“Bruce, did you hear about the Jenson project?” Herb Alter asked, his brown eyes wide and intense.
Bruce frowned.
“No, what about it?” he asked. He hadn’t liked the way Herb had burst into his office like this, but if it was important he was glad somebody had the foresight to talk to him about it. Especially considering it was his fucking company.
“The dragon shifters are trying to get rights to it. They claim they came up with the idea themselves. Isn’t that ridiculous?”
“You mean they want us to go to court?” Bruce asked incredulously.
“Yeah, they want you to go to court. They want to be the only ones to profit off the ideas in that project. And they’re using some really fucked up means to get what they want. I just thought I would give you a heads up, I know you haven’t been back in the office for a while and they thought they would handle it quietly. But nothing has been resolved so far. And it’s going to fall back in your lap.”
“I appreciate it, Herb,” Bruce said, glaring down at a thick manila folder on his desk. He was going to have to brush up on their contents for the next meeting in about an hour. It was strange to be so hands on back in his business after such a long hiatus.
But his children had needed him. And now, apparently his business needed him too. He would be damned if he let some sniveling dragon scum take credit for the hard work his team had put into making the Jenson project a reality. No, he would fight tooth and nail to ensure everything about it remained in his name. his company – his team – deserved that. They had worked hard. He was going to allow them to reap the rewards.
The next round of conferences left Bruce feeling agitated. Apparently, there were dragon shifters in the west who were trying to make a big deal about his company. They wanted full rights to some of the intellectual properties they had patented, claiming the ideas were stolen right from under their noses and that they had the documents to prove it.
He was going to lose thousands of dollars either way; whether he took them to court or surrendered the rights to the properties to the dragon shifter company. He had no idea what lengths they were willing to go to, but it was pretty terrifying to say the least. If they could get their hands on the Jensen project, that could mean a huge profit loss. Not only that, but it was something that could ultimately affect the other bear shifters on Oak Mountain as well. The Jensen project was important and had everything to do with activating the portal back to the original home of the Bear shifters.
If the dragons got there first, not only would it make the portal’s activation impossible, but it would ultimately prove that the dragon shifters were the greatest of the shifter species.
However, of course activating the portal would be impossible for both dragon shifter and bear shifter alike. The resources and materials required to make the Jensen project a success would need decades of tumultuous work. But once it was completed, it was a formula that would only work once, if it worked at all. It was simply speculation. If it was used to open the dragon shifter portal, the bear shifters would have to try something else entirely and the entire purpose for creating the Jensen project would be wasted. His team had been developing it for years at this point, and it had finally begun to take shape. It made sense then that somehow the dragon shifters would catch wind of the idea and want to take it over for themselves.
In a way Bruce was almost tempted to let them. If they got rid of the dragon shifters on Earth it would give his own people the chance they needed to get their own portal open and, if they wanted to, coexist with the humans on earth with no problems. The dragon shifters tended to interfere with the bear shifters and change the dynamics of their relationships with humans. It was almost like it was a personal goal for them to ruin everything the bear shifters were working toward.
And in fact, it probably was. tensions had been high for the past three years; ever since the leader of Oak Mountain had finally taken a stand against the dragon shifters and prevented them passage into the ancient tunnels. Things had been dangerous. The dragon shifters were fierce and relentless, and they had one single goal in their minds. To return back to the place they had come from through the portal where they had built their home. Just as the bear shifters had settled near their portal, so too had the dragon shifters. It was tragic that both of those places happened to be side by side on opposite mountains.
“What do you think we’re going to do?” Herb asked that night as Bruce walked with him to the parking lot. “The dragon shifters are getting smart. They know we abide by human customs considering we are basically guests on this planet. They’re trying to do things bureaucratically.”
“Don’t worry,” Bruce said firmly. “I will handle them. And if it can’t be handled bureaucratically, then I will just have to find some other way it can.”
Herb nodded, his face seeming relieved. He trusted Bruce. Bruce was an alpha. A leader. And an intelligent man who had managed to build this company from the ground up. Of course, Bruce would find a way to make things work. He always had, and he would again. No matter what it took.