Red As A Rose

By D. F. Krieger

In this sexy retelling of Red Riding Hood, danger abounds and darker powers are at work. Can a seductive witch save the big bad wolf she finds in her grandmother's bed? Or will she fall prey not only to the Woodsmen that hunt him, but to the lure of her forbidden powers of necromancy?

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. F. Krieger
• Release date: Oct 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386962212

Book preview

Author’s Note

Once upon a time, there was a cover artist named Victoria who posted a photo of a woman in a red cloak and a man in her arms against a snowy background. She did this in a group we both belonged to on a social media site with a line that said, Someone write these two a story, please!

So I did.

This one is for you, Victoria, without whom I never would have met Rose and Tobias, or learned their story. Thank you for not only showing them to me so they could tell me their secrets, but making me an awesome cover to go with it.

Chapter One

TOBIAS WAS DYING. HE knew it just as surely as he knew the snow icily burned his paws and the air grew heavy with the scent of an oncoming blizzard. Both fear and longing filled him at the thought of the snowstorm. If he shifted and attempt to heal his wounds without finding shelter before the weather turned bitter, it could very well spell the death of him. At least in this form his fur provided some buffer from the freezing wind. Yet, the blizzard would also cover his tracks, aiding him against those hunting him—a double-edged sword.

For an hour now, the forest around him had narrowed down to nothing more than a blur of white and green, and blistering, seething pain. Run! Run! Run! He chanted the mantra in his head over and over as he sped along wildly, without a thought as to where he headed. Now, his steps slowed and he took a moment to scent the air. Where am I?

He turned in a slow circle, trying his best to get an idea of his location. The smell of snow filled the air, stinging his nostrils. The pain blinded his vision, impairing him more than he wanted to admit. As despair filled him, Tobias nearly gave up and lay down under the nearest tree to die. The wind shifted, teasing him with a scent he knew.

Rosemary and cinnamon. Scarlet Hood.

Tobias angled his body as he followed his nose. When the scent was the strongest, he forced his exhausted body in that direction. Scarlet Hood was an old woman, a hedge witch, who lived deep in the forest. He’d met her once, long ago, when his mother suffered a wound made by silver. The witch had been able to cleanse the wound before it took his mother’s life. Perhaps she could do the same with the silver-tipped arrow lodged in his ribcage.

A howl filled the air as the wind picked up. Little pellets of ice stung his face and sensitive nose as he trudged through the drifts still on the ground from the previous storm. Tobias wanted desperately to tuck his head against his chest, but he didn’t dare for fear of losing the scent.

The minutes passed, each one ticking by like a drop of sand falling in an hourglass. He had no idea how many more grains of sand were left in the hourglass that measured his life. Just as he began to worry that the scent he followed was an illusion, a flash of red appeared through the trees. Tobias picked up his pace, ears perking forward.