My Four Beast King Fathers Chose Her Over Me Chapter 09

My Four Beast King Fathers Chose Her Over Me Chapter 09

Isolde wouldn’t let me die. But she wouldn’t let me live in peace either.

Every day was agony.

The instant my body showed the faintest sign of failing, Isolde had someone force a healing pill down my throat.

Half a month on, I was nothing but bones and hollow eyes.

Oddly, the four fathers—who’d ignored me for years—suddenly began turning up.

Every few days they came to check on me.

But Isolde, terrified of being found out, never let them lay eyes on me.

She told them I was too fragile, that even the sound of their names threw me into fits.

Seeing them in the flesh would only be worse.

After being turned away again and again, the fathers grew suspicious.

Third Dad suggested that if my state was truly that dire, he could take me back to the sanctuary.

He knew a fellow healer who specialized in spirit trauma.

Reluctantly, Isolde agreed to let me see them.

But before the meeting, she hissed into my ear.

“You know what to say and what to keep behind your teeth. Don’t forget—your precious fathers will always believe me before you.”

I nodded.

But the moment I laid eyes on the four of them, I seized Third Dad’s hand and clung to it with everything left in me.

“Save me! There are males here! The ones from the Feral Dens—they’re all Isolde’s people! She’s raising a force—she’s planning a coup!”

Isolde went white. But she pulled herself together in a heartbeat.

“Sister, what are you talking about?” She turned to Third Dad with wide, anxious eyes.

“Third Dad, has her delusion grown worse? She’s been saying things like this for days.”

I broke in, desperate. “I’m not delusional! Corvin, listen to me, this is—”

“Enough!”

Just as Isolde had said. No matter what I told them, they’d only ever believe her.

Third Dad tore his hand from mine, his face heavy with disappointment.

“Nyssa, I thought being here might help you reflect. Help you behave. But you’re still doing all you can to smear Isolde. I’m finished. I won’t come back.”

He turned and walked out without another word.

I watched his back vanish. The last sliver of hope inside me died.

When I turned back around, Isolde was smiling.

She leaned down and breathed into my ear. “Nyssa, when will you ever learn?”

I said nothing.

I knew what was coming.

Isolde waved the males in. They carried new instruments I’d never seen before.

She lifted a whip, dipped it in salt water, and brought it down across my back. Her laughter was ugly.

“Hold nothing back tonight. No one’s coming for her anymore.”

Before, when the fathers might appear without warning, the males had restrained themselves—careful to leave no marks.

Now, with Isolde’s blessing, they held nothing back. They swarmed.

I shut my eyes in despair.

I had no idea when this would ever end.

Just as I braced for another sleepless night—

A commotion broke out beyond the door.

Isolde’s face changed the instant she heard it. She sent someone to look.

The next second, the door was kicked open.

The four fathers filled the doorway.

One look at the scene inside, and their faces transformed.

First Dad strode in and kicked the male off me.

Then he rounded on Isolde. “Isolde, what is this?”