LOGAN
The overhead drone footage on my tablet showed the same damn trespassers near the contaminated creek.
My jaw tightened, a growl rising in my throat.
I slammed the tablet onto my desk. Too many red flags, equipment failures, delayed shipments, sickness spreading through town, and now this.
It all pointed to the Roberts Mine, but proving it was another matter.
Marshall’s image flashed in my mind. He was still recovering at the clinic after the medical resources I’d flown in saved his life.
The sight of his massive frame convulsing on the dusty street haunted me.
His condition had stabilized, but for how long?
The tests Sabrina ran showed the poison lingering in his system.
His condition was resistant to treatment despite modern medicine and endless resources.
I’d known Marshall since I first arrived in Angel Spring. He was the only friend I’d allowed myself after Victoria’s betrayal, and a stubborn bastard as strong as the mountains themselves. Seeing him reduced to that state had cracked something in the walls I’d built around myself.
The phone buzzed on the desk with an incoming call.
The clinic’s number flashed on screen, and my heart lurched in my chest. Sabrina.
My wolf surged forward without permission, canines lengthening as her face flashed through my mind.
The response was immediate and impossible to ignore.
She’d been in my territory barely a month, yet my instincts screamed as if she’d been part of my pack for years.
I snatched up the phone, my voice gruffer than intended. “Song.”
“Logan,” Juniper’s voice crackled through. “You might want to get down here. That snake Vance is slithering around the clinic, trying to rattle your doctor. And, well, you know how she is. She’s not the type to back down, even when she should.”
A growl escaped before I could stop it. My fingers tightened around the phone. “I’m on my way.”
“Good,” she said, amusement threading her tone. “But don’t tear the place apart. Sabrina’s holding her own, but she could use a little backup. And maybe a reminder she’s not the only one who can play hero.”
I was already moving, shrugging on my jacket as I stormed out. My instincts screamed to protect.
I gunned the engine, tearing down the mountain road.
Dust clouds swirled behind me as I took each curve too fast, tires spitting gravel.
The rational part of my brain knew Sabrina could handle herself.
I’d seen how that tiny woman commanded a room, but my wolf was beyond reason.
Someone had invaded my territory, threatened what was mine.
The thought brought me up short. When had I started thinking of her as mine? I gripped the steering wheel harder, feeling leather creak beneath my palms. This wasn’t the plan. No attachments. No vulnerabilities. No weakness for anyone to exploit.
Yet here I was, racing down the mountain because someone dared to upset my doctor.
My knuckles whitened on the wheel, the ache in my side burning hotter with every mile.
Sabrina’s face flashed in my mind. Her stubborn chin, the fire in her eyes, how she’d challenged me from the moment we met.
She wouldn’t back down from the mine’s doctor, and that terrified me.
Gravel crunched beneath my tires as I pulled into the clinic parking lot. The sun burned high, casting the building in sharp relief. Inside, fluorescent lights glared, illuminating the battle taking place inside.
I strode in, the door slamming shut behind me.
The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot.
Vance leaned against the reception desk, his tailored suit and polished shoes a jarring contrast against worn clinic furniture.
Sabrina stood before him, her petite frame rigid with defiance, hands clenched into fists at her sides.
“Ah. The infamous Logan Song,” Vance drawled. Condescension dripped from his voice like oil. His eyes flicked to me, cold and calculating. “I wondered how long it would take you to show up.”
Sabrina’s head snapped toward me, her brown eyes wide with surprise and relief. But she quickly masked it. She lifted her chin as she turned back to Vance. “We’re not finished, Doctor.”
Vance smirked, the gold ring on his pinky glinting in harsh light.
His scent hit me. It was wrong, like a cheap dollar store air freshener masking rot.
Not human, but he wasn’t a Song or a Roberts either.
I didn’t recognize it. He was a hired gun with no pack loyalty.
“Oh, I think we are,” he said, rolling his shoulders in a mock stretch.
A challenge. My wolf reared up, hackles rising.
This bastard thought he could posture in my territory?
Sabrina’s pulse jumped, pumping rapidly against the fragile skin of her throat. Her scent flared, and my vision tinted amber. Mine to protect.
I stepped forward, my claws barely sheathed. “What’s your business here, Vance?”
He straightened, smirk widening. “Just doing my job, Song. Ensuring the mine’s reputation remains intact.”
“The mine’s reputation?” Sabrina’s voice sharpened. “People are dying, and you’re here to protect a corporation’s image?”
Vance shrugged, movements deliberately casual. “Evidence, Dr.Wu. That’s all I need. And so far, you’ve provided none.”
A growl tore from my throat. My vision turned red, the wolf clawing at the surface. “People don’t need evidence to know something’s wrong. They’re sick. Suffering. And you’re standing here spouting corporate bullshit.”
Vance’s mask slipped for a moment, unease flickering in his eyes as his nostrils flared.
