Red and Grey

Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  Everyone is wrong.

Red and Grey is the re-imagination of the classic story, set in a fairytale land full of Godmothers, magic, witches and curses.

It tells the story of

Melody: A young woman who has recently lost her mother. Now her father is pushing her to marry, her relationship with her grandmother, who she walks through the woods to visit has become strained, nightmares plague her sleep and she has discovered there are deep family secrets that revolve around her and magic.

And Connor: A young man who was turned into a wolf.  Not a werewolf or a shape shifter.  A wolf. Now with no way to be human again he is living as all animals must, hunting for food, alone, or as part of a pack. Until the day he sees Melody walking along the rode and smells the food coming from her basket. Suddenly he is torn between the desires of the wolf he is and the man he was.

Throughout the novel the wolf is not the only thing stalking Melody. Something ancient and evil wants to possess her magic. Is she capable of stopping a being who has been destroying lives for thousands of years?

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Excerpt

She was alone, standing; she could feel that her body was upright. The sky above her and around her was midnight black, but no stars broke through the void. Only blackness moved around her.

She couldn’t move. Darkness crept up her legs, around her calf muscles, it twisted making it impossible for her to run. Her arms were crushed into her sides by the blackness creeping up her body. She tried to twist, tried to pull free. It was hopeless.

Melody needed to scream, needed help, but she couldn’t. The blackness devoured all the air around her. She gasped, tried again to yell. A small sound left her mouth, a whimper, nothing more.

He loped through the woods, trees and scents shifted around him. He felt the ground under his paws; the forest floor was soft and gave with his steps.

Light reflected off tree trunks and soaked into the ground. He continued to run enjoying the feel of his muscles moving under his skin. A sound broke through the gentle night.

A whimper of fear; somewhere to his right. Prey? He changed his direction, changed his gate, and kept his body low to the ground.

The clearing opened in front of him, no stars shone here, no moon glow. Only one thing seemed to emit light in this place.

The girl stood in the center of the clearing. Her skin seemed to glow, giving off the only light. He knew her immediately. He stalked silently around the clearing, watching her. Blackness engulfed her legs, and swelled around her. He saw her struggling, heard her fighting to take a breath. She was trapped. He growled.

The deep sound of an animal’s growl rippled over Melody like cold water. Closing her eyes, Melody tried again to draw a breath; she opened her eyes and let them scan the area she could see. The animal growled again and colored sparks lit the air near the edge of the clearing.

Orange and red seemed to flicker around the beast’s face and Melody closed her eyes again, hoping that when she opened them it would be gone.

The wolf watched. She was immobile, easy prey and he was hungry. He could have killed her earlier but let her walk away. He could kill her now, and eat his fill. Her skin would be so soft, so easy to tear. No. This was wrong. Disgust rolled through him.

She was not prey.

Her eyes were closed. Long, dark lashes lay against her cheeks, standing out against the paleness of her skin. The other hunger she awakened in him surged past the inhibitions and instincts of the wolf. He slid into the clearing. His feet hardly touched the earth; they seemed to hover on top of the blackness. He moved close and sniffed the air.

Her scent was clean and felt like water to his senses. She opened her eyes and saw him. She didn’t scream, just watched as he approached.

It was a wolf, and it was moving closer. Sweat mixed with tears running down her cheeks. She swallowed back a sob, choking on the effort. She was going to die. If the blackness didn’t consume her, the wolf would. Terror clutched her stomach and she fought the urge to try again to yell, knowing it was useless.

The wolf moved forward and the tip of its nose touched one of her fingers. Stars exploded into the sky, the blackness in the clearing fled. Flowers in every color of the rainbow sprang into life around her. Trees appeared around the clearing, crisp green leaves covering brown branches. The sky above was the darkest shade of blue she had ever seen and in middle of it all was the Grey wolf.

She breathed deeply. The wolf stared up at her.

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What early readers are saying about Red and Grey:

“Red and Grey has been the most enjoyable read I’ve had in the Fantasy genre since I first read Lord Of The Rings! Seriously the way Christine brings depth to her characters you get drawn into the story and keep wanting more!” –Marc Scott

“Christine has a gift of bringing the characters to life, the story might be fantasy, but Red could be a good friend, I think we’ve all met her, even though we might not have known it…” – Rachel Dunham