Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (21 page)

He shrugged. “It’s possible. I’ve been
leading patrols the past month, so I haven’t been there. Most
prisoners go to the keep. This is just where we put them if we
aren’t ready to head back yet. I mean, honestly, it’s usually
empty. The only time we’ll take prisoners is if we catch anyone
over our border.” He looked up at me quickly then back to the
ground. “Well, except for now. Sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry.” I looked around.
“If we find anyone else, we’re releasing them.”

The blond Namael captain seemed about
to say something then stopped.

“Can I ask what your name is?” I looked
at him, realizing that I didn’t know.

“Matthew.”

“You looked like you were about to say
something.”

“I was just wondering how many rooms
there were.”

Kacey answered him. “Four.
Why?”

Matthew seemed to hesitate before
speaking. “I was just thinking that since Hayden is so opposed to
killing and since we will outnumber them, maybe we could just lock
them all up.”

It took everything I had to keep my jaw
from dropping. Some of his men weren’t as successful.

“That’s a great idea!” I blurted
out.

Alex looked at Kacey. “You’re sure
you’re with us on this?”

Kacey nodded.

Alex looked at me. “We won’t even have
to kill one of them. What if we got Kacey to go in there and tell
the others he is supposed to transport Jasper to Howel. They make
it out of the cave then we sneak in there from all directions and
trap them in the middle.” He smiled. “It seems like a nice day for
a wind storm, don’t you think?”

I grinned. “Perfect. Kacey, you’ll have
to open all the doors. Pretend to look for him.”

Kacey nodded.

Matthew looked confused. “I don’t
understand the wind storm.”

“I’ll just blow them into the cells.” I
laughed and pushed a small breeze at him in demonstration. “This is
great. Let’s hope it works!”

“Kacey, I know my brother, he won’t
come quietly.” Luke was frowning.

“I don’t think he’ll be in any shape to
fight,” he mumbled, his eyes on the ground.

Zane laughed. “You don’t know Jasper,
do you?”

Kacey shook his head. “I just know what
I’ve heard from stories. Though I must say that from what I’ve
heard, I’m glad my pack has never come face to face with one of
his.”

Luke smiled. “Jasper and I have always
had an agreement. Because we’re brothers and were made to fight
each other, we had turned it into a game. The first one to get hurt
lay down and stayed out of danger’s way. We had to make it
convincing, mind you, so that no one wondered about it. When I
abducted Hayden last year, he almost got the best of me and that
was with four broken ribs. If it had been a regular battle he would
have had to lie down because I got the first hit in.” He shook his
head as he remembered. “I had to break four more ribs and knock him
on the head to stop him. When it comes to Hayden, I don’t think
there is much out there that will stop him and right now, the only
thing he is thinking of is getting back to her.”

Kacey’s eyes widened.

“Tell him that I love him more.” It was
almost a whisper, my voice barely making it past the lump in my
throat. “Say, ‘Hayden says don’t be stubborn and that she loves you
more’.”

Tara put a hand on my arm.

Kacey nodded.

“Ok, everyone. Let’s get some sleep.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” I pulled my blankets out and
settled in for the night. Luke shifted and lay beside
me.

The next morning we traveled as far as
we could without having to be scared of being discovered. Ten of
Matthew’s cats went ahead with Luke and Kacey to capture any
lookouts they could find before the others could be alerted to our
whereabouts.

I glanced at Matthew who was standing
and looking in the direction of the cave. He ran a hand through his
dark blond hair and took a deep breath. I went to his side and put
a hand on his arm.

“Are you ok?”

He glanced down at me and nodded. His
clenched jaw indicated otherwise.

“I’m sorry about Melana making you come
with us.”

His dark green eyes widened in
surprise. “That’s not what I was thinking about. I’m glad she did.
I was about to volunteer when she brought it up.”

I frowned. “But you looked so upset
about coming!”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t upset
about coming. I was upset they got him. Jasper and I turned of age
the same year and were put in the same pack to train. We stayed in
the same pack for four years before we were each given our own.
Even then, when there was need to combine packs, they usually put
ours together. He’s the closest thing I have to a brother.” He
looked toward the cave again. “Don’t you worry, Hayden. We’ll get
him out.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “I
know.”

When it was dark we made our way closer
to the cave. I hopped off of Dodge and we all waited for everyone
to get back.

“Thank you, everyone, for helping.
Remember, we don’t want to kill, but if it’s you or them, I can
always fix them later.” Everyone nodded.

“Kacey?”

He came up to me and I wondered if he
ever stopped looking at the ground. “Thank you,” I whispered and
hugged him.

He tapped me on the back awkwardly. “I
just hope I can get him out.” He turned, shifted, and trotted off
towards the cave.

We waited impatiently for him to come
back. I wondered what was taking so long and after what seemed an
eternity, he came loping back. Alone.

“They won’t let me take him; said that
Rainen wants him here. I think we can force our way, though. There
are only ten of them in there.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Take me in there.”

Alex growled. “No way.”

“If he takes me in as a prisoner,
they’ll believe Jasper is supposed to come too. Tie my hands in
front so I can still get the colors to work.”

“I don’t like this, Hayden. If anything
happens to you we won’t have to worry about the dogs because Jasper
will kill us first.” Zane looked just as edgy as Alex.

“I’ll go with her. They’ll just think I
came back after escaping from you.” Luke came to stand beside me.
“I think Hayden is right. This is the best way to do it with the
least amount of casualties.”

