CHAPTER 4 — The Price of Saving a King
The first sniper fired at exactly 7:18 a.m.
The bullet shattered the mansion's library window, spraying glass across polished hardwood.
It never reached Dominic.
Leo had already tackled him behind a marble pillar.
The shot embedded itself in a centuries-old painting instead.
Outside, the estate erupted into controlled chaos.
Black SUVs accelerated through the gates.
Bodyguards returned fire toward the wooded hillside beyond the perimeter wall.
Within seconds, helicopters circled overhead.
Chloe stood frozen in the hallway.
She had never heard real gunfire before.
It was louder than movies.
Sharper.
Closer.
Dominic calmly brushed glass from his jacket and looked toward the security monitors.
"Report."
A voice crackled through his earpiece.
"Four teams outside the north wall."
"Any insignia?"
"The Black Wolves."
Leo frowned.
"Impossible."
"They were wiped out fifteen years ago."
Dominic's expression darkened.
"So we believed."
Another explosion rocked the east wing.
Smoke climbed above the gardens.
The attackers weren't trying to enter.
They were distracting everyone.
Dominic suddenly looked toward Chloe.
"Where is she?"
Leo turned.
The hallway was empty.
Chloe was gone.
Two minutes earlier...
The mansion's emergency alarms had confused her.
She saw servants running.
Doors locking automatically.
Smoke filling one corridor.
Someone grabbed her wrist.
"This way!"
He wore a security uniform.
She followed him without thinking.
Down two flights of stairs.
Through an underground tunnel.
Only when the heavy steel door closed behind them did Chloe notice something wrong.
His badge.
It had no name.
Only a wolf emblem.
The man smiled.
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
"You were always the real mission."
He pressed a needle toward her neck.
Before it touched her skin—
CRACK!
The man's head snapped sideways.
He collapsed instantly.
Standing behind him...
Dominic.
Holding a smoking pistol.
His breathing remained perfectly steady.
"I told everyone," Dominic said quietly.
"No one moves her except my people."
He looked down at the dead attacker.
Then something caught his eye.
The man's tattoo...
Had been burned away with acid.
Someone wanted to erase his identity.
Dominic whispered only one sentence.
"They're cleaning their own soldiers."
For the first time...
He realized the enemy wasn't merely organized.
They were terrified of leaving even a single clue.
That night...
While Chloe tried to sleep...
Someone watched her through a thermal scope from nearly a mile away.
A finger rested lightly on the trigger.
Then another voice came through the sniper's headset.
"Negative."
May you like
"Not yet."
"The Director wants her alive."