The sign of a wolf sensing another wolf.
But he recovered quickly, the greasy smirk returning.
“Emotions won’t change facts, Song. Without proof, this is nothing more than a localized anomaly.
” He waved dismissively, though I caught the slight tremor in his fingers.
Sabrina stepped forward. “We’ll find the proof. And when we do, you won’t hide behind your lies.” Pride flared in my chest at the steely resolve in her voice.
Vance’s gaze narrowed. Rage darkened his face as he leaned in. “Be careful, Dr.Wu. You’re playing with forces you don’t understand,” he hissed.
The threat hung in the air for one heartbeat. Two.
Then my control snapped.
I moved on instinct, my body acting without thought.
In one fluid motion, I inserted myself between them, crowding into Vance’s space until his back pressed against the reception desk.
The air was charged with the energy of my barely contained shift.
My vision tunneled, bleeding at the edges as my wolf surged forward, fangs poking out of my gums.
“Threaten her again,” I snarled, the words barely coming out as human. “And they won’t find enough pieces of you to identify.”
The scent of Vance’s fear perfumed the air, sharp and acrid.
It was sweet satisfaction to my wolf. He gulped, prey recognizing predator.
Stepping back, his polished facade cracked.
“This isn’t over,” he spat, voice losing its smooth edge.
He turned on his heel, storming out, the door slamming behind him.
The silence that followed was deafening. Sabrina let out a sharp breath and relaxed her shoulders. “That could’ve gone worse.”
I turned to study her. Her dark hair framed her face in an unruly halo, and the fire in her eyes still burned even after her enemy had retreated. “You shouldn’t have faced him without me.”
Behind the counter, Juniper busied herself with her mortar and pestle, even though I knew she was listening to every word.
She met my gaze without flinching. “I can handle myself.”
“I know you can.” I paused. “But you don’t have to.”
Her eyes softened for a moment, vulnerability breaking through her armor. “Thanks for coming.”
I nodded, my wolf calming in her presence, and purring at her approval. Now that danger had passed, it wanted me to bury my face in her neck and breathe her in until the world narrowed to just us.
Focus. Vance’s scent was wrong, but Sabrina’s was a drug I couldn’t afford to crave. Not when every breath she took put her deeper in the crosshairs.
The air between us thickened, charged with something nameless. My pulse pounded in my ears, drowning out reason. For a moment, I imagined closing the distance, tasting those defiant lips for myself.
I cleared my throat, breaking the spell. “We need those water samples. Vance just confirmed it.”
“I agree. Vance showing up here isn’t a coincidence,” Sabrina said, pulling a folder from her desk drawer. Her hands were steady now, as professional determination took over. “Look at this.”
She spread preliminary test results across the desk. Water samples taken from three locations around the valley. The numbers meant little to me, but the red highlights told everything.
“Heavy metals,” she explained, finger tracing a line of figures. “Concentrated around the eastern creek bed, right where it flows past the Roberts Mine property.”
I leaned closer, shoulder brushing hers. Forcing myself to focus on the results instead of how she seemed to lean into me, I pieced it together. “That’s where the trespassers were spotted near my property. They’re monitoring the contamination.”
Sabrina nodded, her eyes bright with triumph and concern. “Exactly. But I need more comprehensive samples. The kind that stand up in court.” She glanced up, determined. “Tomorrow at dawn, we hit the creek.”
“Be careful, Wu.” The words came out rougher than I intended. “Vance isn’t the only one watching us.”
She met my gaze, unflinching. “I’m not scared of them.”
I knew she wasn’t. That’s what terrified me.
As she walked away, I watched the sway of her hips and the confident set of her shoulders. I was torn between protection and possession. The pain in my side flared again. A warning of what happened when you let someone close.
I pressed my palm against the wound, feeling its familiar throb. Victoria had taken enough from me. I wouldn’t let her, or anyone else, take Sabrina, too.
For ten years, I’d chosen isolation. Safety through solitude. The mountain and my fortune were my only companions. It had been enough, or so I’d convinced myself.
Back at my estate, I paced my study, unable to settle. The pain pulsed with my heartbeat, but for once, it wasn’t the dominant thought in my mind.
Sabrina Wu had wormed under my skin in ways I couldn’t comprehend. My wolf recognized something in her, not just fierce protectiveness when Vance threatened her, but something deeper, more primal. Something I’d sworn never to feel again.
I pulled out the antique compass my grandfather gave me, its weight solid and comforting in my palm. North had always been my constant, my guide when everything shifted. But since Sabrina arrived, my internal compass spun wildly, always pointing to her no matter which way I turned.
The realization terrified and exhilarated me equally.
Soon we would collect the water samples and take the first real step toward exposing the Roberts Mine. But tonight, alone in my mountain castle, I allowed myself to acknowledge the truth I’d been fighting. Sabrina Wu wasn’t just an ally in this battle.
She was becoming my true north.