Tyler's Story (Tales of Quelondain)

Mireille Chester

Copyright © 2012 by Mireille Chester

Published by Mireille Chester

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment
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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any way, shape, or form without the express written permission
of the author. For more information, please visit
http://mireillechester.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

For my niece, Chelsea,

who asked me to write a book she was allowed to
read

A huge thanks to my beta readers. Dominique, Heidi,
and Charla, you guys always manage to make me smile. Thanks for
putting my doubts to rest every time I start to get nervous.

Hugs to my family for putting up with all of the time
I spend on my laptop.

Kisses to my online family. Finding all
of you was a godsend.

Prologue

Tyler knelt beside Jenna, a frown squinting his dark
brown eyes.

“I’m fine.” She shifted her weight and sucked in a
breath. He put more pressure on the gash on her leg, trying to get
the bleeding to stop.

“I told you I was only going to be gone a few
minutes. What in the world was so important it couldn’t wait until
I got back?”

“I wanted a drink.”

Tyler’s gaze softened. “I’m sorry. I should have put
the packs closer to where you could reach them.”

She shook her head. “I should have just waited.” She
tried to hide the pain as he put more pressure on the cut. “I still
think you should have gone with the pack. You can tell them which
way to go.” Jenna’s light grey eyes caught his and his heart
jumped. He made himself more comfortable and shook his head.

“Trent put me in charge of guarding you. I don’t
think leaving you alone in the woods with injuries qualifies as
keeping you safe.” He gave her a lopsided grin and was rewarded
with a snort. She tucked her long dark brown hair behind her ears.
He frowned and shook his head. “Good guardian I turned out to
be…”

Jenna laughed and he glanced at her before turning
his attention back to her leg. He was sure the bleeding was slowing
but didn’t want to take the pressure off to check.

“You were fighting three of them when this happened
to me. What were you supposed to do? Ask them to hang on a minute
while you came to give me a hand? Besides, you got the one that did
this.” She touched his arm lightly. His heart gave its customary
jump at the feel of her hand. He felt the blood start to rise into
his face and he looked away from her.

By the moons, she’s your brother’s mate, he scowled
at himself. Or at least she would be as soon as all of the fighting
was done and Trent made his way back home. Damn his twin for
leaving him in this situation. He’d had a good thing going with
Bree. No. It had been a good thing for Bree. By the moons, how
could a woman be so ignorant? No. If he ever did find anyone, he
hoped it would be someone like Jenna, or his Aunt Hayden. He wanted
to laugh at himself; someone like his mom. A woman who could fight,
hunt, and fish; one who didn’t mind a little hard work.

He concentrated on the blood under his hands which
helped keep his mind off of the fact that Jenna was sitting,
leaning back against a tree and that he was kneeling between her
legs. His heart was still pounding with the adrenaline of the fight
and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

“Are you alright?” She rubbed his arm and even though
his head knew she couldn’t feel anything for him because she was
fated to Trent, his body refused to agree.

“I’m fine.”

She shrugged, leaned her head back and closed her
eyes. “Do you think we stand a chance?”

He nodded then realized she couldn’t see him. “Yes. I
do. If there is anyone out there who can do this, it’s Aunt
Hayden.”

“But if Braw touches her with his staff…” She let the
comment hang in the air.

“If that happens, I suppose you won’t have to worry
about the great scar that gash is going to leave on your leg. I
can’t believe they killed Marie. Everyone knows a healer isn’t to
be harmed.” A small growl made its way up his throat.

“Maybe that was the point. If she was dead, then more
of the injured would have less of a chance of living.”

“True.”

Tyler felt a pressure in his chest and he took a deep
breath to get rid of it. When that didn’t work, he rolled his
shoulders and stretched from side to side.

“What’s wrong?” Jenna was frowning. She leaned
towards him.

“Nothing. I just… I must have pulled something during
the fight.” The pressure in his chest was getting stronger. He
struggled to suck in his breaths.

“Tyler!”

He felt heat waves roll through him, his head started
to spin and his vision gradually blurred.

“Tyler!” Somewhere in the fog he heard Jenna yell his
name before he felt the ground hit his back as he fell. He heard
someone scream and realized it was himself. Something deep inside
of him ripped apart and everything momentarily went dark.

“Ty…!” Jenna’s yell cut off just as the pain receded.
He lay on his back, his eyes closed, trying to catch his breath. A
sob raked through him and Jenna’s echoed his.

“Trent!” The name escaped his lips as a moan. He
reached up and pulled Jenna to his chest, her tears soaking into
his tunic. “Please, no,” he whispered. But even as he said the
words, he wrapped his arms around her and knew. His brother, his
twin, wouldn’t be coming back.

Chapter One

Tyler lay with his hands behind his head in the tall
blue grass by the waterfall. The sun warmed him and he smiled. His
mind wandered to the crossing not too far from where he was. The
hill crossing, they called it. It was where his Uncle Jasper had
first seen Aunt Hayden. Not having had the pleasure of being fated
himself, he couldn’t try to imagine the shock his uncle had felt
when he’d found he was fated to the Chosen One. He chuckled. He
wasn’t sure what would have been a greater shock; the fact that she
was the one who would save their world, or the fact that she was a
Wedelve and human crossbreed that had been raised in the other
world.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He
missed them. He missed all of them. He thought of his mom and dad,
of what they must be going through at this very moment. It had been
almost five years since the shifters had fought the humans in
Paradin and defeated them. A growl made its way up his throat. Damn
Braw and all of his foolish notions. Thankfully, his Aunt Hayden
had been able to defeat the human dictator and destroy his evil
staff before he’d been able to use it to wipe out every shifter in
Quelondain. There was no doubt in his mind that once the Namaels
and the Majs had been eradicated the idiot would have moved on to
the other beings native to this world.

