Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (21 page)

He sighed. “I wouldn’t mind
getting to know her better, but there’s really no point to it. I
dreamt of her.”

“So if you dreamed of her…”

He glanced at me and smiled at
my confusion. He shook his head. “I didn’t dream of her. Not Brynn.
I dreamed of Her.”

I glanced at Mel and it was
clear that this was news to both her and Luke.

Trent looked to his mom and dad
and shrugged. “I didn’t recognize her so I didn’t see the point in
telling anyone.”

I gave him a hug. “So what does
she look like?”

He blushed and I knew that he
was remembering the dreams. Fated dreams were extremely intimate.
He cleared his throat. “Well, she’s got long dark brown hair. It’s
wavy, but not curly.” He looked at me. “Almost like yours, but
maybe a bit darker. And her eyes, well…” He closed his and all of
us knew what he was feeling. The pull of your fated one’s eyes was
shockingly impossible to resist. He smiled and looked at me. “Grey;
this unbelievable light grey color.” He shrugged. “She’s small, I
think. It’s hard to tell…” He blushed again. “But she seems smaller
than me.”

“Have you told Brynn?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t
even told Tyler. I don’t see the point until all of this is over. I
mean, we’ll be going to war in a few weeks.” He shrugged. “Who’s to
say who will come back and who won’t.” He looked at Mel. “And don’t
you start. If you think all of you are going and leaving Tyler and
I here, you’re crazy. We might not be of age yet, but we can fight
just as well if not better than most beings who are. We’re coming
and that’s all there is to it. I mean, really, if something goes
wrong and Braw manages to touch Aunt Hayden with his staff we’ll
all be dead anyway. I’d rather be there trying to make sure that
doesn’t happen as opposed to sitting here waiting and wondering if
I’m about to die without a fight.”

It might have been the speech he
had just given or the fact that she had just learned that her son
was fated, but either way, my sister-in-law was speechless.

Luke smiled proudly and went to
the kitchen to grab another mug of sloan. He handed it to Trent.
“With all the new beings coming into town everyday, here’s hoping
you find her sooner than later.” He touched his mug to his
son’s.

Trent nodded. “Thanks, Dad.” He
took a small sip of his sloan, nodded and took another. “This
stuff’s not bad.”

“Just stick to that one mugful
for tonight. Trust me,” warned Jasper, “you’ll regret it in the
morning if you don’t.”

Luke started to laugh. “I still
wonder what Dad was thinking that night.”

Jasper groaned. “My head still
hurts just thinking about it. When Luke had his first dream of Mel,
he told Dad about it. He was a few days away from turning of age at
the time.”

Luke chuckled. “Dad decided that
Jasper and I could have a few mugs of sloan and a shot of jeckden
to celebrate both occasions.”

“I imagine he knew you would be
leaving and that this would be his only opportunity to have a drink
with you.”

Both brothers were suddenly
quiet. I reached back, ran a hand through Jasper’s curls and pulled
his head forward so that it was against mine. Mel moved to Luke’s
side and wrapped her arms around him.

Luke took a drink from his mug.
“It’s too bad Hayden hadn’t crossed back then. All of this useless
bond nonsense would have been done and over with.” He smiled sadly.
“I could have been home instead of a month’s travel away.”

“At least you have an excuse,”
mumbled Jasper. “I was ten minutes away and couldn’t stop it.” He
took a deep breath and I knew he was remembering how he had come
home from hunting and found his mother and father as well as his
twin sister and two year old brother slain in their house. He had
been fourteen at the time. I turned so that I could wrap my arms
around him.

“Are you ok?”

He nodded and hugged me
tightly.

“It wasn’t your fault,
Jasper.”

My mate looked up at his brother
and shrugged.

“Let’s think of something
happy,” suggested Mel.

“Like what?” Luke was
frowning.

“Well, how about the fact that
we are sitting in the same room as your brother and don’t have to
hide to do it. How about the fact that Jasper found Hayden. How
about the fact that Trent is now fated and we all have to keep an
eye out for this dark haired, grey eyed girl.”

I smiled. “Those are great
things to think about.”

Jasper kissed me softly. “I
agree.”

