Blackblood Bear (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Agency Book 2) (2 page)

Justin

They were going on a mission.

Not just any job, or thing that had to be done. No, it was time for him and his team to get back to doing what they were in King City for.

“We’re gonna save some city-slicker shifter ass,” he crowed as they filed from the command center, doing his best to contain his excitement.

Behind them, Connor lingered a few steps behind.
Probably telling his girl that he loves her.
Justin smiled at that. His “girl” also happened to be Madison Rychel, the commander of the Underground, a group of shifters and humans dedicated to helping the shifter population of King City. She was also, as far as anyone knew, the first “test-tube shifter” in existence. After taking several vials of serum derived from shifter blood, Madison had gone from being a half-breed—a “blackblood”—into a full-blown shifter. She was able to call forth her own bear, a powerful beast that, like her human form, didn’t take guff from anyone.

Justin envied his teammate Connor for what he had found. He only wished that the rest of them could end up so lucky.

It was good to have the team back together again.

“What’s the plan, Jared?” he asked as Connor came out of the room after them, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face that he tried mightily to hide. He was failing miserably, but nobody cared.

“The plan, Charlie,” Jared said, lapsing back into their code names as they headed toward their “ready room,” really just a converted garage that now housed their gear, “is simple. Find. Protect. Evacuate.”

Justin rolled his eyes. “Of course, Alpha,” he said with false deference, earning him a non-heated glare from the team leader. “I was just wondering, you know, if we had more details.”

“I do,” Jared said calmly as they walked down the corridor. All of their steps were carefully restrained, each of them eager to move forward with their mission.

Josh, the fourth member of their team, groaned at the reply. “Thanks Dad,” he said as the others chuckled.

The hallway ended, opening into a larger room. The far side had two single-car garage doors, currently closed. Two trucks were in front of the doors, reversed in so they could easily be driven out in a hurry. It was what was behind them that made him smile.

Shrouded by a thick woven polyester cover were two sleek shapes that called out to him. Feeling his lips pull back into a grin, he looked at Jared as the leader turned around, then looked over at the shapes.

The leader followed his gaze, then smiled and nodded. “Yeah, go ahead and get ready. You’ll be on scout duty today.”

Yes!
He clenched his fist tightly in victory as his bear roared with delight inside of him. Justin knew he must be one of the few shifters on the planet whose bear enjoyed the thrill of two-wheeled propulsion, the thrum of the engine between his legs.

His love for it was almost sexual in nature, but he didn’t care. He loved whipping along, dodging in and out of traffic with the ease and reflexes that only a shifter could have. There was something about the freedom from the cockpit of a normal vehicle that just spoke to him.

As he worked to uncover his bike, a blue and white prized stallion, he listened to what Jared—
no, Alpha
, he corrected—was saying.

“Standard op I think. Lives in a three-story walkup in the middle of downtown. So this will be a little more public than normal. That means be careful and don’t pull any stupid stunts,” he said with a scowl at Justin.

He just raised his arms and looked innocent as he whipped the cover off his bike in one smooth motion. Two hundred horsepower of sleek, speed-chasing power was revealed.

The others didn’t even notice. They were just unappreciative, he told himself. Didn’t know what the perfect amalgamation of power and style was, even if it came up and hit them in the face.

“Charlie, you’ll do a ride through of all streets in a two-block radius, ensure there’s nobody waiting for us. Then Bravo and Delta will get the target and escort him down to me in the escape vehicle. From there, we will escort him to Safe House Gamma. Any questions?”

There were none. There never were any. The team was a well-oiled machine by this point, even if the past two weeks had seen them doing a number of other tasks as the Underground recovered from the sabotage inflicted upon it by their previous leader.

Justin snarled as he thought of Flint, the traitorous leader, who in reality had been an operative of the Agency, their mysterious and shadowy enemy. The betrayal still hurt all of them, and he knew it wouldn’t go away anytime soon.

“Charlie, whenever you’re ready, head on out,” Alpha said, showing him the coordinates on a map. “We’ll follow you.”

He memorized the location and nodded, pulling on the last of his black tactical gear and snagging his helmet from its hook on the wall. Trying to contain his excitement, he focused on the mission.

