Read Online Once An Alpha (The S Files: Paranormal Investigation Agency – Book 1) by Callie McKenna - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Callie McKenna
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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.
“Agent Peyton? It’s Davey from the lab. We just finished up our analysis on the sample you sent us, and we’re sending through the full report now. Not much to say, though. It was definitely blood, and human blood at that, but it didn’t match the DNA samples we got from personal effects sent in by the families of the missing hikers. Could be anyone’s blood.”
“Okay. Well, thanks anyway, Davey. Appreciate it,” I’d replied with a sigh before returning to my paperwork.
And then for the second piece of bad news. The bears had been vindicated. After sending up another larger search team with experts called in from a wilderness society in Denver, there’d been zero evidence found of any grizzly bears in the area, let alone the hiker’s bodies or clothing fragments.
Someone had posited a wild theory suggesting that maybe some black bears had gotten over their fear of humans and developed a taste for blood, but there wasn’t even any evidence that black bears had been in the area for months. In fact, the area seemed like a proper dead zone for animal activity. No animal tracks or scat samples were found in the near vicinity of the missing hiker’s campsite; not even a squirrel’s. Odd, but didn’t seem to be relevant.
And then the third problem. Lyndon and I had tried to set up some interviews with townspeople, but they’d been of no help whatsoever. Some of them were nice, but the majority of them were rather standoffish and didn’t give us any information that we didn’t already know.
Our case was going nowhere, despite our working twelve hour days on it.
It was starting to affect our moods. Lyndon and I had still been practically joined at the waist for the last few days, and the sex wasn’t showing any signs of drying up anytime soon, but the stress and tension we were both feeling over the investigation was palpable. Director Armstrong had known it might take a while to solve the case, but I could have sworn I heard a tinge of disappointment in his voice when I’d called him to check in and told him we had nothing.
Beyond that, I was starting to become one of those women I couldn’t stand. Creeping thoughts bothered me every so often concerning Lyndon. Where is this going? What am I to him? Just another conquest? I knew I shouldn’t be worrying based on the way he’d been treating me and speaking to me, but I couldn’t help it. We hadn’t exactly discussed it, and I’d started to get some sort of intuitive feeling that he was keeping something from me.
After waking up to yet another sunny day, I sneaked out of the motel room, bought some takeout tea and coffee and then returned to wake Lyndon up.
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” I said, tossing a pillow at him.
“Yes, boss,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
“It’s Agent Peyton to you, remember?” I teased.
He grinned. “So what’s the plan for today? More office time?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. We do have to get through all those files eventually, but we need to change it up before we go
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.
“Agent Peyton? It’s Davey from the lab. We just finished up our analysis on the sample you sent us, and we’re sending through the full report now. Not much to say, though. It was definitely blood, and human blood at that, but it didn’t match the DNA samples we got from personal effects sent in by the families of the missing hikers. Could be anyone’s blood.”
“Okay. Well, thanks anyway, Davey. Appreciate it,” I’d replied with a sigh before returning to my paperwork.
And then for the second piece of bad news. The bears had been vindicated. After sending up another larger search team with experts called in from a wilderness society in Denver, there’d been zero evidence found of any grizzly bears in the area, let alone the hiker’s bodies or clothing fragments.
Someone had posited a wild theory suggesting that maybe some black bears had gotten over their fear of humans and developed a taste for blood, but there wasn’t even any evidence that black bears had been in the area for months. In fact, the area seemed like a proper dead zone for animal activity. No animal tracks or scat samples were found in the near vicinity of the missing hiker’s campsite; not even a squirrel’s. Odd, but didn’t seem to be relevant.
And then the third problem. Lyndon and I had tried to set up some interviews with townspeople, but they’d been of no help whatsoever. Some of them were nice, but the majority of them were rather standoffish and didn’t give us any information that we didn’t already know.
Our case was going nowhere, despite our working twelve hour days on it.
It was starting to affect our moods. Lyndon and I had still been practically joined at the waist for the last few days, and the sex wasn’t showing any signs of drying up anytime soon, but the stress and tension we were both feeling over the investigation was palpable. Director Armstrong had known it might take a while to solve the case, but I could have sworn I heard a tinge of disappointment in his voice when I’d called him to check in and told him we had nothing.
Beyond that, I was starting to become one of those women I couldn’t stand. Creeping thoughts bothered me every so often concerning Lyndon. Where is this going? What am I to him? Just another conquest? I knew I shouldn’t be worrying based on the way he’d been treating me and speaking to me, but I couldn’t help it. We hadn’t exactly discussed it, and I’d started to get some sort of intuitive feeling that he was keeping something from me.
After waking up to yet another sunny day, I sneaked out of the motel room, bought some takeout tea and coffee and then returned to wake Lyndon up.
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” I said, tossing a pillow at him.
“Yes, boss,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
“It’s Agent Peyton to you, remember?” I teased.
He grinned. “So what’s the plan for today? More office time?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. We do have to get through all those files eventually, but we need to change it up before we go
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