Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (21 page)

Chapter 6

When I woke up, the sun was shining
through the window. I felt something furry move against my
arm.

“Tiny.” I smiled. “You’re ok.” I
reached over and pulled her onto my chest so I could pet her. “Such
a brave girl,” I mumbled to her. She squeaked at me and licked the
end of my nose.

I sat up and looked at myself in the
mirror. My reflection cringed as I gingerly touched the swollen,
blue side of my face.

“Well, Hayden, you look just how you
feel.”

I made my way to the bath room and
settled into a hot tub. I thought about my options while I lay in
the water. It occurred to me that going back to my parents was
something I hadn’t thought of. Nothing was stopping me from going
back. Right?

If anything, that was probably the best
option for everyone involved. If I wasn’t here, then there was no
reason for my friends to fight. And without Jasper here, was there
even a reason to stay?

I would have to find a way to make up
the final exams I had missed at school, but was sure there was a
way to do that. My parents must have given my teachers some sort of
explanation for my absence.

But then again, was I even allowed to
leave now that I was here?

After soaking some of the soreness away
I wrapped myself in a towel and headed back to my room to do some
more thinking.

If I went back to my old life, was it
actually possible to get back to normal? After everything I had
seen and experienced here, would I be able to live where I couldn’t
play with color waves, or lay in the sun with big cats. And what
about everyone here? Tara, Ben? Phlann and Zane? They were all like
family now. We had fought together, bled together. Other than my
parents, I didn’t have anyone like that over there.

Tiny sat on my back as I lay on my bed,
my head in my arms and let the tears come. Every memory I had of
Jasper flashed through my head. “This is my fault,” I whispered to
myself. “I should have finished healing him.”

I didn’t realize anyone had come into
the room until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I kept my head in my arms, a bit
embarrassed. “I’m ok. Just give me a minute and I’ll come
down.”

Tiny jumped off of my back onto whoever
was beside the bed. I waited to hear a cry of pain from her next
target. It didn’t come.

“I was hoping we could just stay up
here. I brought you some food.”

“What?” I didn’t think I had heard
right. I looked up, my heart in my throat. I shook my head. “So
much for being awake.”

“What part of this seems like a dream?”
Jasper whispered as he rubbed my back. Tiny sat on his shoulder,
enjoying a piece of fruit.

I smiled. This was replaying like the
scene in the clearing when we had just met. “All of it. Especially
the part where Tiny likes you.”

He placed Tiny in her nest on the chair
and lay in the bed beside me.

My smile disappeared. “You’re dead,” I
whispered into my arms.

“Though it felt like it when you were
gone and I couldn’t come after you, I can assure you, Shlova, I am
very much alive.” He reached around and pulled me to him, careful
of my face.

“But Luke and Ryland said…” A sob
stopped me.

“No. That good for nothing coyote
thought that I was. Luke merely rebroke my ribs and knocked me
out.”

“Merely,” I repeated. I thought back to
the conversation those two had had. Luke had never admitted to
killing Jasper.

“So you’re alive?” I looked up at him,
wanting this to be real. Pleading with him to say it
was.

“I am now that you are safe in my arms
again.” He leaned down and carefully kissed my lips.

I had a million questions but forgot
them all as I pulled him down to me, ignoring the pain in my face.
I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could. He sucked in a
breath but kept on kissing me.

Jasper pulled my towel off and softly
kissed every bruise and scrape on my body. “I’m sorry, Hayden.” He
winced a little as he held himself over me. I gently put my hands
on his chest and pushed him onto his back.

“Why in the world are you sorry?” I
whispered.

He looked at me, his anger at himself
evident. “I couldn’t stop them.”

“You have nothing to be sorry
about.”

Then it was my turn to try and kiss him
better.

Actually, you can kiss him better, I
thought to myself. I pulled myself up a bit, careful not to put any
weight on his chest. I nibbled on his jaw. He closed his eyes and
groaned.

I quickly picked a safe green wave and
gently ran my fingers over his chest and sides, kissing as I
went.

He gasped in pain as his ribs moved
back into place and finally healed properly.

“Sorry,” I whispered into his chest and
I kissed my way back up to his mouth.

He put his hands on my waist and rolled
me so I was underneath him again. “Don’t be.” And with that said,
he spent the next few hours making sure that I wasn’t.

*****

He lay on his arm and watched her
sleep. By the moons she was beautiful. Her long dark hair was
laying every which way under and around her. The corner of her
mouth curled up and she whispered something too softly for him to
hear.

She rolled a bit toward him. Jasper
reached over and brushed some of the hair away from her face. Her
poor face.

He felt his chest tighten and his fists
and jaw clenched in anger.

Ryland was lucky Luke had gotten to him
first.

Hayden’s brow knitted together and he
felt fear. His anger escalated.

“Jasper.”

All the love he felt associated with
his name decimated all of his own negative feelings at the moment.
Her frown relaxed and his body followed suit. She moved closer to
him, still asleep, her swollen face resting against his
chest.

Never again, he promised her silently
as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. As long as
I’m alive, as long as I breathe. Anyone who thinks of harming you
will have to come through me.

He placed his lips on her forehead and
closed his eyes. “I give my life to you,” he whispered.

Her fingers touched his cheek and his
heart sped up. “What did you say?” she mumbled sleepily.

Jasper looked into her eyes. “That I
promise to keep you safe.” His voice caught in his throat and he
cleared it. “I promise to fight for you. Die for you, if I must. My
life is yours, now.”

