Saintess's Worthless Husband Turned Dragon Commander novel Chapter 83

CHAPTER 82 PART 1

Frank Morrison stood with his hands raised, his assault rifle lying useless in the dirt, surrounded by Marcus Steel and his men. The forest clearing had become a killing ground-six of his squadmates already dead, the rest wounded or terrified.

But Frank hadn’t survived two decades as a mercenary by giving up easily.

His eyes darted to the tactical vest of a fallen comrade three feet away. Inside that vest was a smoke grenade- standard issue for Crimson Gorge operations. And holstered at his ankle, hidden beneath his pant leg, was a backup pistol that Marcus’s men hadn’t found during their cursory weapon check.

One chance, Frank thought desperately. Get the grenade, create chaos, grab Steel as a hostage, force them to let us leave.

It was insane. It was suicidal. But it was the only option left.

“You know what’s funny?” Marcus said, walking slowly toward the surrendered mercenaries, his dragon aura still flickering around him like ghostly fire. “You people thought you were professionals. Elite Shadow Warriors. The best money could buy.”

Frank’s hand inched toward the fallen vest.

“But you kidnapped a Sacred Saintess,” Marcus continued, his voice carrying ancient contempt. “You put your filthy hands on divine bloodline. You committed a crime against heaven itself. What did you think would happen?”

“We didn’t know!” Frank shouted, using the outburst to cover his movement as he dove for the vest. His fingers closed around the smoke grenade, pulled the pin-

And hurled it directly at Marcus’s feet.

Gray smoke exploded outward in a thick cloud, instantly obscuring vision. Frank rolled, yanked the backup pistol from his ankle holster, and came up firing blindly into the smoke.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Eric! Victor! Now!” Frank screamed to his two surviving squadmates. “Kill Steel! Kill him NOW!”

The two mercenaries, desperate and terrified, opened fire into the smoke cloud, their training taking over despite their fear.

For three seconds, the clearing was chaos-gunfire, shouting, smoke so thick you couldn’t see your own hand.

Then the smoke began to clear.

Frank stood in the center, his pistol raised and pointed directly at-

Empty space.

Marcus Steel was gone. Vanished like a ghost.

“What the–” Frank spun around, searching frantically. “Where is he?! WHERE—”

“Looking for me?”

The voice came from directly behind him. Frank whirled-

Marcus stood there, utterly calm, his dragon eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. In his hand, he held Frank’s

1/2

ANTES 82 PARTY

+25 Bonus

pistol magazine.

“How did you-when did you-” Frank looked down at his gun. The magazine was gone. He’d been firing an

empty weapon.

“The moment you pulled it from your ankle holster,” Marcus said conversationally, tossing the magazine aside. ” My senses detected the movement. I disarmed you before you even took your first shot.”

“That’s impossible! Nobody’s that fast-”

“I’m not ‘nobody,'” Marcus interrupted, his dragon aura flaring brighter. “I’m the man whose wife you kidnapped. And your primitive techniques? They look like slow motion to me.”

Eric, one of Frank’s surviving squadmates, raised his rifle with shaking hands. “Stay back! I’ll shoot! I swear I’ll-

11

He fired.

The bullet went wide, missing Marcus by three feet-

And struck Frank Morrison directly in the shoulder.

Frank screamed, stumbling backward as blood sprayed from the wound. “You idiot! You shot ME!”

“I-I didn’t mean-“Eric’s voice was panicked. “He moved! I was aiming for him!”

Aaron Jackson appeared from the shadows, moving with deadly precision. His hand shot out, grabbed Eric’s rifle, and twisted. The weapon clattered to the ground, and Aaron’s follow-up strike-a devastating palm to the chest- sent Eric flying backward to crash against a tree trunk.

Victor, the last surviving mercenary, tried to run. Dominic Martinez emerged from the eastern position, his leg sweeping out to catch Victor’s ankles. The mercenary went down hard, and Dominic’s boot came down on his spine, pinning him to the ground.

“Going somewhere?” Dominic asked mockingly.

In fifteen seconds, Frank’s desperate gambit had failed completely. His men were disarmed and crippled, scattered across the clearing like broken toys.

Marcus walked toward Frank slowly, his dragon-enhanced presence making the air itself feel heavy.

“Did you really think,” Marcus said quietly, “that smoke and bullets could save you from me? You’re not dealing with some street gang or corporate security. You kidnapped the wife of the Ten Thousand Mountain Alliance Young Master. Did you think there would be negotiation? Mercy? A chance to escape?”

Comments

Support

Share

2/2

MAUNS HO PART 2

+25 Bonus

CHAPTER 82 PART 2

Frank clutched his bleeding shoulder, backing away until his back hit the van. “Please-we were just following orders! The client paid us! We’re soldiers-we do what we’re told!”

