Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Read online

  Destiny

  The Chosen One Trilogy:

  Book Three

  Mireille Chester

  Copyright © 2011 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.

  A big thank you to Germaine Gaudet and Leslie Morgan for helping with the editing;

  To Charlie and my fellow angels: Dennis, Sammie, and Allie, your constant support and friendship have been priceless and a mere thank you doesn’t seem to do justice to how much you’ve come to mean to me therefore I’ll add a few hugs as well;

  A big thank you to all of you who have helped spread the word and have kept this momentum going. Without readers, an author can never succeed. I love each and every one of you even though I may not know you all personally.

  A huge hug to Ray at Baico Publishing Inc. Without you we’d all still be waiting to see what happens to Hayden and Jasper. Also a big thanks for answering all of my questions (some of them more than once) and for making this one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had.

  As always, this book is for my husband, Kyle. Your encouragement has been undying and I will never be able to put into words how much you truly mean to me. I love you, my sweet, even when you read over my shoulder.

  Prologue

  If someone had ever told me I would someday find myself trying to save a world that I had been sure didn’t exist, I would have laughed. The only explanation would have been that a) this person was obviously on some bad, or good, drugs, or b) that this said person had just escaped from a mental hospital and forgotten to take afore mentioned drugs.

  And yet, here I found myself, surrounded by beings I couldn’t have made up had I tried. I looked straight ahead at the human keep in front of me. I shivered, partly with excitement, partially with fear. I took a deep breath and was comforted by the presence of my pack standing behind me.

  I heard a low growl and glanced at the tiger standing beside me. Jasper’s fur was standing on end, his tail twitching. His form blurred as he shifted, rematerializing as a human. He then looked back to Matthew and Luke who were standing just behind us. The blue bird landed on his shoulder and chirped. He turned back to me.

  “Ready?” Jasper’s face was grim. He put his hand on my knee.

  I nodded. “Are they here?” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the walls that surrounded the keep of Paradin.

  “They are.”

  Dodge stretched his wings. It’s about time.

  I took a deep breath and patted his neck then pulled my swords out of the scabbards on my back.

  No. If you or anyone else had told me I would one day be leading an army from the back of a bay Pegasus, I would have laughed. But today, I wasn’t laughing. I gazed down into Jasper’s sky blue eyes.

  “Let’s do this.” I turned back toward the human fortress. “It ends here.”

  Chapter One

  The first indication they had crossed over was the feeling of peace. Everyone stopped, weapons ready, waiting for the fight they knew was coming. Jasper took a deep breath, the crisp night air filling his lungs. He cringed inwardly, waiting for his ribs to feel like they were ripping out of his chest. They didn’t. He looked into the night sky and wanted to dance at the sight of the moons, the smaller of the two partially hidden by the bigger one. He heard Hayden take her own deep breath.

  “It’s just better here, isn’t it?” She was looking down at him, smiling. She looked around and readjusted her legs as Dodge’s wings started to sprout from his shoulders. Her eyes widened and he followed her gaze to where Phlann and Shanus were standing.

  The two draft horses had slowly started to turn back into the Scannoves that they were. Phlann’s palomino coloring lightened, his thick horse neck thickened some more, the hair on it giving way to sun bronzed skin. His arms grew out of the sides of his torso while the horse head became smaller and turned into the handsome face of a young man. He blinked his yellow eyes and smiled.

  “Hello, Hayden. Jasper.” He looked back at Tara who was riding him. “Hang on. I have to shake.” Tara hung on to his shoulders to keep from sliding off of the caramel colored scales that covered his body and laughed. “Ugh. I’ll have to admit, that was not my favorite experience.”

  Shanus chuckled, took his son’s lead and shook himself hard enough to almost drop Ben to the ground. “I agree.” He blew away some of the dark blond bangs that had fallen into his deep brown eyes.

  Jasper had been so busy watching the horses change back that he hadn’t noticed Tara and Ben’s transformations. Ben had shrunk back to his regular height, both of them had some newly pointed ears, and their skin had changed back to the earthy tones he was used to seeing on them; Ben’s being dark brown with green striping and Tara’s khaki green.

  “Jasper.” Hayden said his name and he looked up at her. Her deep green eyes filled with grey and gold flecks were gazing deeply into his. Her right eye always seemed a bit greener than the left now that she had the green vine tattoo under it that marked her as a healer. He watched loose strands of her long dark brown hair dance with the breeze and could imagine it blowing into her pretty face had it not been tied into a ponytail. She smiled. “Much better.”

  “What is?”

  “Your eyes; the pain is gone.”

  He smiled and nodded. A shiver ran through him. “I need to shift.”

  Her smile widened. “So shift,” she laughed.

  He did and adjusted his gaze higher up so he could look at her again. By the moons, it was nice to be home.

  *****

  I took a deep breath and laughed. Jasper’s purr rumbled through him, his sky blue eyes blinked at me, and I knew he wasn’t hurting anymore. It had been a year since I had seen him as a tiger. I put my swords away and slid off of Dodge. The big cat tilted his head in question. I ran my fingers through the thick fur and kissed him softly between the eyes. Jasper shifted back and laughed. The breeze blew some dark curls into his eyes and he brushed them out of the way.

