Midlife Dragon Daddy (Midlife Shifters Book 10) Read online

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  Midlife Dragon Daddy

  Mid Life Shifters

  By: J.L. Wilder

  Table of Contents

  Midlife Dragon Daddy

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

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  Midlife Dragon Daddy

  Chapter One

  HALEY

  “Danny!”

  Haley Griffin sprinted across the deadened grass, mindful of the hard, uneven packed dirt beneath her feet. It was impossible not to worry about turning an ankle, running around this patch of land. It had happened to almost everyone.

  She longed to spread her wings. This was the perfect occasion to shift, to feel the power and freedom that her inner dragon gave her.

  But she held herself back. As badly as she wanted to cover the ground quickly, to rush to her son’s side, she knew that shifting would only provoke the men surrounding him to shift too. And she couldn’t have that. It would be too dangerous.

  It can’t come to a fight. Not until I’m there with him.

  “Mom!” Danny called, sounding much younger than his ten years. It fueled Haley to run faster.

  The men surrounding her son turned to face her, forming a circle around him. Their teeth were already bared, and she knew a fight was coming. But she had caught them by surprise. They hadn’t been able to make a plan or to talk strategy.

  Maybe that would make a difference.

  She skidded to a stop beside the group and held out her hand toward her son. “Let him go,” she said. “He’s only a kid.”

  “Only a kid,” one of the men scoffed. “We know what he is. We know what you both are.”

  “Easy, Steve,” the man to his left said. Haley heard fear in this man’s voice, and she felt a rush of satisfaction. Good, she thought. He should be afraid of me.

  “This doesn’t have to be a fight,” she said. “Step back and let me take my son away.”

  “Come and get him,” the man named Steve challenged.

  Haley shook her head slowly. “I really don’t think that’s what you want to have happen,” she said. “You said you know what I am. If you do, I can’t imagine you want a fight with me.”

  “We’re not exactly weak ourselves,” Steve said.

  She nodded. “I know who you are. You’re those grizzlies who live out on the western part of this land. I’ve seen you around.”

  “Then you know we can hold our own in a fight,” Steve said. “And there are three of us and only one of you.”

  “What I know about you is that you victimize people,” Haley said, feeling as if all the hair on her body was standing up. “I know what you did to that liquor store in town, you know. I know that was you. I’m guessing you want my son to get involved in your little criminal gang, is that right? You want him to help you hold up some other store. Maybe you’ve found a target that’s just a little bit beyond your reach, but you’re thinking that with a dragon on your side, you could take it.”

  Steve snarled.

  “Mom,” Danny said, tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Danny,” she assured him, her eyes not leaving the men around him. “If you see an opening, I want you to run home, okay?”

  Danny nodded. “Okay.”

  Steve stepped backward and grabbed Danny by the arm. “He’s not going anywhere,” he said.

  But the moment he’d put his hand on her son, Haley’s vision had blurred. It had been inevitable from that point on. There was no way she could have held onto her human form.

  Anything that threatened her son had always caused the dragon within her to rise to the surface.

  With a roar, she felt herself erupting from her small human body, towering up over the grizzlies, and she felt the surge of satisfaction that came with having the advantage in a fight. She’d shifted before they had. She had beaten them to it.

  They roared and shifted in response, but that meant letting go of Danny’s arm. He scrambled back several yards, away from them, then turned and set off at a run.

  Good boy. The thought was half-human and half-dragon. The dragon’s maternal instinct was powerful.

  She turned to the bears just in time to be knocked to the side as one of them dove at her, catching her full in the chest.

  She was stronger than they were, but her wings were weak. Her wings were what needed the most protection in this fight.

  She slashed at the bear who’d attacked her with a claw, opening up a gash on his shoulder. He roared in pain and anger as he fell to the ground.

  Haley backed away slowly, her claws held up before her in warning. She would kill them if they made her. She wouldn’t hesitate.

  They looked at her with malevolence in their eyes, but they didn’t attack.

  They can’t attack me. They know they would lose if they did. They know I’m stronger than they are.

  She beat her wings twice and took to the sky.

  The bears fell away beneath her, becoming small and insignificant. They weren’t a problem anymore. They didn’t matter.

  All that mattered was Haley and the sky—and Danny.

