Kingpin Bear (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Agency Book 4) (6 page)

Plus there was the fact to consider that she was hiding something. He was fairly positive she hadn’t lied about anything. She was just not telling him something, something that she seemed to think would make him treat her differently. He wasn’t sure how that could be, but for now she was an enemy of the Agency, and that made her an ally of his, if not quite a friend. A gorgeous, lust-inducing ally, who also happened to have an inner strength that would make many jealous, but an ally nonetheless.

“I wonder if things were just as confusing for everyone else?” he muttered aloud to himself, thinking back to the other members of his team as they paired off with their mates.

He regretted poking fun at his friends now. It was all coming back to haunt him, even if it was in a positive way.

“They’re never going to let this rest,” he sighed, then gathered himself.

It was time to get back to work.

***

The first thing he did was move to the back of the storage room, sliding aside several stacks of clothes. There behind it all was a silver hard-shelled case that he tugged free, then he carefully set the clothing back the way it had been.

He moved to the desk and sat down, keeping an ear open for the sounds of the shower. Setting the case in front of him, he keyed in the four-number code. The case popped open and he slid the laptop from it and plugged it into the wall. Next he grabbed a blue cable and hooked that up to the laptop and a matching port on the wall. Now that he had internet, he pulled up a secure program and proceeded to activate it. A box appeared after roughly a minute.

All teams report.

Then he sat back and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

This was taking too long. There should have been a response by now from someone at least. Each safe house was equipped with a laptop and the encoded program. If anyone had made it, they should have been in earshot of the laptop to hear its soft ding when someone sent a message.

Had they been the only team to make it out alive?

Jared swiftly buried that thought, refusing to accept such a possibility.
Someone
had to have escaped safely. He checked the time, but it was still only mid-evening. He supposed that people could have been asleep, but he didn’t buy that for a second. Something was going on.

“Jared?”

He spun at the voice, realizing with a start that at some point in his distraction Nadia had finished up in the shower.

“Clothes, right,” he said, acting as if he’d forgotten.

“Please,” she said with a thankful look.

He moved into the other room and grabbed them from where they had been hung on hangers.

“Here you go,” he said, handing them over.

Nadia took them.

“They’re so warm!” she exclaimed, holding them tightly to her, even with the wet towel wrapped around her.

“I hung them over the space heater, so they’d be warm for you when you got out of the shower,” he said, giving her a smile as he pulled the door shut so she could get dressed in private.

He returned to the laptop, but there was still no response from any of his team.

“Is everything okay?” Nadia asked as she emerged from behind him. “You looked stressed.”

He did? Jared frowned, wiping the expression from his face as he turned around.

“Yeah, everything is fine,” he reassured her, getting up from the chair.

Nadia rolled her eyes. “Do I look like I just got off the train?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Don’t bullshit me.”

He thought about telling her that it applied to her just as much as it did him, but he decided against it. Now was not the time to be petty.

“I’m trying to make contact with the others,” he explained. “But nobody is responding.”

Her expression clouded over. “Nobody else made it out?”

Jared shrugged. “I find that hard to believe. My team is very skilled. There is no way they caught all of them.”

Nadia came and sat on the edge of the desk. The black denim pants and white T-shirt were a little baggy on her, as was her preferred hoodie that she had draped over her once again.

“You’re allowed to be worried for their safety,” she said, looking into his eyes forcefully. “It’s not a bad thing to admit that. You’re their leader, I gather?”

He nodded.

“Exactly. You trained them, you’ve looked after them. They’re more than just part of the team. They’re part of your family,” she said, pushing off the desk and forcing him back down into the chair.

He didn’t fight it, and sat down heavily. The metal-framed chair squeaked and protested under the sudden weight addition.

“So it’s okay to express your concern,” she continued, moving behind him.

Jared sat upright as strong fingers dug into his tense shoulder muscles.

“You told me that I would come down from the adrenaline high, that I would need to relax. But I don’t see you doing the same,” she admonished, kneading his muscles firmly, forcing him to sit back and relax.

“Better,” she said in a softer, gentler voice, though her fingers didn’t stop moving. “If these men are anything like you, with your abilities and skills, I have no doubt that they would all have escaped. Perhaps they just weren’t able to get to the safe house?” she suggested.

