The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Sarah J. Stone

  The Aberrants Box Set

  Books 1-5

  Sarah J. Stone

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright © 2017 by Sarah J. Stone

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Website: www.sarahjstone.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Book 1: Escaping Danger

  Book 2: Locked Down

  Book 3: Surviving the Traps

  Book 4: Shifter Prison

  Book 5: A Fading Future

  Witch Academy Box Set

  Special Invitation

  More From The Author

  Book 1: Escaping Danger

  Sarah J. Stone

  Chapter One: Hometown Hallelujah

  Ching!

  The register sounded as Brittney cashed out another customer.

  Ding!

  The bell above the door chimed as another regular entered, sloughing off the small-town dust that never quite could be cleaned from the soles of their boots.

  “Order up!”

  The head cook barked yet another order from the back, shoving a plate full of eggs, sausage and toast under the heat lamps of the serving window.

  It was a familiar song, and one Jaelle know quite well. It was the same rhythm the day she had arrived two years ago, and nothing much had changed. Which was exactly the way she liked it.

  “Here you are,” Mary said chipperly, sliding the still-steaming plate in front of Jaelle. A kind, knowing smile rested on the server’s plump face, just as it had the day before, and the day before that. “Need a refill of your coffee?”

  “Nah, I’m good. I’ve gotta walk over to the shop as soon as I hork this down.”

  “You would think that working as a mechanic for two years, you would have a car of your own by now.”

  “Eh, I like walking well enough.”

  “Well, the exercise is good for you, I’m sure. Especially with all the crap you eat here.”

  “Crap? Are you kidding me?” I argued between bites of runny eggs. “This is the highlight of my entire day.”

  “Really? Don’t let your boy-toy hear that. Might hurt his feelings.”

  “David? He’ll be fine. Even he knows nothing comes between me and a good diner breakfast.”

  “You’re a peculiar one, you know that?”

  “I’m just a simple woman who likes simple things.” Jaelle downed the last of her food and slid ten dollars across the counter. “Keep the change, as usual.”

  With a practiced wink, the young woman bounced off the stool then strode out the door.

  The town of Braywire was quintessential in every sense of the word. From the moment that the dark-haired girl had first rolled in, Jaelle had known it was perfect for her. Even if it did take a full year for people to understand her name was pronounced Ya-al and not Jay-ellie­. There was one grocery, one doctor, one gas station and one mechanic shop.

  Which just so happened to be the very one that she worked at.

  The young woman strode in the door, buttoning up the last few fastenings of her uniform jumpsuit.

  “You’re late,” an older, grizzled man growled from behind the greeting desk.

  “You say that every day,” Jaelle shot back, pulling her thick, black curls back into a ponytail. “And every day, it turns out I’m not.”

  “Clock here says it’s five after.”

  “And that clock is ten minutes fast. Check the cell phone your wife made you get.”

  He begrudgingly did as she said, pulling out the most dinosaur version of a smart phone that she had ever seen. “You’re right.”

  “I know,” she responded blithely, breezing past him and into the shop. “I’ll get the coffee started and work on inventory.”

  “You worked on inventory last week!”

  “I know,” she called back. “It’s amazing how that needs to be done every seven days, right?”

  “Wiseass.”

  It was an insult, but it was spoken with a begrudging sort of affection that Jaelle had long come to recognize. “Love you, too, old man.”

  She smiled to herself and went about her day.

  There was never a line of customers in Braywire, with most of our work being tractors and other farming equipment, but Jaelle tried to stay busy. If she was being paid, she believed that she would be working. And it wasn’t like the staff didn’t joke around and have fun. There was a grand total of three employees in the small joint, and all of them were fast friends. At first Jaelle had been sure they would resent a newcomer, and a female one at that, but the two gentlemen had been nothing but polite.

  And so, the day slipped away like it often did, in a pleasant flow of routine and de ja vu. By the time Jaelle was clocking out, she was ravenously hungry again and made a beeline for her shack at the edge of town.

  She smirked as she sauntered up to her cozy little hovel. The landlord had called it an equipment shed unfit for human inhabitance when she had first rented it from him, but with a little bit of hard work and a whole lot of internet cruising at the town’s one room library, she had learned to make it into a tidy little place.

  And for a hundred and fifty dollars a month, she couldn’t complain.

  “I’m home,” she called, already able to pick up the familiar, masculine smell drifting from the kitchen on top of whatever was being cooked for dinner.

  “Ellie-baby!” David’s voice echoed from the other room. “Are you hungry?”

  She threw her keys onto the coffee table and strode toward the tall, built man, wrapping her arms around his chest.

  Poor David McGreggor never quite could wrap his head around the pronunciation of her name or what her heritage was. But he was sweet and kind, and didn’t ask questions about strange habits that Jaelle had. Which is what she needed.

