Once An Alpha (The S Files: Paranormal Investigation Agency – Book 1) (13 page)

“Emma? What are you doing?”

“I thought I heard something,” she whispered, turning her head over her shoulder. “There it is again! Come over here.”

I joined her at the bars, and she was right. There was some sort of disturbance upstairs; crashes and bangs, and what sounded like deep growling as well.

“Has this ever happened before?” I asked. “It couldn’t be some sort of shifter ritual they are carrying out?”

She shook her head and turned her gaze upwards. “This has never happened. It’s usually pretty quiet. Something’s up.”

The banging suddenly got louder, and footsteps pounded down the stairs. I looked out of the bars in apprehensive silence, every hair on my arms standing up as goose bumps broke out across the map of my flesh, and out of the darkness stepped a strangely-familiar man. He looked vaguely like Lyndon, but it definitely wasn’t him.

“Myla?” he said, seeing me at the bars. I shrank back. “It’s all right,” he continued gently. “I’m Jack Lyndon. David’s brother. He called the Grey Division last night, and we just arrived.”

“But…how did you find me? And where’s David?” I asked, certain this had to be some sort of trap. Considering how mentally screwed up the shifters in this town were, I wouldn’t put it past them to play mind games with their victims in order to wear them down to subservience.

“He’s up there fighting them off,” he replied, his tone becoming increasingly urgent. “There’s a lot of them, and more keep arriving. He sent some of us out to find you. You need to come with me.”

His green eyes flared with yellow, and I saw my Lyndon in him more than ever. There was no way he was lying; he had to be his brother.

“Okay,” I whispered. “There’s two others in here with me.”

“Bring them too,” he said, glancing behind him to make sure he hadn’t been seen coming down into the cellar by any of the Bakewell Springs shifters. “Now stand back for a sec.”

Within seconds he had shifted, and I saw that he had an enormous wolf in him just like his brother. After slamming his powerful wolf body against the lock several times, it twisted and then broke. The barred door swung open, making way for us to escape.

“Come on!” Jack said after shifting back into his skin. “They’ll have heard us down here by now.”

We followed him up the stairs, and right away we could see the pandemonium that had broken out in the house we’d been kept under. The place was swarming with a mixture of FBI agents and Bakewell shifters in human form and shifter form, fighting it out, and Jack told us to stay put as he signaled at some agents across the room and then dashed away.

Several of them shifted at his command, and a few more stayed in human skin, weapons ready as another pack of Bakewell Springs shifters poured in from outside to assault them. Blasts of gunfire erupted, and I told Emma and Ana to crouch under a nearby table, hidden from view as the shifters started shooting back at the intruders.

Through the turmoil, I saw Lyndon fighting off one of the local policemen. He had let his wolf out and it was snapping and clawing at the man, but I recognized the white patch of fur on its side. It was definitely his wolf.

“Lyndon!” I cried, trying to plot out a path to him through the ruckus. I stepped over two bodies and kept myself low, trying to avoid any more attention.

The wolf took one last swipe at the man, sending him flying onto his back as blood seeped from a chest wound, and then it shifted back into Lyndon’s skin.

“Myla,” he said, staring at me from across the room. “Get back!”

It was too late. Ted grabbed me from behind and pushed a gun into my hair. “Call off your men, Lyndon,” he shouted. “Keep this going and she’s dead. So are the other two.”

“Let her go,” Lyndon said, slowly stepping towards us. His eyes flared with yellow, and I could tell he wanted to rip Ted limb from limb. However, there was no way he could do that without ensuring my death in the process.

“No,” Ted replied, pulling me against him even harder and tightening his grip on my waist. “She has what I want, and I’m keeping her. Call off your men!”

“How do you think this is really going to end, Ted?” Lyndon said, taking one more step towards us. “I called this in last night. The FBI already has two more teams on their way, and when word gets out to the general public about what you’ve been doing up here for all these years, it’ll be your town’s fault that the shifter community is made public. Not only that, but it’ll be your fault that shifters end up with a bad name.”

