The Bad Boy I Couldn't Escape

Chapter 7

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Dante’s P.O.V

"Why are you doing this?"

Emma’s voice barely rose above a whisper, careful not to disturb the sleeping form of Selene beside me. The moonlight poured through the wide windows of the bedroom, casting pale shadows over the room. Selene’s body lay curled up in the center of the massive bed, her breath soft and even—innocent. Unaware of the storm I was unleashing around her.

I didn’t look up.

I didn’t need to.

I already knew what they were going to say. The judgment, the disbelief—it wasn’t new to me. But this? This wasn’t something they could ever hope to understand. Not something I could explain with words, at least not to them.

"You know why," I said, my voice steady and unyielding. Even now, I wasn’t swayed. Not by their doubts, their worry, their concern.

"No, we don’t," Lucas’s voice cut through the silence like a blade, sharp with disbelief and frustration. He was pacing now, his movements quick and restless, the sound of his footsteps on the polished floor grating against my nerves. “Are you really this obsessed with her? You’d throw the word ‘love’ around like it means nothing. You don’t even know what that word means, man.”

His words weren’t new. I’d heard them before, from men who thought they understood power, who thought they understood the weight of control. But they didn’t know what it meant to need someone, to feel their presence the way I felt hers.

I finally looked up, my gaze locking onto Lucas’s first—defiant, challenging. Then Emma. Her expression was tighter now, more layered with worry than anger, and that made the tight coil of frustration in my chest twist.

They didn’t get it. Of course they didn’t.

Selene wasn’t just some girl. She wasn’t a distraction. She wasn’t a game to be played, a conquest to be won. She was a beginning. My beginning. A chance to have something I could keep—something I could claim. The darkness inside me found light in her. And I wasn’t letting that go. Not for anyone.

“I don’t lie,” I said coldly, my voice like ice. “I love her. And she is going to be your queen.”

Lucas’s hand ran through his hair, his frustration apparent as he let out a loud breath. He paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. His shoes clicked against the hardwood floor with every turn. "You sound insane. You've known her for what—three months? You plan on keeping her from her own world, like she was some...some f*****g object that needs to be owned?"

His words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. They were right, in a sense. I had brought her into a world she never asked for, never even knew existed, and now I was keeping her here, locked in my grasp. But she belonged to me. It was a truth I would make her see, even if she couldn’t understand it yet.

“She didn’t belong out there,” I snapped, my patience thinning. I wasn’t about to justify myself any further. “She belongs here with me.”

“With you?” Emma stepped forward now, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her jaw clenched. There was a thin thread of disbelief running through her voice as she spoke. “You think dragging her into this world is going to make her stay? You think this ends with some fairy tale wedding and happily ever after?”

I didn’t answer immediately. I couldn’t, not in a way that would make her see the truth. There was no fairytale for us. The only ending I cared about was her by my side.

“She doesn’t know anything about this world, Don,” Emma added quietly, her voice strained. “She’s not built for it.”

“She will learn,” I replied, not flinching. “I’ll teach her.”

Emma’s gaze softened for a fraction of a second, but then it hardened again. She looked at me like I was a stranger. Like she no longer recognized the man standing in front of her. And maybe she didn’t. Maybe I didn’t either. Not entirely.

But Selene—she made me feel real. Grounded. Like the chaos inside me might finally find peace in her. I wasn’t about to let that go. Not for anyone.

“She won’t survive,” Emma muttered, shaking her head, a dark edge creeping into her voice. “You’re not saving her, Don. You’re consuming her.”

I turned my gaze back to Selene, my eyes softening for a brief moment. Her face, bathed in the low light of the room, was serene, like an angel untouched by the darkness of my world. The way her lashes fanned against her cheeks, the slow rise and fall of her chest, it was like looking at something sacred. A world I wasn’t supposed to have.

I reached out, brushing a lock of dark hair from her forehead. My fingers lingered on her skin, feeling the warmth beneath it, the softness, the realness. She was real.

"I’ll protect her," I said, my voice rough, more to myself than to them. It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t some reassurance. It was a declaration. “I’ll destroy anything that tries to hurt her. Anyone.”

Lucas exhaled sharply, the sound like a mixture of disbelief and contempt. “Even her?”

My jaw clenched. The audacity in his words was like a slap to the face. “She’ll understand. One day, she’ll see what I did—what I had to do. She’ll thank me for it.”

Lucas scoffed, the sound hollow. He turned away, his body language radiating frustration, but Emma stayed frozen. Her arms were still crossed, like a shield. She didn’t speak for a long time, but the tension between us was thick enough to cut with a knife.

I stood slowly, careful not to jostle the bed, not wanting to wake Selene. I towered over them both now, the weight of what I was choosing settling over me like an anchor. But it wasn’t something that gave me pause. It didn’t slow me down. No, it fueled me. It drove me.

“You both forget who I am,” I said, my voice low, almost a growl. “And what I’m capable of.”

Lucas turned back, his eyes hard now, like steel. “We haven’t forgotten. That’s the problem.”

The silence that followed was thick. Heavy. It stretched between us, fragile and brittle. I could feel the way it cracked under the weight of unspoken words, of unsaid truths. It wouldn’t take much for it to shatter completely.

"Your father won’t accept this," Lucas said, his voice resigned now, drained of the heat it had once had. “You know that.”

“I don’t give a damn what he accepts,” I said, my tone sharpening into something cold and hard. “He’s had his time. Now it’s mine.”

Lucas’s mouth twitched like he wanted to say more, but Emma reached out, grabbing his arm. She could see the futility in trying to argue further. She knew there was no changing my mind. Not when it came to her.

Not when it came to Selene.

They left the room without another word, the door closing softly behind them. The quiet that followed was absolute. But it wasn’t empty. It was filled with something heavy, something deep.

Selene’s breathing was steady, calm. But my heart? It was anything but steady. It was a storm, wild and untamed.

I turned back to the bed, the room around me darkening further, the shadows stretching long across the floor. Her body had shifted slightly in her sleep, her brow pinched like she was dreaming. I stepped closer, lowering myself to the edge of the mattress. The wood creaked beneath my weight, but she didn’t stir. She didn’t wake.

I reached for her hand, small, delicate. Fragile. The softness of it in my grip was a stark contrast to the brutal, chaotic world I’d been born into.

I wasn’t made for fragility. I wasn’t made for gentle things. I had always fought, always taken what I wanted by force, by fear. But she—she was different. Something in her made me want to try, to hold her as if she was something worth protecting.

I brought her fingers to my lips, pressing a kiss against her knuckles. She didn’t wake. She just sighed and turned toward me in her sleep, her face softening.

My queen.

She didn’t know it yet. But she would.

She would rule beside me—or be caged beside me. Either way, she wasn’t leaving.

And neither was I.

She was the first softness I’d ever craved. And the last weakness I’d ever allow.

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