Little Red's Riding

Alone in the Woods

Dahlia stepped from the house into the cool air of the predawn darkness. She wrapped her cloak tightly about her shoulders and picked up her basket, filled with the muffins that this time she had baked herself. Her eyes swung from side to side, taking in the empty streets of the little village.

Silas had told her not to go into the woods without him. She rolled her eyes at the thought. Just like everyone else in her life he was trying to control her. And mate or not (whatever that meant still wasn't quite clear to her) she wouldn't be controlled.

What was she supposed to do? Sit at home and wait for him to come for her? It had been a week since she had seen him and she didn't understand it at all. He'd clearly wanted her the last time they'd been together. It had been obvious in the way he'd held her close and pressed against her.

Yet she had been willing and he had been the one who had disappeared into the night, leaving her confused, with only a promise that he would return when he was able.

When he was able?

What did that even mean?

Her boots clicked against the cobblestones of the mainstreet of town as she walked quickly, staying in the shadows when she could. The little village was rather safe, but every town has its villains, even the small-time ones that were only out to ruin your day, and Dahlia didn't feel like running into any of them tonight.

Why are you going into the woods before the sun has even risen over the eastern horizon? Dahlia asked herself. It was a good question and she wasn't sure she was ready to be honest, even with herself about the answer.

To get his attention? Because you don't think he'll let any harm come to you while you're inside the borders of that forest? How ridiculous is that Dahlia? Do you really think that he's the ruler of the forest or whatever it is that he claims to be?

"I have never had this many conversations with myself." She muttered as she neared the edge of the village, the dark shadows of the thick trees that were ahead on either side of the road looming long before her. "Maybe he's driven me completely mad."

Wrapping her red velvet cloak tightly about her shoulders she fell silent.

Every day for a week she had expected to see him at her door. And every day for a week she had been disappointed. So now she was going to go back to her grandmother's house and she was going to demand answers. What was a mate exactly? She'd gotten a general idea, but what did it really mean? And what did it mean when her grandmother had reluctantly called him Alpha. It was obviously a title. It hadn't been part of the name he had introduced himself with.

The forest closed about her as she struggled with the same questions that had plagued her all week.

And every question that her mind attempted to answer spawned a dozen more questions. She'd tried to tease answers from her mother, through stealth, but that had failed entirely.

Dahlia's mother simply refused to speak of the first sixteen years of her life, which she had spent inside the Dark Forest. She waved all of her daughters questions away and asked to speak of lighter, happier things.

When Dahlia opened her own window at night she heard a thousand sounds coming from the forest, which was only about a hundred yards away. There were frogs and crickets and occasionally an owl, or a mockingbird, or even a whippoorwill. But as Dahlia ventured into the forest in almost complete darkness, the night around her was nearly silent.

The waxing moon was only a few days away from being full, and she was thankful for that, otherwise she never would have been able to see the path before her. Perhaps she should have asked Archer to come with her. A small smile curved the edges of her lips at the idea.