Chapter 26: Heart to heart with the fiancé!

Caro felt deeply hurt at Selena’s cold and antagonizing behavior towards him and he intended to confront her face to face. He frowned as he finally located her. She was on top of a tree, her back firmly pressed into the tree bark and she seemed to be in some intense thoughts, with tears flowing through her eyes.

He frowned at her. Was getting married to him such a disgrace for her? and why was she obsessed with trees. For a vampire, she hardly spent her time on the ground. She was mostly hopping from tree to tree like a monkey. It seems as if the forest around the General’s clan had made this a habit for her.

He cleared his throat loudly and Selena jumped, startled and loosing her balance feel straight into Caro’s open arms. He caught her fluidly and held her tight in his arms while she blushed, flustered at having been caught off guard. He couldn’t help but stare into those mesmerizing copper brown eyes and loose himself in their depth. Even her tears looked beautiful as crystals.

She shoved him off and got back on to the ground, regaining her stance on the ground firmly and stared at him with an undecipherable look on his face.
Caro sulked at her reaction to him as he too regained his composure as well as balance.

Horrified at what she had done, Selena quickly bowed her head respectfully and murmured a quick apology.
“Pardon me for my impudence, your highness.”

Caro narrowed his eyes at her, dismayed at her cold and aloof attitude towards him. In fact, the only person who she seemed genuinely comfortable with was her guard, Demetri. It was only when she was with him, had he seen her smile brightly without any restrictions. With others, she was always stiff and stoic.

“You are not happy with this engagement?”, Caro asked the obvious and Selena winced, not knowing how to reply. After all, she didn’t want to hurt his feelings or disrespect her elder.
She shook her head courtesy and answered politely, “You are a highly capable man, Your highness. Any lady would be happy and feel privileged to be your wife”

“And yet you are against this marriage because?”, he pressed further and Selena pursued her lips tightly, unsure of how to continue.

Caro eyed her apprehensively and asked her the question he didn’t quite want the answer to.
“Do you have any feelings for any other man? Demetri?”

She shot him an incredulous look and with just that one look, the insecureness and perturbation he had suffered all washed away and he felt like such a fool for overthinking.

“Demetri is a close friend, a comrade and my family….but that’s it. None of use share those kind of emotion towards each other. Trust me, you are not the first one to raise this question but I assure you I don’t have those kind of feelings towards Demetri.”

Caro let out a relieved sigh, then frowned as he realized that if Demetri wasn’t her reason to reject him, then it was him himself.

“What is it that you dislike about me?”, Caro asked the princess point blank, unwilling to waste precious time by beating around the bush. He had spent almost an eternity waiting for a woman to catch his attention and he didn’t intend to let her go that easily when he had finally found the perfect match for him.

Selena furrowed her brows anxiously while she bit the inside of her cheeks.
“It isn’t that I dislike you, Your Highness. I don’t know you well enough to either like or dislike you. I am merely offended at the fact that this marriage was decreed without even consulting my opinion was. All I ever will be to my parents is a mere pawn who they can use or misuse as they wish. I getting married to a stranger who is the same age as my father”

Caro winced sharply at her attack, then shot a cryptic look at her, clearly dismayed by the last words she spoke.
He always had an inkling that Selena was so distant towards him because she treated him as an elder and it broke his heart that he wasn’t even a potential mate in her eyes.

With a cracked voice, sounding deflated, Caro said composedly, “Age doesn’t matter in the matters of your heart, my dear especially for us, vampires as we live for all of eternity.”

The lid of her left eye began to nictate and she found herself suddenly flustered by his declaration. She eyed the elder in front of her warily. Was she imagining things or was a man like Caro really into her. She had thought he wouldn’t even see her a woman…….that she would be just a little child in his eyes.

She made a vexed out face at him and asked in a shivering voice, “Your highness, correct me if I am wrong but judging from your stance regarding the engagement, I am assuming that you are not opposed to this marriage?”

Caro shook his head at her and replied, “Why would I be opposed to our marriage? I am overjoyed at the very thought of it. But I didn’t want your father to be the first one to present the notion. I had wanted to propose to you by myself personally before we were to involve the parents.”

Selena’s brows vanished into her forehead and she glowered at Caro, “This had been your plan all along. Were you the one who instigated my father into decreeing this royal marriage?”

Caro groaned out loud, frustrated that the misunderstandings between them just kept growing.
“It wasn’t me brought it up and your father didn’t consult me either before decreeing the marriage but I am not against it and I intend to obey his decree”

Selena rolled her eyes vexedly and exclaimed out loud, “Well I don’t”
Caro raised an eyebrow provocatively at her and asked in an incredulous tone, “Don’t tell me that you intend to actually defy the King’s orders. Do you know what the punishment is for disobeying the royal command? Its death”

Selena snorted at him and replied sarcastically, “Don’t worry old man, I will figure out a way where we can both go on our separate ways as well as get to keep both of our necks intact.”