Page 11 of Dragon’s Midlife Secret Baby (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #1)

“Are you okay, honey?” Maeve walked out onto the back porch, a mug of tea in her hand.

“Yeah. Just working. Why?”

“I could hear you typing from the other room, and when I came out here, it looked like you were trying to shoot laser beams from your eyes at some internet troll on your screen. You usually enjoy your work more than that, unless I’m mistaken.

” She leaned against one of the columns that held up the roof over the porch.

Chelsea pulled her hands back from her laptop.

Now that she’d been called out on it, she could tell how pinched her face was and how tense her shoulders were.

“I do enjoy my work. Granted, I prefer doing my in-person appointments at Tina’s shop a little more than just the online side of things, but I’ve had too much going on lately to worry about that.

” Her sister’s shop, The Crystal Cauldron, had proven to be the perfect place to find customers interested in their natal charts or who wanted to see what the stars and planets had to say about their future.

Having an on-hand astrologer in Chelsea as well as a tarot card reader in Kristy worked well for Tina, too.

If someone came in for a reading, they usually walked out with some incense, crystals, or even a leatherbound journal to start their own grimoire.

“All the more reason for me to ask if you’re all right,” Maeve pointed out calmly. “You were a bit distant when the three of you came back from the Alexander clanhouse last night, and it doesn’t appear that anything has changed.”

Making sure she had the current chart she was working on saved, Chelsea closed her laptop. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what Beck said he felt when he shifted. There weren’t any concrete memories, just feelings.”

“Emotional flashbacks, I’d guess,” Maeve replied sagely. “Those can happen for anyone who’s been through something traumatic.”

“But what exactly did he go through?” Chelsea asked.

Her mother didn’t answer, probably because she knew Chelsea didn’t really need her to.

“We know someone kept him captive. That’s bad enough.

But he also wasn’t allowed to shift. How can that happen?

Even if they put him in a small space, it’s not like he couldn’t take on his other form if he wanted to.

That was already bothering me, but then yesterday, he said he remembered being bound, but no ropes or chains were holding him. ”

Maeve sucked in a breath. “Do you think?”

Chelsea nodded. “I really do. It bothers the hell out of me.”

“But,” Maeve held up one finger, “that might mean we can do something about it.”

Chewing her lip for a moment, Chelsea finally nodded. “Will you help me?”

Her mother’s cool fingers brushed her cheek. “As if you have to ask. Where is he?”

“Playing with Corbin.”

“Making up for lost time,” Maeve corrected as they stepped back into the house and headed to the bedroom Chelsea shared with her son. That was where most of Corbin’s toys were kept.

Chelsea found them on the floor. Beck sat with his legs crossed, making a perfect spot for Corbin on his lap. Beck was reading a picture book, patiently waiting while Corbin looked carefully at each page before flipping it.

“Look!” Corbin said, pointing enthusiastically to one of the illustrations.

“I see,” Beck replied patiently. He had his back to the doorway and hadn’t heard them come in. “There’s a little dragon. I know another little dragon.”

“Me!”

“That’s right.”

“You dragon, and I dragon,” Corbin informed his father. “You big dragon.”

Beck laughed. “I guess so. You’ll be a big dragon someday, too.”

Maeve cleared her throat. “Beck, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk to you.”

“We’ll finish the book a little later,” he said as he set Corbin aside and got up off the floor.

“It okay. I read.” Corbin picked up the book right where they’d left off. It was halfway through the story already, but he said, “Once upon a time…”

Beck followed them back out into the living room. “What is it?”

“We think we know what’s caused your amnesia,” she began. “Your clan was right in advising you to shift, because that would’ve gone a long way toward healing an injury or cleansing out any kind of drugging. I know it helped you a little, but it may have helped me more.”

“How is that?”

“I think someone put a spell on you,” she explained.

Beck glanced back and forth between the two women. “Forgive my ignorance, but are there spells that strong? Ones that can actually just take all my memories away?”

Maeve had retained much of her youth despite her age, but at the moment, the fine lines near her eyes and mouth deepened. “It’s a very strong spell, one that would have to be performed by someone very powerful. I’ve heard of it before, and it’s called a mindwipe. It’s a type of binding spell.”

Beck opened his mouth to ask another question, but then he stopped. “Binding.”

Chelsea knew he’d made the connection between the name and what he’d said earlier. “Yes. That would also explain why hypnosis, shifting, and being near familiar places and people isn’t enough to fix it. The spell is still active.”

“Does it wear off or anything?” He gestured helplessly as he tried to figure this out.

“That, I don’t know,” Maeve replied. “What we ought to do is try to break it, if you’re up for it.”

“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation. “What do I need to do?”

Chelsea tapped her fingers on her cheek. “Normally, I’d bring you to Mom’s altar room, but I don’t want to leave Corbin alone. Everyone else is out at the moment, so we’ll just make it work here in the living room.”

Maeve agreed. “We have plenty of room. I’ll get a few crystals and candles.”

“Take off your shirt and lie down on the floor,” Chelsea instructed Beck as she pushed the coffee table out of the way. “The moon is a waxing gibbous right now, which is good for healing. Mercury is in prograde, so communication should be enhanced.”

“Hey.” Beck’s fingers closed around her wrist and pulled her gently around toward him. He’d taken off his shirt as she’d instructed, and it was now balled up in her other hand. Those kind eyes gazed into hers. “Is there some sort of urgency to this? You sound like you’re freaking out a bit.”

“No. It’s just that this is going to be a challenge.

I focus on astrology more than spellcraft, although Mom can make up for the latter.

” Her eyes drifted down to his bare chest. A few fine scars raced across it in jagged diagonal scars.

They were incredibly old, from wounds so deep that even his shift couldn’t erase all signs of them.

