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.

Excerpt:

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.