An Alpha's Tempest (Water Bear Shifters 4) (11 page)

Ben woke out of his dream with a confused startle, and opened his eyes to see sunlight streaming in through the cabin’s bedroom window. Next to him, Rhythm grunted in her sleep, disturbed by his sudden movement. He held his breath for a minute, but she didn’t open her eyes. As she settled back into sleep, he slowly, carefully sat up. He squinted at the clock on the dresser, and raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw that it was already eight a.m. He was used to waking up at six in the morning, so this was sleeping in for him. Not only that, but he had been asleep since about six p.m. the night before, by his calculations. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept a solid eight hours straight, let alone fourteen hours!

He glanced over at the beautiful woman sleeping next to him. He had a feeling that her calming effect on him had been what relaxed him enough to get him to sleep for so long. He had probably needed the rest, but now it was time to get moving. He needed to get back to Kodiak and get started on preparations for the next crew meeting about the scientists. He wanted a solid search plan in place, and he still had no idea how to get started on that. He had two days to figure it out, and he was hoping that Rhythm would be able to help him.

She kept insisting that she didn’t really know much about the scientists, but she knew more than she thought she did. He was going to spend the plane ride back picking her brain, and then he was going to spend all of his free time sitting at his desk in Kodiak until he had figured this out. Enough was enough, and it was time for a breakthrough in this silent war against the scientists. The shifters had tiptoed around and held back long enough. It was time for the scientists to know that their days were numbered.

Ben stood and walked out to the kitchen as quietly as possible. He would get some breakfast going, which would likely lull Rhythm out of her sleep. That girl had a serious obsession with bacon—Ben was quickly learning that if the aroma of bacon was filling the air, Rhythm wouldn’t stay asleep for long. Ben chuckled. His kind of girl.

A few minutes later, to Ben’s amusement. Rhythm poked her head into the kitchen and sleepily asked, “Do I smell bacon?”

The pair ate breakfast quickly, not talking much as they wolfed down their food. Then they got ready to go, packed up their things, and headed for the airport. Sawyer was in the hangar, looking over some paperwork at the desk in the corner that served as a makeshift office. He came over to bid them farewell, and made small talk with Rhythm while Ben did his preflight checks on the plane. Ben had a feeling that he had made a lifetime friend in Sawyer. He seemed like the type that was loyal to a fault, and he had already proved invaluable in the fight against the scientists.

After bidding Sawyer a final farewell, Ben and Rhythm climbed back into the tiny Cessna to head home to Kodiak. Ben couldn’t keep from stealing glances at Rhythm as he taxied out to the runway. She looked adorable with her headset on, and her eyes wide with excitement at the chance to make this flight in the daytime. Since it had been dark when they flew in to Frost Peak, she hadn’t been able to enjoy the scenery. Today, the sun was shining brightly and she’d be able to take it all in.

Once they were in the air and at their cruising altitude, Ben started in on the list of questions he had for Rhythm. He had waited to really dig into the topic of the scientists with her for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was that he wanted to give her a little mental space to recover from the ordeal she had been through before he started dredging it up again. But he couldn’t hold back any longer. As winter approached and the days grew shorter and darker, Ben felt more anxious than ever to solve this puzzle. He wanted spring this year to be a time of peace and rest, and that meant he had to take care of the scientists before the first wildflower buds started appearing on the Alaskan landscape.

“So tell me what you know about the scientists,” he said, leaving the question purposefully broad. He wanted to know what Rhythm’s main impression of their enemy was before he started drilling down to his more specific questions.

“Uh, well, I’m not sure exactly what to tell you,” Rhythm said. “I thought I knew a lot about them, but most of that turned out to be false. You already know I thought that they were a pharmaceutical company developing painkillers and things like that. Since that turned out to not be the case, I’m not sure how much I can trust anything else they told me.”

Ben shrugged. “Why don’t you just tell me what your experience was? Don’t worry about whether anything was true or not. Just tell me what working there was like for you. Start at the beginning and share anything that comes to mind, no matter how trivial it seems.”

“Okay. Well, the very beginning was when I was still back home in California. I was having trouble making ends meet, so I jumped at the chance to come to Alaska for such a high-paying job. I thought it was strange that they were paying so much, but I figured that’s what they were forced to do in order to get people to come live and work in Alaska.”