“Hmmm.” She gazed back at him,
contemplating his declaration. “Well, we can’t have you dying for
me. I like you much better alive.” She gave him a half grin. “If
you’re life is mine, now, is it mine to order to stay
alive?”

“I suppose it is.” He smiled at
her.

“Then promise me only one
thing.”

“Anything.”

“Promise me you’ll never leave
me.”

He felt sadness and fear at the
prospect of not having him around. He kissed her softly. “I
promise.” That wasn’t going to be a hard one to keep. Just the
thought of being away from her for an instant nearly choked
him.

She felt him tense and ran her thumb
across his lips. He caught it gently between his teeth.

He felt her need rise and he groaned.
He rolled himself on top of her, pulled her arms over her head, and
used his teeth along her jaw.

She was shaking under him. Her hips
were moving against him, urging him to take her. “By the moons,
Shlova.” He groaned. All he could feel was her need, her surrender.
He didn’t think he’d be able to be gentle.

She panted, “God, Jasper. I need you to
fill me. Now. Hard.” She squirmed under him and they both gasped as
he gave her what she wanted.

He pulled out and thrust in again. She
moaned. “More,” she whispered. He pulled out again and pushed back
in hard and deep. Again. And again.

He felt her start to tighten around him
and he stopped completely sheathed in her. Her whole body was
shaking with the need for release. He pressed his weight into his
hips, keeping her pinned against the mattress.

Hayden whimpered. “Please. Oh, god,
Jasper, please.”

Please, indeed, he thought. I’m shaking
just as hard as you are! He pulled back just a fraction of an inch
before thrusting into her as deeply as he could. It was all she
needed. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath before crying
out his name.

He felt her love, her pleasure, her
happiness, and any thought he might have had about composing
himself so he could pleasure her again vanished.

She was happy. Even after everything
she had just gone through, she was happy. He made her happy. He
groaned as he spilled himself inside of her, amazed at how that one
emotion had been enough to set him off.

He rolled off of her and pulled her
close. “A shlova yan,” he whispered to her.

She smiled up at him. “A shlova yan
jer.”

*****

We went down for breakfast the next
morning.

“Hey, Jasper! You got your shirt on!”
teased Brice.

“It’s nice to be able to move again.”
He smiled and leaned down to kiss me tenderly. I blushed to
everyone’s amusement.

Luke came up to us, amazement clear on
his face.

“You are fated to her?”

Jasper nodded and pulled me
closer.

“No wonder you put up such a fight. And
here I thought it was your great sense of duty. I think it’s a good
thing you were already hurt. I may not have walked away from that
one!”

Jasper looked down lovingly at me then
back to Luke. “And as much as I love you, Luke, I think I might
have killed you if I hadn’t been hurt. I need to thank you for
bringing her back to me even if you did take her away in the first
place.”

Luke grinned at him. “What are brothers
for?”

I was my turn to be amazed.
“Brothers?”

Jasper looked at me. “To make a long
story short, my parents found a wolf pup in the woods while hunting
one day. Luke’s pack had been killed. They took him in, hoping that
being raised by them might change who he would obey. We grew up
together. But the older we got, the more obvious it became that you
can’t beat genetics. And so Luke went his own way when he became of
age.”

I looked at Luke. “Did they order you
to kill Jasper?”

He nodded. “They always order me to
kill Jasper. He is one of their first targets in any
fight.”

“So you were disobeying orders even
before you killed Ryland. So much for genetics.”

“It would seem that way.”

I turned to Jasper. “And you. Before we
left for the ridge Brice said that you changed plans so that more
of the cats would make it home from battle. Did you do that
often?”

He thought for a minute. “Only if I
could think of a better way to go about it.”

“But you disobeyed orders just the
same.”

Everyone was thinking hard.

Tara laughed. “I guess one of these
days we’ll stop being amazed by all of this.”

Everyone sat down to eat.

We were just finishing up when Fillian
and Brinnan came running into the house. My uncle ran to me and
hugged me to him. “Thank goodness you’re ok!”

I blushed. “Hey, uncle.”

He held me out at arms’ length and
touched my face lightly. “Fillian, dear, is there any way to fix
that?”

She put her hands on my face and closed
her eyes. “The cheek bone is broken,” she muttered to herself. I
closed my eyes, waiting for the pain. I sucked in a breath and
hissed through my teeth. Jasper caught me when my knees gave
out.

Fillian’s hands left my face and
Brinnan smiled. “Much better. How do you feel?”

I touched my face, pleasantly surprised
that all the swelling was gone. “Great!”

“What about you, Jasper?” asked
Fillian. “Want to try your ribs again?”

“I’m good, thank you. Hayden fixed me
up last night.”

She shook her head. “Of course she
did.” She laughed. “May as well get used to this. You know, it is
interesting how her energy stayed in you for so long and kept me
from being able to heal you.”

Tara’s kitchen was packed with the
people I now considered my family. I looked around at all of them,
smiling.

“Glad to be back, Shlova?”

I nodded.

“You remember?” Luke’s eyes were
big.

Jasper nodded. “Tun. Yan?”

Luke nodded. “Tun.”

“Am I right to guess tun is yes?” I
looked at them.

Jasper nodded. He put his hand on my
knee and I leaned my head against his shoulder.

I hadn’t realized how tired I still was
until I felt him lay me on the bed. He wrapped his arms around me,
his breath warming the back of my neck. I moved as close to him as
I could and sighed.