An Alpha's Tempest (Water Bear Shifters 4) (14 page)

“I don’t know,” the man said. “Our first thought was that maybe they were heading to the Glacier Point airport, but they’re heading in the wrong direction for that. They’re way too far south.”

Rhythm slammed the table with her palm in excitement, causing the bowl she had left there to jump. “That’s it!” she said. “The airport! They are going to the airport, just not the one you think.”

“I’m not understanding,” the man said.

“There’s a small airstrip south of Glacier Point. And when I say small, I mean
small
. It doesn’t amount to more than a tiny runway and a small hangar. When I came to Glacier Point for orientation at the beginning of my employment by the scientists, they flew me in there. I thought it was weird, because there’s a much larger main airport actually in the city of Glacier Point. The scientists told me that they flew me in to the small airstrip because it was cheaper that way. But that didn’t make sense to me. They had me on a pretty large plane that wasn’t even close to full. It didn’t seem cost-effective, but I figured what do I really know about the cost of flying into a small airstrip versus a big airport? I bet, though, that they have a plane there that they can use for escaping if necessary.”

“Do you remember where it is?” the man asked.

“Not exactly,” Rhythm said. “But that’s okay. There was only one road from this area that led to the area where the airstrip is located, and I remember where that is. If we can get to that road before the scientists get there, we can block it and stop them.”

“Let’s get going, then,” the man said, already running for the door. “I’m sure we don’t have much time.”

Rhythm ran after him, and, within ten minutes, a group had been organized to set up a blockade at the road leading to the airport. Rhythm climbed onto a snowmobile, as did several of the shifter guards. As she took off at full speed, flying through the dark Alaskan day, she couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement running through her body. She had been so upset about being left behind, but now she was glad that she had been at the cabins. Her knowledge of where the airport road was located might be the final difference between the scientists being stopped today or not.

It looked like she was going to get in on some of the action after all.

Ben’s legs felt like they were on fire. Despite the fact that he was in excellent shape and that his bear could run great distances, he was finding it impossible to keep up with the retreating scientists. He could see them ahead of him thanks to the lights on their vehicles. He wasn’t sure exactly what they were driving, but whatever it was, it was fast. Almost everyone around here exclusively used snowmobiles during the winter. Ben wasn’t sure whether these vehicles were snowmobiles or not, but if they were then they were the fastest snowmobiles he had ever seen.

He couldn’t tell where the scientists were heading, but he was beginning to accept the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to catch them. Frustration washed over his body anew, but he pushed it aside and kept running. Even if he couldn’t catch them, if he could at least get some sort of grasp on where they were going then maybe it wouldn’t take so long to find them a second time and have another chance at stopping them.

Beside him, Brett, Ace, Lance, and Sawyer were running at full speed as well. A few other shifters, including the bears of the Northern Lights Clan, were running several yards behind Ben and his crew. The majority of the shifters that had stormed the cave, however, had long since given up on this chase. Ben didn’t blame them, necessarily. This was clearly a losing battle, but he was going to keep going as long as he could, anyway. It just wasn’t in his nature to give up. He willed his legs to keep moving, and he silently prayed for something—anything—to slow down the fleeing scientists.

A few minutes later, as if in answer to his prayers, he saw the scientists’ vehicles suddenly come to an abrupt halt. He strained to see what had stopped them, but the darkness was too thick and they were too far away. He continued running at full speed, hoping that whatever had held them up would continue to hold them up until he had a chance to reach them. Moments later, he saw several small sparks followed by the sound of gunshots. Then he heard loud roaring and saw flashes of light and energy caused by shifting bears. Ben’s heart leapt in his chest as he realized that some of the other shifters had somehow realized that the scientists were fleeing and had found a way to intercept them.

Just as suddenly as Ben’s heart had filled with joy, however, it became filled with a sense of dread as well. Rhythm was here, and she was in trouble. Warning bells went off all through Ben’s being as his lifemate bond with Rhythm sent him signals that she was both close by and in danger. Ben’s heart clenched in his chest as more gunshots rang out, and he somehow found a way to run even faster than he had been.