“Did you think it was weird that the company was located out in Alaska, of all places?” Ben asked. “It seems kind of odd, don’t you think?”

“Well, yes, I did think that at first,” Rhythm said. “But when I came to orientation, they explained that there was a rare plant that only grows here that they were trying to formulate into a painkiller. I had never heard of the plant before, but I wasn’t on that project so I didn’t think much of it. Looking back now, I realize that the whole story about the plant was probably made up, too. They probably just told me that to silence any doubts I might have had about why they needed to be in Alaska.”

“What was the plant called?” Ben asked.

“You know, I don’t even remember now. The only thing I remember about the plant is that they said it only grows in underground caves near Glacier Point. I was in Glacier Point for orientation, which I also thought was weird, since the main lab where I worked was really far south of there. I guess they made up the caves story to explain why I had to go to Glacier Point in the beginning. The whole thing was really weird, looking back on it now. But at the time I didn’t really have a reason to be super suspicious, so I just went with it.”

Ben’s head felt like it was spinning. As Rhythm told him what seemed like silly, unimportant information to her, pieces of the puzzle started clicking into place for him. “Rhythm, I think you’re on to something!” he said excitedly.

“I am?” she asked, her voice sounding confused as it crackled over Ben’s headset. “I don’t think any of what they told me was true, Ben.”

“Well, they didn’t exactly tell you the truth,” Ben said. “But I think they might have given you shades of truth. There is actually a series of underground caves near Glacier Point. We’ve thought for a long time that the scientists might be hiding something in there, but we weren’t sure what. And we haven’t been able to find an entrance that leads anywhere special within the caves. But after what you just told me, I’m wondering if they’re growing plants down there to use in a poison for bear shifters.”

“I don’t know,” Rhythm said slowly, her voice sounding somewhat doubtful. “That seems a little farfetched, don’t you think?”

“Not really,” Ben said. “Maybe it does to you, because you’re not familiar with the caves. But the bears in the Northern Lights Clan are very familiar with the caves. They told me there’s a greenhouse room down in there, where any plants will grow, even in the dead of winter. I bet that’s where the scientists’ headquarters are, and I bet they’re using the greenhouse room to grow plants for poisons or to use as carriers for viruses.”

Rhythm still looked doubtful, but Ben could feel his heart racing with excitement. The bear shifters had backed off on searching for an entrance to the underground caverns, because they hadn’t been convinced that the scientists were actually hiding out in the caves. But now, Ben was certain.

“Trust me, Rhythm,” he said. “You’re on to something. If you share what you just told me with the Northern Lights Clan at our meeting this week, they’re going to agree. Just you wait and see.”

* * *

A few days later, Ben sat with a satisfied smile on his face as he watched his rescue crew, along with Neal and Ryker, react to Rhythm’s information about the caves. They all immediately came to a similar conclusion as he had. The only one who didn’t see the significance of what Rhythm was saying was Sawyer, who was unfamiliar with the caves near Glacier Point. But the others quickly explained to him why they thought the scientists must be hiding out there.

“I guess that makes sense,” Sawyer said slowly after Neal finished telling him about the caves. “It’s as good a guess as any as to where the scientists’ headquarters are, right? I mean, we checked out the lab where Rhythm had been working, and they abandoned it, right?”

“Right,” Rhythm said. “Ben and I snuck over yesterday to look. The place is completely abandoned. The signs are all taken down, and the inside has been stripped bare of all furniture and lab supplies. It’s just empty rooms. Which isn’t surprising, really. The scientists know I’m on the loose somewhere, and that I know where that building is located. They wouldn’t risk my telling someone what I saw and exposing them as the awful crooks that they are.”

“Did you go back by your apartment?” Ace asked. “I know you were worried about going back in case they were watching the place, but maybe they abandoned the whole area by now.”

Rhythm sighed sadly. “We did go by, but the whole apartment complex had burned down in an ‘accidental’ fire a few days earlier.”

“You’re kidding me!” Lance said. “Those bastards burned down a whole complex just because you discovered their secret?”

“Yup,” Ben said. “It’s not really that surprising. These guys clearly have no moral compass.”

Sawyer was frowning and stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Well, we still don’t know where the caves are, though. So even if that is where the scientists are hiding, we’re still a long ways away from stopping them. You guys have been trying for a while to find an entrance into the main caves without success, haven’t you?”

