Golden eyes stared back at him.
I’ve seen those eyes
. He knew the guy’s face. The heavy cheekbones. The sharp nose. The cleft in the guy’s chin.
He stared at the guy and heard echoes of screams. Cries that didn’t come from anywhere but in his own mind. A child’s cries. Begging. Desperate.
Holly’s hands closed around his shoulders, and she jerked him back.
The screams died away as the alpha smirked up at him. Duncan could hear other sounds then. Like the heavy tread of footsteps rushing toward the room.
Then Pate was there. Climbing over the broken door. Shane and Elias were right on his heels. They were all armed, and Duncan knew silver would be loaded in their guns.
“When will they turn those weapons on you?” The alpha asked, raising his brows. “Think they’ll wait until the full moon rises? Or will they put you out of your misery before then?”
A woman moaned then. The blonde in the back. The woman stretched out on a table and currently bleeding.
Was that blood having any impact on Holly? She seemed to be in control.
“I couldn’t let him kill her,” came Holly’s soft voice. “I had to do something to stop him.”
Her “something” had been to shoot the alpha. Nice.
Pate inclined his head toward Shane. The agent hurried across the room and scooped the blonde into his arms. But the blonde began to fight him almost immediately, crying out for “Connor!”
The werewolf’s smile vanished. “We’re done, love. The humans can take you now.”
And just like that, she stopped screaming.
What the hell?
Shane carried her out of the room. Pate and Elias closed in on the alpha called Connor. Pate pulled a second weapon from a holster under his jacket. With one glance, Duncan knew it was the weapon used for dosing paranormals. Not killing, but knocking them out.
“Alpha, you’re under arrest.”
Connor’s bloody claws raked over the dirty floor. “Gonna to send me to Purgatory?” His fangs snapped together. “Gonna toss me in a cage like you’re doing with the rest of my kind?”
Pate fired the weapon. A dart burst from the gun and lodged in Connor’s throat. “Yes.”
“Y-your…mistake…” Connor grabbed the dart and yanked it from his neck. Duncan knew the removal would do no good. The drug was in his system now. “Putting…together…makes us…more dangerous…”
Pate fired again. Guess the guy wasn’t in the mood to take chances. The second shot hit Connor in his already bloody chest. “Once you’re in Purgatory, you won’t be getting out.”
Connor’s gaze—now growing bleary—found Duncan. “N-neither w-will…he…”
Then he crashed forward, slamming into the floor. Out fucking cold.
Daphne and Brent—two other Para Unit agents—hurried into the room. They stood near Elias.
“Make sure he’s secure, Elias,” Pate ordered without taking his gaze off Connor. “I want his transfer to be smooth and fast. Get him to our base and get him caged.”
The base that had been already been under attack by the wolves? The place hadn’t exactly been secure then, and Duncan sure hoped that Pate had stepped things up. The werewolves might try to rescue their alpha. If they did, he didn’t want to walk into another bloodbath.
“The guards have been doubled. We aren’t gonna have any trouble,” Pate said, as if the jerk had just read his mind. But he couldn’t do that. Pate was just human.
At least, Duncan thought he was.
“You didn’t believe we’d have trouble before,” Duncan said. He was suddenly conscious of his collar. The heavy weight. The silver that was burning more than it should in that instance. Because his wolf was trying to come out?
The alpha hadn’t challenged him, other than that asshole comment about Holly. Shouldn’t the guy have come at him with claws ready to rip him apart? The whole scene just felt wrong to him. What the hell was going on?
Duncan’s eyes swept back to Connor. The unconscious wolf wasn’t giving him any answers.
“Good job, Holly,” Pate said. Duncan looked back as Pate’s hand lifted, and he pulled the gun from her fingers. “But I thought I told you to locate him. To confirm that he was here,
then
call for backup.”
“There wasn’t time for backup.” She shook her head. Duncan realized she was still staring at the unconscious werewolf. A faint furrow was between her brows. “He was going to kill the blonde.”
“He won’t be killing anyone else,” Pate said, as if making her a promise.
It wasn’t a promise that Duncan was sure the guy could keep.
And just why did Pate still have his gun out?
