Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One'

by Chester, Mireille

  “I can see four from here.” Zane was still leaning casually on his elbows.

  “Five. I spotted the last one when she went for the drinks.” Brice took a swallow of his.

  Jasper was breathing hard from the dance as he led Dawn back to us. “Six. One came out from behind the drinks booth when they left.” He was frowning.

  “I didn’t see that one. Did you all notice the one by Taylor’s booth?” Luke waved and smiled at Mel who was dancing with Lantoc.

  Brice shook his head. “Not me. Does that make seven?”

  I looked at Dawn questioningly. She shrugged.

  Ben came to join us and I handed him another drink. “I got seven.”

  I looked at Jasper who was still standing. “Seven what?”

  He sat behind me and grabbed a drink. “It seems you have a few admirers.”

  I started. “What? Who?”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t really care who they are. What I want to know is why they are following you around.” He took a drink.

  I leaned back against him. “Where are they?”

  “See Taylor’s booth?” He made a point of looking somewhere else.

  “Yes.”

  “He has a green tunic. Blond hair. His nose is a bit crooked. I noticed him yesterday. It seems he brought a few friends back with him tonight.”

  I took a quick look but made as if I was scanning the crowd. “I see him.” I took a drink. “Why don’t we just go ask them?”

  “I don’t think that is a good idea. If it was for any good reason, they would have introduced themselves by now.”

  “Oh.”

  “Maybe we should head back to Tara and Ben’s,” suggested Dawn.

  Lantoc and Tara came to sit with us.

  “I saw seven,” confirmed Lantoc.

  “Did everyone notice but me?” I asked.

  “Notice what?” asked Mel.

  “Hayden is being followed,” explained Dawn. “I didn’t notice.”

  Mel shook her head.

  “I did. But I’ve been guarding her for seven years. It’s second nature,” said Tara before taking a drink.

  “If we leave now, we lose the security of the crowd.” Brice was trying to sit like everything was normal.

  “There’s nine of us, and seven of them. I don’t think they’ll try anything,” reasoned Ben.

  “Ten,” corrected Lantoc. “I may be old, but I still have some fight left in me.” He grinned at me.

  I heard a snort behind us.

  “Are you sure?” asked Jasper. He listened to what Dodge had to say.

  “What?”

  “He counted eight. He also passed himself off as one of the drink vendor’s horses and listened to two of them. They are with the guard. There is an order out to find you and bring you to the queen since I obviously didn’t.”

  “But how do they know I’m me?”

  “Dodge said that someone in the village told a friend, who told someone else, and so on.”

  Shanus, Prense and Phlann trotted up to us. “Do we have a plan?” asked Shanus.

  “You have to go back,” mumbled Jasper.

  “But…”

  “You have to.” He sounded miserable. “At least until things quiet down here.”

  “Take her to the lake crossing,” Tara told Jasper. “She’ll know where she is when she gets over there and it’s only four days away.”

  He nodded.

  Lantoc was thinking hard. “Jasper, you and Brice take a walk. Head into town, pretend you’re going home. Detour back so that you’re waiting by the cliffs. Dodge, you’ll have to meet them there. Mel, you’ll need to switch dresses with Hayden. And your cloaks. Cover your heads when you leave the rooms. When you get back here, we’ll all start heading home. Luke, you’ll take Hayden, who they’ll think is Mel, for a walk. Get her to Jasper.” He took a long swallow of his drink, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “We’ll take care of the rest.”

  My stomach was in knots.

  Jasper kissed my neck and I shivered. “I love you.”

  I turned back and kissed him softly. “I love you more.”

  He took a deep breath and stood, pulling me up with him. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  I tried to smile. “Ok.”

  He handed me my cloak, gave me a long kiss and started to walk away with Brice.

  “Hey, Hayden! I have to pee. Come with me to the rooms.” Mel hooked an arm around my shoulders and we walked away, giggling at some unheard joke.

  Once there, we quickly changed and put each other’s cloaks on. Hers was black and mine was khaki green. Here’s hoping they noticed that, I thought as I pulled the black one on. We both let our hair down. In the dark, all they would notice was similar dark hair.

  We made our way back to the group. Luke hooked an arm around my waist and leaned down to talk to me. “If one of them gets too close, pretend you’re enjoying yourself,” he whispered.

  Mel fell back to walk with Prense.

  I wrapped my arm around Luke’s waist and we all started walking back. At the edge of town, Luke looked at me. “Feel up to a walk, Love?”

  I nodded and we broke away from the group.

  Luke let go of my waist and took my hand as we made our way leisurely toward the pond.

  I heard a twig break behind us and Luke tensed. He pulled me toward him and turned so that he was facing whoever was coming.

  He glanced behind me and back down to me.

  “My love, I have wanted to get you alone since you walked down the stairs this evening. Let’s take advantage of the fact the kids aren’t around.”

  He cupped my face in his hands and brought his lips down to mine.

  My eyes widened, but I remembered what he had told me. I brought my hands up to lace in his hair and let my body melt into his. I noticed he was holding the hood on my cloak up so it wouldn’t fall.

  This is so wrong, I thought to myself. I started to tense.

