punch that I dodge. When I jump back, I take the stance Titus taught me.
With an incredulous chuckle, she glances back at Freya, then to me. “How ‘bout if I kill you and keep him for myself?”
“How ‘bout if I kick your ass before you have the chance?”
Another swing, and I dodge it a second time, following up with a glorious left hook that knocks her back a step, and when she blots her nose with her finger, a dot of red coats her skin. A rush of adrenaline races through me, and I prepare myself for the next punch.
A swing I didn’t anticipate comes out of the right, and my jaw rattles when it crashes into my cheek. Another hit sends me flying backwards.
“Thalia!” Titus’s roar from down below is white noise to the pounding of blood in my ear and the ringing that won’t stop.
“Who’s bloody now, bitch?” Lilith pounces toward me, but I roll to the side, sending her knees crashing to the rock. On a growl, she scrambles to her feet, and when she tries to pounce again, I throw a kick square into her stomach.
With a grunt, she tumbles forward, catching herself on her arms.
Two weeks ago, I’d have been a bloody mess, begging this woman for mercy. Now, I can’t wait to get to my feet again, to test my right hook.
“Enough!” Freya’s voice echoes around us, reverberating off the surrounding rock. “Fighting over him is useless! As she said, he cannot be satisfied by just any woman.”
I sure as hell didn’t say that, but I don’t argue her point.
“We’ll give him the choice,” Freya says, with a promise in her voice. “He’s welcome to stay here, among us, or leave in peace. Where did you say you came upon them, Lilith?”
“In the cabin by the river.”
“Then, if that’s where he wishes to return, we will honor it.”
“And … and what of her? She’ll choose to go with him!”
The older woman’s gaze falls on me, as I push up to a sitting position. “That is her choice. That’s the beauty of how we live. Many of our sisters aren’t given that same courtesy in this world.”
“I just … wanted him. Once.”
Arms still bound, Titus jogs his way up the rocky path until he reaches us. His muscles are damp with sweat and have undoubtedly captured the attention of Lilith, who unsheathes a knife and cuts away the rope binding his wrists.
Head tipped back to the enormous Alpha beside her, Freya stares up at him with a gleam of fascination that wasn’t there before. “Titus, you have proven yourself, and you are welcome to stay, or you are free to go.”
“And what about the other men I arrived with?”
“They’re just regular men, therefore they’ll not be extended the same offer.”
With a nod, Titus swipes up my arm and starts in the opposite direction.
“Wait.” The urgency in Freya’s voice brings him to a reluctant halt with his shoulders slouched. “My daughter Lilith asks if she can offer you pleasure before you leave.”
Daughter?
The contemplative look that Titus shoots back at me has my hand balling into a fist at my side, ready to knock it off his face. He shakes his head. “Nah, I’m good. Thanks.” He tugs me after him again, but I dig my heels to resist.
“What you’re doing to these men … it’s no different than the marauders. No different than the mindless Ragers. You’re producing children born of a hateful and vile act.”
Lilith steps toward me, as if to attack, and Freya throws out her arm to stop the woman. “You are right, child. We are no different than the marauders.” She lowers her arm, and I watch as the warmth in her eyes fades with sadness. “I suspect you’ve never been pinned beneath one before. You’ve never screamed no so many times your throat burned. You’ve never had the dirt choke you, as they held you down and took you like vicious animals. You’ve never felt the entire world slip out of your grasp, as you watched your own child violated beside where you lay bleeding out.”
I slice my gaze to Lilith, whose lip quivers, eyes brimming with tears, while her mother’s words seem to take her back in time.
“You see … inside every man lies a savage. A beast to do his bidding for good, or evil.” Her gaze flicks to Titus and back to me. “I pray you never feel that helplessness in your life. But if you do, know