Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (19 page)

“This is my fault. One of them got me.
They grabbed him when he came to free me. Oh, Hayden, I’m so
sorry!” Leslie was crying.

“It’s not your fault, Leslie.” I put a
hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

She nodded.

“They are taking him to the second
cave.” I jumped at the voice behind me. The man was small, only an
inch taller than me at the most. He had auburn hair and dark brown
eyes.

“You healed me. I don’t quite
understand why. But this is the least I can do for you in
return.”

“Where’s the second cave?” I asked
him.

“It’s hard to explain. It’s very well
hidden. I can show you if you like.”

I looked around for Luke. “Do you know
where the second cave is?”

He shook his head. “I’ve heard of where
it is. But only certain captains and their packs know the exact
location. Nate’s not lying. He knows where it is.” He nodded toward
the little man.

I nodded to both of them. A whine broke
my train of thought. Laying a little ways away was a coyote. He had
an arrow in his hip and a long gash along his ribs. The dark haired
man standing over him was pushing on the arrow with his
hand.

“What is wrong with you?” I snapped at
him. I threw myself at him and managed to knock him down. A growl
made its way up his throat as I knelt down beside the
coyote.

Zane and Luke came to stand on either
side of me.

“I wouldn’t do anything stupid,” warned
Alex. He had made his way around and was standing behind the dark
haired man.

Zane knelt beside me, still keeping an
eye on the growler. “Can you fix him?” he asked.

I put my hands on him and concentrated.
I glanced over at Zane. “I’ll have to use the other
one.”

“Hayden, don’t you think...”

“He’s not going to die if I can help
it!”

Zane sighed, knowing his argument was
about to fall on deaf ears. “But if you plan on going after Jasper
you’ll need your strength!”

“I won’t need much of my energy. Can
you get the arrow out?”

Alex and Ben came to help hold the
coyote down as Luke and Zane worked the arrow free.

After finding that Fillian couldn’t
heal a being with my energy in it, we had done some experimenting
and found that I could give my energy to someone and then finish
the healing safely.

I found the dark green wave and spread
it over the ribs. “I just need enough to get the ribs back into
place. He should be able to do the rest by himself.” I pushed some
of my energy into the coyote and he jerked under me. I pulled back
and sat down as a wave of dizziness hit me. I could almost hear
Jasper growling at me.

Zane put a hand on my shoulder. “Are
you ok?”

I nodded, got back on my knees and
spread a safe green over his entire body.

The coyote whined as everything
finished healing. He stood up and shook himself before shifting
back.

Melana’s guards tensed and Zane, Alex,
and Luke stepped so they were around him.

I looked around. “Is there anyone
else?”

Three cats made their way over with
fairly minor injuries.

I blinked as tears welled in my eyes.
For one tiger, a coyote and a wolf, it was already too late. I
clenched my fists. “So useless! So pointless!”

Tara hugged me. “Shush, Hayden. You did
what you could.”

“But it’s never enough, is it,” I
whispered. I took a few deep breaths and got myself under control.
“Let’s go get Jasper.”

Luke, Zane, Dawn, and Mel all seemed to
be arguing. It looked like Dawn versus the rest of them.

“You are not coming!” Zane glared at
Dawn.

“You’re not going without me!” She
glared right back at him.

Zane looked at me. “Hayden! Tell her
she has to stay! She can’t risk it!”

I opened my mouth, but hesitated before
I agreed with him. “Risk what?”

Dawn’s eyes got big. “We never told
you! With everything that happened when we got to your house, it
didn’t seem important!”

Zane pulled her to him and kissed her
before telling us the news. “We’re going to have cubs!”

“Pups,” she corrected him.

“Well, whatever they are going to be,
we’re going to have some!”

I laughed. “Boy, that will be something
to see!”

You could almost hear all the mouths
fall open behind us.

I gave Dawn a hug and Zane a kiss on
the cheek.

Alex interrupted the celebrations. “I
think Mel, Dawn, Hayden and the kids should head home. We’ll go
after Jasper.”

“I’m not going home, Alex. If Rainen is
there, you’ll need magic.” My voice caught a bit and I swallowed
hard. “And chances are good Jasper is going to need a healer.” I
thought of something. “Why didn’t she use magic today?”

“My guess is that with all of the
fighting so close to her, she didn’t want to take a chance changing
back,” answered Zane.

“Oh.” It still seemed odd to me that
shifters couldn’t perform magic in their animal forms.

Tyler and Trent looked at their mom.
“We want to help, mom.”

She shook her head.

I looked closely at Melana. “At the
risk of sounding rude and ungrateful, why are you here?”

“When Jasper didn’t bring you back we
had a few scouts figure out your location without confronting you.
Since inviting you to the castle didn’t seem to work, I thought I
would come to you.”

My temper started to flare. “You call
that an invitation? Your guards were trying to abduct me! A letter
inviting me over for a cup of tea might have been a bit more
civil!”

Everyone’s jaws dropped.

“Yes, well, I suppose my men may have
been a bit direct. Either way, I wanted to meet you. As we got
closer to you we started seeing signs of the pack so we started to
follow them. It was pure chance that we showed up just as they
attacked.”

“Well, thank you. It was greatly
appreciated. And now that you’ve met me, I hope you don’t find it
too insulting if I postpone any chatting until after I’m done
saving my husband.”

I turned back to Mel.

“What’s a husband,” she
asked.

“Where I come from, a husband is the
man you swear to spend the rest of your life with. Luke would be
yours. You would be his wife.”

She nodded. “Well, Hayden dear. I will
go hold down the fort at home if you promise to bring me back my
husband.” She gave me a hug.

