Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' Read online

  He grinned.

  “So what made you chose the army?” I asked.

  Jasper picked a small rock from beside him and tossed it into the pond. “I was born into it. My whole family is military. It never occurred to me to do anything else.”

  A bird chirped overhead and I glanced up. “I’ve never seen that many bluebirds together,” I remarked. There were about twelve of them up in the trees.

  “Hmm.” Jasper glanced up. “I’ve never really noticed.” He tilted his head to the side quickly then straightened it.

  “Are you ok?” I frowned a bit.

  His eyes widened. “Oh. Yes. I have a bit of a sore neck. Nothing too important.” He did it again and the blue birds flew away at the motion.

  “Have you seen anyone for it?”

  He laughed. “I’ve been staying out here for the past week. I’m pretty sure it happened when I slipped into the creek. I was trying to bring a fish in. Like I said, it’s nothing.”

  “My dad hurt his neck moving a bed into the house a few years ago. It took about three days and then he couldn’t move at all. I could rub it out for you if you want?” I felt the blood rush to my face the instant the words made their way out of my mouth.

  He smiled. “Well, if it would make you feel better.” He laughed. “I would hate to end up stuck here unable to move.”

  Dodge snorted and Jasper glanced up at him.

  I wagged a mental finger at myself and moved to kneel behind him. “Just tilt your head forward.”

  He tensed a bit at the touch of my fingers on his neck then relaxed and did like I had asked.

  I started out softly, scared to hit the sore spot right away, then started to massage a bit harder. I found a small knot where his neck attached to his shoulders and worked it out, smiling at the little groan that escaped his throat.

  I was reluctant to take my hands off of him when I was done and I realized I was quite turned on. It was taking everything I had not to let my hands rub up his neck and run through his curls. Geez! Hayden Carlson, get a grip!

  I took a deep breath and stood up. “Better?”

  “Hmm hmm. Much better. Thank you.” He stood and looked at me, his eyes burning into mine.

  “Well, I better get going.” I contradicted myself by standing still.

  He smiled, but didn’t seem extremely cheerful. “Alright. Will you come back?”

  I grinned stupidly at the question. “How long will you be camping out here?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. A few more days, for certain.”

  I nodded. “Ok. I’ll come back tomorrow.”

  His smile lit up his whole face. “Great!”

  Dodge stomped a foot and I forced my gaze away from his. “Alright, buddy. Let’s head home.”

  I swung into the saddle. “What time should I come?” I looked down at Jasper’s hand on my knee.

  He laughed. “Whenever. I’m not really on a schedule here. I’ll find you.”

  I nodded. “Ok. It will be after lunch for sure.”

  “Sounds good.”

  We stood still, unable to look away from each other.

  Dodge snorted and Jasper blinked. “See you then,” he said softly and smiled once more before turning and disappearing into the woods.

  I sat looking after him for a minute then shook my head. “You probably just made a date with a serial killer, Hayden,” I muttered to myself.

  Dodge shook out his mane.

  “Alright, Bud. Home time.”

  We set off at a trot and as we stepped back onto the main trail back to the barn I looked back to the top of the hill. My heart jumped in my chest and my eyes widened then narrowed. Had he been there watching? Impossible. There’s no way he could have kept up to Dodge. I laughed at myself. It was time to cut back on the imagination.

  By the time I got back to the stables all the horses were in the barn and having their supper. I gave Dodge an extra scoop of oats and added some molasses like I had promised him.

  “Good night, Buddy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He nuzzled my face and went back to his oats.

  I waved at everyone in the cafeteria, got into my truck and made my way home.

  “Hey, honey.” My mom gave me a quick kiss as I walked through the door.

  “Hey, mom.”

  She took a couple of binders off of the couch and handed them to me. “Tara dropped these off for you.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled at her. I had always thought my mom was the most beautiful woman alive. She had long blond hair and green eyes. Though not the same green as mine. More of an aqua color. She was also tall, a good four inches taller than me. She made a great match for my dad who was six and a half feet. His blond hair was slowly turning silver, but his grey eyes weren’t losing any of their spark. I sometimes wondered what my real parents had looked like, but really wasn’t interested in actually finding out. As far as I was concerned, these two were my parents, the two people who had raised me from the time I was a few months old. Someone had definitely been watching over me the day my adoption papers had been signed.

  “Did you eat? Tara told me you guys had to cancel, so I made enough for you.”

  “No, I’m good, mom. I’m not really hungry. I think I’ll just go upstairs and study.”

  “Ok, Hun. It’s in the fridge if you change your mind.”

  “K.” I made my way upstairs and settled myself at my desk with my genetics notes pulled out.

  I stared at the papers for a good half hour before I realized that the only thing on my mind was Jasper.

  “Geez, Hayden. You think you might be a bit old for a high school crush?” I shook my head. “But he is gorgeous. Good god, those eyes!”

  I laughed at myself. Another thing I do that tends to annoy me is talk to myself. It’s not such a bad thing when I am alone, but I have gotten some strange looks from people who have noticed me doing it.

  I sighed and put my books away. My alarm clock said nine and I shrugged. “Bed time.”

