Twisted Moon - Mate's & Magic Book 1

Chapter 9: Cristina

Grayson dropped me off a few houses down from my house so my mom wouldn't see me getting out of his car. I walk the towards my house a little apprehensively. I'm scared of what my mom will do when I walk through the door. I know she is home because her car is in the driveway. I put my new phone inside my backpack which Grayson handed me before I got out of the truck. I totally forgot about my backpack but I'm glad he remembered because I have homework to finish up before school tomorrow, if I make it there.
I stand at the front door taking in a calming breath and squaring my shoulders, trying to prepare myself for what is to come tonight. I open the door slowly and walk inside I don't see my mother right away so I decide to go upstairs and put my stuff down. I walk into my room and put my backpack on my bed and sit down next to it.
"Cristina, is that you?Get your stupid ass down here" my mom yells from downstairs. I get up and walk out of my room and downstairs.
"Yes, mom" I say and go into the kitchen where she is. She is sitting at the kitchen table but gets up as soon as she see's me. She comes over and slaps me hard across the face. I can taste blood in my mouth from the hit.
"Where the fuck have you been? What were you doing whoring around?Everything I do for you, you never appreciate it. You would rather go off and fuck any boy who looks at you" she says that while she continues to hit me.
"You know what since you think you can do whatever you want, you can get out of my house" I just stand there stunned. She's kicking me out?
"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!" she screams in my face and grabs me by the hair and shoves me out of the kitchen.
I turn and start running up the stairs to go grab my backpack. My mom follows me up.
"Don't you dare take a thing from this house, nothing belongs to you" she yells angrily.
"I need my backpack for school" I tell her hoping she will let me take it. The phone Grayson just got me is in there and I'll need it.
"Take your backpack but that's it, don't touch anything else and get out. And you better figure out how to get to and from school from wherever you're going, I don't want any trouble because of you."
I grab my backpack, turnaround, push past her and run down the stairs and out the front door. I run down the street not really knowing where I'm going but wanting to get as far away from her before she changes her mind and makes me stay.
Once I'm far enough away that I can't see the house anymore I stop and pull out the cell phone from my backpack. The phone was an IPhone and I take it out of the white box it came in. The phone itself was white and gold every pretty and elegant looking. I try to remember how to turn it on like the salesperson showed me.
I stop when I hear a noise come from my right side. I'm next to a wooded area and now know better then to venture into the woods by myself. I turn to see what made the noise and see some guy standing about fifty feet away just staring at me. I zip my backpack, back up and put in on, never looking away from the guy. I have no idea who the guy is, I've never seen him before, but he reminds me of someone, I'm just not sure who. Something seems off with him and it scares me. It's probably just my nerves after everything that I have been through. I look down at the phone and get it to turn on. I look back at where the guy was but I don't see him anywhere. I push the phone button on the screen and click on Grayson's name.
I can't believe she just kicked me out. I mean I thought she would never let me leave the house again not make me leave. I'm relieved but scared at the same time. I don't know where I'll stay or how I'll get back and forth to school. I don't want to burden Grayson and his family. Maybe I can stay there for a bit and get a job so I can save up some money to get a place for myself. Yeah I'll talk to Grayson about that. Hopefully they will help me for a little while. I'll have to look for a job right away but it will all be worth it to get away from my mom.
I hear it ring once before he answers.
"Cristina, what's going on?" he asks. I'm relieved to hear his voice.
"My mom kicked me out" I say still in shock.
"Seriously?" he says and I can hear the happiness in his voice.
"Yeah"
"Umm do you think I could stay with you for a little while? I don't have anywhere else to go, if it's a problem then don't worry about it" I say a little nervous.
"Of course you're staying with me. Where are you, I'll come get you"
"I'm like a mile from my house" I tell him.
"Stay there I'll be there in like five minutes"
"How about you meet me at Edgewood Park it's only a couple minute walk from here. I don't want to just stand in the street" I tell him.
"Yeah okay I'll meet you there. Be safe" he says and hangs up.
It takes me three minutes to get to the park and I sit down on the swings waiting for Grayson to show up. I hear a car pull up and see Grayson's black SUV. He gets out and walks towards me. I get off the swing and grab my backpack off the ground and start walking towards him. When I get to him he pulls me into a hug.
q"I thought something bad had happened when you call. When I saw your name on the screen my heart stopped, I just dropped you off." he says still hugging me.
"Did she do that to you?" he asks angrily. I nod and continue to look at him.
"You will never see her again and she will never hurt you again, I promise you that" he says. I sure hope not, she promised me hell if she ever saw me again and I really don't want that. I would rather live on the streets then go back to her again. We got into the SUV and Grayson started driving to his house.
