Page 38 of French Quarter Heiress

"Bring her to me," he commands, his voice like the tolling of a funeral bell. "Bring the traitor before her king and let her answer for her crimes."

26

ELISE

As the guards drag me before my father, I feel a cold sense of dread settling in the pit of my stomach. His eyes burn with a rage that threatens to consume everything in its path. “Leave us,” he demands, and the guards leave, closing the doors behind.

"Elise," he snarls, his voice dripping with venom and contempt. "You have betrayed your family, your blood, and your very nature. And for what? The love of a filthy, lowborn wolf?"

I stand tall, my chin raised in defiance, even as my heart pounds with fear. "I have betrayed nothing," I declare, my voice ringing out clear and strong in the oppressive silence of the throne room. "I have simply followed my heart, and chosen to fight for what I believe in. For love, for justice, and for the right of every being to live free from the tyranny of your rule."

What would he know? My father has never known what it’s like to love someone. To truly love someone, so much that you’d give up everything and anything to be with them.

That’s how I feel for Beau. He’s my light, my love, and my reason for being.

Don Victor's face twists with rage, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. "You dare to speak of justice?" he roars, his voice shaking the very foundations of the room. "You, who have defied every law and tradition of our kind? You, who have brought shame and disgrace upon our family name?"

He rises from his throne, his eyes blazing with a madness that chills me to the bone. "I have given you everything, Elise. Power, wealth, and status. And this is how you repay me? By throwing it all away for the love of a beast?"

I take a step forward, my fear giving way to a righteous anger that burns through my veins like holy fire. "You have given me nothing but lies and manipulation," I spit, my words sharp and biting. "You speak of family and blood, but what of the blood on your own hands? The blood of my mother, your own wife, whom you murdered in cold blood?"

Don Victor's eyes widen, a flicker of shock crossing his face before it is consumed once more by rage. "You know nothing of what you speak," he growls, his voice low and dangerous. "Your mother was weak, a traitor to our kind. I did what was necessary to protect our family, our way of life."

I shake my head, tears of grief and fury burning in my eyes. "No, father. You did what was necessary to protect your own power, your own twisted ambition. You have built your empire on the backs of the innocent, on the suffering of those weaker than yourself. And you dare to speak of shame and disgrace?"

I take a deep breath, my voice trembling with emotion as I lay bare the truth of my father's crimes. "You have tortured and killed countless innocents, all in the name of your own selfish ends. You have sought to control me, to mold me into a weapon for your use. But I will not be your pawn any longer. I will not be a part of the evil you have wrought upon this world."

Don Victor's face goes white with rage, his eyes bulging from their sockets. "Enough!" he bellows, his voice cracking like a whip. "You will surrender the wolf, and you will take your place at my side as the obedient daughter you were always meant to be. Or you will suffer the consequences of your defiance."

I stand firm, my heart pounding with wild, reckless courage. "I will never surrender Beau," I declare, my voice ringing with conviction. "And I will never bow to your will again. I would rather die than live under the shadow of your cruelty and be a part of the darkness you have brought into this world."

Father’s face contorts with a rage that borders on madness, and he lunges forward, his hands outstretched like claws. I meet him head-on, my strength and speed fueled by the power of my love and the righteousness of my cause.

We clash in a whirlwind of blood and shadow, our powers crackling against each other like lightning in a stormy sky. I can feel the heat of his rage, the icy cold of his cruelty, but I do not falter, I do not yield.

"You are a monster," I cry out, my voice raw with pain and anger as I dodge his blows and strike back with all the strength I possess. "A tyrant and a murderer, consumed by your greed and hatred. But I will not let you destroy me as you destroyed my mother. I will not let you win."

Don Victor laughs, a cruel, mocking sound that sends chills down my spine. "Foolish child," he sneers, his hands wrapping around my throat, squeezing the life from my body with a ruthless, merciless efficiency. "You cannot hope to defeat me. I am the master of this world, the king of shadows and blood. And you are nothing more than a disobedient child, a traitor to your kind."

He rains strike after strike down on me. He’s too fast.

Too ancient.

Too strong.

I feel my bones shatter, my flesh tear, and my blood spill out onto the cold stone floor in a crimson tide.

"This is the end for you, daughter," he hisses, his voice a sibilant whisper in my ear. "You will die here, alone and forgotten, a failure to your family and your people. And your precious wolf will soon follow, his screams echoing through these halls as I tear him apart, piece by piece."

But even as the last vestiges of my strength bleed away, even as my heart slows and my breath grows shallow, I cling to the one thing that has always given me hope, the one thing that has always kept me fighting.

My love for Beau, pure and unbreakable, a shining beacon in the darkness of my father's cruelty. I may die here, beaten and broken at the hands of a monster, but I will die with that love burning bright within me, a flame that will never be extinguished.

"You may kill me, Father," I gasp out, my voice a ragged whisper in the gathering darkness. "But you will never destroy the love I bear for Beau. It is a force greater than your hatred, your cruelty, your lust for power. And it will endure, long after you are nothing more than dust and ashes."

I see a flicker of uncertainty in my father's eyes, a moment of doubt that pierces through the veil of his madness. But it is gone in an instant, replaced by a fury that knows no bounds, a rage that will consume everything in its path.

As my eyes flutter closed, as the cold embrace of death wraps itself around me like a lover's arms, I send out one final, desperate thought, a prayer to whatever gods or forces might be listening.

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