Blackblood Bear (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Agency Book 2) (9 page)

***

Standing there in the lobby of her hotel, looking distraught, was none other than Justin Renne.

Like the pasta.

Shay, horrified at herself that she would think of that lame little joke at such a serious time, hid any emotion that might play across her face. Laughing just then was
not
appropriate.

He had seen her, and had indeed been watching her as she thought over the bartender’s last few words. His long strides carried him across the distance.

“I’m in room 606.
In case…” she shrugged.

“I’ll have housekeeping send up a bottle of wine in an hour,” the bartender said with a knowing wink.

“Thank you,” Shay said as she slid off the barstool. “For, you know, everything.”

The bartender just smiled.

Shay turned back as Justin came to a halt several paces away from her. He opened his mouth, looking like he had something to say. Then he hesitated.

She decided to speak, but the words caught in her throat.

Gathering herself, she forced them out.

“We need to talk,” they said in unison as Justin found his words as well.

A ghost of a smile played across her lips, and she saw his eyes twinkle, though it didn’t reach the serious expression written upon his face.

By way of unspoken agreement they headed toward the elevators and her room, silence hanging in the air. Both of them seemed to startle when the doors slid open, the chime dinging to indicate they had reached the sixth floor.

“Don’t mind the mess,” she said awkwardly, indicating her trail of things from earlier.

Wow, I really made a mess of this place.

It hadn’t seemed so bad when she had left for the bar.

She gestured at a pair of seats in the front of the room, where the TV was located.

They sat, still in silence, neither of them knowing what to say, only knowing that things had to be said.

The fabric-covered chairs squeaked as they settled into them, looking at each other. Finally, Shay could help it no more.

“Why did you kill those men?” she blurted out.

Justin shuddered, torment filling his eyes.

“Because they gave me no choice,” he said, then held up his hand as her face scrunched up in confusion. “None of the men who work for the Agency ever give us a choice.”

There was no question who he was talking about when he said “us.” He meant shifters. His kind.

The line about wanting to know if she truly felt the way she did about people who hunted shifters down and experimented on them echoed through her mind again.

“The Agency?” she asked when no more words were forthcoming.

“They likely have another name, but we don’t know it. They are an extremely well-funded, well-connected, and, unfortunately, well-established group.”

There was no shame in Justin’s voice now. Just cold hard facts. Shay swallowed as she saw this side of him for the first time. The trained killer.

“Why are they after you?” she asked, trying to keep her own voice just as steady. She needed to. Justin was finally revealing things to her that she wanted to know.

“Because of what I am,” he said heavily. “The Agency has somehow managed to develop a serum that when injected into a blackblood, gives them the powers of a shifter, with the sole exception of the ability to shapeshift.”

Shay felt her jaw drop open. “I’m sorry, what? They can give humans your abilities? All of them?”

Justin’s jaw tightened. “Yes. Increased strength and speed. Faster healing, better eyesight, etcetera. But not to humans, no. Only to those born with shifter blood in them. Born of a shifter and a human, but without the full blood of a shifter. A blackblood.”

“Right,” she said with a nod, remembering him telling her about what that term meant. “So they have this serum. But why are they after you?”

She could hear him gritting his teeth. “To develop the serum, they need the blood of a full-blown shifter.”

“How much blood?” she asked tightly, unsure she wanted to know the answer, yet equally sure she already knew.

“All of it,” he ground out. “In a short timespan. We still don’t understand why or how, but we’ve learned that they have to drain one of my kind dry in a short timeframe to have enough blood to then create their serum.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Those two men,” he said after a moment, banishing the silence, “were both injected with the serum.”

Shay jerked as if she’d been shot. “Two of them?” she asked in horrified awe. “That means that…”

He nodded angrily. “Two of my kind died to create those two men.”

“That’s terrible,” she said shakily, the implications of everything that Justin was involved in just beginning to sink in. Shay was sure there was far more to it than she was aware of. “I can’t even begin to comprehend the atrocity that’s being committed against your kind.”

