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

across her skin.
    It wasn’t until she saw his shoulders straighten when they touched that she realized he was profoundly uncomfortable with something.
    “Hey,” she said, reaching out and taking his hand without thinking, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
    Justin stumbled as he came to a halt. He glanced down between them before slowly bending his arm. As his hand, and therefore her hand, came with it, a look of wonder passed over his face. Then his eyes moved from their fingers to her lips.
    “Uh, hi,” he said, a lopsided grin settling on his mouth.
    She saw him relax somewhat, though there was still an underlying tension to him that hadn’t been there before.
    “Everything okay?” she asked, pulling him along as she resumed walking.
    “Yeah,” he said just a bit too quickly.
    Shay frowned. “Okay mister secret agent,” she teased. “If you won’t tell me what’s up, then tell me something else.”
    A ghost of the smile returned to Justin’s face. “What would you like me to tell you?” he asked without hesitation.
    “Who are you?” she asked as they resumed walking.
    She could see the building in the background of her father’s picture, the first one he had ever sent her from King City. She knew that, because in the other pictures he had shaven his beard and cut his hair in a style similar to the other man in the photo. Clean-shaven and close-cropped hair. She kind of liked it; it made him look more professional. She had brought both pictures with her in the wild hope that someone might recognize him.
    A snarl pulled at her lip as she pictured anyone trying to threaten her with Justin at her side.
    Good luck.
    “Who am I?” he said, repeating the question as he gathered his thoughts. “That’s a difficult question to answer.”
    Shay said nothing. He hadn’t been trying to avoid the question, but instead elaborated on it, so that she could understand there were different angles to what he was going to say.
    “I’m an orphan, for starters,” he said. “My family died when I was younger, leaving me to fend for myself without any support.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said with heartfelt sorrow, unable to fathom how hard that must have been for him.
    He smiled and squeezed her hand, much to Shay’s delight as it clued her in that they were still holding hands. It felt so natural that she was surprised that she had forgotten about it already.
    “Thank you. It’s been hard, but these days I have my team, and they’re the closest thing to a family I’ve had since.” He laughed. “Hell, they may actually understand me even better.”
    Shay shook her head. “What do you mean?”
    “I’m a bit of an oddity,” he told her with a wink.
    “Yeah, I knew that already,” she teased, her smile becoming a full grin as he laughed loudly.
    “Touché,” he said, raising two fingers to his brow in a mock salute.
    Shay stayed quiet though, eager to let him explain. This was the most she had gotten out of him about his personal life, and she wanted to learn more about what made the big shifter tick.
    “The shifter gene is generally present in a child if one or both of the parents are shifters. Female shifters are rare, but male shifters born to human females happens most of the time,” he said, explaining shifter genetics to her. “The other option is a half-breed. Part shifter, part human.”
    “Okay, I’m following you so far,” she said in response to his questioning glance.
    “Both of my parents were blackbloods,” he explained. “Neither of them were full shifters, but they managed to conceive me, a full-blooded shifter out of it. That,” he said with a wry grin, “is a genetic oddity that I’ve never encountered before.”
    “Wait. Blackblood?” she asked. “What’s that slang for?”
    “Another way of saying half-breed,” he told her with a shrug. “I think it’s a little easier on the ears than half-breed.”
    “I agree,” she said, her lip turning up at the other phrase.