"Thank you for letting me stay with you and for coming and getting me. I'll get a job somewhere and find my own place as soon as I can I promise" I say and he looks over at me like I was talking gibberish.
"You just worry about finishing school and after you graduate if you still want a job we will talk about it then" he says looking back at the road.
"But I need a job. I need to get clothes and things like that. I don't have anything anymore." I argue.
"It's fine I'll take care of everything, don't worry about that."
"Look it's nice enough that you're letting me stay with you I can't expect you to pay for things for me." I tell him.
"Cristina, I'm your mate. It is expected of me to take care of you. Clothes, food, whatever you want I'll get it for you. If I let you go out and get a job so you can buy your own things, the pack will look down on me as their Alpha. They'll think I can't take care of you and if I can't take care of my own mate how am I supposed  to take care of the pack as a whole. I'll get you anything you need or want and like I said if you want to get a job after you graduate we will talk then, but I think you will be to busy then" he says and I don't think I'm going to win this right now so I just keep my mouth shut.
I'll look for a job tomorrow. I get where he is coming from but it would make feel better if I was at least helping out.
By the time we get back to Grayson's house it is around six o'clock. I get out of the SUV and see Grayson's mom Melissa waiting at the door. She comes over to me and pulls me into an embrace.
"I'm so glad you're here, although I'm sorry about the way it happened, but I think it is for the best that you're with us. We will take care of you" she says, then lets me go.
"Thank you guy for letting me stay here, I really appreciate it" I tell her.
"Oh honey, you're pretty much family now no need to thank us and besides you were going to end up here sooner or later. I'm just glad it was sooner rather than later, now come on you can put your stuff up and get comfortable, dinner is almost done, Helga made steak tonight. If you don't want that she can make you something else to eat" I grimace at Helga's name and Grayson catches it.
"Don't worry about Helga, I put her in her place yesterday and if you have any problems with her just let me know and I'll send her away. She has already been warned" he says. That doesn't make me feel any better.
We walk into the house and Grayson leads me upstairs and into his bedroom. I pause slightly and look at him with a sense of trepidation. 'Does he expect to me to share a bed with him' I think to myself.
Grayson looks back at me and smiles "don't worry if you don't want to sleep with me I'll sleep in one of the guest rooms down the hall" he says.
"I can't take over your room, why don't I just go and stay in one of the guest rooms and you keep your room"
"You will be more comfortable in here, besides you're my mate and this room also belongs to you" he says and now I feel bad, but I don't think I'm ready to share a room with him yet.
"Please just let me stay in one of the other rooms, this is your room and if I stay in here I'll bad" I tell him getting a bit agitated. I just don't see what the big deal is with me staying in a different room.
"Don't feel bad Cristina, I want you to stay in here, everything I have also belongs to you. Sooner or later you're going to have to realize that. Now you're staying in here and that's final. Now why don't you go take a shower. I'll get Victoria to get you something to wear and tomorrow after school we can go get you some clothes" he says and walks out of the bedroom. I highly doubt anything Victoria has will fit me. I sigh and walk into the bathroom.
I look around the bathroom and see a shelving unit that has towels on it. I turn the shower on and I strip out of my clothes. The hot water feels amazing on my skin, relaxing my sore muscles. I see Grayson's body wash and decide to use it. I hope he won't mind. After washing my body and hair, I get out and wrap the towel around my body. I whip the mirror with my hand so I can see me reflection. The left side of my face is red and looks a bit swollen I groan and walk over to the bathroom door. I open it a tiny bit to make sure no one is in the bedroom, before walking out. On the bed I see a pair of black sweatpants and a grey t-shirt. I go back into the bathroom and grab my underwear. I feel weird knowing they are dirty but I don't want to put on someone else's clothes without underwear on. I finish getting dressed and surprisingly the clothes fit. The shirt is a bit tighter than I normally wear but at least they are clean.
I decide to head downstairs, not knowing what else to do. When I hit the last step Melissa comes from around the corner.
"Ah perfect timing dinner is done" she smiles.
I smile back and follow her to the dining room. Seated at the table on the far side from left to right is Ethan, Melissa, and Logan, on the side closest to me is Reed, Silas and Victoria, next to Victoria is an empty seat by Grayson who is sitting at the head of the table. There is seven empty seats at the other end of the table.
"Thank you for the clothes Victoria" I tell her sitting down.
"No problem, I'm glad to have another girl around the house. Seriously you have no idea how hard it is to have no girlfriends to hang out with or at least the girls that try to hang out with me just want to get close to me so they can get close to one of my brothers. And believe me I tried to hang out with them but all they wanted to do was talk about how hot my brothers are I mean eww, what sister want to talk about that. There was this one girl I think her name was Clarissa or Christy or something like that anyway, one time she asked me, if I knew how big Grayson's"
"Vicky enough, you're scaring her and that's not a topic for the dinner table" Grayson cuts her off. I have never heard anyone talk as fast as she does.
