The Wolf Within

by Cynthia Eden

  Three times? She’d been the one to brew that drug. Holly knew it was powerful. One dose should have been more than enough to put Duncan out.

  The doors to her medical wing flew open again, and she jerked. Elias—coming back? What the hell?

  His cheeks were flushed. His blond hair mussed. He pointed toward Holly. “She’s going to need a guard in here with her!” Elias called out. “The doc won’t be able to handle him.”

  Shane August grabbed the guy and tried to yank him back. Elias didn’t appear in the mood to be yanked.

  Pate exhaled slowly. “After Duncan has the collar on, she’ll be able to control him.” Then Pate pointed to Shane. “August, you stay in here and keep an eye on Holly until she has Duncan secure.”

  Shane, not Elias. Very good choice.

  Shane shoved Elias back of the room, then he stood there, near the door, with his watchful brown gaze locked on Duncan’s body.

  Pate made no move to leave, not yet. “Check him out, top to bottom. Get blood work. Run your tests. Every test you can think of.”

  Tests that would show them all just how deadly Duncan would become.

  She nodded and met Pate’s stare. “If he—if he proves to be too much of a threat?” Because she’d seen werewolves who had no sense of humanity left in them. Beasts that couldn’t be controlled or contained. They’d all seen wolves like that. In her experience, those recently bitten were the worst.

  The most dangerous.

  “Then you stop him.” She noticed the emphasis he put in his command. “But that’s a last resort. I don’t want to lose him. We need him, Holly. We need what he’ll become.”

  Because while the other agents thought that Pate was just a suit who never got his hands dirty, she knew better. Pate had been chosen to lead the West Coast Para Unit because he knew all about the dark side of life.

  And he also believed that the best way to fight a monster was…with a monster.

  That was why she was there.

  “Do whatever you have to do, but make sure Duncan McGuire survives.” Then Pate was backing away. He crossed to Shane’s side, whispered to the agent, and after a moment, the swinging doors to the med room closed behind Pate.

  She didn’t move from her position near Duncan. Duncan McGuire. He’d always made her nervous. Too aware.

  She put on her stethoscope. Bent to listen to his heartbeat. So fast. Not weak, the way it should have been considering the amount of drugs in his system. Duncan’s heartbeat was thundering at a frantic rate.

  The transformation.

  Holly had been hiredto be the personal physician for the agents in the Para Unit. When you went out and fought monsters, you could return with some rather…unusual wounds. Instead of explaining vamp bites and shifter claw marks to the local hospital staff, Pate had wanted her to take care of his men and women.

  He’d also wanted her to study the prisoners in containment.

  Two reasons to bring her in. There were more reasons, of course, there always were. But those were the two he’d used to the FBI Brass.

  And, since she’d owed Pate far more than she could ever repay, it wasn’t like Holly had been given much of a choice in taking the job.

  No, she’d lost that whole choice option a year ago. When she’d lost her life.

  Carefully now, she lifted one of Duncan’s eyelids. She was about to shine her light on his eye when she realized—

  No need for the light.

  His eye was shining on its own. The blue had lit up, streaking with gold. Already a werewolf’s sight. A werewolf’s vision was ten times better than a human’s during the day, and at night, werewolves could see in the darkness. All of a werewolf’s senses were enhanced. Incredibly amped.

  She backed away from him a bit. Her gaze scanned over his body. So much blood. Her nostrils flared a bit at the scent. Considering the damage he’d sustained, it was amazing that he’d survived the attack.

  And if he hadn’t? If Pate had come back to tell her that Duncan had died on his mission? How would she have felt then?

  Holly swallowed. She put down the small light, and her gloved hands reached out to skim over the wound on his neck. I would have missed you.

  She’d been paying too much attention to Duncan from the very beginning. On her second day at the facility, he’d walked in with a bullet in his shoulder. He’d stripped off his shirt. She’d dug the bullet out, been all business.

  Until she’d looked up and gotten caught by that bright, blue gaze.

  As a rule, when she looked at Duncan, Holly wanted. She craved.

  Dangerous, but then, Duncan was a dangerous man. He was about to become even more so.

