CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA UNDERBOSS

by Candace Ayers

  Lillian was in heaven. She couldn’t believe that Caleb was actually touching her in the ways she had only fantasized about. She reveled in the feeling of his wandering hands, and the low groans he made as he rubbed himself against her. She reached up and grasped his biceps. His arms were impossibly hard and chiseled. Her strongest desire was to tear her clothes off and drag him upstairs to her bedroom, but something prevented her from doing this.

  Caleb started to slowly unbutton the front of Lillian’s shirt. As the cloth fell away, he noted that she was wearing that beautiful red lacy bra again. He leaned down and kissed the top of her breasts. Then, he popped her breasts up and out of the bra.

  Lillian felt exposed and a bit vulnerable. The air felt cool against her nipples. Slowly, Caleb lowered his mouth over her left nipple and began to suck. She couldn’t believe this was finally happening. Lillian exhaled, and the stress of watching and worrying as he laid in the hospital recovery ward, melted out of her body with every stroke of his tongue. His strong hands wandered her body, feeling and caressing. Again he kissed her mouth. This time she returned the kiss passionately, threading her fingers through his hair and pulling his face to hers. A deep rumbling sound emanated from Caleb’s chest as she did this, and he dug his fingers into her hips pressed himself against her. Lillian shuddered. He was kissing her neck feverishly now and she heard soft moaning sounds escaping her lips. She reached up and pulled Caleb’s shirt over his head. His shirt came off easily and she tossed it into the corner of the room. Caleb’s muscles rippled, and Lillian admired the chiseled beautiful look of his body. He was covered in a slight sheen of sweat and his body glistened as he slid her onto the couch and moved on top of her. Lillian reached down and fingered the clasp on Caleb’s pants. Another growling sound came from deep within him and he gently bit her neck. Suddenly, his bear started to take over his thoughts. His bear screamed at him demanding he bite down on her- mark her and claim her as his mate. Caleb had never experienced such a felling before. Never with all the women Caleb had been with, and there had been a good deal, had his bear made any such demands. A mate? Someone like Caleb was not suited for a mate. Quickly, he pulled away.

  “What happened? Did I do something wrong?” Lillian asked, a bit confused. Caleb shook his head no. He wanted her. There was no question about that. He also knew that he was in control of his animal. The department had put him through extensive training and before he could be a field agent, it was made certain that he, the human Caleb, not his bear, dominated his body.

  He then turned back to strong, beautiful, fiery Lillian and was overtaken by desire. He made a decision. His bear would shut the hell up, and he would explore her tonight. He would be careful not to take himself to the point of no return, but he would let her know how badly he wanted her. In one swift motion, he swooped her up and carried her upstairs to the bedroom.

  Caleb lay her down on top of the comforter and started with her neck running his lips, tongue and mouth over every inch of her down to her ankles. His kisses were soft and gentle tickling and making Lillian giggle with delight. He then gently started to massage her calf muscles. Lillian relaxed at his touch. Then, he was on top of her again. Lillian wanted so badly to take his jeans off, yet when her hands wandered down to the clasp on his pants, he pinned her hands down.

  “Behave yourself,” Caleb whispered into her ear playfully. The sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine. Lillian shuddered beneath his body, and arched her back trying to feel more of him. Finally, she could take no more. She reached up and pulled his body down on top of her capturing his lips in her mouth kissing him deeply once again.

  Caleb’s strong hands reached down and pulled Lillian’s jeans off. The movement was so swift that in seconds she was lying beneath him clad only in her red lacy panties and Caleb’s strong hands were making soft circles on her thighs. Lillian shuddered. Her panties were soaked from yearning. Slowly and gently, Caleb’s hand made his way up to them.

  “Can I?” he asked her softly. Lillian nodded yes. Then, Caleb pushed her panties aside and flicked his fingers softly against her. His face was inches from her and his eyes never left hers as he found her sweet spot. He watched her as though she was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. Lillian moaned in ecstasy and responded by kissing the side of his neck, and then biting him hard. Caleb winced, and then laughed softly.