“Well, yes,” Ryker said. “But we’ve been going about it rather half heartedly, because we weren’t sure that there was anything really exciting down there. Now that we think there is, we want to step up our efforts.”

“How?” Sawyer asked.

“We’re going to need an army of bears, basically,” Neal said. “My clan will organize a search effort where a huge group of shifters crisscrosses the tundra looking for an entrance. With enough bears, and an organized search pattern, we have to find something eventually. Once we do, we’ll make a plan to attack and drive the scientists out. We want to keep the element of surprise, so we’ll have to go about it quietly. But we should be able to lay low while searching. Mother Nature is on our side right now. The sun is gone from Glacier Point for the winter. We have about sixty days of total darkness before any light returns. We’ll find them long before then, and then we’ll attack.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Brett said. “But how are we going to get an army of bears together and organized?”

Ben exchanged a meaningful glance with Sawyer.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sawyer asked. “I think we know just the thing to get all the bear shifters in Alaska united and on board with this plan.”

“Yup,” Ben said, a broad smile spreading across his face. “Time to activate the phone tree.”

Three hours later, the group gathered at Ben’s house was feeling exhausted, but accomplished. They had split up the phone numbers on Sawyer’s list, and spoken with the alpha of nearly every bear shifter clan in Alaska. Some of the clan leaders hadn’t even heard of the scientists yet, and were horrified when they realized what had been going on right in their backyard. Every clan the group spoke with was on board with the plan to search for the underground caves, and then stop the scientists in their tracks.

Ben was pleased. Things were moving along quickly, and all of his friends seemed to be on board with his theory about the caves. He had worried that the group would spend forever debating on what the best course of action was, but they had all seemed as ready as he was to get the ball moving on this new project. After months of getting nowhere, everyone was ready to finally take action. Once all the calls to the clan were made, the group drew out a map and started making a search plan to explore every square inch around Glacier Point until the caves were found.

By the time Ben wrapped up the meeting at his home, it was past midnight, and everyone was ready for some serious rest. Neal and Ryker were going to stay in the guest rooms in Ace’s and Lance’s homes, and Sawyer would be staying in Ben’s guest room, since Rhythm had moved out of the extra room and into Ben’s bedroom. Of course, Ben’s fellow crew members didn’t let the fact that he now had a girlfriend go unnoticed.

“What was it you always said, Ben?” Lance asked as he stood in the doorway getting ready to leave for the night. “Something about women being nothing but trouble, and you were never going to bring one into your life? Looks like never came a lot sooner than you thought?”

Ace laughed, and joined in on the fun. “Looks like he found a whole lot of trouble, too, huh?” he said, pointing in Rhythm’s direction. Rhythm blushed and tried to disappear behind Ben, but her embarrassed reaction did nothing but egg on Ben’s friends.

“Listen, Rhythm, it’s okay to be embarrassed,” Brett said. “I’d be embarrassed, too, if I was shacking up with someone as ugly as Ben.”

Roars of laughter followed, and Ben opened his mouth to protest. But before he could say anything, he was suddenly startled by a loud series of pops right outside his front door, which were followed by the sound of glass shattering as his front living room window suddenly exploded into thousands of tiny crystal shards.

“What the heck?” Rhythm said, looking at Ben with wide, confused eyes. She was frozen in place by fright, but Ben didn’t waste any time reacting. Neither did any of his friends.

“Rhythm, come on! Get out of the entryway,” Ben yelled, scooping her up and carrying her into the master bedroom. He placed her in the very back of his walk-in closet, which was the most interior location in the house.

“Ben, what’s going on? Was that gunfire?” Rhythm asked.

“I think so,” Ben said. “Stay here and don’t move until I tell you it’s safe to come out, okay?”

Ben stood quickly and started to run back toward the front door, when Rhythm’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait!” she said “It’s them, isn’t it? They’re coming after me?”

Ben hesitated. “I’m not sure. Just stay here where you’re safe while I check it out.”

“No!” she said. “They’re here for me. I want to at least help fight them off since I drew them here!”

Ben paused for one more moment, and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Babe, and there are plenty of us out there to handle them. Just stay in here, please. I couldn’t take it if anything happened to you.”