Pate shifted his position slightly, as if putting his body between Holly and Duncan. No, not
as if
he were doing it. The guy was damn well trying to separate them.
He was also lifting his gun and pointing it at Duncan. “Is the silver burning you more now?”
“Why are you pointing that at me?” Duncan demanded, not answering the question.
A muscle jerked in Pate’s jaw. “Because your eyes are glowing, and there’s smoke rising from your neck.” His lips tightened. “I didn’t need to ask. It’s obvious the silver is hurting you more. That wolf of yours wants out.”
Because another alpha was close? Or because he’d been so wild at the thought of Holly being hurt?
Maybe it was both. And maybe…maybe it didn’t matter anymore. “Drop the gun.” Or he’d rip it out of Pate’s hands.
Pate shook his head. “Before you go back to base, I need to make sure you’re in control. If I need to cage you—”
“You’re not putting him in a cell!” Holly snapped.
But Pate’s steady gaze said that he would.
Perhaps the guy would do anything, if it kept a werewolf out of his sister’s bed.
“Do you have control?” Pate demanded. It was the same question he’d asked Holly back at her place. It was time for the guy to stop worrying about the control of others and focus on himself.
Duncan leapt forward. He snatched the gun out of Pate’s hands. Threw it across the room. “No, and neither fucking do you—”
It felt like a fist slammed into his back. A fist that was burning hot, then icy cold.
That was no fist.
His hand flew over his shoulder and closed around the dart that was embedded in his upper back. He yanked it out even as he spun and saw Elias.
Still holding his weapon.
“You…?”
“I’m sorry,” Elias looked miserable. He swallowed, sending his Adam’s apple bobbing. “You wouldn’t
want
to hurt anyone, but you would. We know how the werewolves are.”
Out to kill. Destroy. Savage.
His knees started to buckle.
Another dart hit him, this one fired from Brent’s gun. Brent, the tall, silent agent who’d been the unit’s newest recruit.
“What the hell have you done?” Holly’s frantic voice. Then she was there. Wrapping her arms around him. Trying to support him. “Duncan?
Duncan
!”
His eyes were drooping closed. “Don’t…cell…”
“I won’t, I swear, I won’t let them put you in a cell again. Duncan, just
stay with me
!”
He couldn’t. The drug was in his system. Pumping fast and hard through his blood. The drug’s effect wouldn’t last long. Just long enough for Pate to toss him into a containment cell.
Before, he’d gone into a cell willingly, because he’d been afraid of what his beast might do.
This time, Duncan wondered if Pate had plans to make a cell his permanent home.
Was that what Connor had been trying to tell him? That he’d wind up in Purgatory, too? Now that he’d done the job Pate wanted, the director might not want him around anymore.
Too late, he was already in hell. He wasn’t about to head out on a one-way trip to another prison.
“Duncan?”
He wanted to talk to Holly.
But all he could do was sink into the darkness.
***
“This is a mistake!”
Yeah, right, Pate had been singing that same song for the last hour. Holly didn’t look at him. She was too busy with her patient. Her
unconscious
patient, thanks to her brother. Duncan was on the exam table in front of her. Strapped down and still wearing his silver collar.
“The mistake was shooting one of your own men.”
Jerk
. What had Pate been thinking? And Elias—Elias was supposed to be Duncan’s friend. There should have been a rule there…friends didn’t shoot friends in the back with paranormal knockout drugs.
The fact that she’d been the one to create that little brew for Pate to use on his missions? That just made her feel even more miserable.
“You saw him,” Pate gritted as he paced behind her. “His eyes were glowing. The silver was burning his neck. I was afraid his control was shattering.”
Because the full moon was coming ever closer.
“He had his control.” Her fingers stroked over his arm. He felt so warm. Hot.
“And I don’t have your confidence in him.”
“He’s your agent. You
should
have confidence in him.”
“After the full moon…if I see that he can stay in control then…we’ll talk about confidence.”
There was something in his voice. A note that made her nervous. She glanced back at him. She and Pate were in her lab, so this was as much privacy as they were likely to get in the facility. “What are you planning?”
He shook his head.
Her gut tightened. “Pate?”
“It’s all about the moon,” he said.