  They went on like that for the remainder of the night, locked in an embrace exploring one another—but not quite going all the way. Caleb felt so alive in Lillian’s arms that he didn’t want to let go.

  The next morning, Lillian woke up before the sun was up. She looked over at the sleeping form of Caleb, lying next to her in the bed. They had acted like two high schoolers, spending the night exploring one another, but not letting things go too far. Even still, Lillian wanted all of him. He looked so handsome and peaceful as he slept.

  On impulse, Lillian crept out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Even with all of the excitement, she couldn’t get the situation with Finn and Chachi off of her mind. She decided to let Caleb sleep in while she went to hunt down some more information. Dr. Rourke had warned her that his injuries had been so extensive that even with his remarkable shifter healing, it would take several more days before he was at full functional capacity.

  Before leaving, Lillian scrawled out a short note on the kitchen table. “Going back to Carrie’s house. Will bring back coffee and something sweet to eat,” she wrote. Lillian strode out of the house wearing a wide grin on her face. There was one more question she’d forgotten to ask Carrie, and she wanted to do it in the safe-room.

  This time, when Lillian knocked on Carrie’s door, something seemed out of place. Lillian knocked again and the door opened by itself.

  “Carrie?” Lillian called, as she peeked her head into the house. Something about the cats made Lillian feel uneasy—they appeared stressed and on alert. “Carrie! It’s Lillian!” she called. Lillian continued to walk through the house, approaching the kitchen. There, in the dim light, she was able to make out Carrie’s form laying sprawled face-down on the kitchen floor. Lillian dropped to her knees immediately, and tried to turn Carrie over to see if she was breathing. When she managed to get Carrie onto her back, it was clear that the woman was dead. Her face was a deathly shade of blue, and her eyes were glossed over. Carrie’s lips were parted and her face was contorted into a horrible grimace. Lillian reached down grasping the radio at her side to call in for back-up.

  At that moment, everything went black. Some kind of sack was placed over Lillian’s head and her arms were restrained behind her back. Lillian kicked wildly and screamed, struggling to get free from whoever held her against her will. From the back of the room, Lillian could hear a terrible laugh that sounded like Chachi. Then, there was a sharp prick of a needle being buried into the back of her neck. Lillian fought to stay conscious, but it was no use. The world faded into darkness.

  Caleb woke with a smile and reached for Lillian. He had expected her to be lying beside him. Last night had been wonderful. He had finally been allowed to explore this woman who had dominated his thoughts for quite some time and the reality was so much better that he had imagined. He knew he was falling fast and hard, but damned if he could help it. The pillows smelled like her shampoo, and he wondered if they could shower together this morning. He was taking things slowly, maintaining control over his bear, but maybe he could get a little bit closer to her today if he was careful. Caleb reached over the side of the bed and pulled on his jeans. His bare feet stepped onto the coolness of the hardwood floor and he called out for her. “Lillian,” Caleb said softly. He waited for a response. Perhaps she was downstairs fixing them breakfast.

  Caleb crept silently down the steps, unable to keep from smiling. He made his way to the coffee pot, filled the tub on top with water and waited patiently as the warm coffee dripped down into the glass container below.

  There was an envelope on the table with his name on it.
Perhaps she’d left a little love-note, or something. Caleb snatched up the envelope and tore it open. Inside there was a photo of Lillian, bloodied and bound at both her hands and feet. Her eyes looked as though she were pleading and at the bottom of the picture was a word written in black magic marker: checkmate.

  part 3

  THE DEAD OF NIGHT

  When Lillian woke up, the first thing she noticed was the ice-cold floor beneath her. The right side of her face also felt strange—almost as if it were bruised and puffy. She couldn’t open her right eye all of the way, and each time she blinked a sharp pain ripped through her face. Lillian gently raised her hand to her cheek and winced. Perhaps they had simply just thrown her in here and maybe she’d landed on her face. After all, goons weren’t exactly known for their caring and compassionate nature—if that was who had kidnapped her.

