The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Sarah J. Stone

  But then David rocked against her and she almost lost her ability to breath. This was what she had needed. Not John. Not some nameless tryst with a stranger. This was the epitome of satisfaction.

  And yet she wasn’t going feral. Not in the slightest. She was in full control of her faculties and that was making the moment that much more impactful.

  David chose a rhythm, making sure she was fully adjusted to him. After all, it had been a little over a month since they had enjoyed each other so thoroughly. But her body responded quickly, until he was able to thrust into her with abandon. And she took every move gratefully, fingernails scratching lines down his back. He hissed, but didn’t stop her, picking up his pace instead.

  She was racing to that mind-numbing explosion again, propelled by every roll of his hips. The tension built upon itself in her middle, until it released itself in a rapid spasm of heaven. She didn’t hold back as her mind was swamped once more. Nearly screaming, she wrapped her legs around and let her head fall back unchecked.

  David didn’t last much longer after that. He surged against her, losing his rhythm and devolving into powerful but erratic thrusts. He panted, his breath echoing harshly in their little makeshift tent, but it only made her love him more. He was so lost in her, in the moment, completely and fully.

  Then, he let out a masculine, urgent cry and she could feel him release within her. She couldn’t help but moan in turn as he held her in place until he was completely spent.

  “That was…” he breathed, holding himself above her as if he was afraid he would ruin the moment by moving.

  “Amazing,” she finished for him, lifting her head to press a gentle kiss to his lips.

  “Yeah. Definitely that.”

  He slowly pulled out, causing a wince from both of them, before settling beside her. Jaelle rolled to him, draping one of her arms over his sweaty, sticky torso. Briefly she wondered if anyone had heard their little tryst as they hadn’t been quiet, but in the end, she decided that she didn’t care. She had her own little slice of heaven and she was never going to give it up.

  Come Hunters, Aberrants or what-have-you, Jaelle was going to get her happy ending and her peace.

  Chapter Eleven: Unexpected Upheaval

  Jaelle couldn’t recall a time she had slept so soundly. She didn’t even dream. As soon as her eyelids settled, she was dunked into blissful darkness.

  That was, of course, until a scent that didn’t belong tickled against her nose.

  She awoke instantly, her body paralyzed with fear as it recognized a smell startlingly similar to her own, but with a afterburn of testosterone to it. She had smelled it once before, but with much more blood involved.

  The Aberrant.

  Her heart shot up to about a thousand beats per minute and she didn’t know what to do. If the Aberrant was close enough for her to smell, that meant he either knew where she was and was deciding how best to kill her, or was quickly on her trail and would arrive soon.

  She had to get away. If he caught her while she was close to David, there was no way her human lover would survive.

  That thought spurred her into action and she hastily pulled on both her pants and her camisole then slid out of their little makeshift shelter.

  But where to run? If she took off to the north, that would still lead the Aberrant right past David and he was sure to put two and two together. If she took off to the south, she would run right into the monster. She guessed southwest would lead him away from David and maybe give her enough time to lead him on a good chase.

  Yes, that would do.

  With a plan in mind, she furrowed her brow and concentrated. Her body responded quickly, her spine rearranging itself and fur rippling from her middle in a wave. A few moments later, she was in the form of a sled dog. Particularly, an Alaskan Huskie. While it wasn’t the fastest animal in the world, it was faster than a human and would put considerable distance between her and the truck before tiring out and forcing her to return to her human body.

  Shaking her haunches, she took another experimental sniff. The Aberrant was even closer now. She didn’t have a minute to delay.

  She took off, paws flying below her with no undue haste. God, it was exhilarating to race through the forest without having to worry about anyone interrupting her. She couldn’t say the last time she had bolted so uninhibitedly through nature like a Shifter should. It was almost enough to make her forget about the—

  Something slammed into her side, sending her flying through several bushes until she collided a tree. A reedy whine escaped her muzzle, and she quickly returned to her human form without meaning to.

  Dammit. She had gotten so soft on her Shifting abilities! That’s what two years of complacency got her.

  Blinking back tears brought on by the intense pain in her ribs, she looked up to see what had hurt her. Shock didn’t quite do justice to the feeling that swallowed her as she saw long, naked, knobby legs leading up to a plump, feathered body with an equally long neck.

  “Really?” she rasped, trying to pull up all the bravery she had in her body. “An ostrich?”

  The bird rippled and its mass displaced itself until a human was standing before me. It was difficult to see him in the dark, even with her superior Shifter night vision, but he looked just about how David had described him.

  He was twenty-something, but definitely nowhere past twenty-five. His hair was blond and neatly cut, which was in sharp contrast to the blood covering him from almost head to toe. He flashed a brilliant smile, teeth all overly straight and white, before shrugging non-committedly.

  “It got the job done, didn’t it?”

  Shakily she stood, readying herself for her death. She had always known this moment would come, whether at the hands of Hunters, Aberrants or the wrong side of a scared human’s gun, and she didn’t want to be a coward about it now. “I suppose. So, how are we doing this?”

