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  The Chosen One Trilogy:

  Book One

  A Quelondain Novel

  Mireille Chester

  Copyright © 2010 by Mireille Chester

  Published by Mireille Chester

  Smashwords Edition

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank first and foremost my wonderful

  husband, Kyle, for his constant encouragement;

  My sister, Dom, for being my chief editor;

  My mom, for reading the first few pages of my

  manuscript and then putting it away, telling me that

  she would read it when it came out in print;

  My friends and family who stood behind me;

  Ma tante Dede, without whom I would never have

  found Baico Publishing;

  And last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to

  the publishing team at Baico for making this girl’s

  dream come true.

  To my husband, Kyle, for the constant support,

  even when he would read out loud over my shoulder

  knowing it annoyed the hell out of me.

  Prologue

  The tiger lay in the sun, its tail twitching lazily. It took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Its eyes were half closed. The spring sun was always the best. Not too hot like in the summer, but always warm enough to thaw a creature’s bones after a cool night. A fly landed on the big cat’s ear and it shook its head, irritated.

  The breeze was soft and barely moved the long grass it was laying in. The tiger settled back down and gave a low, satisfied purr. The sky was clear, the sun was warm, and its stomach was already full even though it was before midday. It had a feeling today was going to be a good day.

  Chapter One

  It’s hard to believe that at one point life had seemed dull. Boring. Average and uneventful. That was the way I liked it. I went through my routine one day at a time with no extra fuss. Life was so uneventful that for the most part, I didn’t even dream. Or at least, I didn’t have any dreams that I could remember. I got just enough excitement for me. It wasn’t the kind of excitement most people craved, but there is a small group of people out there who know what I’m talking about. A few whose hearts jump a little and makes them smile the instant they step out of their vehicle and the breeze pushes the smell of horses, straw and dirt toward them. My two hours of excitement... and peace. Two hours where all I had to do was concentrate on the muscles moving under me and the wind blowing my hair back. I know to some of you it seems odd, but those two hours were mine and mine alone. No university, no homework. No care in the world. My own little piece of heaven.

  My routine was fairly basic. Get up Monday morning, have a shower, eat breakfast, and head to school where I sat and suffered for eight hours. I was taking my first year of veterinary medicine. Now don’t get me wrong... I loved my course. The reason I said I suffered was because those eight hours stood in my way before I could head to the riding arena to see Dodge.

  Dodge had been my thirteenth birthday present. A goofy looking weanling with long legs and soft eyes. He had stood in his stall looking up at me with a big green bow tied around his neck. He was perfect.

  I had been riding since I was eight, and begging for a horse since I could talk. Before I had been able to get my horse, my dad had told me I had to prove to him that I was going to stick with it. That hadn’t been hard to do. I can’t begin to count the arguments we’ve had about the fact that I spend most of my free time with Dodge.

  So now Dodge was ten and I was twenty-three. He had grown into a beautiful and muscular horse. Milk chocolate brown with black mane and tail and not a spec of white. The perfect bay.

  But I’m rambling on about Dodge now. I tend to do that. Get me talking on any topic that includes horses and I can go on for hours. So where was I. Right. My life was just how I liked it. Just me and Dodge. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in men. I had had one fairly serious relationship that had lasted a year and a half. At least, it had been serious to me. When I think back on it now, it’s hard to believe I had thought he was perfect. That was until I loaned him my truck for a weekend and I found a very nice pair of lacy underwear that didn’t belong to me under the seat the next day. I’d had a few other boyfriends, but most of them didn’t understand why I would rather go to the barn on a Friday night instead of going to the bar. The thought of going out and being paraded around just wasn’t my thing and I’ll admit that some of it probably has to do with my personal image of myself. I don’t put myself in the beautiful people category.

  I have slightly wavy dark brown hair that falls to the middle of my back. It is never done. I prefer ponytails and baseball hats. I also don’t have the greatest body. I’m 5 foot 4 inches tall, slim and pretty fortunate that I don’t have to work to stay that way, but am lacking in the chest department. I don’t dress to flatter. My wardrobe consists of wranglers, t- shirts and tank tops. Oh. And one dress that my dad made me buy for my cousin Chantal’s wedding when I was seventeen which has been worn as little as possible since then. I think my best features are my eyes. They’re a deep green with weird gold and grey specs and long eyelashes. No mascara for me. Well, no makeup, period. I always end up smearing it because I forget I have it on.

  I guess the best way to describe myself was a bit of a loner. I didn’t have many friends. I spent the best part of high school with my nose stuck in a book. When I wasn’t reading or drawing, I was riding. I even skipped my high school graduation party because there was a horse show the next day.

  After high school, I had gone off to work on various ranches, which specialized in anything from breeding and showing reiners, to trail riding in the mountains, to taking care of eight hundred mares on a PMU farm where they collected pregnant mare urine for the estrogen in women’s birth control pills.