  “Shane…” She raised her voice so the agent near the door would hear her. “Please get me the silver collar from the storage room.”

  “I’m supposed to guard—” Shane began, his voice rumbling just a bit with the drawl of South Carolina.

  Holly glanced up at him. Shane was a good guy. Tall, blond, with classic features and warm, brown eyes. Handsome, no doubt appealing to most women.

  She wasn’t most. She didn’t want pretty boy perfect.

  Her fingers lightly skimmed over Duncan’s shoulder. “He’s out. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just…get the collar for me, will you?”

  After one last worried glance at Duncan’s still figure, Shane headed toward the storage room.

  Her breath eased out on a relieved exhale.

  Good. She’d wanted a few moments alone with Duncan. She reached for her scissors. Carefully, Holly cut away his shirt. She bagged it and sealed it because Pate would want an analysis done on all that blood.

  Then she bent to inspect the bites on Duncan’s neck and shoulder. “They sure tore into you,” she whispered. But those wounds were closing. Already healing as he became something far more than man. “I’m so sorry, Duncan.”

  She’d barely talked to him before this attack. Too nervous. Every time his eyes had locked on her, Holly’s heartbeat had kicked up and raced in her chest. She’d stuttered and glanced away because—

  I want him. Only, before, he wouldn’t have been able to handle her secrets. No man could.

  Not and keep living, anyway.

  Almost helplessly, her hands slid over the muscles of his chest. The shift would make his muscles harder, even more defined. Not just a six pack anymore, hell, it looked like he was close to getting a dang twelve pack—

  His hand flew up. His fingers wrapped around her wrist, holding her far too tightly.

  Holly’s gaze flew to his face. His eyes were wide open, the gold even bolder in that blue gaze that it had been moments before. His lips were parted, and she could just see the edge of his lengthening canines.

  Oh, hell. “Duncan?”

  He jerked to a sitting position, snapping those straps that had been over his body in an instant, and he yanked her closer to him. His other hand rose and wrapped around her shoulder, effectively trapping her in place.

  His brows lowered as he studied her, and his nostrils widened as if he were drinking in her scent.

  Not good.

  “D-Duncan, you’re back at the med unit. I’m just checking you over to make sure—”

  His head lowered toward her throat. Holly yelped, thinking he was going for her jugular, and she tried to push him back.

  Only there was no pushing him.

  Enhanced strength, definite check. It sure looked like Pate was right about the alpha coming out in Duncan.

  He was right.

  And I could be screwed.

  Her nails sank into his shoulders. She didn’t want to hurt him. He’d been hurt enough. But…

  He wasn’t biting her. Wasn’t sinking those new, wickedly sharp canines of his into her neck. He was—

  Nuzzling her? What. The. Hell?

  Holly was pretty sure that she’d just felt the lick of his tongue over her neck.

  She shuddered against him. “Ah…Duncan…you need to let me go…I can help you…”
>
  He was on the edge of the table now. He’d pulled her between his legs. Caged her so well. The heat from his body scorched her.

  His right hand wasn’t on her shoulder any longer. It had just dropped to the curve of her ass.

  “Duncan!” Her voice snapped at him.

  His head lifted. Only the man she’d known wasn’t staring back at her from those gold/blue eyes. A hungry beast stared back at her. A beast who sure looked like he was ready for a bite.

  Been there, done that.

  That burning gaze seemed to consume her. “Want…” The word was an inhuman rasp, a beast’s growl.

  “You…” Holly paused, wet her too-dry lips and muttered, “need to let me go—”

  Her mouth was still open when his lips crashed down on hers. Not gentle. Not even close. Desperate and rough and wild. His tongue thrust into her mouth. His hold tightened around her, and Duncan—

  Took.

  She’d wondered what it would be like to kiss Duncan McGuire. She’d daydreamed. Fantasized. Harmless thoughts, really.

  She’d never imagined anything like this. His tongue thrust into her mouth. His tongue tasted and tempted. His tight hold on her body had her pressed hard to the front of his body, and there was no missing the guy’s arousal.

  Um, no missing it at all.

