Midlife Magic Dragon (Midlife Shifters Book 7) Read online

  “So,” said Maddie. “Where do I start? Do I have someone teach me how to use my powers?”

  “That comes in time. But right now, we’re meeting with Frannie Goodwin. She’s the current witch general—our name for the witch in charge. Let’s go.”

  They made their way around the library, Maddie catching the eyes of the witches in the place, most of them smiling and waving in greeting. Eventually, they reached an office on the other side. Katie knocked, and a voice called, “Come in!”

  Katie opened the door, and they stepped inside.

  At the ornate, massive desk in the gorgeous office was a woman with curly, silver hair, a trim, foxlike face, and eyes that Maddie thought at first were brown, but were actually a deep purple. She was dressed in a deep blue blouse and black slacks, pearls around her neck. She appeared to be in her late fifties, but was as striking to Maddie as any woman half her age.

  She smiled and raised a finger as the women entered.

  “Yes, Mr. Prime Minister...of course...and give my best to the girls...thank you so much.”

  She took the phone from her ear and sighed, the kind of sigh that one let out after a long, exhausting conversation.

  “That our Canadian friend?” asked Katie with a smile.

  “Sure was,” said the woman, rising from her seat. “Turns out when your real-estate plans start getting into the double-digit billions, you need to make some powerful friends to get them through.”

  Her purple eyes fixed on Maddie.

  “But right now, I’ve got bigger issues to attend to.” She nodded to Katie. “Leave us. And thank you for bringing her here.”

  “My pleasure to serve the coven,” said Katie with a smile. She departed, leaving Maddie alone with the woman.

  The moment the door closed, Maddie was ready for answers.

  “All right,” she said, taking a firm tone. “I want to know who you are, what the fuck is going on here, and why I’m just now, on the verge of forty, learning about the fact that I’m a freaking witch?”

  Frannie only smiled, taking a seat on the edge of her desk.

  “Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to one of the ornate, high-backed chairs. “I’ll answer all of your questions.”

  Maddie took her seat.

  “But first, let me introduce myself—I’m Frannie Goodwin, thirty-third coven mistress of the Goodwins. I don’t really care for the term mistress myself, but traditions are traditions.”

  “Maddie Cooper.”

  Frannie nodded. “I know—we’ve been keeping a close eye on you for quite some time.” She nodded toward a tea set on the other side of the room. “Let me make you some Earl Grey—it always has a way of making conversation flow more smoothly.”

  She stepped over to the tea set, picking up a serving kettle and placing her palm on the bottom. Within seconds, the water boiled and the kettle whistled. She poured two cups of steaming water, placing a bag in each one, along with some milk.

  “So,” said Frannie. “It appears that your long-dormant powers are finally expressing themselves.”

  Maddie nodded. “Out of nowhere. But why now? How is it I’m nearly middle-aged and all of a sudden powers that I’ve had forever have started showing up?”

  “That’s the real question,” said Frannie. “And now that you’re here, we can try to figure it out.”

  Frannie set the kettle on the edge of her desk.

  “Try to push this. But not with your hands—with your mind.”

  It sounded ridiculous, but Maddie knew she’d done it before. She closed her eyes and focused on the tea kettle, trying to shove it in the same way she’d done to the dragons.

  But as hard as she concentrated, when she opened her eyes, it hadn’t moved an inch.

  “Shit,” said Maddie. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

  Frannie nodded.

  “You’ve been in some...unique company recently, haven’t you?”

  “You mean Scorn? The dragons?”

  “Our enemies, the dragons—the Blackshroud clan.”

  “Wait, were enemies now?”

  “In a matter of speaking. We’ve always been enemies, witches and dragons. There’s a reason we used to live in the woods and now are solely city dwellers. We lost that territory in the middle of the twentieth century.”

  “But there’s peace?”