Shay desperately wanted to reach out, to hold him. The emotions playing across his face were as clear as day for her to read. Distress. Anguish. Anger. Horror. Confusion. Justin was far more overwhelmed by what he knew than he let on. She could see that now, and it took everything within her not to reach out and pull him to her.

Not yet.

“Why are they doing this?” she asked. Shay needed answers. She needed to know more.

“To kill us all. To rid the world of our kind, so that it can be pure once more.” He practically spat the words out, disgusted by their content.

Shay nodded, things falling into place.

“Who are you?” she asked at last, getting to the crux of the issue.

Justin knew what she was asking. “I am a Sentinel,” he told her. “Trained in Genesis Valley, a safe haven for shifters and friends of our kind. My team and I were sent here, to try and protect the shifters of King City from the Agency. To prevent their wholesale slaughter.”

“What is a Sentinel?”

He grimaced. “A warrior. I fled there when my family was murdered in front of my eyes for supporting shifters, for being their allies. I was trained by Valen and Marcus Kedyn, the shifter owners of a mining company that runs the Valley. They taught me how to protect myself, and others.” He paused, his shoulders trembling as he took another breath. “They taught me how to kill.”

Shay
did
reach out now, to rest her palm on his forearm. Justin jerked like he had just been stung, but he didn’t pull away.

He didn’t meet her eyes either.

“It’s okay,” she said, forgiving him. “I understand now. You killed them, but they would have done the same to you. That doesn’t make you a murderer,” she explained. “That was done in self-defense.”

Justin didn’t respond, sitting so still in the chair he could be a statue, if it weren’t for the incredible amounts of heat roiling off of him. Shay still couldn’t get over how warm he was.

“That’s what I’m trained to be,” he said in a haunted whisper. “I’m a killer. Everyone expects me to be a killing machine, simply because I can. That because I have the training, I should just do it, because it has to be done.” He looked up at her at last, shattering Shay’s heart with the pain in his eyes. “But does it have to be done? I’m not convinced, and I hate myself more every time I’m forced to end someone.”

Shay had never heard someone refer to killing like that, but she quickly got the gist of it.

“I don’t think you’re a horrible person,” she said at last. “I think the fact that you’re so tormented by what you do speaks volumes to the strength of your person. It is a redeeming quality in someone who does what you do.”

Justin smiled, but it was devoid of joy. “Thank you. That’s what Ajax tried to tell me too. I understand that logically, I really do. But logic and emotion are two completely different facets, and unfortunately, they don’t agree. I
feel
that I’m a black mark.” He snorted again. “Fitting, since I’m a blackblood, that I would engage in the blackness of something such as death.”

“That’s enough,” she said sharply, catching them both off guard with the harshness of her voice. “All you’re doing now is wallowing in your own self-pity. You just said you can logically see the good in what you’ve done. The people you’ve saved. The shifters who live here are alive because of you,” she said.

“Not all of them,” he said.

Shay didn’t object. Not because she disagreed, but because it wasn’t depression she had heard in his voice then, but something else.

Anger.

Hating herself, she reached out and stoked that feeling.

“Perhaps,” she agreed. “Maybe you haven’t saved them all.”

Justin’s head snapped up, his eyes blazing with an inner fire. An inferno that he had lacked since the day she first met him.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me,” she said, staring right back, not backing down as his spine straightened until he loomed over her. “And you won’t intimidate me like that either.”

That wasn’t entirely true. She was terrified right now, but she couldn’t let on that she was.

“I said that no, you didn’t save all of them. You couldn’t have. Despite your awesome powers, you’re still half-human. And we humans have a saying. It goes: ‘You’re only human’. Do you know what that means, Justin Renne?” she said, her tone as hard as steel, colder than ice.

“What?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“It means that you can try your best, do absolutely everything, and that you still might make mistakes. But I can tell you this. If you continue to wallow around, letting them get the better of you, more people
are
going to die. And this time, it
is
going to be your fault. Because you were too busy worrying about yourself instead of those around you.”

She could see muscles bunching all over Justin as she spoke, but when she delivered the last line, they seemed to deflate almost instantly.

“You’re right,” he whispered.