  He held up a finger for her to pause, then took several deep smells of the air. Her brow knit together in confusion, but that quickly turned to embarrassment as his crooked grin grew even wider.

  “My, my. You’ve been up to some fun, haven’t you?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Aw, come on, don’t be that way. If we Aberrants can’t be honest with each other, who can we be?” He laughed and it sent chills crawling up her spine. “Besides, I’m not judging, just admiring. It’s been, what, a year or two for me?”

  She wasn’t sure what was worse, a murderer casually discussing both of their sex lives, or the anticipation of her own violent demise. What was he waiting for? She could only keep up the cool and collected bit for so long.

  Then again… if she stalled him enough that might give enough time for her ribs to heal and she could possibly give him a run for his money. Sure, the surprise of her being an Aberrant was out of the bag, but maybe if she was just desperate enough, she could out-shift him. “What do you want?”

  Instead of answering, he offered his arm to her like he was some sort of Prince at a fancy ball. “Come with me. Let’s take a bit of a walk, shall we?”

  “Do I have a choice in this?”

  “I would prefer you came willingly.”

  “Prefer is an odd word to use.”

  He looked to her, his eyes flashing green. “Please?”

  That was about the last word she had expected and she just stared at him for way too long before he cleared his throat. Unsure what was the correct thing to do, she slid her arm through his and let him escort her through the forest.

  “I’m glad to see you made it out of that trap the southern Hunters had set for you.”

  “Yeah, I suppose that’s thanks to you?”

  “Perhaps a little. But it wouldn’t have happened if that human hadn’t been trying to find your whereabouts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as thrilled as the next Aberrant to find someone like myself, but I wasn’t about to risk being cornered by them and the norther Hunters that have been up
my ass for the better part of a year.”

  “I don’t understand. You tried to kill me.”

  “Well, yeah, when I first met you and hadn’t quite comprehended what you were. Too much time on the run can put you into a bit of flight or fight mode.”

  “You tried to murder me.”

  “Yeah, like I said, flight or fight. Obviously, I fall on the more fight side of things. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends now, right?”

  “Friends?” She couldn’t help but repeat him incredulously. “You want to be friends?”

  He laughed and the sound was still just as awful as the first time that she had heard it. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? I’ve never met an Aberrant before, let alone one that wasn’t mad with bloodlust.”

  That was probably about the best segue she could ask for. “And you’re… not?”

  “Not what?”

  “Mad with bloodlust.”

  He scoffed before realizing she was serious. “Wait, what!? You think that I’m mad and that’s why I’m doing all of this?”

  “…aren’t you?”

  “No! Are you kidding me? Boy, they really have you drinking the Kool-Aid, hook, line and sinker, don’t they?”

  They emerged from the trees and she realized that they were back to the truck. Her heart fell at the realization that she hadn’t done anything to put any distance between David or herself at all. How disappointing.

  “Look, do Aberrants go mad? Yes. I would say about half the time. Unfortunately, whatever mutation that allows us to take any form also coincides with a schizophrenia-like set of symptoms. From what I’ve been able to learn, it starts with intense bouts of paranoia, then auditory hallucinations, followed by visual. You begin to think the whole world is against you and when you combine that with some very real Hunters tracking you down, that usually provides some explosive mental catalysts.”

  “Really, schizophrenia?” Her mind was reeling at the whole situation. She was walking arm in arm with one of the many figures that had been haunting her dreams. And instead of tearing her limb from limb, he was discussing possible mental illness of people like themselves. “Could it be treated?”

  “I’m no doctor, but I do indeed think it’s possible. But with the way Shifter society is now, we’ll never get the help we need.” His tone darkened at that. “We’re being born more often, you know. It used to be one of us came into the world about every ten years across the entire world. Now it’s about one a year in this country alone.

  “They don’t want you to know that. Or any of their citizens, really. I myself wouldn’t be privy to it if I hadn’t had an… encounter with a certain Clan head who was very talkative. They keep trying to kill us all, but more parents are rebelling and sending their children away to the far corners of the earth.”

  “Is that what happened to you?”

  “Hardly.” They had reached the truck and he was now leaning against the hood. It was so strange to see him reclining there, looking like some college student who was about to lay out some new philosophy that he had learned onto her. “My parents sold me out like the loyalist, small-minded sycophants that they were. I was just lucky enough to have a couple of guards who didn’t quite grasp just how skilled an Aberrant I was at such a young age.”

  “You manifested early, too?”

  “Too?” He echoed, raising an eyebrow. “I take it you were an early bloomer then?”

  “Six years old.”

  He whistled. “Holy hell. And here I thought I was impressive at eleven.” He looked her up and down, as if he was appraising her. “And you haven’t gotten the sickness. That’s really impressive. From what I was able to read at one of the hospital outposts I raided when I first escaped, the early the onset of the Aberrant gift, the earlier and more violently the madness sets in.”

  “Well, color me lucky then.”

  “Yes. Definitely.”

  Something stirred behind them and the two mutated Shifter’s heads snapped in the direction of the sound.