  “An uneasy peace. Both we and the more...sophisticated members of the Blackshroud clan began to learn over the course of the last several decades that there was more money and power to be made in business than by squabbling with each other. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t eyeing one another up in the event that the other side decides not to play nice. Pays to be careful, you know?”

  She took her tea and sat down behind her desk.

  “I want to know where I come in,” said Maddie. “Because I’ve been doing pretty damn well for myself without having to be part of some coven.”

  “Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but there’s no going back. Once your powers activate, you’re one of us. I assume you’ve been a part of the shifter world for long enough to see how dangerous it is, how violent these animals are. I swear, it’s a sick joke that women like us have to deal with them. But that’s life.”

  She sighed, as if she wished her powers could make it all some other way.

  “But while we have our powers, our strength is in our numbers. A single witch can’t hope to stand up to an entire clan—especially of dragons. But all of us together? That’s another matter. Not to mention that we can...keep tabs on one another, make sure we don’t accidentally reveal ourselves to the human world.”

  “Scorn,” said Maddie. “What about him?”

  “The former alpha, the one who has trouble controlling his baser instincts. He’s a wildcard, one that we can’t trust. He lost his clan, you know—and he lost it because he lost control of himself. And that means we can’t risk him being around someone as important as you.”

  “Important as me,” said Maddie. “I want to know who I am, where I fit in all of this.”

  “We’ve been watching you for some time, Maddie. Katie’s been keeping tabs on you through college and your career and even your failed marriage. All the while, we’ve been hoping, waiting for your powers to emerge. Because your birth...it’s something special. We don’t have nobility as witches, but your parents, the ones you never knew, were as close to that as it comes.”

  She went on.

  “As I said, we’ve been in an uneasy peace with the dragons—not to mention the rest of the shifters. We’re just as powerful as one another. But with you in the picture, we’re going to end this ridiculous peace. With your powers on our side, among the Goodwin coven, as you’re destined to be, we’re going to take control of this city.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You’re where you need to be,” said Frannie. “And we’re going to keep you here until we get a better sense of how your powers are going to develop.”

  “Wait, you’re keeping me prisoner?”

  She shook her head.

  “No, we’re keeping you safe. It’s a dangerous world out there, and as much as you might not see it now, what we’re going to do is for your own good.”’

  “What? What are you going to do?”

  “Stay put for now,” said Frannie. “We’ll check on you soon. And know that you’re in safe hands.”

  Before Maddie could do or say anything else, Frannie closed her eyes, the office vanishing around her. Maddie was in a large bedroom with vaulted ceilings and a four-post bed.

  And she was alone.

  Confused, she rushed to the door.

  It was locked.

  She was trapped.

  CHAPTER 12

  SCORN

  Scorn paced the floor of the ultra-secure, downtown apartment that Chapman had put him up in. It was on the twentieth floor, with bulletproof windows, a security team downstairs, and a front door as thick as a bank vault.


  A team of dragons could make a full assault on the place and wouldn’t put a dent in it.

  But Scorn didn’t care. He had one duty as far as he was concerned, and that was to look out for Maddie.

  And he was failing.

  Washed-up alpha, spoke his rage. You couldn’t hold onto the Blackshrouds, so why would you think you could hold onto one woman? She’s probably in Red’s clutches now. Or hell, maybe she found a shifter she trusted more than you.

  He continued pacing, trying to keep the animal rage at bay.

  There’s one thing you could do, you know—tear a bloody swatch across this city to find her. Kill whoever’s in your path. That’d be one way for Seattle to fear the name Scorn Ryder.

  He stepped over to the window and looked out over Seattle. There were millions of people around him, thousands of shifters. It was damn hard to resist the anger boiling inside of him, to not simply hand himself over to the rage and shift, to close his eyes and hope that when he came to his senses, he had her back.

  Even drinking, getting liquored up on the good whiskey the bar in the apartment was stocked with, didn’t sound good to him.

  The phone rang in the apartment, the shrill noise cutting through the air.

