Once An Alpha (The S Files: Paranormal Investigation Agency – Book 1)

by McKenna, Callie

  I threw a napkin at him.

  “Oh shut up,” I replied. “At least I didn’t have creepy-looking eyes like you did. That moonlight was really something, huh?”

  He looked at me quizzically.

  “Oh, never mind,” I continued. “Just last night the light was making your eyes look yellow. Like some sort of monster.”

  He laughed. “I’m a sex monster. So sue me.”

  We headed down to the police department, and Sheriff Mills greeted us. “Morning, Lyndon. Morning, Peyton. We got that evidence bag mailed express to your labs. They said you’ll be hearing from them in the next few days.”

  “Thanks,” Lyndon replied. “I’ll be surprised if we hear back in under a week. Those labs are always backed up like crazy. Real life ain’t like those CSI shows where stuff just gets analyzed in five seconds flat.”

  Mills chuckled and nodded. “Tell me about it. All right, have a good day, agents. Let me know if you need anything.”

  We headed to our little corner office. Lyndon hauled a stack of files off one of the shelves, and we spent the better part of the morning leafing through stacks and stacks of information related to every missing persons case the town had ever had. All tourists and hikers. None ever seen again, save for the two dead ski hikers found after the incident back in the fifties.

  Mills popped his head in at around one P.M. “Forgot to tell you. While our files only date back around sixty years, you should know that disappearances weren’t uncommon before that. It just wasn’t documented properly. But we’ve had people vanish from those mountains as far back as the late 1800’s, according to town lore anyway. Might benefit you to talk to a few locals.”

  We nodded and thanked him, and I made a mental note to do just what he said. It was a good idea, and it would help us get a better feel for the town. Its history. Its locals. Any town legends. The works.

  Not even fifteen minutes had passed when the Sheriff rapped on the door again. “Sorry to disturb you again, but you’re gonna want to come out here.”

  “What is it?” Lyndon asked, glancing up from his file.

  “The hiker couple that went missing a few days ago? The girl’s mother is here. Says she wants to talk to you.”

  “Okay,” Lyndon replied, standing up. “Any idea why? Does she have some information on what may have happened to her daughter?”

  Mills shrugged. “She won’t tell us. Said she had heard the feds were up here, and she wants to talk to you about something. Figure she thinks you’ve got a better handle on things than us, given our department’s grim track record with these incidents.”

  Ten minutes later we were in an interview room with Valerie Markovic, a small mousy woman who had grief etched in every line of her face. Her daughter, Ana Markovic, had only been twenty-three when she disappeared a few days ago. Poor girl.

  “Mrs. Markovic,” I said, trying to sound as kind and soft-hearted as possible. “We’re so sorry about what’s happened to your daughter and her partner. We’re doing everything we can to look into it.”

  “Have you found anything? Anything at all?” she asked, turning her watery eyes to me.

  I swallowed hard, remembering the possible blood spatter I’d found on the tree. We didn’t have the results back from that yet, and it could be any number of things. There was no point upsetting the woman by bringing it up.

  “No, nothing yet,” I replied. “So what can we do for you today? Sheriff Mills seemed to think you may have some information for us.”

  She nodded and then reached into her pocket. Placing a cell phone on the table, she looked at Lyndon and me. “I want you to listen to this. I was asleep when she left this, because I keep my phone on silent mode at night, but it’s a voicemail my daughter left at two-thirty in the morning the night she went missing. I don’t quite understand what it is but I thought it might be useful to your investigation, so I came up here to show you.”

  With that, she wiped away a tear from just under her eye, and then accessed her voicemail, putting the phone on loudspeaker and placing it back on the table so we could all hear it. The young woman on the voicemail recording spoke in a nervous stage whisper, and we strained to listen. A chill slipped down my spine as I registered the words.