“I promise. And thank you,” I
whispered. By the way Zane and Dawn were kissing she had decided to
stay behind.

Some of the queen’s cats were still
staring at them.

I glanced at Melana and laughed. She
was trying so hard not to look.

“Don’t worry, you never get used to
seeing those two together!”

She shook her head. “I image not. It’s
interesting. They are complete opposites in every way.”

I nodded. “I can’t wait to see the
babies!” I looked at Nate. “So what’s our plan?”

He was standing beside the blond haired
man with grey eyes that had been the coyote. Both of them looked to
be in their mid-thirties. They stood directly in the middle of our
little group, looking warily at the guards who were glaring at
them.

“Hey, don’t worry about them. Or us for
that matter. You can leave if you want.”

They looked at each other then sat on
the ground, grabbing sticks and stones from around them.

“They will be taking him here.” Nate
pointed to a rock in the diagram they had just made.

Luke came to kneel beside us. “Why
there and not to Howel?”

“The plan was that if we couldn’t get
her that we would try to take him.” He glanced at me. “We knew they
were always together, we had no idea they were fated!” Nate looked
back at Luke. “They are going to keep him there because they know
she’ll come after him. But they are sure she’ll just head to the
keep to look for him and aren’t planning on letting him get
anywhere near her.”

“The keep is where the majority of the
dogs will be,” the blond one spoke up.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Kacey.”

“How many will they have guarding him,
Kacey?”

“Twenty, twenty-five. They will be
concentrating on the keep. There’s no reason to put extra guards on
him because you don’t know where the cave is.” The corners of his
mouth twitched and he looked back to the ground. I
smiled.

“There are three different entrances to
that cave,” explained Nate. He pointed them out.

“So we go in all three and trap them in
the middle,” stated Zane.

Alex nodded.

We all stood. “How far of a trip?” I
asked.

“Seven days at a steady pace,” Kacey
answered.

Dodge snorted.
I’m coming
.

I gave my horse a hug. “Thanks,
buddy.”

“I’d like to send some of my men with
you to help. Jasper has always been one of my best captains. I owe
him that much at least.” Melana gestured to her pack.

“Thank you. But they only come if they
follow my rules.” I looked at the blond Namael with the green eyes
who seemed to be in charge. “No killing unless it’s necessary. No
hurting for the fun of it. We are going to save Jasper, not
decimate their numbers.”

His eyes got big when Melana nodded.
“You will listen to Hayden.”

She turned back to me. “I would like to
go with your friends, if that is alright with you.”

I almost laughed; the queen was asking
my permission. I nodded. “You can have tea ready when I get back.”
I grinned at her.

She laughed.

“Let’s get this show on the road.” I
gave the twins one last hug and swung onto Dodge. Ben, Leslie and
Tara hopped onto Prense, Phlann and Shanus. Everyone else
shifted.

Queen Melana waved along with the rest
of them as we trotted away. I glanced back one last time and
noticed the jaguar in my dream sitting beside her as well as a
lioness and a smaller tiger.

“Hey, Alex!” I called to the lion
trotting ahead of Dodge.

He looked back, shifted and fell into
step with us.

“The three cats that stayed with
Melana, they were females!”

He laughed. “Well, you know, we have to
reproduce somehow!”

“Why is this the first time I see
them?”

“The men are the main army. The females
are the Queen’s personal guard. They watch over the keep and escort
her.”

I nodded. “It’s different with the
Majs, right? I remember Jasper apologizing for hurting
Mel.”

He nodded. “The Majs believe that if a
fated pair fight together, they will try that much harder to win to
protect their mate.”

“Makes sense to me.”

He shifted back but stayed beside
Dodge.

Prense and Tara trotted up on our other
side.

“So, my first question,” I started, “is
how the hell did you guys get to us when you did?”

Both of them smiled. “Just good timing
really,” explained Tara. “Prense, Phlann and Shanus had come to our
house when the blue bird got there. We waited for Dodge because we
knew he would be coming too. It was just really good
luck.”

“Well I’m sure glad you’re here.” I
patted Dodge’s neck. “How did you know we were leaving?” I asked
him.

When the bird flew into the
clearing and found me I noticed that it had a note attached to its
leg. I went right to Tara’s to find out what was going
on
.

I patted him again.

“Brinnan and Fillian sent this note for
you.” Tara handed it to me. In it, they explained that Fillian was
nursing another Wedelve back to health (healing didn’t work on
illnesses) and would meet us at the keep when she was done. Brinnan
would come with her.

We kept a steady pace until nightfall.
As the sun started to disappear into the trees, we found a place to
make camp.

“So, it’s nice to see you’re alive,
Luke,” Nate grinned at him. “When we found Ryland we assumed both
of you had been killed.”

“Actually, I killed Ryland,” explained
Luke.

Kacey’s eyes widened.

“Why?” Nate asked the obvious question
and even the Queen’s cats listened for the answer.

“Because it was the right thing to do.
If you plan on coming with us until the end, you had better decide
who you are fighting for.” He paused and let his words sink in.
“You may have to kill another dog.”

“So you fight for the cats now?” asked
Kacey. There was no malice in the question, just
curiosity.

Luke shook his head. “No, I don’t fight
for the cats. I fight for Hayden. I fight for the one who, after
being abducted, beaten, threatened, and attacked countless times,
can still look at a dying creature and save it with no thought as
to whose side it might be on. Hayden doesn’t want to fight. She
wants to live her life in peace. Wants to enjoy her home, her
family and the one she is fated to. I like that lifestyle. I have
seen my pups grow more in the past two years than I had the
previous nine.”