  She shouldn’t respond. He was injured. Probably out of his mind from the transformation mutating within him, but the hot touch of his mouth on hers seemed to send a current of pleasure right through Holly’s body. Her breasts tightened. Her hips pushed restlessly against the thick length of his cock and—

  “Dr. Young!” Shane’s horrified voice cut through the cloud of lust.

  Shane. And, just like that, Holly didn’t have to worry about breaking free of Duncan’s grip. Because at the other man’s shout, Duncan pushed her away from him and leapt from the table.

  Then he went after Shane. With claws stretching from the tips of his fingers and with a snarl on his lips, Duncan launched at the other man.

  “No!” Holly screamed.

  But Duncan didn’t stop. Shane had the silver collar in his hands, and he’d holstered his weapon, so he had to drop the collar before he could arm himself.

  The collar hit the floor, and Shane didn’t move fast enough to draw out his weapon.

  Duncan’s right hand wrapped around Shane’s throat. He lifted the agent up into the air. Shane’s feet dangled, and he tried to choke out some speech.

  We are so screwed. She’d been right earlier. “Duncan! Let him go!” Holly screamed. He hadn’t hurt her, but it certainly looked like he was ready to introduce Shane to a whole world of pain.

  Wolves were territorial. Especially the alphas. Duncan had been coming on to her—marking her in the way of shifters, she knew that—and then another male had come into the room.

  So screwed.

  Shane was struggling to get out his gun. His fingers were shaking, but, on the third try, he managed to yank the weapon from the holster. Then Shane tried to lift the gun to Duncan’s chest.

  “No!” Now her scream was full of fear. She raced toward them.

  But, with his left hand, Duncan just snatched away the gun and tossed it across the room. “Stay away…” Duncan snarled as he lifted Shane higher, “from her.”

  Holly grabbed the collar. Unlocked it. Duncan was so tall, about six foot four, and she was only five foot seven, so this was gonna be tricky. She jumped up, trying to latch on around his back.

  He spun at once, slamming Shane to the floor and catching her in his arms. He lifted her, bringing her closer even as he frowned down at her.

  Gotcha.

  “Sorry,” Holly whispered, and she locked the collar around his throat. The silver immediately began to burn him, sending faint plumes of smoke into the air as the skin on his neck reddened and blistered.

  He dropped her, and her ass hit the tile with an impact that would leave one hell of a bruise. But she jumped to her feet and rushed toward the counter. Duncan was yelling and snarling and trying to yank the silver collar away from his neck.

  “Stop!” Holly shouted at him as her fingers curled around the collar’s remote. “You’re just making it hurt worse!” That was the way the collar had been designed. The more you struggled, the more you’d burn.

  She typed in a code for that collar, then adjusted the setting, knocking down the intensity. “Give me just a second, and I’ll help you.”

  His head whipped toward her. His fingers were still at the collar, shaking. Burning.

  “I can make the pain stop,” she whispered, “but you have to show me that you have control.”

  He was coming toward her. Stalking her. Seemingly uncaring now of the burns on his throat.

  “D-Duncan?”

  He kept coming toward her. Holly was afraid that “control” might not be part of his vocabulary anymore.

  Chapter Two

  Footsteps thundered behind him. “Freeze, McGuire!”

  Freeze. The order was so familiar. So was the voice shouting it. Pate.

  But Duncan didn’t freeze. He kept stalking toward Holly. She was the only thing that mattered to him.

  Holly with her high cheekbones, those deep, dark brown eyes, her golden skin, and the dark silk of her hair.

  Why hadn’t he ever noticed how sweet she smelled? Her scent was pulling him in, drawing him closer and closer.

  He’d followed that scent on her neck. Tasted her skin with his tongue.

  She tasted as sweet as she smelled.

  He’d taken her lips. Enjoyed her mouth. Her lips were red from his kiss now, and all he could think was…

  I want to taste all of her.

  The beast was growling, eager to claim his prey.

  “Don’t take another step, McGuire!” That annoying voice shouted again. “Or I’ll shoot!”

  The swinging doors burst open behind Pate.