Luke chuckled and shook his
head. “Always the optimist.” He gave Mel a squeeze and smiled.

Kip gave a low growl from
outside the front door and I got up to see what he might be
guarding against.

“By the moons, Kip, you’ve met
me before. Enough of that.”

I smiled at the sound of Alex’s
voice. “I’ll be back.”

Jasper nodded and I left
the den. Alex’s gaze left Kip and his light blue eyes met mine.
They were bloodshot and had dark circles around them. His blond
hair was shaggier than usual and his face sported a good three
weeks’ worth of beard which was odd for him. He was always clean
shaven.

“Is everything alright?” He
frowned and looked me over. “You felt off. Like something had
happened to someone.”

I nodded and closed the distance
between us. I wrapped my arms around him. “Are you alright?”

He took a deep breath and
swallowed hard then shook his head.

“Come on.” I took his hand.
“Let’s take a walk.” Neither one of us said anything for a while. I
led the way to my favourite spot by the creek a short walk from the
clearing. I sat on the ground and motioned for him to do the same.
He put his head in his arms.

I decided that small talk was
out of the question. “How long has she been gone?”

“About two months.” He took a
deep breath and looked at me.

“And you don’t know where the
meeting was?”

“No. That’s just it. If
something happened to her on her way back… I mean, look at all the
extra beings there are traveling around…” He put his head back into
his arms. “I don’t even know where to start looking.”

“She didn’t say anything to
anyone?”

“She left me a note. It said
that she couldn’t fight it, she was sorry, that she would be back,
and that she loved me.” His voice cracked at the ‘loved me’ part. I
knew that they had never told each other that they loved each other
simply because of the fact that if he were to fate, he would have
to leave. This was probably the first time Leslie had ever told him
directly that she did feel that way.

I tried to think of anything I
could to make him feel better. I hugged him tightly.

“I’m sure she’s fine, Alex. She
was getting very good at sparring. She’s not the helpless Fairend
you found at the mercy of a pack anymore.”

He nodded.

“Maybe the meeting was really
far away. Or maybe it lasts longer than we thought.”

He groaned like he was in
pain.

“Sorry. I guess you don’t want
to think about that part of it.” I stood and pulled him up. “When’s
the last time you ate?”

“A couple of days ago, I
think.”

“
Come on. Mel made stew
for supper. When you’re done eating you can get cleaned up and I’ll
give you a haircut. You don’t really want Leslie to see you looking
like this when she gets back, do you?”

He shook his head. “She’d feel
terrible if she knew how miserable I was.”

“Alright. Let’s go, then. I’ll
tell you all about how Jasper almost got killed.”

“You got abducted again, didn’t
you?” A bit of the regular sparkle was back in his eyes as he
glanced down at me.

I nodded and he started to
laugh. He lifted me off the ground with a hug and kissed my
forehead.

“I’m glad your home,
Hayden.”

“Me too.”

He held me at arms’ length and
looked me over. He pulled me to his chest. “I’m sorry about…well…”
He rubbed my back. “I felt it when you realized it hadn’t made
it.”

A lump formed in my throat and I
swallowed hard. “It was probably for the best,” I managed to
whisper. He didn’t say anything; simply held my face in his hands,
brushed the tears away with his thumb and kissed me softly before
holding me again. When he finally felt me get a hold of myself he
took my hand and started back toward Mel and Luke’s den.

Mel’s eyes widened at the sight
of our friend as we entered the room. “By the moons, Alex! Straight
to the bath for you. Get Hayden to heat it up for you, it will go
faster. You are not sitting at the table looking like that! Luke,
get the man a razor and some clothes.”

Alex smiled. “Hello to you too,
Mel.”

She laughed and gave him a hug.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Hun. Now, I wasn’t joking.
There’s a few minutes before the stew is ready. Get cleaned up.
Leslie will have a conniption if she comes back and sees you
looking like this.”

Alex chuckled all the way to the
bathroom.

