Page 13 of Dragon’s Midlife Secret Baby (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #1)

“It’s time to go to bed, honey. Let’s get your PJs on.” Chelsea pulled Corbin’s favorite pajama set out of the dresser drawer.

Corbin rubbed his eye. “I not sleepy.”

Chelsea knew that wasn’t exactly true. “Sometimes, we have to go to bed even when we aren’t sleepy.” She removed his clothes and put them in the hamper before taking him to the bathroom to wash the last of the day off his face.

“You going to bed?” he asked.

“Not yet, but I will soon.” Chelsea could certainly use some sleep. Her mind and body were exhausted, but she knew that if she laid down, she’d only be staring at the ceiling all night.

He rubbed his eyes again. “When Daddy coming home?”

She choked back her tears as she gently combed her fingers through his wild curls. Beck had made sure to tell Corbin goodbye before he’d left, and he’d promised he’d come to play with him again soon, but there was no indication as to exactly when that would be. “I don’t know. Soon, I hope.”

“I miss him.”

Chelsea paused as she put a small smear of toothpaste on his brush.

In his short life, Corbin hadn’t had much cause to miss anyone.

She’d moved back to the covenstead while she was still pregnant, knowing she’d need the help and support of her family to deal with a pregnancy close to forty and being a single mother.

Though not everyone in the coven lived here, they came and went frequently enough that Corbin saw all of them fairly regularly.

Beck was the first person she could recall that he’d actually said he missed. “I miss him, too.”

“I do it.” He took the brush from her and swept it inside his mouth, looking in the mirror at how the paste foamed through his lips.

She waited patiently while he played with the toothbrush, but the truth was that her heart was shattering away a piece at a time. Corbin was growing and changing every day. Beck seemed genuinely interested in being a father, but now he was gone. How long would he stay away?

When Corbin was in his pajamas and ready, she scooped him up and carried him to his bed. Chelsea cuddled him tightly before tucking him in. “Goodnight, my darling.”

“Night night!”

She turned on some classical music and slipped out of the bedroom.

Kristy had a group of the younger witches in the living room, and she was teaching them the basics of tarot card reading.

A large number of deck boxes were arrayed on the table.

“You can pick whatever deck you like. Don’t worry about what kind of deck it is or what the meaning of the individual cards is.

Tonight we’re just working on spreads and card placement. ”

“Ooh, I like this one.” Iris had come to the coven fairly recently. Young and shy, she had dark wavy hair and pale skin. Her glasses and septum ring put her somewhere between a nerd and a goth, so she fit right in with the sisterhood. “It’s so cute!”

Kristy leaned over to look and smiled. “Nothing like some cuddly cats to let you know if you’re on the right life path.”

“This one looks just like mine!” Iris enthused, holding up a card with a fluffy orange cat on it.

Kristy glanced up when she saw Chelsea walk through. “Do you want to join us?”

Normally, Chelsea would be more than happy to help teach their younger members.

It was important to keep this knowledge alive, and even her small amount of experience with tarot cards could be helpful to those still getting the hang of it.

Right now, though, Chelsea knew she simply couldn’t handle it. “Not tonight, thanks.”

She passed through to the kitchen, where Maeve and Lucille were fighting for space at the stove.

“You really need to add more salt to this.” Lucille tossed the spoon she’d just used to taste Maeve’s soup into the sink.

Maeve let out an exasperated sigh. “I never adjust the salt until the very end. You ought to know that after hanging out with me for seventy years.”

“Only sixty-eight for me,” Lucille reminded her older sister. “And you’d think after seventy years you could make a soup that’s not so bland.”

“If you’d stay out of my way and stop opening the oven so much, maybe I could concentrate on what I’m doing,” Maeve retorted.

Lucille grabbed a potholder from a hook on the wall. She bumped her sister aside with her hip so she could peek into the oven again. “I don’t want my cookies to burn. Those girls out there are expecting something to snack on.”

“Their reward is the knowledge they’re gaining,” Maeve reminded her. “It’s not like anyone was around to bake cookies for us every time we mastered a new spell or remembered which crystal to use.”

Chelsea cleared her throat. “I don’t think anyone baked cookies for me while I was learning, either, but I sure wouldn’t turn them down.”

Lucille beamed and eagerly gestured toward the cooling rack.

“It sounds to me like you deserve a treat for other reasons. Your mother got me all caught up on what’s been going on with Beck.

I’m sorry I’ve been working so much overtime at the library, or I would’ve been here. Are you hanging in there?”

“Not exactly.” The spat between the two sisters was quickly forgotten as Chelsea perched herself on a stool at the breakfast bar. She grabbed a dark brown cookie and took an experimental bite. It was sweet and spicy, almost like gingerbread. “Vintage recipe?”

Lucille grinned. She was slightly taller and slimmer than her older sister, and she kept her hair in a shorter, more fashionable style.

Neither of them looked their age. “We had a huge estate donation. I didn’t let myself get excited about it when I heard.

Usually it means someone doesn’t know how to unload their grandmother’s old romance novels.

This was quite the find, though, with lots of incredibly old recipe books. What do you think?”

“It’s really good.”

“I think she ought to get some genuine, healthy comfort food in her stomach before she starts eating a bunch of cookies,” Maeve announced as she slid a bowl of chicken noodle soup in front of Chelsea.

“Homemade noodles and everything?” Chelsea asked.

Maeve gave her sister a superior look.

Lucille rolled her eyes and returned her attention to Chelsea. “Really, honey. How are you?”

There was nothing like her mother’s soup when she was feeling down, but right now, even that wouldn’t be enough to make her feel better.

