"Women can raise their little piglets if they want to keep them, but what do I have to do with that? I doubt most mothers would like me teaching their offspring to live the way I do," he added with a wicked grin, knowing Firefly could hardly dispute that. If he did have 'bastard litters running about', their dams had never sought him out before. Even Jontae had not been purposely dumped here, since Rogue supposedly had every intention of raising the furball. Perhaps it was a wolf thing, believing in monogamy or whatever it was she was preaching about. He was 'man enough' to stay out of their lives and let them make their own decisions.
Her quick hand darted out to slap him again, but he wasn't having it this time. The king's one arm snaked out as a blur, roughly catching her wrist and pulling upwards, keeping Firefly off-balance. "It means exactly that," he hissed through clenched teeth, his arm vibrating with the effort to not throw her back onto the bed. Deep within his mind, he knew things were different here, that one could not rule by fear and violence alone and expect to maintain followers, but it was difficult to curb the old habit. He had already struck Heath for disobeying and betraying him, or so he saw it. Firefly's hot temper and lashing tongue were normally something he could brush off and ignore, but this time he was just barely hovering below black-out fury, and it was difficult to resist slapping her back.
"I don't 'try to control her', I do control her! Ever since her whore of a mother dumped her to die in the streets, she has been mine and mine alone. You think she resents me for keeping her safe? You think she'll hate me for giving her security, that the 'right thing to do' is letting that alcoholic enculé coywolf feel her up and tell her she belongs to him now?" His voice was little more than a guttural snarl, gritted out mere inches from Firefly's angry face. He released her arm abruptly, narrowing his seething black eyes into a sneer. "Tell anyone in the pack, I don't care! My word is final! If she makes her own choices, why hasn't she left to follow him? Because she knows I'm right, that's why!"