Little Red's Riding

Lilia Lemp

Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Archer's words, which were now seared in his mind playing on repeat, had played a huge role in how upset Silas had been when he'd found his little mate naked and burning for him at the river. Oh, he would have been furious with her either way, for not listening to him and staying in the house when he'd told her to when he'd left to go take care of their human invaders. She had put herself and his pack members at risk by disobeying him and going out by herself when the town was basically being discovered by humans for the first time in centuries.

Disobeyed. It irked him, that face she made every time he said the word, and yet he couldn't stop saying it. It was what she kept doing.

But his mood was made so much worse by the fact that his wolf still wanted to rip Archer to shreds over what he had said about Dahlia before Silas had had to leave. He knew that the two had kissed, but now he was torturing himself. What else had they done?

He was quite certain that he was the first one to bed his mate, but the thought of the Woodsman's hands, or worse his mouth, anywhere on her body made him tempted to turn back and track the group down so that he could tear apart their leader.

Using logic, and telling himself that she hadn't met him yet at that point, and that she didn't even know mates existed much less that she had one, and that Archer even been talking about marrying her, did nothing to calm the raging beast that was now controlling every atom of his body. Archer, he knew, had likely said the words to needle him, and it had worked.

And so that was what he had been feeling when he had discovered her on the edge of the river, although by the time he got there those feelings had mixed with fear that she would be hurt by the time he found her, and guilt that he'd ever left her at home by herself at all.

Then came word that the men had come back and while he hadn't wanted to leave his mate, he'd been thankful that Archer was giving him another chance to rip his throat from his body.

After ensuring that Dahlia was headed for home, safely flanked by some of his strongest wolves, he had gone tearing back through the woods again, back in the direction he had come from, ready to finish what had been started when those humans had encroached on his territory earlier in the day. He ordered the two warriors who were there to fall back and only attack if the humans they were facing tried to intrude further into their territory but his words were met only with silence.

He pushed himself harder and ran so fast that his paws barely touched the forest floor.

When Silas reached the place where they had scuffled with the humans there was not a fight going on. There was not a large group of men waiting there, or even his two warriors, who had called him to come quickly. Skidding to a stop, Silas turned towards the new, foreign scent, which was now mixed with blood.

Before him stood a woman, with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes. If it weren't for her eyes, and if he wasn't certain that Dahlia was already headed home, he would have thought, for a moment, that she was his mate, although her scent was all wrong.

"Alpha, Alpha, Alpha. Alpha Silas Varlett." Her voice lingered over his name, even as her tone mocked him, and he felt the hair on the back of his neck bristle as his eyes locked on hers. "I'd hoped you'd be the one to come and meet me. Regular pack wolves aren't much fun to play with. But if we're to have a proper chat you're going to need to shift."

Silas felt a growl rumble in his throat, but the woman, whoever she was, wasn't wrong about his needing to shift if they were going to communicate, although he hoped to the Goddess that he was wrong about her identity.

After a moment of snapping bones he stood before her in his human form and met her eyes with raised brows, waiting for her to speak.

"Where is my daughter?" She asked and while his face remained impassive internally he winced. First the band of men had come to the forest and now this woman. It seemed welcoming Dahlia into his home might not be as simple as he'd imagined, since none of the people who had come his way on this day seemed particularly friendly, most especially this woman.