  I changed and lay in bed, my covers pulled up to my chin and fell asleep thinking of Jasper.

  *****

  It was impossible to fall asleep. Jasper rolled over onto his stomach and lay his head in his arms. He remembered the feel of her fingers on his neck; had noticed the slight hesitation when she had been done rubbing out the knot. Had loved how she had blushed when he had looked back at her and smiled. It had taken every ounce of strength he had not lay her on the ground. To take her right then and there. Was it possible she didn’t know what she was doing to him?

  “You have your orders, man”, he growled to himself.

  He looked up at the rustling in the bushes ahead of him. A small grey rabbit made its way into the open then bolted when it spotted him.

  He shrugged and stood up. Since he wasn’t able to sleep, he may as well go hunting.

  *****

  The following morning I jumped out of bed and got dressed. My dad looked up in surprise as I ran down the stairs and threw together a lunch.

  “I’ll be gone all day dad! I’ll let you know about supper.” I gave him a quick kiss and ran to the entrance.

  “What was that all about?” I heard my mom asking.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Bye!” I called back to them as I closed the door.

  I jumped into my truck and made my way out of town. My heart was beating a bit more quickly than usual and I shook my head. I thought of Jasper’s eyes and smiled. It had been a while since I had felt anything like this, or let myself feel anything like this. Maybe it was because he was a stranger. I was pretty sure he wasn’t from around here. He had a bit of an accent that I couldn’t place. Maybe deep down I thought a couple days of fun would be safer than getting attached to someone again just to have them crush me.

  I pulled up to the arena and glanced to the pens. Dodge was already outside. He perked his ears towards me when he saw me heading towards him.

  “Hey, Buddy.” I put his halter on an
d led him to the barns.

  “I brought my books so I can study,” I made small talk with him as I saddled him. “I told Jasper after lunch and I have no clue where his campsite is, so I thought we could go hang out at that little waterfall for the morning.” I wondered how Jasper would manage to find us. “I guess he’ll probably look there first since that’s the only place I know up there.”

  Dodge snorted.

  I went back to the truck and grabbed my lunch, some blankets to sit on and my book bag full of books. Back at Dodge’s stall, I grabbed my sweater out of the tack box. I put that and my lunch into the saddlebags, rolled the blankets and tied them behind my saddle, and pulled my backpack on.

  “Alright. Let’s go.”

  I glanced around outside as I swung into the saddle. There was no one around. I was surprised when I realized I was glad. The thought of having someone else along for the ride today made me frown. Thankfully, I wasn’t going to have to tell Tara or Shay that I didn’t want them to tag along. I was sure it wouldn’t have gone over well.

  I could just hear the conversation in my head.

  “Hey, Hayden, mind if we tag along?”

  “As a matter of fact, girls, I do. I’m on my way to meet a gorgeous stranger out in the middle of nowhere and no one will be able to hear me scream for help when he turns out to be a serial killer.”

  I laughed at myself. I could always try to defend myself with my hoof pick.

  “Ok, Dodge.”

  I turned his head toward the trail and silently wondered if the mystery trail would be there today.

  My stomach stayed in knots over the thought until we passed the clearing. I took a deep breath and smiled. It was there. Dodge seemed to know that was where we were headed and made his way up the hill with no urging from me.

  I was amazed once again at how beautiful the meadow was when we reached it. I guided Dodge to the smaller trail by the creek and took a deep breath to calm the butterflies in my stomach.

  “Man. And to think this place has been here all this time and I never knew about it.”

  Dodge stopped by the pond and waited patiently as I took everything off of him.

  “Shit.”

  Dodge stopped drinking and looked at me.

  “I forgot your hobbles. I put them with Bertha’s harness thinking I was going to work her this morning.”

  He shook his head and went back to drinking.

  “I’ll just put your halter on. No funny business, mister.”

  I could never remember a time when Dodge had ever wandered away from me and was fairly sure he wouldn’t, but didn’t think that testing the theory this far out in the woods was such a good idea. At least this way I could grab the lead rope if he got a bit too far away.

  I unrolled one of the blankets and spread it out over the sand. I pulled one of my notebooks out of my book bag then settled on my stomach.

  I read all of the headings then skimmed over the main points, muttering definitions and answers to questions to myself.

  “Live vaccines... killed vaccines...” I took a break after the vaccines to grab an apple out of the saddle bags. I took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.

  “Intravenous...into the vein. Intramuscular...into the muscle. Subcutaneous....under the skin.”

  I smiled as I studied and lost myself in the definitions. Pharmacology was one of my favorite classes.

  I glanced up to make sure Dodge was still close enough to catch. My eyes widened and I screamed in surprise.

  Jasper started to laugh. He stepped away from the tree he had been leaning on and came towards me. “Sorry. You were concentrating so hard I didn’t want to bother you.”

  I glared at him and tried to get my heartbeats to slow down. “How long have you been standing there?”

  He smiled and sat beside me. “A few minutes.”

  As my breathing got back to normal my irritation slowly dissipated. “Oh. Good god, don’t ever do that to me again!” I smiled.

  He laughed. “So what are you doing?”

