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."

skin. "You’ll go back alone?" I snapped. "Do you have any idea what you’re asking? You’d be walking straight into danger. There are hundreds of vampires here... this place is

everywhere. I’m not here to be coddled, Lord

pushed a part of me I hate to

Selene.

me alive by keeping me prisoner? No.

you to stay here for my own benefit?" I cut in, my voice filled with annoyance. "You think I brought you into

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

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

to say... All I

quickly wiped away a strand of tears with the back of her hand and looked me straight in the eyes — those

am causing trouble for you two... I need

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

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 something raw and

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

then her eyes lifted to mine, shimmering with

breathed, her voice breaking, "we can’t. You have

have stepped back. I

low in my chest, cupping the back of her

her effortlessly, her legs instinctively winding around my waist, her mouth still clinging to mine. She kissed me back, her breath hot, the sound of her gasp filling me as though it

carried her up the stairs, moving with vampire speed. She held

but I didn’t let go. I kept kissing her, harder, deeper. Her hands pushed at my chest for a moment, but then she pulled me closer, like she didn’t

she whispered. My name on