The Wolf Within

by Cynthia Eden

  Duncan kept thrusting. Then, once more, his release erupted within her.

  Car doors slammed. The siren finally stopped wailing. Then she could hear the thud of racing footsteps.

  Duncan didn’t let her go.

  Run.

  The cry was in her head, but she was holding him tight.

  She forced her mouth away from his throat. She could compel him to run. Make him leave. There might still be time for him to get away.

  Holly looked into his eyes.

  She realized that she could force him to do nothing.

  “This is how they take me,” he said.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  Those footsteps were growing closer.

  He pressed a kiss to her lips. “You’re mine.”

  And he was hers.

  “Don’t forget it.”

  “Holly!” Her brother’s cry, and it sounded as though it came from her living room.

  He was going to find them together. Naked. Duncan wouldn’t have a chance. “Why?” Why had he done this? Why not run?

  “Because I had to be with you.” His smile was a bit twisted. “Before they sent me to hell.”

  She wouldn’t let them. Duncan wasn’t going to hell. No, he couldn’t—

  He pulled away from her. She grabbed for the sheets even as he yanked on his jeans.

  Then Pate was in the doorway. Men in black were behind him. They had their guns out. All of the weapons were aimed at Duncan and her.

  “Don’t shoot my sister,” Pate ordered.

  She jumped from the bed. Kept the sheet around her. “You’re making a mistake! I told you…Duncan was protecting us! He didn’t hurt anyone!”

  But Duncan just stared at Pate, and he laughed. “How are you going to take me in?”

  Pate’s chin lifted. “The guns are loaded with silver.”

  Duncan moved to stand in front of Holly. “Then take your best shot, and while you’re doing that…” Duncan raised his claws and said, “I’ll take mine.”

  This wasn’t happening.

  “You’ve been playing some kind of game with us all, Pate,” Duncan said, the words snapping. “I thought we were supposed to be making the world a better place, but it seems like you were just using us all, even the monsters.”

  The men behind Pate were looking nervous.

  “What are you?” Duncan asked him as he inhaled. “Because I’ve noticed that you sure don’t smell human.”

  Pate shook his head—then lunged across the room in a move so fast that he looked like a blur. Holly gasped because in less than a second’s time, Pate stood with one hand wrapped around Duncan’s throat and with his other hand holding a gun right against Duncan’s heart.

  “You’re screwing things up for me,” Pate bit out. “Why the hell couldn’t you have stayed controlled?”

  Duncan bared his fangs. “Fuck control.”

  And she knew, she knew what Pate would do even before his fingers tightened on the gun.

  “No!” Holly screamed.

  The gun fired.

  She shoved into Duncan, knocking him aside, but the move was too little, too late.

  The bullet had driven into his chest. Blood was pumping everywhere, and a sharp, acidic odor rose from the gaping hole near Duncan’s heart.

  She grabbed for Duncan, sinking to the floor beside him and lifting his head into her lap. Her own chest burned as if she’d taken the hit. She didn’t care that her sheet had fallen away, she only cared about him.

  “Don’t,” she whispered. Begged. “Don’t leave me.”

  But he was. His eyes were wide, shocked, staring up at her with the glow already fading from his gaze.

  She wouldn’t let him go.

  “Holly…” Pate’s voice was sharp. He wrapped his fingers around her arm.

  She stared at him with hatred. “Get the hell away from me.” She didn’t know him anymore. Didn’t care to know him.

  A muscle jerked in Pate’s jaw. “You’re making a mistake.” He glanced over his shoulders at the men who still stood there, armed and ready to fire. “Let me help you.”

  The way he’d helped her before? When he’d made her become a vampire?

  Become a vampire…

  Her gaze flew back to Duncan. Could a werewolf even become a vampire? Was it possible?

  “Holly…”

  She used her teeth to rip open her wrist. Duncan had lost a ton of blood. Just like she had in that alley. She’d been given vampire blood when she was close to death. It had saved her.