  “Studying. I have finals this week.” I lay my head down onto my arms and eased the tension in my shoulders. “What time is it?”

  “It’s after lunch.”

  My stomach growled. “Hmm. So it would seem. Did you eat? I brought a lunch.”

  He shook his head. “I was fishing and lost track of time. Do you like fish?”

  “I love fish.”

  He grinned. “I’ll make lunch. You can study some more if you want.” He wandered into the woods and came back out with sticks and some bigger dead branches.

  “There’s a lighter in my saddlebags if you need one.”

  He shook his head and pulled two stones out of his pocket. I watched in amazement as he struck the stones together and a spark flew toward the sticks and dead grass he had bunched under them. It took three more tries, but he soon had a fair sized fire going.

  “When you go camping, you really go camping!”

  Jasper looked up and smiled.

  I had to catch my breath.

  He went back into the woods and reappeared with a handful of long green branches and a fish. After tying the branches together he placed the fish on top of them and held it over the flames.

  I watched every move he made, unable to look away.

  He glanced sideways at me and smiled. I blushed with the embarrassment of being caught staring. He held my gaze with his and I saw him take a deep breath. He blinked and turned back to the fish.

  “All done.”

  I moved my books out of the way to make room. He held the sticks up in the air for a few minutes to let them cool down then set them on the blanket.

  “That smells great!” I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out the cheese and bread I had brought along.

  Dodge gave a loud sigh and I smiled at him, standing in a sunny spot with his eyes half closed.

  We were quiet as we ate. I concentrated on the food and picking the bones out of the fish so I wouldn’t get caught staring again.

  I started as something moved in the bushes to our right.

  Jasper jumped up and was standing, the movement so quick I wasn’t sure he had been sitting at all.

  Everything seemed to happen all at once. Dodge stepped in front of me just as Jasper looked my way. For a quick second his blue eyes, narrowed with indecision, flashed towards mine. He seemed to make up his mind just as quickly and he ran towards where the noise had been. A growl erupted from his throat.

  I must have blinked, because one second Jasper was running towards the bushes, and the next a tiger was leaping over them.

  There was a loud thump as the tiger collided with something I couldn’t see.

  Dodge pushed his shoulder into me but I was frozen in place. Something grey yelped and streaked through the little clearing, jumping over the creek.

  A wolf! I noticed five red lines on his hip as he flashed into the bushes. Blood!

  That’s when I could move again. “Jasper!” I ran towards the bushes and stopped short when I came face to face with the tiger. It stood there, motionless, staring at me. Its eyes were the same perfect blue as Jasper’s. Its shoulder twitched, making me glance at its side.

  “You’re bleeding.” I wasn’t sure what to do. Part of me wanted to go to it and see if I could help. The other part wanted to run away screaming.

  It seemed to sense my indecision and lay on its side. Mustering all the courage I had, I squatted down beside it and gently touched where the wolf had bitten it. I exhaled with relief. “These aren’t deep at all. I’ll be right back.”

  I ran to Dodge and pulled my sweater out of the saddle bags then went to the creek to wet it.

  I knelt beside the tiger and cautiously wiped the bite clean. It lift its head and looked at me.

  “This has to be a dream,” I told it. “I must have fallen asleep studying.” I nodded to myself, glad with this reasoning.

  The tiger looked concerned and lay its head on my lap. Without thinking I ran my fin
gers through its fur. It started to purr.

  I started to laugh. “This is too much,” I muttered to it.

  The big cat stood up and walked away.

  “Wait! Where are you going?

  The tiger kept walking until it was hidden by the bushes. All I could do was stand and stare. I felt like crying. Maybe it was just the stress of this weird dream, but I didn’t want the tiger to leave. I wanted Jasper to come back.

  As if he read my thoughts, he reappeared from behind the bushes.

  “Jasper!”

  His eyes opened wide as I ran and threw myself into his arms. That’s when I broke down. My tears soaked into his shirt. His arms were unbelievably strong as they held me up. He placed his cheek on top of my head.

  “Shhh..”

  “Wha...wha...what was...that?” I sobbed into his chest.

  He simply smoothed my hair and held me until my sobs had stopped.

  “This can’t be real,” I whispered.

  “I’m so sorry.” His voice was quiet. He held my face gently in his hands. “Are you ok?”

  I gazed into his eyes and nodded weakly. We stayed like that for a minute, looking at each other. He looked away first and turned his focus to Dodge.

  “Do you think?” he asked.

  I jumped. “I didn’t say anything.”

  He looked back down at me and was quiet for a moment. “Alright. Let’s go.”

  “What? Where?” I started to panic. Coming here had definitely been a bad idea.

  “I’ll explain on the way.” He took my hand and started leading me to Dodge.

  “Wait! I...I have to get home. My mom and dad will think something happened to me!”

  I looked at my watch and then my phone. Ten o’clock. AM. “What’s going on!” I pulled my hand free of his and stopped walking.

  He kept walking towards Dodge. “She doesn’t want to go. I can’t make her.” He stuffed my sweater back into my saddlebags and saddled him for me. He went back to the blanket and rolled it up before tying it where it belonged. His eyes widened and he looked at Dodge. “Yes, those are my orders.”