Page 34 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“I wanted my position in the clan. I didn’t need blood on my hands to get it,” Griffin growled. “You told me you were capable of making me the next Alpha of the Alexander clan, and now I’m bumped right back down into the fringes.”
“I did exactly what I said I’d do.” Sol took a step closer to Griffin and shook his finger in the air. “You wanted him out of your way. I wanted to see what kind of power I could pull from him. We had a fair exchange and never discussed how long I was to keep him here.”
Griffin crossed his arms. “I think you’re just embarrassed because you let him escape.”
“Ugh!” Sol tipped his head back. “Why is everyone around here so annoying and useless?” he cried.
At the sound, the wail of a young child broke through the air. It shattered Beck’s heart, but he saw the look of desperation on Chelsea’s face. He grabbed her with one arm and held her close, clamping his hand down over her mouth to keep her from crying out. She struggled against him for a moment, full of anguish at knowing her child was so close at hand. Finally, she stopped and nodded. Beck took his right hand away from her mouth, but he kept his left arm wrapped firmly aroundher waist.
“This child is constantly crying about something,” Sol grumbled.
Beck leaned a little further. He saw Sol pick up a bowl of crackers from a table and hand it over, but he couldn’t quite see Corbin. Only the boy’s toes were visible as he sat in a nearby chair. That was something, at least.
“Yeah, I think we need to talk about this whole thing, too,” Griffin said. “You were supposed to keep Beck here, not a little kid.”
Sol scrutinized the other man. “Just because you paid me for a job doesn’t mean you get to dictate my entire life. I don’t give a shit about your little clan and what you want. I’ve found something far more valuable in Corbin than in your money, anyway.”
“He’s just a child.” Griffin was now looking to his left, toward the chair where Corbin sat. “This is weird.”
“That’s only because you haven’t been listening,” Sol retorted. “I was the one who put that mindwipe spell on Beck, and there are very few people in the world who are at my level and who know my kind of magic. That means it should’ve taken at least a whole coven of witches to break, but Corbin here was a functional substitute for several witches with far more age and talent. If he’s this powerful beforehe can even read, then he’ll be unstoppable when he gets older.”
“So?” Griffin pressed. “Are you going to try to drain all the power out of him or something?”
The slow smile that spread over Sol’s face was gut-wrenching. He’d given that same smile to Beck just before he’d done something new and awful to him. “There’s no need. Young Corbin here is going to give me free use of everything he has. He’s going to stay here with me. I’ll raise him as my own, and in due time, he’ll forget that I’m not his true parent. I can help him develop his powers, and he’ll be unstoppable when he gets older.”
“That’s fucked up.” Griffin waved his hands in front of him as he shook his head. “I’m not going to let you do that.”
Sol laughed, a sound that made Beck want to vomit. “Do you really think you can stop me?”
“I’ll find a way,” the dragon shifter retorted. “I’m not a stickler for the rules, but I have to draw the line at using a child like that. I’m leaving with the kid, and if you try to stop me, I’m going to show you just how angry a dragon can get.”
“Just one dragon, though. Right?” Sol shrugged his shoulders casually. “It’s not like youcan have the rest of the clan help you without revealing what you did, showing what a traitor you are.”
“Fuck off, old man. I’m not putting up with this bullshit.” Griffin crossed the room toward Sol, his fists curled and his shoulders bunched. His skin began to shimmer, showing that his dragon was close at hand.
Beck’s muscles tensed. They’d seen enough, and it was time to act.
Just as Griffin lunged forward, Sol swept his hand through the air. The heavy crystal around his neck glowed in a flash of red that filled the room. Griffin was swept backward, slamming into the wall with his feet off the ground. He left a dent in the old plaster, and his eyes rolled in his head as he crumpled to the ground.
“Master!” A voice cried. “They’re here! They’ve come!”
15
Shit.The new voices came from behind them, and suddenly, the old house was full of Sol’s followers. Spheres of sizzling light burst against the wall around Beck’s head. He shot to his feet and barreled into the room, only to be met with another brilliant flash of red light. Beck forced his way through it, bile rising in his throat. Sol was in there somewhere, and he wasn’t going to let the asshole get away with this.
But when he reached for the spot where the mage had just been standing, Sol was gone.
The flash of light was gone, leaving everything dim and smelling of smoke.
“Where is he?” Chelsea screamed. She was in front of the chair Corbin had occupied a momentago. The metallic light that’d emanated from her fingertips before now sparked from the ends of her hair.
A mage chose that moment to enter the room, and Chelsea threw herself at him. She dodged the magic that flew from his hands and slammed herself into his chest, knocking him to the ground with enough force that they ended up back out in the hallway. She pounded her fists into him. “What did you do with him? Where is my baby?”
The man squirmed beneath her. He managed to get his hands up in defense but couldn’t stave off her blows long enough to work any spells on her.
Beck knew that wouldn’t last long. Corbin and Sol were no longer in the house. That much was for sure. There were no exits off this room, so he must’ve transported them somehow. Staying in the house meant they’d be at close quarters, and he could feel his dragon rising uncontrollably inside him. His wings burst out, breaking a lamp, and his claws clacked when they hit the hardwood floor. Beck barely got his body through the doorway before it doubled in size. He carefully snapped the back of Chelsea’s shirt in his jaws as he passed by, wrapping his arms and wings around her and hurtling them both through the window at the end of the hall.
They tumbled through the darkness for a moment before he spread his wings and glided to the ground.