  “I’m ravenous,” she said, playfully nipping at his back through his shirt. His scent was especially heady, which meant he had probably had a difficult day on the farm. “Hey, did that cow kick you again?”

  He whistled appreciatively, and turned in her arms. “It is uncanny how you do that.” He said, crooked smile growing on his face. “How’d you know?”

  “What can I say?” she said, mirroring his smirk. “I’m the mysterious stranger who rolled into town after a storm. I’ve got to keep up my reputation.”

  “If you say so.” He said with a laugh before returning to the stove. “I made some steaks. Blue rare, of course, the way you like it.”

  “Without the grill? Who are you and what have you done with David?”

  “I know, it’s blasphemy, right?” The farmhand turned to her, plate in hand. “But someone doesn’t have a grill and won’t let me set one up in their yard.”

  “It’s a fire hazard and I live right on the edge of the forest.”

  “I know, I know. Sometimes I swear you love that forest more than anything else in life.”

  She smirked again as they went to the couch to eat. “Maybe I do.”

  “Even more than diner food?”

  “Um… that I’ll have to think about.”

  He let out a bellowing laugh and then ruffled her curls. “Well, get back t
o me once you’ve made a decision.”

  She would have replied with something snarky, but she was busy shoving delicious steak into her mouth. With a sigh, she leaned back and just let herself soak up the relaxation and comfort.

  Her life hadn’t always been so easy-going, but she had certainly earned the reprieve.

  She just hoped it stuck around.

  Chapter Two: Times They Are A’Changin’

  “Jaelle! We’ve got a convoy pullin’ round back!”

  The young woman looked up from the checklist she was reviewing for the fifth time that shift. Normally, she just did one at the beginning, once at the end, but there was particularly little to do and she had read every magazine in the shop.

  “Finally!” she cried, tossing her checklist to the table and going over to press the button that lifted the rusted, dirty garage doors. Sure enough, about six different cars came up, three pulling carefully into the shop and the other three stopping several feet behind them.

  “Um, you got Francis and Jimmy-Bob coming in, right?”

  “Yappers. Be here in about twenty minutes.”

  “Twenty minutes?” she echoed. “You can walk to one side of town and back in twenty minutes. What’re they doing?”

  “Jaelle, you should know better than to ask a man what he’s doing on his day off.”

  She rolled her eyes, but of course, didn’t let her boss see it. Instead, she plastered a smile on her face as someone exited one of the bigger vehicles.

  “Hey there, how can I help…” her words trailed off as she saw who exactly was stepping down from the massive jeep, flashing her with a smile that was dazzling enough to need to be registered as its own weapon.

  He was tall, at least six-five, and was cut with muscle from head to toe. She shouldn’t have been able to tell that, but his shirt soaked with either water or sweat, and was sticking to his torso while his jeans were that perfec- type of cowboy-fitted.

  He had that playboy hair style that was so in at the moment, with close cut sides and a generous crop of thick, auburn hair on top. There was a defined sort of ruggedness to him that promised all sorts of adventure.

  And then his scent hit her.

  It was distinct, full of testosterone and the thick scent of the forest. There was a bitter sort of underlay to it, one that hinted at pine and dark places. It stopped her dead in her tracks and a cold horror cut through her.

  “Is something the matter?” he asked, shooting her an amiable smile.

  She recovered enough to laugh somewhat nervously. “Sorry, you just, uh, gave me a bit of a startle there. Usually I talk to people in their cars, rather than out.”

  “Apologies, Miss,” he said, tilting his head. “I definitely didn’t mean to.”

  Another nervous laugh. “Don’t worry about it! Us mechanics may get along with cars more than people, but we adapt well enough. If you guys wanna head out into town, it’ll be about three hours before we figure out what’s going on with your vehicles.”

  “Don’t you need to know what’s wrong with them first?”

  Crap. She was doing a terrible job of proving that female mechanics were just as competent as male ones. Goodness knew that one bad interaction with her would give most patrons carte blanche to cast judgement on every other mechanic they met for the rest of their lives.

  “Oh, I thought you had already told that to the boss before pullin’ around the back. Well, let me go set up a clipboard for each of your cars that’s having an issue with. Uh… how many are you having an issue with?”

  “All six.”

  “Right. Perfect. If you all just want to find your way to the lobby, I’ll be with you in about ten minutes.”

  “Which way is the lobby?”

  “Only door to the right. Boss will be right out there. He’s a hoot, you should really talk to him."

  Then she was walking as quickly as she could to the very back corner of the room, where she pressed herself against the wall.

  No, no, no. This can’t be happening!

  It had been eighteen months since she had seen a Shifter, those that could take on a spirit and form of an animal, and while she wasn’t always so petrified when an odd one passed through, that wasn’t quite the same.

  Because these men, with their big cars and weapons strapped clearly to their thighs and under their arms, were hunters.