  It was David, of course, rounding the bed of the truck with a crowbar in hand.

  “Get away from her,” he growled, face intense with a type of violence Jaelle had never seen him emote before.

  “Whoa, whoa, calm down there my friend,” the Aberrant said with an easy-going smile. “We’re just having a bit of a talk here. Good job on wrangling her out of the clutches of those men I warned you about. Glad to see you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. I would be lying if I didn’t admit I was pretty sure that you were going to die.

  “How did you manage to face down a whole group of Hunters and live?”

  David’s eyes flicked to Jaelle’s, an unspoken question behind them. She responded by gently shaking her head and he slowly lowered the crowbar. “I drove this truck through the wall.”

  “What? That’s crazy. And all that happened is you lost a bumper.” He nodded like everything made sense. “You two are certainly a good pair for each other then.”

  “Why are you here?” David said cautiously, coming up to stand beside Jaelle. “What do you want?”

  “I think that’s pretty obvious.”

  “I don’t,” David retorted. “So why don’t you explain?”

  “I want to take down the whole Shifter system, and I’d like you to help me.”

  “Me?” Jaelle blurted. “What the hell can I do?”

  “A whole hell of a lot. And you, too, human. An ally is an ally after all.”

  “And just how are you planning to incite this grand revolution? I could be wrong, but you’ve had a Hunter problem for months now.”

  “Yeah, they’re much more adept than other groups I’ve dealt with. Their leader has a certain flair for either anticipating my traps, or performing miraculous escapes that shouldn’t be possible. If it wasn’t so damned irritating, I would be impressed.” His eyes flashed again and a gleeful grin spread across his face. “But with two of us, we could have them taken care of without much trouble at all. It might even be fun.”

  “I think you and I have very different definitions of what fun is.”

  “Maybe.” He shrugged again, still grinning like a madman. And she was beginning to think that mad was a very apt word after all, despite all his protests to the contrary.

  “I noticed you dodged my question. How exactly are you planning to overthrow a system that’s been in place since Shifters came to this continent?”

  “Well, that’s easy. We’re going to kill them all.”

  Several sounds came out of Jaelle’s mouth at once, the most prevalent being a snort. “We are not killing anyone.”

  That unnerving smile faltered a bit. “So, what, you’re just going to run away from Hunters your entire life?”

  “That’s the plan, until I’m too sick to keep going.”

  “That’s a shit life.”

  “So’s murdering hundreds of innocent people.”

  “Innocent!?” he countered angrily, his face twisting into a rage-filled expression. “The Clan leaders are responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of children! And if left unchecked, they’ll be responsible for hundreds of thousands more. This is going to end now, and I’m giving you the option to join me.”

  “I’ve never been one for group projects.”

  “Are you…” he panted incredulously at them. “Are you serious? You have a chance to change the world for the better and you’re choosing to just shrug and pass over it with some apathetic comeback?”

  She shrugged. “I’m sorry. I agree with you in many ways, but I’m not down with the whole murder thing. And, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m pretty sure you’re either sick, or coming down with whatever it is that scrambles our brain.”

  “Y-you-” He was sputtering with undiluted anger and both Jaelle and David took a step back. “You moron!”

  With no warning, the man’s form began to explode outward, growing increasingly grey as it expanded. Jaelle didn’t need a second look and grabbed Da
vid’s hand, pulling him toward the woods.

  She booked it as quickly as she could, just in time to see a bull elephant trumpet in the middle of the mini-resting area we had pulled into. That definitely motivated her to run faster, and she yanked David along, deeper into the woods.

  Once she was sure they were a safe distance, she shifted into a bird and took upwards to the trees. It took a bit for her to get the air she wanted, but when she did, she could see all the way to the truck.

  Or… what was left of the truck.

  The Aberrant had gone on a bit of a rampage. Where there had once been a massive truck that had survived colliding with a house, there was only bent and twisted scrap metal. She was grateful that it wasn’t them who had been turned into a fine, elephant-created toe jam, but she couldn’t help but think of what a terrible situation they were in now.

  “Well?” David asked as she landed and returned to her human form, fear obviously lacing his voice.

  “He’s gone. Took off to the Northeast in a wolf form.”

  “That’s… extremely fortuitous.”

  “Not quite,” she said, already walking toward what remained of their truck.

  “I sense by your tone that this is not a good thing, but I can’t quite think of how it’s not a good thing. We’re alive after coming face to face with basically a super powered serial killer.”

  “He let us go, David. Which means that the Hunters must be close.”

  “What? How do you figure?”

  “He trashed the truck, effectively stranding us here. He could have caught up with us at any time, well, caught up with you, but he didn’t even try. Which means he’s purposefully making it so that we have to make our way on foot. The only reason for him to want to do that is if he’s trying to use us as a buffer to slow down the Hunters and again some ground.”

  “Oh… shit. That makes sense.” He let out a long breath as they continued to walk. “Although I don’t know whether to be scared or impressed that you get his reasoning so easily.”