Craving Red: Paranormal Erotic Retelling of Red Riding Hood (Erotic Kingdom)

“The primal wolf in him craved her
as he had craved nothing before. 

She would give up the only life
she had ever known for him.”

It is the night of the
snow moon.  Sweden, 1790.

Maiden Kaia is days away
from being married to the handsome Leif when her mother suddenly becomes gravely
ill.  Desperate to save his wife, her father sends his only daughter to the
village on his horse to obtain help for her beloved mother. 

But Kaia
will
not
be returning home.

Out on the path, wolves emerge
from the trees, surrounding her and spooking her horse.  Fainting in sheer
terror, the next thing Kaia knows, she is being dragged through the snow back
to their lair.  Shivering cold, half naked and bound, she startles awakes to
the feel of warm breath blowing out over her body. 

The following day, she
realises she sees no wolves around, but does see several other women there.  Noticing
they are all pregnant, Kaia fears her fate.  Her fears are validated when one
of them complacently informs her that her initiation is imminent.  The moment her
scent is ripe, she is to be mated by all males of the pack.

Still worse than that is
the struggle she is having with herself upon being presented with so much
blatant man flesh walking about, leaving Kaia flustered with the responses of
her body which are swiftly summoning forth to betray her.  And then, she feels
herself drawn to one in particular, Dane, the youngest member of the pack.  But
she swears she will not allow herself to fall for one of them. 

Will Kaia ever escape
this primitive place to see her family again?  And if she does, will she be
able to suppress the primal need she feels awakening in her?  Worse yet, will
she want to?

There is a battle of two wolves inside
us all

One is evil.  

It is anger, greed, jealousy,
resentment, lies, inferiority and ego.

The other is good. 

It is joy, peace, love, hope,
humility, kindness, empathy and truth.

Which wolf wins? 

The one you feed. 

~ Cherokee Proverb

T
hough
at the time it seemed an absolute horrid succession of tragic events, I now know
that it all happened for a reason.  The finest reason.  And now, I can honestly
say I am glad I endured it.  For had I not, never would I have been led to my fated
mate.

The year was Seventeen hundred and ninety.  It
was December, the night of the snow moon, which in the northernmost region of Sweden
meant it was right frigid.

At that time, Kaia Klingstedt was a maiden,
engaged to a promising young man, Leif Göransson.  Though she would not go so
far as to say she
loved
him, she did feel she was reasonably well-suited
to the man she was to wed in three days’ time, and believed that in time she
could grow to have an exceptional fondness for him.  He was a good man, she
told herself. 

Nonetheless, she accepted without question that
this was the way things were.  Passionate love was nothing more than a romantic
notion conjured up in fairytales.  It did not really exist, and therefore had
no place in reality.  Thus, Kaia, having been reared to be a sensible young
woman, had never even considered the possibility.  So to say that she was
disappointed to be marrying a man she did not love would be inaccurate.  She
knew he would be a good provider and she would have a comfortable life with many
smart, handsome children.

Little did Kaia know how dramatically her path
was set to alter before the next sunrise.

Her mother,
Britta,
had
suddenly become gravely ill.  Her father, Tomas, had recently lost a leg in an
accident and so could not ride great distances.  Therefore, it was left to her
to go procure medicine for her mother. 

Recognising at once the fact that she was in the
midst of her menses, Kaia became somewhat concerned that the scent of blood might
attract wild animals.  Nonetheless, never could a young lady disclose a matter
of such personal nature to her father.

 Detecting her ambivalent expression her father
patted her arm in reassurance. “Not to worry, daughter,” he pronounced as
optimistically as he could muster under the circumstances.  “You are an
excellent rider and the light of the full moon shall guide you home if darkness
falls before your return.”

Resigned with what she must do for the sake of
her mother, Kaia shadowed him to the stable and stared blankly as he readied Absalon,
his large, black horse, for her.  Her mind was faraway worrying about venturing
out alone through the wood.  The journey would take most of the day.  It would
be a miracle if she made it back before the sun made its descent behind the towering
fir trees.   And she knew all too well how there was nothing darker than the
wood in winter once the sun vanished. 

