Red Run
Sophie Redding is one of the few humans to have dodged the evacuation of the
shapeshifting
Sethen
. She is on a journey to the Northlands, in a ridiculous outfit and on foot, leaving a trail a mile wide.
Commander
T'bir
is in charge of cleaning out the towns and villages to let his people's city rise from the ground. When a detachment of trackers is unable to capture the human in the red dress, his interest is piqued and he goes on the hunt. Capturing this human may be the tipping point for his people, and her own.
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Red Run
Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
Cover art by Martine
Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Red Run
A Trapezium Exclusive
By
Viola Grace
Sophie Redding carefully darted through the open space between ruined buildings. The
Sethen
had returned and the planet’s lease was up. The colonists were being evicted by a race that only existed in legend.
Despite the reports that everyone had been rounded up in the
north country
, there was still a chance that her grandmother was safe. Sophie was on her way to find out.
She took a deep breath and cursed the fates that had her in a risqué red party dress that her roommate had nagged her into just before the attacks started. Her body must stand out like a flare in the darkness to anyone who saw it. Hopefully, there wasn’t anyone looking.
* * * *
“
Oy
,
T’bir
. We have a loose human in sector six.”
N’lien
chuckled. “Based on these scan results, she is female, fairly young and moving very fast for a woman on foot. Shall I send out a hunting party?”
“For a woman alone?
Send out two men.” Commander
T’bir
frowned at the screen. It read heat and scent, nothing more. “Have them report to me when they have her.”
“Jos and
M’dal
will be happy to track her. Do you want her back here alive?”
T’bir
sighed.
“Of course.
We are evicting these humans from our prime hunting grounds, not killing them outright. They are to take all precautions.”
N’lien
nodded and relayed the order to the trackers. “And bring her back alive. We don’t want any more
accidents.
”
The trackers confirmed the orders and set out.
T’bir
watched the monitors when he could, in between filing reports and making arrangements for the colonists to either leave
Harosh
or be confined to a large island in the western hemisphere.
The
Sethen
had returned to their hunting world only to find that the humans had ignored the warnings and beacons and colonized anyway. It was a good thing they had only been here a hundred years or so. They had barely had time to make an impact on the eco system.
The trackers were nearing the runner now. She would be caught and that would be one less human in their territory.
T’bir
sighed,
he was getting a premonition that it would not be that simple.
* * * *
Sophie gasped and tried to still her breathing as much as she could. She was being followed, hunted. The howls that were following her were unnerving to say the least, chilling at best. The only bonus to her constant movement was the heat her body was generating against the cool of the night.
The streets were silent, but she knew them.
Each nook and cranny, each alleyway and tributary.
Only three more blocks and she would be to the river. If it wasn’t too deadly, she just might make it across without disaster striking or getting caught.
The wolves had a reputation, even after a few days. There were as many who liked to play with their food as there were creatures
who
simply made humans disappear.
Out of the nine hidden survivors she had found the day after the landing, only three were left.
The howls got closer and she shivered. She was going to have to break cover and make a beeline for the river. The time for finesse was gone, if she wanted to reach the north lands, she had to go now.
Sophie crossed her fingers and ran like the hounds of hell were on her trail. She sprinted down the street and onto the bridge. Their howls turned to growls as they got closer. With her last ounce of speed, she propelled herself off the bridge before she could change her mind.
The icy water closed over her head and when she surfaced meters downstream, she gave a tired grin at the yipping and barking that her pursuers were engaged in. Apparently, these dogs were not fond of water. With grim determination, she began to pull herself through the water until she was on the north bank. The current had done two hours of walking for her.
* * * *
“They lost her.”
N’lien
announced it with surprise. “She jumped off a bridge and swam away.”
T’bir
couldn’t help a grin from creeping over his features. “Did she now? Do they know which way she was headed?”
“She seemed to be heading due north.
Possibly to one of the settlements there.”
T’bir
nodded. “We cleaned out all of those settlements, didn’t we?”
“Yes. It was done on the third day, after we cut off communications. She might not know that there is no one in the settlement.”
N’lien
paused to take a call from one of the security patrols.
“I would guarantee that she doesn’t. We have done a fairly thorough job of blocking their communications.”
T’bir
ran his hands through his hair. “I am going after her.”
“Really, T’bir?
She shouldn’t be too hard to catch. From the visual that the trackers got, she is wearing bright red and an open skirt. She doesn’t exactly sound like she is prepared for a long overland hike while dodging patrols.”
T’bir
almost growled at his friend of twenty years. “I will hunt her and bring her in.”
N’lien
finally caught on.
“Yes, Commander.
Hunt the human female,
bring
her back. It will do you good to be active.”