  Lillian sat up on the ground and her eyes strained to adjust to the lack of light. It was clear that she was in some kind of basement. The air was musty and smelled of mold. Lillian closed her eyes for one brief moment. She could hear the distant patter of rain outside, and yet the storm sounded as if it were far above her. There were a few puddles of errant rainwater gathered on the floor as well. For some reason, she immediately remembered that Carrie, her elderly psychic friend was dead. Yes, she had been in Carrie’s house when someone had placed a sack over her head and had forcibly taken her. Lillian assumed that she was now with Carrie’s murderers, but she couldn’t be sure. She had heard what sounded like a number of voices before they’d drugged her and dragged her out of the house. Then, the radio had been changed to some kind of religious sermon before she’d passed out. None of the voices sounded familiar. In fact, they didn’t even have the familiar accent of the mobsters she’d encountered earlier in the week. This was completely new territory.

  Lillian looked down and realized that her shoes were gone—someone had taken them right off of her feet. The room was terribly dark, but she stood up anyway, determined to try and find a way out. Lillian reached out in front of herself blindly and felt her way along a cool wall in front of her. It was made out of some kind of brick, Lillian made a mental note of that, and judging by the coolness of the wall, she was almost certainly underground somewhere—in a basement of sorts.

  For a moment, Lillian’s mind wandered back to Caleb. In her mind, she pictured his beautiful face, and imagined the disappointment he might feel in realizing that she had disappeared—perhaps, for good. Maybe he would blame himself and think that he had somehow driven her away. On the other hand, maybe these people might dump her body in front of Department 99’s headquarters when they were finished with her. Lillian winced inwardly. No—Caleb was a smart man. Eventually he would put the pieces of the puzzle together and would realize that something very serious had occurred. Caleb would never stop hunting for her killers if things ended with her death, she knew that much for certain.

  The basement had a strong smell, which was terrible. There stench was moldy, but there was something else there too, something a bit more sinister. Was it the smell of rotting flesh? Lillian doubled over and vomited. As she threw up, all kinds of terrible fears ran rampant in her head. Department 99 had trained all of its agents on how to escape in the unlikely event that they were held hostage, and Lillian struggled to think back to that day in the classroom. The instructor had suggested that they try and fight their way out at any cost, and then try to find a way to signal Department 99’s extraction team. Yet she didn’t have any tools. She didn’t have anything at all. Still, her instructor had insisted that there was always something that could be used to an agent’s advantage. She just needed to figure out what that was. Maybe she could lure one of her captors into the room and snap his or her neck. Maybe she could throw a handful of dirt into one of the captors’ eyes—that might buy her a little bit of time. No. Those plans were foolish, at best.

  Even from within the damp basement all of those ideas seemed foolish and almost insane. Throwing dirt into a person’s eyes was a surefire way to piss them off. And sure, maybe she could snap one neck, but what if three or four men came into the cell at one time? How was she going to signal someone when she couldn’t even see her hands in front of her face? Yet, somehow, Lillian started to steel her will. She had to be tough now. If she showed any weakness, her captors might try and use those things to their advantage. In her mind, she pictured an image of Caleb. What would he do if he were in this situation? How would Caleb save himself? Caleb would save his own life at virtually any cost.

  Lillian slumped down to the ground and started to listen intently. She closed her eyes, because they weren’t useful in the pitch-black darkness anyway. Lillian strained her ears to try and hear in the faraway distance. At first, she noticed the drip drip drip of some water on the far side of the room. That was good information. Then, Lillian was startled when she heard groaning nearby.

  Very quietly, Lillian stood back up, and made her way over to where she thought she heard the groaning noise. She felt her way along the stone wall and was surprised to find that the texture of the wall changed into plywood on that side. Someone on the other side of the wall was groaning. Maybe it was a trick her captors were using to try and get more information out of her, but it could also be someone in a similar predicament.