Jared nodded, his eyes closing as her fingers rubbed against his skin. He inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly before replying. “They have the skills, and the training,” he told her. “They’re the best of the best. But the Agency aren’t slouches. Their men aren’t at the same level individually, but with enough of them, they could take any one of us down.”

He scowled. “They hit us with far more men than I thought they had this morning. Obviously our estimates of their strength were incorrect. There were almost six full teams of men there, double our earlier estimates.”

“Perhaps they pulled everyone from their building downtown?” she asked. “Would that give them enough?”

He shrugged. “It’s entirely possible. Ever since they firmly established themselves in town, we’ve never been able to get an accurate count of just how many men they have in there. It could be that they’ve had more teams all along, and we’ve just never known about them, or never seen them.”

Nadia moved around him, her hands dragging across his back as she did. At one point her fingernail dug into him just a little, pulling across his skin and sending a shiver down his spine. He looked up at her and their eyes met.

The room seemed to shrink in size almost instantly, until it was no more than the size of a circle around them. He tried to breathe in, but his lungs refused to work. Their gaze became a stare, and Jared realized that she was swaying closer to him as she stood there. Her tongue flicked out, licking her lips.

He suppressed an urge to surge up from his seat and kiss her, fighting it down with all of his considerable mental strength. Fingers tense, they closed around the edge of the armrests on the chair until his knuckles went white.

The spell was broken when his grip continued to increase until it was so strong the armrests snapped.

Nadia giggled as he looked down in surprise. By the time he looked back up she had pulled away, the moment over. He flexed his arms to try and stop some of the flow of blood to his cock, hoping she didn’t notice the bulge between his legs. After several seconds of that and intense focusing on nonsexual things, he felt comfortable enough to stand up. With a helpless shake of his head he tossed the snapped-off ends of the armrests onto the desk.

“I hope you weren’t too attached to your life here in town,” he said at last, bringing up a subject he’d been avoiding so far.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing at the sudden change of topic.

“I mean, since you were seen with me, and fled with me, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to go back to what you had,” he said delicately, knowing that breaking this news would be tough for her to hear, but that it had to be done.

Perhaps it will help put a barrier between us, so that we don’t fall victim to our hormones.
If she hates me for ruining her life, perhaps it will make all this easier.

Jared didn’t actually believe that, nor did he want for it to happen, but he knew it would inevitably be easier this way. If he could do anything to make her life smoother, he would. Perhaps he could play it off like he had kidnapped her, so that she wouldn’t lose everything she had.

But even as he thought about pushing her away so that she wouldn’t end up in trouble alongside him, Jared knew it wasn’t what he actually wanted. He’d already had visions of the two of them doing various activities. Of him properly introducing her to his team, and showing her Genesis Valley, where he had lived for most of his life. Of learning more about her, and seeing her home as well. So when she began to speak, he braced himself for the outburst of anger.

But once again she surprised him.

“I know,” she said bluntly. “I doubt I truly understand, or comprehend what it means. But I’m aware that I can’t go back to anything I had.”

He shook his head. “So why, then? Why throw it all away?”

Nadia hesitated.

“It’s okay, I won’t judge you,” he assured her.

She smiled faintly. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, trust me.”

He shook his head. “No, I won’t. I’ve probably heard crazier things.”

“Okay. But I warned you,” she said, then sat back onto the couch and began to speak.

“Ever since I hit puberty, around twelve or so, I began to have very strong hunches. Gut feelings. Instincts. Whatever you want to call it. At first I thought everyone experienced this sort of thing, that it was completely normal and part of growing up, but nobody really talked about it. So I didn’t say anything. But they got stronger, and I noticed a pattern.”

“A pattern?” Jared was intrigued now. He’d never heard of such a thing.

“Yes. If I listened to my hunch, things would inevitably work out for the better for me. It wasn’t always instantly visible, but looking back I was able to see how. But if I ignored it…” she trailed off.

“Something bad would happen,” he finished.

“Exactly,” Nadia said, looking away. “So this morning, I got an urge.”

“To come to me?” he asked curiously.