“Of course I’m right,” she said, mimicking his sarcastic snort from earlier. “I’m very good at analyzing things very quickly. If I don’t,” she said with a harsh laugh, “I crash into concrete walls. And trust me,” she added wryly, “once was enough for me.”

“You crashed into a concrete wall?” he asked, his voice full of relief at the change of subject.

Shay didn’t press him. Justin had a lot to think about now. She had confidence that in time, he would not only arrive at the right decision, but he would be okay with it as well.

“If I tell you about that, will you tell me more about what you do?” she asked softly, gently caressing his arm.

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he said solemnly.

She smiled as his other hand came to rest on top of hers, giving it a squeeze.

“I promise.” His words were full of strength, and she could see it surging through him. He was still battling his inner demons, but for the moment, he had found a reprieve.

“Okay,” she said, feeling her timidity dissipate at the same time. “But I have one other condition.”

Justin looked at her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “And that is?”

“You left a little business unfinished in the dry cleaner, before you were forced to leave,” she teased, hoping that he would focus on her, and not the other memories from then.

“I did?”

She laughed at his genuine confusion.

“Get over here and finish kissing me, before I lose my nerve,” she ordered.

The words were barely out of her mouth before Justin launched himself at her.

***

He lifted her from the chair, knocking it over onto its side as his muscular arms wrapped around her waist.

Shay squealed in delight, the sound muffled as his lips pressed hard against hers. She put her hands around the back of his head and pulled him close, holding tight as he pressed her shoulders none too gently into the wall.

Their lips parted, tongues hungrily dancing with each other as they finally gave in to the tension that had been building between them for days now.

In the back of her mind, Shay was astonished at how quickly she’d swung from one emotion to the other where Justin was concerned. But like the bartender had said, she needed to trust her instincts. There would still be time needed for her to come to grips with what she’d
seen.
But the reasons behind it made sense now. Everything added up in her mind. The visuals would keep her awake at night she was sure, but the knowledge of
why
would allow her to eventually fall asleep.

Not that she had any interest in sleep just then. Her body was responding, her temperature rising as blood raced through her body and Justin’s skin pressed against her.

“Clothes, off, now,” she gasped out between kisses. It was too hot. She needed to cool down. Getting rid of clothes seemed the fastest way.

Justin’s hands moved until he was now holding her up in the air by grasping her ass, his big hands covering most of her cheeks, the tips of his fingers coming dangerously close to between her legs.

Feeling as stable as if she were sitting on a chair, Shay reached down and tugged her shirt up over her head. Warm lips found the exposed skin of her neck before she could remove her bra, and her voiceless cries became moans as he kissed and nibbled gently on her neck, spikes of pleasure shooting through her body.

“Your turn,” she mumbled through his lips, reaching out to tug on his shirt, before the logistics of it all clued in.

Justin worked it out though, spinning her around and laying her back onto the bed as he loomed over her. She practically melted into the sheets, running her fingers up his arms as they bulged to support him above her. His shirt came off shortly after, and he pressed himself down onto her, his skin so hot it practically burned to touch.

Her back arched as he snaked a hand under her, taking half the sheets with him in his haste. She giggled, pushing herself farther back onto the bed as he undid her bra. She let him pull it off, exposing herself to him. A sliver of self-doubt entered her mind as he pulled back to look at her curves, but that was expunged by the blazing desire in his eyes that flared brightly.

“You are so sexy,” he growled in that deep, primal voice that men seemed to use when they got extremely aroused.

The deep rumble of his voice seemed to stoke the furnace between her legs to another level. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him tight until she could feel his hardness pressed against her, a clear sign that he wanted her.

Gently—for him—he grabbed her hands and pushed them above her head, pinning them to the bed. Helpless, she could do nothing but squirm and moan as Justin changed pace, his lips now kissing their way achingly slowly down her neck, across her chest, and toward her breasts. His tongue flicked out, swirling around one, then her other nipple, until they both stood in the air, hard and aroused from his touch.

