Little Red's Riding

Coming for Her

Dahlia soaked in the tub again, thankful that her heat didn't seem to be returning any time soon. Silas had said it would be back and she only hoped that he would return before it did. She'd washed her hair and skin thoroughly, scrubbing away all the dirt and debris left from her time in the forest, and after soaking until her toes looked like prunes, she finally wrapped herself thoroughly in a towel and pulled the plug, listening as the water began to drain through the pipes. She was still more than a little impressed that it was possible to have a bathroom on the second floor of a building here in this backwoods town, something that she hadn't yet seen back in the town she'd grown up in.

Once her body was entirely dry Dahlia wrapped her hair up in a towel and returned to the bed where she'd already spent a good portion of her day. She didn't particularly feel like getting dressed, not when she only had one outfit of her own in the entire house, and if her relationship with Silas so far was any indication, he'd only take her clothes off again when he got home, so she flopped down on her stomach on top of the duvet and wondered what exactly was happening that was so important that it required his attention on her very first day as his official mate.

And that was where Silas found her, fast asleep, several hours later when he finally returned home. He came into the house and checked with his maid, Celia, who informed him that she hadn't even met the new Luna yet.

She'd heard bath water running and the tub draining, but that was pretty much it. She was dying of curiosity, but she hadn't wanted to intrude either and so she'd simply straightened and tidied downstairs and waited for his return, hoping that the new mistress of the house, and the new Luna of the pack, might wander downstairs and introduce herself.

He took the stairs two at a time, racing up them to be near her. It was painful to be away from your mate when you were newly mated. The bond made the newly connected wolves need each other more than they would at any other time in their lives. Add the fact that Dahlia was now in heat and Silas felt as though neither of them really should have been leaving that room.

But of course life was not that simple and duty called.

Silas walked into the room and saw his mate sleeping, sprawled naked across the bed, her hair falling loose from the towel she had wrapped it in. She was exquisite, like something out of a fairy tale. He pressed the back of his hand across her forehead and felt that she was quite warm, but not yet hot. He would let her sleep until it woke her and then they would come together again to cool the flames that only he could quench. Scooping her up in his arms he placed her head on her pillow, before covering her with a light sheet and hanging the damp towel back up in the bathroom.

Stripping off his own clothing he tossed them in the hamper and stepped into the shower, his mind going over what had happened in the woods this afternoon, and what had called him back away from Dahlia later in the evening. Oliver had not been quite right. It hadn't been the same people attempting to breach their borders, which was what he had thought when he had raced away from Dahlia, leaving her by the river. Then again he wouldn't really have wanted that woman in the village, even if she wasn't entirely human. Not right now. Not with the demands she was making.

The first time he'd run off it was because there were humans nearing their territory. He knew, the moment he heard that they were coming, that it couldn't be a coincidence. They'd lived there for centuries, and in all that time not once had a human come close to finding the town. They'd always managed to turn them back by making that part of the woods seem as unappealing as they possibly could. And now a band of men was headed directly towards the town? On the very day that he brought his mostly-human mate home?

Silas would have been willing to bet his own life that those two events were not unrelated.

The pack of wolves that began to attack and threaten the men that were entering their territory was larger than any that any human who had entered the woods had ever seen. But it seemed that they were prepared for that. They shouted encouragement to each other. Someone said "she told us they'd do this, but they don't like to hurt humans if they don't have to!"