Dahlia hurried home, slipping upstairs quietly although she was quite certain that even if she had stomped her feet the entire way her mother wouldn't say a single word. It had long been part of both her mother and father's parenting policies to ignore any problems that they felt that Dahlia was having, hoping that the problems would go away if they concentrated on ignoring them hard enough. If that didn't work they turned to shaming her, throwing in vivid descriptions of her likely future being burned as a witch at the stake, here and there for good measure.
Dahlia locked her bedroom door before walking to the window and staring at the forest for a long moment. It was completely and utterly ordinary. "What did you expect to see?" she asked out loud. "His eyes staring back at you?"
Sighing, she flopped onto her bed. Her stomach ached, but she couldn't tell if it was because she had hardly eaten all day, or if it was still upset from Archer's unexpected kiss. The kiss, she reminded herself, wasn't entirely unexpected. It was just that she'd been so certain it was Silas, until the moment that she'd realized that it wasn't.
"And now he's ruined me for other men." she whispered the words out loud, bringing her fingertips up to touch her lips. If one kiss with someone as handsome as Archer Dubois caused her to get sick to her stomach after a single night of running through the forest when nothing had really even happened with this wolf-man, who claimed to be her mate, then unless something drastically changed, she was effectively ruined for all other men.
Grabbing the red ribbon she had used to tie up her hair, she let it cascade down around her shoulders, before she sat up to remove her stockings.
A knock on the door caused her to freeze, as she remembered her sister's words. There was only one person who it could be. Her mother was the only other person in the house. Had Dahlia's earlier questions tipped her off that something was going on? Would they lead to an interrogation? Or worse. Would she send Dahlia's father to visit her grandmother to find out why she was acting oddly and asking all the wrong questions.
"Come in." Dahlia called, trying to force her voice to sound as normal as she possibly could.
The door opened slowly, and standing there, much to her surprise, was Archer Dubois. He ducked his handsome golden head to fit under the frame of the door and glanced around her room wide eyed as if he couldn't believe his luck in being allowed into her most private sanctuary.
"Archer," she gasped, curling her legs up under her body. While still fully clothes she felt quite exposed having a man in her room. "How did you get up here?"
He rolled his eyes at her question as he walked over and looked out the window before coming to sit on the edge of the far side of her bed.
"I came to see you and your mother sent me up. She said she'd heard you come in a little bit ago and that it would be fine if I was to come up to check on you, and if we were to have our visit up here. I told her that you'd seemed ill when I saw you in town a little while ago and that I only wanted to make sure that you were alright." He tugged at the blue flannel of his sleeves nervously as he met her eyes.
"That was nice of you Archer. As you can see I made it home fine. I was just about to lay down to rest." Reaching over Dahlia grabbed the quilt that lay at the end of the bed and pulled it across her legs, suddenly feeling as if she should cover herself.
What is happening to me, she thought, passing her hand quickly across her forehead, as the change in her behavior came as a shock even to Dahlia. She was acting exactly as her mother had always wished she would. The only problem was that the focus of her attention was on someone who apparently her family would never accept.
"It seems that your parents are quite accepting of our relationship. Have you given more thought to the possibility of an engagement? There's no reason we couldn't be wed quickly. We could have a dress made by the seamstress here in town. Or you could wear your mother's. Or my mother's. Whatever suits your fancy. As I said, the house is built and it's quite lovely. There are four bedrooms and I built bunks for the children that we will one day fill the rooms with."
Dahlia stared at him, her bright eyes wide.
"I think I do feel quite unwell Archer. And when my stomach and head feel as I do now, it seems as if it's not the best time to be discussing such important matters." She stood, feeling a bit dizzy, and walked halfway across the room, still keeping her distance from him.
"I guess I should probably go then?" He looked surprised as he stared at her long, bare legs, frozen for a moment before he shook his head and moved towards the door.
"It seems like it's for the best. We can discuss this on another day."
Dahlia threw herself back on the bed, letting out the breath she'd been holding when she heard the door click shut behind the Woodsman. Even without Silas' existence blocking the way of her courtship with Archer the bunk beds would have pushed her over the edge. She was not ready for that level of commitment just yet.
Unless it was with a tall, dark, handsome, brooding werewolf, who had pressed her against the wall of the house the previous night and left her longing for more. Then she just might have to consider it.
Silas paced back and forth, still unable to sleep. He had heard Oliver enter the house without knocking and he fell back into his chair, unwilling to admit that he had been nervously moving about since his Beta had set out early that morning.