  He moved me bit so that my back was up against a tree and he was facing in the direction of the road. His lips moved along my jaw line and his hands moved down my sides, under my cloak to grasp my bottom.

  “God, Mel, I love you.”

  I caught my breath with the realization of how he was managing. I closed my eyes and thought of Jasper.

  I moved my hands under his shirt and he moaned.

  Luke lift me up against the tree so he had to look up to kiss me. My hood hid our faces. I glanced at him. His eyes were wide and I could tell he was focused solely on whoever was near us. It was like his body was on autopilot.

  He frowned a bit then picked me up and lay me down. “Is your knife in your boot?” he whispered while nibbling on my earlobe. “He’s making sure you’re really Mel, that we’re not just faking.”

  I gave a quick nod.

  “Reach down to my belt. Loosen my dagger.”

  I did as he told me and jumped a bit when his hand went up my skirts. He rubbed up my leg then back down. He grabbed my ankle and brought my foot up so that my knee was bent and my boot was hidden by my dress. I felt him undo the snap that closed the pocket with my knife in it.

  He looked at me and gave me a bit of a goofy grin mixed in with a frown then bent back down to nibble on my neck. “Look, I would rather not have to take this farther than we have to, but he’s not going to leave until we do something drastic, so would you mind pretending I’m doing something amazing under those skirts with my hand.”

  I almost laughed. “This has to be a first in the world of men,” I whispered to him. “It’s not too often one of them actually wants a woman to fake it.”

  I felt him smile against my neck.

  He moved his hand back up my leg and let it rest on the inside of my thigh.

  I moaned and arched myself against him, pulling his lips back down to mine.

  He ground his hips against mine and groaned.

  I let go of his hair and clutched handfuls of grass and bucked under him. “Oh, god, Luk
e!” I panted then lay relaxed under him.

  He kissed me tenderly.

  I heard soft footsteps make their way away from us and I let out a sigh of relief.

  Luke glanced sideways then put his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry. I was really hoping he would leave after the first few kisses.”

  I shook my head. “It worked. That’s what’s important.”

  He gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Let’s go. Jasper will be worrying.” He took my hand again and we started to jog to our meeting point.

  He looked down at me and laughed. “You’ve done that before.”

  I grinned at him. “I had a quick thing with a guy that wasn’t quite as attentive as Jasper. Or you for that matter.”

  He blushed. “Sorry. I wanted to make sure they believed you were her.”

  “I almost started to believe I was her!” I burst out laughing.

  He shook his head. “Yes, well, in my defense, I wasn’t the only one being attentive.” He laughed at my blush.

  I smiled. “Well, we must have done a good job.”

  We ran up a hill and saw the clearing under the cliffs where we were supposed to meet Jasper.

  “There! I can see them.” I pointed to the three dark figures standing by the woods.

  “Let’s go.”

  One of the shadows shifted and leaped across the clearing. Jasper shifted back a few feet in front of us and gathered me to him.

  “Thank the moons,” he whispered. He looked up at Luke. “Was he really that close?”

  “How did you…” Luke’s eyes were wide.

  “I can feel what she’s feeling. She was scared, and then… Well, then she was definitely not scared.”

  I turned red.

  “Of course he was that close! If you think I would do anything like that with anyone other than Mel!” Luke was furious. “And to your mate? You’re my brother!” He turned and punched a tree then stalked off into the woods.

  “Jasper…”

  He glared at me.

  “He was trying to get me to you. I almost gave us away. I almost couldn’t do it. So I thought of you. That’s why I felt how I felt.”

  His eyes softened a bit.

  “Luke kept apologizing. He really didn’t want to. And we managed to fool him without doing anything drastic.” I took his hands. “Go get him. Talk to him. He loves you, Jasper.”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

  I kissed him softly. “Go.”

  He shifted and ran off in the direction Luke had taken.

  Dodge trotted up to me and nuzzled my face.

  “Hey buddy. Are you going to be coming back with me?”

  He shook his head.

  “He wouldn’t have anywhere to stay and he can’t be found wandering around over there,” explained Brice.

  “Yeah. I’d feel weird putting you in a stall now, anyway.” I gave him a pat.

  “He will travel with you a few days so you can reach the crossing faster.”

  I turned to the sounds of footsteps coming behind us. Jasper and Luke were coming back. I smiled.

  Luke pulled me into a hug. “You be careful, little sister. I would hate for all of that to have been for nothing.” He smiled and kissed my forehead.

  I laughed. “You guys are hilarious. It is way safer over there than over here. I’ll be fine.”

  I swung on to Dodge and rearranged my skirts. “Brice, I want you to do something for me while I’m gone, if you can.”

  “What’s that?” He kept looking into the woods.

  I laughed. “Learn to relax.”

  He turned and grinned at me. “I’ll try.” He gave a wave as Dodge spun and galloped off into the woods. Jasper shifted and followed after us.

  We kept the fast pace up until the sun came up. We reached a little stream about mid-morning and stopped.

  I slid off of Dodge and tried to brush all of the horse hair off of my dress.

  “Man, I wish I had my pants.” I bent over the stream and washed my face before taking a drink out of my hands.

