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.