He stifled another snarl and stalked from the control room. His ship was laid out in a wheel and spoke pattern with the central hub being the control area. The spoke he took led him to the ramp which led to the ground below.
T’bir
nodded to the men on duty, shifted into his wolf form and took a northerly path through the blasted city.
He admired the efficiency of their attack even while he inwardly cringed at the smell of death that dotted some of the rubble. His senses were more acute than that of his subordinates, so he would have to tell them of the living humans hiding beneath the street when he returned. Now was for hunting.
A scent caught him, light and sweet with an
odour
of fear and sweat in it. It was blatantly feminine and stood out amongst the rubble like an orchid on a sand dune.
A low growl started in his throat as his blood heated. This was no ordinary chase. He was on a mate hunt and nothing and no one would get in his way.
* * * *
Sophie dodged two patrols by hiding in tall grasses along a stream bed. The damned scarlet clothing she was wearing was going to drive her nuts if she survived this. At this very moment, it did seem doubtful.
Crouched in the reeds, she saw one of the
Sethen
up close for the first time. He had been upstream about twenty feet and had shifted from wolf to human looking male in a second of rippling skin. His clothing appeared when he did which caused her mind to scramble around, trying to figure out the how.
He leaned down, splashed water on his arms and face, then stood and returned to his companions. They were joined by another wolf and as the man stood, Sophie’s limbs locked in place.
He wasn’t pretty, but he was riveting. A solid jaw was framed by a slithering silk of black and silver hair. It wasn’t silvered with
age,
it just seemed part of his
colouring
somehow. His shoulders were massive, waist narrow and there was enough muscle tone on him to cause her to shrug at the manner in which her people had been defeated. If all the men were like him, she didn’t wonder that the humans had just given up.
The males laughed together and wandered off to share a meal. She crouched at the edge of the stream and very slowly made her way as far away from their little gathering as possible.
* * * *
“Does she honestly think we don’t see and smell her there?” one of the patrol members asked casually.
T’bir
nodded. “The humans have very little of their tracking abilities left. They depend almost entirely on their sight.”
The head of the patrol looked to his companions and then back to
T’bir
. “Will you capture her, Commander?”
“I feel I had better. She hasn’t eaten in at least a day so she will no doubt be bad tempered, but she is my target and I must make sure she stays in good health.”
T’bir
shifted into his wolf form and disappeared into the woods next to the stream. He cut his quarry off and when she was inching toward him, he shifted back into his other form and caught her in his arms. Her scream was ear shattering, making him
wonder—
with a grin—if she did everything at that decibel level.
“Quiet. You will not be hurt. I am here to feed you,
help
you to your destination so you can confirm that the city is empty and then I will escort you to the ship where we will discuss your future.”
T’bir
was having a hard time concentrating. Her warm weight and her scent of female, his female,
was
driving him to distraction. The clothing she was wearing was in place due to its construction because the gilded outfit barely covered her essentials. With the flimsy fabric clinging to her every curve, he gritted his teeth at the self-control he suddenly needed. His cock jerked in his trousers as he shifted her and carried her out of the reeds to the small camp made by the patrol.
They nodded as she was seated in their midst, facing the small fire. “That is quite the outfit you have on, Miss.”
T’bir
scowled at the younger tracker. The young woman was wearing enough to cover breasts and crotch and not a lot else. Her laced boots were the only practical thing she had on.
Her cheeks turned a blotchy pink and her bluish lips stopped further questions. Her body started to quiver and
T’bir
nodded to the others. “She is
cold,
we need to warm her as quickly as we can.”
Without a word, half of the men shifted into their wolf forms and wound around her, rubbing her flesh with their fur.
T’bir
laid her down on the ground and shifted so that he was in front of her, wrapping her in his bulky fur, nestling his head between her neck and shoulder. Her fingers wound in his fur and burrowed deep.
The younger trackers covered her back and legs, radiating heat as close to her as they could.
It seemed like hours until she started stirring on her own, trying to fight her way free of the pile of fur and fangs.
* * * *
Sophie was shocked when the man cornered her in the reeds and simply lifted her to the shore without a fight. She was exhausted, cold and disoriented by the shifting between man and wolf that seemed so easy to them.
He smelled warm, there was no doubt of it,
heat
was radiating from him in waves. She wanted nothing more at that moment than to snuggle in and absorb every inch of his warmth. His voice was soothing to her ears, a welcome note in the bizarre events of the week.
When he promised to take her north, she jerked in surprise, and that small motion started a chain reaction of shivers that worked its way out from her core until she was quivering in place. One of the men spoke to her, but she didn’t hear him as her body’s shaking became more violent.