  “Well, where’s this big fight Damian warned us about?” I looked around at the dark meadow, silently praying the leader of the Majs had been wrong. We all turned toward the sound of a bird chirping in the woods at the far end of the clearing. Jasper put his hand to his mouth and made an answering call.

  I waited, knowing Luke was about to appear. Jasper and his adopted brother had come up with a series of whistles and chirps to communicate when they had been forced to fight in battles against each other. I was shocked by the group that came trotting out of the woods. What I’d expected to be a party of three turned out to be a small pack of six. I recognized all of them but one. A wolf, a coyote, a fox, a leopard, a jaguar and a lion came to stand in front of me.

  The large grey wolf shifted and Luke smiled before crushing me in a hug. His usually shaggy dark brown hair was cropped short, his dark brown eyes just as mischievous as usual.

  “What happened to your hair?” I laughed.

  “Tyler and Trent picked a trail that ran through some birn bushes while we were out hunting last week.” I laughed even harder. That was all the explanation I needed. Birn bushes were full of sap that was almost impossible to wash out of clothes and, yes, hair.

  Kacey, the coy
ote, shifted, smiled and nodded. “Hello, Hayden.” It had taken a while, but he was finally able to look a person in the eye when he was talking to them. Coyotes were shy by nature, but Kacey took the cake.

  I turned to where the leopard had been standing in time for Matthew to lift me clean off of the ground. He set me back down and held me out at arm’s length. His green eyes looked me over thoughtfully for a moment. He tilted his head to the side, ran a hand through his dark blond hair, then gave me another hug.

  “There,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Well, it was strange, really. My bond to Melana broke while you were gone and I was able to go to Sageden, but when I got there, I had this horrible feeling. It was like I was lost.” He smiled. “That feeling is gone.” He turned to where the jaguar still sat, looking up at us. “You’ll remember Roger?”

  I nodded. “Of course. You can shift, Roger. There are no rules when it comes to being in my presence. You have to remember that. I’m not your leader. I’m just Hayden.”

  Roger shifted and nodded to me. He was only seventeen and his face still held the innocence of a soldier who had yet to deal with the extremes of war.

  A small man of my height with orange hair and blue eyes walked toward me. He knelt and bowed his head.

  “Colton, miss, at your service.”

  I wanted to laugh. Instead, I knelt in front of him and waited until he met my gaze.

  “Did you hear the comment I made to Roger?”

  He nodded.

  “That goes for you too. No saluting, no bowing.”

  He frowned. “I thought maybe it was because he was a cat. Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’m a dog.”

  This time I did laugh. He looked at me, surprise clear on his face.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did notice.” I took his hand and stood him up. “I don’t care if you’re a Namael or a Maj. Every being that joins our pack is free to do as they please. We aren’t a military pack. We’re a family pack.”

  Kacey’s grey eyes met mine and he smiled. “I tried explaining the rules to him, but he didn’t believe me.”

  I sighed. “Alright. I’ll go through them again. Roger, this is for you too.” I took a deep breath and recited the non-official list of rules that applied to joining our pack of misfits. “We don’t fight unless we have too, we don’t kill if it can be avoided. We are not a troop, or an actual military pack. We are a family. Your input into any discussion is appreciated and any comment that you make will never get you punished. If you feel like leaving to do something, do it.” I looked at Jasper and caught my breath as my eyes met his. All I wanted to do was get lost in those perfect blue eyes and forget about the situation we were about to become involved in. I blinked and turned back to Roger and Colton. “Understood?”

  Alex, the lion, smiled and patted the two of them on the back. “You’ll like it.”

  The two of them nodded.

  A rustle in the bushes to our left had everyone jumping to attention, hands on their weapons. I laughed as a blue merle Australian Shepherd with one brown eye and one white eye came trotting toward us.

  “Kip, heel.” I bent down to pat my dog on the head as he sat by my side. “Alright. Well, obviously, Damian was wrong about the fighting. Let’s head to the waterfall for the rest of the night. We’ll head for home in the morning.”

  Jasper pulled me into his arms before I swung onto Dodge. He looked searchingly at my face before kissing me softly. I smiled. “I’m fine,” I whispered low enough so that only he could hear.

  “The baby?” His mouth was against my ear. I nodded and hugged him tightly. “Let’s go get some sleep.” He gave me another quick kiss before boosting me onto Dodge. His hand lingered a fraction of a second over my belly where our child was growing. It had already passed its first test by making the crossing with us.

  Kip ran ahead of us, glancing back occasionally to make sure he was heading in the right direction. He was leading by a good margin when he stopped short and whined. He lowered his head in the tall grass. Jasper took the lead and knelt beside our dog.

  “Everyone down.”

  I flattened myself on Dodge’s back and we moved forward to see what Kip had found. My heart jumped in my throat and I slid to the ground.

  “Is he alive?”

  Jasper rolled the blond man over onto his back. I pulled his shirt up and tried not to gag at the sight in front of me.

