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  Dead World 2: Scarlet (Deadworld Trilogy)

  Jordan Summers

  Contents

  Copyright

  Scarlet Backcover Copy

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Thank You!

  Dead World 3: Crimson Preview

  Other Dead World Titles

  Copyright

  Dead World Series 2: Scarlet

  (Deadworld Trilogy)

  * * *

  Copyright 2013 Jordan Summers

  * * *

  Originally published by Tor in 2009. The book has been re-edited for re-release.

  * * *

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ISBN: 978-0-9911939-5-0

  Scarlet Backcover Copy

  Welcome to the near-future where prejudice is no longer tied to the color of your skin, but the purity of your blood. To be accused of taint is tantamount to a death sentence.

  Thrust into a world of creatures Gina ‘Red’ Santiago never knew existed, she does her best to fit in while trying to come to grips with the fact that she’s a werewolf. The transition from International Police Tactical Team officer to unpaid recruiter is not an easy one.

  Someone doesn’t want Red to succeed at building a rival tactical team. They will do whatever it takes to stop her, even if that means killing people and framing her for murder. Red will have to embrace the part of herself that she doesn’t understand in order to catch the killer. The hunter will soon learn that if you’re not afraid of the big bad wolf…you should be.

  1

  Gina ‘Red’ Santiago stood naked in a barren valley near the remnants of a dead forest. The cool desert air brushed her skin, leaving gooseflesh in its wake. She shivered and took a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she curled her toes into the earth and pictured a wolf in her mind.

  It took a few minutes, but eventually eyes the color of autumn stared back at her from a shaggy elongated face. Its deadly white teeth glowed in sharp relief next to its velvety black pelt. Not quite animal and definitely not human, the creature looked imposing. And dangerous.

  Red sank deeper into her mind. Her stomach spasmed. She felt the wolf’s hunger. Its need for survival. The desire to escape. It took every fiber of Red’s being not to act on the urge to run blindly into the darkness.

  She longed to feel the compacted dirt and sand beneath her rough paws. Feel the air flow over her thick pelt. Feel the thrill that came from running down prey.

  She mentally reached out, drawing the vision nearer, calling to her Other, beckoning the wolf inside her to come and play. It was time to embrace the thing she feared most.

  Close. Closer. Red felt the phantom sensation of soft fur brushing her hands. Almost there.

  Pain seared her flesh, causing her spine to contort. Her head jerked back like invisible hands yanked her hair. The night sky blurred before her eyes. Red closed them to keep from throwing up. Tremors wracked her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream.

  Carried away by the fire coursing through her veins, Red could no longer control her movements. Her muscles bunched under her skin, twisting and bulging as the beast clawed its way out. The bones in her hand snap. Red shrieked and opened her eyes.

  Tonight was the night. She could feel it.

  Her body continued to coil, bending into unnatural shapes. Red thought she'd go mad from the agony. She stared out at the barren landscape, trying to breathe through the pain. Her vision dimmed until she could barely see. She was going to pass out. The moment fear engulfed her, the pain receded, taking the wolf with it.

  “No!” she shouted. “Come back!” She lunged for the wolf’s image, but holding onto it was like trying to tether smoke.

  Red looked down at her gnarled hand, expecting to see a smattering of fur—or at least a misshapen paw where her fingers should be. One claw protruded through the top of her fingernail.

  All that pain for one lousy claw?

  Blood dripped onto the thirsty desert floor. The glistening scarlet puddle spotlighted her failure.

  She swore under her breath.

  It had been weeks since Red had quit the International Police Tactical Team and moved to Nuria in the Republic of Arizona. Weeks since she'd first attempted to shift into her Other form. And she still couldn't control the wolf inside her.

  Red stared at her hand, watching the bones pop back into place. She was still amazed by how quickly her body could repair the damage. So amazed that she could almost ignore the excruciating pain that followed. Almost.

  The agony was the same every night. Red would've thought that she'd be used to the pain by now, but she wasn't. She glanced to her right and quickly spotted her lover.

  Sheriff Morgan Hunter waited quietly in the distance at the edge of the forest. He hid his disappointment well, but not well enough. Red still noticed. Morgan was worried. Everyone was.

  How many more times could she fail to shift before the townsfolk decided to run her out of Nuria?

  Red sighed.

  Others who couldn't control their change were as dangerous to the town as a loaded laser rifle in the hands of a criminal. It wasn’t just the fear that they might harm other people. It was the damage they could do to themselves.

