An Alpha's Tempest (Water Bear Shifters 4) Read Online Free Page B

photograph of each new hire, and we’ll send it out to the network. With eyes in every city, surely we’ll be able to outsmart the scientists at some point.”
    “That sounds like a reasonable plan,” Lance said. “But I don’t understand why we can’t just storm the warehouse and take one of these new employees hostage. If we know they’re coming through on a regular basis, why don’t we just plan to surprise them and overtake them? Once we have one of the new hires in custody, we could try to get them to talk, and tell us where they were being sent. If they refuse to talk, we could still use them as a bargaining chip to try to get information from the scientists.”
    “Unfortunately, I don’t think that would work,” Neal said. “For one thing, I don’t think these new hires are told exactly where they’ll be going. They probably don’t have much information to give. And, for another thing, the warehouse is heavily guarded. We’re likely to suffer casualties if we attack. And for what? It’s not their main headquarters, so we’re not severely crippling their operations. It’s unlikely that we’ll find any useful information stored there. The scientists know better than that. And, honestly, forget about using an employee as a bargaining chip. These are low-level grunt workers. I guarantee that the scientists consider them expendable, and would not care enough about them to try to bargain for their release.”
    Ben sighed. “Sounds like organizing a network of shifters to watch is our best bet, then. This whole waiting game is maddening, though. Every day that we don’t find the scientists is another day closer to them achieving their goals.”
    “I know,” Neal said, running his fingers through his hair. “My clan is getting frustrated, too. We’ve lived through some hard times before, with the Blizzard clan wars, and we were hoping to have some time to live in peace and quiet for a while. This whole situation with the scientists is infuriating. But we’ll get them. Don’t worry. If we all work together, we’re stronger than them, and smarter than them. They may have won a few battles, but the bear shifters will win this war.”
    “Damn straight,” Ace said, slamming his fist down on the coffee table, causing a few of the beer bottles on it to jump. “We’ll get them, and make them regret every bear they’ve killed.”
    Murmurs of impassioned agreement rose from the group. Everyone was ready for this threat to be eliminated.”
    “Does anyone want to take on the task of organizing a watch group?” Ryker asked. “It’s going to be a big job, but it’s a very important one.”
    “Ben?” Lance asked. “Any ideas on how to get started?”
    Ben furrowed his brow in thought. Although the whole crew was smart, he was known as the brains in the group. Whenever a particularly complicated problem arose, the crew usually asked him to step up and figure it out. And he had never let them down yet. Well, until now. He hadn’t been able to figure out the scientists’ location yet. But he would. He wasn’t giving up until those men were stopped. And organizing a network of bear shifters gave him the opportunity to take some action, instead of sitting here making himself crazy by going over the same notes again and again.
    “Sure, I’ll do it,” Ben said. “I’ve got a few ideas that might work.”
    “Awesome. Thank you so much,” Neal said. “Should we plan to reconvene for another in-person meeting in a month or so to get updates on your process?”
    “Yeah, a month should be plenty of time to get the ball rolling,” Ben said. “I’ll send out emails, too, when I get something implemented. But in-person meetings are always nice. It’s good to see everyone. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can meet to hang out for fun instead of just meeting to discuss the scientists’ threats.”
    Neal raised his beer bottle. “Cheers to that,” he said. “You boys are gonna have to