Rhythm didn’t say anything, but the stubborn, defiant look she was giving him made it clear that she wasn’t happy with his instructions. She didn’t move, though, so he left her behind with a little wave, praying that she would stay put long enough for him to deal with these bastards who had dared to invade his home.

When Ben got back to the living room, his friends were all crouched behind furniture, quiet and hiding, while the intruders banged on the front door and occasionally sent off a warning shot from their gun.

“We know you’re in there, Rhythm!” one of them shouted. “Come out and talk to us, or we’re going to force you out!”

Their banging got more forceful, and it seemed like they were trying to break down the front door. Ben rolled his eyes. Idiots. Thanks to their erratic gunfire, they had a completely wide open front window they could use to easily step into the house, but they continued struggling at the door anyway. Maybe they were trying to prove a point, but they were wasting a lot of energy doing it. And wasting energy was the last thing they wanted to be doing right now. They didn’t know it, but they were about to be face to face with seven very angry bears.

Ben silently tiptoed over to where Sawyer was crouched behind a couch and settled in next to him.

“What’s the plan?” Ben asked.

“We were going to hide until they came into the house, and then shift and surprise them. We thought it was the best way to quickly and quietly take care of the problem. But these buffoons seem intent on taking as long as possible and breaking down the door before coming in here. I guess they think they’re pretty important or something, with all the fuss they’re making. I just hope your neighbor down the street doesn’t call the cops or try to get involved.”

“She’s on vacation in Florida,” Ben said. “She’s older and can’t handle the Alaskan winter very well anymore, so she goes to Florida every year from October to May. It’s one of the reasons I bought this house. She’s the only close neighbor and she’s gone most of the time, so I’m pretty well secluded even though I’m not far from work in Kodiak.”

Sawyer nodded. “Well, at least we won’t have an audience. But we might be here all night if we keep waiting for these idiots to get the door open.”

“I agree,” Ben said. “And I’d like to get some sleep instead of sitting here waiting for them to get their shit together. Besides, they already ruined my front window. I’d rather they don’t destroy the door, too. I’ll just let them in and see if they’re up for a little chat.”

With a smirk, Ben went to the front door and started opening it, but he stayed behind the door so that the men outside couldn’t see him as it opened. They suddenly found themselves staring in confusion at what looked like a dark, empty room.

“Alright,” one of the men finally said. “Who’s behind the door? Is that you, Rhythm? Come out and talk to us if you don’t want to get shot. We’ve got orders to bring you back dead or alive, and it doesn’t matter much to me whether you’re breathing or not when we deliver you to the big bosses.”

As the man started stepping into the room to take a peak around the door, Ben felt his blood boiling. Ben had been planning on having a little fun playing cat and mouse with these guys, but the casual way the guy talked about killing Rhythm had gotten under his skin.

“Game over,” Ben said through gritted teeth. He let out a roar, and, with a rush of energy, he let his inner beast out to play. His clothes ripped off in shreds as his human skin thickened and became covered with black and white fur. His hands turned into giant bear paws, ending in claws long and sharp enough to tear a man’s heart out with one swipe. His face became the fearsome face of an angry giant panda, and his bared teeth left no doubt that he wasn’t joking around. He was going to take care of this threat to his safety and to the safety of the woman he loved.

Around the room similar roars and powerful energy rushes happened almost instantaneously, knocking over the surprised intruders. When the men on the ground finally got their bearings and looked up, they were shocked at what they saw. Four giant pandas, two giant polar bears, and one huge grizzly towered over them.

“Pandas?” one of the men said, his eyes wide and his voice shaky. “I thought they were all dead. Where did these bears come from?”

Ben looked over the group, and snorted. This “threat” would be a piece of cake to get rid of. Despite all their screaming and menacing words, the men would be no match for even one bear, let alone seven. The men were burly and wore bulletproof vests, and their guns were large and fearsome. But Ben wasn’t afraid of guns. One quick swipe of his giant paw would send those guns hurtling across the room and out of the way. And bulletproof vests weren’t bearproof. This fight was almost going to be too easy. Clearly, the scientists hadn’t expected Rhythm to be hanging out with a bunch of shifters. They had probably assumed that she had tried to run far away from them and from bears in a fit of fear. But not everyone operated out of a place of constant fear, as the scientists seemed to do. Rhythm wasn’t a scaredy-cat. In fact, she was probably going to be pissed at Ben for shoving her in the closet and telling her to stay put.

