The door creaked open to reveal a maze of metal shipping containers creating shadowed corridors.Perfect ambush territory.Logan stepped out first, shielding me with his body as his eyes scanned our surroundings.
The attack we expected didn’t come.Instead, Vance emerged from between two containers about thirty feet away.His suit was gone, replaced by tactical clothing.His eyes gleamed with a wild light that crawled over my skin.It was the look of a man with nothing left to lose.
“You’ve ruined everything!”he snarled, his voice echoing between metal walls.Behind him, I glimpsed a body on the ground, one of Logan’s security team, unconscious or worse.
The security team was nowhere in sight.With sickening clarity, I realized what had happened.Vance had methodically separated us from our backup, picking them off one by one while we searched inside.
Logan stepped fully in front of me, his growl so deep it vibrated off the containers around us.“This ends now, Vance.”
Vance’s lips curled into a sneer that revealed teeth already lengthening with his partial shift.“You’re too late, Song.Victoria always has a contingency plan.”His eyes flickered to me, calculating and cruel.“The lawyers are already filing for emergency control of the mine.She’ll own it by morning.”
The sudden shift in his focus set off alarm bells.His muscles bunched, and I knew with absolute certainty he wasn’t targeting Logan.
Without warning, Vance exploded into his wolf form, a massive gray beast with matted fur and wild eyes.He lunged forward with shocking speed, aiming directly at me.Not at Logan, the bigger threat.At me.Logan’s weakness.
Logan roared, a primal, ground-shaking sound.He shifted in mid-air, clothes tearing away as his body transformed into four hundred pounds of muscle and fur.His wolf was magnificent, midnight black with silver streaking his muzzle.Power radiated from every muscle.
As Vance and Logan crashed together in wolf forms, the violence sent me stumbling back against a container.The sounds of tearing flesh and snarls filled the air.My heart hammered against my ribs as I watched Logan fighting for both our lives.
His midnight fur gleamed with blood where Vance’s claws had ripped through fur and flesh.Through the bond, each strike against him felt like a physical blow to my own body.I couldn’t just watch him bleed.Logan fought for me, for the town, while I cowered.What kind of mate would that make me?
The word mate echoed through my mind, no longer shocking but feeling like a truth I’d always known.My hands steadied as determination replaced fear.I might not be able to shift and join the fight directly, but I was far from helpless.
Peering around the container edge, I spotted a security guard slumped against a wall, radio still clipped to his belt.Vance had been thorough, taking out communications one by one.
I darted from my hiding place, keeping low, and reached the guard.His pulse thudded steadily beneath my fingers—unconscious but alive.I grabbed his radio and pressed the call button.
“This is Dr.Wu.We need backup behind the administration building.Vance is attacking.”
Nothing but static answered.The signals were still jammed.I swore and turned back to the fight.
Logan’s wolf moved with deadly grace that spoke of years of battle experience.Though Vance was larger and fought with desperate savagery, Logan’s tactical precision gave him the advantage.He struck with devastating efficiency at the enemy’s vulnerable spots.
I couldn’t just watch.Desperately, my eyes scanned for anything useful.A length of heavy chain hung from the hasp of one container.I scrambled toward it, my hands shaking as I worked it free.
The battle intensified, and Vance landed a vicious blow across Logan’s right side.Blood spurted out, but he didn’t falter.His answering strike sent Vance skidding across the dirt.
The fight moved between containers.The clashing of bodies against metal created a hellish symphony.When Vance knocked Logan against a container hard enough to momentarily stun him, I saw my opening.
Chain in hand, I rushed forward.Vance was too focused on attacking Logan to notice my approach.I swung the chain with everything I had.It whipped through the air and wrapped around Vance’s back leg.
I yanked hard, throwing my entire body.It knocked him off-balance at the crucial moment.His attack went wide, giving Logan the opening he needed.
Logan lunged with lethal precision, pinning Vance to the ground.His jaws closed around Vance’s throat.It wasn’t a killing bite, not yet.The message was clear.Move and die.
Vance struggled beneath him, his larger size useless against Logan’s superior position.Logan’s massive paw struck with surgical precision at the base of Vance’s skull, rendering him unconscious.
The moment he did, the radios crackled to life, the jamming suddenly broken.Security teams poured into the area, weapons ready, as they moved to secure Vance’s limp form.
I rushed to Logan’s side as he shifted back to human form.My heart hammered so hard I barely heard the chaos around us.One of his men draped a blanket over his naked body, but my focus was fixed on the savage gashes across his ribs and side.Blood pulsed from the deepest wound in slow, steady waves.The coppery scent of his blood triggered something primal, visceral panic that this man, this wolf who had fought for me, might be seriously hurt.
My hands trembled as I examined the wounds.His blood flowed between my fingers, hot and sticky.Each torn edge of flesh represented a moment he’d put himself between me and death.With clinical precision that belied my turmoil, I cleaned away enough blood to see what I’d dreaded.Vance’s claws had torn directly through Logan’s old scar tissue, reopening the chronic wound that never properly healed.
Something fierce and protective surged within me.I would make it my life’s goal to find an antidote.Not just for Logan, but for any shifter subjected to this barbaric torture.
“I’m going to fix this,” I whispered, the promise tasting like a blood oath.My fingertips traced the swollen line where old wound met new.“All of it.”
His hand covered mine, pressing it against his wounded side.