It took him several agonizing minutes to reach the spot where his fellow shifters had set up a blockade of snowmobiles across the narrow entrance to an unmarked road. The guns seemed to be either tossed aside or out of ammunition, because the sound of gunfire had ceased. The scene in front of him was a chaotic blend of human arms and legs tangled with bear claws and teeth. Ben sniffed the air wildly, searching in the chaos for Rhythm. It only took him a moment to find her. Near the entrance to the road, one of the scientists’ cronies was holding her up against a thick tree trunk with the sharp blade of a knife pressed against her throat. Amazingly, Ben did not see any fear in her eyes—only defiance. His heart swelled with pride for how brave his lifemate was, and with anger for the man who dared to put a knife to her throat.

Everything else around him disappeared, as Ben’s sole focus turned to saving Rhythm. With a loud roar, he charged the man holding her captive. Before the man even knew what hit him, Ben had knocked him several feet away with one swipe of his giant paw. The man flew through the air and landed on his back with a yelp and a giant thud. Ben ran to the man and showed no mercy. His giant bear claws and sharp bared teeth quickly ensured that this man would never be a threat to Rhythm or to shifters again.

As soon as Ben was sure that Rhythm’s attacker was no longer breathing, he turned his attention back to Rhythm to make sure she was okay. She was still standing in the same spot near the tree, her eyes wide. All around the area, the bodies of the scientists and their associates lay lifeless in the snow. Ben walked over to Rhythm and gave her a gentle nuzzle with his bear nose.

“You saved me,” she said, planting a kiss on top of his furry head and laughing. “Seems like that’s going to be a regular occurrence.”

Ben grunted in response. He hoped that today’s events meant everyone would get a break from these situations where they needed saving. But no matter what, he would always be there to save Rhythm if she needed it.

The next few days were filled with a series of revelations. The first thing Ben learned, much to his chagrin, was that two of the scientists had escaped. In the mayhem and confusion of the showdown at the snowmobile blockade, two scientists had managed to get their snowmobiles past the blockade and escape. The shifters had gone to the airport later that day, but, as expected, any airplane that had been there was long gone.

As frustrated as Ben was about the two men that got away, he was happy overall with the results of the raid. The scientists’ operation had been huge—much larger than Ben had ever imagined. Hundreds of scientists, guards, and grunt workers had been working in the caverns. As far as Ben could tell, all but the two who got away had been killed during the course of the raid. Many of the scientists had actually died in a rockslide caused by their own haste in trying to escape the caverns.

The shed in the greenhouse room had contained hundreds of thousands of pages of records on the scientists’ operations. Some records were in paper form, and some were in electronic form. But, altogether, the records detailed the scientists’ work for the last several years. The plants that were growing in the greenhouse were a special hybrid. The scientists’ records showed that they were trying to create a plant so poisonous to shifters that it would weaken their immune systems and make them helplessly vulnerable to a new virus that the scientists were also creating. There was also a large room not far from the greenhouse room that was being used as a “command central” of sorts. Computers, paper records, and weapons filled the room, which had been left in a state of complete disarray. Connected to the room was the “garage,” where the scientists had parked their getaway vehicles. The room appeared to have been constructed with a ramp that allowed the vehicles to quickly exit the caverns, but the ramp had been faulty and collapsed when the scientists and their associates quickly left the cave. This had caused the rockslide that had killed most of the people trying to flee.

When the bear shifters reviewed the scientists’ records, it was clear that they had caught the evil men by surprise. A recording device in the command central area had recorded a radio transmission from the guards who had attacked the shifters before they reached the greenhouse room, and the scientists had obviously not been expecting visitors. The whole area was set to backup to offsite electronic storage and then self destruct in an emergency, but the self destruct sequence had not been executed properly in the chaos of everyone trying to escape. The shed in the greenhouse room had started to burn, but Ben had stomped out the fire before the flames had really taken hold.

Now, since the shifters had been able to review all the records and see exactly what the scientists had been up to, Ben made sure to destroy all of the records himself. He took an axe to all the computers, and he set fire to the greenhouse room, destroying the plants. Even if the two scientists who had escaped were never found, there was no way those two alone could recreate what Ben had just destroyed. He had sent years and years of their efforts up in flames, and he had taken great joy in doing so.

A large celebration was held for all of the shifters who had participated in the raid. Sadly, a few shifters had lost their lives. But the losses were relatively few compared to the number of scientists they had been up against. The shifters honored the memory of the fallen during the celebration, and rejoiced that the threat to the shifter community had been extinguished. Ben had never seen such an enormous gathering of shifters, and he enjoyed every moment of the large party.

