Page 29 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
Tina shifted the box in her hands to fan her fingers across her collarbone in dismay. “It’s not my fault that I’m so wise and knowledgeable! I’ll try to hold myself back.”
“Yeah, right. Come here.” Chelsea wrapped her sister in a hug, holding on tightly to one of the few things in the world that she knew was permanent. Everything felt like it was changing around her, but she’d always been able to rely on her family. Her sisters—both biological and those who had joined the coven—meant the world to her. “I’d better get back home.”
“That’s right. Get some rest so you can come back and start making some money for me,” Tina cracked. “I’ve got a lot of competition, you know. There’s a witch shop on every corner these days.”
“But yours is the best!” Walking out of the stockroom, Chelsea waved to Colette, who was with a customer at the moment. She left the store and slowly walked back to the covenstead.
The day was cloudy and humid, but at least it wasn’t raining. She pulled the thick air into her lungs and tried to focus on the magic surrounding her. It was everywhere, from the invisible starsoverhead to the birds that chirped in the trees to the flowers in sidewalk planters. It just felt hard to grasp right now.
Beck was her mate. Corbin was her son. No one had asked her to choose between them, yet she felt like she was. She wanted them both. Was that really such a selfish notion? Tina was right, though. She could make whatever progress she could, but she didn’t have to put so much pressure on herself to fix things. She had to be patient.
The walk and her time with Tina had cleared a lot of the fog from her head, but as she drew closer to home, her wolf began to stir. She tamped it down, knowing it’d been far too long since she’d let her animal form out. Now that Corbin had found his inner beast, maybe it was time for them to get out into the woods somewhere and let off some steam. That was probably what they all needed.
That plan wasn’t helping, though. Her wolf was uneasy, swirling impatiently inside her, whispering in her ear. Something was wrong. Her anxiety continued to build, crushing her chest and flipping her stomach. Her heart rate picked up. She increased her pace, pushing through the crowds in the shopping district and turning off on her street. Chelsea knew she should be feeling better as sheheaded home, not worse. That made her worry all the more, and soon enough, she was running.
She burst through the front door instead of going around to the side and coming in through the kitchen. Kristy was sitting on the sofa, crying so hard she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Maeve sat next to her with one hand on her back, a worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Chelsea demanded, her voice shaking. She rarely saw her mother look like that.
“I’m still trying to get it figured out.” Maeve’s words were careful and measured as she got up and slowly came toward Chelsea. “I just got back in. Kristy was here with Corbin. Someone came to the door, and he shoved her aside when she answered it.”
“He didn’t just push me,” Kristy wailed. “It was magic. It held me against the wall until he left. I never…I never…I never…”
A deep, overwhelming fear moved through Chelsea. “Where’s Corbin?”
“He took him!” Kristy had her face in her hands and was bent forward, lying on her knees. “I couldn’t do anything. I tried so hard!”
“No!” Chelsea grabbed the banister as her knees threatened to give out. Her body washed over withchills, then heat, and then chills again. Her wolf slammed itself against the underside of her skin, insisting on tearing out this person’s throat. “What do we do?”
Maeve was trying to stay strong for her daughters, but she wiped an escaped tear off her cheek. “Kristy, describe this person.”
“I don’t know. He was probably about my age. Dark hair, dark eyes. He didn’t say anything. He was wearing weird clothes,” she spluttered.
“What kind of weird clothes?” Maeve asked.
“Um.” She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. “A long black coat. Boots. I think he had sort of a loose black outfit on underneath. And this red pendant that sort of glowed. That was what caught my attention more than anything at first. I thought he was just some tourist who got lost, but that necklace wasn’t just some souvenir.”
An image of the pendant came to Chelsea’s mind instantly, and she knew exactly where she’d seen one like that only the day before. “Sol.”
“This guy wasn’t that old,” Kristy said.
“But Sol was wearing something like that when we saw him yesterday. It kept catching my eye,” Chelsea told them. She turned to hermother in utter bewilderment. “I thought he was going to help us. Why would he do something like that?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. Let’s gather everyone we can and get over to his place.”
Half an hour later, they pulled up in front of the same house where Chelsea and Maeve had spoken to Sol just the day before. Somehow, it looked even more dilapidated than it’d seemed previously.
“Hang on,” Maeve said, grabbing Chelsea’s sleeve before she could dive out the passenger door. “I haven’t even put the car in park yet, and I think we need a plan.”
“My plan is to rip his face off and mop his dirty floor with it,” Chelsea snarled as her wolf fangs began descending automatically, yanking the doorhandle and stepping out onto the cracked asphalt.
Seeing that she wasn’t going to stop her, Maeve turned to her sister instead. “You two go around the back, just in case.”
Lucille and Kristy strode through the weeds and into the backyard.
Chelsea charged up the porch, whipped the storm door open, and immediately went for the handle, manners be damned. It was locked, and shepounded on the old wood instead. “Sol! Give me back my son, you bastard!”
“Stand back, dear.” Maeve gently brushed her daughter aside and laid her hand on the lock. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Light flowed from her hand and sparked against the metal. With a click, the door unlocked. Maeve pushed it open.
