COPYRIGHT MISCREANTS by Natalie Bennett © 2021 by Natalie Bennett. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where the publisher or author specifically grant permission. Cover Design: COVERS BY COMBS Editing by: Pinpoint Editing Blurb Love is madness. Love is anguish. Ours was ill-fated from the beginning. Crazier than crazy. Sicker than sick. Samael was the epitome of a beautiful nightmare. Together, we were poetry. The kind that bled and wept, a mess of euphoric bliss and heartbreak. I promised I’d be by his side until the bitter end, but after far too long I needed to be free of him. Leaving would be one of the hardest things I’d ever done. He’d come after me, of that I was sure. Many would lose their lives, becoming casualties in our war. When this was all said and done, our story would be whispered in darkened corners for years to come. A tale of a wolf pursuing a lamb, but with a masochistic twist. For even lambs have teeth, and this one bites back. Author’s Note By this point in the Badlands, I’m not sure how necessary this note is, but if you’re new or curious about what’s ahead (or behind), please know your limitations. If you have issues reading about very dark and depraved themes with zero regard for moral boundaries, this may not be the series for you. Miscreants is a frenemies-to-lovers standalone featuring an OTT anti-hero. You do not need to have read the prior books in the series to enjoy this one, but it does take place in an established dark erotic series with an underlying dystopian theme. I hope you enjoy these two as much as I have! Happy reading! —NB Reading Order Badlands Savages Deviants Outcasts Heathens Badlands: Next Generation Degenerates Hellions Renegades Miscreants TBA Misfits Tyrants Rejects Savages-2 Outlaws Family Tree Romero + Calista Adelaide Lucifuge Belladonna Grimm + Arlen Nyx Samael Cobra + Blue Braxton AKA Butcher Cameron Lilith Contents COPYRIGHT Blurb Author’s Note Reading Order Family Tree Playlist PROLOGUE PART ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN PART TWO CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Epilogue One Epilogue Two MISFITS DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND OTHER BOOKS KEEP IN CONTACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Playlist (Spotify) Good On Me—Vanic Ryan Caraveo—Nutcase SLAVES—The Pact Eminem—Leaving Heaven Sadistik—Lazarus SAINt JHN—Pray 4 Me Ryan Caraveo—Bubbles Palisades—Erase The Pain Niykee Heaton—Starting Over Sody—Maybe It Was Me Halsey—11 Minutes Awaken I Am—Blind Love Witt Lowry—Your Side SAINt JHN—Cult4Ever Halsey—Graveyard Lil Baby—Close Friends RITUAL—Too Deep Joyner Lucas—Fall Slowly Slaves—Heavier Billie Eilish—Everything I Wanted Written By Wolves—Tell You The Truth Jelly Roll—House of Cards Yelawolf—You and Me Gremlin—Love Me Halsey—Be Kind Halsey—Sorry Dermot Kennedy—Without Fear Ritual—Wouldn’t Be Love 5FDP—My Own Hell Dermot Kennedy—Lost 5FDP—M.I.N.E Gracie Abrams—I Miss You, I’m Sorry The Pretty Reckless—Only You Alyssa Reid—Badlands PROLOGUE Pray to the devil. Devour flesh. Kill for survival. For thrills, too, if that’s what you’re into. Where I come from, all of this is as ordinary as the sky being blue. My world—the Badlands—is made up of dark fantasies and endless terrors. You must pick a brand of evil and dedicate your life to it if you want to survive. Holding out hope that things will change is foolish. They won’t. No one is going to be arriving as a savior. Heroes don’t exist here, but there are plenty of villains to choose from. You can befriend a clan of cannibals. Work the farms that skin people alive. Join some other faction that’s managing to thrive. It doesn’t matter, as long as you find some form of allegiance. Very few can make it on their own. I’d heard what things had been like before power shifted, before the depraved and corrupted paved the future for a new way of living. I won’t bore you with the logistics; you’ll get to witness that firsthand. As for me and where I fit in? I was born a Savage and taken by another. The whole situation is complicated and chaotic, just like we are. Like our story is. Samael is as wicked as they come, the epitome of a beautiful nightmare. Crazier than crazy. Sicker than sick. The only man I’ll ever love. And my best friend. He’s my fiercest protector and my greatest enemy. I’m his peace and his torment. Ours isn’t a tale of benevolent, tender romance. It’s bloody and ruthless. It’s pain and sorrow, at times unforgiveable and enraging. It isn’t poetic or butterfly-inducing, but it is a love story. A love story about a girl and a boy, forever tied together in a beautiful purgatory of exquisite carnage. PART ONE “There is no greater love than the love the wolf feels for the lamb-it-doesn’t-eat.” Hélène Cixou CHAPTER ONE Four years prior Do you know the tale of Icarus and sun? He was warned to stay away, that it was dangerous. He knew this, and yet he still chose to get close. In the end, the very thing he longed for is what cost him his life. I thought that was tragic. Of course, the mythology behind it was probably more complex than that, but I preferred to believe he did it for a romanticized reason—like forbidden love. Although, the ending would be sad no matter how you looked at it. If my mom hadn’t given me a book of Greek myths, I wouldn’t have read about him.
