Redda May and Her Wolf

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair, messy from having been run through by fingers so frequently in the past couple of hours in the last two weeks. She had bags under her eyes, her body sagged a little from exhaustion, reasonable considering she hadn't gotten more than an hour sleep at the most when she braked during the two weeks.

In the last two weeks she was shut up in her house, all alone, while she wrote, and erased, typed and deleted, crumpled up and threw into the trash can. She was a famous author who wrote romance stories, with magical creatures and what not, and had written five stories that had gone on to be the top five best sellers in the country, in the world, and she couldn't even get past the first god damn couple of pages of her recent romance novel in process.

It was just something about this book, she couldn't find the energy to write parts of it, yet when she wasn't typing it she wanted to. This was freaking ridiculous.

She looked in the mirror and her frustration grew to a boiling point, nearly bubbling over the surface, and she had to catch herself before she tore her mirror off the wall and threw it onto the cold, hard, floor where it would shatter into a million pieces. Slivers of silver spreading out in an explosion, shards of reflections blooming from the middle, and the sound of breaking glass ringing out in the empty cabin, echoing back to her ears, loud and temporarily satisfying, playing out in her mind.

She sighed, grimacing at the mirror. Her hair was messy alright, mussed, ruffled, and disarrayed. The bags under her eyes weren't so bad, her mouth frowning though not in thought like it usually was. Her hair was a dark, chocolate brown, short, flowing halfway down her neck. It was or had been in a bob, her bangs had ended just above eyebrows. A cute hairstyle that only accentuated her slim but curvy figure, long legs, and small, dainty hands though they had seen so much work they should have been rough and calloused by now, much like a man's hands. Not that she was complaining.

She was willowy, and a little tall. She was lightly tanned. Her deep chocolate eyes with speckles of black, soft reddish pink lips, small ears that were a little pointed and stuck out from her head a little. Her eyes would spark with curiosity, determination, joy, and sometimes amusement, though they hadn't sparked with amusement or joy in a while.

She sighed, stopping herself from running her fingers through her hair which would only serve to muss it more. Her bangs were longer now, flowing over her full eyebrows, still neatly plucked since the last time she plucked them, she noted. Her eyes were framed by her long, thick lashes. She was beautiful.

She decided to take a break and enter into reality again, to throw herself into the world with other people, and to occupy her wandering mind with other things then her frustrating attempts at this one irritating book. If she could just get past the first part, and any other parts she didn't like, she was sure this one was going to be a best seller.

She got into the shower, washing her body, scrubbing off the dirty, lathering her hair several times before just standing there, under the warm flow of the water, rinsing her hair and cleansing her body, not just of the dirt and what not that had gathered but of the negative and rather downing feelings also that had weighed her down.

She got out and dried off before raking her brush through her hair several times, brushing out tangles and knots, before she could finally run the brush through her hair smoothly. She let it dry and walked to her closet.

She looked over her many dresses, some sun dresses, some corset dresses, some other types of dresses. Despite the number of dresses she only had five pairs of shoes. Plain, black and white converse, plain, brown sandals, tanned and dark brown polka dotted wedges, short, with a cute tanned bow at the end, black heels, and old fashioned sandals, the kind they had in Greece, that wrapped around your legs up to your knees, except hers went half way up to her knees, and they were a goldenish tan.

She mussed over whether to just pick a pair of jeans she had and a t shirt, then decided on a white dress, with lace as the top part and soft, white, flowing fabric as the bottom part. It had short sleeves and the lace top part which ended just below her breast hugged her chest, not too tightly, but just a little and the sleeves were tight. The bottom part came to just above her knees.

She put on her red cape that came down to halfway past her elbows, with a hood, the whole thing lined with soft, silky, black rabbit fur. It kept her warm in chilly or freezing weather but because there was some magic in it, it was never too warm. The fabric looked like silk bit just a bit thicker and it was soft. It had silky ribbon to tie, just below the chin. She tied it but left the hood down.

