Mute Mafia Boss’s Daughter Rescued a Dog No One Wanted — What Happened Next Shocked Everyone

The storm raged at sub-zero temperatures. Nikolai and his five heavily armed mercenaries fanned out across the pine forest, following the trail of blood and footprints leading into the thick trees.

"She can't run far in this snow!" Nikolai yelled over the howling wind. "Find her! Valetti wants her alive!"

Deep within a hollowed-out stone ravine fifty yards away, Arya huddled beneath the roots of a massive fallen cedar. She was trembling from the bitter cold, her hands blue, her breath forming thick clouds in the freezing air.

Ghost stood over her, his broad body blocking the biting wind. He gently licked her frozen cheek, using his thick fur and body heat to keep her core temperature from plunging.

Through the trees, crunching footsteps approached.

Arya looked into Ghost’s pale eyes. She raised her hand, executing two swift, silent gestures she had practiced in the garden: Flank. Silence.

Ghost understood instantly. He melted into the deep snowdrifts without making a single sound.

The first mercenary stepped into the ravine, holding his night-vision assault rifle ready. "I think I see something under the roots—"

A shadow erupted from the snow beneath his feet. Ghost lunged upward, clamping his jaws around the man's throat before he could pull the trigger. The man went down instantly into the powder.

Twenty feet away, a second shooter turned at the sound of the scuffle. Ghost circled around through the dense underbrush, striking from behind like a mountain predator. He tackled the man into a rocky crevice, rendering him unconscious with a single brutal impact.

Nikolai heard the muffled screams fading into the storm. Panic finally touched his cold eyes. "Form up! Form up on me!"

The remaining two mercenaries pulled back, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Nikolai in a small clearing, their weapons pointed frantically into the swirling white mist.

From the shadows of the pines, Ghost walked into view. His coat was dusted with white powder, his chest stained with fresh blood, his eyes glowing like cold embers in the dim moonlight.

"Kill him!" Nikolai screamed.

The men opened fire, but Ghost had already moved. He darted between the tree trunks with unnatural speed, using the terrain to confuse their aim. He leaped off a granite boulder, crushing the third mercenary beneath his weight, then spun and tore the rifle from the fourth man's hands, breaking his shoulder with a bone-shattering bite.

Nikolai pulled a heavy hunting knife from his belt, his eyes wild with terror as he faced the solitary wolf-hound in the middle of the frozen wilderness. "Come on, you bastard!"

Ghost didn't rush in blindly. He circled Nikolai slowly, keeping his distance, drawing the killer’s focus entirely away from the tree line.

Behind Nikolai, a small figure stepped out from the shadows of the cedar roots.

Arya stood tall in the snow, holding a heavy iron tire iron she had pulled from Marco’s wrecked SUV. With all the strength in her small eleven-year-old body, she swung the iron bar into the back of Nikolai’s knee.