At least there would be the light of the moon. 
Although that thought did not offer much solace to her.  Rather, it conjured up
terrifying legends she had heard too many times as a young girl of the evil
creatures to which the full moon brought life.

“Absalon is my most surefooted mount.  He shall
keep you safe,” her father stated, though whether it was for her benefit or for
hers, she was not entirely sure.  “Now, daughter, you better be off if you are
to make it back before the sun descends.”

“Yes, father,” Kaia replied, her tone stoic.

“And here,” he added, handing her a heavy red
cloak.  “I want you to wear this.  Animals have a healthy fear the colour red. 
This will assure any you may come across keep their distance.”

It will not be the red they perceive with their
eyes, but rather the red they detect with their noses to which I fear their
reaction.

Nevertheless, to appease her father, Kaia
slipped the cloak about her shoulders.  Much too elongated for her small frame,
the crimson fabric spilt onto the ground resembling a pool of blood upon the
snow.  At once, she strove to expel the unnerving image from her mind. 

Tomas smiled in satisfaction and planted a kiss
upon his daughter’s cheek before helping her onto his horse.  After taking a
moment to settle herself in the saddle, he slapped the horse’s rump.  Knowing
her father would prefer her to keep a careful, steady pace, Kaia set off at a reserved
trot.  However, fully intent upon doing everything in her power to make it home
before darkness fell, once out of sight of him, Kaia drove Absalon faster. 

She was delighted when she reached the village
in scarcely half the time predicted by her father.  Quickly making her way to
the apothecary, Kaia procured the medicine and anticipated making it home well
before sunset, a sense of relief settling in her that her journey was now half
finished. 

However, as fate would have it, her intended
path would drastically alter course before the day’s end.

The initial delays all seemed harmless enough.  First,
after she had to explain to each person she came across why it was that she
happened to be about the village on her own, then every single one of them had
to extend their congratulations on her upcoming nuptials to Leif Göransson.  

Every maiden with whom she crossed paths would
swoon to her, “Oh Kaia, do you realise how fortunate you are to be marrying
Leif?  He is so dreamy!  Nearly every girl I know envies you your fiancée!”

While she was not blind to the fact that he was
indeed an exceptionally dashing man, still he was simply too
refined
for
her taste.  In the deepest crevice of her psyche, she found herself drawn to a
more masculine, more
raw
sort of man.  Not that her parents would ever
allow her to be given to such a brute of a man, let alone be in the presence of
them! 

But Kaia had spied them whilst out and about in
the village.  On more than one occasion she had even been gently reproached by
her mother when caught staring at these men.  The young men labouring on the
streets, their hair disheveled, the glimpse of the muscles of their forearms
flexing, the perspiration making their skin glisten.  The appearance of them
was just so primal, so raw.  It beckoned to something deep inside of her,
though she could not be certain as to what it was. 

Two hours had passed by the time she was finally
able to turn towards home.  Looking up towards the descending sun already sinking
below the midline of the sky, Kaia was disheartened that virtually all of the
headway she had made on her journey there had been eaten up by this frivolous
chit-chat.  Anxious to make up for it, Kaia steered Absalon away from the village,
digging her heels into his side firmly to urge him forwards.

By the time she had reached the wood, already the
sun was skimming the horizon.  Kaia felt her stomach knot up at the thought
that she may surely be caught there in the dark wood after all.  As an only
child, she had always endeavoured to give the impression of a brave girl before
her father, and so had been careful never to reveal her fear of the dark, even
as a child. 

Not that it would have changed anything.  She
still needed to do what must be done.  For her mother.

Anxious to make her way beyond this as soon as
possible, Kaia spurred her horse into a run.  However, it had already been a
long day and having foregone his midday meal, the old horse simply could not
maintain those speeds for long.  Sensing his gait faltering, she sighed and
pulled back the reins to let him slow to a walk for a time. 