But he wasn’t done there. He moved down her ribcage and across her stomach, until he got to her pants. That didn’t stop him either. He pulled her arms down and then out from each side, giving himself enough length to continue kissing across the thin fabric of her pants, until he finally arrived between her legs after what felt like an excruciatingly long journey.

By that point Shay was all but aching for him to be inside her, and she didn’t even have her pants off yet!

He continued to kiss her through her pants, the pressure of his lips enough to tease her, but not enough to give her real pleasure.  She struggled to get free, to rip them off, but the more she struggled, the tighter he held her wrists. Never hard enough to hurt, but firm enough that Shay knew she wasn’t getting free unless he decided to.

“Please,” she begged as he teased her more, her need for him growing with each passing second.

Just when she thought she couldn’t handle it anymore, someone knocked on the door.

“What the?” Justin asked, turning to look over his shoulder.

Shay found herself laughing.

Room service!

She’d totally forgotten.

“Better let me up,” she said, rising swiftly to her feet as he did. She walked to the washroom as the door thumped again under a rapping fist. Grabbing a bathrobe to give her some modesty, she tied it around her waist and pulled the door open.

“Ah, hello,” a young man in hotel dress said. “This was sent up compliments of Ms. Greene.”

So that’s the bartender’s name.

“Thank you,” Shay said, trying to ignore the way the young man’s eyes bulged in surprise as Justin, still shirtless, moved closer to the door.

“What is it?” he rumbled.

“Champagne,” she said. “Be a dear and open it, will you?” she asked, handing it off to him.

“Oh,” he said, taking the bottle in surprise.

Shay moved to where her purse had fallen as they entered the room and pulled out a crumpled bill, giving it to the young man as a tip.

“Thank you,” he said, backing away.

“Tell Ms. Greene that I appreciated it, and that we shall enjoy it,” Shay told him.

The young man nodded jerkily, eyes popping once again as Justin casually pulled the cork out with two fingers. Then he turned and dashed down the hallway.

“Did you really have to scare him that badly?” Shay admonished as she closed the door, turning back to face him.

“Oh,” she said in a small voice.

Justin had taken a split second to divest himself of the remainder of his clothing, standing there completely naked with the champagne bottle in his hand.

“Come here,” he ordered, crooking his finger at her.

Shay swallowed, suddenly nervous as his rapidly hardening cock caught her eye. She got close, and he bent her head back slightly, then poured champagne into her mouth.

“That’s good,” she mumbled as he upended some of it and took a swig himself.

“It is,” he agreed, then gave a gentle push on her shoulder.

Knowing what he wanted, Shay fell to her knees, his cock now at eye level for her. She swallowed again, tentatively reaching out to wrap her hand around the shaft. He was hard, but her touch seemed to take it to the next level.

He was big, but not so large that she didn’t think having sex with him would be fun. Shay gave a silent
thank you
on that front, having been quite nervous about the prospect of his size.

Above her, Justin had another drink.

“Don’t leave me out,” she ordered, squeezing her hand tight to ensure he obeyed.

Justin let out a playful yelp and lowered the bottle to her lips so that Shay could gulp down some more.

The moment she swallowed the last bit, she licked her lips and sucked him into her mouth, taking the entire head in and allowing her tongue to swirl around it in a slow circular pattern.

Above her, Justin’s surprised hiss turned into a low rumbling moan of delight as she slowly worked her hand up and down his shaft as well. Shay had always enjoyed this part of a relationship, even though she knew many of her friends hated it. To her, the sense of being in control, of knowing that she could please a man, was powerful. There was something about giving such pleasure to someone she cared about, without them feeling like they had to do anything in return but enjoy it.

Her arousal increased as Justin’s moans grew deeper and louder the more she sucked on his dick, taking it as deep into her throat as she could before it began to gag her. Like most men, Justin seemed to like that, so she made sure to do it enough that his arousal matched hers, but not so much that it made her uncomfortable.

Reaching up with her other hand, she began to caress his sac as well, but that proved too much for him. With a hiss he pulled away from her and she could see his muscles flex as he sought to calm himself.

“What?” she asked, trying to give him an innocent-looking pouty face, though she knew that he had come close to the edge and didn’t want to be pushed over yet.

