He'd said he loved me like a man saying it for the last time.
I wasn't going to let that be true.
So I lay there, wide awake, his heartbeat steady against my spine, and I kept watch. Over him. Over us.
I would sleep later.
I stared out the window at the stars. The constellations drifted slow across the sky, indifferent to everything happening beneath them.
Rocco stirred. I forced my breathing to stay even. Steady. Asleep.
His lips pressed against the top of my head, lingering one beat too long. The kiss of a man who didn't plan on giving another one.
"I'm sorry, Selena," he whispered. "Just know, I'll always love you."
Like hell.
He slipped into the bathroom and I moved. Fast, silent — vampire fast. Clothes on in seconds. Pillows stuffed under the covers in the shape of a sleeping body. Then I melted into the shadows beside the bed and waited.
He came out of the bathroom in jeans and boots, no shirt. His old one was caked with blood and mud, ruined beyond saving. He paused at the bed. Looked down at the shape beneath the covers. His jaw tightened and I watched his hand reach out — then pull back, like touching me one more time would break his resolve.
He turned toward the door.
I stepped out of the shadows.
"Going somewhere?"
He spun around, fangs bared on instinct. "Selena?" His eyes darted to the bed, to the pillows, back to me. His shoulders dropped. "Damn it."
I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall, blocking the only shadow in the room he could disappear into. "If you leave, I'll just follow you."
"You can't." His voice was raw. He dragged a hand through his hair, the muscles in his bare chest tight, coiled, like a man fighting himself more than me. "I'm too dangerous. I can't be around anyone that I love."
"Love is what's going to set you free."
He let out a bitter laugh — short, ugly, nothing like the grin he'd given me an hour ago. "That's a fairytale, Selena. We both know it."
Something hot flared in my chest. Not hurt. Anger. I stepped toward him, closing the distance he was trying so hard to build.
"No. What I know is that you don't have any faith." I held his gaze and refused to let him look away. "Not in your friends. Not in yourself." My voice cracked, and I hated it, but I kept going. "And not in me."
That one landed. I saw it hit—the flinch behind his eyes, the way his jaw locked like I’d slapped him across the face.
He clasped my shoulders. "That's not true. I do have faith in you. You're a fighter. But you deserve?—"
I punched him hard in the chest. "Would you quit saying that?" I shoved him back a step. "Fated mates doesn't mean we're only together when times are easy."
He stared at me, breathing hard. "I know that."
"Then prove it." I closed the distance between us again and looked up into his face. "Stay."
"This isn't up for discussion, Selena."
"The hell it isn't." I stepped closer. "If you love me — if you actually meant what you said in that shower—then give Rose a chance to find a spell. That's all I'm asking. One chance."
He said nothing. His jaw worked.
"Or would you rather spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, waiting for the next demon to ride piggyback?"