  “Oh, god! What happened to him?” The man’s whole abdomen had been torn open. His insides lay exposed in a surreal painting of red, black and grey. I had never been one for throwing up at the sight of blood but was forced to swallow hard a few times before I was sure I wouldn’t do just that.

  Jasper rolled the dead man over and checked behind his ear. “He’s a dog.”

  Luke reached back to his own ear and touched his own crescent shaped mark. “It looks like they ripped him apart. Turn him back over. I wasn’t really looking at his face. Maybe Kacey, Colton, or I know him.”

  Jasper obliged his brother and the three Majs looked down and tried to recognize the dead man. I took another glimpse and had to scramble away on all fours in order to throw up a short distance away. My stomach heaved and I took a deep breath as Jasper put a hand on my back.

  “Are you alright?”

  I nodded and wiped my arm across my mouth. I took the canteen Matthew had brought over. “I think it’s the baby.”

  Matthew’s eyes widened into green saucers. Luke’s head turned in our direction and I realized I had said it much louder than I had meant too. Kacey, Matthew, Luke, and Alex came to stand closer to me.

  Luke, the only parent in the group, took my hand and helped me up. “How far along?”

  I took a deep breath. “About eight weeks.”

  Matthew gave Jasper a slap on the back. “When were you going to tell us?” My mate smiled and shrugged. He looked back to me, his sky blue eyes full of worry.

  “Are you sure you’re alright?”

  “I’m fine. Anyway, we weren’t going to tell anyone.”

  Luke looked back down at me.

  “There’s no point getting all excited about it when the chances are good it won’t make it.” A lump made its way up my throat.

  “We were a little worried about it being able to cross,” explained Jasper. “But now that it’s here, we have to be realistic. Hayden will be a part of the battles we are about to fight. When we call out Braw, she’ll be the main instrument in trying to defeat him.”

  Everyone was quiet, lost in their thoughts.

  Kip barked and everybody jumped. The hair on his back rose and his lips curled back as he bared his teeth and started to growl. We all lay low in the grass, Shanus, Phlann, and Dodge moving so that they were hidden by a clump of bushes. I pulled Kip down beside me and tried to get him to be quiet without making any of noise of my own.

  “See? I told you. You’re hearing things.” The voice floated on the breeze and made its way to our ears. “Let’s go. The sooner we get home, the better. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been stuck in this place for far too long.” The second being grumbled an agreement and the two of them turned and walked away.

  I looked up quickly and sent a nudge of magic toward the two beings. Their lack of aura made me shiver.

  “They’re humans,” I whispered to Jasper. He nodded to let me know he had heard before shifting. Everyone else that could followed suit and we inched our way in the direction the two had taken. I looked back and waited for Alex to catch up to me. “Is Cholta at the waterfall?”

  The lion nodded its big head and I sighed with relief. We were heading in the opposite direction. Knowing that he was lying there alone and hurt made me want to abandon this little recon mission and go to him in the hopes of being able to heal him.

  Jasper stopped and looked back. I made my way to his side and followed his gaze. I squinted and tried to make out the shapes that were moving through the shadows of the forest. There looked to be about fift
een beings, some of them sleeping, others up and about. They hadn’t lit a fire. I sent my magic nudge toward them and scanned them one by one. I touched Jasper’s shoulder.

  “They’re all human except for the three that are lying under those bushes to the left. Those are Majs.”

  He nodded and gave some unseen signal. Our pack separated and started to circle around the group in front of us. He squeezed my hand and kissed me softly.

  “Can you make a tree catch on fire?” He pointed in the direction he wanted. I nodded. He shifted, paused, and shifted back. “You stay here. Make it as far away from you as possible. Do you understand? Wait until Luke is with the three under the bushes.”

  “But..”

  He shook his head. “No, Shlova. You stay here. Once everything settles down, then you get to those Majs and see if they need help.” He had his captain of the guard, you will listen to me look on his face.

  I sighed. There was no point in arguing with him when he had that look on. Well, there was. We just didn’t have time to argue and try to prove which one of us was the most stubborn today. “Fine.”

  His gaze softened before he turned and disappeared in the long grass. I poked my head up so I could watch for Luke. I didn’t have to wait long. I turned in the direction Jasper had pointed and picked a tall tree. The red waves moved in front of me and I plucked the lightest one from the air. I took a quick look around the tree to make sure none of my pack was in harm’s way before throwing the wave at the branches. These burst into flames and the wooded area we were in was easier to see.

  There was a chorus of surprised cries from the humans which was quickly followed by the attack from our group. Luke ran to cover the fallen Majs and was soon circling with a human that was shifted into a coyote. I looked around and found Kacey facing off with two humans. Matthew and Jasper were standing back to back, both of them shifted, surrounded by six humans, all of these shifted into various dogs. Two of them fell as arrows struck them, their archers galloping into sight on the backs of Scannoves. Tara and Ben slid off of Phlann and Shanus, pulling their daggers. The two scaly horse men reached back and pulled huge broad swords out of the scabbards on their backs.