The Wolf Within by Cynthia Eden Read Free Book Online Page B

been screening the recruits? Checking to see if any of them had DNA that would make them susceptible to a werewolf’s bite? Had he looked to see who could possibly change? “Did you know?” Duncan gritted again because the tight knot in his stomach wasn’t easing up.
    “I knew.” Quiet.
    Duncan’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t expected Pate to confess to the truth so easily. Duncan crossed his arms over his bare chest and waited to hear the rest.
    Only Pate didn’t speak.
    Jaw locking, Duncan asked, “Did you
want
me to become a werewolf?” That wasn’t the question he wanted to ask. He wanted to know…
Did you set me up to become a monster?
    He was starting to think his boss just might be cold-blooded enough to have done so.
    “I wanted you to be an agent on my team. I wanted you to do your job and take out the monsters that were preying on humans.” Pate stalked toward him. “Every member of my team goes through testing because we have to be prepared for any eventuality. If there’s a chance that a team member will turn, I have to be ready for that situation.”
    “You didn’t tell
me.
No one bothered to share any test results with me. Don’t you think I had a right to know?
”
    “And if you
had
known?” Pate threw right back as he squared off against Duncan. “Would you have turned down the job? Not gone out and hunted because you were afraid of the risk? Dammit, man, you’d already had run-ins with werewolves just working as a Seattle detective. You could have been bitten at any time. It wasn’t the unit’s fault that you changed.”
    It wasn’t mine.
    Those were the words that Pate didn’t say, but they still seemed to hand in the air.
    “And if I go fucking crazy?” Duncan wanted to know, because, yeah, that was a real possibility. One that no one could sugarcoat for him. Some newly transformed wolves couldn’t handle the beast within them and they went mad. “When that moon rises and my beast takes over, what then?” The full moon would be the most dangerous time. The telling time. If the beast was going to be too strong for the man in him to control, then madness could take him then.
    But Pate was shaking his head. “I’ve already got it figured out for you.”
    Right. He just bet the boss did.
    “You just need an anchor,” Pate said. “Something to hold you in check.”
    Duncan laughed. “Let me guess…Holly’s got a little drug for that?” He knew that she and Pate had been the ones to design the silver collars, an invention that the Powers-That-Be in the FBI loved. Pate did the gadgetry, and Holly did the science. Together, they were supposed to be unbeatable.
    Good for them.
    “Holly
may
have something for you, yes,” Pate said softly as a furrow appeared between his brows.
    The faintest flicker of hope lit within Duncan. “Don’t bullshit me.” If there was a chance that he wouldn’t go crazy, that he wouldn’t turn on the humans…
    Then I don’t have to die.
Because he’d been ready to meet death if it meant he’d spare innocent lives.
    Pate’s stare was clear. “If I’d thought there was no hope for you, I would have let Elias put his gun to your head.”
    Fair enough. The hope kept growing.
    “Like I said, Holly
may
be able to help you. She’s a woman with surprising resources.” Duncan’s gray eyes narrowed at that. He wasn’t the only agent there who’d wondered about the rather…close…relationship between Pate and Holly. What was going on with those two?
    Were they involved?
    They’d better not be.
    “But before we get to the moonrise,” Pate continued, seemingly oblivious to Duncan’s glare, “we have to deal with the other alpha. I don’t think he’s just going to let you live peacefully until then.”
    Highly doubtful, and Duncan didn’t want more human guards getting caught in the battle. Unfortunately, Saul and the other wolves in containment weren’t talking. They were too afraid of the alpha. They feared him more than they feared