“What’s going on in here?” Rhythm’s voice came from the back of the living room.

Ben looked up and let out an exasperated sigh. So much for staying put. He should have known better than to think she’d actually stay in the closet for the whole duration of the fight. Even though she tended to talk a lot about how worried she was about the scientists, she always wanted to be in the middle of the action.

The intruders, who had slowly risen to their feet, had now trained their guns on the group of bears standing in front of them.

“Rhythm,” the leader of the group said. “We don’t want to cause any trouble for your friends. Come with us peacefully, and we won’t have to kill any of the bears.”

The whole room was silent for a long moment as Rhythm stared at the leader with wide, incredulous eyes. Then, she suddenly exploded into a fit of anger, sprinting across the room in such a rush that even Ben was surprised at how quickly she moved. When she got to the leader she shoved his chest, trying to push him backward. But he was a large man, and even her strong arms couldn’t move him. So she started pummeling his face with punches, and he reacted by dropping his gun and trying to shield his face. He managed to catch each of Rhythm’s wrists, gripping them with his own and keeping her from launching any more punches. This only pissed her off further, and she started kicking violently, landing several good shots right between the man’s legs. He winced but he didn’t let go of her wrists.

“You’ve already caused trouble for my friends,” Rhythm yelled. “You’ve been killing bear shifters for no reason, and I won’t stand by and watch you do it!”

Ben’s anger had risen to an uncontrollable level when the scumbag leader had put his hands on Rhythm’s arms. Ben rushed in and kicked the fallen gun aside with one of his front paws, and then turned to attack the man and free Rhythm. But before his raised paw could even make contact with the man, Rhythm reared back her head and then lunged her face forward toward the man’s neck, sinking her teeth down hard into his skin. The man howled and instantly let go of Rhythm’s wrists. Rhythm took a few steps backward and started laughing.

“Mr. Tough Guy, huh?” she said between laughs. “You can’t even hold off an unarmed girl.”

Ben swung his head back and forth, looking from the men to Rhythm to his shifter friends. The two intruders who still had guns had them pointed uncertainly toward Brett and Lance, while their leader rubbed at his neck, which now was dripping with blood from where Rhythm had bit him. When the man looked at his hand and saw the blood on it, he lost his temper. He lunged toward Rhythm, who jumped out of his way just in time for the man to run smack into Neal’s giant polar bear instead. From there, things quickly turned chaotic. Gunshots rang out as the other two men panicked and started shooting, and one of them accidentally shot their leader.

Ben and the other bears quickly rushed in on the two men with guns, knocking away the guns and assaulting them with a fierce mix of teeth and claws. Howls of pain rang out as the men desperately tried to fight off the bears, but they were no match for the huge, angry shifters. Almost as quickly as it had begun, the tussle ended. All of the intruders lay lifeless on the floor, their guns scattered across the entryway to Ben’s house. Ben looked over to see Rhythm standing in the corner, her hands covering her mouth in disbelief. He walked over to her and nuzzled her with his big bear nose, making sure she was okay. She seemed to be uninjured, and Ben huffed out a sigh of relief, then grunted to let the other bears know he was going to shift back into human form.

A loud series of roars followed, as a rush of energy filled the room and the seven bears all shifted back into human form. Ben looked over at Rhythm, who had been knocked over against the wall and was now sitting on the floor in shock, looking up at the seven naked men.

“Are you okay?” he asked, rushing over to her. She looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded without saying anything. He brushed her hair back from her face where it had fallen in her eyes, and quickly looked over her again to make sure she didn’t have any visible injuries. Her wrists were already showing angry red marks from where that bastard had grabbed her, but other than that she seemed okay. Ben bristled with anger at the bruises, but at least she was otherwise fine.

Ben kissed her forehead and then stood up to look around and survey the damage. His house was a mess. Three dead bodies lay near the door, with blood pooling around them. His living room was filled with shards of glass, and several bullet holes now decorated his walls. But all of his friends seemed to be unharmed as well, so he breathed a sigh of relief. The house could be fixed. He would have felt awful if someone had been injured badly or, worse, killed.