  When I was done gallivanting from one farm to another, I decided it was time to get serious and pick a career. Vet med had been the obvious choice and I thoroughly love it.

  Then came the day that changed everything. It was a Friday. I woke up in the morning, took my shower, and had my breakfast. I then suffered through eight hours of school. When the last bell rang at five o’clock I ran to my truck, an old white dodge one ton, and headed out of town to my favorite place in the whole world.

  As I drove up to the stables I could see the staff bringing in the horses for the night. I glanced over at the single pens and saw Dodge waiting his turn patiently.

  “Hey, Hayden!”

  I looked back to the barns and saw Shaynna. Shay was a five years younger than me and was looking forward to her high school graduation in a few weeks. She was the kind of girl who was beautiful and new it, but still didn’t mind getting a little dirty. Her blond hair was short and spiky, her eyes blue. She was always done up.

  Together we walked towards the pens. Dodge nickered when he saw me and I smiled. Shaynna stopped at Macho’s pen and put his halter on. Macho was stunning. He was sleek, black and massive. Her family was into show jumping and he made Dodge look like a shrimp.

  Both horses haltered, we walked back towards the barns.

  “What do you think, Shay? Should we head to the bridge toda
y?”

  “Sounds like a plan!” she smiled.

  I tied Dodge to the outside of his stall and grabbed the brushes from my tack box. When he was brushed and saddled I went out to meet Shaynna and Macho in the outside ring where she was talking to her instructor. I saw her nod when she saw us coming. Macho ambled over to the fence.

  “Hey,” she said. “Do you mind if we go to the bridge tomorrow? Anita is giving an extra lesson today to anyone who wants it and with our first show of the season next weekend, I’d like to get as much practice in as possible.”

  “Sure. Not a problem. I’ll just do the short trail today. Maybe the ropers will be here when I get back and I can give them a hand with the chute. Is Shawn coming tonight?” I asked about her boyfriend.

  She shook her head. “No. He had to work late.”

  I turned Dodge towards the trails that started behind the barns. The second longest trail was my favorite. It went over an old bridge and on either side of the river were flat, grassy banks. I loved packing a book and a bag of chips and just hanging out there while Dodge ate grass.

  I was in such a daydream state that I never noticed when I passed the turn off for the short trail until I got to the bridge.

  “We better keep going, Dodge.” I patted his neck. “Shaynna will worry if we take too long getting back.

  We crossed the bridge and turned left where the trail forked.

  “Tomorrow we’ll take the other one. We’ll have all day to play here.”

  I nudged him into a trot to try and make up for the time we had lost taking the longer trail. After a short while I pulled him to a stop, noticing a new fork in the road.

  “That’s funny. No one said anything about them adding trails...” my voice trailed off because the trail didn’t look like a new addition. It was narrower than the one I was on and slightly grown over. A new trail would have been clean cut. Yet I was positive that it hadn’t been there before.

  I turned Dodge towards the left trail that would take us back to the barns. He balked and pivoted towards the right hand trail.

  “Come on, buddy. We’ve got to head back.”

  Dodge perked his ears up and looked down the trail. I followed his gaze and caught my breath. Farther up the trail, on the ridge of a hill, was a man. He stood as still as a tree. The sun broke through the trees and made his dark brown hair look like it was on fire. His shaggy curls rustled in the breeze. But what caught my attention were his eyes. Even from this distance they bore into mine. Green met blue and locked. I started to feel light headed before I remembered to breath.

  “Holy shit!” I whispered to myself.

  As I inhaled, he tensed. I think I must have blinked because when I focused on the top of the hill again, he was gone.

  I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Did that just happen?” I asked Dodge. I was pretty sure it had though I was known to daydream a lot. “Probably just a hiker taking advantage of a beautiful day,” I told myself. Still, it was weird about the trail.

  Dodge swished his tail.

  “You’re right. We better get going.”

  We picked up a nice steady canter and made our way towards the arena

  When we walked back into the yard Shaynna was leading Macho out of the outdoor ring. She waved at me.

  “How was your lesson?” I asked.

  “Great! I think we’re ready for next weekend.”

  “That’s awesome. You guys will do great.” I swung off of Dodge and started walking to the barn with Shaynna.

  “How was your ride?” she asked.

  “Nice.” I paused. “Did you hear about them cutting down a new trail back there?”

  She shook her head no.

  “Weird. Well, maybe I never noticed it before. It was a little narrower than the main trail.”

  “Where abouts?”

  “After the bridge, just past the clearing.”

  “Hmmm. I don’t remember one there. Are you coming back tomorrow?”

  I nodded. “I’ll be here for ten. Dale is giving a lesson in the morning and I really want to get some more lead changes done on Lena before the show next weekend.”