  “Fucking hell,” said Scorn, looking around for the phone. He’d always hated cell phones and computers and any advanced tech. But Chapman had insisted he carry a phone with him to stay in close contact.

  But how to use it, on the other hand, was another matter.

  He searched around for his phone, finding it on the kitchen counter. Holding it for a second, Chapman’s name appearing on the screen, he pressed “accept.”

  The phone went blank.

  “Ah, what the hell?” he asked.

  Over in the living room, Chapman appeared on the massive TV.

  “There you are, Scorn.”

  Scorn stepped into the living room, Chapman gazing down at him from the TV, larger than life.

  “How are you getting used to the place?” he asked.

  “Not at all. And I’ve got enough to worry about besides figuring out how the fuck to work an iPad.”

  “Right, the girl. We checked in with the hotel, no sign of her.”

  “Then that’s where I should be—out looking for her.”

  “I agree,” said Chapman. “But we need to give you a base of operations in the city.”

  “It’s done. Now let me out there to find her.”

  “You’ve got a plan for finding Maddie?” he asked. “Because this is one of those times where finesse is more important than brute strength.”

  Brute strength was exactly what welled up in him as he thought about Maddie in danger.

  “Our theory is that she linked up with one of the covens in the city. If so, it’s going to be hard to get a hold of her. But we can’t let Maddie fall into their hands. She’s too powerful, too important to be used as a tool like this.”

  “Isn’t that what you want to do with her?” growled Scorn.

  “We want to keep the peace, Scorn. And if you want to prove yourself as a dragon capable of being alpha of your clan again, you’d be wise to use this opportunity as a way to show you have what it takes. I can hear the anger in your voice, the animal side of you. Keep it in check.”

  Chapman gave him a look over as if trying to spot something on him.

  “You know what the first step is?” he asked.

  “Get on with it,” growled Scorn, his patience diminishing by the moment.

  “Clean yourself up. I know you’ve been living in the woods for the last couple of years, but you don’t need to look the part. Or smell it.”

  “You’re a real riot, you know that, Chapman?”

  “I say it out of concern. You’re going to need to run in circles you haven’t in a long, long time. And you’re not going to make a very good impression looking like you’ve been living in a van. I took the liberty of having some clothes picked out for you—suits and shoes and such. They’re in the bedroom.”

  “Are you fucking serious? You want me to play dress-up while she’s out there?”

  “I want you to take five minutes to look presentable while we get our information on where you can start the search. Go take a shower, shave, put on some fresh clothes. And while you’re cleaning up, I’ll make some phone calls, see what I can find out about Maddie.”

  “Fine. But make it fast.”

  “I’ll keep you in the loop, Scorn. In the meantime, keep yourself in check.”

  The screen went blank, and the moment he was alone again, Scorn wanted nothing more than to pick up the coffee table in front of him and pitch it into the wall. He stormed through the apartment, wanting Maddie to be back at his side. Being near her, Maddie’s presence allowing his rage to finally be somewhat in control, he didn’t want to go back to the half-feral dragon he once was.

  He stepped into the enormous master bedroom, a private balcony with the view looking out over the city visible through the windows. And sure enough, in the closet were rack after rack of brand-new clothes. Scorn stepped up to them and began to sift through, the dress shirts clean and pressed, the slacks his size, and pair after pair of shined shoes down below.

  As silly as it seemed to him, touching the clothes made Scorn feel calmer, more civilized.

  Guess a shower couldn’t hurt, he thought, stepping away from the long closet.

  He pulled off his shirt, his powerful body ready for a cleaning. His pants and boxer-briefs followed, his cock swinging long and heavy between his legs.

  Once he was in the bathroom, he stepped up to the shower and turned on the water.

  “Yeowch! Fuck!” He pulled back his hand from the burning hot, steaming jet that came out. He fumbled with the knobs a bit before finding a temperature that suited him.

  Then he stepped inside, the water hitting the square pecs of his chest and dripping down, tracing his abs, funneling down his Adonis belt.

