. His mouth crushed mine and his tongue parted my lips. I could feel him shaking. I let myself melt against him, tried to get lost in the feel of him. It took more kiss than usual and by the time I had lost the nervousness all I could feel was the need to get Jasper alone somewhere. Ternach and Jasper groaned.

  “By the moons, Shlova, that’s not much better.” He closed his eyes and held me out at arm’s length.

  Ternach took a deep breath. No, it isn’t, but at least with this one I won’t kill everything in sight. Keep her feeling like that until I get back.

  Jasper grunted and raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s happening to you?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I think Ternach wanted you to keep me horny, not get me back to worried.”

  He took my hands and pulled me down so that I was sitting with my back to his chest. I was almost completely lost in his bear hug. “You’ve only been feeling this since we decided to take out the prisoners’ camp.”

  “Was that when it started?” I tried to think back.

  He’s right, my love.

  “Ugh, will you two quit the two on one thing. Go do your scouting and stay out of this.” I took a deep breath. I could feel my need for Jasper slip away and be replaced by confusion. He gave my arm a squeeze.

  “Confused, I can handle.”

  Alex grunted his agreement. “I don’t know how you and Ternach are handling this so well. I don’t feel it half as strongly as you and I’m about to scream.”

  I smiled apologetically. “Alright. So if it’s the camp I’m worried about, then what about the camp is it?” I started to think of the feeling and the fear crept up again. I shivered. Jasper nuzzled my neck, his tongue running lightly along my shoulder and I shivered a completely different kind of shiver.

  Both of us jumped at the shock Ternach projected.

  “What did you just see?”

  I know what you were scared of. The tone of his voice banished all but the fear I had been trying to keep at bay. You were scared of what you were going to find.

  Jasper growled. “Get back here, now.”

  A fraction of a second later he was standing beside us, his light green eyes wide and his face pale.

  “What did you see?” Rainen had made her way to our side.

  “Are there a lot of them?” Ben had his arm around Tara.

  Ternach shook his head. “There are maybe fifty humans guarding the camp.”

  “How many prisoners?” My voice was so quiet I was surprised he heard my question.

  “Twenty seven.” He met Jasper’s gaze. “They’re not in good shape.”

  Harold growled behind me and I jumped.

  “We can’t take a chance they’ll harm them any more when we show up.” Jasper had that faraway look he got when running through scenarios in his head as quickly as he could. He frowned, thought it over one last time and nodded. “We’ll use the one thing they don’t have and can’t protect themselves against.”

  Everyone was nodding. It wasn’t a hard plan to figure out. Rainen turned to Harold. “Spread the word. We need every magic wielder and healer we have.”

  Instead of following her order, he stared at her. “I’m coming.”

  Rainen looked about to object then glanced at me as I put a hand on his arm. Harold looked down to me as well.

  “Of course you can come.” I frowned at Rainen as I said it. Did she really expect the man to stay behind when his mate was probably in that camp? Jasper looked up at our friend.

  “You’ll stay behind and out of the way.” He smirked. “Same as me.”

  Harold nodded.

  By the time everyone had made it to our side we had sixteen healers and twelve magic wielders.

  “The first thing we’ll need to do is make sure each prisoner is shielded. Who can shield more than one being?” Rainen was looking around. There were nine.

  “Do you think we should maybe come at t
hem from inside the camp? We could displace so that we’re with the prisoners and attack from there.” Marianne, one of Rainen’s apprentices had a great mind when it came to strategy. Of course, she had one of the best teachers around.

  “The prisoners are tied to trees, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any in some of the tents that are set up.” Ternach was frowning. “If we stand with the ones we know are there and start throwing magic around, there may be casualties on our side.”

  “How many tents?” Jasper was recalculating.

  “Five big ones.”

  I looked to where Matthew, Kacey, Luke, and Alex were standing. “We need a repeat of the cave rescue.”

  “Shlova, you are not going in there.”

