The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “Relax, it’s fine.” Now, he was at the bottom of her face, thumbs trailing along her chin before traversing up to her lips. “Tell me more.”

  “Um, that’s really kind of it.” Bradley snorted at that. “What? It is!”

  “Don’t listen to her, Dannon,” he said. “She’s small but she’s solidly a woman. Her shoulders are strong from carrying a weight she didn’t deserve, and they’re never hunched over or stooped. She carries herself with a pride you wouldn’t expect from someone who has been hunted their whole lives.

  “Her eyes look like how it feels when you touch a live wire, all sparks and surprise. There’s power in them, and there’s also damage. Her hair is soft, softer than any fur you’ve ever felt. She’s got this way of looking at you that’s like the sun you feel on your face after winter finally breaks, it makes you want to do the impossible so maybe someday you might be equal to her.”

  Jaelle blushed furiously, her mouth falling open, which almost caused Dannon to accidentally wander a finger in there. She quickly snapped it shut, but she was in complete and utter shot. That was what Bradley saw when he looked at her? How!?

  Dannon’s fingers finished their trip and he pulled back. “I am glad have finally met you, Miss Jaelle.”

  “And I’m glad I’ve met you, as well.” She was still blushing furiously, but she was glad that neither of the men seemed to notice it. Looking out the window once more, she wondered exactly how much of her world was influenced by how differently she saw things.

  Who knew, and it certainly wasn’t something she was going to find out now, but it gave her yet one more thing to think about should she survive this whole mess.

  The walkie crackled, startling her out of my reveries. She grabbed it since it was her duty as shot gun, and hit the receiving button.

  “What’s up?”

  “We just checked in with an outpost,” the voice on the other end said. “Apparently there are waterspouts touching down in the direction we’re headed and a lot of flash flooding.”

  “Dammit,” Bradley cursed. “Do we have any outposts we can stay over with on this side of the storm?”

  “Not without backtracking several hours. And I’m guessing we don’t want to be losing that on top of what we’re going to get behind because of the storm.”

  “The good thing is that if we’re stuck, most likely Creed will be, too. Not a lot of animals that will be able to make it through water spouts touching down.”

  Bradley nodded. “What are our other options?”

  “There’s a town about fifteen minutes off the next exit. Big enough to definitely have the resources to be sheltered during the night, small enough that we won’t have to worry about running into any sort of city problems.”

  “Fine, we’ll stay there. Let the rest of the convoy know.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The line clicked off and Jaelle set the walkie back in its cradle. “I hope this storm isn’t some sort of metaphor for the direction our lives are taking.”

  “Storms happen all the time,” Dannon said from the back. “Not everything is some terrible omen.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right,” she agreed, settling back to look out the window once more. “For all of our sakes.”

  Chapter Four: Small Town, Big Noise

  They reached the edges of the small town just after five p.m., but it looked more like midnight. The sky was nearly pitch black and roiling, churning like what Jaelle imagined a cauldron filled with brew would. The wind was making the rain blow practically sideways and the fat, heavy drops had turned to long, stinging needles during the transition.

  It didn’t take them long to find an out of the way motel and check in, using three separate rooms. She knew they usually preferred to stay in their cars or tents—she guessed for freedom’s sake so they could shift whenever necessary—but the weather was far too severe for that.

  Or maybe they would have toughed it, out anyways if she wasn’t there. When she asked them as much, both Dannon and Javi denied it, but she couldn’t really be sure.

  She had been expecting to be ushered into a slightly moldy room with double twin bed and a tiny fridge that could barely hold a six pack, but instead Bradley lead her away from the others.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, looking back to the others as they unloaded the vehicles.

  “Showing you to our room.”

  “Wait, but aren’t we—”

  He saw her eyes flick back to the others and laughed. “Oh, no. We’re getting our own room.”

  “But that’s not very fair, is it?”

  “It might not be,” he said with a wry grin. “But they’re the ones who requested it. Apparently, none of them wanted to be stuck in a room with us with all of that sexual tension we seem to exude.”

  “I don’t exude anything.”

  He chuckled and opened the door. “After you.”

  Jaelle walked in, pleasantly surprised by the neat and clean king-sized bed sitting in the middle of the quaint room. It reminded her a bit of Breywire, and not in a bad way.

  She turned back to Bradley, speaking as she did. “This is cute. How much—?”

  But then his lips were crashed against her and his arms were crushing her against his form. It was hungry and bruising, but she found herself answering it without a moment’s hesitation.

  They didn’t break apart as they usually did. Instead, he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands went to her cheeks, gripping her through her jeans. She felt him walk forward until a wall was at her back. She was pinned now and Bradley took advantage of that.

  He ground against her, rocking his bulge against her quickly responding center. And he took advantage of that, his mouth finally breaking away from her lips so his teeth could worry away at her neck.

  “You’re so eager,” she breathed, half in awe, half flustered by the voracity with which he devoured her. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think we didn’t just do this a few days ago.”