  Another of the reasons why I put so much time in at the arena was the fact that I also had three horses I was training for other people. My favorite at the moment was Lena, a little three year old dun Quarter horse mare. Her owner wanted her ready as a reiner for the shows this summer. I was also riding Crush, an old chestnut roping horse that needed miles put on to get back into shape. And my newest student was Rosy. She was a two year old Percheron, black as the night itself. She was going to start under harness Sunday when I had a bit more time to play.

  “Ok. I’ll be here just after lunch. I have to watch my nephew tomorrow morning.” I grimaced with her and we laughed. Her five year old nephew was a holy terror. Shay had once compared babysitting him to trying to keep a tornado from destroying whatever it landed on. She had thought bringing him to the barns one day to see the horses might be a good idea until he had disappeared. We had searched high and low for a good hour and Shaynna had been close to tears, thinking the worst had happened. Thankfully, he had simply fallen asleep in the straw bales with some baby kittens he had found. It was the last time she had brought him out.

  We finished brushing the horses and bedded them down for the night. We stopped at the cafeteria to grab an iced tea from the pop machine, then headed out to Shay’s car so she could put her saddle in the back seat. She wanted to oil it before the show.

  Shaynna screamed as someone jumped from behind the main door, picked her up and crushed her against the outside of the building.

  “Shawn!” She giggled and he planted a few quick kisses on her lips. “You scared the crap out of me!”

  Shawn laughed. He pulled her away from the building and hooked his arm around her waist.

  The two of them had been dating for two years now, ever since he had started hauling his horse in to rope twice a week.

  He looked more like a sixteen year old than a nineteen year old. His orange hair, freckles and dark blue eyes nullified any resemblance his 6 foot 2 inch two hundred and thirty pound frame had to an adult’s.

  They looked like such an odd couple at the best of times. Right now a stranger would never have thought it possible they were an item. Shaynna stood in her breeches and half chaps snuggling against his red t-shirt, her hand hooked into the belt loop of his wranglers. His white straw cowboy hat hid both their faces as he leaned in for another kiss.

  “I thought you weren’t coming in tonight!” Shaynna’s face flushed.

  “I got out of work early so I was able to make it in after all.” Shawn reached behind one of the benches in front of the building and pulled out a beautiful pink long stemmed rose.

  She beamed at him, her face the same color as the rose.

  “Ugh.” I smiled. “Too much mushiness for me. I’ll see you tomorrow, Shay!”

  She laughed. “Thought you were staying to help with the chute.”

  “I am.” I smiled at them. “If you promise to keep the mushiness to a minimum.”

  “No promises,” laughed Shay.

  We headed back into the arena. Shay and I went to the chute and loaded the first steer while Shawn went to get his horse Doc. The next couple of hours flew by as everyone took turns heeling and heading. Then we all headed up to the lounge area.

  Shaynna sat down beside me at one of the tables and looked on lovingly as Shawn went to get us all a beer from the fridge.

  Her smile faltered a bit and her eyebrows revealed a bit of a frown. “Your secret admirer is on his way.”

  I groaned, not bothering to look and see who it was.

  “Hi, Hayden.”

  “Hey, Dave.”

  He sat across from me, beside Shawn.

  “Aren’t you a little young to be having a beer?” he asked Shay.

  “Aren’t you a little old to be hitting on Hayden?” she snapped at him

  Shawn choked on his swallow of beer.
>
  I took a long drink from my bottle.

  Dave ignored her and turned back to me. “So I was thinking that we could go to the movies tomorrow night.”

  I was glad I was already busy and didn’t have to make up an excuse. I was a terrible liar. “Some of the girls and I already have a movie night planned. Sorry.”

  “Oh. Well, we could meet up afterwards.”

  “It’s an all nighter. We’re going to Tara’s.” I took another swallow of beer and looked at him. He was handsome. He had deep brown eyes and dark brown hair that went extremely well with his dark complexion. The fact that he was thirty two didn’t even really bother me. It was his attitude that turned me right off. Women were trophies. He had thought it safe when I was dating his friend to treat me like one of his and tell me of all his conquests, but it was backfiring on him now. But I had to give it to him. He was one persistent man. Persistent to the point of being harassing if he’d had too much to drink. On more than one occasion he had shown up at the same club or dance, gotten right pickled and tried to bodily haul me out with him. Thankfully, I never went out alone and usually had a few guys in the group. Shawn was not his biggest fan. But instead of telling him his personality sucked, I went on to give him the same excuse as every other time. I was way too nice.

  “Dave, I told you. It would be too weird if we hooked up after I was with Chris for so long.”

  He shrugged and left it at that. Until the next time, I knew.

  He chugged his beer and got up to get another.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t come back to our table.

  “What a jackass,” muttered Shawn.

  I smiled. “Yeah. That, he is.”