Page 24 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
Beck moved away from the window and sat on the bench at the end of the bed. He didn’t know why it felt so awkward to just be theretalking to his cousin. Sure, some time had gone by, but that didn’t mean much of anything for people like them. Plenty of humans didn’t see each other for a few years at a time. “It’s not really fine. I feel like I left everyone in the lurch. The witches were able to break the spell over me, but remembering everything is actually helping a lot less than I thought it would.”
“So, what are you going to do now?” Griffin finally left the doorway and sat on the edge of an armchair in the corner.
“Try to find this guy,” Beck said simply, though he knew it wouldn’t be a simple matter.
“Yeah, but then what? You weren’t strong enough to overpower him the first time, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Griffin pointed out.
“He caught me by surprise,” Beck replied quickly. “I was also living alone at the time. Apparently, that wasn’t a good idea, but we didn’t know we had threats in the area.”
Griffin hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and he scratched the dark stubble that’d emerged. “So you left the witches to keep them safe, but now you’re bringing all that danger back here.”
“I’m not trying to bring the dangertoanyone. I’m just trying to keep my son and mate safe. There’snothing wrong with that; even Kendrick is fine with it.” He was getting aggravated, feeling like he had to justify his decisions. Beck’s head was starting to hurt again.
“Well, of course, he did,” Griffin scoffed. “Even if he thought it was a bad idea, it’s not like he’d turn you away.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Beck asked. The idea of anyone taking him in when they shouldn’t be didn’t sit well with him.
Griffin let out a harsh breath. “Kendrick is a protector. He wants to keep other people safe and happy. That’s been his job as an Alpha for quite some time now. For the most part, he’s pretty good at it. What he’s not taking into account here is that we’re a very small clan now. It’s not like the good old days when a clan could be the size of a village, when there were enough of us to band together and really make a show of force. We’re just a handful of dragons, and we’re up against someone so powerful, they can keep us from shifting. Well, that’s kind of disturbing if you ask me.”
He didn’t want to admit it, because his cousin was getting under his skin, but Griffin had a point. They didn’t know what they were up against. “Kendrick isn’t a fool,” he said. “He mighttake some risks if they line up with his goals in life, but he’s not going to do anything to jeopardize the clan.”
“Not on purpose,” Griffin agreed.
Beck folded his arms in front of his chest. “So, what are you suggesting?”
“I’m not making any suggestions. That’s not exactly my place anymore, is it?” Griffin snarled.
“Right. Okay.” Beck thought he understood now. “I don’t want my sudden presence to throw you off, Griff. You’ve stepped in for me, and right now, you probably know a lot more about the day-to-day running of the clan than I do. That’s a burden you didn’t expect to take onto your shoulders. I apologized already, but maybe what I should be doing is letting you know that you’re still vital to what happens around here.”
“What?” Griffin’s head tipped back on his neck.
“We can take it slowly,” Beck suggested, tipping his palm up and spreading his fingers. “It doesn’t make sense for me to jump straight back into my work here, not with everything else going on. You keep doing what you’ve been doing, and we can work the rest out.”
Griffin stared at him for a couple of seconds, just long enough to make Beck wonder if his cousin had heard him correctly. “I don’t think any of that isgoing to matter if we die. We’ve been fighting for so long to keep on going, but with this new enemy out there somewhere, I don’t know how much longer we’re going to last. Everyone is so glad you’re back that they’re missing the bigger picture.” Griffin thrust himself up off the chair and stormed out of the room.
“Griffin,” Beck called after him, but he could already hear his cousin’s footsteps thumping down the stairs. With a sigh, he put his head in his hands. Griffin wasn’t being very mature about this. If he was scared of this mysterious magician, he should’ve just come right on out and said it.
He realized he couldn’t criticize Griffin in the least when there was so much that Beck had yet to say. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve the punishment he felt he was getting. He had no clue what this enemy of his was capable of doing nor what his clan would do to fight him off if he should show up. Was Griffin right? Had he simply shifted the danger from one household to another by returning to the clanhouse? Perhaps that meant he should go somewhere else, but where? He couldn’t ask anyone else to take him in, and he didn’t dare touch the clan’s treasury to pay his own way.
He let out a grunt of frustration. His memoriesweren’t the key to his future at all. Beck was completely in the dark, powerless. Anger built inside him, stirring up his dragon.
It would almost be easier to forget everything again.
11
“Are you sure this is it?”Chelsea asked with a frown. It hadn’t taken all that long to head southwest out of the city proper and into the less densely populated area toward Lynn, Massachusetts, but all the hope Chelsea had behind this visit had made it feel like an eternity. It was nice to see homes a little more spaced out, with the trees crowding around them for protection. This particular one, however, looked like it needed much more than a bit of shade. It was built in the saltbox style, with two stories in the front and a long roofline that slid down to just one story in the back, though she doubted it was as old as the traditional colonial ones had been.
“This was the last place I knew of that he lived.”Maeve got out of the car but lingered near it as she shut the door. She eyed the dilapidated structure, its roof in desperate need of repair. The siding was the gray-green color of wood that’d been neglected for a long time, and weeds sprouted up all along the foundation. “He might not live here anymore, but this is at least our first place to try.”
“Do you think he’ll be happy to see you?” Chelsea asked, teasing. “The one that got away?”
Maeve snorted. “Trust me, this guy is far too self-involved to have given me that much thought over the years. In the long run, I’m sure I was nothing more than a flash in the pan.”
“Not when he sees how well you’ve aged. He’ll probably be drooling all over you.”
“That would suit me just fine, as long as he was interested in helping us.” Maeve looped her arm through Chelsea’s elbow. “Sol could very well have the answers we need, but he’s not the sort of man who can just be flattered into doing someone else’s will. He’s married to his magic, and I don’t think any loyalty could come before it in his mind.”
Chelsea shrugged. “Maybe he’s changed. It’s been an awful long time since you saw him.”
