Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (25 page)

“If I have to dress up, you have to
dress up,” Luke elbowed him in the side.

Jasper laughed then looked at Mel.
“Where’s your dress for the ball.”

“At Tara’s.”

Luke looked into the wagon at the
twins. “Alright, then, boys. Do you remember the rules while we are
in town?”

“Stay close to you or mom,” started
Trent.

“Or Uncle Jasper, or Aunt Hayden,”
Tyler grinned.

“And?” pressed Mel.

“Never mention to anybody that Aunt
Hayden is Aunt Hayden,” continued Tyler.

Jasper chuckled at the wording. But the
truth was that the less people knew I was back, the less the
likelihood that someone would decide to turn me in for some sort of
reward.

“And?” I asked. “This one is the most
important. Even more important than not telling anyone about
me.”

Tyler elbowed his brother. “It’s your
turn.”

“Oh. And most of all, we can never ever
shift while we are there.”

Jasper looked at both of them. “Ever,”
he stressed.

Even though there were quite a few
beings in Sageden that knew of them and accepted them because of
their relations to Jasper and I, we knew that the majority of the
strangers coming were not going to be as understanding when it came
to having dogs at their festivities.

“Ever,” both of the twins repeated
together.

Jasper seemed satisfied with their
answer and nodded. He smiled. “Let’s get going, then.”

It was a bit slower of a trip with
Dodge pulling the wagon, but we managed to make it to Tara and
Ben’s by the middle of the afternoon. The day was beautiful and the
sun was shining. I was amazed at how many people were already in
the village.

We went around to the back of the house
and Dodge backed the wagon into the pen that held Peena and
Goop.

Once free of the harness, he nuzzled my
face and went off to find where the Winged Ones were
congregating.

“Do you think we should bring the bags
into the house for the night?” I asked Jasper.

He nodded. “I think that’s a good
idea.”

We could hear Zane laugh as we entered
the house. “That’s what you said three pies ago!”

Dawn laughed. “Ok. But I mean it this
time. This is the last one for today. We have to get ready for the
ball after this.

The house smelled wonderful.

“It smells great in here, Dawn,” I said
and dropped my bag of halters on the floor.

She peeked her head around the corner.
“Thanks. How many more bags are there?”

“Four.”

“Zane, go give them a hand.” She gave
him a playful pat on the bottom as he walked by. She winked at me
and I laughed. Mel came into the house and we left the bags for the
men.

“Did you find a jacket that would fit
him?” I whispered to Dawn as we made our way back into the
kitchen.

She snorted. “No. The man is huge and
we are living in a town full of tiny people! He sat there and
sulked and whined, and complained. And when I couldn’t find one
that fit, he smiled, shrugged, and said ‘I guess I don’t have to
go, then’.” She laughed. “So I got Tara to measure him, pretended
she was going to make him a tunic and I had to go buy material and
she made him one.” She stopped talking. The men were coming into
the house.

“We’re going to go see if Shanus,
Prense and Phlann have made it here yet.” Jasper leaned down to
give me a quick kiss.

“Alright. Don’t take too long, you have
to get ready.”

He wrinkled his nose at me.

Mel gave Luke a kiss. “Take the twins
so we can finish up here.”

Zane turned to Mel. “You know, I don’t
mind watching the boys tonight. You could find Fillian’s niece and
let her know she doesn’t have to watch them.”

Mel grinned. “I might just do that,
Zane. Thank you.”

Jasper opened his mouth to say
something.

“Nope,” I cut him off. “Not an
option.”

Luke laughed at him. “How long has it
been since you’ve made it to this thing?”

“Six years.”

The water I had been in the process of
swallowing promptly made its way up and out of my nose. Dawn
slapped me on the back while I coughed and sputtered.

I found a rag and wiped my nose. “Why
did you stop coming when you started to see me?”

Tara had come downstairs and she
laughed. “Remember the whole ‘most sought after bachelor on the
guard’ comment I made?”

I nodded and smiled.

“Well, you put Jasper in a town that is
suddenly full of unfated women, and the poor man has to beat them
off with a stick!”

I started to laugh at the mental
picture I was getting.

Jasper was glaring at Tara. “There was
no point in coming. A lot of people come here to see if they can
find the one they are dreaming about. The first two years I started
to see you I thought of going but was out scouting and was too far
away. After that, I had run into Tara and knew you wouldn’t be
here, so I didn’t bother.”

“You know, you never did tell me why
you were so sought after.”

He frowned. “Remember when you laughed
when I told you why I hadn’t mentioned I was a captain before I
knew we were fated?”

I smiled, then my eyes widened. “No!
Really?”

Tara smiled. “Don’t act so surprised,
Hayden. Just because you wouldn’t pick a relationship simply for
ease of life or convenience, doesn’t mean people didn’t do it over
there either. Jasper is one of the queen’s most decorated captains,
he is young, and definitely not hard to look at. With his income
from his position and everything he should have inherited from his
father, he’s more than a great catch.”

Zane laughed. “If they only
knew.”

Jasper and his friend grinned at each
other.

“Only knew what?” Even Tara looked
confused.

“About the money.” Zane was still
laughing.

“There isn’t any,” Jasper explained.
“When my parents were killed, I did get what was theirs. It was
shocking actually. We never lived a grand life. I had no idea we
were wealthy.”

“So what did you do?”

Jasper looked at me and shrugged.
“There is an orphanage in Pinsaber. I stayed there for six months
until I became of age. I took all of the money, sold everything
that I could, and gave every penny to them. I didn’t need it. And
every spring, when the queen pays her guard, I get that sent to the
orphanage as well. I just keep enough in case I need to buy
anything I need to live.”

