Once An Alpha (The S Files: Paranormal Investigation Agency – Book 1) (7 page)

“Oh god… please be okay, Lyndon. Please.”

Another ten minutes later he came crashing back into our campsite, his brawny arms and the sides of his neck covered in scratches. I dashed over to him and threw my arms around him, almost sobbing with relief.

“Lyndon! What happened out there? I thought…”

I cut myself off. I didn’t know
what
exactly I’d thought, only that something terrible might have happened.

“I’m fine,” he replied, brushing a loose strand of hair out of my eyes as he gently stroked my face.

“Why are you all cut up?” I asked, motioning to the scratches.

He shrugged. “Guess I wasn’t too careful about avoiding low-hanging branches. Anyway, I didn’t see much out there. I thought I heard voices and saw a light, so I followed the trail a bit further back the way we came in.”

“And?”

“And it was just that Australian couple from earlier. They’re camping not far from us.”

“Oh.”

I crawled into the tent, slightly placated now that Lyndon was back but still confused and frightened over the noise we’d heard. I wasn’t typically a paranoid kind of person, and I had definitely heard some sort of weird growling sound near our camp. Hadn’t I? I grumbled as I slid into my sleeping bag. This is what I hated the most about this case. Never before had anything made me doubt myself so much.

Lyndon got into the sleeping bag next to me, and we lay in silence. It was the first night we hadn’t had sex since our little fling had started, but neither of us were in the mood. We were too caught up listening to the rustle of branches in the wind and the chirping crickets outside, all the while staying on alert for any other less-normal sounds.

I finally fell asleep to the sound of Lyndon lying next to me, his heavy chest rising and falling with each breath. Somehow it comforted me, and for the first time in days I slept properly, with no crazy dreams or anything of the like clouding my exhausted mind.

Chapter Seven

Bzzt. Bzzt.
Groggily, I leaned over, grabbed my vibrating cell phone and held it up to my ear. “This is Peyton.”

“Myla, sounds like I woke you. Sorry. It’s Ted.”

The masculine voice on the other end of the line sounded crackly, and I was surprised my cell phone even had any reception this far up in the mountains. Then again, Valerie Markovic’s missing daughter had managed to call her before she disappeared, so there must have been a cell phone tower somewhere within range.

“What can I do for you, Ted?” I asked, glancing at my watch. Holy crap. It was already ten o’clock in the morning. Lyndon and I had passed out and slept like logs for almost twelve straight hours.

“There’s been another one,” he replied. “A couple camping off the trail near here has gone. They were supposed to check back into their hotel early this morning to go on a wildlife tour east of here, but they never showed up. Hotel called us and let us know.”

“Maybe they changed their minds,” I said, hardly daring to believe that yet another lot of hikers could have vanished. On our watch, too.

“That’s what we thought. After all, it does take a while to hike back down the mountain, so we figured they’d slept in and missed the check-in. But after what’s been going on recently, we didn’t want to take any chances. So we sent a team up there to check just in case.”

“And?”

“Their tent and all their belongings are there. But they are gone. We thought maybe they’d just wandered off somewhere, but we scoured the area. Nothing. They were camping near where you and Agent Lyndon said you’d be. Did you see or hear anything? It was an Aussie couple. Shane and Emma Tillbrook.”

I sat bolt upright, almost dropping my phone as blood furiously pounded through my veins. “No way. We met them yesterday. Lyndon even wandered down to their campsite last night. They were right near us.”

Ted paused. “Oh, jeez, Myla. I’m so sorry. But for your and Agent Lyndon’s safety, I think you should pack up and get back down here as soon as possible. We’re considering closing all hiking trails in the area until we’ve got this sorted. Four people in just two weeks…it’s not looking good for us.”

I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. “Sure, Ted. Thanks for letting me know. We’ll get back down into town as soon as we can to help out.”

“No problem. We’ve already got a team assembled to track the couple’s last movements. I suppose I’ll see you at the station later on. And Myla?”

“Yeah?”

“Please be careful.”

I woke Lyndon and told him what had happened, and a dark expression clouded his handsome features. “Shit. Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No. We need to get back down to the office right now.”

He shook his head and wiped the sleep from his eyes, and then we hurriedly packed the tent up and headed back down the trail towards Bakewell Springs. I was still somehow tired despite all the sleep I’d had, but there was no way I’d be able to rest again for quite some time. My heart was racing and yet somehow felt as if it had dropped all the way into my gut. We’d been so close to the Australian couple; only a fifteen minute hike away, and they’d vanished, just like that, at some stage in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t been out there last night, and it had just been Lyndon and me. Would it have been us who disappeared instead? My stomach lurched at the thought.

