Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (42 page)

“I couldn’t make up my mind when would
be the best time to tell you.” Hayden’s voice was just a whisper.
“But if something happens when I cross over…”

Jasper’s heart was pounding in his
chest. Her shield was slipping and he could feel the fear. The fear
fell away and the confusion took over, which was followed by
excitement, and more fear.

“I’m pregnant.”

His heart stopped. “What?”

“I…I…”

He stood and pulled her up and crushed
her lips with his. His arms snaked around her waist and he lifted
her off of the ground. He set her down and smiled down at her. She
was crying again and he wiped the tears from her cheeks with his
thumb before kissing her softly.

“I thought this was what we wanted.” He
tilted her face up so she would look at him.

“It was. It is. It’s just…What if it
can’t cross? And even you said it. The next while is going to be a
horrible time to raise little ones. I mean, I’ll be in the middle
of it all. Remember what happened to Dawn?”

The more she talked, the bigger the
lump in his throat got. He swallowed hard and tried to make it go
away. She had already convinced herself she was going to lose the
baby. He started to panic. His chest hurt and he was finding it
hard to breathe. Chances were, she was right.

“Shlova.”

She blinked away fresh tears and took a
deep breath.

“Hayden, you have to stay
here.”

Her green eyes widened. “What? No!
You’re not going without me!”

“It will be fine. I’ll go talk to
Rainen. When she’s on board with our plan, I’ll come back here.
We’ll postpone our march on Braw until after the baby is
born.”

She was shaking her head. “If I’m not
with you, they’ll kill you.”

“Then we’ll both wait.”

She was quiet for a moment. He sat on
the bed and watched her think. He was starting to think he might
have convinced her when she shook her head again and his heart
dropped. If they crossed over tonight, he might not only lose the
child he had always wanted, he might very well lose the only woman
he had ever loved. Hayden came to sit beside him.

“Luke and Alex, they might all be
there. We can’t leave them to fight alone.”

Jasper growled in frustration. “By the
moons, Hayden, could you be selfish for once in your life? You’ll
stay here. I’ll cross over. When the fighting’s over I’ll come
back!”

“You’re not going off to fight without
me!” She started to cry.

He rubbed his hands over his face and
took a deep breath. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” He could barely hear
her. He looked over at her and his heart broke. She looked so lost;
absolutely devastated. He lay back on the bed and pulled her down
so that she was snuggled into his chest. He kissed her forehead and
held her close.

“Let’s start over.”

She looked up at him.
“What?”

He smiled. “So what’s this big news you
wanted to tell me?”

She raised an eyebrow at
him.

“Well? Come on, now. We have to leave
soon. I don’t think Shay would appreciate us being late for the
wedding considering we’re the best man and maid of
honor.”

She laughed and he felt the joy she had
been trying not to feel. She rolled onto her back, took his hand
and placed it on her belly. He leaned forward and kissed her
softly. She ran her fingers through his hair and smiled.

“I’m pregnant.”

His heart soared and he brushed his
lips against hers. “That’s fantastic.” He laughed and rolled back,
pulling her on top of his chest. “I love you.”

Hayden kissed him lightly and sighed.
“I love you more.”

*****

I watched Jasper standing beside Shawn
while we waited for Shay to walk down the aisle and couldn’t help
but forget about my worries. He looked unbelievable in his black
jeans, white dress shirt and dark blue vest. I didn’t think he’d
stopped smiling since we had left the house. He caught me looking
at him and his grin widened.

I beamed at him. If I had done the math
correctly, I was about eight weeks along in the pregnancy. My heart
jumped and I tried not to think about all the ifs that could go
wrong and concentrated on being happy. And I was extremely
happy.

The organ player started playing and
everyone looked to the back of the church expectantly. Shay
appeared on her father’s arm looking exactly like a model from a
bridal magazine. Her shoulder length blond hair was loose, hanging
in tight ringlets and was decorated with baby’s breath. Her dress
was a strapless white satin number that was tight in the bodice and
flared at the waist.

The whole ceremony went without a hitch
and we were soon all at the riding arena where the party was being
held. There were still two hours before everyone was due to arrive
and I took advantage of our time alone to slip out of my high
heels. Tara grinned and did the same.

Ben, who had been called on to fill in
for Shawn’s groomsman that had fallen sick, came over carrying a
beer for everyone. Jasper took his and I shook my head.

Tara looked at me curiously. “Are you
feeling sick?”

“No. I’m fine. I just don’t want to
drink before we fight.” After a bit of discussion on the way to the
church, Jasper and I had agreed to keep the baby to ourselves for a
while.

Ben laughed. “Hayden, you usually have
a shot of jeckden before a fight if you know its
coming.”

I looked over at Jasper and he smiled.
It had been my idea not to tell anyone. I was on my own.

“You know, you two have been acting
strange all day.” Shay stood in front of us and placed her hands on
her hips.

“What? How?” I didn’t think we had been
acting differently at all.

“Just a lot more touchy feely. You two
can make a regular couple look like they hate each other on the
best of days, but today, you’d think it was the two of you getting
married instead of us. And these secret little looks.”

I looked away from Jasper and laughed.
He came to stand behind me and rest his chin on my head. He bent
down so that his mouth was by my ear.

“Can I tell them?”

I looked back at him and burst out
laughing. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning. “Yes. You can
tell them.”

Everyone looked at us expectantly and
Jasper kissed me before turning his attention back to
them.

“I’m going to be a daddy.”

Shay squealed and gave us both hugs.
“Oh, my god! That’s awesome!”

