Challenger by Jaxon Lee Rose

Siggy Smith is an immigrant, a wife, a mother, a soldier, and a shapeshifter. She served in special forces, did her job well, and was honourably discharged so she could start her family. Today, she is a confessed killer convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to liquidation. Aberrants don't have the luxury of sitting in prison for years awaiting their final sentence and making appeals. Aberrants sentenced to liquidation are terminated quickly, efficiently, and brutally. Siggy Smith has accepted her fate, welcomes it, and while she sits in shackles waiting for her time to come, she's visited by a government official who offers her the chance to wipe her record clean. An unprecedented move that could not only grant her freedom, but possibly change laws for future Aberrants. The deal? Serve five years on a new, elite, experimental military squadron tasked with hunting down and killing the monsters and threats deemed too dangerous for standard military to face both on and off U.S soil. Chances are she won't live long enough to enjoy her freedom when the contract is up, but whatever happens before then will be far more interesting than being dismembered and incinerated in a public execution.

Adult • Fantasy/Magical Realism • Fantasy/Science Fantasy • Science Fiction/Military SF • Short Stories