It was twilight when they arrived at her grandmother's house and the sky was dyed a brilliant rust that bled into salmon before fading to periwinkle.
They had walked the entire way in silence and now Dahlia glanced worriedly at Silas. Had it been a mistake to bring him along with her?
Well, she reassured herself, it hadn't been like she'd really had any say in the matter. He'd insisted on coming along or he wasn't going to let her pass and he had been quite confident that he could send her back. He did, she thought, watching him through a curtain of loose curls, act like he thought that he was the king of this forest.
"If you don't knock she'll never know we're here." Silas was standing very close to her now, still holding the basket and Dahlia realized for a second time that he was the one from whom that intoxicating scent of cedar and oranges seemed to be coming. She found that she was leaning towards him and taking a deep breath before she caught what she was doing and she turned her face quickly away from the handsome man.
He laughed, a deep pleasant sound, having obviously noticed her smelling him, and her cheeks flushed nearly as red as her cloak as she reached out her hand and knocked three times on the door of her grandmother's cottage. There was a bit of rustling inside and then the door pulled inward and her grandmother appeared, looking exactly as she ever did, having not aged even a day.
Somehow the old widow Lemp never really seemed to age. That, she had told her granddaughter once when the girl had asked, nearly a decade earlier, was one of the reasons she didn't come to the village. She could easily be mistaken for Dahlia's mother's sister, with her smooth ivory skin and her dark hair untouched by gray, and she had explained that while it was the result of the special soap she made by hand, and a good night's rest each and every night, she didn't want to be named a witch and so she liked to keep away from the village and from people who were quick to make such accusations.
Dahlia, having once been present for a witch hunt when she was small, and understood the fear completely. Her fear of the fire and stake had been imprinted on her mind at a young age and when her mother was absolutely vexed with her behavior she reminded her that women who truly stepped outside the social norms were sometimes branded witches and that usually caused Dahlia to toe the line for a least a solid month before she began to run wild again.
Fleetingly, as these thoughts and memories mixed together in her mind at the sight of her grandmother, Archer's proposal sounded like something she might want to take a little more seriously. After all he was a well liked man and she would likely be safe from accusations as his bride. She bit her bottom lip and pushed the thought aside to consider later, as she threw herself into her grandmother's embrace.
"Grandmother, it's so good to see you. I know you probably weren't expecting a visitor from town this late in the day, but I've brought you treats from father's bakery." She turned to retrieve her basket from Silas' muscular arm and froze momentarily as her hand brushed against his skin, creating a pleasant humming sensation that vibrated through her chest. He stared at her face intensely, as if evaluating her reaction, but she only blinked several times and shook her head before turning back to her grandmother who had stepped out onto the front porch, having not yet welcomed them inside.
"And it seems you've brought far more than that." Her grandmother's voice was filled with shock and her eyes were fixed on the man who stood behind her granddaughter. "As I live and breath, Alpha Varlett, what have I done that my humble abode deserve such an honor?"
Dahlia sensed that her grandmother did not think that this man's presence was an honor at all. Her words said one thing, but she knew her grandmother's voice and under the sugary sweetness, which Dahlia had actually never heard before from her mother's mother, she sensed a current of annoyance and possibly even anger.
"I ran into your sweet sword wielding granddaughter in the woods this afternoon. As you know, it's not the safest place for such a lovely girl to be galavanting about all alone and unaccompanied. As it was she had already had a run in with one of my men and he came out somewhat the worse for it. I decided to accompany her here, to your home, to make sure that she didn't run into any more trouble. And I promised her that I would deliver her safely to her own doorstep in town as well."
"You are going to set foot in town?" Her grandmother's eyes narrowed and her lips turned downward in a frown.
"Well, stranger things have happened. Have they not?" He leaned against the rail of the porch looking utterly at ease and Dahlia found that her heart was beating rapidly in her chest as her eyes traced the beautiful contours of his body over and over again.
"I imagine that you are busy with your own business Alpha. My granddaughter and I will be sitting down to tea and you can come back-" the older woman had begun to turn towards her front door when Silas stood up quite straight and took a step forward.
"I cannot be apart from her."
With these words Mrs. Lemp turned on her very spry heel and in a moment she was only inches away from the very tall man. And while he was much larger she somehow managed to be quite intimidating in Dahlia's estimation.
"You are not saying what I think you are saying, are you? Because when my husband died saving your grandfather's life I was promised one thing. Freedom. Freedom from the pack and from pack life. I left my pup since your grandfather said I could not take him with me, and at thirteen, he was nearly a man as it was."
"I married a human, who I have outlived. I had a human child. And I even let her leave this forest when life in the town called to her and it was time for her to leave me. Tell me that you, with this cursed fated mate bond have not undone my lifetime of heartbreaking work to free my family from pack life and being hunted day after day by every monster hunter and knight who gets in their head to make a name for themselves?"
Dahlia felt rather dizzy as her grandmother's words slowly began to filter into her brain. She knew that she did not entirely understand what was being said, but fragments of what was meant were beginning to sink in and she thought she had an inkling of what exactly her grandmother was referring to and either the old woman was mad or- well she couldn't really even consider the other possibility.
"Dahlia? Are you alright? She looks very pale?" She felt Silas' hand, humming along her waist just before her grandmother's porch began to spin and tilt and for the very first time she fainted right there into his strong, waiting arms.
I just couldn't help it! I'm having so much fun writing this story and I'm getting ahead of where I thought I would be so I decided to post an extra chapter this week back to back. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm having so much fun writing this one.
And If you can't wait for next Friday's update here, and you want to read ahead I've already posted all the way up through Chapter 8 on my Patreon with additional chapters going up each week there.
www.patreon.com/OpheliaShaw
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Little Red's Riding
Fantasy"Why, Alpha?" he had sat down right next to her when he arrived, and now she leaned closer to him so that their lips were only inches apart. He could smell the sweet scent of strawberries and cream that drove him out of his mind whenever she was nea...