They complimented his muscles and reminded her of just what kind of man he was, even if he didn’t remember.

She swallowed as she thought about how it felt to run her hands through his chest hair.

“All right,” Maeve said, striding back into the room and breaking through Chelsea’s intrusive thoughts. “I’ve got pyrite, blue kyanite, hematite, and golden calcite. You said Beck is an Aries, right? I grabbed some carnelian.”

“And the ground quartz, I see,” Chelsea said, noting the heavy bag tucked under Maeve’s arm.

Her mother grinned. “Yes, we need all the boost we can get. I’m not going to volunteer to clean it up afterward, though.”

As instructed, Beck lay down on the big area rug. He watched as the two women worked around him, and Chelsea had to give him credit for not asking too many questions. They needed to concentrate.

Maeve poured the ground quartz in a large circle around Beck’s prone body. She then laid alternating red and white candles out along this border, opening the circle of magic as she lit each one in order.

Before they were lit, Chelsea rubbed her thumb and finger on the burnt wick of one of the white candles. Using the soot, she drew a vee with curling tips. Then she replenished the soot and touched his chest.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice rumbling against her fingertip.

“That one,” she glanced at his forehead, “is for your sun sign. This one represents Mars, which rules your sun sign.” She traced a circle with an arrow pointing out of it on his right pectoral.

On his left, she drew another circle, but this one had a single dot in the middle.

“This is for the sun itself, which represents self-awareness and the ego.”

“I guess that’s pretty relevant,” he agreed.

Next, she laid crystals out on his body.

She felt the energy of each one shooting through her palm before she placed them on his forehead, neck, and chest. Though she knew she needed only to think about breaking the spell, Chelsea also felt the warmth of his skin radiating into her fingertips.

They were just conducting a spell, but there was a certain level of intimacy that she couldn’t let go of.

“Is there anything I need to do?” he asked. He only held her with his eyes instead of holding her wrist, but it was just as effective.

She paused as she placed the blue kyanite on his chest, the rough crystal cool against her heated flesh. “Just keep your mind as open as possible so you can be receptive to the magic.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Are we ready?” Maeve asked.

“I think so.” Chelsea sat down on one side of Beck, near his shoulder. Her mother sat opposite her, and they held hands over his chest.

“We free you from this spell that binds you,” Maeve chanted, slow and even. “That which has been cast to keep you captive is no longer. All that has been done shall be undone. So it shall be.”

Chelsea joined her as she repeated the spell.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the energies that swirled around them in the room.

The candles burned through the negative energy, and the crystals added positive energy.

The ground quartz amplified each aspect of it.

As they headed into the next repetition, Chelsea visualized literal chains around Beck’s chest and even one that crossed his forehead.

She imagined them breaking free, rusting away into dust. The power was building, and with it, her hope. Her mate would be back soon.

Then, without any warning, she felt the strength of the spell fighting back. The chains tightened around Beck, and the candle flames were no longer strong enough to burn through the original intent of the spell.

Chelsea opened her eyes to see that Maeve had done the same. “Damn it.”

“We’re not strong enough,” Maeve muttered, and now a deep crease appeared in her forehead. “This is one hell of a hex. We already knew that whoever cast this had to be strong, but it’s frustrating to find out that we can’t break it alone.”

Seeing the concern on Beck’s face, she put her hand on his arm.

“We’ll have to wait until we can get the others to help us.

We have several other coven members who could be vital to making this happen.

Honestly, I should’ve known better than to attempt this with just the two of us. Even three would’ve been much better.”

“Mommy?”

She turned to see Corbin in the bedroom doorway. “What you doin’?”

“Trying to help your daddy,” she replied honestly. In her short time of being a mother, Chelsea had found that a simple, straightforward answer often worked better than either dismissing the child’s curiosity or trying to explain it in detail.

Corbin, whose curiosity could hardly be dismissed even if she’d tried, carefully stepped over the border of ground quartz so that he stood just above his father’s head. “You not take a nap?”

“No. No nap.”

With just one finger, Corbin gently reached down and touched the cube of golden calcite on Beck’s forehead. “You funny on the floor.”

“Yeah, I know.” Beck was looking up over his head to see his son while still carefully balancing the crystal on his forehead. “Want me to come back and finish your book with you?”

“No.” Instead, Corbin moved slightly to his right to take his mother’s hand. Then he shifted slightly to his left and reached for his grandmother.

Chelsea gave her mother a look. Corbin was young, and though he was exposed to some elements of magic on a regular basis, they hadn’t even considered getting him involved. He wasn’t even capable of repeating the spell, much less understanding what they were trying to achieve.

But the look her mother returned told her that they might as well give it a shot. They were working with white magic, and there was very little risk that anything could come back at them.

Chelsea reached across Beck with her free hand and held her mother’s.

Grandmother, daughter, and son made a trio around Beck.

The two women began their chant again, and Chelsea found it hard to concentrate on the spell when she didn’t know what Corbin would do or how he might react. She cracked one eye open.

Her son, despite his young age, looked to be concentrating just as hard as his elders were. He held both Chelsea’s and Maeve’s hands steadily. His eyes were closed, and his lips pressed together. He didn’t say a word.

As Chelsea closed her eyes again, she realized that he didn’t need to.

Once again, she could feel the energy rising around them, the black and the white battling over which would control Beck.

Though the candle flames were low, she felt the room getting warm around her.

Beck’s breathing grew shallow and quick.

Shivers of energy flowed through her body, working up her spine and up and down her arms. The envisioned chains she’d focused on so much before were harder to conjure in her mind this time, and by the time she found them, it was only to see them shatter, breaking away into rusty dust.

Beck gasped a deep breath, making the crystals fall from his chest and forehead.

Corbin bent over so that he looked at his father upside down. “Silly Daddy.”