  “Do you have any idea how hot you make me?” he breathed into her, pausing just long enough to get the words out.

  “Apparently, a lot more than I thought.”

  His hands moved up to her hips and squeezed. “You are the most beautiful, desirable, insane woman that I have ever met,” he hissed before his mouth returned to her skin, sucking and biting and leaving all sorts of marks that she would cherish for the hour or so until they healed. “If I have to say it a hundred times, I will. Until I don’t have a voice anymore. I wanted you from the moment I first saw you and it only gets worse every single day. But I don’t want it to get better. I want to get lost in you until there’s nothing else.”

  Her ears and face burned, but her heart throbbed almost violently. “Take me,” she ordered, voice low. “Take me now.”

  He didn’t wait for a second order and moved her from the wall to the bed, where he dropped her unceremoniously. She let out an ‘oomph!’ but he was on her before she could sit up. With two simple fingers, he pushed her so she was flat on her back on the mattress.

  “What are you, oh!”

  She let out a yelp of surprise when his arms slid under her butt and yanked her down until her hips were at the edge of the mattress. He wasted no time with answering her and instead went to freeing her from her jeans. Once those were on the floor, he knelt on the pale carpet, his hands stroking up her inner thighs as he made enough room for himself between her legs.

  Jaelle head her breath, giving him her complete attention as he leaned forward, pressing kisses to her navel, and then each of her hip bones before finally his teeth grabbed onto the top of her underwear.

  He pulled them down with an expertise that she was mildly suspicious of, but then she was bare before him and all thought faded entirely.

  His fingers went to the dark curls she had just above her entrance, running through it teasingly. She could feel his breaths on her, making her stomach coil with anticipation, but he still woul
dn’t make contact.

  “Please,” she gasped, raising her hips slightly to try to meet him.

  “Please what?” he asked, looking up at her over her still-clothed stomach and chest.

  He always was a stickler for verbiage. “Kiss me,” she whispered, her voice unable to grow any louder.

  She had never considered herself bashful in bed, but something about the way he was able to work her over, and the spark of fire in his eyes as he regarded her, were nothing more than intimidating.

  But he always did what she asked, and this time was no different. He dipped his head down and his lips tenderly pressed themselves the apex of her opening.

  She gasped and tried to rise up into him again, but his arms that were beneath her bent so that his hands could grip her hips, holding her down. His pressure increased in waves until finally his tongue joined in the prayer.

  It was maddening. He knew just how to stroke her, just how to ply his talent. It didn’t take long for her to be trembling in his grasp.

  “My God, Bradley,” she gasped, her hand going to his thick hair. She was lost in the pleasure and she could hardly breathe. Her fingers burying themselves in the strands were her only lifeline, and she found herself subtly trying to press his head down while also pulling her hips away.

  After so much euphoria, it grew to be overwhelming. She could feel her end coming, but much more powerfully than it should be. It was bordering on painful and she tried to wiggle away.

  “Bradley, oh, god I’m going to…” She didn’t know if she hiccupped or gasped, but either way it was hard to catch her breath. “If you don’t stop now, I won’t last. Ah, God! Bradley!”

  As she tried to push his head away and move up the mattress, he doubled his efforts. His hands clamped down hard on her hips and he yanked her into him, burying his face so completely she was sure he would suffocate.

  But he didn’t seem to care and she could feel everything. His nose nudging at that tiny pearl of pleasure, his lips, his tongue as it thrust and soothed. It was all too much and her climax hit her harder than anything that she had ever felt before.

  The world ripped in two and she was dropped through the crack. Her soul left her body, her vision going white in the euphoric brainwash, and her breathing stopped entirely.

  It lasted forever and she thought perhaps she had died in one of those urban legends about people having heart attacks during sex, but then she was floating back down into her body as Bradley crawled up it.

  He wiped his face with his sleeve before his slightly swollen lips found hers. She could taste herself slightly in his mouth as he plundered her, but it made the sleepy sort of satiation drenching her mind give way into an encore performance.

  “I need you,” he whispered against her lips, almost as if he was afraid to utter those very words.

  “I know,” she answered before pulling his shirt up over his head.

  Their kissed again, and she writhed against him in the way that she knew he liked. He was going to have a very wet spot on the front of his jeans the next day, but it was obvious neither of them cared in the moment.

  However, those jeans were definitely going to have to go. Cold air rushed over her when he finally stood to relieve himself of their confines, but she quickly warmed as he lowered herself again.

  It was in that moment, with his eyes looking down at hers, the faint light in the room glancing off his defined chin, that she realized something. “Bradley?” she murmured, her face going crimson.

  “Jaelle?” he answered back, one arm holding his weight off of her while the other hand caressed her side, sliding up under her shirt and bra.

  How did she say what she wanted to say? How did she formulate the words that would say she wanted him to utterly spend himself within her so he never looked at anyone else again? How did she say that she wanted him to completely ruin her so that no amount of time would let her move on? “Don’t hold back,” she said breathlessly.