  She scanned the ground beneath her. She was high up, and unfortunately, her eyesight as a dragon wasn’t significantly better than her eyesight as a human. She’d often wished sh
e had her best friend Valerie’s vision. Wolf shifters could see for miles, even in the dark.

  But there were definitely advantages to being a dragon. She was the strongest shifter in her little community of outcasts, and on days like this, that came in very handy.

  She spotted Danny. He was still running, and he’d almost reached the little shack where they lived. He would make it there before she did.

  She circled the shack and began to angle toward the ground, coming in for a landing.

  For today, at least, she and Danny were safe from the grizzlies. Whatever they’d wanted, they wouldn’t try for it again so soon. But Haley couldn’t help feeling that war had been declared.

  It’s only a matter of time now.

  Chapter Two

  HALEY

  “Mom!”

  Danny flung himself into her arms. Haley caught him just in time to keep herself from taking the full force of his body against hers.

  “Easy,” she said. “I think one of those bears might have cracked a rib.”

  “Oh, no.” Danny clapped a hand to his mouth. “What should we do?”

  “See if we have any frozen vegetables, okay?” Haley lowered herself carefully onto the couch, feeling the tension ease out of her body as she did so. “And lock the front door.”

  Danny rummaged in the freezer and came up with a bag of frozen zucchini spirals. He handed it to Haley, and she pressed it carefully against her side, where she’d taken the hit from the bear. He went to the door and threw the bolt. “Okay,” he said. “It’s locked.”

  “Good.”

  “Do you think they’re going to come to the house?” Danny sounded anxious.

  “Not today,” Haley said. “They’re not going to want to mess with me, at least not until they have a better plan. But I don’t want to take any chances. It’s always possible they’ll get reckless.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mom,” Danny said ruefully. “I know you’ve told me to stay away from people we don’t know. I didn’t mean to get mixed up with those men.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Haley said, pushing herself up into a sitting position and holding the bag of zucchini carefully against her ribs. “They ambushed you. But in the future, you should stay near our house when you’re playing outside.”

  Danny frowned, but all he said was, “Okay.”

  Haley felt bad. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know your boundaries are too restrictive. It isn’t fun for you, living here.”

  “It’s okay,” Danny said quickly. “This is our home.”

  Haley nodded. It was their home...but, not for the first time, she really wished it wasn’t.

  It hadn’t always been like this.

  Before Danny was born, she had lived among a clan of dragon shifters. She’d thought of them as her family. She’d lived in a real house, one with heating and air conditioning, instead of this glorified shack that felt like it might blow over in the slightest breeze.

  And then her life had fallen apart.

  She sighed, adjusting her position on the couch. I really hate it here.

  At least she knew that Danny wasn’t as unhappy as she was. But that was only because this life was the only one he had ever known. He’d never lived as a member of a real dragon clan. His entire childhood had been spent on the fringes.

  The community where they’d made their home was made up of rejected shifters from all over the Midwest. There were several wolves, including Haley’s closest friend, Valerie, and Valerie’s eight-year-old daughter, Sarah. The wolves were easy enough to get along with. They could be a bit defensive, a little bit territorial, but as long as Haley didn’t encroach on what they considered to be their space without being invited, they gave her a wide berth.

  It wasn’t like that with the bears. They’d avoided her too during her first years in Shifter Town, but lately, they were beginning to get bold. Whatever hesitation they’d felt about her at first had clearly faded.

  And she couldn’t help feeling that Danny had something to do with that change.

  Because the fact was, she and Danny were the only dragons in Shifter Town. As far as she knew, no dragons had ever been a part of this community before.

  The bears knew they would never get in good with her. She had been nothing but cold and standoffish to them over the past ten years, ever since she’d seen them setting fire to the dead grass outside her house during her first year living here. They were raucous and rowdy, always with bottles in their hands, and she wanted nothing to do with any of them.

  But Danny was different. He was young and impressionable. He could probably be persuaded to involve himself with them. Or at least, it was reasonable for them to believe that he could.

  They’re trying to recruit him into their little club. They want to have a dragon on their side.

  The thought of those men trying to rope her son into their criminal activity made her absolutely furious. She wanted to jump up off the couch and go after them, hunt them down and hurt them.