  “Mom? Mom, please answer. Something really weird is going on and I don’t know what to do. Darren and I woke up because we thought we heard something outside, and he went to check it out. Then I thought I heard him shouting, and he hasn’t come back. He left his phone here so I couldn’t even call him. Mom, I’m so scared…I can still hear something around here. It sounds like footsteps, and I swear I heard voices just before. And it wasn’t Darren. Oh god, where is he?”

  At that point the message went silent for a second, and then the girl spoke again, her voice in a lower whisper than before yet quicker in pace, with her terror even more stark now.

  “Oh, fuck. The footsteps are getting closer. Mom, please send help, I don’t know what…”

  Her voice was then cut off by something else, something that sounded like a deep growl in the background. The girl screamed, and her cries became muffled only seconds later, as if something had grabbed her and covered her mouth. There was a clunking sound as the phone clearly dropped to the ground, and then nothing until a beep that told us the message had ended.

  Every little hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood up, and I stared at the phone for a full minute before saying a word to break the silence.

  “I…It certainly sounds like she and her partner were abducted by someone.”

  “Or something,” Mrs. Markovic said, her hazel eyes wide with fear. “You heard that growl. I looked it up on the internet, and it said they don’t get grizzly bears in Colorado. And they are the ones that attack humans. But I found a site that said they only think that because there haven’t been any confirmed sightings in years. Maybe there are still some out there. God, my poor baby girl…”

  With that, the woman erupted into sobs, and I moved around to where she was sitting and let her cry on my shoulder. Maybe she was right. There had definitely been a loud animal-like roar on the recording, and like she had brought up, absence of evidence wasn’t necessarily evidence of absence. Perhaps there were still grizzlies out there in the mountains, and they just hadn’t been spotted and documented. It was still in the realm of possibility that they were out there.

  But something still didn’t sit right with that theory. The girl had said she thought she heard voices around the tent. Then again, when frightened people were in situations like that, their minds could invent all sorts of crazy stuff.

  “This has been very helpful, Mrs. Markovic,” Lyndon said a moment later. “I know this must be very difficult for you. We’ll let you know the moment we get any concrete information on what happened to your daughter.”

  Lyndon and I spent the next hour or so liaising with the Bakewell Springs officers regarding the voicemail, telling them they needed to arrange a larger search team and get animal experts up in the mountains to check for any evidence of grizzly bear activity.

  “At this point, we are thinking it seems likely the couple were killed by bears,” I said firmly to the full meeting room of officers, even though I secretly had my doubts. “But we need proof of that. Grizzly bear tracks, scat, torn clothing fragments with saliva that can be matched to a grizzly. Anything. Get a team up there and widen the search area. We have no idea how far the bears could have gotten in a few days.”

  Even though I still wasn’t sure, I had to admit it did make a lot of sense. There could have been a group of bears all living in the same area for the last hundred or so years, never having been found and documented, and living off wildlife and any unfortunate hikers they came across. But I wasn’t a bear expert by any means. Did they even usually hunt at night? I would have assumed they’d do it during the day, but what did I know? All I knew is that the most recent couple to go missing had vanished in the very early hours of the morning, thanks to the voicemail that h
ad helped narrow down a timeframe for their disappearance.

  And the voices the girl had mentioned in the voicemail message…that was still bothering me.

  After a quick dinner at a café, Lyndon and I returned to my motel room, neither of us much in the mood for talking. The speculation around the case and stress of the harrowing investigation we were conducting was getting to us, and we needed release. But first I needed a shower.

  “Wanna watch a movie?” Lyndon asked, collapsing onto the bed and grabbing the remote.

  “Not right now. I’m going to take a shower.”

  I walked in to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, and through it I could hear the muffled sounds of the TV. Lyndon had obviously found something to entertain him. As I soaped myself up and rinsed my hair, I tried to forget about the case. Why was it getting to me so much? I’d almost started to let myself think something paranormal was actually happening here, but the answer was staring at us in the face.

  Wild animal attacks. That was it. There was nothing else going on here; it just wasn’t possible. The girl must have been mistaken about hearing voices outside the tent, and that was that. There was no inexplicable mystery here, and as usual, logic and science would prove that.

