“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.
