Virago — Susan Fanetti

Gia Lunden grew up in Signal Bend, Missouri and in the Night Horde MC family. Her father, Isaac, was the most respected president of the club during its outlaw days. Isaac gave up the gavel and the Horde left the outlaw life behind long ago. These days, they run a construction company and keep the town safe, but the club's reputation as fearsome outlaws abides. Gia is building a career as an anthropologist specializing in outlaw communities. As she works on her dissertation to complete a PhD, she means to begin her research at home, interviewing her family about their time on the dark side. But she hasn't lived in Signal Bend since she first went away to college, and her homecoming is bumpier than she expected. Zaxx Bello is the newest and youngest Horde patch, still trying to shake off the stink of his prospect period and find his fit at the table. Though Signal Bend is the closest thing to a hometown he's ever had, he wasn't born there; he knows of the Horde's outlaw days only through the stories of the older patches. For him, the Horde is a mantel of respect, a good job, and a place to be. It doesn't yet feel like a family. Not that he has much idea what family should feel like. With two clueless parents and a nearly feral younger sister, Zaxx has spent most of his life being the grownup of his family. It's a responsibility he takes seriously, and a weight he struggles to carry. Gia and Zaxx barely know each other, at least until an explosive one-night stand on her first night home. But being with Gia is no easy thing—she's Isaac Lunden's only daughter, after all. Nobody in town thinks Zaxx is good enough for her, least of all Zaxx himself. Nobody bothered to ask Gia what she thought.