Page 67 of Alpha Queen
"We are nothing alike," River insisted. "I don't hurt people to get what I want."
Titan snorted. "What about your precious twins? Do you think their hands are clean? That their royal bloodline wasn't built on violence and conquest?"
River faltered, unsure how to respond. Titan seized on her hesitation, taking a step forward.
"They've filled your head with lies. Made you believe they're the heroes of this tale. But they aren't. You've seen the rogues. You've heard their stories. Your precious twins let that happen."
"And that needs to be changed. But not by kidnapping, rape, and murder."
Titan looked at her, confused, and shook his head. "Rape? Who's been raped?"
"That's what you want to do to me, isn't it?"
"You can't rape what is meant to be yours."
River couldn't stop her mouth from falling open. "You don't believe that. You can't."
He didn't answer.
She glanced at the freezer and the only possible weapon at her disposal, the paintbrush. No. She would never reach it in time.
All right, girl. If you have any strength left right now, I need it if we want to make it out of this unmolested.
River focused all of her strength into her eyes. Her wolf lifted her head, lending what little she could manage.
Finally, River's gaze grew heavy, and she leveled it at him. At first, he looked at her in confusion and then with defiance.
"Do you feel that?" she asked softly. "That weight? Your wolf telling you to bow to me and look away? That feeling means I'm not yours."
"No, it-"
"Don't speak," she commanded.
His mouth snapped shut, and he swallowed hard. He growled and opened his mouth, but when nothing came out, he snapped it shut again.
"That command I have over you, I don't have it over my mates. Ares and Apollo do what they do because they are my fated mates. But when it comes to me telling them what to do, they don't do it because they feel compelled to or because I command them to, they do it because they choose to."
Titan's body began to shake, and he bared his teeth.
"Stop," she commanded. "I am not your mate. I will never be your mate. When my wolf saw you for the first time, she said two words: not him. When I met Ares for the first time, she all but clawed her way out of me to go to him and submit. But she will never do that with you. She will never choose you. She will never submit to you. We. Reject. You."
Titan roared and stormed to the bed. River backed toward the kitchenette as he flipped the bed without any effort. He swiped at the table and chair, and they shattered against the wall. He ripped the curtains from the fake window and punched his fist through the screen, making it crack and go black.
River took another step away from him and glanced at the freezer. No matter what happened, she would not let him harm her or her baby.
He ripped the television from the dresser and broke it over his knee. Then he tipped the dresser sideways, spilling her clothes everywhere. He roared and then broke the footboard of her bed in two pieces before ripping into the mattress and shredding it with his claws.
When there was nothing left to break, he stopped, chest heaving with each ragged breath. The room lay in ruins. The bed overturned, furniture splintered, the fake window's screen now a spider-web of cracks with a gaping hole at its center, and barely still planted in the wall. His knuckles dripped blood on the cement floor, but he seemed not to notice.
River's wolf prowled anxiously, ready to fight if, though they both knew it would be futile against Titan's superior strength.
When he turned to face her, his expression had transformed. The anger still simmered, but his face wore a mask of cold calculation.
"You think you've won something here," he said. "You think your rejection means anything?"
River said nothing.
"I've been patient. I've tried to make this pleasant for you. To give you time to adjust." His lips curled into a bitter smile. "That ends now."