  “Are you hungry or can you wait till we are a bit farther away.” Jasper was frowning.

  “I can wait.”

  He nodded. “Let’s go then.”

  I glanced at him.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I just haven’t seen you like this in a while.”

  He was glancing around the woods. “Like what?”

  “All business.”

  He stopped looking around and came to give me a hug. “I need to make you safe. Then I can relax.”

  “I’ll be fine.” My voice caught in my throat and I cleared it.

  “What are you worried about?”

  “It’s just that…” I felt a tear slip down my face. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  I heard him swallow hard and he put his chin on my head. “I don’t want you to go,” he whispered. He kissed my forehead. “I just don’t see what else to do right now.”

  He took my hand and led me to Dodge. “Let’s go. We want to keep the lead we have on them.”

  I swung on and grabbed handfuls of mane.

  We loped off, getting closer to a moment I didn’t want to come.

  It was close to supper time before we stopped again. Jasper went off to find something to eat while I started a fire.

  I lay my cloak on the ground and sat down. “They’ll come after him, won’t they?” I asked Dodge.

  He nodded his head.

  “Is he going back to our clearing?”

  He shook his head.

  I put my head on my knees and took a few deep breaths. “Do you think it’s best if I go?” I looked up to see his answer.

  “He says of course.”

  I jumped and Jasper reappeared. I glared at him.

  “Sorry.” He had caught something that looked like a badger and busied himself getting it over the fire.

  “Where will you go?” I asked him.

  He frowned at Dodge. “Not too far from here actually. I plan on being as close to you as I possibly can, even if I am stuck over here. Brice will be staying at our house to keep an eye on it. If anyone stops to ask questions, he’ll tell them we left and he has no idea where we went.”

  “How will I know when I can come back?”

  Jasper came to sit behind me and I leaned against him. “I’ll send a bird.”

  “How long, do you think?”

  He wrapped his arms tightly around me. “I don’t know, Shlova. Just think of this as an early visit to see your parents. You were planning on going after Wellfore, after all.”

  “But I didn’t plan on them looking to take me away, or on having to leave when I know that they are going to be hunting for you.”

  “Don’t even think of worrying about me. I hunt, I follow, I disappear. It’s what I do.”

  “I know.”

  He got up to check the meat and pulled it off of the fire.

  We ate in silence and lay down for the night. Jasper held me tightly against him. “Sleep, love.”

  *****

  It was still dark when Jasper woke me up. “We have to go.”

  I stood and stretched. “What’s wrong?”

  “There are three of them about a half a day behind us. I want to get farther ahead.”

  “How do you know?”

  A little chirp from up in the trees answered my question.

  “Do they know we’re here?” I looked into the woods.

  “No. But I’m not taking the chance that they find out.”

  I hopped onto Dodge and we sped off again. We stopped briefly for a lunch of cannies, a fruit that resembled an apple wrapped in an orange peel before we were on the move again. By nightfall, I simply let myself fall off of Dodge and into Jasper’s arms.

  We lay down where we were without bothering with my cloak or a fire.

  I was woken up by Jasper whispering to Dodge.

  “I’ll get you to come until noon. Then you’ll need to disappear. They’ll be looki
ng for you too.”

  Dodge snorted.

  “I don’t like it any more than you. I can’t even ask Tara to go along because they’ll be watching her, expecting her to show them where she is.”

  Dodge stomped a foot.

  “Is she telling the truth? Is it safe for her there?” Jasper’s arms tightened around me. He took a deep breath. “Well, if you say so.”

  He kissed my hair. “I don’t know if I can let her go.”

  I swallowed hard and turned so that I could bury my face in his chest. “I’m staying.”

  Jasper let out a bitter chuckle. “No, you’re not. And don’t bother being stubborn. I’m going to win this one.”

  “I’ll only go if you don’t wait around here.” I looked up at him.

  “Did you see something?”

  “No. But this is too close to our clearing. Go where we met. The crossing by the waterfall.”

  “I’ll go there.” He kissed me softly and stood us up. “Let’s go.”

  We loped at a steady pace until the sun was high in the sky. Jasper seemed to recognize a landmark and stopped.

  I slid off of Dodge and gave him a long hug and a kiss between the eyes. “Thanks, buddy. You stay safe, now.”

  He nodded and nuzzled my face then trotted off.

  “Come, Shlova. We’re almost there.”

  “I thought Tara said it was four days.”

  Jasper looked down at me. “It is. If you are on foot and don’t run the whole way there with almost no breaks like we just did. We’ve got about an hour of walking to do.”

  The butterflies in my stomach were warring with each other.

  “I can’t do it, Jasper.” I felt myself start to shake with nerves.

  “Yes, you can. And you will.”

  “But…”

  Jasper stopped walking and held me by the arms. “No buts, Hayden.” He gave me a little shake when I looked at the ground. “Hayden, look at me.”

  I looked up at him, fighting back the tears.

  “You will go, and you will be safe. You will not worry about me. Once you go through the crossing, I will disappear because disappearing is what I do best.” He relaxed his grip on my arms. “And when things calm down and they realize you aren’t around here anymore, I will send for you.”

  “And then what?”