Page 117 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

“You hurt him,” Draco snarled.

“I’m fine,” Sawyer said. He laid his hand on Draco’s back, not understanding exactly what was going on but knowing he needed to diffuse the situation. “I’m fine, Drake. Confused as hell, but fine.”

“It’s okay, Sawyer,” Henry said. “He’s allowed to be mad at me. But look, I’m going to tell you a story, because honestly, I’ll be the only one who can get away with it without getting into trouble. I might have my uncle wrapped around my finger and he’ll be annoyed with me but he won’t actually punish me or anything.”

Draco pulled in a breath and took another step back. “Your uncle?”

Henry sighed and shoved another chip into his mouth. “Meshaq. But don’t freak out, okay? Dammit, you’re freaking out.”

And Draco was. Sawyer felt the tension rocket up about twelve notches in Draco’s body even as he began to actually heat up, his back becoming almost too hot for Sawyer to touch. “He won’t take him,” Draco growled.

“Of course he’s not going to take him! I promise. Look. Let’s just all take a breath and move the snacks to the table and I’ll tell your friend here a little story and bring him into the loop so you don’t have to keep any more secrets from him. Wouldn’t that be great? Isn’t that what you want?”

Draco’s breath caught and a tiny bit of the tension eased. “I would like that.”

“Excellent.” Henry scooped up his soda and grabbed the chips. He carried them over to the kitchen table and plopped down. “Goddess, if my brothers and sisters knew about this, they’d be laughing their asses off. You have no idea.”

Sawyer rubbed his hand down Draco’s back before moving to grab the cookies and his soda. He sat down at the table across from Henry. Draco pulled one of the side chairs next to him and sat down so close that their shoulders were touching.

Sawyer leaned into Draco as he opened the cookies and offered one to him. “Chocolate chip. Your favorite.”

Draco grunted but looked at him, took a cookie, and relaxed a bit more.

“Okay, where was I? Right. So, about like…. Four hundred years ago or something, a seer had a vision. A prophecy. Blah blah Chosen One. Blah blah, savior of the supernatural. The details aren’t all that important except that a warrior was chosen from each clan to form the Chosen One’s circle of protection. And each generation since then, when one guardian passes on, another is chosen.” Henry lifted his arm and held out his wrist. He had a mark there, almost like a tattoo, of two concentric circles. “I’m one of them. These marks appear when we’re chosen. Your friend is a guardian, too. And Beavis and Butthead up the hill, who are probably going to realize I snuck out any second now and come barreling in here, are also guardians. Fair warning.”

Sawyer looked over at Draco, who’d stiffened up again at Henry’s recitation. “What does that mean, you’re part of the circle?” Sawyer asked.

Draco looked over at him with a sad smile. “That means that I have a duty to protect the Chosen One should he or she be revealed in my lifetime. And the portents have all shown that the time is near.”

Henry made a noise and slurped on his Coke. “That’s a fancy way of saying that yours truly, whose job in the circle is officially listed as seer by the way, received a vision of his own. I saw that land,” Henry pointed up the hill toward the McMansion, “and that house. I knew the plans, knew what we were supposed to build. And the next day, Shaggy and Scooby up there showed up on my family’s doorstep because they’d like, smelled me or something ridiculous, and were called to my side. Honestly, it’s all a bunch of mystical hoo hoo if you ask me. My little brother laughed for two hours straight. My dad about had a coronary and called Uncle Meshaq and it was this big thing. Like I’m not twenty-one years old and perfectly capable of having a life outside of my pack.”

“Pack?” Sawyer asked.

“Oh right. It’s going to take me a bit to remember you know none of this so just, like, ask me if you don’t know what I’m talking about, okay? But yeah, pack of shifters. What you might call werewolves, but shifters don’t have to be wolves. They can be a ton of things. Like, I don’t know, dragons. Although dragons aren’t technically considered shifters, but still…” Henry looked at Draco and grinned.

“You can shift into a dragon?” Sawyer asked.

“I can,” Draco said.

“Show me. I wanna see!”

“Maybe later. The other guardians are almost here and they are not happy. I’d rather they not see me in my dragon form and think I’m trying to hurt him.”

Henry groaned and shoved another chip into his mouth as the front door to Sawyer’s house burst open. The sword guy from earlier came charging into the room, sliding to a stop beside Henry. A moment later, the other man came in with a cell phone pressed to his ear. “No problem, Alpha Jerrick. I have eyes on him now. I will absolutely have him call you back. Thank you, sir.”

He ended the call and tucked the phone into his pants pocket with a wicked smile.

Henry’s mouth had fallen open and he was glaring at the guards angrily. “You called my dads!”

“If you want to sneak out like a teenager, I plan on treating you like one.” The two glared at each other.

“I don’t have to ask your permission to do anything. I am an adult and I have my magic to protect me,” Henry hissed.

Sawyer wanted to jump in and defend Henry, especially since he was often treated like an unruly teenager himself. His brothers usually forgot that he was in his twenties and able to take care of himself. He kept quiet though, sparing a quick look to Draco to see how he was handling the confrontation.

He was more than a little surprised when Draco intervened. He pushed to his feet and pulled both of the guards’ attention to him before lowering his head in a bow while placing his right fist over his heart. “I am Draco of the Volsunga clan, guardian of the Chosen One.”

There was clearly some sort of protocol here that they all knew. The tall redhead who’d tattled on Henry scowled for a moment before bowing back to Draco and introducing himself. “I am Eduard of Arimaspia clan.”