“She’s gone.” Jesse held their prize over his shoulder.
“Let’s go.” Eric growled as he zipped up his pants. He didn’t bother with a shirt and shifted into his guer, his stronger form—a massive frame, dark brown fur, fangs, and claws capable of decimating his opponents.
“I’ve got a bag for her.” Logan held up a duffle full of Vicki’s things. “She has great taste in lingerie, by the way.”
Dom groaned. “She has the devil’s own luck. That she managed to throw us the first time still amazes me. Once again we’re interrupted from taking her. Fucking Chen and his men.”
As king of the Ravagers on this foreign world, Eric didn’t normally wait on anyone. The situation with this female pissed him the hell off. He should have been buried to the root in her by this point. Once again he was enraged and frustrated, though he couldn’t help feeling pleased about the chase. Victoria Fox turned out to be a real challenge, in more ways than one.
Dom had been right to choose her. As a royal guard, he often knew more about Eric’s needs than Eric did. This female, a rare Conduit, satisfied that thirst inside him for sex and something more. Eric didn’t understand his fierce fascination, but he had no intention of letting her go before he’d satisfied his curiosity. Biting her, physically marking her flesh, barely eased his crushing need to possess. No doubt sex with Vicki would be fan-fucking-tastic. He was still hard. The feel of her pussy around his cock…
“Prime, we need to go.” Dom’s eyes gleamed with amusement and his own frustration.
Eric bared his teeth and stormed from the room, content his pack would follow. He found Vicki’s cousin at the mercy of the females. Diana licked at Sean’s cock while Kate kissed him, adding to the sexual energy dicking with his head.
Morely groaned, arching into their handling.
“Company’s coming. Get to safety,” he growled at his pack mates. When neither female answered, he nodded at Logan.
“Come on, ladies. You can fuck him later, Diana.” Logan gave Kate an odd look, one he shared with Jesse. “I don’t think he’s expecting company, are you, Morely?”
“Oh, God. You can’t stop. Not now,” he rasped, and Eric understood his pain. “What company?”
“Take Vicki to the compound,” Eric ordered Jesse, tossing him Vicki’s car keys he’d earlier appropriated. “Dom, let’s take care of this Chen problem. Logan, join us once you’ve helped the females get it together.” He snarled at his sex-drunk pack mates. Trust Diana and Kate to add to his frustration. Watching them play with Sean reminded him of what Vicki could have been doing to him.
The Void love them, but his extended family aggravated the hell out of him. Normal packs consisted of a lead female and her male providers. Somehow, he’d gotten stuck with Kate and Diana, two orphaned Ravagers he’d rescued years ago. They refused to mate, refused to leave his pack, and did nothing at all sexually for him or the males in his family. Though an odd circumstance, he’d seen it as his duty to provide for them. Ravagers were brutal by nature, but they respected their females with the utmost loyalty.
Which meant he couldn’t leave their new plaything at home. Now, it seemed, he’d have to make room for yet another Conduit. As if Vicki weren’t enough.
Logan helped Diana and Kate regain their bearings. Eric left the house with Dom, and they hid in the alleyway from which the stench of threat emanated. A dozen men armed with guns and knives approached. The scent of gun-oil, solvent, and violence burned Eric’s nose. He nodded to Dom.
As one, they effectively took out the leaders, using them as shields when the others shot at them. Four men fell while the others took cover behind whatever they could find. Dom and Eric sprang apart. Eric used an ancient truck to shield him from a spray of bullets while Dom swiftly shifted and took out two of the enemy.
Logan appeared behind the group and worked on them from that angle. When changed, he and Jesse could pass as twins. Their scents were the same, save for a subtle difference only Kate seemed able to identify.
The minute the bullets stopped, Eric leapt from his position and crashed into a group aiming knives at Dom. The four remaining enemy had been reduced to moaning on the cold, hard ground. Injured but alive. Eric wanted answers.
Chapter Seven
“Why are you here?” Eric asked through sharp teeth.
Two humans stared up at him in shock, while the Voiders tried to avoid his glare. They at least knew not to look directly at a Ravager in a rage.
Obviously caught in battle lust and unable to stop himself, Dom tore out the throats of the humans. “Never challenge the prime,” he snarled.
Eric detected the scent of fear on the unknown Voider closest to him. The scent fed his appetite for destruction. These bastards had been after Vicki, after what he now considered his.
“Speak,” he ordered in a low voice.
The calm Voider, a Valk, shifted into a sitting position. He had pointed ears, pale skin and the ability to shatter glass with his voice, yet he spoke in a rough tone. “I have information you might want.” He’d obviously sustained vocal cord damage at some point in his life, explaining his sudden surrender when faced with Ravagers. Valks were vicious, and Eric was disappointed he wouldn’t get the fight he wanted from this one.
“Don’t keep the prime waiting.” Dom lifted the Valk to his feet and shook him by the scruff of the neck. Dom’s long claws inflicted damage on the male’s white skin.
Logan licked his lips when the scent of blood filled the air.
“Tommy Chen wants his ring back. Your, ah, the woman, Victoria Fox, stole it. It’s Chen’s rightful property. He doesn’t want a turf war; he just wants his ring.”
“And the woman,” the nervous Voider still on the ground added, his voice tremulous. “Has to make an example—”
“Shut up, Haverson.” The Valk Dom held kicked Haverson in the face with a speed Eric could respect. “Our orders were to find the ring. Chen wants to take care of the woman personally.”
Dom grunted and dropped him to the ground.
“What’s your name?” Eric asked.
The Valk swallowed hard. “Walker.”
“Well, then, Walker. Today’s your lucky day.” Eric broke Walker’s wrist with a snap. He hissed in pain but made no loud noises. Haverson didn’t fare so well. At a nod from Eric, Dom broke his neck. “You’re going to keep tabs on Chen for me. You know your way around Ravagers and apparently Chen. Go back with a sign that you at least put up a fight.” He nodded at the Valk’s wrist. “He sees that, he’ll probably let you live. He’ll bloody you, but once you heal, you can be my eyes and ears.”
“If I say no?” Walker wisely refused to look at him. His quiet defiance soothed Eric’s need to punish. Eric respected intelligence and grit, and Walker appeared to have both.
“Then I’ll kill you, clean.” Eric ran his claws across Walker’s neck, leaving a line of blood that immediately healed.
“Fine.” Walker sighed and relaxed. “I didn’t really enjoy working for Chen, anyway. But the pay’s good, and it keeps the Salinas off my ass.”