Little Red's Riding

Making Friends?

A/N- I thought this posted last week, but I was having tons of problems last week when I was trying to post it, Wattpad kept giving me errors over and over again. I thought it had posted in the end but today I just noticed it hadn't. So... today I'm going to post two chapters since I didn't notice until just now! Sorry about that. I wish I'd caught it earlier. I was so confused when I saw this chapter in my Drafts.

Dahlia had gotten out of bed and gotten dressed in one of about five dresses that had materialized in Silas' closet. She vaguely remembered him saying he had work to do and would be back later and she guessed that he had told her to stay put, because that sounded like something he would have told her. Rolling her eyes she walked to the window and looked around. Of course there would be guards at the front and back doors. It was too much to ask that she be allowed to move freely anywhere, as if she were actually an adult.

She gritted her teeth and walked to the top of the staircase. Logically she knew that Silas had a reason to be worried. If all the things that her mother had said about her sister were true, and it still felt so odd to think of them with those titles, even though they were the correct ones that she needed to get used to, then the woman who had raised her was a monster. And not just a monster but apparently a monster who hated werewolves.

Dahlia's mind went back to what Rose had said when she'd sat across from her that day after finding out that Silas was her mate. Rose had said that if she had found her mate, that she needed to run because their mother would kill her. Well, Rose's mother anyways, but Dahlia hadn't known that back then. It felt so odd to think of the woman who had raised her as her sister.

Dahlia was at the bottom of the staircase now, and she found the shoes she'd worn earlier and slipped them back onto her feet, grabbing her red cloak from the place it lay draped across an overstuffed chair. She tied it on carefully, pulling the hood up over her dark hair, her teeth digging into her bottom lip as she thought of the words she might say that would buy her a bit of freedom from the guards she was certain were outside the front door.

She didn't want to get into trouble. She just wanted to explore her new home without a team of guards following her around. How was she supposed to meet people with three hulking brutes nipping at her heels? And it wouldn't hurt to test the limits of her new entourage and see exactly what she'd be able to get away with. As Lilia's ward she had spent quite a bit of time doing just that, so the experience wasn't exactly new.

But what was the best strategy?

Lying, she decided after a moment. Or more specifically lying with confidence.

With a careful smile curving up the corners of her full red lips, Dahlia unlocked the front door and strode out, between the two guards, walking straight towards the path that led towards the Main Street of what she was beginning to think of as "Wolf Town."

In less than three seconds an enormous man was blocking her path and she could sense another somewhere off to her right hand side.

"Pardon me, Luna." The man had a deep voice that was surprisingly nervous as he stopped her from going any further.

Dahlia had to tilt back her head to see his face. He had dark hair, and eyes, and she was fairly certain that he was ruggedly good looking, like just about every man she'd seen here, although with the sun overhead, just behind him, it was hard to say for certain.

"Oh, did you need something from me before I go on my after nap walk? I'm sure Silas told you all that it was fine, didn't he?" She gazed up at him through her thick dark lashes and knew, without a single doubt in her heart, that she had the advantage.