Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (13 page)

I ran my hands over his back, feeling
his strength as he held himself over me, then ran them back up
again to pull his lips down to mine.

Jasper pulled himself up a little more
on his elbows, his thrusts getting a bit faster. I dug my nails
into his back and pulled him deeper with my legs as I exploded from
the inside out.

He flattened himself against me and
groaned into my neck as he jerked with his release.

We lay like that until our breathing
had settled down. I laughed a little as I felt him stiffen in me
again. I pushed him over so that he was on his back and I straddled
him.

“Maybe we are just typical,” I mumbled.
We stated all over again.

*****

Some time later, there was a knock on
the door.

“Just letting you know supper should be
ready in about a half hour if you’re interested.” Tara giggled as
she walked away.

I looked up at Jasper and blushed.
“They all know, don’t they?”

“Considering we are newly fated, they
are pretty amazed it just happened now. For most it happens right
after the kiss. You just can’t stop yourself.”

“I wonder why we can
resist.”

“I have no idea. Maybe we can find some
answers to all of this while we are here.”

“Oh! That reminds me. We have to find
an Wedelven healer named Fillian. She can help us.”

He nodded. “We’ll ask around after
supper, maybe Tara or Ben knows of her. Are you hungry? Should we
go down?”

I grinned as I rolled myself on top of
him. “Who needs to eat, really?”

“Who indeed,” he mumbled into my
neck.

We missed supper.

The next morning I woke up to Jasper
running his fingers through my hair.

“Good morning, my love,” he leaned down
and kissed my cheek.

“Good morning.” I stretched and smiled
at the small protest my muscles made. If anyone had the nerve to
say that sex wasn’t a good form of exercise, they had probably
never had the pleasure of having really good sex.

“I went down and got some breakfast. I
thought you might be hungry.” He laughed.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because your stomach woke me up!” He
was still laughing as he sat on the bed.

“Well, it has been a while since we
ate.” I blushed. I reached over his shoulder and grabbed a piece of
fruit. I paused a moment to kiss his neck while I was there. The
goose bumps that appeared almost made me forget about the food. My
stomach growled at me and I laughed.

“I think I’d better eat
something.”

He grinned and kissed my nose. “I’ll go
downstairs and ask Ben about Fillian.” He started to
leave.

“What?” I asked when he stopped by the
door.

He came back to me and held me to his
chest for a moment, then gave me a long, soft kiss. “Had I known
how great life would feel with you in my arms, I would have stayed
there and found you four years ago,” he whispered to me.

He left, leaving me humming to myself.
I went to the chair with the clothes Tara had found for me. The
shirt was a white tunic with some gold and brown stitching. It was
form fitting and extremely comfortable. The pants were the buckskin
pants everyone around seemed to like. At the end of the bed were
some boots. They were calf high, dark brown leather with laces all
the way to the top. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed.
All I needed were some pointy ears and earthy colored skin and I
could have passed as a Wedelve.

There was a knock at the door. “It’s
just me.” Tara let herself in. She grinned when she saw me. “Not
bad! Jasper’s going to want to tear all these clothes off of you
when he gets back! Though I still can’t believe he managed to tear
himself away as it is! Remember when I missed two weeks of school
because I had mono?” She grinned at me when my eyes
widened.

“No!”

She nodded. “Yep. And even that is a
short amount of time compared to some!”

“Holy shit!”

She laughed and sat on the bed. “So?
How are you feeling?”

I took my time and thought for a
moment. “Well. There’s a few things. I miss my mom and dad. I’m
scared about what’s going on. But excited too. And then there’s the
whole Jasper thing.” I blushed. “I guess the only way to describe
it is happy. I am unbelievably happy. I would fight dragons if
that’s what it took to stay with him.” I laughed. “Are there
dragons here?”

She laughed at me and nodded. “But
don’t worry. They tend to keep to themselves up in the Northern
Regions.” She tossed me a belt with a little scabbard on it. “Put
this on and let’s go.”

I stared at it. The dagger’s handle was
beautiful. It was silver and imbedded with green stones. “Go
where?”

“Practice.”

“Oh, no! I can’t fight! I’ll do more
damage than good!” I contradicted my statement by putting on the
belt.

“Don’t worry. I’m just going to teach
you a few defensive moves just in case. From what the others tell
me, your magic will wipe out the enemy before we even have the
chance to draw our weapons!” She laughed at the shocked look on my
face.

Jasper and Zane picked that moment to
walk in. They both stopped short and looked at me. Jasper looked
over at Zane and elbowed him playfully.

“Go find your own. She’s mine!” He was
laughing, but the way he said it made me blush. He walked over and
planted a kiss on my hair. It was so casual. Then I saw the look in
his eyes and knew it was taking him a lot of energy not to do
exactly what Tara had thought would happen. I blushed some
more.

He wrapped his arms around me for a
quick second. As he let go his hand brushed against my belt. He
looked down, his eyes widening then narrowing. He turned and glared
at Tara.

“I told you no.”

“She has to know how to defend
herself!”

“She won’t have to! I’ll be
there!”

Zane put a hand on his shoulder. “What
happens if you’re fighting and another dog sneaks up on her? Are
you going to trust Phlann to keep her safe after what almost
happened last time? You can’t be everywhere at once,
Jasper.”

Jasper turned to glare at his friend.
“Well, what if she just stayed here? She doesn’t have to come! It
doesn’t make sense to bring her anyway. She’s the one they’re
after!”

