The Wolf Within (Purgatory #1)(14)

The dead guards had been taken away, but the scent of blood lingered in the air. Holly swallowed a few times as her head began to throb. She realized that she’d lost more blood from her attack than she’d initially realized.

Too much blood. Her kind had a tendency to bleed too freely when injured.

“They’ll have you in a cage soon!” Saul threw at Duncan.

Holly barely controlled a wince at the guy’s shriek because the truth was that actually, they’d already put him in a cage.

But Duncan had somehow gotten out, and he’d rushed in to help her.

“Don’t you get it?” Saul’s lengthening teeth snapped together. “It’s us against them. You’re not human anymore. You’re better.” He spat toward Pate.

Uh, oh. The guy shouldn’t try to piss off Pate.

Pate held out his hand to Holly.

She knew he wanted the remote. She also knew this part wasn’t going to be pretty. “Pate…”

His hand waited. No expression crossed his face.

“Tell us where the alpha is,” Pate said softly as he kept his gaze on Saul, “or you’re going to find yourself in a great deal of pain soon.”

Sometimes, it was hard for her to remember Pate the way he’d been…before. Before he’d learned about the paranormals out in the world. Before he’d become so single-minded and focused on the Para Unit’s mission. Pate was determined to take the killers off the streets—the paranormal killers.

She wondered, secretly because she could never tell him, just how far would Pate be willing to go in order to stop the monsters that he hunted? Just what would he do?

Risk his own men? Set them up so that they could be exposed, could be transformed?

Would he risk his own sister?

Saul’s hands rose to the collar that circled around his throat. “Gonna punch it up? Gonna make me scream?”

“Yes,” Pate said with a nod. “I will. If it means I can keep my men alive, I’ll do anything.” His gaze cut to Holly. “The remote.” Impatience crackled in the word.

Locking her jaw, she gave it to him, but her stare met Saul’s. “There’s no need for this. Just tell us where to find the other alpha. Tell us.” So you don’t burn.

His nostrils flared. “All that sweet smelling blood…do you taste like dessert? I bet you do-”

Duncan shoved his hand through the bars again, but this time, Saul leapt back. “I’m dead if I tell you! So use the remote.” He pointed at Pate. “Blast me with the silver. I don’t care! If I talk, I die.”

It was obvious to Holly that he feared the alpha out in the city far more than he feared any pain they could give to him.

Pate glanced down at the remote. Then Pate looked back up at her. “Go outside, Holly. Maybe I was wrong about all of the guards outside. If any of them survived, they’ll need you.”

Right. Right. She should have thought—

She turned away, rushing for the door.

“Good-bye, Holly.” Duncan’s voice. Rumbling.

She risked a quick glance back over shoulder. His gaze was on hers. And he looked so…sad.

“I’ll be back,” she whispered.

His lips twisted into what could have been a smile. But wasn’t. Too rough. Too hard.

Then she was running out of that containment area. Hurrying for her office, and she knew that Pate had just wanted to get rid of her. He hadn’t wanted her to hear what was coming. She could have argued, could have stayed, but if some of the guards were still alive, she had to help them.

And she had to leave Duncan behind.

***

Pate took Duncan into his office. Duncan had been in Pate’s office before, plenty of times, but this was the only time that he’d ever felt like he was a suspect.

Pate locked the door behind him. “We don’t have a lot of options here.”

What was with the “we” business? The last time Duncan had checked, Pate was still human.

He was the one sprouting fur and running on all fours.

“The moon rises in a few days. If your wolf is taking over, it’ll happen then.”

A few days wasn’t exactly much of a countdown. Duncan turned his head, and his gaze raked suspiciously over the guy who’d been his boss since he’d joined the unit. “Did you know?”

Pate’s blond brows rose. “Know that we’d get attacked this morning? That my men would be slaughtered? Hell, no, I didn’t—”

“Did you know that I could change into a werewolf?” Because when he’d joined the team, Holly had been one of the first people he’d seen. She’d drawn his blood and performed a slate of tests on him. Procedure, or at least that was what Pate had told him.

But now he wasn’t so sure if it had just been pure procedure. Had Pate 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.