Namesake (Voiders #1) - Marie Harte Page 0,3

suggest the one place she’d never been. Not that she came into this area much anyway, but in her zest to create a life for herself, she’d begun frequenting the clubs downtown. Twenty-seven, by anyone’s standards, was too young to vow eternal celibacy. Vicki couldn’t remember the last time she’d had sex with anyone other than her well-used vibrator. No wonder she’d wanted to hump Chen. He was a definite hottie, if one could overlook his psychotic criminal tendencies.

Swearing under her breath at her stupidity, Vicki spotted what looked like a neon M when she heard footsteps growing closer.

She raced toward the M and shuttled down the set of stairs leading to the almost pitch black entrance. “Nice ambience, Sean. A mixture of creepy, seedy, and…locked door.”

Pissed off, Vicki released her anger and anxiety on the lock. A few seconds later, the bolt broke, and she turned the knob with ease.

Finally.

Entering, she made a beeline for the darkest corner of the room, noting the one and only hallway on the first floor, the billiards in the back of the bar, and the stairwell leading to a second floor. She sat with her back to the corner, pleased at the dim lighting keeping her in shadow.

The cozy bar was crowded but not overly so. It smelled of beer and had an almost pleasant tang she couldn’t place. The tempo was more sedate, the rock music not too loud. Conversations continued in low tones and then stopped.

Crap. All eyes were on her. She’d been too preoccupied upon first entering to notice. A glance showed her that each male in the place looked more beautiful and more savage than the next. Great, just what I need. Ravagers. The Voiders looked human enough until they took on the form of their guer, their fighting spirit. Werewolves come to life. Strong as hell yet kind of sexy, in Vicki’s opinion, unless you had to fight them.

Very few females sat in the crowd, and those that were…

Vicki stared so hard her eyes dried.

Against the back wall by the billiards, a seven-foot tall Ravager—in werewolf mode—screwed a half-naked woman in full view of anyone wanting to watch. The dozen other women sitting at tables or booths had a hand or a head between a male’s legs, or, in one case, her bare legs spread open wide on the bar, her naked breasts in the air and her head thrown back as one of the fellas went down on her while his buddy ordered a beer next to him.

This wasn’t MacT’s.

Chapter Three

“What’ll you have?”

Vicki swallowed hard and glanced up. A server, fully clothed thank God, stood waiting.

The only noises in the bar to be heard were the clinking of the bartender’s bottles and the slurping, sucking sounds of sex.

“Scotch. Straight.” Weirdest damn night of my life. And I know weird.

The server nodded and left. To Vicki’s relief, conversations resumed. Keeping her head down but her energy at the ready, she decided to wait it out in here as long as she could. Once Chen’s people and the Salinas had time to breeze by, she’d leave. Preferably out the back door.

A beer plunked down in front of her.

“Thanks, but I ordered a Scotch…” She trailed off as four men surrounded her small table.

“You’re new,” the tallest one said.

Vicki nearly swallowed her tongue. Nearly six and a half feet of pure menace studied her like a hungry wolf. Jeans, biker boots, and a black t-shirt clung to him, outlining nothing but muscle. He had ice-blue eyes, cropped black hair, and an attitude proclaiming him king of the mountain.

His buddies looked just as fierce. Like the rest of the Ravagers in the place, they had a wild, earthy quality. The men flanking the leader had short brown hair and brown eyes that studied her with intensity. The one on the right didn’t smile. His eyes darkened as he stared at her. The one on the left looked like a charmer as he assessed what he could see of her past the tabletop. He grinned and rumbled something she couldn’t decipher to the fourth man farthest from her.

The lone blond nodded. “She’s definitely sitting at our table.”

“Sorry.” Vicki stood to leave, and the four took a step closer.

Before she knew it, they’d moved the chairs and table out of the way. Nothing stood between her and them but a few feet of space. And no one around them seemed to care.

The tallest one held her beer out to her.

“You know what? You