We made it back to the police department, and I sat in a grey swivel chair as Sheriff Mills went through the most recent incident point by point on a whiteboard with photos taped to it.

“This is Shane Tillbrook, and this is his wife Emma,” he said, pointing to each photo in turn. “Visiting from Australia. They were backpacking through Colorado, and we’ve tracked their last movements. They intended on staying one night up in the mountains and then coming back to the Trader’s Hotel to meet up with a tour group. At around ten last night, Agents Lyndon and Peyton observed them settling in for the night at a campsite near the eastern shoulder of the mountain. We are estimating their time of disappearance to be somewhere between then and five o’clock this morning.”

He paused and looked around. “This has all happened in just the last few hours, so it’s now our number one priority over any other cases. We’ve already got a search and rescue team up there scouring the area, but the rest of you need to canvass the town. Go door to door, ask locals if they might have seen or heard anything at all or know anything about these tourists that may be of use.”

With that, there was a flurry of activity in the room, and Lyndon and I returned to our usual office. We were to look through all of the Australian couple’s cell phone text message logs and email transcripts in order to ascertain their activities and see if there’d been anything unusual happening in their lives. Any threats or crime-related activity; things like that.

We also needed to check out their records and speak to relatives and friends; a task made difficult due to the bureaucratic nightmare that came with trying to get their records sent through without any delay, and also the time difference in Australia. It was more than across the pond, it was across several damn ponds.

As usual, we came up with nothing. Shane and Emma Tillbrook were both young and resourceful, having worked for several years developing their own software business before taking a break from it all to travel across the US. No ties to anything seedy; hell, neither of them had even had so much as a parking ticket in their young lives.

“Fuck,” I seethed as I sat in my chair, slamming a hand against the table as the clock hit eight P.M.

“Myla?” Lyndon looked up, his forehead creased with lines of concern. “We’ve had a long day. Let’s get back to the motel for some food and some rest.”

“How can we rest? This is all just so screwed up,” I retorted, narrowing my eyes at him. “How can you even think of sleep right now at all? They could be out there. So could Darren Keillor and Ana Markovic.”

He stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Myla, come on. This isn’t helping. You’re way too stressed out. Yes, I know it comes with the job. But you can’t let it get to you like this. Mills seems to have the Tillbrook investigation under control here, and if they desperately need us back here, they’ve got our cell phone numbers. We’re allowed to eat and take breaks. Especially when we’ve already been here for nine hours straight.”

I rubbed my temples and then stood up too. He was right. I needed a break, and from the tone of his voice, he did too.

We headed back to my motel room, where we ordered Chinese takeout and watched a talk show through mouthfuls of chow mein, sweet and sour pork and fried rice, washed down with gulps of lemonade.

“Lyndon,” I said, my mouth still dealing with a rogue piece of shrimp from the fried rice. I finally dislodged it from between my teeth and continued. “Can I ask you something kinda weird?”

“Sure,” he said, glancing over at me.

“Why were you assigned to the S Files? I mean, I know why I was. Armstrong made that pretty clear. But you…all he said was that you have certain attributes and knowledge that might come in handy.”

He laughed. “I guess because I’m just a damn good agent.”

He was doing it again. I’d noticed this was a habit of his; he’d deflect serious issues and questions by making a joke of it all. I narrowed my eyes slightly, even more certain than ever that he was keeping something from me.

He looked at me again and saw the serious expression marring my usually-soft features.

“Myla…there is something we need to talk about. But not now. We’re both stressed and tired from the case. Let’s just eat and relax, and we’ll talk about it later.”

“Oh. Okay.”

My heart sank. I was willing to bet that I knew what it was he wanted to talk about.
Sorry, Myla, but I just don’t do relationships. I’m not that kind of guy.
Or something like that.

“Come on,” he said softly, placing a hand on my thigh and stroking it, moving ever-so-slowly and gently upwards. “Let’s just forget about the world for tonight.”

I melted into his touches. How could I say no? He hadn’t actually said anything yet, so as far as I was concerned, I wanted to enjoy his company until we had the big discussion. It wasn’t like I’d been totally clear with him about what I wanted either. I’d gone from despising the guy to fucking his brains out in around five seconds flat since we’d arrived, so maybe that was it. Maybe he was confused and just wanted to have a chat about what was going on between the two of us.

