Page 21 of Dragon’s Midlife Secret Baby (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #1)

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 moment ago. 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.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked as she tried to get her feet beneath her.

“We can’t fight in there. We need a little distance, or we’ll just get caught in our own crossfire.

We need them outside, where we can get them.

It looks like Ewan is already working on that.

” He spotted the dark silhouette of the blue dragon circling the top of the other house, the one that Maeve and Lucille had gone to check out.

“But where did they go?”

He didn’t need to ask who she meant. “I don’t know.

Looks like we’ve got company, though.” Beck let his dragon out once more as three more acolytes came at them.

They were young, but Sol had taught them well.

They lobbed daggers of light and spheres of energy, quickly dodging back out of the way after each attack.

Beck dodged one way and then another. He flung out his wing to stop one orb from hitting Chelsea, the blow causing less damage to the leathery skin than it would have to her.

He inhaled, feeding the fire in his chest with as much oxygen as possible before opening his mouth and blasting the man who’d launched it.

There was nothing left of their attacker but a smoking pile of meat, but Beck spotted the other two running away.

“Come on!”

He didn’t have to grab her in his teeth this time. Chelsea launched herself onto his back, landing hard and nearly slipping off the other side. She grabbed at his neck as she righted herself. “Sorry!”

“Just hang on,” he cautioned as he charged through the trees and down the path they’d just come up to get to the house.

The rest of the fight was already beginning.

In the grassy area not too far from where they’d landed, rimmed by trees and the houses on the north end and rocky cliffs around the rest of it, blasts of light and crashes of sound were erupting all around them as they emerged.

Kristy, Amanda, and Jamie were no longer on Lilith’s back.

They stood as a triad, each facing a different direction but keeping their shoulders touching as they lobbed spells at the enemies.

Instead of concentrated spheres of magic, Amanda pushed wave after wave of energy out from the palms of her hands.

Sometimes, it rippled through the earth to send an acolyte’s feet flying out from under him.

Other times, she pressed it through the air, hitting them more directly.

An attack sent Jamie sprawling to the ground, and Kristy turned to help her up.

An acolyte took advantage of the situation, springing out from behind the bushes and racing forward.

He didn’t see the large, golden dragon that’d just landed behind him.

He screamed as Lilith snatched him up by the back of his clothes.

She shook him like a dog with its kill before she flung him into the ocean.

Nearby, a black bear fought tooth and nail against a mage who thought the beast would easily be overwhelmed without the benefit of magic.

He was rewarded with a large gash down his chest before he stumbled backward.

Jace didn’t move forward to continue the attack, instead choosing to stand solidly next to his mate.

Contrasting with the chaos around them, Erin looked so placid that it was hard to tell if she even knew she was in a battle.

Her pale skin stood out in the moonlight as she slowly moved her arms through the air.

No opponents were near her. It was only when Beck heard a gurgling cry that he saw what she was doing.

Her green magic had brought down a tree branch, snatched up a mage, and now pressed him against the trunk until he could no longer breathe.

As they continued, Beck began to see that he’d been entirely wrong about the number of followers Sol had assembled.

They were coming at them left and right, fighting with a remarkable amount of courage for heading toward unknown enemies.

Sol had instilled arrogance in them, and Beck was more than happy to train it right back out of them.

A mage in blue stood with his feet spread wide, stabilizing himself as he performed the beginnings of a ritual. Beck bolted straight for him and cut him down with one hard slash of his claws before he had a chance to finish whatever he’d been attempting.

Chelsea, still right there on his shoulders, spotted another acolyte just behind him.

This one had built a circle of purple flame around himself.

His hands shook as he held them palms up, lifting them toward the sky, the flames growing more with every gesture.

She blasted him with a sphere of light, distracting him enough that the flames began to fade, but it wasn’t enough to take him down.

Beck prepared an attack of his own, but he could feel the way that Chelsea’s weight had shifted on his back. Daring to take his eyes off their enemy for a fraction of a second, he swiveled his head to look at her.

As he’d thought, Chelsea had her shoulders back and her face tipped toward the sky.

She reached her hands toward the heavens as though she could cup the stars in her palms, and she pulled them back down as she took in a deep breath.

Slowly tipping her head back down, she created a silver, swirling globe in front of her that almost looked like a miniature celestial body.

Her entire body tensed, and she launched it into the air.

It arced high up toward the sky, making her target laugh as he continued to build up his purple flames.

But then the newly minted planet landed on his head and slammed him to the ground, leaving nothing more than singed grass around him.

Ewan landed at his side as Beck and Chelsea continued to fight. His large eye slid to the witch on Beck’s back, and his mouth tipped up with a hint of humor. “I think we’ve just about got them.”