Ted yanked the gun away from my head for a second and waved it at Lyndon. “No. It won’t be my fault. This is on you. You’re the one who couldn’t just leave this place. You had to keep messing around, trying to figure us out.”

I winced as he pushed the cold barrel of the gun back against my head, and I saw Lyndon looking over Ted’s shoulder for a second.

“Okay, Ted,” he said. “I’ll let you have her. She was just a distraction for me anyway. I’ve got better things to do back home. Just take the gun away from her head. You wouldn’t want to accidentally kill your new mate, would you?”

Ted slowly pulled the gun away, keeping his narrowed eyes trained on Lyndon the entire time. Somewhere behind us, there was a crash, and I realized why Lyndon had been looking over Ted’s shoulder. Jack Lyndon had just jumped through the window near us in his wolf form, breaking glass and creating a distraction as Ted jerked his head around to see what it was.

I took the opportunity to bite down on his arm, hard, and he shouted with fury as the sudden pain caused a reflex action, making him drop his gun. I tore myself away from his grip and dove for the weapon, and he tried to grab me but was held back by Jack pouncing and shoving him to the ground. Lyndon shifted seconds later and joined his brother, and I watched as their large canines and massive claws sliced into the Deputy several times.

Lyndon’s wolf snarled as Ted tried to shift and block the attack, and he swiped at him one more time; a deadly cut slicing across the side of Ted’s neck. The fight went out of him, and he fell facedown, unconscious.

All around us, the Grey Division FBI agents had finally gained control over the situation, and they were handcuffing bleeding men and hauling them outside. Ana and Emma were still crouched under the table on the other side of the room, covering their faces with their hands, and Jack helped them up, gently patting them on the back and telling them they were finally safe.

I was still on the ground, shaking as I realized just how close I’d come to death, and Lyndon crouched down next to me. He pushed my hair out of my face and leaned in, enveloping me in a hug as his familiar masculine scent made my heart soar.

“You know I wasn’t being serious,” he murmured. “What I said to Ted just then. I was just trying to distract him and get him to pull that gun away.”

“I know,” I said. A confusing mixture of emotions flooded through me as I pulled away from his embrace and gazed up at him. I wanted to cry and laugh and scream all at the same time. “They told me you were dead.”

He grinned. “Well, I feel pretty healthy for a supposedly dead guy. Myla…I’m sorry they took you. I shouldn’t have let you out of my sight for a second.”

“How did you find me?” I asked. “You said you can’t catch the scent of humans.”

He rose to his feet and extended a hand to me. “Come on. Let’s get out of this place, and I’ll explain everything.”

Shakily, I got to my feet and followed him outside. Bullet casings littered the bloodstained ground, and dark grey agency cars were pulling away with Bakewell Springs conspirators imprisoned in the back.

I breathed in the cool mountain air, grateful to be out of that awful cellar. Although I guess it was more of a dungeon than a cellar. Lyndon turned to me.

“Myla, after the fire last night, I knew we were both in danger. I called for backup, but I had no idea they’d take you from right under my nose like they did. And even though I knew they were shifters, I didn’t realize Ted and Mills were actually part of this whole thing. I should’ve seen that coming. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “I didn’t see it coming either. They seemed so eager for the cases to be solved. But really I think they were hoping we’d give up and leave.”

“You wanted to know how I found you,” he said, stepping closer. “You’re right; I can’t usually catch the scent of a human and track them down. But I could with you.”

“Why?”

He hesitated and looked down at the ground for a moment. It was a rare moment for him; seemingly lost for words.

“Because… because you’re pregnant,” he finally said. “I’ve known for days and learned the scent of the baby inside you. So I followed it and brought the team up here, and well, the rest is history, as they say.”

