Blackblood Bear (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Agency Book 2) by Amelia Jade

on his face and looked genuinely happy. There was another much cleaner-cut man standing next to him. The pair were giving the cameraman a thumbs up. Justin didn’t recognize either of them, or the building in the immediate background.
    But behind that, farther down the street they were standing on, was a building he did recognize. A squat concrete building, much shorter than any of its neighbors. It was painted an off-white color. It was a building Justin knew it intimately. Every Sentinel was familiar with it.
    After all, knowing the home base of your enemy was critical.
    He was going into the lair of the beast.
    “Is everything okay?” Shay asked, looking at him oddly.
    “Yep,” he said tightly, knowing she would see right through that. He just hoped that, after he had given her a break by not asking what had her so afraid, that she would do the same to him now.
    Shay’s eyes narrowed slightly, but then she relaxed as he stood his ground. “Okay,” she said, giving him a nod similar to the one he had given her just a few moments ago.
    Secrets. Everyone has their secrets.
    Justin hated that he had to keep so much from Shay, but he hadn’t been cleared to tell her yet by either Madison or Jared. Until one or both of them said he could tell her, he would have to keep her in the dark about his true purpose in King City. He was fairly sure that in the end she would be okay with the reasoning, but he still didn’t like it.
    “At some point,” he said as they waited in the elevator a few minutes later, “I may have to take off. Like I did yesterday. I hope not, because I’m tired of feeling like I’m running away from you, but I need to warn you it might happen.”
    Shay looked at him. “Just promise me something?” she asked, and he could see the humor in the look she was giving him.
    “And what’s that?” he asked.
    “Give me a hug before you go this time?”
    He laughed. “I can certainly do that,” he assured her. Without thinking, he stepped closer, putting his arm around her as they both shared a happy moment.
    Justin latched on to that moment as Shay tilted her head slightly to rest it against his shoulder. If he didn’t, he knew his nerves about being so close to the Agency headquarters would get the better of him.
    Right then, Shay needed him to be strong. For her, he would always be strong.
    He had to be.
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
    Shay
    Sunlight streamed down the boulevard as they walked along it. The east-west facing street was a tunnel of brightness as the rising sun cast its rays down upon it, forcing both of them to pull their sunglasses down across their face. The heat battered at them, and it wasn’t long before Shay regretted the dark-red shirt she had pulled on that morning. A white shirt would have been so much cooler.
    Buildings rose up around them, modern-day megaliths that were designed to impress and awe. Around them humans surged and flowed along the paths, on their way to any of a thousand destinations to conduct business of one sort or another. She saw bicyclists in collared shirts, businessmen exiting fancy cars wearing expensive suits, and city workers covered in grime as they removed the previous days’ refuse from the streets. All of them blended together to create the vibrant atmosphere that was the core of any major city.
    King City wasn’t the biggest place that Shay had ever visited. On tour as a driver, she had been to a number of the megacities around the world. But it wasn’t a small town either, sporting a population of well over a million people. It had the size to be called a city, and the bustle to go with it.
    The press of bodies forced her and Justin to stay close. In the heart of the city center those around them were less impressed by his size than the more tourist-inclined area by the harbor. Because of that there was less of a space around them. Her arm brushed against his numerous times, and each time she shivered in delight from the heat that exploded