  The old government created Super Soldiers via gene splicing human DNA with the top predators in the world. The new species known as Others were the last-ditch effort to end the massive global war. Others could take several pistol blasts before they even realized that they'd been hit. It would take a lot more than that to finish the job. Not that Red would know firsthand, since she'd spent the majority of her time without fur.

  Sleepwalking in her Other form didn’t count.

  Morgan's influence as sheriff would only protect her for so long. Soon that would end, then it would be open season and Red would be fair game.

  The pressure from that invisible clock only made it harder to concentrate
. Morgan hid his worry well, but Red could still sense it. Hard to keep things like that from someone you're sleeping with. He hadn't come right out and said anything. Morgan never would. It wasn't his way. There'd be enough people in town to do it for him.

  Disapproval she could deal with, but disappointment...

  Red had spent her whole life trying not to disappoint anyone. She had succeeded with her parents and her grandfather, Commander Robert Santiago. At least Red thought she had, but there was no way to be sure that they hadn’t lied to spare her feelings.

  Maybe like Morgan, they'd hid their disappointment and she'd been too young to realize it. Red debated whether to try to shift one more time. She glanced at the night sky. It was getting late.

  They'd been out here for three hours already. Three wasted hours with only a claw to show for it. Red picked up a rock and threw it at a tank, half buried under the desert. The rock burst through the rotting reminder of the last world war, leaving a gapping hole behind.

  Red picked up another rock and sent it hurling through the air out of sight. She had no doubt that the town would know about her failure come morning.

  Morgan wouldn't lie, if someone asked. And someone always asked how it went. Red didn't expect him to lie on her behalf, but sometimes she wished he would. She stared at him.

  Scars etched Morgan’s chest and abdomen, carving out a tragic story that started when the military he’d served with honor tried to kill him and ended with his cousin Kane’s betrayal. The mental scars ran far deeper than the ones marring his skin. Kane Hunter’s obsession with her had tipped him into madness and ultimately drove him to try to kill Morgan.

  Kane had conspired with Roark Montgomery, a politician determined to expose the Others. Had their plan succeeded, it would’ve meant genocide for Morgan and his people. Even though their machinations failed, Roark still posed a serious threat.

  Red still couldn't believe how close she'd come to losing Morgan. What would she have done then? Gone back to the International Police Tactical Team? Doubtful. Found a new job? Unlikely. She was only qualified to do one job and that was hunt Unknowns.

  The unregistered individuals continued to sneak through the boundary fence that separated the Republics from No-Man’s-Land. Seeing their fresh trails galled her, but Red no longer had the authority to stop them—or Roark for that matter.

  The wind picked up.

  Morgan threw his head back, letting the desert breeze caress his skin and shoulder-length dark hair. The air picked up the sweet musk that covered his body and carried the rich aroma over to her.

  Despite his civilized appearance, Morgan’s wolf always lurked just beneath the surface, a barely leashed instinctual being that was impossible to ignore. The aura of dominant power he exuded was second nature to him. Without even trying, Morgan drew her to him.

  Red's body tightened in anticipation. She wanted to shift just to be near him. She wanted to feel what it would be like to have their wolves running side-by-side, but that would require her to lose control. Red had never been good at letting herself go.

  In the back of her mind, she worried that if she released the beast inside of her that it might kill someone. Red didn’t want the death of a Nurian citizen on her conscience. Or worse yet, Morgan.

  He might have years of experience shifting into his Other form and she knew he could fight, but Red wasn’t willing to take the chance. No matter how remote.

  If Red accidentally killed someone, Morgan would be forced to put her down. His feelings for her and plans for their burgeoning relationship wouldn’t factor into the decision.

  Nuria had survived this long by following a few simple rules: 1. Never tell an outsider that you're an Other. 2. Do not hunt humans. 3. Shape-shifters who live in town must be able to control their changes.

  Violation of rule number two garnered an automatic death sentence. Breaking rule number three came with two options: banishment or death. Neither option appealed to Red, but she could live with those rules. At least she hoped she could.

  When she'd agreed to the terms, Red had thought learning to shift wouldn't take her long. She'd always been a fast learner, even as a child. Her natural abilities hadn't changed as far as she could tell. If anything, they'd gotten better.

  So why was she having so many problems? Shifting shouldn’t be that hard to do. She’d done it in her sleep multiple times. She just hadn’t been able to do it while she was conscious.