It was my turn to glare. “If you think
you’re going to leave me here while you run off to get yourself
killed, you’re crazy! I go where you go! I am not going to sit
around here pacing while you guys are off fighting!” The thought of
him going off to fight almost choked me. I stopped, my eyes
wide.

“What’s wrong?” Jasper had been glaring
at the floor. His head snapped up.

I stood as still as I could. “The
colors are back.”

Jasper turned to Tara. “You need to go
find an Wedelven healer named Fillian. She can help
Hayden.”

“I know who she is. She’s the one who
sent Wedelven guards for Hayden. She actually just got here this
morning.” She ran off.

Jasper and Zane stood still.

“Jasper? They’re everywhere. I can’t
even see through them!”

“I’m here, Shlova. Do you have any on
your hands?”

I shook my head and breathed a sigh of
relief as he took my hands in his. He pulled me closer to him and
wrapped his arms around me. I lay my head on his chest, counting
his heartbeats, trying to make the waves disappear.

“My goodness child! Put those away!”
The voice was new to me.

“I’m trying!” I felt a hand touch my
shoulder.

“You need to find something to think
about. Something calming. Whatever this thing is, it is something
that makes everything else disappear.”

The first thing that popped into my
head was Jasper. The colors brightened.

“No. That’s not it. Whatever you just
thought about is a good thing. That may be the one you have to
think of to make your colors stronger. Try something
else.”

I thought hard, still listening to
Jasper’s heartbeat. It reminded me a bit of something. The steady
rhythm. The thump noise. Something clicked. There was only one
thing that could calm me. One thing that always made things right.
The only thing that made me feel at peace.

I concentrated on Dodge. Riding in the
trails, working in the ring. My two hours of peace and quiet away
from the rest of the world.

I opened my eyes. The colors were
fading. I thought of laying in the grass and watching him eat by
the bridge. His soft nose on my hand when he ate
crunchies.

The colors evaporated. I sighed with
relief.

“Thank you,” I said as I turned to my
newest hero. “You must be Fillian.”

She smiled back. “You must be
Hayden.”

My first thought was that I was a bit
jealous. She was beautiful. She had waist long thick strawberry
blond hair. Her skin was a smooth caramel color with darker brown
shadows blended into it. She was a couple of inches shorter than me
and had all the curves in all the right places. My quick glimpse of
her in my dream had been lacking on the details.

I glanced up at Jasper and was
surprised to find him still looking at me. He planted a kiss on my
forehead.

“Good job,” he whispered.

I looked back to Fillian. “I need your
help.”

She nodded. “Tantara was explaining
everything on the way here.” She gestured to Tara. “It seems you
are a bit of a mystery.”

“I can do things no one seems to think
I should be able to do. Like play with the colors, or see the
bridge. Or see the future in dreams. That’s how I knew about
you.”

She was nodding as she
listened.

“It seems the only thing I can’t do is
hear Dodge.”

She laughed. “No worries there, dear.
Soon enough he’ll find his stone and you will hear him loud and
clear.”

“His stone?”

Jasper cut in. “I’ll explain Dodge to
you later. Let’s concentrate on you for now.”

I nodded.

“I guess I should start at the
beginning. It would clear a lot of things up.”

“Wait. I think everyone should hear
this,” I said.

“I’ll go find Ben.” Tara ran
off.

Zane claimed Phlann and Shanus. “We’ll
meet you in the courtyard.”

Jasper nodded. “Let’s go find Dodge.”
He took my hand and we made our way outside.

Fillian excused herself. “There’s
someone else who should be at this little meeting. I’ll be back
shortly.”

We headed towards the back of the
house. The Wedelven village was beautiful. The houses and shops
were made of white stone and were lined along cobblestone paths.
Though most Wedelves chose to live out of town, there were a few
who preferred life close to the shops and all that they
offered.

“It’s beautiful here!” I exclaimed. I
wrapped my arm around Jasper’s waist as we walked. “So is there a
Wedelven leader?”

“No. The Wedelves are Free Folk. They
respect the laws of the queen when traveling on her lands, but when
they are here, they keep to themselves.”

I liked the sound of that. Free Folk.
“Do you think we could come back here, when all of this is done and
over with?”

He stopped and turned towards me. “You
really like it here.” He gazed into my eyes.

I nodded. “I’m not sure. It’s a little
hard to explain...” I tried to find the right words. “It’s almost
like this feels like home.”

He tucked some hair behind my ear. “My
love, we can go wherever your heart desires. I don’t care if we go
live with the dragons when we are done, so long as I am with
you.”

“How did you know, in the
room?”

“What do you mean?”

“You weren’t looking at me, but you
knew when the colors came.”

He frowned, thoughtful. “It wasn’t the
colors. I didn’t know that’s what it was. I felt it when you got
scared. It was like I was scared, but I knew it wasn’t
me.”

I smiled. “Can you tell what I’m
feeling now?”

He lift my chin with his fingers and
softly kissed my lips. My head spun.

He looked behind me and rolled his
eyes. “Do you plan it like this, or do you simply have the worse
timing imaginable?”

Dodge snorted.

“We better head back anyway.” I gave my
horse a hug. “Fillian is going to explain things to us.”

When we got back to the courtyard
everyone was waiting except for Fillian and her mystery guest. I
went to sit beside Tara and Ben. Jasper settled beside me, not
letting go of my hand.

“So,” I smiled at Tara. “Tantara, hey?”
I looked past her to Ben. “I don’t suppose your real name is Ben,
then?”

He smiled at me. “Roben.” His focus
changed to the end of the courtyard where Fillian and another
Wedelve were walking towards us.