Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,10

simply wouldn’t do anything sudden—until he had to.

Instead, he turned his attention to the beta werewolf again. Before today, the youngest werewolf Diego had ever met was eighteen, but this kid couldn’t be more than fifteen, sixteen at the most, and he couldn’t help wondering how the boy had turned.

His gaze moved to the woman he assumed was the kid’s mother. Even though she was focused on keeping pressure on the cop’s wound, she kept glancing at the boy out of the corner of her eye. Did she know her son was a werewolf, or had he hidden the change from her?

The sudden urge to protect the young beta from both the gunman and possible exposure was unlike anything Diego had ever felt before. His gums tingled as his fangs threatened to come out, and he bit back a curse. Taking a deep, calming breath, he focused on the gunman to see the guy staring at him, eyes narrowing in suspicion, as if he’d never seen Diego before. In a flash, the man lifted the weapon and aimed it at him.

Diego stiffened. A werewolf could absorb a lot of punishment, but a bullet through the heart or head would end him just as fast as it would anyone else.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if I knew what to call you,” he said calmly, ignoring the gun. “I’m Diego. What’s your name?”

“Ken,” the guy finally muttered after a long, tense delay.

Getting the guy to tell him his name was a good start, at least. Even if he kept the gun pointed at Diego.

“I know you don’t want this situation getting any worse than it already is, Ken, so maybe you can lower your weapon. Then we can talk about why you took all these people hostage.”

Ken looked at him like he was a million miles away, and Diego wondered if he’d even heard him. Hand shaking, he slowly lowered the gun, only to immediately jerk it back up. It was as if there was a fight going on inside the guy. Part of him wanted to put down the gun, while another part wanted to pull the trigger.

Just when it seemed like the guy was going to have a complete breakdown, his eyes abruptly cleared and he lowered the weapon.

“He makes people do things,” Ken said softly, the words tortured, like it was a struggle to get them out.

“Are you saying someone forced you to come in here and take these people hostage?” Diego prompted.

Even though he’d asked the question softly, the words set Ken off anyway.

“You don’t believe me!” he shouted. “Monsters are real, dammit. And I can prove it.”

Backing away, Ken swept his weapon around the inside of the diner before finally pointing it straight at the kid. The beta werewolf’s eyes went wide with fear. He looked like he was half a second from losing it.

Shit.

Diego lifted his hands in a placating gesture, desperate to get the guy’s attention back on him. “Take it easy, Ken. I believe in monsters.”

“No, you don’t!” Ken swung his weapon in Diego’s direction. “You don’t believe me. No one does. Monsters are all around us. People don’t realize it because they look just like the rest of us on the outside, but on the inside they’re ugly and evil.”

Diego opened his mouth to say something he hoped would calm Ken down before he totally went over the edge, but the guy cut him off before he could get a word out.

“You said there was someone here with a camera,” Ken said, taking a step closer to Diego. “Get them in here. I can’t hold on much longer, and the world needs to know about the monsters.”

Diego was ready to dismiss the psychotic rant for what it was, but then Ken swung his weapon away from him, leveling it at the kid again with a look in his eyes that was unsettling as hell.

The answer hit him like a ton of bricks. Shit. Somehow, Ken had figured out the kid was a werewolf. Maybe he’d seen the claws and fangs, or the glowing eyes. Either way, Ken knew, and he intended to expose that fact to the world.

From the panicked expression on the boy’s face, he knew it, too. Yellow glimmered in his eyes, a sure sign his body was trying to shift. It was a natural response when a person’s inner wolf felt threatened.

Diego slowly moved until he was positioned in between Ken and the boy on the floor.