She picked her greek sandals and walked out of her room, purposely avoiding looking in the direction of her desk, which was littered with paper loaded with parts of her story she liked, rough drafts, an unfinished and about to be thrown out final copy, her laptop, favorite pen and pencil, blank paper, and her type writer. She walked to the door.

She opened it, more like threw it open, stepped out, and took a deep breath of fresh air. She closed her eyes and let the sun caress her face, warming her body that had grown used to being cold from the chilly temperature in her big, modern, log cabin. She listened to the birds sing, the insects chirp, the squirrels chatter, and the bees buzz as they foraged for honey in the numerous, colorful, wild flowers that surrounded her house, save for the path to the road.

The wild flowers were beautiful, some exotic looking. The field in front of her house in the woods was full of the flowers. The sky a promising blue, clear with a few puffy, cotton ball clouds, lazily floating in the sky. The trees surrounding her house in a circle formation, with her house in the middle, had deep green leaves, the trunks tall, the branches thick making them easy to climb.

A mother deer and it's baby ate nearby, not afraid of her just like the other animals of the forest. Beautiful.

Her house was something out of a story book, a house millionaires paid good money to have. The house many people in the city, tired of the crowded streets and constant noises, envied and longed for. It was picturesque and wild, beautiful and untamed. It was perfect. She opened her eyes.

She froze when she saw the man at the end of the path that led into the forest, on the edge of the fields. He was tall, muscular, tanned, with wavy dark chestnut brown hair, messy yet a handsome look. She realized with a start that if she were to walk up to him, chest to chest, more like chest to abs, the top of her head would reach the bottom of his chin.

He was a little slim yet strong looking. Barefooted, wearing jeans that looked good, hanging low on his waist, with a dark green, brown and red plaid shirt, the first couple of buttons unbuttoned showing his chest with a light dusting of deep brown hair on it. His eyes were dark green like the trees, and he had straight nose, a small dimple, and straight teeth. He was handsome. He looked at her in surprise.

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Micah didn't know anyone lived in the cabin in the woods. His father had renounced his title as alpha making him, his son, alpha in his place. He was a strong leader, kind and caring, his pack, every single person in it, his family. Everyone in his pack was very close with him and each other and he them, though he had a big pack. He had become alpha two weeks ago and as a stress reliever, would run through the woods, sometimes in human form, in the morning. His path always took him past the cabin.

He always wondered who it might have belonged to. Just a couple days ago he decided he would go check it out and clean it up on the inside, which he was sure would be dusty from not having an owner, or so he thought, and make it his own. A place to stay when he needed a break from the pack. It certainly was beautiful and a perfect place for him to go when stressed or wanting to be alone, which tended to be hard when in a pack, especially one the size that his pack was.

He was jogging like he usually did, and stopped to look at the cabin when he passed it. Suddenly, the door flung open and out stepped a vision. Her dark brown hair, shot and bobby, wavy and looking like silken chocolate, her slim, soft and curvy figure, her long legs, the sun framing her and making her look similar to an angel and making her look like a dream. A beautiful dream. Then her scent hit him. Coconut, chocolate, and a hint of cinnamon. He felt his wolf stir immediately.

His mate! She was living here? How had he missed her in the past two weeks that he had passed this place every day. She was a dream, a vision, a beauty. She really was. He couldn't believe it.

.......................................

Red shook her head. It was just a man, an incredibly handsome man, who sent her heart racing though she didn't know him.

.......................................

He gazed at her with a look so intense she looked away from the weight of it. He blinked and shook his head. Don't scare her away, he told himself. He smiled at her, waved nonchalantly, then left. He shifted into the jet black wolf with cloudy grey eyes speckled with black that he called his inner wolf, the second he was out of sight of her and her house. He raced back to pack house, a mansion really, with the speed of lightning on his paws, though the sound of his paws hitting the earth as he raced at full speed was as quiet yet swift as a rabbits.

He really was stealthy.

He arrived and immediatly called to his family.

