Moon Phased: The Triple Claim

Chapter3

Raven’s POV

“Wake up.” echoed in my head, as I rolled onto my side, muttering half asleep, “Just a few more minutes,” Not wanting to get out of bed yet, because, for the first time in a long time, I was having a peaceful sleep.

“I told you seven twenty.” I then heard his voice say, making me shoot straight up in bed, to find Chase standing at the foot of it.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” I asked him, as I pulled my blanket up to cover myself, not wanting him to see me in my pink bunny pajamas, but by the look on his face, he had already gotten a sneak peek of them.

With a devious grin now on his face, he says to me, “Your grandmother let me in.”

“That doesn’t explain why you are in my room.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be in your room, Princess, if you had been ready when I told you to be.” He now says to me, making me reach for my phone to check the time, but my dang phone was dead, which made no sense because it was plugged in.

“I’m sorry. The outlet must not work.” I said to him, giving him an explanation of why I had slept in, as I pulled up the cord following it all the way back to the plug, where it remained plugged in.

Under his breath, he says sarcastically, “I’m sure that’s not the only thing around here that doesn’t work.” As he turns towards my mother’s vanity, making me quickly move from the protection of my blanket, scurrying out of the bed, not wanting him to see the picture of my mother and his father together.

Placing myself between him and my mother’s vanity, trying to block the mirror, was a chore in itself, as Chase’s massive structure consumed most of my tiny room. As I accidentally bump into him in the process of doing so, he takes a step back from me, as his eyes widen and darken at the same time, while he growls at me, “Don’t ever touch me again.”

I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t had my morning coffee yet, or the fact that I had enough of his anger being taken out on me, but I couldn’t contain myself when I said back to him, “If you weren’t in my damn room taking up half of it then I wouldn’t have bumped into you.”

What sounded like a growl comes from his lips, making me rethink if I should have gone off on him, as I take a step back, finding myself pinned between him and the vanity, while he takes a step towards me. My heart began to race in my chest, as I stared into his eyes, which looked like they were darkening by the second. His head slowly lowered towards me, and he took in a deep inhale, as if he was smelling me, while his eyes closed, making me wonder what the hell he was doing.

My hands gripped tightly on the edge of the vanity, as he continued to invade my space, and if I was being honest with myself, my body was starting to react to his proximity to me. I would be lying to myself if I said I didn’t find him attractive, but this thing he had going on right now was sending me mixed signals. He wasn’t like any of the guys I had dated back in California, but he had this bad boy persona and a look that made my lady bits want to scream out for attention.

He was now hovering over me, so closely that if I made a sudden move, our heads would collide, making me take a deep breath, as I dared not to move. The smell of cool mint now tickled my nose, while he took deep breaths, as if he was trying to get a grip on whatever this was he was doing.

Slowly his eyes open, staring deep into my own, before he takes a step back from me, and I find myself leaving out a breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding, while my grip loosened on the vanity’s edge.

“Get dressed Princess. We are going to be late.” He finally says to me, before he turns and just walks out of my room, leaving me to wonder what the hell just happened between us.

Thankfully, I had showered last night, and had set out my clothes to wear today, because this was going to be the fastest I had ever gotten ready for school in my life.

As I stepped out of my room, I spotted my grandmother sitting in a rocking chair with a huge smile on her face, making me wonder why she was so happy this morning, but she didn’t leave me wondering too long.

“I remember when Evan used to come every morning to pick your mother up for school. He was so good to her. And now seeing Chase…” She began to say, but I quickly cut her off by saying, “It’s not like that.” Not wanting her to get her hopes up that there was something romantic going on between the two of us, because there wasn’t. Plus, I honestly didn’t want to hear about what my mother did before my father.

Not giving her a chance to say another word to me, I headed out the front door and stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted the blue jeep sitting in the driveway with the top down. “You have to be kidding me.” I thought to myself, as I willed myself to walk towards it, knowing that by the time we got to school my hair was going to be a tangled mess.

Throwing my backpack in the backseat, I pulled the hair tie off my wrist, putting my hair in a low ponytail, before I got into the passenger seat. “Buckle up, Princess.” Chase said to me with a smirk on his face, as he took off down my grandmother’s lane, purposely hitting every single bump he could find, as I held on to whatever I could to steady myself.

Reaching over, he turned the radio on, turning it up as loud as it could go, before he didn’t even pause to check for traffic, pulling out onto the road on I swear two wheels. It was clear that he was trying to make a statement about having to be my chauffeur, and that he wasn’t happy about it, but it wasn’t my doing, and if he kept this up, he was going to kill the both of us.

Reaching over, I turned the radio off, before I said to him, “Are you trying to kill me?”

He let out a damn chuckle as if he thought what I said was funny, before he turns his head to look at me and says, “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it by now.”

Before I could process his words, the sound of a car horn fills the air, and I quickly turn my head to see that his jeep was halfway over in the other lane, as a car was coming straight for us. Flashbacks of the night of the accident began to flash before my eyes, and I found myself bracing for impact, but the impact never came, as Chase turned the steering wheel just at the nick of time to avoid the car.

My breathing at that moment became unsteady, and I began to find it hard to breathe, as I could feel one of my panic attacks coming on, that I started to have after the accident.

“Pull over!” I screamed, as my hand reached for the door handle, wanting him to stop so I could get the hell out of his jeep.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked as my door opened, while the jeep was still moving, but he quickly hit the brakes, slowing the jeep down, as he pulled off the side of the road.

Quickly, I unbuckled my seat belt before jumping out, as I bent over trying to catch my breath, while I heard his car door shut.

“Are you crazy?” He yells at me, as he walks around the front of the jeep, but when he sees me in my current state his tone changes, as he rushes to me, placing his hand on my back as he now asks me, “Are you okay?”

Hell no, I wasn’t okay, and it was because of him and his reckless driving why I was in the state I was in now, and if he thought I wanted him to comfort me, he was dead wrong.

Standing, I stepped away from him, as I said to him through gritted teeth, “Leave me the hell alone.” While I moved to his jeep, grabbing my backpack from the backseat before I threw it over my shoulders and began to walk away from him.

“Raven, stop!” He called out to me, but instead of stopping, I raised my hand, flipping him off as I continued to walk.

A low growl that sounded animalistic filled the air, making me stop dead in my tracks, as I looked towards the forest surrounding me, half scared of what was lurking in them.

“Raven, get back in the jeep!” Chase now says with authority in his tone, making me wonder if he too had heard the growl.

Once again, I found myself at a crossroads, of either getting eaten by a wild animal on my first morning here or getting back in the jeep with someone who clearly wasn’t mentally stable. Neither of my choices sounded good, but at least I knew with Chase, I wouldn’t have to worry about him having me for breakfast.