Chapter 6 - The Bloodline Unbroken
I kicked the reinforced door open with a brutal crack.
Inside the small, windowless concrete room, a man was chained by his wrists to an iron beam. His shirt was torn to ribbons, his chest covered in dark bruises and dried blood. His head hung low, his silver-streaked hair wet with sweat.
“Dominic!” I called out.
The man slowly lifted his head. Through his swollen, bloodshot eyes, he stared at me in disbelief.
“Julian...?” Dominic croaked, his voice barely a rasp. “You... you idiot. It’s a trap...”
Before I could reach him, a heavy steel door on the far side of the room burst open.
Cassian Vance stepped into the room, flanked by four heavily armed mercenaries carrying short-barreled shotguns. Cassian was a towering man with a scarred neck, a gold tooth, and eyes full of maniacal hatred.
“Thorne!” Cassian roared, raising a heavy automatic pistol toward my chest. “I knew your sentimentality would bring you here! You always were weak when it came to your people!”
Before Cassian could pull the trigger, a dark shape launched itself through the air with a deafening roar.
Bear!
Ignoring his brace, ignoring his pain, the starving dog hurled his fifty-pound body straight at Cassian’s throat. His jaws clamped down hard on Cassian’s gun arm, his teeth tearing through heavy leather and skin.
Cassian screamed in pain, dropping his pistol as he stumbled backward into his mercenaries. The sudden chaos broke their defensive line.
“Fire!” I roared.
My strike team opened fire with lethal precision. In less than three seconds, the four mercenaries were dropped.
I stepped forward, catching Cassian as he tried to throw Bear off. I grabbed Cassian by his throat, slamming his head against the concrete wall with enough force to crack the masonry.
The warlord dropped to his knees, gasping for air, clutching his bloodied arm as Bear stood over him, baring his blood-stained teeth, ready to finish the job.
“Call off your men, Cassian,” I growled, stepping on his hand, crushing his fingers under my heavy combat boot. “Or I let the dog finish his meal.”
Cassian sobbed, clutching his broken hand. “I surrender! Call him off! Call him off!”
I turned away from the broken warlord, pulling a combat knife from my vest, and stepped up to Dominic. With two swift slices, I cut the iron chains binding his wrists.
Dominic collapsed forward into my arms. I caught his heavy frame, holding my blood brother tightly against my chest.
“You’re late, Julian,” Dominic whispered, a weak smile breaking through his bloodied lips.
“I had to bring your dog,” I replied, my voice thick with emotion. “He wouldn’t leave me alone until I brought him to you.”
Dominic looked down at Bear. The dog leaned his heavy head against Dominic’s knee, letting out a soft, whimpering bark of pure relief.
“Is she safe?” Dominic asked, grabbing my vest with desperate strength. “Is my little girl safe?”
I looked my old friend in the eyes, holding his gaze with absolute certainty.
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“She’s at my house, Dominic,” I said. “She’s warm, she’s fed, and she’s waiting for her father.”
Dominic closed his eyes, tears cutting clean lines through the dirt on his scarred face as he let out a long, ragged sigh of relief.