  And speaking of wanting to get my mind off things, holy crap…I also couldn’t stop thinking about Lyndon. Every second that I wasn’t thinking about the case, I was picturing sex with him….him pressing his weight against me…my legs wrapped around him...hands caressing me and roaming all over me. Stop it, I told myself. You’re a grown woman, not a horny teenager.

  But I was addicted.

  Leaning forward with my hands flat on the tiled shower wall, I let the warm water slide down my body and closed my eyes, trying to empty my mind and relax. No such luck. The glass shower enclosure door opened a moment later, and Lyndon joined me under the water.

  He lathered up the shower sponge and massaged a milk and honey scented gel onto my back, and I swatted his hands away. “I already washed myself!” I protested.

  “I don’t think so,” he growled. “You seem like a very dirty girl to me.”

  His hands were absolute magic, and I loosened up at his touch, every muscle relaxing as he caressed the soapy bubbles over my back and shoulders and then down to the rounded curves of my ass. A second later he bent down to kiss the back of my neck, and the sensation of his lips against such a sensitive spot made me shiver despite the warmth of the water.

  I turned around and faced him, staring up into his lust-filled eyes, and I knew my skin wasn’t the only wet thing in this shower. My core clenched with a fiery need, and I clasped my hands around his back, our lips coming together with the same sense of desperation and urgency as last night.

  “So are we quite sure a shower is all we need to get you clean?” he asked, pushing me up against the cool tiles of the shower wall.

  His deep voice against my ear sent bolts of electricity up and down my spine, and I shivered again. My hair was flattening from the moisture, and I sighed in anticipation as his strong arms continued to hold me against the wall.

  “Mmm… no, I need you,” I murmured.

  He pressed harder against me at my response, and his hard cock pressed into the soft skin of my thighs as he began to grind his body against mine. I spread my legs, and Lyndon reached one hand down and slid his palm over my clit. As he began to gently rub me, he suddenly hoisted me up with the other arm. He slid his cock inside my pussy in one quick movement and began to thrust in and out me in earnest as I wrapped my legs around his hips. I gasped as I felt him enter me again and again and began to moan with delight as he moved in and out, in and out, over and over.

  Every single little nerve ending was on fire, and my body felt as if it was going to melt right into the tiles. Lyndon grunted with contentment as he felt my warm tightness swallowing him up with each thrust inside my pussy, and he gradually increased the speed that he was using with his hand on my clit.

  “Oh God… I’m going to come,” I said breathlessly.

  “Good, I want you come for me now, baby,” he growled, thrusting himself into me faster and harder.

  Fireworks were exploding throughout my entire body, and my lips parted in a soundless gasp as the waves of ecstasy rolled over me. His touch was as magical as ever, and I turned my head slightly, wanting him to kiss my neck as I climaxed. He obliged, pressing his lips to the delicate skin of my throat, and then he kissed me again, deeper and rougher this time. His tongue probed my mouth and entwined with mine, and he kept me held up against the wall.

  He stopped for a second and withdrew, teasing me until I begged for more, and then he slid back into my pussy with a groan that echoed throughout the bathroom. He began to rock back and forth, filling me up as he bounced me on his cock and easily supporting my weight with his muscular arms.

  I moaned and sighed with pleasure as he moved in and out of me, and I dug my nails into his shoulders as I clung to him. Using my muscles, I began to tighten my pussy around his cock as I fell into his rhythm of movement. Lyndon groaned again as he felt what I was doing, and I could tell that I was going to make him cum soon.

  “Put me down!” I ordered. He grunted and thrust into me one more time before pulling out and setting me back down on the tiled floor.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, gasping for air.

  The look in his eyes drove me crazy; they were burning with a pure primal lust. I slowly ran my tongue over my lips in a parody of adult film actresses and sank to my knees in front of him. Lyndon realized what I was doing and grinned down at me. He fisted his hands in my hair, and then groaned as I took his cock in one hand and started to stroke up and down his shaft. Then I took him in my hot mouth and began to suck and lick the head of his cock before sliding more of him down my throat.