I FOUND MY MATE. He said to them in his head. Werewolves, after all, could communicate telepathically with each other. Immediately his mother was on him as he stepped through the door, human. She was short with sandy brown hair, speckled with grey, soft grey eyes, smile lines, and a kind heart. His father, though tall and intimidating if he wanted to be, had black hair, wavy and to the shoulders.

He smiled warmly but his mother, who could be just as intimidating in that way that small mothers are, immediately stepped in front of him, smiling broadly.

"Who is she? I want to meet her right away. Oh son, I can't believe you found her. I want to know everything about her. Oh," she started talking fast. He smiled. His mother was a handful sometimes.

"I just met her, she lives in the cottage, in the clearing in the woods. I have never seen her before now. I don't even know her name."

His mother smiled. "Well, we'll fix that quickly."

His father chuckled, shaking his head.

"I can't wait to see this plan. Better prepare yourself son. You know how she is when she gets an idea in her head."

Micah chuckled. He knew. Everyone knew. He wondered what his mother's plan for his mate would be.

****************************

She sighed as she watched him walk away. A part of her wanted to run to him and start a friendly conversation while another part just wanted to dart back inside to try and work on her frustrating story. This one was about a witch but that was all that was in it so far was the description of the witch.

She decided to go to the village nearby which she had spotted a while back when she first moved here a good many years ago. She went inside, got a basket, then left.

****************************

His mother had given him a basket with a list of wild flowers that grew in the field around the cottage and told him to tell her he needed to collect them for his mother. A simple yet brilliant plan. However, on his way to her house he spotted her walking in the direction of the village sized camp where the buildings the pack members lived in were. He pretended not to be noticing where he was walking and bumped into her. She looked up.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't look where I was going and. . ." she stopped when she realized it was the man from before.

"Oh. You again."

He smiled. "Me again. Where are you headed."

She shifted her weight, deciding whether she should tell him or not. What the hell, she thought. It wasn't like she couldn't defend herself if he turned out to be a creeper stalker slash rapist or something. She smiled.

"To the village, not too far away from here. I saw it, well more like spotted it and caught a glimpse, many years ago when I first moved here."

Micah suppressed the urge to arch his eyebrows in surprise.

"You, uh, you've been here for a few years? I walk past your cottage every day and never see you."

She blushed. "Yes, well. I, um, don't get out very much." He smiled. She said she was heading towards the village but there was no village. There was only his pack's compound. She must think it is a village.

"What is it you want to do at this village?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Well, I have a list of ingredients that I have to buy for something that I make myself that I'm running out of." She hoped he would leave it at that. Her list consisted of apples, bread, herbs and black berries that she mixed together to make a homemade ink which lasted a surprisingly long time that she used for her type writer and when she used her feather pen. Like the ones in Harry Potter.

Old fashioned, yes. But she liked being old fashioned. In the back of her house she had a small vegitable and fruit garden so she never had to buy food from the village before but she had used to many black berries and herbs to make her last batch of ink and she had thrown away and torn up so many papers with the failed story she was writing up that the ink quickly disappeared.

"Can I see." He wanted to see if his compound would have the items there. She reached into her basket and pulled out a list. He looked it over. He raised his eyebrows.

"My, what an odd list of things to buy."

She fidgeted and he realized that might not have been the best thing to say.

"I'm sorry, I mean, I just meant, it's an unusual list of ingredients." He closed his eyes in irritation. He sounded like a fool. She giggled, nervousness pushed aside, as she watched him clearly regret saying what he did, probably thinking she might be offended.

"It's okay." She said smiling, her smile soft and warm. Her eyes sparkled. She took the list back. "It is a strange list."

He smiled back at her, seeming to relax. He knew his mother might have some of this stuff. He mentally told her what he needed and asked her if she could bring it to the plant store they had in the compound. They had a part of the compound with stores that had clothes, food, and plants for the green fingers in the pack. It was like a small market only since it was in the pack everything was free. He would pay for it anyways. Think of it as a reward for his pack member working the plant store that day, he said to himself.