Rhythm was hailed as a hero for her quick efforts to stop the escaping scientists. Ben watched with pride as Neal brought Rhythm up in front of everyone and praised her work. The entire crowd cheered for her, and he couldn’t keep a stupid grin off of his face as he relished the fact that it was his girl they were cheering for.

When she came down from the stage and found him, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hungrily. “You’re amazing,” he said. “I guess I owe you an apology for treating you like you couldn’t take care of yourself. You handled the roadblock situation amazingly well. You really saved the day for everyone.”

Rhythm smiled at him. “Well, you did have to come to my rescue in the end, so I think we’ll just call that whole argument a draw. The important thing is that we stopped the scientists, and the shifters can all live in peace now.”

Ben nodded. “Agreed,” he said. Then he leaned down and whispered in Rhythm’s ear. “Have you had enough of this party yet? Because I’d like to escape somewhere alone with you.”

Rhythm smirked up at him. “I wouldn’t mind escaping with you,” she said.

“Good,” Ben replied, grabbing her hand and leading her in the direction of his snowmobile. “Because I have something I want to show you.”

Rhythm gave him a curious look, and he just grinned back at her. She thought he just wanted to get her back to his bedroom, but he was going to surprise her with something a little more elaborate than that. Of course, he always wanted to get her back to his bedroom. But today was special. Today, he was going to truly give her the happily ever after that she deserved.

* * *

Rhythm’s curiosity was definitely piqued. She had been surprised when Ben led her away from the party, and had taken her not to their cabin, but instead back to the caverns. He refused to tell her why, saying only that he had something he wanted to show her. He led her through the caverns with a big torchlight, confidently making his way through the remains of the scientists’ headquarters. Rhythm took in the scene with interest, but Ben didn’t dilly-dally for long. He was a man on a mission, and Rhythm scurried to follow him down a narrow passageway. After walking through the tight space for several minutes, they entered an enormous, open area in the caves. When Ben flashed his light across the room, the sight took Rhythm’s breath away.

“Whoa, Ben! What is this place?” she asked.

His light swept across walls that looked like they were made of pure diamonds. Every surface in the room seemed to be covered with glittering gemstones in shades of white, purple, blue and green. The scene looked like something from a fairy tale book.

“These caverns are filled with rooms like this. They aren’t easy to find, but we came across this one by accident. Neal told me to take whatever I want from it, as a thank you for helping with the raid. But what I really want is for you to have something beautiful.”

Rhythm tilted her head sideways. “What do you mean?”

In response, Ben got down on one knee. Rhythm’s mouth dropped open, and her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my god, Ben. Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”

“If you think I’m about to officially ask you to marry me, then, yes. Rhythm, I cannot live without you. I wouldn’t want to live without you. I was planning to buy you a ring when we get back to Kodiak, but I can’t wait that long to propose. And, I thought you might like to choose a gemstone from this cave to add to the sparkly diamonds I’ll be purchasing for you. We can design a ring for you with something from this cave added in, to remind us of the adventures that brought us together. None of this would have been possible without you, Rhythm. I know sometimes I’m a big buffoon, and don’t trust you to take care of yourself as much as I should. But the truth is that I can’t help myself, because you’re so precious to me. And if you’ll spend the rest of your life with me, I’ll spend the rest of my life learning how to be exactly the man you need me to be. You are the love of my life. Will you marry me?”

Rhythm felt an unbelievable rush of joy running through her. “Yes, Ben! Yes, yes, yes! And I don’t need gemstones, or a diamond ring. I just need you.”

Ben smiled. “I love your sweet simplicity. But, even though you don’t
need
any of this, you should still choose a gemstone. You deserve to have this kind of beauty.”

Ben rose to his feet and wrapped his arms around Rhythm, giving her a long, passionate kiss. Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of champagne and two glasses. “I was hoping you’d say yes, so I brought along a little bubbly to celebrate.”

Rhythm felt her heart pounding with excitement. She had something of her own to say to Ben. She had planned to wait until they got back to Kodiak, too, but now felt like the right time to tell him.

“That’s really sweet, Ben. But I don’t think I should have champagne,” she said.

Ben paused with the bottle in his hand and looked up at her with a questioning look. “Why not? You love champagne.”

“I know. But I don’t think you’re supposed to have alcohol when you’ve got a little cub on board.”

It took a few seconds for Ben to realize what she was saying, but when he did he gave Rhythm the biggest grin she had ever seen. “You’re pregnant?” he asked.

Rhythm nodded. “Yup. You’re going to be a daddy. I just found out last night.”