Find the target. Get him to safety. It was simple and easy.

With a final nod to his crew, he slapped the visor down on his helmet as they opened the garage. Justin eased the throttle forward and glided down the ramp, making his way around the old warehouse building and toward the streets. It was a good ten-minute ride to the location by car.

Justin would make it in five.

He felt the air begin to tug on his leather jacket as he increased speed, leaning left, then right as he weaved a pattern through traffic, his eyes three steps ahead of the rest of his body, planning his route in advance.

As he approached the target zone, he eased off the throttle.

“Hey!” a scared female voice shouted as he flew past.

Justin glanced over his shoulder to see a woman with her arms in the air giving him the finger. He latched on to her green-blue eyes for a second, then she was too far gone for him to make out details. He cursed himself for not seeing her as she emerged from between two cars, but that was just as much her fault as his.

As he slowed, Justin began to move with the flow of traffic. Blending in would be more key than speed now. He needed to search for any potential Agents that may be waiting for his team. If he missed anything, then he could be putting his entire team in danger. Suddenly everything snapped into crystal-clear focus as the seriousness of his mission washed over him. It was always like this: the free and easy ride to the target zone, followed by a period of high-octane adrenaline as he cruised the streets, looking in every vehicle and shop that he passed.

His ear buzzed with Alpha’s voice. “How’s it looking out there, Charlie?”

“So far it looks more peaceful than the sight of a sleeping newborn,” he replied, his vision going left and right.

There were no telltale signs of an Agency presence. They weren’t overly known for being stealthy. Big black SUVs and men clad in military black were the name of the game. Justin knew it was only a matter of time before they started to use vehicles that would blend in a bit more, but for now, it was still the same old.

“Okay, we’re moving in,” Alpha said. “Stand by.”

He radioed his confirmation, and then found a spot three buildings down from the one their target resided in. There he waited.

After two minutes his fingers began to bounce on the frame as his nerves built. The radio stayed silent. Despite his growing urge to check in, to see the progress, he waited silently. Cars drove by on his left in a near-steady stream as the traffic built from the midday lull. He sat back into his seat, running through several mental meditation exercises designed to help him relax through controlled breathing. Justin hated not knowing what was going on.

“Move out. Charlie, scout the way.”

He was moving before the last word was spoken. The engine roared and he eased into traffic, forcing two cars to leave a space for him.

The car in front slammed on its brakes, coming to a halt.

Justin cursed and tried to get around it, but there wasn’t enough space.

“Shit. Alpha, traffic jam. I’ll catch up, but don’t wait for me.”

Without waiting for a reply, he leaned to the left, but there were oncoming cars. So much for making his own path. After a thirty-second wait the traffic began to move again. This time Justin was able to zip out into a space in oncoming traffic and jump three cars ahead. This repeated itself until he got to a stretch of road that had less traffic. Ahead he could see his team’s truck at a standstill, waiting for the light to turn.

A flicker of motion to his right caught his attention. Glancing over, he watched as a large silver-metallic SUV eased up alongside him.

Something was wrong.

“Alpha, something is wrong. Get the hell out of here,” he said, even as the window began to roll down.

Ahead of him tires screeched and the black truck carrying the rest of his team shot through the intersection, narrowly avoiding a blue four-door sedan that slammed on its brakes, which missed the rear bumper by inches.

Justin slowed as he and the SUV came to a halt. The light turned green just as they slid to a full stop, and he looked back over as he picked up speed. Two men were visible inside. One of them was sitting in the middle, looking calm and impervious to the wind rushing through the opening. Something about the gray suit and immaculate haircut set Justin’s neck tingling. This was a
bad
man. But who was he?

The other man loomed into his vision with a leering grin as he tilted his head in Justin’s direction. The bold blue eyes, bald head, and big scar that started at his right eyebrow and ran up as far onto his head as Justin could see, all combined to make him look like some sort of specter of evil, the very stereotype itself come to life.

Whoever they were, they were not normal Agents. His eyes flicked to the driver’s seat as he kept one eye on the road. The man behind the wheel, on the other hand, was Agent to the core. Black uniform, crew-cut hair, etcetera. So whoever these men were, they worked for the Agency.