Matthew brought some rope and tied my
hands loosely but convincingly in front of me. “You should be able
to slip out of it when you need too.”

I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Tara tied a gag in my mouth. It was so
loose I could push it out with my tongue. Luke and Kacey each
grabbed an arm and started walking with me. I started to hear
voices as we got deeper into the cave.

“What do you think was up with Kacey?”
one voice asked.

“Probably wants all the
glory.”

“Naw. That’s not like Kacey. I know a
lot of coyotes are shy, but he takes the cake. If he could blend
into the ground he would. It’s amazing he’s even made
captain.”

They looked up.

“Kacey, he’s not going...”

Kacey cut him off. “Look. Luke managed
to escape and take the girl. We’re supposed to bring both of them
to Rainen.”

Everyone’s eyes bugged out of their
heads when they saw me. I tried to look as much as a prisoner as I
could.

Kacey went to all the doors starting on
the left. The others were too shocked to object. There were no
other prisoners. Jasper was in the last one on the right just as he
had predicted.

Tears sprang to my eyes. He wasn’t
locked in the shackles like we had thought simply because there was
no need for it. He lay on the ground in a heap, his hands tied
behind his back. His clothes were ripped and he was covered in
dried and fresh blood. His breathing was shallow. His face was so
swollen I couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed.

Kacey walked into the cell and pulled
him to his feet.

Jasper growled and threw himself
against him sending both of them crashing into a wall.

“Careful, Kacey. He’s crazy. By the
moons, anyone else would be dead by now and he still puts up a
fight every time we open the door. Quite frankly, we’ve explained
it to him… all he had to do was stop fighting and we’d stop
beating, but he refuses to listen. He damn near killed Rick two
days ago.”

I saw Kacey whisper to Jasper and some
of the tension left the battered shoulders. Kacey pulled him up
again and walked him out of the cell.

They were just getting past us when one
of the guards got to his feet. “What in the world!”

I heard a growl from behind me and all
ten guards were on their feet. I wondered who had been impatient as
I picked a grey wave out of the air and threw it at the guards. I
relaxed a little when I heard Kacey holler back that they were
out.

I grabbed all the grey waves I could
find in front of me and threw them as hard as I could. The chairs
they had been sitting on fell back and the smallest one of them, I
assumed he was a fox, slid backward into one of the
rooms.

I smiled and pushed harder and a few of
them fell back into the wall. They then crawled to the safest place
they could find which was in the open cells.

I walked forward, keeping the wind in
front of me. When all of them were hiding in the rooms I dropped my
arms and four cats shifted and ran to close the doors. Four locks
fell into place and Matthew patted me on the back.

“Nicely done,” he smiled.

“Thanks.” I smiled back at him. We ran
out of the cave and back into the woods.

“Jasper!” I knelt beside him just as
Luke was cutting the ropes from around his wrists.

He moaned as his arms rotated back to
their normal position.

“Hayden.” I could barely hear his
whisper. I put my hands on him to see what was needed to heal
him.

A howl broke the silence. Kacey and
Luke looked at each other and Luke looked back down at me. “We have
to go now. That’s the rest of them coming back!”

“Hayden can ride with us,” Prense
stated. I hopped on behind Tara and cringed at the pain I knew
Jasper was feeling as Zane lifted him up onto Dodge. Luke swung on
behind him.

Jasper leaned forward and grabbed
handfuls of mane to help him stay on and we all shot off into the
night.

*****

The sun was getting high in the sky
when we finally stopped. I jumped off of Prense and ran to where
Zane and Alex were laying Jasper on his back.

In the daylight, he looked even worse.
Some of the bruises were already turning yellow. I lifted his shirt
and tried not to cry. His chest had three cuts crossing over it.
None of them were extremely deep. By the way his left arm was
laying I was sure his forearm was broken. Most of his injuries were
internal from the beatings.

Kacey was shaking his head. “I’m so
sorry, Hayden.”

“Stop it, Kacey. You got him out. We
couldn’t have done it without you.” I put my hands on Jasper and
concentrated. I kept my eyes closed when he put a hand on mine.
“Don’t move,” I whispered to him.

When I had assessed all of the damages
I looked up at Zane. “There’s just too much for him to heal. I’ll
have to give him some of mine.”

“No.” Jasper tried to open his
eyes.

I tried to smile through my tears. “Are
you going to stop me?”

I closed my eyes and started to push
some energy into him. Zane put his hands on my shoulders in case I
got dizzy. I spread my energy over his entire body and he groaned
as the worst of his injuries healed themselves.

Alex, Luke and Ben held him as still as
possible.

I kept pushing, ignoring the faintness.
My energy mixed with his and he clenched his teeth at the
pain.

“That’s enough!” he gasped.

Zane pulled me back and I fell against
him.

“Is she alright?” Jasper cringed as he
set himself up on his elbows to look at me.

“She’s fine,” Zane answered
him.

A wave of dizziness hit me and I rolled
away from Zane to keep from throwing up on him.

“Stubborn ass,” I muttered when I was
done. Someone handed me a canteen and I took a drink.

“Look who’s calling who stubborn!” He
groaned as he stood and came over to me. “Can you stand
up?”

I took his hand and he pulled me up
into his arms. I clung to him, tears soaking into what was left of
his shirt. He laid his cheek on my head and rubbed my back. I
looked up at him, glad to see that the swelling had gone down
enough that he could open his eyes.

“Your nose has a bump on it again.” I
reached up and touched it softly. “I thought you weren’t going to
make a habit out of this,” I grinned through my tears.