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.
“Alright, guys, let’s start cleaning this place up,” Sawyer said, taking charge. “Ben, you worry about taking care of Rhythm. We’ll get rid of these bodies and do our best to get rid of the glass shards everywhere.”
“Thanks,” Ben said, nodding gratefully in Sawyer’s direction. Then he bent down and picked up Rhythm, gently cradling her in his arms and carrying her to his bedroom. He set her gently down on the bed and then went into the bathroom to get a warm washcloth. As he started wiping away the dust and blood splatters from her face, he noticed she was shaking.
“Hey,” he said. “It’s okay. They’re gone now. You’re safe. Although I’m pretty frustrated with you for coming out there in the first place. I told you to stay put in here.”
Rhythm shrugged. “Sorry. If you’re looking for a girl who’s gonna stay put, then you’re gonna be pretty disappointed with me.”
Ben chuckled. “I’m not disappointed. I don’t want a girl who stays put. I definitely admire your spunk. I just wish you had chosen a time to show it other than when three men who wanted to kill you were standing in my front room with guns.”
“It all turned out fine,” Rhythm said, raising her chin stubbornly. “Besides, they were here for me. I wasn’t going to hide and let you all just fight my battles.”
Ben sighed. “Rhythm, we’re better equipped to fight this battle. Our bears are strong, and can withstand a lot. And it’s not ‘your’ battle or ‘my’ battle. It’s our battle. The whole reason you’re in danger in the first place is that you chose to stand up for shifters. No one out there would have thought twice about taking a bullet for you. You’re part of our crew now, just like a clan member or family member. We’ll do our best to protect you from whatever threats come your way.”
Rhythm looked down at her hands. “I guess. I still feel badly that I drew them here and put everyone in danger, though. And now your place is a mess.”
“Don’t worry about the house. I can have it fixed up in no time.”
“They’re gonna come back, you know,” Rhythm said. It was a statement, not a question.
“I know,” Ben said. “And the scientists are going to send more than three bozos who can’t aim a gun next time. Now that they know they’re dealing with more than just one escaped lab employee. Which is why I think maybe you should clear out of Alaska for a while.”
Ben watched Rhythm’s reaction carefully when he said this. As he had feared, her face immediately took on a defiant look. She crossed her arms and shook her head no.
“No way,” she said. “I’m not leaving now. You said it yourself—this is our battle. I’m not gonna run and hide while you guys have all the fun.”
“Rhythm,” Ben tried again. “You don’t have to be a hero. No one expects you to hang around and put your life in danger. Look at you, you’re shaking right now. And this was just a small fight. It’s only going to get worse from here on out. I appreciate your willingness to help, but we can manage without you. I’d rather you be far away somewhere, and safe.”
“I can take care of myself,” Rhythm said, her voice rising and taking on an angry tone. “And I’m shaking from adrenaline, but not from fear. This was my first experience actually seeing a bear shift, and it was quite a sight. It wasn’t just one bear. It was seven. That’s a lot to take in, but it doesn’t mean that I’m scared. I told you, I’m not the kind of girl to stay put.”
Ben let out an exasperated breath and stood up. He walked over to his dresser and started pulling out some clothes, trying to keep himself calm as he began to get dressed in a fresh outfit. He was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it. Really, he should be proud that he had found a girl so ready to run into the fray. But she was being foolhardy. The scientists wanted her dead, and they would do their best to make sure they finished the job that the three men tonight had botched. The crew was so close to finding and destroying the scientists. Why couldn’t Rhythm just step gracefully out of the way for a few weeks or months? It would be so much easier for Ben to take care of this threat if he didn’t have to be constantly worrying about Rhythm. He realized this line of thinking meant that he didn’t, in fact, trust Rhythm to take care of himself—an admission that would no doubt piss her off royally if he said the words aloud. But he couldn’t help feeling the way he did. He loved her but she was human. And humans were more fragile than shifters. That’s just the way reality worked.
“Rhythm,” he said, trying to keep his tone gentle and calm. “I’m about to head to Glacier Point to help with the search effort for the caves. You’ll be all alone here with no one to protect you. I know you’re tough, but that’s a pretty big risk, don’t you think?”
Rhythm looked up at him and laughed. “I guess that would be a pretty big risk, but that’s not how things are going to play out, anyway. You’re crazy if you think I’m not coming to Glacier Point with you.”
Ben felt his heart clenching with worry. “Rhythm, I don’t think that’s a good idea. We’re pretty sure the caves are the scientists’ main hub. It’s going to be really dangerous.”
“I don’t care. I’m the one who gave you guys the information that helped you piece together where you think the scientists are hiding, so I deserve to come along for the search. I’m along for the ride, buddy. The whole ride. Get used to it.”
With that, Rhythm stood and flounced out of the room, her face set in a determined line.