  Red’s finger burned as the claw finally receded into her hand. She had to be doing something wrong, but she didn't know what that might be. She'd followed Morgan's instructions to the letter.

  She was good at following instructions, when they suited her. Morgan had told her to hold the image in her mind, bring it toward her, then let her body do the rest. Watching him shift in seconds, seeing all the muscles in his body spring to life, made it look so easy. She should’ve known that wasn’t the case.

  Morgan stayed in the woods, silently moving along the edge of the dead trees. He'd watched night after night, partly to bear witness and partly to make sure she didn't do anything she shouldn't while in her Other form. So far, there wasn't a chance of that happening.

  Red could feel the tension rolling off him in waves. He wanted her to succeed. Morgan pushed her hard because he knew she could take it. And Red loved him for it, even though the pressure had started to get to her.

  The wind shifted again.

  Morgan inhaled and his amber eyes widened, pinning her in place.

  "Gina, you're not concentrating." A feral grin lit his face.

  Red’s heart skipped a beat, then trampled her rips as he stalked toward her. Grace and stealth gave fluidness to his movements. It was hard to concentrate, when he didn’t have a shirt on.

  Morgan was the only one besides her grandfather that called her Gina. Everyone at her old job called her Red, a name that had started out as an insult due to her uncanny ability to cause excessive amounts of bloodshed.

  It wasn't her fault that Unknowns refused to surrender.

  Red did her best to bring them back alive, but rarely succeeded. In time, she'd embraced the negative nickname and now wore it proudly. Red wasn't ready to give it up just yet.

  "I was concentrating," she said. "Just not on the change." She bent over to gather her clothes off the ground.

  Morgan was behind her before Red could straighten. His strong hands gripped her hips. She tried to turn, but his blunt nails dug into her bare skin, holding her in place. Morgan leaned forward until his chest scraped her back.

  "Do you know what you just offered by bending over naked in front of an Alpha wolf?" he murmured. His stubbled jaw brushed her ear.

  Gooseflesh prickled Red’s skin and her nipples hardened into painful peaks. "Maybe." She laughed.

  The truth was she'd been too distracted by her failure to pay attention. She'd only meant to gather her clothes to cover her embarrassment over another wasted evening.

  "You won't be needing these for a while." Morgan grabbed her clothes out of her hand and dropped them onto the ground, then nipped her tender lobe.

  Red groaned, her failure tonight temporarily forgotten. She heard a button pop behind her and the slow, teasing purr of a zipper being lowered. The musky scent of Morgan’s skin intensified, drowning her senses.

  The material from his pants brushed the back of her thighs, as it slid down his legs. Red bit her lip. It was always like this between them, so heated and urgent. Like they'd never get enough of each other.

  "Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to wait in the woods, while you're standing naked forty feet away?"

  Morgan trailed kisses along her spine, while his callused hands kneaded the round globes of her bottom.

  "No," she gasped. “Tell me." Red rocked back into his growing hardness.

  Morgan's breath strangled in his chest "Your delicious scent calls to me," he said, catching the tender flesh of her neck in a love bite.

  Red’s knees shook.
>
  Morgan flicked his tongue over the spot to soothe her heated skin.

  Red practically howled under the onslaught.

  "You watch me, when you think that I'm not looking,” he whispered. “But my wolf is always aware of your presence. It's so attuned to your body that I know the second you become wet." To prove his point, Morgan ran his finger over her skin until he reached her moist center.

  Red shimmied to get closer.

  "Do you want to know how I know?" he asked.

  "Yes," she bit out, as he slipped two thick fingers inside of her, stretching her, caressing her.

  Morgan slowly curled his fingers until his knuckles brushed the hidden nerves that would send Red over the edge.

  "Because." His hot breath fanned her ear. "I get hard the moment your body sends out that signal." He rocked his hips to show her just how hard he was.

  "Morgan, please," Red begged, mindless with passion. After her failed attempt to shift, she needed this connection. It was the only one they had, until she could embrace her Other.

  His hot, length scalded her as he slid the head of his shaft to her entrance. Morgan swirled the tip in her juices, but didn’t enter her. "Please what?" he asked.

  Red was beyond speech. She rocked her hips to deepen their connection.

  Morgan growled and his hands tightened to prevent her from impaling herself.

  "I want you." Red reached around and brushed his sac.