She shook her head. “Not at first. At first it was simply to get out of the building. No matter what it took, to get out and never, ever go back. But as soon as I was out, and they began to follow, my mind recalled you guys. And suddenly I knew where I had to go.”

She sat back, arms crossed. “Still think I’m not crazy?”

He smiled. “I can change my shape into that of a nearly two-ton bear. It can communicate with me as a separate entity, in a very simple sense. So no,” he reassured her, “I don’t think you’re crazy. I have a friend I want to ask about your hunches, to see if he knows what it might be about, but other than that, I don’t think you’re too crazy.”

An old dragon, one who had seen everything, came to mind. If anyone would know, it would be Ferro.

“Well, this is a relief,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Most people I’ve told this to think I belong in a nuthouse.”

“I’m not most people,” he told her firmly.

“So I’ve noticed,” she said with a noticeable sultry air to her voice.

All of a sudden the tension was back in the room.

Nadia

What are you thinking?!

She was flirting with him. Not subtly either. This was a blatant thing!

With a rush of blood to her face she turned and fled back to the washroom before things could go any farther. She closed the door behind her as gently as possible, before turning and resting her hands on the counter, staring into the mirror.

Was the flirting such a bad thing? The pit of her stomach, where she normally felt the guiding sense of what to do in certain situations, was noticeably quiet. This was something she would have to figure out for herself.

Great. Why couldn’t it pick now to tell me what to do?

He was hunky, sexy, handsome, gorgeous, panty-melting. Pick one, and it described him, depending on the situation. He was all of them and any of them. She had felt herself growing aroused as she rubbed his shoulders while trying to get him to relax, to think clearly and without worry. It had been a tactic to try and ensure he didn’t get them into a bad situation by worrying over things he couldn’t control, but it had backfired by making her want to sit in his lap and grind her hips against him until he took her, right then and there.

Yet she had only met him a few hours ago. She knew his name, and that was about it! He was a shifter, and he was on the run from another group. Was he truly a terrorist? Why had he been labeled one? In essence: What the fuck was going on? That was what she needed to know before she could make any more decisions.

Sexual promiscuity was not a normal thing for Nadia. She’d had boyfriends before, but this was on a different level completely. Never before had her drive to sleep with someone come so quickly, and been so urgent as well. Her body seemed to respond with instant arousal whenever she was within a few feet of him. Could it just be his bear? Could that affect her differently?

I don’t know. And that’s the problem.

So go find out then.

As if trying to tell her inner-mind to shove it, she decided that’s exactly what she would do. Nadia pushed off the counter, splashed a bit of water on her face, and patted it dry. Then she left the washroom and walked over to where he was still seated at the laptop.

“Anything yet?” she asked, not wanting to push his concerns to the side.

“No, not yet,” he replied.

“Okay, well, while we wait, can you answer some questions?” she asked.

Jared turned to look at her. “I can try, absolutely. I can’t compromise any classified information, but I’m sure I can shed some light on things.”

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” she asked plainly, not waiting any longer to get into the meat of it.

“A war.”

That was
not
what she had expected to hear. “I’m sorry. Details please? A war?”

He turned the chair to face her and leaned back. “Yes, a war. Shifters were revealed to be public knowledge more than seventeen years ago.”

“Right. I remember that,” she said. “I was a little kid, only eleven at the time, but that was such a big deal that one couldn’t miss it.”

“Well, everyone heralded it as a great thing. Shifters could go public and not have to worry about being persecuted any further.”

“Yes. After so many years—centuries I guess, actually—of hiding, you could be free with who and what you really were.”

The big shifter snorted. “Well that was a big load of crap,” he said. “Nothing like that ever happened. From the get-go there were riots and protests, saying we should be rounded up and kept in certain areas only. All kinds of things.”

“That’s horrible!” she said with a gasp. “I never heard about any of that.”

“Of course not,” he said. “The news never reported it. It wasn’t worth it. Things like that have been going on for years. But if you searched for it online, there were plenty of things available.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, wanting to reach out to comfort him, but forcing herself not to.

“It’s okay, it had nothing to do with you,” he said. “It died down after a while, as shifters went half-underground again. We stopped being so public, and it became harder for them to come after us. But they never stopped. As the world grew tighter with the internet, the distaste and outright hatred for us grew again, until it was worse than before.”