  Lillian leaned her ear up against the plywood and started to listen quietly. The moaning was so garbled that she couldn’t quite make out of the voice belonged to a male or female. Yet, for a moment, terror shot through her body. For a second, she imagined that it was Caleb moaning on the other side of the plywood wall. Lillian wanted to say something. She needed to know if it was him. Her mind was starting to play tricks on her in the darkness, and Lillian needed to have some sense of certainty about her environment, no matter how small.

  Instead of speaking, Lillian raised her fist and softly knocked on the plywood wall four times in a row. The groaning stopped immediately. The person on the other side of the wall seemed to be listening, or waiting for her to make a second move. Lillian took a deep breath and knocked decisively again. Then she heard some kind of movement on the other side of the wall. It wasn’t walking—no; the person on the other side was crawling over to the plywood. This time, four knocks came from the other side of the wall. “Caleb, is that you?” Lillian whispered. There was no response.

  After a long while, she knocked twice and the person on the other side of the plywood wall copied her. Lillian’s heart sank and leapt for joy all at once. Caleb would not have reacted that way. If it were him over there, surely he would have said something to her. Inwardly, she felt despair—yet she forced herself to try and be glad for him too. It was a good thing that he hadn’t also been kidnapped. Yet, a part of her selfishly had hoped that he was there with her. She could face almost anything with Caleb by her side. Yet, he wasn’t by her side. He was probably back in bed, or sitting on the front steps wondering why she had left him without so much as an explanation. He was probably heart-broken or feeling regretful about their little make-out session.

  Finally, Lillian worked up enough courage to try and say something to the person on the other side of the wall. “Hello,” Lillian whispered. There was a pause on the other side, and then a cough. “Hello,” a male voice answered cautiously. Lillian could tell by his accent that he wasn’t a native English speaker. His voice reminded her of a friend she’d met from the Honduras. “Who are you?” Lillian asked. The man on the other side of the wall took a deep sigh, as if he had to consider how to answer this question for a long time. Lillian could hear him sucking at the air. Then slowly, he answered her. “My name is Armond,” he said in his beautiful accent. “Armond, do you know what this place is or why we’ve been brought here?” Lillian asked.

  Armond surprised her with a chuckle. “I took my wife on vacation in Brazil three years ago and she had a heart attack while jogging on the beach. Soon after, some men showed up in the hotel room, and then I woke up here. No explanation—no nothing. I’ve been in here
for over three years.”

  Lillian’s face twisted. All this time she’d assumed that they were in a basement located in Kansas City, but in reality they could have been anywhere in the world. There was another thing that terrified her about Armond’s story—he’d been there for such a long time, and no one had found him.

  Lillian looked around; her eyes were unable to see in the darkness. She wondered if Armond had spent those three years in the same impossible darkness. “My wife was a beautiful woman,” Armond added, almost as an after-thought.

  Lillian got to work. “We need to figure out why we’ve been captured, Armond. Do you have any ideas? What kind of work do you do? I need you to tell me as much as you can about this place.” Lillian whispered. There was another pause on the other side of the wall as Armond considered Lillian’s words. He too worried that this could be some kind of trick—yet at this point, it didn’t really matter. They had already taken everything from him, and he had nothing left to lose.

  “I’m no one special. I’ve never done anything remarkable during my entire life.” He said, sounding defeated. “Why do you think these people took notice of you?” Lillian pressed him. She could hear his voice crack slightly on the other side of the wall—something about it made her think of Caleb and long for his touch. He would know what to do. He would have at least formulated some kind of plan by now. “I never did anything special. I just fixed cars for a living and kept to myself mostly,” Armond said. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I guess it doesn’t matter much because she’s dead anyway…my wife worked for the Secret Service. She was the smart one. She was brilliant.”