by J. L. Wilder
© Copyright 2021 by J.L. Wilder- All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Midlife Dragon Brothers
Mid Life Shifters
By: J.L. Wilder
Table of Contents
Midlife Dragon Brothers
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Midlife Dragon Brothers
1.
***Maggie***
Milo was blowing out puffs of smoke in the car again. Just a few hours earlier, his smoke had managed to convince a minivan full of mothers that Maggie was hotboxing in the car with her son. The looks she’d gotten had not been very nice.
Glancing back at her surprise baby, she bit her lip and tried to decide how to best suggest he control his dragon. It wasn’t like she was the best at it. Plus, Milo was just two years old. How would he understand something that Maggie couldn’t at forty?
She blew out her own puff of smoke and couldn’t help smiling when Milo started giggling. “Yeah, yeah, Mommy makes smoke, too.”
He was big for his age, growing faster than typical humans, the way all dragons did. Yeah, dragons. They were both dragons, headed back to a community filled with more folks just like them. It should’ve been comforting. People from Brady, Colorado wouldn’t stare at their smoke-filled car and contemplate calling the authorities on her. They would understand her and Milo better than anyone else in the world could.
Yet, as she neared the town limits, her stomach tightened and her heart beat a little faster. Her sister, Sasha, had never left Brady. She’d married a nice man, made nice children, gotten divorced, and recently found out she was sick with breast cancer. All in Brady. The bit about the breast cancer was one reason that Maggie’s stomach wouldn’t settle.
Sasha was her sister, a year her senior. Sasha was the most important person in her life besides Milo. She couldn’t handle the idea of anything happening to her sister. She wouldn’t handle the thought of leaving her sister to go at surviving it alone. As soon as she’d gotten the news, she’d known that she was going home to Brady.
Her life in Los Angeles wasn’t anything that she couldn’t afford to lose. She didn’t really have a life if she was being honest. It was all work and taking care of Milo. Even before Milo, it hadn’t been any more exciting. Her entire existence had revolved around not creating any excitement. That was the thing about having a dragon that she couldn’t control; it was dangerous to get excited.
Milo puffed out more smoke, his new favorite game, and squealed so loud that the dogs in the back sat up and whined.
Maggie’s sensitive ears didn’t fair the squeals any better. She glanced back at Milo again. “Hey, baby, no screaming right now. You’ll give Bash and Bully headaches.”
Milo blew a spit bubble and grinned back at her. “Bas!”
The gas gauge dinged to let her know that she needed to pull over soon, and it was just as well. She needed to stretch her legs and let the dogs out for a break. It might do Milo some good to get out some energy before they got to Sasha’s.
Everyone in Brady used the same gas station on the outside of town, a place called Brainy’s, with as much character as the name. It’d been designed after the owner’s love affair with westerns. At one point in time, the owner had even commissioned a local artist to sculpt tumbleweeds that sat out front, captured in motion. Maggie had been going to Brainy’s since she was a toddler, when her parents would haul her and Sasha there to buy drinks and bargain bin candy.
The owner, a sweet older woman named Maxine Gore, had seen more of Maggie in her teen years than her own parents had. Maxine had let Maggie buy cigarettes and beer when no one else in town would.
Despite the fond memories, Maggie felt the overwhelming desire to speed past the little stop. She would undoubtedly run into someone she knew and she hadn’t been back for more than a single night in over two decades. There was only that night around three years ago, the result of it screaming in the backseat. It was scary to face her past. She wasn’t sure anyone would be eager to see her, either.
Milo’s screams of joy only got louder and the dogs had started howling along. Without a choice, Maggie pulled over into the gas station lot and stopped at the only pump.
She was anxious to get the gas and get out of the way, in case someone came along and needed it. Fewer opportunities to talk to people felt like a good option for her.
Unbuckling her seatbelt and looking at Milo, she couldn’t resist reaching back and tapping him lightly on the nose. “Okay, little Firestarter, Mommy is getting gas. You stay put. I’ll be right outside the car.”
He talked back at her in the way he’d started doing, sounds and parts of words that never fully made sense to her, but she was starting to learn some of his little language. What he squealed at her then, she was pretty sure meant that she needed to hurry up.
Climbing out of her car, she used her hip to shut the car door even as she fumbled through her purse to find her wallet. It was hidden under a pile of toys and emergency snacks for Milo. Halfway around the car, she heard Milo’s squeal and looked back to see that he was crawling into the front seat, with both Bash and Bully following him.
She gasped and raced back around to her door. Milo had never escaped his car seat so fast. He was getting stronger and braver, a combination that left Maggie struggling to keep him safe. She yanked open her door to grab Milo, but Bash and Bully charged out of the car, eager to do their business and escape their smaller, two-legged brother.
