Midlife Dragon Daddy (Midlife Shifters Book 10) Read online

  “I never lied to Ryker,” Haley protested. “I didn’t know we’d have trouble.”

  “Ten years wasted,” the voice repeated. “And it could have been avoided so easily. It was your responsibility, Haley, not to let yourself become mated to a rising alpha if you weren’t going to be able to give him children.”

  The idea was so unfair that Haley felt sick. “I couldn’t have known!” she protested. “And I didn’t choose to become mated to Ryker. It was something that happened to both of us. We both felt the power of the bond when it formed.”

  She turned to Ryker, who was standing off to the side. “Tell them,” she urged. “Tell them how it was.”

  He said nothing. He didn’t even look at her.

  “Ryker has told us plenty,” one of the council men said. “He’s told us that you avoid having sex. He’s told us that your interactions were frequent when you first became mated, but in recent years they’ve dwindled to almost nothing.”

  “What?” Haley stared. “That isn’t even true.” In spite of their trouble conceiving, she and Ryker had always enjoyed a healthy and stimulating sex life. This was the worst betrayal of all.

  Now she turned to him, her eyes filling with tears. “How could you say something like that?” she whispered. “Don’t you love me?”

  He looked away and said nothing.

  Haley felt as if a hole had been punched through her chest.

  “Ms. Griffin,” the head council member said, “Ryker has requested that he be released from your partnership, and it’s a request the council has decided to grant.”

  Haley wasn’t following. “Released? What does that mean?”

  “It means he’ll be permitted to take another mate if he chooses,” the council member said. “And you’ll have to leave the clan.”

  Chapter Four

  HALEY

  A knock on the door snapped Haley out of her uneasy sleep.

  Fear spiked through her. Could the grizzlies have come back already? Were they ready to force the fight? She caught her breath and waited, looking around the room.

  Danny was asleep on his mattress on the floor. He would sleep through just about anything, she knew. Carefully, Haley got to her feet and made her way over to the door, trying not to make any noise. Waking Danny wasn’t a concern, but if it was those grizzlies outside, she wanted plausible deniability. She didn’t want them to know for sure that she was here.

  There was no peephole in her flat wooden door, but you could get a look outside by peering through the crack where the hinges attached the door to the wall. She pressed her face up to it and looked out.

  Valerie.

  Suffused with relief, she flung open the door. There stood her best friend, along with her daughter.

  Haley smiled, stepped outside, and closed the door behind her. “Hey,” she said, greeting Valerie with a warm embrace. “Hi, Sarah. How are you this morning?”

  “Good,” the little girl said, looking up at her with solemn eyes. “We had waffles for breakfast.”

  “We brought some over, in case you were hungry,” Valerie added.

  Haley appreciated that. Neither she nor Valerie had a lot of money to spare, and things like waffles were a rare treat.

  “We can eat out here,” she said, grabbing her ratty old patio furniture and pulling it into a semicircle for them. “Danny’s still sleeping inside.”

  Valerie nodded. “I thought he might be. Sorry for coming over so early.”

  “No, don’t be sorry,” Haley said. “I’m always glad to see the two of you. You know that.”

  Valerie pulled plastic bags with waffles inside out of her tote and handed a few to Haley. “You can keep the leftovers for him,” she offered.

  “Thanks,” Haley said. “I know he’s going to be sorry he missed out on this if he doesn’t wake up in time.” She sighed. “I just don’t want to wake him. He had a bit of a tough day yesterday.”

  “Uh oh,” Valerie said, frowning. “What happened?”

  Haley glanced at Sarah. They always tried not to go into too much detail about the seediness of the town while the children were around. But at the same time, she and Valerie both agreed that the children couldn’t be kept entirely in the dark. Shifter Town wasn’t a safe place, and they needed to be aware. They needed to be able to keep themselves out of trouble.

  “It was the grizzlies,” she said. “I think they’re trying to recruit him.”

  “Oh, God,” Valerie said, her eyes warm with sympathy. “How did Danny respond to them?”

  “He seems to know better than to let himself get involved with them,” Haley said. “And that’s a good thing, of course. But I’m sure they’re not going to let it go.”

  “Did it come to a fight?” Valerie asked.

  “One of them charged me.” Automatically, her hand went to her side. It was still tender this morning, but it was beginning to heal, and she could tell that in another day or so, she’d be fine. Thank God for dragons’ accelerated healing.

  “I don’t know why they’d bother fighting with you,” Valerie said. “They must have known they were hopelessly outmatched.”

  “Maybe,” Haley said. “But there were three of them. It wasn’t as one-sided as I would have liked. And I guess I feel like maybe they were trying to get the measure of me for future reference. You know what I mean? Like they were trying to see how hard I would be to fight when they eventually decided they were ready to fight me for real.”

  Valerie shook her head. “We need to get out of here, Haley.”

  “You know we can’t afford to.”

  “Look at this.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to Haley. Haley unfolded it.

  “Wanted—Female dragon shifter for short term work,” she read. “You think I should go after this?”