“What?” I practically screeched. A bout of dizziness overwhelmed me and made my legs weak, and I tried to take several deep calming breaths before giving up. “I can’t be pregnant. I’m on the pill!”

“I know,” he said. “But sometimes it just happens anyway. I’m not certain of this, but I think shifter sperm might be more potent than a regular human’s. But you are pregnant. Trust me. You really are.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.

“Because it was so early,” Lyndon replied. “It had only been a week or so, and I didn’t want you to worry. Especially with everything else we had going on.”

“That’s no reason to not tell me that I’m
pregnant
!”

Now that I was thinking about it, it was starting to make sense. I had been extra tired lately, and I had put that down to stress from working the case. But that could be an early symptom. Also, maybe that was what Ted had meant when he’d looked at my stomach and said he knew I was already claimed. He could smell it on me too. His earlier words echoed in my brain.
You really don’t know, do you?

I glowered at Lyndon, trying to resist the urge to slap him. Now I was the one lost for words.

“Does me saving your life today make up for me not telling you, even just a little bit?” he said, turning on the old Lyndon charm as he stared down at me with passion-filled eyes.

I looked back at him defiantly and then turned and stomped away in a huff.

“We’ll see,” I said, turning my head over my shoulder a second later.

He grinned and followed me to his car, and then he opened the passenger door for me. After climbing in the other side, he squeezed my thigh and started the engine.

“Baby,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of this town.”

Epilogue

‘Several more arrests have been made in the shocking Bakewell Springs investigation, and the whole country watches and waits with bated breath to see what happens during the trials. Several leaders of shifter communities have come out in support of the many victims, stating that they are good people and don’t want to be tarnished with the same brush as the evil conspirators from the sleepy Colorado town. More on that later when we interview shifter Jack Lyndon, who is currently serving as a criminal profiler for the FBI’s violent crimes division. Back to you, Charlotte.’

I muted the TV and leaned back in my chair, watching the silent images play out on the screen. So far, over a hundred arrests had been made in Bakewell Springs, and it was likely that there would be a lot more. I’d be happy if I never had to hear that damn town’s name again, but the media frenzy wasn’t letting up.

The general public had been beyond stunned to learn about the existence of shifters, and after such a high-profile case had been brought to the attention of a few, it was only a matter of time before the whole world knew. Most of them had been taking it surprisingly well, but I knew it was only a matter of time before more trouble erupted. I’d already heard whispers of anti-shifter terrorist cells popping up all over the place, and I tried to push the thought from my mind. Right now, I had other things to focus on.

“Lyndon!” I called out to the kitchen. He appeared a minute later with a cup of tea and a plate of snacks.

“I made you empanadas,” he said. “Found a recipe online. You said you’d been craving them.”

I had been craving everything like crazy. You name it, I was eating it. Lyndon strolled over to me and put the plate of food on the coffee table, and I squeezed his hand as he sat next to me.

“I’ve almost forgiven you for knocking me up and not telling me,” I said. “But that all depends on whether there’s triple caramel chunk ice cream in the freezer.”

He laughed. “Of course there is. I gather the morning sickness from earlier has all but vanished then.”

“Yeah. Seems to stay at bay as long as I eat regularly,” I replied.

His hand lifted to brush a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’d say this little one is definitely mine if it’s so hungry all the time.”

I swatted at him. “Who else’s would it be?”

“Hmm… I don’t know,” he said. “You did spend a fair amount of time with our old friend Sheriff Mills back in that town. I can’t blame you; that beer gut of his was really something.”

“Oh, shut up. That’s not funny. Maybe in ten years it will be.”

His hand traveled to my stomach, feeling the ever-expanding bump, and my smile widened as I thought of how I was nurturing such a precious bundle inside of me. I’d never even thought of having kids; hell, I’d never even been sure that I liked them, but the moment I discovered I was pregnant, no thanks to Lyndon, some sort of maternal instincts had kicked in.