“Shit!” Maggie tried to grab their collars, but they were quick in gaining their freedom. She spun around to try to grab them, and her purse knocked her car door closed. Before she could even swear again, or cry, the sound of the car locks engaging had her head swinging back in the direction of the car.
Milo stood in the passenger seat, his fingers in his mouth as he watched her. “Shit.”
Maggie’s mouth fell open and she shook her head. “No, no. That’s not a Milo word, honey. Now, let Mommy back into the car. Okay?”
Bash’s deep bark fought for her attention from the other side of the lot and she turned to see that he and Bully were running laps around a tree. They were prey driven and she’d bet her last dollar that there was some poor animal trapped in the tree, hiding from her unruly dogs.
“Bash! Bully! Get over here!” Of course, she might as well have saved her voice. Neither dog listened to her as they kept up their barking.
The car horn started blaring and she jerked back around to see Milo bouncing his butt on the steering wheel, all while singing his new word at the top of his lungs.
“Milo! Unlock the door, honey. Let me in.” She knocked on the windo
w. “Let me in, now.”
“Hey! Your dogs chased my cat up that tree!” A younger boy came marching over from across the street. Forest stretched out behind him, and he looked like he’d been living in it with the state of his clothes.
Maggie knocked harder on the window. “Milo! Listen to Mommy!”
“Did you hear me, lady? Your dogs are messing with my cat! Who’s going to get my cat down? I can’t call the fire department no more because they don’t like my cat!”
Bash and Bully danced around the tree, bouncing up on their back legs, trying to get higher. They were having a grand time, probably convinced they were being given a new fun toy to play with.
The boy kept calling out to Maggie, his dirty face red from all the shouting he was doing. “My cat, lady! Are you gonna save my cat?”
A big puff of smoke rolled out of Maggie’s mouth and left her even more flustered than she already was. Her dragon wasn’t a friend of hers. She didn’t want it coming out. Ever. The fact that the dragon was making itself more known scared the hell out of Maggie. She looked over at the kid and held up her hands.
Over the sound of the car horn, she yelled back, “I’ll get my dogs as soon as I get my car unlocked. Then, I’ll help with your cat.”
Bully noticed the boy for the first time and let out an excited yelp. The boy’s eyes went wide as he watched Bully turn his attention from the cat to him. Even as he let out a loud scream, Bully barreled his huge body into the kid. The kid went down and Bully started his favorite game of lick. Thankfully, the screams turned into laughter, but still, Maggie was panicking even harder.
She looked around, desperate for help. She just needed to get into the car and make sure Milo was safe and then she could focus on her wild dogs. And the boy. And his cat. And getting gas.
The sound of a vehicle approaching caught her attention and she looked back to see a truck coming closer. The driver was obscured, but she didn’t care who it was, as long as they could help her.
“Lady! Your dog likes me!”
“Shit! Shit!” Milo’s happy song went in time with the beat of his horn honking.
Barking from Bash never slowed down. He was focused.
Maggie waved her arm at the passing truck and nearly collapsed from relief when the truck slammed on the brakes and backed up to the station. She was already talking before the truck door was all the way open, before she could look up and see who was there.
“Can you help? My son locked me out of the car and my dogs are wreaking havoc, too. I just need—”
“You just need what, Maggie? To explain a few fucking things?”
Her head jerked up at the dark growl of a voice coming from the truck. Maverick Walker. The person she needed to see most but wanted to see least.
Her lips popped open, the lipstick she’d applied at the start of her day long gone. Seeing him for the first time in almost three years, she watched as she stepped out of the truck, his big body unfolding and stretching way over the top of the truck. “Oh.”
“Help! This fat dog is sitting on me!” The little boy’s voice didn’t even draw Maverick’s attention from her.
Whistling loud and sharp, all sounds around them suddenly ceased. Maggie could hear her own hard pounding in her ears in the quiet and she cleared her throat to try to cover it. Looking in the car at Milo, she saw him staring at Maverick, his big golden eyes an exact match for the man’s.
She spun around and tapped the window gently. “Milo? Open the door for Mommy.”
Milo slapped at the buttons until the doors finally unlocked and she hurried to open the door and grab him. Holding him to her chest, she looked back to see both of her dogs sitting at Maverick’s feet, the little boy standing right next to them. It was like he’d worked magic.
Unfortunately, Maggie knew the magic he worked all too well. She bit her lip and wondered where to start. She hadn’t had time to think of what she was going to say to him when she saw him again.
Well. That wasn’t true. She’d spent almost three years thinking of what to say, but she’d never imagined saying it with him glaring down at her. All the words vanished from her head and all she could do was stare back at him while rocking Milo.
“You’re coming back to my house with me. We clearly have some things to talk about.” Through gritted teeth, Maverick gripped her car door and shook his head. “Inside. All of you.”
She numbly shook her head and tried to clear it. “Gas. I...I need gas.”