  “I think you should find out what it’s all about, at least,” Valerie said. “God knows we could use the money, right? And I’m guessing whoever it is will be willing to pay a lot since they specify wanting a female dragon shifter. That’s not exactly a common thing to be looking for. You might be the only unaffiliated one in the entire Midwest.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Haley said. The whole thing had her feeling uneasy. It was too much like what the grizzlies had wanted with Danny—trying to hire a dragon, specifically, seemed creepy. “What if the job is something weird?”

  “Then you don’t take it,” Valerie said. “But it might not be weird. It might be something you’re up for. And it might pay really well.”

  Those last few words cemented it for Haley. Her friend was right. This might be a job that offered a lot of money, and that was exactly what the two of them needed. They would be able to leave Shifter Town and buy their own little house in the country, the way they’d always dreamed of.

  “All right,” she said, folding the flyer and putting it in her pocket. “I’ll look into it, at least. Thanks for finding this for us.”

  Valerie nodded and put a hand on top of Haley’s. “Do you want me to come with you to the interview?” she asked.

  “No,” Haley said quickly. “Would you be able to stay here with Danny, actually?”

  “Sure,” Valerie said. “We can do that. Can’t we, Sarah?”

  “Okay.” Sarah didn’t look up from her waffle.

  Haley knew she would take the job if it paid well enough. Getting out of Shifter Town was the only thing that mattered.

  Maybe I can even ask to be paid upfront.

  Maybe she and Valerie were going to be out of here sooner than she had ever imagined.

  Chapter Five

  HALEY

  “How do I look?” Haley asked.

  She had no full-length mirror in her little shack. Most of the time, she didn’t miss it. After all, she never had anywhere to go that required dressing up. The little vanity mirror she’d found in an alley one day while she was in town shopping for groceries and had propped on the kitchen counter was more than enough
.

  But today, she wished she did have a full-length mirror. She longed to see how she looked in her interview outfit.

  It was the nicest thing she owned—a fitted black cocktail dress. She’d put on pantyhose and borrowed a suit jacket from Valerie to dress it up a bit and make it seem more businesslike, but she wasn’t sure how well the whole outfit pulled together.

  “You look great, Mom,” Danny said absently. He was sitting at the kitchen table with Sarah, sharing a box of crayons. Glancing over, Haley saw that he was working on a drawing of a bear. She suppressed the urge to tell him to draw something else. Kids needed to be able to work out their anxieties through art. She wasn’t going to tell him not to do that.

  “Danny’s right,” Valerie said. “You look awesome.” She came over and adjusted Haley’s jacket. “You’re going to make a great impression on whoever this person is.”

  “It’s weird that he didn’t put his name or his business on the flyer,” Haley said, feeling a little anxious. “What do you suppose that means?”

  “It probably means that he only wants the person he hires to know what his business is,” Valerie said soothingly. “He doesn’t want to make it public knowledge. I wouldn’t worry about it, okay?”

  Haley nodded anxiously.

  “You know, it’s not too late to change the plan,” Valerie said quietly. “I could still come with you if you’d rather.”

  “No,” Haley said. Her friend’s offer gave her the rush of courage she needed. “You need to stay here with the kids. I don’t trust anybody else with them.”

  Valerie nodded. “Okay,” she said. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure,” Haley said. “Don’t open the door to anyone while I’m away, okay? I don’t know if the grizzlies will come around or not, but I don’t want you trying to fight them. When I get back, I’ll knock on the window so you’ll know that it’s me.”

  “Okay,” Valerie said.

  “When will you be back, Mom?” Danny asked, looking up from his drawing.

  She heard the anxiety in his voice. “No more than a couple of hours,” she reassured him. “I’m just going to this job interview, okay? I want you to make sure to show Sarah a good time while she’s at our house.” She turned back to Valerie. “There’s ice cream in the fridge if you guys want a snack before I get home.”

  “Ice cream?” Now Sarah perked up.

  “That sounds great,” Valerie said. “I have soda. We could make floats. How about that, kids?”

  “What are floats?” Danny asked.

  Sarah began to explain the concept, gesticulating wildly with both hands. As she did so, Haley turned back to the vanity mirror and gave herself one last look.

  She wished she had more of the things she’d had in her old life to make herself look nice. Hair dye, for example. Strands of gray were beginning to show through her light brown, and it wasn’t the impression she wanted to give at a job interview. She wanted to look young and full of vigor, not old and fading.

  I’m not that old, she reminded herself. She was only forty. She was still in the prime of life.

  Still, it was hard not to look at herself and be reminded of the younger woman she had been. In her twenties, she had always felt beautiful. How could she not? She’d been the mate of Ryker Rivera, the man destined to take over as alpha of the clan. Just the fact that she was the one who’d been fated for him made her feel radiant. She had walked around in those days feeling as if a glow was emanating from beneath her skin.

  When Ryker had thrown her out of the clan, it was as if he had sucked that glow right out of her.

  She pushed the memory away. She needed to be confident today. She couldn’t afford to dwell on thoughts of the past. “I’ll be home soon,” she said. “Thanks for doing this, Valerie.”