  She knew it was a stupid idea. She wouldn’t have the advantage in a fight like that. She would go in without knowing anything about their position or how they might have planned to attack her next, and if she lost, it would be because she had it coming to her.

  I can’t afford to lose any fights, she reminded herself. Not even one.

  She couldn’t be reckless, the way the grizzlies could. Because she was the only parent Danny had. If something happened to her, he would be all alone in the world, and she couldn’t let that happen.

  “Mom?” Danny was looking at her, concern etched into his face.

  She felt awful. A boy as young as he was shouldn’t feel that kind of concern. He should be more carefree. He should be able to play outside without being preyed upon by a gang of criminals.

  I wish we’d never come to live here, she thought miserably. I really do.

  But she couldn’t let Danny see the pain and regret she was feeling. He was still capable of being happy here, and she wanted that for him, even if she couldn’t find that happiness herself.

  “Don’t worry, Danny,” she said. “Things didn’t get out of control today. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “You promise?” Danny asked.

  She caught his hand and pulled him down next to her on the couch, wrapping her arms around him. He leaned into her. He wasn’t too big for a hug from his mom.

  “I promise,” she said, and kissed the top of his head.

  Chapter Three

  HALEY

  The dream Haley had that night was deeply familiar because it was the same one she’d had dozens of times throughout her life. She felt tearful as it began, even though the beginning was so nice, because she knew what was coming.

  Still, she tried to lose herself in the pleasant part. She tried to feel happy because she was with Ryker again, and because the two of them were in love again, and because, in the dream, none of the ugliness had happened yet.

  They were young again, their bodies fresh and eager, and he was making love to her up against the window of the house that had once been theirs. He held both of her hands pinned up above her head and kissed her neck slowly as he moved inside her, and Haley felt perfectly content. She was so lucky. Her life was so beautiful.

  Even now, in the dream, she felt that perfect contentment. Even knowing that it was all about to turn bad, she felt happy.

  He lowered his lips to her breast, and she arched her back to give him better access. Her shoulders, damp with sweat, skidded against the pane of glass behind her. She was acutely aware that anyone who chose to look in that window would be able to see what she was doing.

  It was, if she was honest with herself, a part of the appeal.

  She wanted them to look. She wanted them to know that she was in here with Ryker, that he was the mate she had been fated to be with. She felt so proud to belong to him, to give her body to him like this.

  Ryker turned her now so that she was facing the wall and pressed his
fingers between her legs. He had always known exactly how to touch her—he was as good at it as she was herself. She rocked slowly, grinding against his hand, then taking him deep within her, the pleasure mounting with every movement.

  His lips were hot against her shoulder. “Haley,” he murmured. “You’re so beautiful. You’re so fucking hot. I want you to have my babies.”

  And Haley felt a spike of pleasure that no touch could have given her. That was what she wanted too. She wanted to feel him come inside her, and she wanted to know that her body had taken what he had given her and was growing a child for the two of them. That was what it was to be mated to someone, after all. The meaning behind their relationship was to produce the perfect offspring, someone who would contain the best mix of their shared attributes.

  Someone who will be alpha someday.

  Ryker would be alpha first. And then, when the two of them grew old, their child would take his place.

  They weren’t just making a baby. Their love was creating the future of the clan.

  The deep, powerful pleasure at the center of her body began to build, and Haley knew that her orgasm was approaching. She rocked her hips faster, panting. It wouldn’t be long now...

  She knew the dream was about to change even before the sensations began to fade. She knew because this was the part where it always changed. She tried to cling to what it felt like to have Ryker with her, but there was no holding onto it. He was gone.

  And she found herself in the middle of a bare room, surrounded by the members of the clan council, each of them looking at her as if she were lower than dirt.

  “Haley Griffin,” one of them said. In the dream, he spoke out of the shadows so that Haley couldn’t even be sure whose voice she was hearing, though she didn’t think it had been that way in real life. “You’ve been found to be infertile. Do you deny it?”

  “I just haven’t gotten pregnant yet,” Haley said, her voice breaking. “Maybe if we had more time—”

  “No,” the voice said. “You’ve had ten years. You’ve prevented your mate, Ryker Rivera, from assuming his birthright as alpha of this clan by deceiving him into believing that you would be able to give him a child.”