  I’ll save him.

  Pate’s hand yanked at her shoulder. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he warned her.

  “You already have.” Because it seemed like he’d shot her. Her heart was breaking as Duncan lay dying.

  The blue of his eyes was so weak now. His breath rattled in his chest. And he was just staring at her.

  “I can’t let you go,” she said, staring at Duncan and knowing this was wrong but not able to stop herself. She’d just found him. Losing him wasn’t fair. She didn’t want to be without him.

  Duncan’s eyes closed.

  “I’m sorry…” She put her wrist over his mouth even as she felt the press of a gun at her temple.

  Pate.

  “Don’t make me do this.” His words seemed torn from him. “Stop, Holly.”

  She wasn’t stopping. If she had to, she’d trade her life for Duncan’s because she wasn’t just sitting there while he slipped away from the world. She needed him.

  Loved him?

  Dammit, she wanted a chance to find out.

  “Pull your wrist away from him,” Pate told her, voice tight and hard. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “I’m saving him.” And Pate wasn’t shooting because maybe, deep down, past whatever twisted mess he’d become when she wasn’t looking, he couldn’t kill his sister.

  “No,” Pate was definite. “You’re not. You’re just making a walking nightmare.”

  Duncan’s eyes opened. Her breath caught. She started to smile. He was coming back to her. Her blood had worked. He was—

  His hands flew up and clenched around her wrist. His mouth hardened on her, and he started to suck and drink more. Harder. Harder.

  “D-Duncan…”

  His eyes stared up at her, and all she saw in that gaze was a ferocious hunger.

  “We are so fucked,” Pate muttered. Then the gun was moved to Duncan’s temple. “Let her go.”

  Duncan kept drinking. Taking so much that Holly began to feel weak. His hold on her wrist was too tight.

  “Let. Her. Go.” The gun dug into Duncan.

  Duncan didn’t let go.

  Holly shook her head. “Pate, give me time, I can—”

  He fired.

  Holly screamed as her world ended.

  Ended.

  Chapter Eleven

  She had her own set of guards. Guards who watched her with careful eyes and made sure that they didn’t come too close to her.

  They were probably scared that she’d bite them. Considering the way she felt, Holly realized that she just might.

  “Where did Pate take Duncan?” Holly asked the question for what had to be the hundredth time.

  But Brent just shook his dark head. “You know I can’t tell you that, ma’am.”

  Right. Because he had his orders. Orders that had come from her brother, right after Pate had shot Duncan and dragged him out of her home.

  Even as she’d screamed after them.

  Pate had stopped at the broken door. Glanced back at her as his men had held their guns on her. “Trust me, Holly.”

  How was she supposed to do that?

  So her guards stayed. They kept their guns. While Pate had gone who the hell knew where with Duncan.

  But he was alive. She knew that. He’d already become a vampire before Pate had taken that second shot. She’d been afraid that the transformation hadn’t completed, but then she’d noticed that his wounds had been trying t
o heal.

  She glanced down at her wrist. It had healed, too. Duncan had bit her, drank her blood, just like a vampire.

  How did he feel now? Did he hate what she’d done to him? Being a werewolf had been bad for him, and now, well, she had no idea how he’d react to being a vampire.

  “Did he go to Purgatory?” Holly asked.

  Brent’s eyelashes flickered, and the other guy, Henry Wells, glanced away from them.

  Purgatory.

  It was what she’d feared. But where else could Pate take Duncan? With the containment facility in Seattle shutting down, they’d have to take him somewhere else.

  Purgatory was the perfect prison.

  She straightened her shoulders and knew what she’d have to do. “You’ll take me to him.”

  Brent shook his head. “Our orders are to keep you here, to keep you safe, until—”

  “Until Pate comes to fetch me?” Like she was some kind of dog? Now Holly shook her head. “That’s not happening.” Because she wasn’t going to sit back and let Duncan be punished for crimes he hadn’t committed. “You’ll take me to him,” she said again as she pulled in a steadying breath.