This time, our lovemaking was sensuous and slower than usual, but still wrought with passion. Stripping my clothes off, I started pulling off his clothes too, and then I pushed him to lie on his back and straddled him.

I leaned down and rubbed my naked breasts on his hard chest while our lips met in a scorching kiss, and his rough hands caressed my back and sides in soft circles, slowly roaming down to grope my ass cheeks. I kissed his neck and then lowered my head, kissing my way down to his nipples and running my tongue in circles over them.

He groaned. Who ever said it was only women who had sensitive nipples? I nipped at one, and then moving ever-so-slowly downwards I licked and kissed my way to his already rock hard cock. My face was mere inches from it, and I looked up to see him staring down at me with passion-filled eyes as he gripped the sheets in his fists.

Licking my lips, I stared back at him, and his eyes flared with heated lust. Wrapping a hand around his hard shaft, I slowly pumped it up and down from tip to base. Lyndon groaned as I kept going, and a pearly bead of precum trickled from his slit. I bent down and lowered my lips over the head, lubricating his cock and then running my tongue in slow circles over and around it as my hand kept working away below it.

God, he tasted amazing; all manly and musky scents. His hips jerked slightly as I ran my tongue over his frenulum, and I kept a firm grip on the base of his shaft and slowly worked more of his length into my mouth until it was almost hitting the back of my throat.

Then I pulled it out and repeated the action over and over again until he was slick with my saliva. My cheeks hollowed in a suction hold as I slid him down my throat, and saliva pooled in his pubic hair as I continued to blow him. His hands slid down to hold my wild curls out of the way so he could watch me pleasure him with my mouth, and the lusty, smoldering look he had on his face made me want to please him even more.

“Jesus,” he muttered a moment later, his mouth falling open slightly. “Myla, this is so fucking good, but you have to stop or I’m gonna cum…”

I wasn’t having any of that. I wasn’t going to stop. I clamped my lips tighter and sucked even harder while my now-wet hand continued to pump away at the lower part of his manhood, and his hands tightened their grip on my hair as he moved his hips and thrust deeper into my mouth. I wanted him to lose control. I wanted to have all the power while he couldn’t hold back, and my pussy heated with ardent desire as I watched him.

“Baby,” he groaned again. He tried to pull me away but I continued to suck hard on him, increasing my speed to a frenetic pace. Trying to open my throat, I took in as much of him as I could.

That was enough to bring him to the edge. He came with a loud grunt and jerked in my mouth, and I swallowed as much of his hot release as I could. Watching me lick my lips after swallowing his cum seemed to turn him on all over again, and within seconds he was hard. Again. The man was a machine. I rubbed my stiff nipples as I straddled him again, one finger moving downwards until it was massaging my clit and spreading my lips before delving into my pussy.

In the blink of an eye I was on my back, and Lyndon thrust his cock into my slick pussy in one smooth move. I cried out with each hard movement, and desperation drove our bodies to move in sync with each other. My nails dug into his back as I tried to pull him further into me, and I wrapped my legs tightly around his ass, locking them together.

Lifting my hips off the bed, I tilted myself so that he could thrust even deeper into me, and the new angle spurred him on to fuck me even harder. We were like two animals in heat. With every slow thrust he slammed deep inside me, my body moving up the bed each time, and I whimpered and moaned, closer and closer to climax.

“Who do you belong to?” he demanded, hands cushioning around my head and forcing me to look up at him.

“Yours. Only yours,” I gasped, and his eyes darkened even more out of lust. Our bodies tensed, and my legs and arms started to shake. He rocked his hips back and forth, and his cock hit me at a new angle that made my breath catch in my throat. Moving a hand between our joined bodies, he rubbed a thumb over the swollen nub of my clit, and I screamed as the waves of my orgasm crashed over me, sending me into oblivion.

My inner walls tightened and contracted around his driving manhood, and above me, Lyndon groaned and stiffened before coming deep inside me.

I was too exhausted to get up and wash the sticky mess that was trickling down my thighs only seconds later, and Lyndon picked me up and carried me into the bathroom before turning the shower on. He held me up in the warm water, and I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of being cradled by him like this.

After our shower, we fell into bed and went to sleep, satisfied. He had been right. It had been a good idea for us to just forget about the rest of the world for the night. At this moment, there was only room for the two of us, and the rest of the damned world could go to hell.