  I reached around and grabbed his ass with one hand, and bobbing my head back and forth, I moaned as I sucked and stroked his cock, knowing that the vibrations from my mouth would drive him crazy. I was right; within seconds his legs began to tremble and I felt his tightly-muscled ass clench underneath my hand.

  Groaning with pleasure, his white, salty fluids flooded into my mouth, and I gently squeezed his balls. He had to lean one arm against the wall to stop himself from collapsing right then and there, and he stared down at me, a wild expression flickering in his eyes. I grinned up at him and then slid my mouth back onto his cock, licking up any extra fluids that were beading out of the slit on the top of his cock.

  I rose to my feet and smiled. “Did you like that?” I asked, a devilish smile playing on my lips.

  “Yes,” he replied. “You’re amazing. But…”

  “But what?”

  “I wanted to make you come again. You deserve to feel good,” he murmured, sliding his mouth back over my ear.

  “Well, you still can,” I whispered.

  Lyndon growled and pushed me against the wall again. Grabbing my small hands, he moved them up behind my head and pinned my wrists there with one hand. Using his free hand, he squeezed and caressed my breasts, gently pinching my stiff brown nipples. Then he began to trail his fingers further down my abdomen, lightly tickling me and making me squirm. He moved his face closer to mine, and I closed my eyes as I felt his warm breath on my ear again.

  “Do you want me to touch you?” he asked, teasing me again.

  “Fuck…yes!” I whimpered, desperate for him to move his hand further down. He smiled against my ear, and his fingers moved down to the line where my thighs bordered with my pussy. He began to stroke along the line, up and down.

  “Please,” I begged, writhing underneath him.

  Finally, he moved his hand directly between my legs and gently rubbed his palm against my slick folds. I moaned at his touch, still sensitive from my earlier climax, and I knew that it wouldn’t take much to make me come again. As I moaned, Lyndon suddenly jerked his hand away.

  “Don’t stop!” I demanded.

  “I changed my mind. I don’t want you to com
e just yet,” he growled.

  “What? Why are you….?” My words trailed off as he pressed his body against mine.

  He’s already hard again. Holy crap, I realized as I felt something digging into my leg. I looked up at him in awe, and he grinned down at me before turning the shower off.

  “Come on… we’re wasting water,” he said, before stepping out of the shower.

  I whimpered in frustration and followed him. After quickly drying myself off, I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the bathroom door and towards the main room. And then the magic started all over again, like it would never end.

  When we were finally spent, we collapsed under the sheets, and with a wide yawn I fell into a deep sleep, Lyndon’s hand clasped in mine as I drifted off.

  As I slept, I had vivid, incoherent dreams, and throughout them all I was acutely aware that I was sleeping. In them, I was standing in a primeval forest, shrouded in a thick white mist under a bright full moon that sliced through the fog like a spotlight, illuminating a small clearing in front of me. I was sure that I had never been there before, but at the same time it felt oddly familiar. Shadowy four-legged creatures stalked around the clearing and the nearby trees, and I had the distinct feeling that they were hunting. Are they hunting me? I wondered.

  I awoke with a start, bathed in perspiration, and as I sat up, I glanced at the nearest clock radio and saw that I had only been out for a couple of hours. Dammit. This case was really starting to get to me, and now it was infiltrating my dreams. Even though I’d tried my hardest to convince myself the answer to the multiple disappearances was as simple as bear attacks, I could tell my subconscious was waking up to something and trying to tell me. But what was it?

  I didn’t sleep another wink that night.

  Chapter Six

  Six days later, I was starting to get a sinking feeling in my stomach about our case. We’d been hit by a triple whammy. Firstly, the analysis from the blood spatter had proved inconclusive. I’d been sorting through what seemed to be a never-ending pile of police reports from previous vanished hikers when the call had come through.