The full moon that would rise with the coming night.
“After that, we’ll see what happens. Who’s a friend. Who’s a foe.”
He stalked toward her. His hand lifted. Cupped her chin. “Don’t take any more of his blood.” A low whisper. “There’s still time for you. I know there is.”
No, there wasn’t. “I can’t go back.”
He didn’t want to admit it, but they both knew the human she’d been had died in that alley a year ago.
On the night when a monster had come for Pate, but had killed her instead. They’d been walking, heading toward a restaurant after watching a movie. Everything had happened so quickly.
A man had appeared and yanked her away from Pate. The stranger had sliced open Pate’s stomach, then gone toward him with fangs bared.
“Do you ever wish you’d let him kill me?” Pate asked, voice quiet and emotionless.
Holly inhaled sharply.
And realized that they had an audience.
“Do you think about that night?” He continued, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the softest of rustles sounded behind them.
Duncan was waking.
“I-I try not to think about it.”
Pate had been on the ground. Telling her to run.
Get the hell away! Don’t look back!
His shout still rang in her ears some nights.
But he’d always been there for her. So she hadn’t been able to leave him. She’d had no weapon. Just her fists.
She’d jumped on his back. Pounded him. Clawed him. Gotten his attention away from Pate.
The attacker had turned and smiled at her.
She’d screamed.
Fangs
!
Then those fangs had been in her throat.
“You’re a terrible liar, Holly.” Pate sounded sad. “You should have let me die.”
“No.” Instinctive.
The fangs had sliced deep into her throat. Her scream had died. He’d hurt her, so badly. She’d been the one on the ground then. He’d been over her, surrounding her. Gulping, slurping, making her so sick and afraid.
Then Pate had driven a stake into his back.
“Do you…do you ever wish that I’d put that stake in you, too?” His question chilled her.
She flinched. “No.”
Some of the tension left his shoulders.
She knew how the vampire transformation worked. A vampire’s victim had to be near death. Had to be drained, then given the vampire’s blood. It was a virus. An infection. Science had perfectly explained it to her.
That night, the vampire hadn’t been able to give her his blood. Not willingly, anyway.
The vampire had still been alive after Pate’s attack. Alive, but weak. Pate had sliced open the vampire’s wrist and had forced the guy’s blood in her mouth before Holly could even think of turning away.
You’ll live. You’ll fucking live.
Only then had he ended the vampire’s life. After she’d gotten her transfusion. She didn’t really remember the specific details. She’d just opened her eyes to find that the vampire was missing his head.
I don’t want to think about that night.
She hadn’t been lying about that part.
“It’s over.” Her lips felt numb. “There’s no sense looking back.”
“Sometimes, we can’t go forward until we go back.” His hand fell away from her chin. “I was selfish that night. I couldn’t let you go.”
She grabbed his hand. “And I wasn’t ready to leave you.”
His gaze held hers. They’d been together for so many years. She’d been three when her mother married his father. He’d been ten. A hero in her eyes. When their parents had died in an auto accident eleven years later, Pate hadn’t let her go into foster care. He’d taken care of her. Always.
He could be an asshole sometimes. Overprotective. Too controlling. But he was family.
The only family she had.
“There is a cure.” His voice shook now. “It’s a virus. You said it yourself. An infection. If you can catch it, you can cure it.”
He wanted to think so.
She just didn’t believe that was the case. The virus changed the body. Mutated it. With that kind of change, all of her research was showing that there was
no
going back. There might never be a cure. Instead, the best she could hope was treatment—that was what karahydrelene had done—treated the symptoms so that she could function almost normally.
She stepped away from him. “Duncan isn’t going into a cell. I won’t let you cage him.”
Pate’s gaze dipped behind her. “He’ll go if he can’t stay controlled.”
She turned her head back to look at Duncan just as he snapped right through the bindings that held him. In an instant, he leapt to his feet. Hmm…he shouldn’t have been quite so agile after the dosing.
Pate’s gaze said he realized the same thing.
Dangerous
.
As dangerous as a vampire.
As dangerous as me.
Holly put her hand on Duncan’s arm, stilling him before could get any closer to Pate. “He’s
not
putting you in a cage.”