He took another deep breath. Too many beings had died
because of that man. He swallowed hard and tried to fill the
emptiness he felt with a few more breaths. He had known that today
of all days would be hard. This day a year ago had been agonizing
and today wasn’t showing any signs of being any different. He’d
managed to keep all thoughts of his brother away for the first hour
he’d been awake. Now that his twin had entered his mind, it was
impossible to push the memories back down. He tried to block the
sensation of being torn apart the instant Trent had been killed. He
couldn’t remember one time in his entire life when he and Trent had
been separated for more than a few hours until his brother had
decided it would be safer to live away from home when he’d found
Jenna, the one he’d been fated to. He’d told Tyler he was sure he
wouldn’t be able to keep from bonding to her if they stayed near
each other and had asked him to keep her safe until after the war
on Paradin.

This thought required another deep breath on his
part. He’d managed to keep her alive, though it had been a close
call on more than one occasion. Leaving her in Sageden once they
had made it back home had been one of the hardest things he’d ever
had to do. The breeze blew his shaggy dark brown hair into his face
and he bushed it away. Brave Jenna with her nerves of steel and
fighting skills equal to any Namael or Maj guard he knew. He
remembered how she’d almost broken his cheekbone the first time
they’d sparred because he’d underestimated her. From the instant
he’d felt Trent die he’d known; there was no way he’d be able to
stay in Sageden. There was too much there to remind him of the
brother he’d lost. Every bone in his body had told him to bring
Jenna along. He’d spent hours arguing with himself over the matter.
He’d finally had to admit to himself that he was starting to fall
in love with his brother’s mate and that had been the deciding
factor for leaving her behind. She was Trent’s, not his, and the
guilt he felt over his feelings for her made it impossible for him
to bring her along. Beautiful Jenna with her dark brown hair and
penetrating light grey eyes. He tried not to think about how he’d
wiped her tears and hugged her close before kissing her softly and
leaving.

He groaned and shook his head to rid himself of the
past. A chirp overhead helped bring him back to the present. The
blue bird landed on his knee as he sat up to welcome her.

“Hello, there.”

A picture of the two of them flashed in his mind and
a feeling of happiness accompanied it. He smiled.

“I’m glad you’re here, too.” He patted her little
head. “How were things in Sageden?”

Pictures of his friends and family popped into his
head as the bird relayed feelings to go with them. He held his
breath until she was done. “They’re all fine?”

She bobbed her head in answer and lifted her wing to
reveal the note his mother had tied to her leg which he carefully
removed.

Dear Tyler,

Just a quick note to let you know that everyone here
is fine. We all wish you a good day on your birthday. Here’s hoping
you find yourself in good company. We miss you.

Love,

Mom and Dad

He folded the note and tucked it into his pack.
“Well, I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather be sitting here
with on my birthday.” He patted the little blue head. “Though I
can’t for the life of me think of why you insist on coming back to
me. I don’t imagine I’m much fun to be around.”

The blue bird flashed a picture of the two of them
and a feeling of quiet. He smiled. “Yes, it is nice and quiet here,
isn’t it.

The two of them watched the waterfall for a few
moments.

“Well, I’m going to go hunt for my birthday supper.”
Tyler smiled as she showed him images of some rabbits in the
clearing not too far from where they were. “Thank you.” He frowned
and tilted his head to the side, then scrambled behind some bushes
as something made its way through the woods in their direction. The
bird flashed images of him tackling a doe as they watched two of
them bound past where he’d just been sitting.

“Not likely,” he chuckled. “I want to live to make it
to my nineteenth birthday.” He looked up again as a buck followed
behind the does. His throat tightened as he remembered the buck
he’d helped bring down while out hunting with his dad and brother.
He was starting to get up when the sound of something smaller than
the deer made its way to his ears. A coyote loped into the little
clearing and stopped short at the sight of Tyler’s pack and blanket
on the ground. It whined, looked in the direction the deer had
gone, and turned back to the pack before his form blurred and he
shifted.

Tyler frowned. The boy didn’t seem much older than
fourteen and he wondered why someone who hadn’t turned of age yet
was running without a pack. He grunted to himself. He wasn’t
exactly in a position to judge. He’d only been thirteen when he’d
left Sageden to be on his own, still two years away from being
considered an adult, and yet he’d done just fine on his own.

The boy ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, his
dark grey eyes darting around nervously as he glanced around. He
took a deep breath and knelt so he could look through the pack on
the ground.

“Well, that’s enough of that,” Tyler muttered to
himself. He stood and strode toward the other Maj. “Hey, now! Those
are my things!”

The boy jumped to his feet, dropped the pack,
shifted, and bolted into the woods.

“Wait!” Tyler watched to see if the coyote would be
back then got busy getting his things hidden when it became obvious
that it wouldn’t. He still needed to go hunting and didn’t want to
take the chance that the boy would be back.