“Long history.” Shay pitched the empty bottle into a waste basket.
Renegade tapped his fingers on the desk. “I bet you got into it with her father because she’s an Arcane and you’re a powerful Elemental. You seduced her. Classic case of the maid seduced by the nobleman.”
Shay’s blood pressure rose. The desk began to vibrate beneath his clenched fists. Electromagnetic currents rippled in the air, sparks crackling with magick.
“And then…” Renegade grinned. “Her father went after you with a shotgun.”
“No. Her father killed my entire family.”
Both SEALs stared at him. Shay felt his temples begin to pound as he recognized the troublesome look in Renegade’s eyes.
“All that over a little something-something? Day-um. That Kelly she must be great in the sack. Those long legs…”
Shay’s temper snapped like dry kindling. “That’s it. You’re going down.”
He vaulted over the table, aiming for the SEAL. As Renegade shape-shifted into a wolf, Shay used his Phantom powers to shift.
Snarling, the two wolves clashed in midair, heavily muscled bodies thunking hard against each other. He raked his claws over the other’s muzzle, heard an answering call of pain. Renegade’s teeth closed over Shay’s left shoulder, biting hard. As the burning agony hit, so did logic. Tearing free, Shay spun around, his large paws digging into the linoleum.
His Kelly? Since when? The man inside the wolf howled for reason. This was Renegade, a bastard, sure, but his teammate, a fellow SEAL who would give his life for the teams. And Shay.
Dakota stormed forward, backhanded them both. “Stand down!”
The two wolves shifted back and Renegade clothed himself by using magick. He looked badly shaken. Blood dripped from three furrows on his face. The coppery scent hung in the air.
Shay shifted back, feeling deeply ashamed. He conjured on clothing and swallowed hard, looking Renegade in the eye.
“I’m sorry, man,” Shay said.
“My bad.” The other SEAL looked abashed.
A vein jumped in Dakota’s temple. “Are you insane? The senator’s human aides are in this building! We’re pooling all our efforts to make SEAL Team 21 look like just another SEAL team and hide our powers. And you two shape-shift in broad daylight?”
He turned to Renegade. “You. Fifty laps around the compound. Now. And you…”
Dakota waited until Renegade left. “Shay, dial it down. I know what it’s like to lose your head over a woman, but you’re not doing her any favors by pulling crap like that.”
“It won’t happen again.”
He meant it. Because the feral rage scared the ever-living crap out of him. Gods, he hadn’t shifted into a wolf since the day he’d nearly killed a rancher almost eleven years ago. If not for his uncle’s high standing on the council, Shay would have been executed. They didn’t kill him, because he was a privileged Elemental Mage. After, Shay joined the navy, became a SEAL. The disciplined life had saved him.
Dakota’s cell rung. The Draicon glanced at caller ID, and his scowl softened to a smile. He answered. “Hey, sweetheart.”
Sienna, the wolf’s mate. She’d taken this man of brass and turned him into mush with a simple phone call. A hollow ache settled in Shay’s chest. Glancing over his shoulder, Dakota whispered, “Go take care of yourself, Shay. You’re bleeding all over the place.”
He nodded. “Tell Sienna I said hello.”
When he returned, Lieutenant Commander Dale “Curt” Curtis, commanding officer of ST 21, sat beside Dakota in the ready room.
“Curt? What’s the deal?”
His CO snorted. “Show’s about to start. And I can’t do a damn thing about it. My hands are tied by all this red tape.”
The door burst open. Senator Robert Rogers walked in, accompanied by his well-groomed wife and a pretty, blonde woman with a tense look and wide, scared eyes. The woman carried a pad and pencil. In the senator’s wake was a parade of dark-suited aides, two Secret Service agents, Admiral Keegan Byrne and all the SEALs on the Phoenix Force except Renegade.
It’s a freaking party, Shay thought humorlessly.
Rogers gestured to the aides and agents. After some protest all the humans left, the aides casting anxious glances at their boss.
As the door closed behind them, the woman sat and flipped open her pad. Rogers escorted his wife to a chair and glared at Curt. “I assume these quarters are private so I may question the suspect as I am entitled to under Mage law?”
His CO’s expression tightened. “You’re entitled. But this is a military base. My unit. If you deviate from the rules, you leave.”
Rogers nodded at the blonde woman. “Catherine is my personal assistant. She serves as secretary for the Council of Mages and will take notes for my report to them.”
Two MPs brought Kelly in, removed her handcuffs and left. She sat on a gray folding chair near the front. As she rubbed at her wrists, her gaze caught Shay’s. She’d cut her waistlength hair. The wavy locks tumbled past her shoulders, still the color of a copper penny shimmering in the sunlight. With her heart-shaped face, pert nose and full red lips, she had an alluring combination of innocence and sensuality. Shay felt another jolt of pure sexual awareness. Just like the first time they’d noticed each other on his father’s estate.
She had a figure, yowza, that would knock the socks off a eunuch sworn to celibacy. Hourglass, all smooth curves that tempted a man into tracing every single luscious inch of her skin with his hands, and his tongue.
His cock went instantly hard. Shay gritted his teeth, his breath easing out in a harsh whistle of air. Air. Man, he needed air. He could hardly breathe.
A side door opened, and Renegade strolled in and slid into the seat next to Shay. The SEAL’s tongue nearly dropped down like one of those stupid cartoon wolves. “Day-um. Now I see why you were into her,” he muttered.
“You’re supposed to be doing laps around the compound,” Shay snapped, possessive male urges cranking from mild to overdrive.
“Dakota didn’t say anything about the outside of the compound, so I jogged around the courtyard.” The Draicon wolf’s gaze riveted to Kelly. “Besides, I needed to check if you still had a pulse. You okay?”
Shay felt a flash of gratitude. “Yup.” Renegade could be a bastard, but he was cool when it came down to it.
Shay stalked toward the room’s front and stood against the wall, folding his arms. He couldn’t get involved, but the vulnerable shadows beneath her blue eyes punched his gut.
The heels of Rogers’s polished black shoes clicked across the linoleum. In his dark gray suit, with silver edging his short hair, the senator looked urbane and handsome. But beneath the charming smile lurked something nasty, like an oil slick.
“Now, Miss Denning.” Rogers took a seat behind the desk, steepling his fingers. “You kept asserting your innocence before military authorities and the FBI. Without evidence to hold you, they released you.”
Rogers’s smile darkened. “Under human law, you are free to go. But Mage law is not so liberal. As Chief Elder on the Council of Mages, I ask you now, who gave the orders to steal my son?”
Kelly rubbed the heel of her hand against her cheek. “I’m innocent. Sight Finders helps Mage offspring. we’re the only ones protecting the children of both Elemental and Arcane Mages.”
“Don’t play the naive card with me, Denning. You were not imprisoned with Billy when the SEALs rescued him. You were lounging by the pool.”
“Billy