"Oh sorry, we'll talk after dinner" she says.
Just then Helga walks out of the kitchen pushing a cart with plates of food on it. She serves Grayson first then me, then Logan, and then everyone else. Not once did Helga even look in my direction while she was serving the food. When she was done she walked back into the kitchen.
"Isn't Helga gonna eat" I ask
"She eats in the kitchen, normally there are more people here for dinner, but everyone thought it would be best for tonight to just have it be us, so you don't get to overwhelmed" Logan answers giving me a small smile.
I frown, thinking that because I was here some people don't get to eat dinner. Ethan laughs and I look over at him wondering what he's laughing at.
"Don't worry Cristina, just because they are not here doesn't mean they aren't eating" he tells me.
"How did you know I was thinking that" I ask.
"I saw the look on your face when Logan told you why more people weren't here, but it is nice to know you worry about people, even people you haven't met. It means you'll be a great Luna" he explains.
I doubt I'll be a great Luna, I don't know the first thing about it, but everyone here, aside from Helga, has been nothing but nice to me. I'll do whatever it takes to make them happy.
Dinner passed peacefully and it was delicious. To bad Helga doesn't like me, otherwise I would love to learn a few recipes from her. I found out a few things about everyone. Logan is a year younger than Grayson making him 21 his birthday his next month on the 12th. Reed, when he isn't being mean is pretty funny and he just shifted for the first time two months ago. I found out that Victoria is the younger twin by four and a half minutes and Ethan and Melissa have been together for almost twenty five years. Their anniversary is December 3rd.
After everyone was finished I asked if I could help with the dishes but Melissa said that Helga takes care of it once everyone leaves the dining room.
"So do you want to come hang out in my room for a bit before bed" Victoria asks walking out of the kitchen.
"Actually I have to get some homework done for school but we can hang out tomorrow after school if you want" I tell her.
"We're going shopping tomorrow for clothes don't forget but I suppose Victoria can come if you really really want her to" Grayson says and I open my mouth to talk but Victoria beats me to it.
"Of course she wants me to come, you'd probably stick her in a potato sack and call it a day" she says sticking her tongue out at him.
"Whatever, Cristina why don't you go grab your school stuff and bring it to my office, you can work on it in there while I finish up some paperwork" Grayson says.
"Okay, but i'm not sure I can find your office from the bedroom" I tell him this house is so big it will probably take me years to remember where everything is.
"I'll go up with you and show you the way to my office from there. Most of the time I'm in there so you will need to know how to get there" he says and I follow him up the stairs.
I get my backpack and follow Grayson to his office. He sits down at his desk which is now the right way and I take a seat on one of the couches sitting against the wall. I open my backpack and check to see what homework I have to get done for tomorrow. Chemistry and Algebra homework, great. I sigh and pull out my books.
About an hour and a half later and I finish up the last of my homework. I look up and see Grayson getting up from his desk.
"Are you done? It's ten o'clock and I'm sure you must be tired" he says.
"Yep all finished"
"well then why don't we head to bed, I just need to take a shower and grab some clothes then I'll go sleep in the guest room" he says.
"Okay" I say and put my stuff back into my backpack and follow him upstairs.
He heads into the bathroom and I hear the shower turn on. I set my backpack down on one of the chairs next to the bed and grab the book I've been reading out. I try to read the words on the page but the only thing I seem to be able to think about is Grayson in the shower naked, water dripping down his body. He probably looks really good naked. Oh my god, stop thinking about that. I mentally slap myself and continue to try and read my book. Try, being the operative word. After a few more minutes of fighting with myself, I hear the water shut off. I take a deep breath but when I hear the door open up I look over and see Grayson coming out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel on. Oh dear lord, he looks even better than I had imagined. All his hard muscles are on display with water still dripping down his body. Grayson catches me staring and grins.
"Are you finished staring or would you like me to wait a minute before I grab my clothes" he says still grinning.
I scoff but I can't stop myself from staring. I hear him laugh and him walk into the closet shutting the door.
A couple minutes later he walks back out wearing only a pair of black basketball shorts.
"If you need me I'll be in the room across the hall, okay."
"Are you sure you don't want me to sleep in the guest room so you can have your bed?" I ask one more time, trying to be polite. Honestly, I already love this bed and I really don't want to leave it.
"No, for now this is your room, hopefully soon it will be our room but until you're comfortable with that I'll sleep across the hall, goodnight sweetheart."
"Goodnight, Grayson." I say watching him walk out of the room and close the door behind him. I get under the covers and before I know it, I'm fast asleep.