I wrapped my arms around him and gave
him a soft kiss. “And he says I’m amazing,” I mumbled.

“You’re not upset?”

“About what?”

“The money.” He was looking at me
closely.

I went from mad, to insulted, to
understanding. I supposed some women might have been.

I felt him tense at the first, his
mouth twitched at the second, and he relaxed at the
third.

“No. I’m not upset. I love how we
live.”

He smiled and kissed the bridge of my
nose. “And that’s why I hate balls. It means I have to go buy good
clothes. Which is another reason I didn’t come.”

“That was the only reason I used to
come. To look for Dawn,” grumbled Zane. He looked at her. “But you
were never here.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Well, to be
fair, dear, you were never at our fall fair either.”

He laughed. “So now,” he took her in
his arms and kissed her softly, “there is no reason for me to go.
I’ll just stay here. I don’t have a jacket, and no one is allowed
without one.”

She shrugged.

“Oh, Jasper? Would you mind doing me a
favor if you’re going through town?” Tara gave him a slip of paper.
“Ben is out and about and I forgot to tell him.”

He looked at it and nodded. “That’s the
third shop a few streets down, right?”

“Yes. He said it would be ready for
today.”

“Sure. I can do that for
you.”

She grinned at him.
“Thanks.”

The men finally left and the four of us
quickly cleaned up the mess in the kitchen.

Tara smiled at me. “Hayden, can you go
heat up the tub? You girls look like you’ve been on the road for a
week!”

I looked at myself in the hall mirror
and laughed. “Geez. You’re not kidding.”

I made my way upstairs and found that
Tara had already filled the tub. I picked one of the lighter red
waves and pushed it gently toward the water. I kept it aimed there
until I could see the steam starting to rise. I pulled the wave
back and put my hand in the water to test it. “Perfect.”

Tara came into the room carrying four
dresses. Mel followed behind her with a wooden box that held the
combs we had bought last time we had come to town.

Dawn clapped her hands. “I love a good
party!”

I grinned at her. “I honestly hate
them. I probably hate them even more than Jasper.”

Tara laughed. “She’s not
lying.”

“You’re not going to back out on us,
are you?” Mel was stripping out of her clothes.

I shook my head and pulled my shirt
over my head. “No way. I’m not missing this. I just hope I remember
all the dances that Ben was showing me.”

Dawn tipped her hair forward and dipped
her hair into the water. I passed her the soap.

“Thanks.” She grinned at me, upside
down.

We quickly washed then sat down in our
towels and took turns rolling each others’ hair up around corks.
Once that was done, they all looked at me.

Dawn closed her eyes. “Ok,
Hayden.”

I moved so that we were all standing
back to back, took a grey wave and aimed it at the ceiling. The
wind blew up, bounced off of the ceiling, and blew back down onto
us.

Tara smiled. “Almost as good as a blow
dryer.”

Mel reached over and felt everybody’s
curls. “That should do it.”

I stopped the wind and Tara reached for
the dresses.

“Do you remember how to put it on?” she
asked me.

I chuckled. “Tara, there’s just two
pieces to it.”

She grinned at me.

I pulled the first part of the dress
over my head and looked in the mirror. It was a warm beige color
and by itself looked like a simple floor length cotton summer dress
with short sleeves and a low cut square neck line. There were laces
that ran from my belly button all the way up to the top. Tara tied
these snugly then handed me the top layer which I pulled over my
head.

“Oops. That’s backwards.”

Mel laughed at me then sucked in a
breath as Dawn tied the laces from her first layer for
her.

I turned the dress around and put my
arms through it. This layer was dark green silk, almost the color
of a pine tree. It had three quarter length sleeves that slit open
at the elbow. This one had an open vee shape that went from my
shoulders to just a bit higher than my belly button. Between the
edges of the vee was some gold lacing that was purely for
decoration. Two slits started at each hip on the front of the dress
and split to show the cream color underneath. The back of this
piece laced up from my waist to just between my shoulder
blades.

I stood in front of the mirror and
smiled at the delicate gold leaves that were embroidered along the
edges of the green piece.

I looked over at Mel. “Wow! That color
is great on you!”

She smiled. “Thanks.” Her dress was
similar in style to mine, the main difference being that the top
vee in her top layer only went as far as the bottom of her breast.
The skirt part of her dress had six slits, all of them spaced out
evenly around her waist. Her bottom layer was white, and her top
layer was a deep burgundy with silver embroidering.

I sat down and pulled my boots on.
“Ugh. I should have done this first!” I stood up and handed Tara
her dress.

She pulled on her bottom layer which
was the long sleeved cream colored version of mine. The sleeves on
hers belled out at the elbows and continued to widen all the way to
her wrists. The top layer of her dress was a beautiful caramel
color that matched her eyes. The bodice part of it was corset style
and the skirt had one slit that ran down the front.

I gave her a hug. “You look
great.”

We looked over to Dawn as a small grunt
escape her throat. “Settle down back there!” she laughed. “I know I
said tight, but I still want to be able to breath!”

Mel chuckled. “Sorry.” She finished
tying the laces and stepped back. Dawn turned to look at
us.

All we could do was stare.

She blushed. “What?”

“You look amazing!” I wasn’t
lying.

The bottom layer of her dress was a
beautiful pale blue. She had the long sleeve version like Tara,
only her sleeves slit open at the elbows. Her top layer was a blue
so dark it could have been black. It had wide straps over the
shoulders and the neck line came down just below her breast. Her
dress had four slits that were evenly spaced around her waist. She
had picked a thin gold rope belt to tie around her
waist.