Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) by Mireille Chester Page B

of my hand and walked ahead
of me.
    Dodge snorted behind me. He’ll die before
he lets you do anything of the sort.
    I swallowed hard. “He’s used to being able to
save me. There’s nothing he can do against Braw. If he gets close
enough to attack Braw, then Braw is close enough to touch him with
that staff.”
    Gina, who was usually very quiet, put a hand
on my shoulder. “But if Braw is busy separating Jasper from his
tiger, then that gives you that much more time to do your
thing.”
    I looked up at her, shocked, but knowing she
had tapped into what Jasper had been thinking. I glanced down the
trail in time to see him shift and bound into the woods.
    “I’ll meet you guys at the campsite.”
Everyone nodded and I sprinted in the direction he had gone. Of
course, I had no chance of catching up to him. I couldn’t keep up
to him when he was a human, much less when he was a tiger.
    “Jasper!” I called out into the forest, my
heart beating hard from the run and my emotions. I swallowed and
tried to keep the sobs from starting. The thought of watching him
being separated overwhelmed me and I sat on a rock, trying to catch
my breath. The pain that I would feel if he weren’t around engulfed
me. I put my face in my hands and cried.
    “Hayden.”
    I looked up to see Jasper standing a few feet
away, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched over. I
couldn’t remember ever seeing him looking this miserable. I ran to
him and wrapped my arms around him. He took a long shuddering
breath and tilted my head so I was looking at him. His face was
dirty where he had wiped his tears away.
    “I can’t live without you,” he whispered. “Do
you understand? If you go and do a foolish thing like that, I may
as well die trying to stop it.” His eyes searched my face. “Do you
remember when I told you that you brought me back to life the night
you kissed me?”
    I nodded and closed my eyes as he wiped the
tears from my face with his thumb.
    “If you die, my reason for living is gone.”
He crushed me to his chest and I clung to him. “You can’t leave
me.” His voice was hoarse with emotion.
    I took a deep breath. “I won’t,” I
whispered.
    “Promise me.”
    “I promise I won’t leave you.” I reached up
and put my hand against his cheek then did the same with the other.
His week-long stubble scratched against my palms and I smoothed it
with my thumbs. “But you don’t forget your promise.” I cleared my
throat. “You already promised me you wouldn’t leave me.”
    He nodded and brushed some stray hairs away
from my face. “I did. And I won’t.”
    I pulled him down to me and kissed him hard.
It was one of those kisses that held every emotion in the book.
Jasper’s lips answered mine. We were both breathing hard and my
head started to spin. He moved the kiss along my jaw line then down
to my collar bone. He pulled me close and held me against him, his
face pressed against my neck.
    “Don’t ever talk like that again,” he
whispered.
    I shook my head and ran my hands through his
dark brown curls. We stayed that way for a few minutes before
reluctantly letting go of each other. Jasper used a clean spot on
his shirt to wipe my face and I returned the favor. We stood there,
simply looking at each other for a moment.
    “Should we head back?” What I really wanted
to do was spend some time alone with my mate though I knew we had
to get going.
    He nodded, took my hand, and we made our way
back to the campsite.
    Matthew was sitting beside Emelly. He looked
up as we approached, assessed the situation then smiled and, being
Matthew, turned to the business at hand.
    “I was thinking that maybe William, Emelly,
and Steven should use a shifting stone. If they could shift, we
would make better time.”
    “That’s actually not a bad idea,” agreed
Jasper. He looked to Emelly. “Any thoughts on what you might want
to be?”
    Her eyes widened and she looked at Matthew.
She shook her head. “Well, um, I