“Alpha, we have two baddies. Suits. Very non-natural.” He paused. “Oh, and they’re driving a silver SUV.”

“Be safe Charlie; don’t do anything stupid. Lose them.”

“Roger that,” he replied, intending to do just that.

Before he could, the wildly-grinning man waved at him.

Justin frowned.

The man leaned back, and suddenly the entire door of the SUV was flying right at Justin as the man kicked it completely free of the vehicle.

“Shit!” he swore and tried to duck under it.

The door was too big. It impacted him side-on, kicking the tires out from beneath him as he fell to the ground. The bike began to skid across the ground, leaving a blue and white skid mark behind him, which was marred by the black from his jacket. The rough road quickly ate through his protective gear and began to shred the skin on his back. Justin screamed in pain, though he knew the injury wasn’t very bad. It would heal itself in a very short period of time, once he finally came to a halt.

The silver SUV, missing a door, sped off, taking a sharp right and disappearing into the rest of the city.

“I’m down, but okay. Get the target out of here, then come back for me and the bike,” he said as he hit something on the ground, his slide turning into a spin. Ahead of him his bike’s front wheel slammed into the curb, bending metal and making it unusable.

Justin hit the curb with a decent amount of speed. He tried to use his feet to cushion his impact and bring him up to his feet, to make it look smooth, but he failed miserably. Instead of looking suave, he flipped himself up in the air, going end over end, until he landed flat on his back at the feet of a random pedestrian.

A concerned face peered down at him, blueish-green eyes frowning. Brown hair dyed a nice burgundy color fell across her face as she moved her lips.

“Are you okay?”

It was the same woman he had cut off.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said with a laugh as he saw her eyes widen, recognizing the bike.

***

“You,” she said in surprise.

“Me,” he confirmed, standing up and pulling off his helmet after doing a quick sweep of the street to ensure no other Agents were present. It wouldn’t do for him to be showing them his face if it could be avoided.

Justin wasn’t too worried about their presence. Whatever had just happened had been for show, to drive home a point to him and to the Underground as a whole. Someone new was in charge, and they were done playing games.

The woman’s eyes widened as he got up easily and brushed himself off, ignoring the blood and skin scraped across the pavement, leaving a rather unsightly dark mark.

“I’m clear, uninjured, and not being followed,” he said into the helmet, then tucked it at his side, not listening for a response. His attention was elsewhere. “Look,” he said with a grimace, “I’m really sorry for cutting you off earlier. Honestly, I got distracted and didn’t see you emerging from between the vehicles. It was totally my fault, and I apologize for it.”

She frowned, still staring at his back. “It’s okay,” she mumbled. “But are you sure you’re okay? You’re back is ripped to shreds…”

Justin grinned. “I’m fine, trust me.”

“But…”

He shrugged. “I’m a shifter; it’ll heal up in a few minutes. Hurts like hell now, but nothing a bit of time won’t fix.”

The woman rocked back on her heels. “A shifter? Really? I’ve never met one before.”

“Well, now you have,” he said with a laugh.

“And the headset?” she prompted, pointing at his helmet. “What’s that, and this,” she swept her hand around to encompass him and the crashed bike, “what is this all about? Are you some sort of secret agent?”

Justin laughed again, louder this time. “Close enough,” he managed to get out between bouts. “Close enough.”

The woman gave him a strange stare, as if she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Her eyes captivated him as they seemed to swirl back and forth between green and blue, a mesmerizing shift that he found tugging at something deep within him.

Careful, Justin. Don’t do anything stupid here. You don’t know this woman at all. The last thing you want to do is stare at her and make her think you’re some kind of creep.

So instead of staring, he whipped his eyes away to stare at his bike.

Smooth. Real smooth. Natural ladies’ man. That’s you, bud.

His bear rolled its non-existent eyes in disgust and seemed to walk away, throwing its hands up in the air, as if he was beyond even its help. That was a reassuring notion.

“So what do you do now?” she asked, sounding a little more timid.

Almost as if you should have said something there, instead of forcing her to. Idiot.

“Uh, well, if I’m as well-liked as I hope I am, my friends will come back with their truck and I’ll toss it in there.”

“Come back?” she asked with a frown. “They left you behind after you wiped out like that?”