“Soldiers follow orders,” Marcus agreed, his dragon aura condensing around his fists until they glowed like molten gold. “But you’re not soldiers. You’re mercenaries. You chose to accept a contract to kidnap a Sacred Saintess. You chose to drug her, restrain her, terrify her. Every choice, every action-that’s on you.”

“It was just a job!” Frank screamed desperately. “Just business! Nothing personal!”

“NOTHING PERSONAL?!” Marcus’s voice carried such fury that Frank flinched like he’d been struck. “You put your hands on my wife. You made her scream with fear. You delivered her to animals who planned to assault her. And you call that ‘business’?!”

Dragon power exploded from Marcus’s body in a visible shockwave. The van’s windows shattered. The trees around the clearing swayed violently.

“Let me show you what ‘personal’ looks like.”

Marcus moved with dragon speed, crossing the distance in a blur. His hands shot out, grabbed Frank’s wrists-

And crushed.

The sound of bones shattering was like dry twigs snapping. Frank’s screams tore through the forest, raw and agonized, as every bone in both hands pulverized under Marcus’s dragon-enhanced grip.

“This is for Quinn,” Marcus said coldly, maintaining the pressure even as Frank writhed and shrieked. “For every second of terror you put her through. For every moment she thought she’d never see me again.”

Frank’s hands were ruined-twisted, broken, useless. Blood ran from where shattered bone fragments pierced through skin. The pain was so overwhelming that his vision went white, consciousness threatening to flee.

“Please!” Frank gasped between screams. “Please, just kill me! End it! I’m begging you!”

“Kill you?” Marcus released Frank’s mangled hands, letting the mercenary collapse to his knees. “You think death is punishment? You think a quick bullet is justice for what you did?”

He crouched down, meeting Frank’s eyes at level. “My wife is cold and indifferent by nature-a Sacred Saintess who maintains perfect composure in any situation. But when I found her, she was crying. Actually crying. Do you know how much trauma it takes to break through a Saintess’s emotional control?”

Frank could only whimper, cradling his destroyed hands against his chest.

“So no,” Marcus continued, his dragon eyes blazing with inhuman fury. “You don’t get a quick death. You don’t get mercy. You get to suffer as she suffered. Fear as she feared. And only when you’ve experienced a fraction of what you put her through-only then-will I grant you the release of death.”

“You… you’re a monster…” Frank gasped.

“I’m a husband,” Marcus corrected. “Protecting what’s mine. And you? You’re a dead man who just doesn’t know it yet.”

Frank’s sanity, already frayed by pain and terror, finally snapped. With a wordless roar of rage and desperation, he lunged at Marcus with his ruined hands, trying to claw at his eyes, to do something-anything-to hurt this inhuman monster before death took him.

1/2

+25 Bonus

Marcus didn’t dodge.

His fist, wreathed in concentrated dragon power that made the air shimmer with heat, shot forward in a single devastating strike.

The impact hit Frank Morrison’s skull with the force of a sledgehammer driven by ancient, primordial energy. Bone shattered. Brain tissue ruptured. The entire front of Frank’s face caved inward with a sickening crunch that echoed through the clearing.

Frank’s body flew backward, hit the van hard enough to dent the metal, and slumped to the ground in a broken heap.

The once-feared mercenary captain-veteran of a dozen warzones, killer of hundreds-lay dead in the dirt, his skull crushed beyond recognition.

Marcus straightened, his dragon aura receding slowly. He looked at his bloodied fist with cold indifference, then turned toward the two surviving squadmates.

Eric and Victor, pinned and broken by Aaron and Dominic, stared at Frank’s corpse with absolute horror. They’d seen death before. They’d inflicted death before. But this-this casual, overwhelming brutality-this was something beyond their experience.

“You’re… you’re not human,” Eric whispered, his voice shaking. “What are you?”

Marcus’s dragon eyes glowed one final time before fading back to their normal appearance.

“I’m the man who protects his Sacred Saintess,” he said simply. “Remember that. Remember what happens when someone threatens what’s mine. And when you reach whatever hell is waiting for you-tell the others who arrive there after you: the Dragon Commander showed mercy by making your deaths quick.”

He turned to Aaron. “Clean this up. No evidence. No survivors.”

“Understood, elder brother.”

As Marcus walked back toward the SUV where Quinn waited, the forest clearing behind him became a tomb for the Shadow Warriors who’d dared to touch a Sacred Saintess.

BIG SALE: 3500 bonus free fou you

Comments

Support

Share

get it

2/2

+25 Bonus

CHAPTER 83 PART 1

Eric Thompson lay pinned beneath Dominic Martinez’s boot, his spine aching from the pressure, his mind completely shattered. Ten feet away, Frank Morrison’s corpse sprawled in the dirt, his skull caved in beyond recognition, blood pooling beneath what was left of his head.

Eric had seen death before. He’d killed men himself during his seven years with Blood Canyon. But this-this casual, overwhelming brutality-had broken something fundamental in his psyche.