Ben poured me an orange juice and
everyone else grabbed their beer. “Congratulations.”

Jasper sat down and pulled me onto his
lap. I leaned my head against his shoulder and took a deep breath.
Tara sat beside us.

“I, well, I don’t want to seem unhappy
for you…” Her caramel colored eyes met mine and I smiled
sadly.

“I know. That’s why I didn’t want to
tell anyone.”

She put a hand on my arm. “Do you think
it will be able to cross?”

Jasper nodded. “Shay was able to cross
because Hayden was touching her. Since the baby is in her, I think
it’s safe to assume it will be fine.”

“God, Hayden, Jasper. I’m sorry. I
just…the first thing I thought about was Dawn.”

“I know.” There was a lump forming in
my throat. At least Dawn had been far enough along that Kara had
been alright.

“What if you stayed here until it was
born?” Ben was standing behind Tara.

“I can’t. I’m needed over there. I’m
the missing piece of the puzzle, right?”

Jasper’s arms tightened around me.
“Don’t worry, Shlova. Things will work out how they are supposed
to.”

I took a deep breath and looked into
his perfect blue eyes. He held my face gently in his hands and
brushed his lips softly against mine. I sighed and kissed him
back.

“How do you do that?”

He smiled. “What?”

“Make me feel better with a
kiss.”

He kissed me again. “I’m not sure. But
I’m glad it works.”

“Me too.” My heart lifted and I
smiled.

He put a hand over my belly and kissed
me deeply. “Now. We have a wedding we need to finish
enjoying.”

I looked at Shay and was shocked to see
tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong, Shay?”

She shook her head. “I just…I’m gonna
miss you guys.”

Tara and I pulled her into a hug. When
we pulled back we were all crying. I smiled and hugged them again.
“Come on, now. Look at us! This is your wedding! No more crying
unless it’s the happy kind. Now, come along, Mrs. Johnson. We need
to go fix your makeup.”

I had laughed when I’d found out Shawn
had picked his own last name when he’d gotten his fake ID’s. He’d
shrugged and said it was easy to remember. I’d helped Jasper pick
Mackenzie. I thought it went well with our story that he was from
Scotland.

Tara, Shay and I headed to the
bathroom.

*****

“Hey! There’s some horses loose in the
back!” Shay’s uncle came stumbling toward us.

Shawn stood up. “We’d better go
check.”

We got up and headed outside, moving
quietly in case the horses were skittish.

“Do you see anything?” I took Jasper’s
hand. Even without his tiger half he still had better night vision
than me.

“No. Isn’t there usually a light back
here?”

Shay glanced up the pole that held the
yard light. “Ooh. Look at the moon.”

I looked up and squeezed Jasper’s hand.
“It’s time.”

A horse snorted from in the
shadows.

“They’re over by the outdoor ring.”
Tara started walking in that direction.

Ben came jogging up to us. “I just
checked the barn. No one’s missing.”

We all stopped short.

“There’s a farm up the road. Maybe
they’re from there.” Shawn was peering into the
darkness.

The horse blew out of his nose and
walked toward us, into the moonlight.

My heart jumped and I ran toward it.
“Dodge!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
“How are you? God, I missed you!”

His laughter rang through my
head.
I missed you too. It’s amazing how
dull life is without you around. And I’m doing well. How about
you?

I stood back to look at him. His wings
were gone and the emerald in his forehead was nowhere to be found.
“I’m great! Man, you’ll never believe who turned out to be a Maj!
Dave!”

His head came up in
surprise.

“Yeah! I know! But it’s a long story,
so I’ll tell you about it later.” I looked around. “Shay’s uncle
said there was more than one horse running loose. Was he right or
just really drunk?”

He was right.

As if on cue, two more horses came
walking out of the shadows. These looked like large draft horses,
maybe a couple of Clydesdale crosses. One was a dark chestnut, the
slightly shorter one a palomino. The palomino’s eyes held a
familiar mischievous gleam. It walked up to me and nudged my
shoulder.

“Oh, my god!” I hugged the huge neck
then kissed the fuzzy nose. “Phlann, is that you?”He nodded and I
turned to the chestnut and hugged him as well. “Shanus.”

Jasper nodded to both of them. “Were
Luke, Kacey and Alex able to come as well?”

Shanus nodded.

“Where’s Prense?” I looked into the
shadows expecting a blue roan Clydesdale to appear.

There was an ambush on
Sageden by the humans. They were looking for you
. Dodge swished his tail.
That was
about six weeks ago. Fillian was hurt. She’s fine now, but at the
time, she was too hurt to heal anyone else who needed it. Prense,
Mel, and Leslie have been helping take care of the wounded. The
rule of thumb with healing was that if you didn’t heal the damage
in the first forty-eight hours, the regular green wave didn’t
work
.

My chest tightened and any thoughts I
might have had about staying behind vanished.

Jasper put a hand on my shoulder and I
tried to relax. “How many wounded?”

About twenty beings
altogether. There were six we couldn’t save
.

“Who?” Ben was extremely
pale.

Cholta’s nephew, Grainse,
three other Wedelves whom I don’t know, and two Namaels who had
been in town.

“What about our pack?” Tara looked to
Dodge.

Brinnan, Lantoc, Alex and
Cholta were hurt. Brinnan and Lantoc will recover well enough. Alex
is fine. Cholta is still in a bad state. Fillian said he needs the
darker green wave, the one she can’t use and even then she is not
sure it will work because of the time that has elapsed. We brought
him with us. Maybe you can have a look at him once the fight is
over.