“Well, shit,” Ben said to himself as he pulled a t-shirt over his head. “I guess my old line about women causing trouble isn’t entirely untrue.”
Then he grinned as he heard Rhythm in the living room, announcing to his six naked shifter friends that they better be careful not to get glass shards on their dicks. He grabbed several pairs of sweatpants from his dresser to hand out to the guys, shaking his head in amusement as he heard Rhythm loudly lecturing them on how they were doing a poor job of cleaning up.
She might be trouble, but she was the best kind of trouble possible.
Chapter Thirteen
Rhythm tried to keep her expression calm as she looked out the window of the Twin Otter airplane that Sawyer was currently piloting through the blizzar
d of the century. Okay, okay, so she’d been in Alaska for less than a year—she wasn’t really qualified to say whether this was actually the blizzard of the century. But looking out the window was terrifying. It was dark outside, but the solid wall of white snow still showed up clearly against the black sky. Rhythm had never seen snowfall so thick that it literally looked like you were buried in the stuff. Every now and then, the plane lurched in the swirling wind. If anything was making Rhythm regret her decision to insist on traveling to Glacier Point with Ben, it was this storm.
Rhythm glanced over at Ben, who was sleeping like a baby in the seat next to her, completely unaware of the snowy tempest that was raging outside. Brett sat across from Ben, reading a magazine using the flashlight on his cell phone. And Lance and Ace were in front of Brett, passed out just as deeply as Ben. Of course, they all were completely at ease. They were on a freaking Coast Guard rescue crew, and flew through storms as bad as this on at least a weekly basis. Rhythm, on the other hand, didn’t fly that often. And she had never flown in a blizzard before.
Rhythm took a few deep breaths to try to calm her racing heart, but every time she felt like she had just gotten her emotions under control, the plane lurched again, and her stomach dropped from a combination of both gravity and fear. Finally, she gave up trying to calm down, and decided to go talk to Sawyer. Maybe seeing the pilot acting perfectly calm would help her relax a little herself. She crept toward the front of the plane, and stuck her head in the cockpit. The instrument panel was illuminated with what felt like a hundred gauges, none of which Rhythm really understood. Sawyer had a look of concentration on his face, but he didn’t seem worried. He glanced over when he caught Rhythm’s face in his peripheral vision.
“Hey there,” he said, then chuckled. “Couldn’t sleep like the rest of those lazy asses?”
“Naw. I’m not really tired,” Rhythm said. Besides, I’m worried about dying in this snowpocalypse, she wanted to add. But she just shrugged and tried to look nonchalant.
“Yeah. It’s not really that late yet,” Sawyer said. “Just past ten p.m.”
The plane lurched again, and Rhythm nearly lost her footing as she grabbed for the side of the copilot seat to steady herself. Sawyer seemed completely unfazed by the interruption.
“Yeah, so, uh, how much longer until we get there?” Rhythm asked. Translation: how much longer do I have to be up here worrying about dying from a plane crash?
“About thirty more minutes. Getting closer,” Sawyer said, then glanced over at Rhythm again and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve flown in much worse. We’re going to be fine.”
Damn it, Rhythm thought. Was I that obvious? She just nodded, and then retreated back to her seat, where she resumed staring out the window. Maybe it was a good thing that Ben wasn’t awake. She didn’t want to give him any reason to think that she was worried about anything on this trip. After the attack on his house, he had continued to do his best to convince her not to come to Glacier Point, and she had continued to insist that she was accompanying him. The truth was that she still struggled, almost constantly, with feeling like she was somehow responsible for what the scientists were doing. She went over and over in her head everything that had happened during the time she had worked for the scientists, trying to figure out whether there had been some sort of clue she missed. So far, she had come up empty, but she just couldn’t believe that there had been no warning signs. Now that there was a chance to help stop the scientists and their awful crusade against the bear shifters, she wanted to be front and center in that fight. She saw it as an opportunity to redeem herself, and she was determined not to let Ben and his worry for her—sweet as it was—keep her from that chance.
The plane started descending, and the winds shook the aircraft violently as it flew lower and lower to the ground. Rhythm bit her lip nervously and kept a death grip on the side of her seat, cursing Ben for being able to so peacefully sleep through all of this. In the last several seconds of the flight, the plane banked sharply left and then right, and then left again. A loud, “oh shit!” came from the cockpit, and Brett glanced up toward Sawyer with a look of bored disinterest.
Seconds later, the plane’s wheels hit the runway with a loud thud, and the aircraft started rapidly decelerating as Sawyer applied the brakes. Sawyer started whooping with delight from the cockpit.
“Now if that ain’t some badass flying, I don’t know what is,” he said, continuing to cheer for himself as he taxied toward the hangar.
Brett rolled his eyes and went back to reading his magazine. “You’re crazy, man,” he said.