He chuckled. “It’s…a little more complicated than that,” he admitted. “And, in case you missed it, I didn’t just wipe out. I was taken out.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. “Oh?”

She didn’t believe him. That was okay; he had proof.

“Yes,” he said, still smiling. He took a step toward the road, crooking a finger when she didn’t follow him.

“I don’t know about this,” she said slowly. “Every time I go between two cars with you nearby, I seem to have some sort of bad experience.

His smiled became a grin as he reached down and picked up the big door that was lying in the road, half-blocking one of the lanes.

“See this?” he asked, waiting until she nodded. “This is why I wiped out. Kind of hard to avoid one of those and stay upright on one of these things.”

The woman shrugged. “You should have seen it coming. It’s called being aware, like seeing someone emerge from between two cars.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “You know, that really isn’t an excuse, considering that you aren’t actually supposed to do that. Besides, if that didn’t happen, then we wouldn’t be able to have this amazing conversation.”

This brought a smile to the woman’s face.

Score one for Justin and his ability to talk so much until he says the right thing!

“Perhaps,” she admitted coyly, then retreated to the sidewalk as he removed the door from traffic.

“Besides,” he told her as he easily set it down against the nearby building. “It’s hard to see it coming when one moment it’s attached to the vehicle next to you, and the next it’s flying at you.”

“So, what, it just sort of fell off the vehicle?” she asked skeptically, looking over the damage to his bike, her reddish-brown hair falling over her shoulder.

“Uh,” he said awkwardly. “More like someone kicked it at me.”

Her eyebrows—a much darker shade of brown, indicating that her hair wasn’t natural—shot up this time. “Someone
kicked
it off their vehicle and at you? How is that possible, and on top of that,
why
?”

Justin looked embarrassed. He couldn’t tell her the truth about the why. He could, however, tell her the truth about the how.

“This is how,” he said, bending down with a grunt, lifting his motorcycle clear off the ground, and walking it across the sidewalk to set it against a building. Thankfully not much had actually broken off the bike. There was plenty of deformed metal, but it was all still attached for the most part.

“Did you just lift that whole thing by yourself?” she asked, eyes wide as she walked over to it. “This is a big boy too. It’s gotta have what, two hundred, two hundred and twenty ponies?” she asked, eyeballing the engine.

“Two-ten,” he replied, caught off guard by her sudden display of mechanical knowledge. “And yes, I did lift it. Part of the whole shifter thing. You know, change into an animal, heal faster, super strong, blah blah blah.” He tried not to make it out to be a big deal as he looked at her again. Really
looked
at her.

She was gorgeous, standing perhaps five foot six, and clad in a layer of muscle. That brought with it a few extra curves that she wasn’t even aware she possessed judging by the way she held herself. If she was aware, she didn’t realize that they made her drop-dead gorgeous in his eyes. As she looked over her shoulder from her inspection of the bike, he realized her face looked almost fragile compared to her body. High upswept cheekbones gave her an almost elfin appearance, contrasting the obvious power in her body with very dainty and feminine facial features.

He was hooked, even before she bent over, giving him a full view of her exquisite rear. Justin swallowed nervously, flexing his abs and legs as hard as he could to draw blood away from between his legs, where it had suddenly decided to pool with a ferocity that surprised him.

Inside his bear roared, eager to move forward, the practically feral animal screaming at him to fulfill his primal nature.

Knowing that he was in public, Justin mentally forced his bear down, not wanting to make a fool of himself, or even worse, drive this very interesting woman away.

Desperate to think of an idea, any idea, to talk to her more, he looked at the shops on the street. As if fate were trying to tell him something, two storefronts down to his right was a big-chain coffee shop.

Thank you,
he thought, to whomever or whatever was looking over him.

“Hey,” he said, then stopped.

She stood up, turning back to face him. “Yes?”

He froze.

The beautiful woman frowned slightly. “What?” she asked, though there wasn’t any vehemence in her voice.

“I was just wondering,” he said, at last managing to force the words out.

She waited a second, then prompted him one more time. “Wondering what?”

Justin smiled and shook his head. “Did you want to get a coffee?” he blurted out, trying to make it seem smooth.

The woman hesitated, and Justin felt his luck fall away.