  “Good luck!” Valerie said.

  Haley hurried out of her little shack. The address the flyer had given for the meeting was about two miles away, and she’d be walking—there was no form of public transportation that came out to Shifter Town. The walk would give her time to get her thoughts in order. She just hoped that it wouldn’t make her sweaty. She didn’t want her carefully chosen outfit to be rumpled and messy by the time she sat down for the interview.

  Not for the first time, Haley wished she had a car. It wasn’t something shifters usually needed—it was easy enough to shift and run—but being the sole dragon in Shifter Town made things different. She didn’t like to run the risk of other shifters seeing her in her dragon form. She didn’t want them to be reminded that a dragon lived in their midst.

  Soon enough, she had reached the building to which the flyer had directed her. She stood outside for a moment and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm her anxieties.

  Whatever happens here, it will be no big deal.

  She reached out and pulled the door open.

  It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the relative darkness. When they did, and she saw what was waiting for her inside, she couldn’t hold back a gasp of shock.

  Ryker Rivera sat at a desk at the far end of the room, his hands folded in front of him, waiting for her.

  Chapter Six

  RYKER

  Ryker felt as though he could have been knocked over with a feather.

  He hadn’t seen her in ten years, and he wouldn’t have said she looked just the same. He could tell that the years had aged her. Her hair was lighter, thanks to the grey in it, and her skin was slightly weathered. Seeing her made him wonder how he might have changed over the past couple of years.

  Am I older too?

  Of course he was. He knew it. He had seen the changes in his appearance over the years. But there was something about seeing it all at once that made it real in a way nothing else could.

  Haley was standing in the doorway now, frozen in place, staring at him as if she had seen a ghost. Ryker could tell that she was feeling just as shocked as he was.

  God, I’ve been stupid. How could he have failed to realize that she might be one of the people to show up in response to his flyer?

  He supposed it was just the fact that he thought of her as completely lost to him now. Even though he had known she had to be somewhere, he had conceived of her as far away. Completely out of his reach.

  He hadn’t imagined that she could just walk into the building where he was conducting interviews. He had never dreamed that she might be the one to answer the flyer.

  I can’t give her this job.

  It definitely wouldn’t work with Haley.

  “Ryker?” She looked spooked as hell, and he realized she was on the verge of turning around and bolting back out the door.

  “Hang on,” Ryker said. “Don’t take off. Come and sit down.”

  He wasn’t sure why he had said it. Asking her to stay was misguided. She couldn’t do the job he was offering, and Ryker couldn’t imagine that the two of them spending time together could lead to anything good. He was sure she must hate him.

  She hesitated. For a moment, he thought she was going to leave anyway. He half hoped she would.

  Then she edged closer and took the seat opposite him. She perched on the very edge of it, looking every bit like she was about to take flight, and the part of him that still remembered the way her body felt in his hands was filled with a sudden urge to reach out and put a hand on her arm.

  No. You can’t do that.

  “I didn’t know you were living here,” he said instead.

  “You still don’t know where I’m living,” she said, rather defensively. “I traveled to get here.”

  Ryker could understand why she was acting so defensive. What he had meant was that he hadn’t known she was living within the radius of the flyers he’d dispensed. When he had imagined her—which was more often than he would ever admit to her—he’d pictured her living somewhere far north of here, up in the mountains of Canada, perhaps. He had never dreamed she was still so close to the clan.

  “You look good,” he said hesitantly
.

  Haley folded her arms across her chest. “I’m here about the job,” she said, clearly intent on ignoring the compliment.

  He couldn’t say he was surprised.

  “The job,” he said. “Right.”

  “Are you going to tell me about it?”

  “I’m not sure you’re right for it, is the thing,” Ryker said.

  “Ryker,” Haley said, “I came a long way for this. The least you could do is give me the dignity of a fucking interview.”

  “I don’t want to waste your time,” Ryker said.

  “Then don’t waste my time,” Haley said. “Tell me what the job is.”

  Ryker felt his eyebrows lift. He wasn’t used to her being so assertive. The Haley he knew would have done anything to please him. She would have knuckled under immediately when he suggested that this interview wasn’t fit for her. She would have already been out the door by now.

  She’s not the Haley I knew anymore.

  That was a strange thing to think, given how close they had once been, but after all, it had been ten years. It was no great surprise that she had changed so fundamentally.

  “Look,” Haley said, crossing her arms and legs. “I know this is weird. I’m not wild about it either. But I need the damn job, all right?” Her cheeks flushed, and Ryker could see that she didn’t like admitting to him that she needed this. That, at least, was in character; she had never been good at asking for help.

  “And,” she went on, “based on the number of flyers I saw, it seems like you really need to make a hire.”

  That was true. He couldn’t deny it.

  “I’m guessing you’re not finding a whole lot of female dragon shifters around here,” Haley said. “Unaffiliated dragons aren’t exactly common. I haven’t met any others in the past decade. So if that’s something you really need, you might not want to write me off because it’s possible I’m going to be your only shot.”

  Ryker regarded her.

  Maybe it would work.