Chapter Seven

I took a deep breath and didn’t
know if I should be scared, angry, or annoyed. What had started off
as a very good day was quickly turning into a terrible one. I
pulled at the ropes that held my wrists together behind my back and
sighed. I mean, how many times in a lifetime can a girl get
kidnapped? I could just imagine Jasper when he’d felt the pain and
fear when my abductor had hit me on the head.

I had decided to go pick herbs
in the forest to stock up my healing pack. I had also assumed that
with over two hundred cats and dogs in the surrounding area that I
wouldn’t have to worry about anything like this. I had given Jasper
a long kiss goodbye and gone to enjoy some time alone. By the look
of the moons that were starting to show over the tree tops, that
had to have been about fifteen hours ago.

“Good God, Hayden, you’ll never
live this one down,” I mumbled to myself. I heard voices ahead of
us and I peered through the darkness to see where we were.

“It’s us.” One of the two men
who had captured me got off of his horse and handed the reins to
the man who had emerged from the trees. “We got another one. If we
can get one more tomorrow we’ll start heading back.”

“Is this one pretty?”

“Yeah. Nice and petite. The only
thing is the weird tattoo on her face. Maybe we can hide it somehow
at the sale.”

The man who had appeared came to
look at me and turned back to my captor. “Are you daft? That’s a
healer’s tattoo! She’s worth at least three times what the other
four are worth put together!”

I tried to keep the surprise off
of my face. They didn’t recognize me! They hadn’t captured me
because of who I was. I felt my magic wielder’s amulet against my
back and was glad I had turned it around so it wouldn’t get in the
way while I picked the herbs I needed.

“Alright, get her in the tent
with the others.”

One of my captors pulled me off
of my horse and pushed me into a clearing that held two large
tents.

“Get in there.” He opened the
one and pushed me in roughly. I stood in the darkness and waited
for my eyes to adjust. My first thought was that it was empty.

“Hayden? Is that you?” The
whisper was so soft I almost didn’t hear it. I looked to the corner
of the tent and saw the dark forms of people huddled together. The
one body stood and took a step toward me and even though I had met
her a day before, the long blond hair was impossible to mistake for
another’s.

“Brynn? What the hell is going
on? Is Bree here too? What about Brooke and Blayre?” It turned out
that the blond sisters had a set of older sisters who were also
twins. They were nineteen and simply older versions of Bree and
Brynn.

Instead of answering my
questions the young girl broke down. I knelt beside her where she
had fallen to the ground. I looked up to the others who had left
the huddle.

“Bree? Are you here too?”

No one answered.

“Does anyone know what happened
to Brynn’s twin? They’re identical only Bree’s hair is shoulder
length.”

“Brynn came in alone.”

“How many are here?” I asked the
dark haired girl who had answered.

“Five now that you’re here. I’m
Jenna. That’s Nadine and Clara.”

“So do we know what’s going
on?”

Jenna nodded. “From the sounds
of it, these guys are planning on selling us as slaves. To hear
them talk I’m sure they’re human.”

“How many men?”

“Six. There are two who stay in
camp and four who go out to capture the girls. They go out in
pairs. There doesn’t seem to be any particular one who’s in charge.
There are six horses. My guess is that each man plans to have one
girl to bring back with them.”

I nodded, impressed with all of
the information she was giving me. “How long have you been
here?”

“Two days. They got Brynn this
morning and Nadine and Clara three and four days ago.”

My eyes were adjusting to the
dark. Of the four girls, only Jenna seemed to be holding herself
together nicely. Brynn, Clara and Nadine had tear streaked dirty
faces. Other than Brynn, I didn’t recognize any of therm.

“How old are you girls?”

“Fourteen,” answered Jenna. When
the other two didn’t answer, she did for them. “Clara is nineteen
and Nadine is thirteen.”

“Are you guys from around
here?”

Clara and Nadine shook their
heads.

“I’m from Bliar. My mate is part
of the second shift. We came with them.” Clara’s eyes teared
up.

“I’m from Pinsaber. My parents
came to join the Chosen One’s pack.” Nadine’s voice shook.

Brynn seemed about to say
something and stopped when I gave a quick shake of my head. No one
needed to know who I was at the moment.

“My brother and I came from
Graulen.” Jenna swallowed hard. “It’s just me now.”