  “Are you sure?” he growled, eyes beginning to glow in a way that only a Shifter’s could.

  “Yes. I absolutely am.”

  He didn’t answer her in words, but rather a snarl, and ravaged her mouth once more. It was different from his previous kiss, full of fangs and animalistic sounds, but she just responded in kind. When he entered her, there was nothing gentle about it, and yet it was perfect in every sense of the word.

  She whined, arching up into him and meeting blow for blow. It was frantic, wanton and wild as they always were, but there was a certain control that was missing. Like Bradley had finally realized that he didn’t have to hold back with her and was letting go.

  Her nails raked down his back, gouging the skin there, his nails dug into her hips, her sides, her thighs. Their sweat-slicked bodies pushed against each other, fighting for some sort of resolution.

  When it finally arrived, it left both of them gasping, utterly spent. He emptied himself completely inside her, and she toppled over that cliff for the second time that night. She wished she could hold onto the moment forever, just bury her head in the pillows and let the contentment wash over her. But eventually, sleep grew to be too tempting a force and her head went under into peaceful waves.

  That night, her dreams were filled with sunshine and hopeful promises. Or at least they were at first. After summer-soaked picnics and other happy images, the scenes in her dreams began to grow dark.

  It started with a shadow lurking in the corners of her vision. Slowly it grew in presence, becoming thicker and denser with every transition until finally everything was covered with a grey filter. It made her stomach twist and a strong sense of dread grow in her belly. Something terrible was happening.

  She looked up from her drink, taking in her surroundings. She was at some sort of table, with the Hunters all around her, and they seemed to be celebrating something. They were raucous, with red faces and triumphant smiles. What had happened to make them so elated?

  She didn’t know. She looked down and took a drink of her beer that had no flavor, and when she looked again Javi was gone.

  No, not gone. But there was only black vapor where he had once sat, insidious and terrifying.

  She gasped, standing up to yell at the others, but when she blinked it was Dannon who disappeared next.

  “No! Bradley, what’s—” Another disappeared, this time when her eyes were open and able to see. One moment, the Hunter had been sitting there, another blank tendril bit into his flesh, taking over completely until there was nothing there.

  She wanted to scream, but nothing would come out. One by one, everyone in the place disappeared until she was alone.

  She collapsed into her seat, tears threatening to spill over her eyes. Her sobs echoed out through the empty room until she noticed that she wasn’t alone.

  “Aw, what’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?”

  Jaelle’s eyes flicked up to see Creed, sitting there and looking at her with an amused expression.

  She knew it wasn’t him, not really, just her mind’s subconscious projection of him, but that didn’t stop him from being so frightening. “What do you want?”

  “Eh, we’ve had that conversation enough. At this point, I’ve pretty much learned that you’re thoroughly opposed.”

  “Took you long enough.”

  “It did, didn’t it?” He smirked. “Would it have killed you to team up with me? I’m the only other Aberrant of age in the entire world—at least that we know of—and I’ve been told that I’m easy enough on the eyes. Wouldn’t it be so much nicer to be allies than enemies?”

  “I have allies,” she shot back. “And they actually care about me rather than wanting to use me like you.”

  “Yeah, never thought I would say this, but it sucks being a lone wolf. What’s that saying? No one starves but the one apart from the herd? I need to find my own herd. Know where I can get one of those?”

  “No, I—” Her breath caught in her throat and suddenly she knew that she needed to
wake up.

  She had a revelation, and she needed to tell the others before everything went to shit.

  Chapter Five: Speculation

  “Could you guys at least have taken a shower before you woke us all up?” Dannon growled, holding a stick of deodorant just under his nose.

  “No time,” Jaelle said, cutting off her blush. “Certainly, some of you have wondered why Creed hasn’t caught up with us. Even though he hates vehicles, he’s wily and more than capable of staying ahead of you for half a year. Why would that suddenly change now?”

  “What are you saying?” Bradley asked, equally mystified.

  He had been surprisingly patient considering she had woken him up around one a.m. in the morning and demanded he call a meeting with the few men he had left.

  “I’m saying the reason that Creed hasn’t overtaken us is because he’s not going this way.”

  “What?” This time, it was Javi who objected. “I thought the hospital was his whole end game? You know, to stop you from getting the evidence you need?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. But I realized that’s not what he’s been doing at all. The strongholds he’s been taking down, the games he’s playing with you, the outposts he’s massacred. If they weren’t directly affecting me, they were specifically for one other reason.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “To bring down the tenuous Shifter architecture we have already. Think about it, if he just wanted blood he could raze a human city. He would be bound to find at least a couple hundred integrated Shifters that way. But he doesn’t have any interest in that. Of the places I’ve seen, they’ve been all military compounds or other important trade points.”

  “All right, so what then?” Bradley asked. “We have to try to predict what useful point he’s going to hit next?”

  “No. Because he’s done on that. He knows what we’re up to so he’s moving into his end stages of his plan.”