His second in command strode into the room and dropped into the seat across from him, reaching out and pouring whiskey into a tumbler.
"You're a fool, Silas." His Beta echoed the words that he'd been thinking since he'd left her at her door, but he still growled when he heard them coming from Oliver's mouth, his eyes turning dark in warning. "You should never have left her there. She's your mate. She's our Luna. She belongs here with the pack. I don't know what the fuck you were thinking."
"Tell me what you saw." Silas was driving himself half mad imagining what Dahlia was doing back in her village. She was so beautiful. And he knew she already had multiple proposals, one from the Woodsman of all people. So he'd spent the night tearing himself in two, trying to convince himself she'd be better off with a human by her side, living out her life in the peaceful little village, while his wolf was nearly beside himself at the mere suggestion of anyone else touching the dark haired beauty.
"I would really rather not." Oliver sipped the amber colored liquid.
"What happened Oliver?" His Beta was, without a doubt, the only person who could talk to him this way and get away with it, but in this situation he was pushing the limits of what Silas was willing to put up with. Especially after a sleepless night.
"You're just going to explode or self-destruct, and what you need to do is not ask me what happened and go get the girl and bring her here. She's your mate." Oliver looked up and met his eyes for a long moment before quickly looking away.
"Fine. It's your funeral. I went and lurked in the woods in my wolf form to do your bidding, because you ordered me to." Oliver swirled the whiskey around the tumbler, not meeting Silas' eyes.
"I lay in the woods across from the house you said was hers. She came storming out mid-morning. She looked upset. I thought I could hear yelling in the house and the door slammed behind her when she left. The girl ran for a minute-"
"She ran?" Silas interrupted, looking upset.
"Yes, that's what I said, isn't it?"
"Was she alright?"
"Will you let me tell the story? You really are impossible." Oliver shook his head and when Silas didn't say anything he continued on. "She ran for a minute until she passed by a man, who she apparently didn't notice. But he noticed her." Oliver glanced down at Silas' hand, which gripped the arm of the chair he was sitting in so hard Oliver wondered if it would splinter into pieces.
"He grabbed her about the waist and pulled her into a nearby shed." Silas jumped to his feet and paced to the window, and Oliver saw that his claws and canines were both fully extended. He was honestly surprised that his friend had fought off a full shift.
"Why didn't you stop him?" Silas growled the words.
"You told me not to speak to her or to interfere but simply to watch. You said it in your Alpha Tone. I couldn't disobey if I'd wanted to." Silas turned towards him, his eyes flashing. "And of course, I wanted to but, Alpha Command and all." Oliver shrugged.
"But whatever he planned didn't last long because less than a minute later the girl came stumbling out of the hut retching, and she vomited, just steps away from the door."
"And then?" Silas was taking slow, deep breaths as he continued to fight off his wolf's insistence that he shift and run to her.
"She walked to another house, where I could see her sitting with another young woman before she hurried home, looking very upset. Again."
"Is there anything else?" The Alpha had turned back to the window, his fists clenched tightly.
"Must you ask." Oliver shook his head. "Yes. The same man went to her house later and her mother let him in. I could then see him, a few minutes later, for a brief moment, through the attic window before he disappeared from sight. He was in there for maybe ten or fifteen minutes before he came back out."
"And who was the man?" Oliver watched as blood trickled down from his friends' hand, where it was clenched tightly closed and he winced in sympathy.
"I think you know." He ran a hand through his dark hair, willing Silas not to force the answer from him.
"Say it, Oliver." Silas insisted.
Oliver shook his head, as he stared out the window, the name torn from his lips. "Archer Dubois. The Woodsman. But Alpha, you must go to her. She is your mate. Forget whatever it is her grandmother said and go to her. I know a lovesick girl when I see one and she needs you every bit as much as you need her."
Silas shook his head and threw himself down onto one of the couches across from where Oliver now sat. "If she can be happy with the Woodsman then let her be. I will not take that from her. Let her have her normal life and human children and eventually I will find a Luna from one of the She-Wolves from another pack, because it is my duty."
Standing Oliver shook his head before bending and slamming the tumbler down onto the table. "I've seen you be wrong before Silas, but never wrong like this." He growled. "Ignoring the Luna the Moon Goddess gave our pack will help no one. You're making the mistake of a lifetime. I just hope you see that before it's too late."
A/N- And to read up to chapter 19 today, and to get more frequent updates check out my Patreon at:
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