Chapter 267 Loyalty – Dominic’s POV

Chapter 267 Loyalty – Dominic’s POV
I had seen the Alpha King angry before. I had stood beside him through rebellions and executions, through the cold precision of a ruler who treated violence as mathematics. This was not anger. It came from somewhere deeper, from the wolf rather than the man wearing the crown.
His posture changed first. His shoulders broadened and his spine straightened as if his body were making room for something larger. Then Skoll surfaced beneath his skin, driving the human frame towards its limits.
Alpha energy struck the room like a pressure wave. The four bound captives felt it first. Owen whimpered. Finn’s disciplined stillness collapsed into terror as he realised every calculation had failed. Seraphina and Percival leaned towards each other, siblings seeking comfort before whatever came next.
I had approximately three seconds to act.
“Everyone out.” My voice came out steady despite everything my instincts were doing. “Now. All of you. Out.”
The guards obeyed. Trained and disciplined, they read the danger without needing explanation. They filed through the door in silence, weapons holstered and faces forward. The last guard closed it behind him with a soft, final click.
I approached Aleksandr slowly. Decades at his side had taught me exactly how close I could come to his rage before proximity became a challenge. His attention remained fixed on the captives. Their shouting had stopped. The silence warned of something irreversible.
“My King,” I said, keeping my voice low, even, the register of a man delivering a reminder rather than a challenge. “This isn’t the way.”
He turned towards me with a predator’s fluid focus. The growl that followed was not human. Skoll had exhausted every fragment of patience left after his pregnant mate was attacked.
The command hit with physical force. My head dropped, every muscle locked into submission. I was ordered to stay, and my body obeyed before thought could object.
I tried to speak, but my jaw refused the instruction. The command held me two metres from the door while my mind fought against a body incapable of moving.
The first sound from inside was Percival’s scream, cut short with brutal finality. Seraphina pleaded next, then Owen. Finn was last. The sounds ended one by one until silence claimed the room.
My loyalty had been absolute for four decades. I had stood beside Aleksandr through executions I supported and others I endured, telling myself that kings made hard decisions and betas made those decisions work. This was different. A wolf had taken vengeance while the king surrendered control, and that distinction chilled me more than the sounds beyond the door.
The command released without warning. My muscles unlocked, and I caught myself against the obsidian wall. Breath shook into my lungs. I counted three seconds, then looked up.
The interrogation room had become unrecognisable. Blood marked the walls and ran towards the central drain. Four bodies lay where the captives had knelt, reduced to evidence of rage rather than people who could answer further questions.
Aleksandr stood at the centre, chest heaving. His suit had been torn away during the violence, and the clothes that remained were soaked with blood that was not his. It darkened his hands, arms and chest. His face had gone pale with exertion, and his focus had not fully returned.
He found me across the wreckage. Recognition came slowly, carrying the first sign that the man had returned enough to understand I had witnessed everything.
Then he left. He passed me without speaking, leaving dark footprints across the obsidian towards the lift. He did not acknowledge the bodies or the fractured trust left behind.
I remained in the doorway and forced myself to think beyond shock. Four sources were gone. Their phones, accounts, quarters and associates still existed, but any knowledge held only in memory had died with them. The wider investigation would now depend on records and whatever traces Thaddeus Kane had failed to erase.
The guards outside had heard enough to understand what had happened. None looked directly at me when I stepped into the corridor. Their discipline held, but the air between us had altered. Fear travelled faster than orders in a palace, and by noon every member of staff would know the Alpha King had lost control beneath the throne room.
I could protect his authority or protect the truth of what I had seen. For forty years, those duties had usually pointed in the same direction. Standing outside that room, I understood they no longer did.
I stood among four cooling bodies and made a decision I would question for the rest of my life: the palace would hear that the captives died resisting custody. The inner security team would know enough to maintain the fiction. The full truth would remain with me unless Aleksandr gave me reason to expose it.
I reached for my radio. “Cleanup team to interrogation level. Full protocol. Secure all evidence before anything is moved.”