  She had to stop thinking and acting like she was human. She was more. Time to be more.

  Brent was the weak link. He’d stared at her with pity in his eyes a few times. She’d use that pity. Because of his weakness, she knew he’d be the one to hesitate on actually firing his weapon at her.

  So she went for Henry first. Holly leapt toward him and slammed his head into the nearest wall. He went down with a groan.

  Brent swore and lunged toward her. Still not firing, just as she’d suspected. She grabbed him. Yanked his weapon away from him. “Sorry,” she said, right before she sank her teeth into his throat.

  He tasted good, but not as good as Duncan. No one was as good as Duncan. She only took a few drops of his blood, just enough to control him.

  Then she eased back so that she could stare up at him. “You’ll take me to Duncan.” She pushed her compulsion in the words.

  With slightly unfocused eyes, Brent nodded.

  ***

  “Sunlight is supposed to make vampires weaker, but it won’t have any impact on you.”

  The quiet voice penetrated through the darkness that seemed to surround Duncan.

  “Silver won’t burn you. No matter how pure, you’ll be immune to it.”

  That voice was familiar. Pate.

  “From what I can tell, you don’t have any weaknesses. Lucky bastard.”

  Lucky? A surge of rage pushed through him, and Duncan’s eyes flew open.

  He discovered that silver bars separated him from Pate.

  Pate stared at him, with his arms crossed over his chest. “You’ll need blood to survive, but you aren’t supposed to eat the other inmates. That’s frowned upon here.”

  The other inmates?

  Duncan shook his head, then stopped, remembering…Holly’s screams. Pain. Blood.

  Fangs were in his mouth and claws erupted from his fingertips. “What did you do?”

  “Not me. You can thank my sister for what you are now.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Don’t you want to know where you are?” Pate asked him instead.

  Duncan could only glare at him.

  “This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be,” Pate said, and damn if those words didn’t sound like a broken record from the guy. “I wanted to make you strong enough, but not this way.”

  He wanted to rip the man apart.

  Pate glanced over his shoulder, then back at Duncan. “I knew that there was a certain…power within the FBI that wasn’t thrilled with the development of the Para Units. This power sent plants in to destroy us from the inside. To make it look like the monsters were taking over.”

  Duncan wanted to lunge forward, but he didn’t move.

  “Elias was a plant. I didn’t know it was him at first. Hell, I thought you were the one that had been sent in, but then you got bitten, and Elias shot a bullet into my chest.”

  “And you shot one into my head.”

  Pate frowned at him. “You were pretty fucking bullet proof by then, so don’t bitch and moan. We had to make the scene look real.”

  What?

  “Others were watching, so even if I had to rip out my sister’s heart in order to do it, I still had to put on the show.”

  No one rips out her heart.

  “Elias set us all up. He followed his orders from above like a good little soldier. Those claw marks on the agents? Elias used one of the prisoners—he was working with the asshole. He got the werewolf to carve up the others for him, and that fool wolf probably thought he’d get his freedom in return.” Pate’s mouth tightened. “Instead, he got roasted by silver.”

  “How do you know—”

  “We found the blood under the werewolf’s claws. Elias put the guy back in his cell, all nice and tidy, but sometimes, there’s blood you just can’t get rid of.” Pate fired another fast glance over his shoulder.

  “If you know this…” Duncan’s back teeth ground together. “If you know I’m clear of everything that happened, why the hell am I in this cell?”

  “Because it’s not over.” Flat. “We have to find out who is trying to jeopardize the program. In order to do that, we needed an agent who was strong enough to survive anything that came his way.” Pate’s stare drifted over him. “You’re the strongest thing I’ve seen. Even Shane can’t compete against you.”

  “Shane’s dead.”

  “Is he?” Pate murmured. “I’m sure that’s what the villagers all thought a few centuries back, too.”

  What?