"I'll take you there, and then I have a list of my own. My mother wanted me to get some wild flowers that grow in the field where your cottage is. I don't know of any other place they grow or I would go there instead of troubling you and I don't know which flower is which either."

She smiled. "If you take me to the village, I'll take you to my flower field, I guess you could call it, and show you which is which for future preference because the flowers are beautiful so I'm sure your mother will want more."

He smiled. They walked in silence for a while. He knew once he took her into the compound, the pack would be buzzing with news. The alpha brought his mate to the flower store in the compound. The alpha found his mate. The alpha is here in the compound with his mate. Finally they reached it. He glanced at her to see her eyes widen at the size of his compound.

"Wow. Big village."

He chuckled. "Yes."

"Oh. Where are my manners." She turned towards him and offered her hand. "I'm red, well, it's reda may, which means contentment of the soul. But I just go by red. Reda may just sounds, oh I don't know, little girlish, and reda just doesn't sound good on its own so I prefer to go by Red."

He smiled. Red, and she was wearing a red hood cloak and he was a wolf. Little red riding hood kept playing in his mind and he stopped himself from smirking. "Red. Okay. And I'm micah. It means, well, I'm not sure what it means."

Red laughed. "That's okay."

He took her hand, which cause her to blush and look down, and he led her to the plant store, which thankfully his mother had already been too. The man working there was young, maybe in his twenties, with golden brownish hair that hung messily in his eyes. He looked stole smiled warmly, taking the list and went around the shop gathering the items, while stealing curious glances at the small young lady waiting patiently next to the alpha. He arrived back at the counter with the things and the girl stepped forward, placing them in her basket before pulling out a pouch with some coins in it.

Here in the forest, though there were some electronical devices, such as TVs, Iphones, nooks, and laptops but people traveled by horse, or their own two feet. They didn't use paper money either. They used coins, like in the olden days. Shillings if you will. It was the twentieth century but the people living in the forest stilled used shillings and the forest itself had a protective law on it by a billionaire who fell in love with the old fashioned people in the forest and put the law on it to prevent the forest from ever being torn down.

It was really cool and really nice. Like stepping into a forest back in time. At the edge of the forest was a postage store where they could send mail and what not. That was how Red sent her books to the publisher in the city.

"How much?" she asked. Behind her, Micah mentally told him to charge her so she would continue to think the compound was a village, until he told her the truth. The man almost raised his eyebrows before he caught himself and told her how much.

"One shilling."

She nodded. Behind her cottage, mixed in with the flowers, were plants, ingredients for the ink and for looks, except lately she had been forgetting to plant the seeds of the plants she used so she would always have plenty of the plants. She had more now since realizing some of the plants she usually had were missing but she was still missing some. When she got home, she would have to remove the seeds of the plants she had bought.

She smiled at him, the smile warm. "Thank you." She said. He smiled back.

"You're welcome." He liked her. She seemed really kind. Her smile was warm and kind too. "Come back anytime." He said.

"Oh, I will. This shop is nice and so is the village."

He felt his chest swell with pride that the alpha's mate thought so well of his humble little shop. "Thank you." He said, smiling again. She fished out the shilling but Micah stopped her. He smiled.

"Let me. It's the least I can do since your helping me with my list."

She smiled. So, not only was he handsome, but he was a gentleman too. "Thank you."

He smiled. He took a shilling out of his pocket and gave it to the man. Then he turned, instinctively putting his hand in the small of her back as he led her out. She suppressed a shiver when she felt him place his hand in the small of her back. His hands were warm. As they walked out of the village she looked around and saw how peaceful it was, little children running around, playing, and she even saw some wolf pups.

"You have wolves as pets? That must be nice. They must be good around people. Do they roam around the forest as well as in the village? I remember when I lived in another village like this one, old fashioned and still using shillings, that we had wolves roam around freely. They were friends and protecters. That when I was young."