  “Oh, but I am.” I looked around. For as much as I didn’t want to involve anyone without a feel for magic, I knew I would feel much better if I had my pack there with me. “You can be my human captor if you want. It’s nice knowing it’s not you I’m going in there to save this time. Matthew, you take Damian, Kacey, Rainen, Luke, Ternach, and Alex, you can take…” I looked around, looking for the next strongest sorcerer or sorceress. It was a tie between Teean and Marianne. Of the two Marianne looked the calmest. “Take Marianne.” Teean looked relieved but not as relieved as Marianne, which seemed odd to me. “We walk in, we each take a tent, everyone giggle and say whoops, guess the freaks get tied outside, and when we’re standing by everyone else…” I paused. I guess this wasn’t going to be exactly like the cave rescue.

  “Will you just blow them around?” Matthew was looking at me intently and I knew what he wanted me to say.

  I shook my head. “This time no one leaves alive.”

  He gave one nod of his head and I knew I’d been right.

  “All magic wielders and healers come with us. Everyone else, you’re to stay here until we get back.” Damian’s voice sounded like he was inviting everyone to a picnic.

  “I’m coming too. You might need someone who can answer questions if they decide to question you.” Steven made his way to my side. I nodded.

  Rainen looked around until she found who she was looking for. “Collin, you’re in charge of the dogs.”

  “Cole, you’ll take over the cats?” Jasper asked his friend. Cole nodded. “If all goes well we’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. If we’re not back by tomorrow night, make your way to Paradin. If we can, we’ll meet you there.”

  “Matthew?” Emelly’s voice hadn’t sounded this small since the day we’d met her. He jerked at the pitiful sound his name made. “Be careful.”

  “I will, Em. Don’t you worry.” He kissed her softly. “I’ll be back tomorrow. You stay out of trouble until I get back.”

  She swallowed hard and nodded. “I love you.”

  “And I love you.” He wiped her tears and kissed her again.

  Not too far from them, Mel and Luke were saying their goodbyes. I had the sudden urge to tell him to stay back, that someone else would take his place. Of course, if I did that, I had to do it with Matthew and Alex as well.

  “He wouldn’t stay behind anyway, Shlova.” Jasper’s arm went around my shoulders.

  Luke tucked her hair behind her ears. “Try not to miss me too much.”

  “I’ll try.” She smiled. It was the way they always said goodbye, though I noticed it wasn’t quite as playful as the other times I’d seen it done. He held her a little longer and kissed her a little deeper while she wrapped her arms around him a little tighter than usual.

  Alex gave Leslie a final kiss on the end of her nose. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” She grinned. “Now, get going before I decide I need to convince Hayden to let me come along as well.” She winked at me and I smiled. I wasn’t sure if it was something she was picking up from Alex, but she always seemed to know when I could use a smile.

  I noticed Marianne run a hand through her blond hair. It wasn’t a casual gesture. This one was so tense I was surprised she didn’t pull any hair out with the jerky motion. She looked past everyone to Rodney, a slim man with dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. I recognized him as one of the jaguars that ran in Jasper’s pack. He had the same frown on his face as she did. He gave her a bit of a wave then mouthed the words ‘be careful’. She jerked, shifted into a coyote, and went to stand by Rainen. Rodney caught me looking and shrugged. I supposed not all beings were comfortable with fating with a different kind of shifter.

  That thought made me look for Peter and Cassandra. She smiled up at him and he pulled her close.

  “Be sure to come back to me,” he mumbled in her hair.

  She nodded. “It never occurred to me not to.” He kissed her forehead and let her hand slip out of his as she made her way to the group. She went to stand by Hailey who had finished saying goodbye to Cole.

  I took a deep breath. Could the same plan work twice? It was the surprise element that would help us pull it off and there was no way they would be expecting a pack of shifters to simply waltz into their camp. Right?

  “I can’t think of anything better, Shlova.”

  “I agree, my love. If you want to get those prisoners out alive, this is the way to go.”

  “I know… it’s just… I’m nervous, ok?”

  Both of them grunted; obviously they had felt it. I took a deep breath and tried to relax.

  “Alright, then, let’s get going. Sitting around here isn’t getting anything done.” Everyone who could shift did and everyone that couldn’t swung onto a Winged One so we could make better time. I gave Dodge a pat on the neck and we started off toward a situation I was certain I didn’t want to deal with.