  “An escape is going down. A damn big one. The monsters are going to be let loose, and when that happens, everyone will know what’s happening here. There will be no more denials. No more secrets. Just out of control werewolves and vampires that want to feed and drain their prey dry.” He sucked in a deep breath. “They’ve been starving the vamps, did you know that? They were supposed to be contained here, but not tortured because we can be fucking humane, or at least, we should be.”

  Duncan didn’t speak.

  “But someone wants it all to fall apart. Someone wants the Para Units to look like failures, and that same someone—that power that is in the FBI—wants the monsters loose so the humans can see them all at their worst.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m thinking he—or she—wants a war. An all-out battle. An annihilation. When humans find out about the monsters, how do you think they’ll react? Will they stop to see who is good, who’s bad?” Pate shook his head. “No, they’ll see fangs. They’ll see claws. And they’ll attack. The paranormals can’t compete with the humans, not in numbers, and they’ll all die.”

  But it would be bloody. A massacre of both humans and paranormals.

  “We won’t let that end game play out.” Pate’s voice was hard.

  Duncan narrowed his gaze.

  “All of the most dangerous, most powerful paranormals are here. But they aren’t getting out. No matter what plan is in place, you will stop it.”

  The guy had to be insane. “Just me?”

  Pate stared back at him. “Just. You.”

  “You know I won’t survive. I’ll die here.”

  “No, you can’t die. Not any longer.”

  Right. Like he was supposed to believe—

  “You’re a werewolf, and you’re a vampire. You don’t have the weaknesses of either, but you’ve got the strength of both. You’re the only paranormal of your kind in existence. Hell, most would say you shouldn’t be able to exist.”

  Duncan didn’t have a ready comeback.

  “I told you before…you’re an alpha, and that’s what paranormals understand. You go deeper into the prison, you face the bastards who think they’re in charge, and you damn well wipe the floor with them.” Pate’s shoulders heaved. “That will get the others to follow you. You’ll find out who’s helping to stage th
e escape. You’ll stop it. Hell, man, you’ll wind up saving the world.”

  “Why me?” Duncan demanded. “And why the hell didn’t you tell me all of this sooner?”

  “Because I didn’t trust you at first. I’d planned to do the deed myself. I’d even been getting injections of Shane’s blood so I’d be stronger, but then you had to get yourself bit.” Pate exhaled. “That sure changed up all the plans in place.”

  “You were using me.”

  “I’m fighting to keep this world safe,” Pate said, holding his gaze. “Sometimes, the things I have to do aren’t always pretty.”

  “You’re a bastard, you know that?”

  Pate nodded. “That’s what Holly told me when I took you away.”

  Holly. “Where is she?”

  “Do the mission, and I’ll tell you.”

  Sonofabitch. Duncan surged forward and found himself right in front of Pate. The silver bars—he’d ripped them away. “How the hell…?”

  “Told you,” Pate said, rocking back on his heels. “Only strength. No weaknesses.”

  The bars fell from Duncan’s fingers.

  “Now do the job. Stop the escape, and if you want, I’ll even damn well sing at your wedding to my sister, but we have to stop this nightmare first. Do you understand?”

  Duncan wrapped his fingers around Pate’s throat. “I understand that you’ve been using me.”

  Pate’s eyes widened.

  “And I understand that I don’t fucking trust you.” How many lies had Pate told him? “You shot me.”

  “Only after you’d taken Holly’s blood.”

  He remembered the sweet taste of honey on his tongue. No, not honey. Better. So much better. He’d gorged on that taste. I want more.

  “If I hadn’t shot you, then you wouldn’t have stopped drinking from her.” Pate tried to pry Duncan’s fingers from his throat. “I saved her.”

  Had he been hurting Holly?

  Duncan released Pate.

  Pate didn’t back away. “In five minutes,” Pate said, “a guard will come in here for you. He’ll take you to general population. The werewolves there are supposed to all have collars and the vampires aren’t let out during the night. During the day, the vamps will be as weak as humans. Controllable.”

  “I won’t be controllable,” Duncan said.