Moon Phased: The Triple Claim novel Chapter 413

Chapter 206

Chase’s POV

“Chase?” Questioningly came from an extremely shocked Raven, who took two steps back from where she had frozen at the sight of my wolf.

Her hand moved to cover her mouth, as her eyes strayed from mine, rapidly scanning the surrounding area. There was no doubt in my mind that she was looking for Liam, but I knew she wouldn’t find him, because I had already scoped out the area and knew that he hadn’t arrived just yet to meet her.

Knowing that I was working with a small window before he showed, I shifted into my human form, and stood in the middle of the path, blocking her from taking another step forward. I was beyond disappointed in her that she had gone behind my back to meet up with this Liam character, but I kind of already assumed that this was going to be how it was going to pan

out today.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood my ground in front of her, as I raised one eyebrow, while I asked her, “Going somewhere, Princess?”

Raven’s eyes instantly moved back to mine, as her lips parted, but not a single word came from them. Instead, she just stood there staring at me like a deer in headlights, knowing damn well that she was busted.

Uncrossing my arms, I locked my eyes on her, before I slowly closed the distance between us. With each step that I took towards her, her breathing began to labor, as sweat beads began to form on that perfect little forehead of hers.

When I finally made it within a foot, I stopped and lowered my chin to look down at her, but Raven was too ashamed to look up, knowing damn well what she was doing right now was an act of betrayal of our mate bond. But I wasn’t surprised by her actions, as I kind of knew last night that she had chosen to meet him with her lack of response to his last pleads to

her.

I guess I was hoping that at some point during last night or this morning she would have come clean with me, but when that didn’t happen, I made myself scarce, giving her the opening to leave the estate to meet up with him. But little did Raven know she was never going to be given the chance to be alone with him again, as I had all the plans in the world to be there right beside her.

That was why, this morning when I had the meeting with her grandfather, I kept the matters i had at hand brief and to the point. Thankfully, her grandfather was somewhat

Chapter 206

accommodating, and weirdly enough, I had Lexi and Jacob to thank for that. After that matter was settled, I took off without another word to them, deciding to keep this little situation I now had on my hands with Raven to myself, not knowing just yet what was going on. But now that we were here at the designated meeting place, I needed to understand who this Liam character was, and I wanted to hear firsthand from Raven.

Moving my hand to her face, I gently glided the back of my two fingers up her now rosy–red cheeks, before circling back down to her chin. Taking her chin in my hand, I raised her head, and when she had nowhere else to look but at me, I asked her, “Care to explain why you are outside the estate perimeter alone?” Giving her one last opportunity to come clean with me.

“I…” drew out long from her lips, as she contemplated some damn excuse up in that head of hers, but in the end, she closed her mouth and did the right thing by not spinning a web of lies to me. But even though she had chosen not to lie to me, she still hadn’t told me the truth

either.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to confess her plans of betrayal to me, I decided enough was enough. Tightening my hold slightly on her chin, I hold her gaze well. I make my own little confession to her in not so many words.

“Who exactly is Liam to you?” Is all I had to ask her to make those beautiful eyes of hers widen, letting her know that her little secret meet–up was never going to happen on my

watch.

Her lips once again parted, but this time she didn’t hesitate to speak, as she began to make endless excuses to me. “It’s not what you think. Liam is just a friend I made when I was institutionalized, I swear.”

“Then why is he here?” I now asked her, as my mind was trying to figure out why an Alpha of his magnitude would have been willingly institutionalized in the first place. But even more so, why the hell would he travel clear across the country to find a so–called friend he had made there?

Raven’s head began to shake beneath my tightened fingertips, as she said to me, “I honestly don’t know. That’s why I was meeting him, to find out why he was here. I swear to you, Chase, he is just a friend, or at least I thought he was.”

My eyes narrowed with her last statement, wondering why she had added it, making me now believe that he had said or done something to her to make her think differently. But right now, that was irrelevant, because I could now feel we were being watched, and I knew by the strong Alpha presence it had to be him.

Letting go of Raven’s chin, I possessively pulled her into my chest, while my eyes did a scan of our surroundings, knowing there weren’t too many places for an Alpha of his size to hide.

<Chapter 206

But to my surprise, the son of a bitch wasn’t trying to hide one bit from us, as I turned to face the river, coming face to face with the man that tried to flee with my mate last night.

My eyes instantly narrowed as I stared at him, while an instant familiarity washed over me, but I wasn’t the only one that was taken back at first glance, as he too stood there speechless, staring back at me. His features were uncanny to my own, but that wasn’t