Little Red's Riding

"She's My Mate"

"Dahlia? Dahlia? Are you alright?" Her eyelids still felt heavy when his worried voice began to break through from far away.

Ah yes, Silas, she thought to herself. His hands feel like a thunderstorm when they touch me. The thought curved her lips in a small smile, even as she was just coming back into consciousness.

"I think she's waking up, Mrs. Lemp." His enormous hands enfolded her small, slender ones as she lay back on her grandmother's velvet couch, the cabin in the woods an oasis of civility in the midst of the wilderness.

"Of course she is. She was only so overwhelmed by all this nonsense that you've brought up by being mated to her that she fainted." Dahlia had been about to open her eyes, but at this she kept them closed.

"I can't help that I'm mated to her, Mrs Lemp. You know that as well as any wolf."

"But you could reject her. She's three quarters human, Silas. You know that she doesn't feel the bond like you do, if she even feels it all."

"She does, I can tell." He practically growled the words, clutching her hands in his own.

"Still. Your life is dangerous. What can you offer her, really that's better than what she'll have as a human woman? She'll be in constant danger as your Luna. It would be better for her if you rejected her now and left before she wakes up. Dahlia will never know what you are or what might have been. She can have a normal life with a human family. Her mother writes to me in the baskets they send and says that half the men in town are falling all over themselves to marry her."

He growled again, a low sound, and his grip hadn't loosened on her hand.

"The life she has with me will be one filled with a greater love and passion than what she will have with any other." Dahlia felt her heart pound in her chest at the words and her breathing became uneven. "And I think that she is awake again, aren't you my Kitten?"

"Heaven help us all." Her grandmother must have left the room because when Dahlia opened her eyes she was nowhere to be seen and she could hear the sound of cups banging in the kitchen.

"What exactly did you hear?" Silas leaned towards her, his intoxicating scent surrounding her as he traced a design on the back of her hand. "I've been listening to your heartbeat while you lay here and yes, it sped up when I said I would give you a life of love and passion, so I'm quite certain you've been awake a bit longer than you've let on, Kitten."

Each time he called her that irksome nickname she felt vaguely annoyed, because he always seemed to be teasing her, but she was also instantly aroused, the slick wetness forming between her legs becoming more and more embarrassing by the moment. And his scent, which she thought must have been designed in heaven with her in mind, wasn't helping things at all.

"Try not to think of whatever you're thinking of when we're here, Kitten." He bent close to her ear, his lips brushing lightly against her ear lop before he pulled away. "While your desire smells good enough to eat, I think this visit is an important one, and I can't be so tempted that I take you into the woods right now to rip off your clothes, can I? If you were going to get this turned on just being near me, I wish you'd done it before we got here." He ran a finger lightly down her cheek and she closed her eyes, leaning towards him, entirely confused by what she was feeling.

Yes, he was handsome, but so were all the young men in town that she'd fooled around with and she hadn't even considered spreading her legs for any of them. Sure she'd let them kiss her, and maybe feel her ample chest a bit, after all, no one ever ended up with a babe in their arms from a bit of squeezing, but she'd always made sure to leave them wanting more.