The Wolf Within (Purgatory #1)(15)

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 f*cking 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 death by silver.

Duncan exhaled slowly and glanced down at his hands. The claws were gone, for the moment. He hated that they seemed to spring out on their own. As soon as he got angry—bam, there they were.

Pate said, “Our intel indicates that he moved into town about eight months ago.”

“Then the murders kicked up,” Duncan muttered. The wolves had begun to kill, not caring if they drew attention from the humans.

“We know the guy is in his mid-thirties. He blew into town, seemingly with no past, and the guy likes to stay hidden.”

When you had a pack eager to obey you, it was easy enough to hide behind them.

Pate’s eyes narrowed. “I think it’s past time we find the bastard’s hiding place. We’ve got the perfect bait back in that containment area. Bait that can lead you right to the alpha. We can take him out, and, without him to follow, the wolves in this city will splinter.”

Duncan rocked forward onto the balls of his feet. “Bait?”

“Saul.” Pate shook his head. “I don’t want to let him go—”

“You said you wouldn’t—”

“But if we track the guy, keep him monitored twenty-four, seven, we can follow him back to the alpha.”

Duncan’s heart started to pound faster. “And what will you do if he gets away from your monitoring, huh? He’s a werewolf, it’s not exactly easy to track his kind.”

“It is if another werewolf is doing the hunting.”

They stared at each other.

“You want me to follow Saul.”

Pate nodded. “Not only that, I want you to be the one to get him out of his cage.”

What the hell? “Did you hit your head in the attack? Take a shot? Something?” Because this plan was shit.