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Chapter One

Special Agent Duncan McGuire raced around the street corner, chasing his prey even as his heartbeat thundered in his ears Duncan’s partner, Elias Lone, was just steps behind hi the killer escape

The twisted bastard had already murdered four women in Seattle Slashed their bodies Torn out their throats This night

Duncan would make it end

The perp rushed into an alley

Dead end, assle

The killer didn’t know the city as well as Duncan did

His hold tightened on his weapon, and he leapt right into the entrance of that narrow alleyway “Freeze!” Duncan roared “FBI!”

The perp—athe brick wall that ended the alley At Duncan’s shout, the man did freeze, for all of about twenty seconds Then he started laughing as he spun to face Duncan and Elias

“You huue,” the blond snarled His hands were up, and, as Duncan watched, the guy’s nails began to transform—

Into long, black claws

The blond laughed again “Just the two of you? This should be so easy” His teeth were lengthening Turning into sharp fangs As Duncan watched, the ated His bones snapped

“Hell,” Elias ht He’s a wolf”

Duncan smiled, but didn’t take his eyes off the killer before him “I told you, vamps would never waste that uy owed him a hundred bucks Duncan knew his olves

The blond see in fear before him

“What?” Duncan asked, lifting a brow “Is this the part where we’re supposed to act shocked because you can grow fur and howl at the moon?”

“You fkin’—”

“Sorry,” Duncan muttered, “but you’re hardly the first Para that we’ve taken down” Actually, Duncan and Elias were part of an elite unit that only hunted the paranorht,to pass for humans

Until they started to eat said humans When the vampires and olves went bad and humans wound up as their prey of choice, well, that hen Duncan came in

Someone had to keep the humans safe

Duncan’s words seeuy’s lips peeled back—yeah, those teeth and claere the weapons that had ended the lives of those four co-eds—and the fellow’s body stretched as the power of the shift flooded through him

Duncan kept his own body loose and ready His gun was in his hand, but he wasn’t firing unless the olf attacked him His orders were to take the olf in, not to kill him

The olf’s elongated teeth snapped together

Like I haven’t seen all this shit before

Unlike most humans, Duncan knew the score about the supernaturals He’d known the truth since he’d been a kid

“Huuttural “You can’t!” Fur burst along his skin He fell to the ground, his knees and pallowed “You don’t have the power!” That last was uy completed his shift…

And became a full on wolf

The wolf launched at Duncan Not coer He fired Once Twice

The bullets stopped the olf cold

“Silver, dumb ass,” Duncan said with a sad shake of his head as smoke drifted from the wolf’s body “It’ll stop your kind every time” The fur slowly melted from the beast’s body The bones reshaped In death, the ain Well, not cos and claws at death

“Nice shots,” Elias said, still from behind him

Duncan grunted He kept his weapon up as he eased closer to the body Lowering the gun at this point would be a rookie mistake Paras weren’t like humans Even if they looked dead, half the ti, just like the monsters in scary movies Only this wasn’t a movie