The wood suddenly seemed darker now, twilight
having come and gone in a flash whilst Kaia was focused upon moving briskly. 
Now only halfway home and reconciled to this temporary sluggish pace, she felt
much less in control, and far more vulnerable.  And she did not like it one
bit.  With each successive step through the snow-covered path, she felt her
anxiousness mounting.

Suddenly, the most unnerving feeling came over Kaia. 
The eerie feeling of being watched, like a deer being stalked by its prey. 
Unsure of whether it was the fear taking control of her mind or if it was
indeed real, she swore she heard movement within the trees which flanked the
path.  When she could sense Absalon, too, growing anxious, she knew she could
no longer hope it was merely her imagination, and cursed this fact.

The horse’s anxiousness was mounting by the
second— and hers along with it— as he stomped his feet beneath her, his tail
swishing madly, his nostrils flaring out sending his hot breath out into the
cold air like fog.   

Kaia’s pulse began to race.

Her eyes were drawn to the trees, their lower branches
now visibly rustling.  She gasped as a second later an inconceivably large, stark
white wolf stepped out, its red eyes staring intently at her.  A moment later,
another followed, followed by another and another.  One by one, the massive wolves
emerged from the evergreens, until the whole pack was standing there, staring
at her and snarling. 

As though suddenly shrunken, Kaia’s chest
tightened and her stomach clenched until she could scarcely find her breath.

Should I command Absalon to run?  But then that
will only instigate them to chase us, and wolves are swift.  Certainly more so
than an old horse is capable of outrunning.  Perhaps if we simply remain still,
they will leave us and be on their way
.

From the savage expression in their glowing
eyes, she quickly comprehended that she was gravely mistaken.  And now her time
had run out.

Only lured in more by her fear, the wolves began
stalking towards her.  With each step they took, her chest squeezed in on her,
restricting the necessary flow of oxygen, making her head feel hazy.  In a
matter of moments, they had surrounded her.  

Struck entirely helpless, Kaia was rendered as
frozen as the Nordic landscape.  The wolves rushed in on them and began mauling
Absalon’s legs.  Though she wished she could save her father’s old horse, she
knew she was helpless to be able to do anything for him.  All she could hope
for now was to save herself.  She rose her own legs up as high as she could to
avoid the beasts’ gnashing teeth.  The horse reared up high in terror, abruptly
sending Kaia to the ground to fend for herself. 

Landing in the snow a few metres from her mount,
the first sight her eyes took in was the dark blood streaming down the horse’s
legs, the flesh hanging grotesquely from his bones.  Absalon bolted down the
path towards home, leaving her to the mercy of the wild animals.  Though she
felt utterly dreadful for thinking it, Kaia suddenly found herself hoping they
would be diverted and pursue him, distracting their interest from her.  But rather
than chasing the frightened animal, the wolves swiftly closed in on her, snarling,
their hot slaver melting the snow as it trickled onto it. 

Instantaneously her fear magnified to
unparalleled levels.  As though intent upon escaping with or without her, her
heart commenced to beating wildly against her ribcage.

What a way to go, to be torn to shreds and eaten
alive by monster wolves.
 

Expecting death, Kaia just squeezed her eyes
shut tight and began to pray.

Please God, for whatever reason you have chosen
me to die in this horrid way, I cannot begin to understand, but please, if this
is what it must be, than please just let it be swift.  I only wish I could have
gotten the remedy to my mother she so desperately needed.  Now she will be sure
to join me on the other side.  But never would I have dreamed I would arrive
there first.

As the wolves moved in on her, she could feel
their hot hungry breath beating down upon her in gusts, contrasting the frigid
night air.

Her heart unable to withstand another second of the
intense level of sheer terror, Kaia fainted.

Amid her wavering state of consciousness, she had
the vague awareness of being dragged through the snow, though it seemed as
nothing more than a dream.

Or rather, a nightmare.