Page 11 of Alpha Queen
"She won't. She can't. She helped us. She's the one who got us on the grounds. And she's the one who knocked River out. Ares would decapitate her before she got out a word. We are her last choice, and she knows it."
"I still suggest we tread carefully."
"I tread carefully with no one but my mate. Put her in the guest house. Tell her it's so she can have the whole place to herself. It's a gift."
Kane nodded, but didn't move.
"What?"
Kane clenched his jaw several times before speaking. "I don't understand why we don't attack them now when they're weak. Take the estate. Take the throne."
"I need her to accept me first."
"What if she won't?"
"She will."
Kane shook his head. "We've worked too hard to throw it all away over a girl who doesn't even want you."
"I worked this hard for her. She is the reason I did all this, you know that."
Kane growled. "She isn't the reason we started this. Why your mother started this."
"She is now."
"She's not worth it. You should cut her loose. Attack the twins. Take the crown."
Titan bit his tongue. They'd had this conversation so many times over the last four years it irritated Titan like a thousand bug bites. Titan understood that the need for revenge powered Kane. It was why Kane had stuck by Titan. Supported Titan. Did… everything he did. But Titan didn't only want revenge anymore. He wanted what he was owed as the firstborn of the Lycan King. His crown and his Omega. But not necessarily in that order.
"I don't want the crown if I can't have her."
Kane shook his head. "This obsession with that female is going to get you killed. Going to get all of us killed."
"You can't tell me that if you had a choice to go back and get Alyssa from her father and mate her today, that you wouldn't do it."
The look on Kane's face told Titan he'd hit a nerve. Kane hadn't talked about Alyssa in over five years. But Kane still wanted her. And he wanted her father dead for kicking him out and making her reject him.
Without a word, Kane stormed out of the room.
Titan's gut twisted. Kane was the truest brother he'd ever had. Kane had been pivotal in Titan's planning of taking the throne. He'd been essential in getting the rogues organized. Without Kane, he was nothing. At the same time, Kane had to understand that River was no whim. Wasn't an obsession, or a weakness. She was everything.
CHAPTER FIVE
RIVER
River's stomach roiled as footsteps stomped down the stairs toward her door again. She'd had it with Titan coming and going from her room at will.
She squeezed her eyes shut and blew out a breath, trying to calm her wolf. The longer she was awake and away from Ares and Apollo, the more feral her wolf became- even if she couldn't do anything about it because of the drugs. It was only a matter of time before her wolf tried to get out and attack Titan, even if she couldn't fully transform. But that wasn't her primary concern. Her biggest concern was keeping Titan from finding out about her baby. And the constant nausea didn't help.
Her wolf whimpered.
A lock clicked on the door, and metal scraped against metal before another lock undid itself.
She clenched her jaw and gripped the blanket covering her. She hated that she'd given in to lying in the bed Titan had provided her, but her hips could not take the cement any longer.
The door creaked open and then closed again. She breathed as evenly as possible, but when bile rose in her throat and she had to swallow it down, there was no hiding the fact that she wasn't sleeping.
"You haven't eaten," Titan said.