“Don’t you play innocent with me,” he growled, pulling her to her feet. “You know perfectly well what you were about to do.”

Shay was going to respond, but before she could, Justin dropped to his knees, taking her pants and underwear with him in one smooth move. He dropped the bottle of champagne on the floor and then rose to lay her back onto the bed. Whatever she was going to say caught in her throat as his hands slid up the inside of her thighs and gently pushed her legs apart.

Sliding down once more until his knees were on the ground, she shuddered as he kissed her left leg, then her right leg, his lips following his hands as he moved toward the peak of her legs. This was what Shay wanted, what she had been working toward for the past untold amount of time.

The instant his warm breath washed across her clit she shuddered, a million tiny jolts of electricity running over her skin. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.

Justin’s tongue flicked out and caressed her hardened nub, and the lights went out.

They exploded back into focus a second later, though it was a few heartbeats after that that Shay realized it had actually been her eyes closing at the same time every muscle in her body tensed. Her back arched so far she thought she was going to snap in half.

The second touch of his tongue came a moment later, and she convulsed again, her hands coming up to hold her breasts tight, gently tugging and tweaking her nipples as he continued to run his tongue across her.

“Don’t you fucking stop,” she forced out as her orgasm came rushing at her like a freight train, slamming into her body after perhaps five seconds of attention from Justin’s mouth.

Her cry pierced the silence as his finger slid inside her, curling up to hit the slightly ridged skin at just the right time. Shay fell off the edge into the abyss, unaware of what her body was doing as one of the most intense orgasms she’d ever had erupted from between her legs. It ripped through her body with a force she couldn’t comprehend and overwhelmed her brain with pleasure.

For several long seconds, Shay’s entire body refused to function. Her mind was lost in the explosion of ecstasy.

Then, like air rushing into a vacuum, it came back to her and she began to writhe on the bed, her fists grabbing the comforter and twisting it into circles as Justin continued to kiss and lick her with just the right speed and pressure to elongate the moment.

“Holy fucking shit!” she shouted through her tightly clenched jaw.

His free hand was wrapped around her leg, ensuring she couldn’t move away from him, even as she struggled to.

“Justin,” she gasped. “You need to stop. I can’t.” He continued though, and her arousal quickly reached a new peak, until a
second
climax washed over her. This one wasn’t as intense as the first; instead it was more blissful, as if the release was what she had needed. It was hard to describe, but her cries became loud moans instead and she didn’t go crazy with muscle spasms. It was just a release of all the pressure that had built up from his teasing earlier.

“Now I’ll stop,” he said as she settled slightly in his arms, her clit still trembling from the attention given to it.

“How did you do that so quickly?” she breathed in awe when her ability to form words returned.

Justin didn’t answer, his mouth too busy sucking on her nipples.

“Hey,” she said, grabbing his head and forcing him to look at her.

“Yes?” he asked with a wink.

“That,” she said, looking past him at the hard cock dangling from between his legs. “Inside me. Now,” she said, the final word a growled order, not a request.

Justin didn’t even voice a response. He simply positioned himself between her legs, grabbed his shaft and rubbed his tip against her to ensure it was wet so that it would slide in easily, and then he thrust forward slightly.

“Oh, yes,” she said, the last word trailing off into a hiss as he slowly pushed more of his hard cock inside her. “Fuck that feels so good,” she moaned, getting almost as much pleasure from the look in his eyes as she said that as she did from the feeling of his cock entering her and filling her up.

He paused at one point as her eyes flew open, his length catching her by surprise. But after a moment her walls adjusted, and then his hips pressed against hers. He was there, completely buried inside of her. Shay’s entire body shuddered at the feeling. It had been far too long since she had last had sex, and that had been like a candle in the wind compared to Justin. He was so
hot.

Seriously, how had a man as gorgeous as him decide that she was what he wanted? Shay wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t going to complain either. Not with the sensations now flooding her body as his hips began to rock back and forth against her.

“Harder,” she growled as she became more used to his size. Teasing wasn’t going to cut it anymore. She needed to be
fucked
.