My Four Beast King Fathers Chose Her Over Me Chapter 07

My Four Beast King Fathers Chose Her Over Me Chapter 07

Second Dad wasn’t the only one left reeling. I was too.

He’d been the one to cast me into the dens that day. He’d told the shifters at his side to “look after her well.”

Not long after he was gone, a pack of them stormed my cell and ripped the clothes from my body.

The Dragon King had ordered it, they said. I was the new rut slave. There would be no mercy.

After that, every single night, someone came to my room.

Some nights one. Some nights two, or three.

They began with cruelty. Then they grew inventive.

But each time, when it was over, I dosed myself with the Barren Root that Third Dad had once taught me to brew.

Not once did I carry a child.

I laid it all out for them. Every last detail.

The four fathers went bloodless.

Third Dad’s lips shook. “Nyssa, is this true? The herb you took—it was Barren Root?”

I nodded.

He looked as though something in him had cracked open.

“Barren Root stops conception, yes, but it tears the body apart. Each dose feels like your bones are being scraped hollow. How—how did you survive that?”

I smiled, cold. “Better than carrying a child.”

All four of them recoiled.

Fourth Dad shot to his feet and seized Second Dad by the collar.

“How the fuck is this ‘looking after her’? You swore the dens would harden her. This is your idea of hardening? You’re lower than a beast.”

He swung.

Second Dad didn’t move out of the way.

He simply stood and let it land, mumbling the same words again and again,

“This isn’t right. I gave no such order. Nyssa was sixteen when she went in. My pack would never.”

Then Isolde’s voice piped up, thin and gentle. “Could it be… that Sister isn’t telling the truth?”

The room fell utterly silent.

The tension drained out of Second Dad. “I knew it. My pack would never do a thing like this. Nyssa, isn’t this a bit far, even for attention?”

I laughed.

Naturally. A hundred words from me weighed less than a single one from her.

“I can lie. My scars can’t.”

I stripped off my clothes before a single hand could stop me.

The marks ran across my body in every direction.

At the sight of those scars, the fathers’ faces collapsed.

Whatever excuses they’d readied died unspoken.

Second Dad called in his subordinates.

When they confirmed that every word I’d spoken was true, his voice went to ice.

“Find out who issued that order in my name. Now.”

A heaviness settled over the room.

I caught panic flicker across Isolde’s face.

Once the four fathers grasped what I had truly endured in the dens, every shred of their coldness melted away.

They closed around me again, begging me to come live with them.

With every word out of their mouths, Isolde’s jealousy grew sharper.

I drew back.

“I don’t want to live with any of you. I want to go home.”

First Dad blinked. “Nyssa, you were raised in this court. This is your home.”

I shook my head. “No. I want Mother’s home. I want to find Mother.”

That hint of my death wish made Third Dad and Fourth Dad trade a dark glance.

They drew the other two aside and murmured something.

All four faces changed.

At last Fourth Dad returned.

“Nyssa, after all you’ve suffered, the trauma must have damaged something in you. Your mother died long ago. The voice you hear is a delusion. You’re ill. You need to heal. Each of the four of us keeps a chamber where your mother once lived. If you long for her so badly, choose one. Living in her old space might bring you some measure of peace.”

No.

I didn’t want to live with them.

I shook my head and held firm—I would find Mother.

Just as the last of their patience frayed, Isolde spoke.

“Why don’t I take Sister in?”

Every gaze turned to her.

“You’re all so busy. There’s no way you could care for her properly. And after everything she’s lived through, she must be terrified of males. My quarters are all female. Let Sister stay with me. I’ll take wonderful care of her.”

Every eye swung back to me.

I knew they meant to make me pick someone.

I’d meant to refuse them all.

Then I saw the look in Isolde’s eyes.

And I changed my mind.

Living with the fathers meant I couldn’t die.

But living with Isolde?

I wouldn’t last.