  Duncan didn’t have to take another step. Holly was the one who rushed toward him. She hurried to stand between him…and the group of agents who’d just rushed into the med unit.

  The armed agents.

  Duncan’s gaze swept over them. When he’d first awoken, he’d known only lust. For Holly. He’d seen her. Smelled her. Wanted.

  Then Shane had come in, and all he’d been able to think was…Stay away. A haze of red had covered his vision. Mine. An instinctive, primal response.

  But the silver collar was doing its job. It was keeping the wolf in check. Holding back the beast.

  For now. The sinister whisper seemed to come from within him.

  His gaze swept over the agents. Pate’s face was tense. He’d clenched his jaw, and the guy’s green gaze glittered.

  Elias, the poor bastard, looked miserable. He was pale, with a stricken stare.

  Shane had picked himself off the floor and was rolling his right shoulder. Huh. Did I dislocate it? Maybe. Things had been a little hazy at that point.

  Three other agents were behind them—Daphne, Brent, and Luke. All of their weapons were aimed at Duncan and, now, at Holly.

  The weapons were pointed at Holly.

  He lifted his hands. Saw the long, deadly black claws that had sprung from his fingertips.

  “Everyone needs to calm down,” Holly said, but her own voice was shaking and high. “He’s collared. He’s under control.”

  Collared. He barely felt the burn of the silver on his neck anymore. Or the burn in his fingers. He just felt—

  Strong. Like he could rip apart anyone who got in his way.

  Maybe he would.

  “He doesn’t seem controlled to me,” Shane muttered, rolling that shoulder once more. “The guy nearly choked the life out of me!”

  There were red imprints on Shane’s neck.

  From my hands.

  Duncan took a step back. Stared harder at his claws. He hadn’t wanted this. Hadn’t ever wanted it.

  He looked up—and right into Elias’s gaze.

  “I’m sorry,” his partner whi
spered the words, but Duncan heard him perfectly.

  Because his senses were enhanced.

  He wasn’t human anymore.

  He grabbed Holly’s arm and spun her toward him. “What the fuck is happening?”

  Her eyes widened.

  The others started to spring forward.

  “Stop!” Holly yelled, and she threw out one arm, palm out, to halt them in their tracks. “He’s not attacking me. Duncan is in control.” Then, softer, just for his ears, she said, “Please, tell me that you’re in control.”

  Her scent…His head bent toward her. He wanted to bite. Badly. But he managed, “I’m in…control.” Lie.

  “Good.” Her breath rushed out. “Pate, get your agents to lower their guns! Duncan is contained. There’s no need for any more violence.”

  “He choked me—” Shane snapped.

  “But he didn’t kill you,” Holly threw back without taking her gaze off Duncan’s. “You’re lucky. He’d just woken up, his beast was in control.”

  “And what?” Shane demanded, his faint drawl thickening a bit. “His beast wanted to fuck? ‘Cause it sure looked like he was about to eat you alive.”

  Her cheeks flushed a dark red. Duncan’s head whipped up, and his eyes locked on the other agent.

  Shane immediately stumbled back. “Wow, big guy. Easy. Let’s not go for my throat again, okay?”

  The thought was tempting.

  “McGuire?” Pate called. “Are you in control or is that wolf about to launch out?”

  Gritting his teeth Duncan said, “I’m…here.” A monster. Fucking claws and fangs and a fire burning beneath my skin.

  “Good,” Pate said as he holstered his gun. His gaze swept over Duncan. Then Holly. “But are you gonna stay in control?”

  That was hard to say. Duncan didn’t know if he’d even given that one fifty-fifty odds.

  “Get your men out of here,” Holly said, voice stronger now, as she darted a glance at Pate. “I need to finish my exam on Duncan.”

  “It’s not safe,” Shane immediately fired. “That guy can go beast any minute!”

  “Not with the silver on him,” Holly said, shaking her head. Her hair slipped back over her shoulders. “Just at this facility, we’ve used the collars on over three dozen werewolf prisoners at various times, and they all stayed in human form with them on.” She looked back up at Duncan. “As long as the collar is on, they can’t shift fully. The collar will keep him in check.”