“I’ll do it. Just get inside the car. Are these all yours?” Maverick waved his big hand over the perfectly still group of two dogs and one child.
“Um. Just the dogs.” She felt bad and looked the kid over. “Not that you wouldn’t be a great kid, I’m sure. You’re just not...mine. Um. The cat. I need to help you get the cat down.”
Maverick’s grip on the car tightened and she could hear metal groaning beneath it. “Dogs, in the car. Kid, go home. You’re Jenny’s boy, right? Last I checked, Jenny didn’t keep pets. Most of us don’t.”
The kid’s cheeks darkened as he looked away. “Sorry, lady. You looked like you could afford to give me some money for a coke.”
Maggie put her free hand on her hip and shook her head. “There’s no cat? That’s not very nice. I was already really stressed before you started screaming about your cat.”
“Your dogs did chase a cat up the tree, though. It’s just not mine.”
Maverick stepped in front of her. “In the car, Maggie. I’ll take care of the rest. Just...sit there until I’m finished. Try to think of anything else you might’ve been keeping from me.”
Not ready to argue when she felt so guilty, Maggie climbed into the car and twisted her body around to put Milo back in his seat. Buckling him in, she held his little hands in hers and kissed them. “This is earlier than I expected to introduce you to him, Milo...I love you, baby.”
2.
***Maverick***
Anger twisted around inside of Maverick’s body until he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get straight again. Even as he pulled the stray cat out of the tree it’d been chased into, he couldn’t stop the furious thoughts racing through his head. Even worse were the ones that he couldn’t help, the ones about how good Maggie looked and how happy he’d been to see her when he first spotted her.
He’d smelled her sweet scent a mile up the road and had convinced himself he was losing it. The same way he always did when he thought of her. The one woman he couldn’t have. The one woman he’d snuck around and had almost three years ago.
The scent of the kid, Milo, was still hitting him hard. He smelled like Maverick. He smelled like a perfect mix of Maverick and Maggie. Like Walker male and Maggie. Guilt twisted in with the anger, and Maverick shook his head. He had a lot of explaining to do to his brothers. After Maggie explained a lot to him.
After rescuing the cat, he walked back over to the car and yanked his wallet out of his back pocket. Pulling out his debit card, he shoved it into the machine and then found himself turning around to look at Maggie. She sat inside the car, staring out at him with her fingernail caught between her teeth.
That one move hit him in the gut harder than any grown man ever had been able to. He could so clearly see the girl he’d known at sixteen, biting her nails the same way when she was nervous. She had to be around forty, a few years younger than him, but he could see the kid in her, still out of control and unsure about everything.
Maggie looked down at her lap and glanced back up at him through her lashes and he growled as he turned back to the gas pump and finished filling her tank. He rubbed his hand over his beard and felt the fuzziness of it. He hadn’t shaved in months, if not a year. His hair was so long that it had grown past his shoulders. He figured he looked like a caveman, but he hadn’t had much of a reason to take care of himself. He’d felt a sense of aimlessness for so long that a haircut never crossed his mind. It did then, though, under the potential scrutiny of Maggie.
Walking back arou
nd to her side, he bent low and waited until she rolled the window down. “You going to follow me or do I need to get in the car with you?”
Maggie shook her head and sucked in a breath that pushed her chest out. “I’ll follow you.”
Maverick nodded at her and walked back to his truck. He was almost disappointed at how easily she gave in to him. The Maggie he’d known before would’ve fought him and given him hell for bossing her around.
Not for the first time, he found himself wondering where she’d been and what she’d been doing. Besides raising his kid without him. He looked back at the backseat of the car and blew out a rough breath. His kid. He couldn’t think of what it meant to the bigger picture. All he could think about was that he’d fathered a child with Maggie.
She’d been in town for just a night almost three years ago, and he’d bumped into her while getting dinner. He’d never been able to resist her. One touch had led to another, and before he could think of the promise he’d made to his brothers, he’d been dragging her home and taking her on almost every surface of his house.
His place had smelled like her for weeks after. Her scent had been so strong that he’d almost thought she was still there when he woke up the morning after. He’d almost been able to convince himself that she hadn’t snuck out after he’d fallen asleep.
He’d known right away that she’d stolen a piece of his heart when she left that night, the same way she had when she left at eighteen. The woman was dangerous, an enigma of beauty and mess that he could never get enough of. Even seeing her begging Milo to be let back in the car while her dogs ignored her completely and a kid tried to scam her out of money, it was like seeing heaven. It’d never made sense.
What was he thinking, bringing her back to his house? It was playing with fire, but he needed to talk to her, to find out what the hell was going on. He had a kid.
Making sure Maggie followed him back towards town, he drove slowly. The turns that led up to his place were sharp, and the cliff that dropped off the right side of the road would be deadly to anyone who didn’t take caution. Just the idea of Maggie and their son on the road had every protective instinct rising up in him.