Marcus Steel walked toward him slowly, each step deliberate, his dragon aura finally faded but his presence still overwhelming. Those eyes-even returned to their normal appearance-carried something ancient and terrifying.

“Eric Thompson,” Marcus said, his voice utterly calm. “Former Marine, dishonorable discharge for excessive force, recruited by Blood Canyon six years ago. Specialty: close-quarters combat and interrogation.”

Eric’s blood ran cold. “How do you know-”

“I know everything about you,” Marcus interrupted. “Including your role in my wife’s kidnapping. You were in the parking garage. You fired the suppression dart that weakened her Saintess powers. You helped drag a Sacred Saintess into that van.”

“I was following orders!” Eric screamed desperately. “I didn’t know she was a Saintess! They just said it was a high -value extraction-”

“And that makes it acceptable?” Marcus crouched down, meeting Eric’s terrified gaze. “You put your hands on my wife. You facilitated her terror. And now you’re going to—”

Eric’s phone rang.

The sudden sound-a harsh electronic buzz from his tactical vest pocket-made everyone freeze. The ringtone echoed through the blood-soaked clearing like a death knell.

Marcus’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s calling you?”

“I-I don’t know-” Eric’s voice trembled.

Aaron Jackson reached into Eric’s vest, pulling out the phone. The caller ID read: KAILI – BLOOD CANYON HQ.

“Your boss,” Aaron said, showing Marcus the screen.

A desperate hope flickered in Eric’s eyes. Kaili Chen was the leader of Blood Canyon-a ruthless veteran with connections throughout Deep Cold. If Eric could alert him, if he could explain what was happening, maybe-just maybe-Blood Canyon would send reinforcements. Maybe they’d negotiate. Maybe there was a way out of this nightmare.

“Please,” Eric gasped. “Let me answer. I’ll tell him whatever you want. I’ll cooperate. Just please–”

Marcus studied Eric for a long moment, then smiled-a terrifying expression that held no warmth whatsoever.

“Answer it,” Marcus ordered. “Video call.”

Aaron activated the video feed and held the phone so the camera captured Eric’s pinned, broken form and Frank’s mutilated corpse in the background.

Eric’s hands shook as he spoke into the phone. “Boss-Boss, it’s Eric. We need help. Frank’s dead. Everyone’s dead. This guy-he’s not normal-he’s-”

Kaili Chen’s face appeared on screen-mid-forties, scarred and hard, with cold black eyes that had seen a

1/2

ARTI

+25 Bonus

thousand deaths. He was sitting in what looked like a command center, multiple monitors visible behind him.

“Eric? What the hell happened to Frank’s squad? You were supposed to be halfway to the Canadian border by now!

”

“He killed them!” Eric’s voice cracked with hysteria. “He killed them all! Frank, Victor, everyone! This Marcus Steel-he’s a monster! He’s the Young Master of the Ten Thousand Mountain-”

Marcus’s hand shot out, grabbed the phone from Aaron, and pulled a pistol from his waist in one smooth motion.

BANG!

The gunshot echoed through the forest. Eric’s head snapped back, a perfectly round hole appearing in the center of his forehead. His body went limp beneath Dominic’s boot, blood spreading across the dirt.

On the video call, Kaili Chen stared in shock as Eric’s murder played out live on his screen.

“You-“Kaili’s voice was strangled with rage and disbelief. “You just killed my man! On camera! Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?!”

Marcus turned the phone’s camera to face himself, his expression utterly calm. “Marcus Steel. Husband of Sacred Saintess Quinn Hartford. Young Master of the Ten Thousand Mountain Alliance. And the man who’s going to destroy your entire organization for daring to touch my wife.”

Kaili’s face went white. “The Alliance? That’s impossible. The Alliance doesn’t operate in-”

“Your men kidnapped a Sacred Saintess,” Marcus interrupted, his dragon aura flaring briefly-visible even through the video feed as golden-red energy crackling around his body. “They drugged her, restrained her, delivered her to animals. For that crime, there is no forgiveness. No negotiation. Only annihilation.”

“You arrogant bastard!” Kaili slammed his fist on the desk, his shock transforming into incandescent rage. “Blood Canyon has two hundred operatives across North America! Deep Cold has thousands worldwide! You think you can threaten us?!”

“Not a threat,” Marcus said calmly. “A promise. Within six months, I will find your headquarters. I will burn it to the ground. And I will make sure everyone who had any part in Quinn’s kidnapping dies screaming.”

He raised the pistol and fired three shots directly into the phone.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The screen shattered, the call ended, and Marcus tossed the destroyed device aside like garbage.

P

Comments

Support

Share

212

+25 Bonus

CHAPTER 83 PART 2

Blood Canyon Headquarters – Undisclosed Location – 12:34 AM

Kaili Chen stared at his blank monitor, his hands trembling with fury. Beside him, his right-hand man Sony Martinez-no relation to Dominic-looked equally shaken.