“Not Sol,” Beck reminded him. “He was in the house but disappeared as soon as he knew we were onto him. I wonder how far he can go.” Was the mage’s power strong enough to transport him straight off the island? If that were the case, how would they ever get Corbin back?

“The chickenshit is probably hiding somewhere,” Ewan theorized. “We’ll find him once we get the rest of his grunts. There’s only so much space here.”

“Ha! Cleaned those bastards right up,” Maeve said as she and Lucille joined them. “Sol might know a thing or two, but he’s only teaching these toadies the basics. Now, where is he?”

“You haven’t seen him?” Chelsea asked. “Do you know if he can transport himself?”

Maeve chewed her lower lip. Beck had yet to see her show that much concern and it sent a shiver of worry through his body. “I don’t know. I can’t say what he might’ve learned in the years since I knew him.”

“There!” Lilith pointed a claw.

Sol had emerged from the trees, though Beck guessed he’d had a better hiding place up until this point.

He held Corbin roughly in his arms as he ran toward the cliff’s edge, skirting the main area of the battle and keeping just out of the reach of a dragon’s flame.

The cliff crumbled slightly under his feet as he stepped closer.

Someone had erected a low, rickety guard rail out of wood, though it was old now and would do very little to keep someone on stable ground. “Leave now!” he cried out.

Beck took a few steps forward instead. He didn’t dare get too close, not knowing for sure what Sol might do, but not willing to let him get away again. “We’ll leave as soon as you hand him over,” he bellowed.

“You might’ve caught some of my men off-guard, but don’t forget that I’m still stronger than you, dragon.

You’re nothing more than an overgrown lizard, so low that you have to use your teeth and claws to get what you want.

I’ve seen what you look like when that’s taken away from you, leaving you as nothing but a gibbering mess. ”

“What about you, so desperate for power that you’d rather take it from someone instead of creating it yourself?

I’m not afraid of you, Sol.” That wasn’t entirely true.

There was a part of Beck that would never forget what this man had done to him.

That weak, helpless feeling would come back every now and then and haunt him in his worst moments.

But he had Ewan and Lilith flanking him, along with the support of the sisterhood.

He’d been alone, but he wouldn’t be again.

He dared to take another step, which brought him slightly forward of the crowd.

“Mommy!” Corbin lunged toward Chelsea when he spotted her. Sol kept a hold of his wriggling body, but Corbin lurched again as he pointed at Beck. “Dadda!”

His boy recognized him even in his dragon form. There was no greater magic than that. Beck took yet another bold step forward. “Put my son down!”

Sol moved quickly, grabbing a fistful of Corbin’s shirt and thrusting him out at arm’s length so that he hung over the treacherous cliff and the crashing waves below. “Leave now, or I’ll throw him over the railing.”

“And then we’ll tear you limb from limb and lick your blood from our teeth,” Lilith vowed, showing a side of her they rarely got to see.

The mage only lifted his chin higher. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’ve worked hard to build up what I have here, and I don’t need lowlifes like you to interfere.”

“Mommy!” Corbin cried again, genuine fear reddening his face as he wiggled in Sol’s grip. He twisted and turned, pressing uselessly against the man’s hand.

“Leave now, or he goes in the water! This is the last time I’ll ask you!” Sol yelled.

Corbin couldn’t conceive of the true jeopardy he was in as he squirmed. He twisted and yanked, freeing an arm from his shirt.

“No!” Chelsea cried, but it was too late.

Corbin’s little body slipped free of his t-shirt.

Beck shot forward with every ounce of strength he had, but he might as well have been in a nightmare.

His legs were made of concrete. His body was too heavy and awkward, and he would never get there on time.

He was about to lose one of the most important things in his life, and he was too far away to save him.

The boy screamed as he fell, but the sound changed as his newly discovered dragon form quickly emerged.

His wings shot out from his back, and his clawed hands scrabbled uselessly in the air.

He was a dragon, but that didn’t mean he knew how to fly.

Corbin didn’t even flap his wings as he plummeted to the rocks and waves below.

The dark brown flash of a shadow was almost imperceptible.

It detached itself from the murkiness behind Sol and pitched downward along the cliff face.

Giant wings tucked themselves against his body, the bronze color gleaming so slightly as it raced toward Corbin’s falling figure.

The wings whipped out with a snap, and the dragon caught Corbin in his arms before arcing back up toward the sky.

It was Griffin.

Beck held his breath, ready for the next battle. Sol wanted to use his son for his own gain. If Griffin wanted to attempt the same, they would both suffer the same fate. There was a collective gasp as Griffin swooped along the clifftops, past the group, and circled around.

He landed with Corbin safely in his arms.