“I’m devastated. I already lost my mate once, to the point that I’d grieved for him like he was dead.

Then I get the miracle of having him back, only to have him slip through my hands like water.

Corbin told me just a few minutes ago that he misses him, and it just breaks my heart even more. ”

“It’s not easy to see your children hurt,” Maeve acknowledged. “I never figured out a way to prevent that, even in the best of times.”

Chelsea took a spoonful of the soup, letting the salty broth and fresh herbs roll over her tongue. There was plenty of magic in a good recipe, just as long as the intent was there. “I know that, but it still sucks.”

“It’s not like he’s gone completely,” Lucille said. “Maybe having some time with his clan will be good for him. He’s got a lot to process, and sometimes it’s easier to give someone a little space to do that.”

“I know, and you’re right. I just hate having to sit around and wait for things to happen when I feel like I should be doing something.” Chelsea clenched her fingers in the air for emphasis.

“What can you do?” Lucille pulled the last sheet of cookies out of the oven and turned it off.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that.” Chelsea licked her lips.

Beck hadn’t asked for her help. In fact, he wanted her to stay out of things so he could handle it on his own.

She wasn’t interested in cowering in her room until the storm blew over, though.

“If I can track this person down, we can resolve this, and Beck and I can be together.”

Lucille slowly twisted her wedding ring on her finger. “There are an awful lot of witches in Salem to sift through. In fact, there’s no guaranteeing it was someone from around here. I don’t mean to put a damper on your plan. I’m just saying it might not be as easy as it sounds.”

“I don’t think it’ll be at all,” Chelsea replied.

“We have very little to go off of. The biggest clue is that whoever did this was capable of putting a mindwipe spell on him. Mom said it would take someone incredibly powerful to do that. We know other witches in the area, and we might be able to get some information if we just ask around a bit.”

Maeve moved in next to her sister and began piling the freshly baked cookies onto a plate. “We should get these out to the girls while they’re still warm. Maybe we should grab some drinks, too.”

Chelsea noticed the hard line her mother’s mouth had turned into. “What are you thinking, Mom?”

Maeve gave half a shake of her head, just enough to make her earrings jingle slightly. “It’s just…no. It’s not a good idea.”

“There are no bad ideas compared to no real idea at all,” Chelsea countered. “What is it?”

“There’s one person I can think of who might be able to help. Someone who knows a lot about powerful and even different kinds of magic.” Her movements were quick and jerky as she loaded the plate without her usual grace.

Lucille leaned back. “No, Maeve.”

“He’s the first person I thought of,” Maeve replied, grabbing a spatula to remove the last cookies from the sheet and put them on the cooling rack.

Lucille folded her arms. “He’s also a first-rate asshole.”

“That was a long time ago. He may have changed by now. I haven’t seen him in, what, forty years? Goddess, I’m old.” Maeve clucked her tongue.

“A crone, for sure,” Lucille laughed.

“You’re not so far behind me, little sister.”

“No, but I’m wise enough to know that you should let certain sleeping dogs lie. Though, in this case, it’s an insult to the dogs,” Lucille snorted.

“I was young and dumb, okay? What better time to make a few mistakes? I’m not the only girl who’s ever fallen for a handsome face.” Maeve tossed the spatula into the sink.

Lucille shook her head. “I’m telling you, he wasn’t that handsome. You could’ve done much better if you blindfolded yourself, spun in a circle, and made love to the first man you came across.”

Maeve lifted her chin. “Not exactly a vote of confidence, but I choose to take that as a compliment anyway.”

“Do I have to make you two lay down for a nap or something?” Chelsea cut in. She was quite used to the banter between her aunt and her mother, but right now, it was keeping them from getting to the point. “Who is this guy, anyway?”

Lucille lifted the plate of cookies from the counter. “I’ll just take these out to the living room and see what I can do to help Kristy.”

Coming around the counter, Maeve took a seat next to Chelsea, along with a cookie.

“His name is Sol. We were in a coven together back when I first moved to Salem. While a lot of people were here because they were looking for something that satisfied their spirit, there wasn’t much of anything that satisfied Sol.

Everything he learned, he wanted to know more. He was constantly researching.”

“And you dated him?” There were more important matters at hand, but Chelsea couldn’t quite let go of this aspect. Her mother had rarely spoken of dating anyone before her father.

Maeve shrugged a little. “Yes, for a time. I did think he was good looking, no matter what Lucy has to say about it, but part of the appeal was a mental one. Sol was interested in learning, and he was truly smart. He seemed to know everything. I looked up to him, and then it turned into something a bit more.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, a lot of it was that we had different ideas about what magic should be. I was happy being a witch and concentrating on the natural elements surrounding me. Sol fell into the more philosophical realm of mages, studying hermeticism, alchemy, and the like. He liked high magic so much, it got to the point that we began arguing about it. It was around that time that I broke away from the coven and started the sisterhood. Wow, these really are good cookies.”

“I promise not to tell Lucille you said that,” Chelsea joked. “Why is she so against this Sol guy, anyway?”

“Oh, that’s just an old grudge.” Maeve wrinkled her nose.

“Poor Lucille was the one who had to listen to me whine and groan about how hard things were with Sol right at the end, and of course, she was the one who comforted me when I decided to leave him. Those aren’t the kinds of things a sister forgets. ”

Chelsea smiled, remembering a few times she’d stuck up for her own sisters. “No, I suppose not. Do you really think this guy could help us?”

Maeve bobbed her head back and forth uncertainly. “I like to think so. Given what I know about him, he’s going to know more about all the most powerful people around here than anyone else. At the very least, he could be a starting point.”