"You've always been like this since taking over your father's throne!" Escaping from her husband's clutches, Athena, the queen of the Marquis kingdom, yelled out in retaliation.
"Why the hell are you doing this Athena?!" Fuming from rage, Marquis got out of their bed and tried to approach her.
Trying to reach onto her perky cat ears, he stretched his arm forward but was instantly shot away with a slap on his wrist. Her teeth shut tight, and she grunted under her breath as her eyes kept glaring at her human partner.
"You know exactly why I'm doing this Marquis," being directly addressed by his name, the king's displeasure was apparent even to the blind.
"How dare you?!" He yelled.
Grabbing the queen's vibrant brown bob, he pulled her by the hair in his direction. Yet refused to yield, not even a single painful groan left the lips of the demi-human cat. Still grunting under her breath, her deep green eyes glared at him with a look of disgust.
"What the hell happened to you? Have you forgotten the promise you made me when we got married?!" Pushing him onto the bed, she towered him with her toned body. "You said you'd free my people, and you'll abandon trading slaves and make it illegal all over the empire!"
A bit threatened by her sharp gaze, Marquis pulled himself up with much anxiety riding over him. Once back on his feet, he faked a warm smile, but as Athena furrowed her brows in response, he knew that there was no fooling her.
"Look, Athena, I'm trying my best, but I can't make things illegal overnight, the royalties and nobles keeping the economy afloat will revolt against me," he tried to reach for her chocolate skin, but met with yet another growl, he knew better than to feed his hand to her razor-sharp teeth.
"Excuses…that's all you've ever given me," her voice breaking from sorrow, was ridden with hurt she'd confined for so long. "I used to love you, Marquis, I thought you'd be the one to bring peace and harmony to this land, not corruption and greed."
"Athena, you know that's a lie-" Shushing Maquis by placing a finger on his lips, Athena shook her head from side to side to stop him from talking.
Bubbling up with emotions, she shut her lips tight as well. With her head hung low, she lifted her baggy nightdress to formally bow before the king.
"Forgive me, but I cannot share the room with you anymore," turning around she tried to leave him behind, however, grabbing her hand tightly, he managed to hold her in place. "Maquis let me go."
"It's not my fault!" Instead of an apology, he was once again spouting excuses. "Everyone needs money in this kingdom, Athena, that includes you, me, and the people who make sure everything works as intended."
"Marquis stop!" Shutting her eyes closed, Athena tried to pull her hand away from his grasp.
"You don't realize the bush of thorns I wear for a crown comes with a thousand responsibilities to my people, and if that comes at the cost of selling inferior creatures then so be it!" In his rage, he uttered everything he truly felt inside his heart.
"Inferior creatures? I guess that's all I am to you too," realizing his mistake, Marquis finally let go of Athena's hand.
Grabbing her by the shoulder, he shook her whole body trying to knock some sense into her, or at least that's what he thought he was doing.
"You know what I mean, don't twist my words," he said, his fingers digging further into her shoulders.
"I think I do know what you mean," brushing his hands off of her shoulders, she turned around to face him once again. "And that's probably why you only seek me when it's time for us to lay down together."
As her words trailed into his ears, Marquis was stunned in disbelief, but when he finally broke out of that state of mind, a scornful furrow took over his eyes. Hearing his heart pumping from outside his body, Athena knew that she'd struck a nerve, but that didn't deter her from standing her ground.
Heaving deep breaths with his eyes locked with his wife, Maquis clenched his teeth shut before latching onto her throat with a crushing grip.
"Wha-St-Stop!" Struggling to get him off, Athena could barely breathe a word. "L-let go!"
"You just don't get it!" Marquis chanted again and again as he slowly edged away from consciousness.
Keeping her reddened eyes fixed on her husband, Maquis knew she could easily get him off if she retaliated violently against him, however, blinded by her love, she couldn't bring herself to leave so much as a scratch on his body.
"Mom?" A chilling horror took over the two as they heard their daughter calling for her mother.
Before Marquis could even get his hand off of the queen, their daughter Alice, pushed the room's door open.
"Mom, what was that scream?" Slipping her head from the side of the door, she saw before her an unfathomable sight. "Mom?!"
Flinging the door wide open, she dashed to her mother's rescue. Noticing her rushing towards him, Marquis's hand came undone from Athena's throat. Taking a few steps back, Athena drew deep breaths, trying to calm herself from having escaped the deadly situation.
"What the hell were you doing to mom?!" Moving between the two, Alice threw her hands wide open to protect her mother. "Why were you hurting her?!"
Grunting like a feral cat, her ears and tails were perked up from sensing the danger. Seeing his daughter protecting his wife from him, Marquis finally realized what he was doing. Drawing his hands over his eyes, he stared at them with jittery eyes.
"I-I…" He had no words to defend himself, after all, he'd just tried and nearly succeeded in murdering his own wife.
"Alice, don't talk to your father like that," to his surprise and her own, Athena brushed her hand on Alice's light blonde hair to make her loosen up her fighting stance.
"But mom-"
"Alice, don't…" Kneeling down to match her much smaller stature, Athena planted a loving kiss on Alice's forehead. "What do you say, we sleep together, like we used to when you were a kid?"
'I don't want her to hate her father, even if he's a monster.' Keeping her emotions bottled up inside, Athena wore a smile as if nothing had happened.
"O-okay, if you say so…" Peering up at her mother with her soulful silver eyes, Alice seemed clueless as to what had happened inside the room before her arrival.
"Well then, let's go," planting yet another kiss on her young demi-human daughter, Athena got back to her feet.
Giving Marquis one last look of disappointment, she faked a smile and quickly turned around and left with Alice.
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