  *****

  Jasper lay on his stomach looking down onto the camp from the edge of the ridge. His jaw clenched at the sight of the prisoners. The fact that he couldn’t see anyone he knew personally didn’t do anything to calm him down. He scanned them again, trying to catch a glimpse of Gina. His throat tightened. She didn’t seem to be here and he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad one. He watched as one of the humans walked up to a young woman with short dark red hair. The dark haired man untied the rope that was tied from her neck to the tree, hauled her almost naked form to her feet and dragged her to one of the tents. He remembered Steven’s description of how the humans had treated his mother and sister before separating them. Not good enough to live, but good enough to fuck. Jasper growled low in his throat.

  Ternach put a hand on his arm. “Not yet.” By the look on his face even this was a bit extreme in his books of what was acceptable to do to prisoners. Most of them were close to nude, their clothes having been ripped or cut from their bodies. There were gashes and bruises over almost every part of their bodies and were it not for the odd moan or groan that escaped them, it would have been hard to tell if they were actually alive. He noticed Jasper observing him. “I may have killed quite a few beings in my lifetime, but I’ve never tortured anyone. I’m immortal, not evil, for as much as everyone would like to think I am.”

  Jasper grunted. There had been a time when that had been his own opinion. Now, he wasn’t as sure. “Alright, let’s go. We have to go see what everyone wants to do about the tents. Obviously, there are prisoners in there.” He felt Ternach’s magic run over him, felt the ground disappear then reappear. He opened his eyes at the feel of Hayden’s hand on his arm.

  “How bad is it?”

  He considered lying to her then dismissed the idea. She’d see for herself soon enough. “Do you remember what I looked like when you found me in the cave?”

  She paled.

  “Imagine twenty six more like me.”

  “Oh, god.”

  “We know there are beings in the tents, so let’s figure out how we’re going to get them out before we rid ourselves of the humans.”

  “What if you just don’t hit the tents?” Danny took a step forward. “Once you get by the ones who are tied to the trees, you let loose whatever it is you have planned, but skip the tents. While everyone outside is busy
dealing with you, some of us can sneak in and take care of the ones in there.”

  Rainen nodded. “But no healers. We’ll need all of you in top shape for afterwards.”

  “I was thinking about that…” Danny glanced at Hayden. “I don’t think you should go in there.”

  Jasper felt her anger and resentment. He put a hand on her shoulder. “He’s right, Shlova. A lot of those beings are going to need extra energy. We can’t afford to have you hurt or weakened during the fight.”

  Her glare honed in on him. “I’m not just going to wait until it’s over!”

  He took a deep breath. “There are more than enough magic wielders to handle the humans. It’s afterwards we need to think about. They’re in bad shape, Hayden.” He felt the blood drain from his face as his thoughts turned to the woman he had seen taken away.

  Hayden watched him for a moment then nodded. Whatever she’s seen had been enough to convince her. “Ok, fine. You’ll take Teean?”

  He watched as the young sorcerer seemed to gather himself mentally. “Do you recall the fight against Marilynn’s mate in Pinsaber?”

  Teean nodded.

  “This will be a walk in the park compared to that. At least here, no one will be throwing magic back at you.” He grinned and tied Teean’s arms loosely behind his back. Everyone followed suit and captured their designated prisoners.

  “Jasper?” Hayden looked miserable. “Be careful.”

  His heart fluttered in his chest as he picked up on her worry. “Aren’t I always?” He kissed her softly and was glad to feel it ease her back to a more neutral emotional state. “You make sure to stay away until this is completely done.”

  She nodded.

  “Ah, to have had you in this position just a couple of years ago,” he grinned at Damian who was standing tied in front of Matthew.

  “Try not to have a change of heart.” The sorcerer chuckled

  Matthew started to laugh and they started toward the camp. The magic wielders waited five minutes then followed after them while the healers stayed where they were. Jasper glanced back once to make sure Hayden was staying put then focused his attention on the task at hand. Steven ran a hand through his white blond hair and glanced back to him. He nodded. There was no stopping now.