  “Fucking hell.” The words poured out of his mouth as he stood under the jets of water, his eyes closed as he savored it.

  Back in the woods, he was used to dips in the lake when he wanted to get clean. During the winter, he’d stick to washing himself with some water he’d warmed up on the stove. He’d sworn off creature comforts while in exile, deciding he hadn’t earned them.

  But the shower reminded him how damn good a soak could be. He leaned forward, his cock draped against his powerful thigh as he let the water pour over him. After a time, he grabbed the bottle of body wash and squirted some into his hand. After lathering it between his palms, he began working it over his torso, starting at his round shoulders and traveling down, down to his chest.

  Scorn rolled his shoulders as the water poured down, the broad muscles of his upper back working. He rubbed his neck next, working out some of the knots that had built up over the last few days. His touch went down, down along his chest and stomach, coming to a stop at his cock.

  To his surprise, he was half-hard. And when he touched himself, his mind filled with the image of one person, one woman.

  Maddie.

  He quickly took his hand from his cock, shaking his head in disbelief that he’d allow himself to become so distracted. But though his hand had only grazed his length, his dick began to pulse to life, each heartbeat engorging his cock more and more until it pointed straight out from his body.

  Scorn wanted to focus, to shower and get the fuck out and on his way. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Maddie, couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d done with her, what he wanted to do again.

  He closed his eyes, giving in to the fantasy, wrapping his fingers around his cock and gripping his length tightly. He pumped his hand once, the firm grip pushing out a bit of pleasure. Scorn placed one hand against the wall of the shower, leaning and allowing his mind to fantasize about whatever he wanted.

  And that, of course, was Maddie.

  The image of her on top of him, her full, round tits bouncing as she rode his cock, was fresh
in his mind. He stroked himself hard, remembering the softness of her hips against his hands, the way her lips glistened, the moans that poured from her mouth as his cock shoved up into her again and again.

  Scorn imagined Maddie on her knees in front of him, her smile wrapped around his cock as she sucked him, her lips forming a tight seal around his manhood as her hand followed it up and down, each slow plunge of his length into her mouth bringing him closer and closer to orgasm.

  He groaned in the shower, knowing an orgasm was near. The thick muscles of his legs twitched, his chest flexing as he drew to the brink of total oblivion.

  Back in his mind’s eye, Maddie was on all fours in front of him, her perfect, heart-shaped ass bouncing off his hips, the ripe flesh shaking with each collision. The view from this angle was perfect, her ass narrowing into her slim hips, the top of her back bowing out, her tits rocking back and forth underneath her.

  Scorn had felt like an animal when he’d been fucking her from behind—but in a good way. When they made love, Scorn’s feral side was still there, fueling his thrusts. But it was in control. The bedroom was no exception—Maddie allowed Scorn to have strength over his animal that he’d never known before.

  Back in the fantasy, Scorn was on top of Maddie. He thrust with wild abandon into her, his cock vanishing again and again, her breasts moving to the rhythm of his pounding.

  She came, and so did he. He imagined his cock unleashing inside of her, rope after rope of thick, pearl-white cum blasting into Maddie. And that wasn’t all—he imagined that orgasm would be the one to get her pregnant, to make her carry his child.

  The orgasm faded, Scorn’s hand covered with his cum.

  But he was too shocked to clean it off right away. He stood there for a moment with wide eyes, wondering what the hell it meant that he was fantasizing about not only fucking her, but getting her pregnant?

  He quickly finished his shower, turned off the water, and stepped out. He wrapped a towel around his hips and wiped away the steam from the mirror, taking a long look into his golden eyes.

  What the fuck is going on with me? he thought. Who is this woman?

  When he’d finished drying himself off and shaving stubble from his neck, Scorn went into the bedroom and returned to the clothes. He put on a white button-up along with some gray slacks and an oxblood pair of dress boots.