Little Red's Riding

She Needs You, Alpha

"I have to go out after dinner." Dahlia was standing at the kitchen sink with her back to him, scrubbing her hands under the cold water that came out of the tap, and when he said the words she reached over and turned the water off before turning back around with a sigh. She hadn't said a word since they'd gotten home and he'd given her space for the past hour, but the silence was beginning to get to him.

It wasn't that silence usually bothered him. On a normal day he enjoyed coming home from a busy day to a quiet house. But right now he wanted to know what she was thinking. Or maybe he didn't, he thought with a frown, glancing at the serious expression on her face as she twisted a towel between her hands.

"I'm sorry that you're upset." He said the words suddenly and she looked up at him with wide eyes, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Thank you, Silas." Dahlia's voice was softer than it had been all day. "I think I just need to lay down. And process things." She took a step towards the stairs and he moved to join her. "By myself." He nodded, reluctant to leave her, but also certain that it was probably for the best. There were other things he needed to do and he'd already let Oliver do his job for long enough for one day.

"I'm going to go next door and make sure that your mother has settled in and then I'm going to work on some pack business. But I'll be setting a guard outside the front and back doors to make sure that no one bothers you. And Celia will probably be bringing by a casserole from one of the mated women in town because you aren't expected to cook while you're in heat, and everyone will still expect that you're in heat at this point." Dahlia sighed loudly at his words before continuing up the stairs. "I'll be back for dinner."

Dahlia waved her hand as she disappeared up the stairs and he sighed, running a hand through his dark hair before turning and walking out the back door. He nodded to one of his warriors before walking across the garden and out the gate to the small cottage next door.

He knocked at the front door and a moment later Mrs. Lemp answered, welcoming him inside and pouring him a cup of coffee, which she had apparently brewed in anticipation of his visit.

"You knew I'd be coming over?" He asked, as he settled into one of the brightly polished chairs at the dining room table.

"I knew there was something that you wanted to tell me that you didn't want Dahlia to know." She shrugged, pouring herself a cup of tea from the kettle that was set in front of her. "You nearly said it twice but something held you back. I'm guessing it has to do with Lilia if it's that awful. Am I right?"

Silas nodded and closed his eyes for a moment before taking a sip of his coffee and beginning his story. "After I found Dahlia by the river and brought her home, I got word of a second attack. I assumed that it was the same men who had attacked the first time. I thought that Archer and his boys had regrouped and gathered their courage and that they were making another attempt to rescue Dahlia from the Big Bad Wolf."

Mrs. Lemp snorted at this assessment of the rescue party and he shrugged slightly before continuing. "When I arrived back in the same clearing where I had been told a fight was taking place with two of my strong warriors I found the warriors who had reported the disturbance were gone. And Lilia was standing where I expected them to be. I was so focused on her that I didn't think much about where the warriors were."

"And then she began to make demands. She said that she would call down the king's army if I didn't return Dahlia to her before the Wolve's Moon Night Festival. She said that her son would be happy to rescue his sister and bring her home. And why doesn't anyone talk about this son? I've heard about Rose, but she has a brother as well?"

"He's not related to Dahlia by blood at all. He's Rose's half brother. Mr. Bakerson was newly widowed, with a very young son, when he married Lilia. She swept right in and seduced him, from what I've heard, and not a month after his wife's death she was in his bed with a ring on her finger. She acted as his wife's midwife's assistant, I believe, and then skipped straight from that job to caring for the child when the woman passed away."