  And that was the last thing she wanted.

  It was all right. She would just need to play it cool. Just pretend to be a normal, everyday, human.

  She could do that, right?

  But… what if they were here for her?

  She had been so careful. She hadn’t gone on a run in ages and even longer since she hunted. Plus, she had personally interacted with all two hundred inhabits of Braywire and all of them were decidedly human with completely normal scents, so none of them could have ratted her out.

  Most likely they were just passing through on the tail of some rule-breaker or another. Maybe a kin-murderer, or a Shifter that had gone wendigo. The chance that they were looking for her was miniscule.

  “Jaelle, you okay?”

  She gasped and whirled to see Jimmy-Bob looking at her, his concerned hazel eyes in sharp contrast with his dark, umber skin. “Oh, hey! Yeah, I’m fine. And you’ve got braids now. They look nice.” She pushed past him to the shelf where they kept all of the clipboards and check in sheets. A new implementation, and one she had insisted upon from the moment that she had arrived, the little pieces of paper made the shop better organized and not make stupid mistakes of mixing up what cars needed what.

  “Yeah. Amy saw a tutorial on the internet for styles that protect hair so here we are.”

  “Well maybe if you hadn’t tried to bleach your hair for Halloween, she wouldn’t be so obsessed with restoring it to its former glory.”

  He smirked at that, and reached past her to grab three clipboards of his own. “You and I both know that my costume would not have been complete without the hair.”

  “You could have ordered a wig.”

  “Oh, right, because those are so easy to find in Hicksville.”

  “There’s this magical thing called the internet. Amy found it. I would think you could, too.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You ready to start casing these cars?”

  “Yup. Did they already tell boss what was going on?”

  “A mixed bag. Seems like a couple were overheating, one of them was going through gas like nobody’s business. One was shakin’ it up. If I had to guess, I’d say all of them were way too low on coolant to be passing through here in the summer, one’s got a shot ball bearing and one of them was probably siphoned on at one of the trucking stops they’ve been crashing at.”

  “Truck stops? So, they’ve been on the road a while? Did they say what they’re doing?”

  “I’ll have to doublecheck with the boss, but if I overheard right while clocking it, it’s some pretty serious stuff.”

  “Serious? Serious how?”

  “I think they’re FBI or something. Said they were chasing a murderer across state lines. Almost caught ‘em in the redwoods but they managed to slip away.” I let out a sigh of relief and my coworker gave me another strange look. “I know you’re an odd girl, but that is not a normal reaction to hearing that there’s a killer on the loose that could possibly be around here.”

  I laughed weakly. I had gotten so comfortable in my time here I had forgotten what it was like to monitor my each and every reaction to make sure I fit in. “Oh, right, haha. I imagine that seems weird.” Come on, think! “But when he got out of the car I saw the piece hidden under his vest on top of the one strapped to his thigh and I got real nervous that some sort of drug cartel had come into town.”

  “You caught that? Nice. I would have thought you would have been thoroughly distracted by those thick eyelashes and intense stare of what I’m pretty sure is their ringleader.”

  “Hmm, not sure if you’re being sexist or making a statement about my
character.”

  He chuckled again and ruffled my hair, leading me out of the back corner. “It was very obvious from the moment the moment you rolled into town that you were looking for someone yummy to devour. And with those Snow White curls, tan skin and roman body, just about every man here was looking to put themselves on the menu.”

  “Roma body,” I corrected. “I’m Roma, not roman.”

  “Whatever. Point being is you’re different enough to be exotic for all these vanilla folk, but not too different to be off-putting. Trust me, as one of two black men in Braywire – the other one being my own father – you’ve got a pretty good combination going on.”

  I shook my head and strode over to the first car. “Whatever you say. Just help me run through the checklists with these until Frances shows up.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain. You know I love it when you boss me around.”

  “Good. Now concentrate on your work.”

  He laughed, but did as she asked. His words did put her at a bit of ease. Most likely these hunters were just passing through, on the trail of some psycho or another, and they had no idea she even existed.

  She just had to get through the day without being completely suspicious.

  *

  “Jaelle! Go home!”

  “Huh?” She pulled herself from under a car and looked up to see an upside-down version of her boss.

  “It’s nine p.m.. I sent those travelers to the local hotel and told them it would be midday at best when we finish their entire convoy.”

  “I would really prefer to get them out so they don’t have to stay overnight.”

  “And I would prefer to have wings, and yet here we are.”

  She tried to think of an objection, but she had been working on car after car for about nine hours straight and had only managed to get two completely road-ready. Her brain was practically mush by this point. “Where are Francis and Jimmy-Bob?”

  ‘They went home about two hours ago. You’ve been pretty focused, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “You’re a good worker, but I’d like to go eat a hot meal. Go home, Jaelle.”