Next to Rhythm, Ben stirred, awakened by all the commotion. He sat up and blinked a few times, looking around in disoriented confusion. He smiled when his eyes landed on Rhythm, seeming to suddenly remember where he was.
“Hey beautiful,” Ben said, leaning over to kiss her forehead. “Sorry. I guess I passed out for most of the flight.”
“I guess so,” Rhythm said, hoping her face was returning to a normal color. She was pretty sure she had looked as white as a ghost for the last few minutes there.
If the flight up here was any indication, the next few weeks were going to be one crazy adventure.
* * *
Despite the spine-tingling beginning to their adventures in Glacier Point, the next few weeks dragged. Searching for the caves was tedious, boring work. Day after day, a veritable army of shifters set out to crisscross the Alaskan tundra, looking for anything that might indicate there was a cave entrance nearby. Rhythm spent upwards of twelve hours a day on the project, determined to be the one who finally found something of interest. She didn’t do much besides eat, sleep, and search for caves. She lost track of time, and especially of when day and night were occurring. Since it was the dead of winter here, and the sun didn’t shine at all during these months, it was easy to feel like you were living in a constant night. After she had worked about twenty days in a row, Ben finally insisted that she take a break.
“You’re wearing yourself out, babe,” he’d said. “We have more than enough people searching. Get some rest and save some energy for when the actual fighting occurs.”
What he said made sense. Rhythm didn’t want to be completely worn out when the time came to storm the scientists’ headquarters, so she agreed to take two days off and relax. Of course, at the end of her first day off, the news came that a breakthrough in the search had been made. Rhythm was sitting in one of the cabins that belonged to the Northern Lights Clan, reading a book, when Ben burst excitedly into the room.
“Rhythm! Come, quick!” he exclaimed. “Everyone’s meeting in Neal’s cabin. We think we found something.”
Rhythm felt momentarily disappointed that she hadn’t been the one to discover an entrance, but her disappointment was quickly replaced with excitement as she followed Ben to Neal’s cabin. The place was packed. Inside, the living room was filled wall to wall with shifters, standing as closely to each other as they could so that more people could squeeze in. Dozens more waited outside, straining to see and hear what was going on inside. Ben pushed his way through the tight crowd, dragging Rhythm with him toward the couch, which Neal was standing on so that he would be taller than the crowd. Since Ben was one of the leaders of the whole operation, he had the privilege of standing next to Neal as the big announcement was made.
“Alright, alright, I think everyone is here,” Neal shouted above the murmur of the crowd. “Everyone quiet down so the people outside can hear.”
A hush fell over the crowd as Neal continued to speak. “One of our guys finally found an entrance today. It was well hidden near a rock pile on the tundra, but we managed to spot it. What’s even better is that our bears, Alan and Hannah, who were trapped in the caves for quite some time a few years back, are familiar with the area just beyond the entrance. The entrance itself appears to be new, but it connects to a well established part of the caverns. We have some old maps that will help us determine exactly how to get to the greenhouse room fro
m the entrance. We think that’s where the scientists’ main hub will be located.”
Cheers went up from the crowd, and Rhythm joined in wholeheartedly. Her heart was filling with joy. Was it really possible that they had finally found the scientists’ hiding place? The going had been slow, partially due to the fact that the bears wanted to move as quietly and secretly as possible. They hadn’t wanted to tip off the scientists that they were searching for them. Now, it looked like the operation had been a success. They had found a way in, and it didn’t appear that anyone even knew they had been searching in the darkness.
“Alright, alright, quiet down everyone,” Neal said, raising his hands for silence. “Our plan is to split up into groups for a big showdown. One group will stay here and guard the cabins and children. Another group will wait outside the caves to provide backup support, and to stop any of the scientists who manage to escape. And a third group will actually storm the caves and take down whoever they find inside. We will either confiscate or burn whatever we find inside.”
Rhythm looked over at Ben. “You know which group I want to be in,” she whispered. “The one storming the caves.”
Ben gave her a longsuffering look. “Babe, that group is all going to be the biggest, strongest shifters. Neal’s decision, not mine. But you have to admit it makes sense. We don’t really know what we’ll be facing in the caverns.”
Rhythm made a pouty face. “Does that mean you’re going into the caverns?” she asked.
Ben didn’t answer, but the look he gave Rhythm was confirmation enough. She crossed her arms, annoyed that Ben would get to be in the center of the action and she wouldn’t. Then again, the center of the action seemed to have a way of finding her.
Neal continued to give instructions. Rhythm was assigned to the group guarding the cabins, which didn’t surprise her but still made her upset. She had gotten pretty much the most boring job possible, and she felt she deserved more after she had been the one to help lead the bears here. But she decided to keep her mouth shut, and do her best to have a good attitude. After all, it looked like the scientists reign of terror might be coming to a close soon, and at the end of the day, wasn’t that all that really mattered?
An Alpha's Tempest (Water Bear Shifters 4) Page 12