She could feel the hurt, the depression, that such treatment must instill in someone. The desire to try to help ease that burden welled up inside of her, but Nadia knew she needed to let him finish the story first.

“At some point,” Jared said, breaking the momentary silence, “things began to escalate. There was fighting between the shifter races as some of the more powerful ones tried to take complete control. Human governments have long wanted our powers—for us to become their special strike units, to do things humans cannot.”

“I had heard that most of the time shifters decided to stay apart from human wars and conflict?”

That was the official line, at least. With everything that she had seen, and was now being told, Nadia wondered if that was the truth. It wouldn’t be the first time the government had lied to its people, of that she was sure.

“For once, the truth is as you have heard it,” he replied. “There are some of course who have decided to involve themselves, though most of them are mercenaries.” He flashed her a humorless smile. “The pay is better.”

“So why is there a war going on?” She had a better picture of things now, but there was still something missing.

“At some point, the governments decided to get involved. They tacitly supported an organization dedicated to finding a scientific way to take our abilities and give them to humans without the whole turning-into-an-angry-animal part.”

Nadia couldn’t contain her shock. The gasp of her sudden inhaled breath echoed in the room. “Holy shit. That’s not possible.”

Jared looked at her calmly, unflinching.

“Is it?” she asked after a moment.

“Not only is it, but they have done it. Their serum, named Extremis, has produced all sorts of results. We even have several people on our side, fighting for us, who have been injected with it.”

“Really? What happened?” she asked, intrigued now. This was the stuff of science fiction.

“Well, one of them gained our abilities. Strength, speed, healing, better vision. She’s still completely human, but is now an enhanced version.”

“Fascinating,” she whispered. “And the other?”

Jared frowned, as if he was considering an answer. She thought he was going to say nothing, but he shrugged his shoulders instead. “The other was injected with both that and an experimental serum that turned her into a full-blown shifter.”

Nadia’s jaw popped as it fell open. “No way. You’re lying.” But she could tell by his face that he wasn’t.

“That’s so cool!” she exclaimed, sitting back onto the couch.

Jared’s face closed off. His shoulders tensed and his eyes went flat.

“Or…it’s not?” she asked, confused by his sudden change in attitude.

“Each injection of the serum requires the life of a currently living shifter. All their blood is drained from them and modified in some as-yet-unknown way, that distills it into a vial no bigger than your finger. That holds the power to create a new shifter.”

The blood drained from her face as he continued to speak, outlining the horrors of what he and his kind were facing. And she had called it cool.

“Oh my goodness. Jared, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…” she trailed off as he raised a hand.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. I won’t hold it against you.

Words continued to fail her. Nadia felt terrible for acting like the death of one of his kind, perhaps even one of his friends, was the coolest thing she had ever heard of. What kind of person did that? She should have waited for the whole story! Now he would hate her.

“So the war is between this organization and the shifters?”

He nodded. “Yes. Myself and the others, the group labeled as terrorists, are members of a shifter Underground resistance. We’re dedicated to preventing this Agency, as it’s known, from spreading to other cities and eventually across the globe.”

“That sounds dangerous,” she said.

“It is.” The response came instantly. “But it’s also necessary. Not every shifter has the training that my men and I do. It is up to us to fight for them, to protect them.”

Nadia’s head nodded up and down.

“How are you going to stop the Agency?” she asked in a half-whisper, positive she knew the answer, but needing to hear it all the same.

“By killing them all, I’m afraid.”

The statement was blunt and matter-of-fact. Jared knew that his enemies wouldn’t give up, and he knew the lengths he would have to go to end the war. Somehow, knowing that seemed to put her at ease around him. He wasn’t lying to her, nor trying to sugarcoat anything. He was telling her the truth, as if she were an equal.

He trusted her, to a degree. Or at a minimum, he was willing to treat her with some respect, despite the fact that she was human, and not part of his team. Nadia appreciated that despite everything that he knew about her, and some things that he did not. She quailed at the thought that eventually she would have to reveal everything that she knew.

Nadia heard a voice speaking, and she couldn’t believe it was hers.

“How can I help?”