Fated To Not Just One, But Three

Chapter 411: Leaving

Frederick’s POV

I didn’t think twice. In the blink of an eye—moving with the speed only a vampire possessed—I was standing in front of her. The small bag barely had time to shift before I ripped it from her grasp and flung it into the corner of the room.

Selene startled, half-turned, and for a second she looked so small and scared I hated myself a little for the way my hunger twined with the urge to protect her.

"You’re not leaving," I said in an authoritative voice.

She swallowed. Her voice trembled when she answered. "I... I can’t stay here. I don’t want to cause trouble."

"You caused trouble the moment you walked in," I shot back, but the anger in me was fractured now, threaded with something else I couldn’t name. "You will not walk out that door unprotected. Not when you—"

I stopped. The words I’d been about to say sounded ridiculous in my head. "Not tonight."

She looked at me, worry in her eyes. "Please. I—"

"No," I said sharply, then softer, "No more leaving. You stay."

I watched her chin lift, watching the stubborn flare in her eyes as if it were a dare.

"I’m not a child, Lord Frederick," Selene said, her voice hard even as it trembled. "I can take care of myself. I’ve done it my whole life before you met me."

Her words hit with a strange mix of pride and brittle fear. She squared her shoulders like she meant it.

"I’m leaving. I’ll go back to my hotel and finish my program."

"Do you have any idea what you’re asking? You’d be walking straight into danger. There are hundreds of vampires

"Danger is everywhere. I’m not here to

a part of me

you, Selene.

me, defiant. "Keep me alive by keeping me prisoner? No.

cut in, my voice filled with annoyance. "You think I brought you into my house because

did you bring me here?" she spat — her eyes filled with pain that for a strange reason, made my heart

love and care... why did you kiss me and act like it was the

stood inches from her, I didn’t know what to say... All I could

looked me straight in the eyes

a fiancée, Lord Frederick, and I am causing trouble for you two... I

fury, desire, and a hunger I couldn’t fully name. I closed the distance between us in one stride. She opened her

wasn’t soft. It wasn’t tender. It was sharp and angry and full of everything I had been trying not to admit. I kissed her as if to silence the defiance, as if to force

for a moment she stiffened, her hands pressing against my chest. I felt

to mine, shimmering with

breathed, her voice breaking, "we

have stepped back. I should

chest, cupping the back of her neck, deepening the kiss

still clinging to mine. She kissed me back,

She held on tight, her eyes wide, but her lips still

my room, I laid her on the bed, but I didn’t let go. I kept kissing her, harder, deeper. Her hands pushed at my chest

My name on