Sneak-Peek Friday - Heart of the Warrior

This is an excerpt from the beginning of book two of the AKM series, Heart of the Warrior (FYI: HOTW is a M/M erotic romance):

Sev turned his gaze toward the dance floor and the wind nearly blew out of him when he saw Arion lip-fucking a blonde with tits the size of melons. Through the shifting crowd, he caught sight of her hand giving his swollen crotch a slow, persistent rub.

Well, Ari was certainly enjoying himself.

Sev turned away and grabbed the Lag as soon as it was placed in front of him and downed it in one gulp. He slammed the glass on the bar and gestured toward the empty glass. "Another. And leave the bottle."

Coming here had been a mistake. A big one. He could see getting shit-faced was in his very near future.

"Whoa, guy. Slow down. Micah and Trace aren’t even here, yet." Malek turned and looked around the club.

Fuck. Micah. Six weeks ago, he had hated Micah for a whole other reason than why he hated him now. Back then, Micah had used Arion for a punching bag every chance he got, and Sev had wanted to kick his ass for messing with the object of his affection like that. Now, Micah was a fully and happily mated male. And that mad Sev feel about as happy as a dying fish. He glanced in Ari's direction again, but a mass of bodies prevented Sev from seeing him, which was probably for the best, being that Ari was lost in that blonde he had been lip-locked to when Sev had arrived. Still, being unable to land eyes on Ari didn't stop Sev from being consumed by despair, and he kicked back another drink.

"Ah, there they are." Malek looked toward the entrance.

Sev turned and saw Micah walk in with a smile on his face, his arm pulling his mate, Sam, close as they looked at each other with what Sev could only describe as complete love and devotion. He glanced back to the dance floor, and the sea of bodies parted just enough that he saw Arion still kissing the blonde. Sev swiveled his gaze back to Micah as Trace shouldered through the door behind him. Sev would never have what Micah had, would he? A mate of his own and the happiness that seemed to ooze out of every pore because of it.

Micah was a changed person from when Sev had first met him. He had been a dick, a real sonofabitch who did what he wanted when he wanted, without a care for his own safety or the safety of others. When Sam happened along, all that had changed. Micah was still a lethal fucker in the field, but what made him so dangerous now seemed to be his undying love for Sam, whereas before it had been a total disregard for his life.

Sam leaned up and whispered something in Micah’s ear and he smiled wide and turned in to nuzzle her neck. From what Sev had overheard, Micah had never smiled before. Now he smiled all the time.

That was what love and being mated did for you. Or at least it was supposed to. Sev thought about his unrequited feelings for Arion then kicked back his second glass of Lag and poured himself another as Malek held his hand out to greet the three newcomers.

"You two look good." Malek looked between Micah and Sam.

They did look good, which made Sev hate Micah even more. Lucky fucker finding true love and all that shit. And he worked the color black like a fucking supermodel, too. Sam had on skin tight faux leather pants and a modest top that showed just how a woman’s body was supposed to look. She had smaller breasts and wore more clothes than any other woman there, but she was by far the sexiest. And that was something for Sev to think being that he wasn’t even into women.

He looked up and noticed Micah scowling at him as if he was reading his thoughts. And, hell, maybe he was.

Trace reached past Sev and flagged down the waiter for a glass then picked up the bottle of Lag.

"You don’t mind, do you?"  Without waiting for an answer, Trace poured himself a triple and set the bottle back down.

"Apparently not." Sev wished he had just gone home.

"What did you meatheads do tonight?" Trace said to Malek, ignoring his retort. Trace sipped his drink then handed the glass to Micah, who took a healthy swig and handed it back.

Malek glanced at Sev then said, "Popped Sev’s cherry and broke up a cobalt deal and bagged a couple of drecks."

"Nice. Did you bag the buyers, too?"  Micah looked at him, his arm tightening around Sam as if he was trying to prove a point: Eyes off my woman.

"Nope." Sev downed another glass before pouring more.

Malek reached for the bottle to pull it away, but Sev snatched it from him and gave him a warning look.

"Well, did you at least mark them?"  Micah took the glass from Trace again and drank.

"Of course I did, asshole. Do I look like an idiot?"  Sev squared Micah up.

"Do you really want me to answer that, newbie?"

Malek held his hands up between them. "Hey, Micah, Severin’s promoted up. You know that."

Micah chuffed. "Yeah? Well, his attitude is for shit. I think he needs to get laid." The last he said softly, almost lethally soft, and with an edge as if he was laying down a dare or a challenge or something.

Sev's eyes narrowed, and he wondered what game Micah was playing. "Like you’re one to talk about attitude." The alcohol was making Sev bold. Or maybe just stupid. He would decide the answer to that in the morning.

"Fuck off, newbie." Micah handed the Lag back to Trace, and Sev could feel waves of aggression coming off the male as if he was ready to throw down. Micah was one of only a few males who could hold his own against Severin, and he knew it.

Trace chuckled low and deep, but otherwise didn’t get involved, sipping his drink instead, watching the two of them with a secret smile on his face.

The air bristled between him and Micah, and it looked like fists were going to fly for sure until Sam pressed into Micah’s side and stroked her fingers down the slope of his neck as if trying to calm him down.

"Sshh, baby," she said. "Don’t I feel good against you? Huh? Look at me, baby. Micah? Come on, look at me."

She must have been through this with him before because he did seem to cool off, turned toward her, then pulled her close until she nuzzled the place her fingers had just caressed. And just like that, Micah was a kitten again, grinning and purring into her ear as the two of them formed their own little island of harmony. Severin was suddenly forgotten in their world. A nobody.

Again, that was what a mate did for a male. A mate kept him in check, cooled him off and heated him up when necessary. Sev’s eyes lingered enviously on Sam and Micah then drifted back to the dance floor. Ari was just breaking away from his blonde hussy and turned directly toward Sev as if he had known he was being watched. Their eyes suddenly met. Sev held his breath as Ari’s gaze locked to his, and the other male flushed as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

But for just that moment, with their eyes locked together on a level that felt more than intimate, everything was perfect. He and Ari were the only two people in the room and all was wholly blissful. Then the reality slammed into him with a nauseating punch to the gut. Yeah, he was a nobody all right, and not just to Micah.

Sev grabbed the bottle of Lag, his glass, and shoved his way between Trace and Micah as he departed for a table in the back. Hopefully where no one would bug him so he could get good and shit-faced drunk.

How could he have even thought he had a chance with Arion? He had no chance. The night they had shared had been an anomaly, a joke, just a heterosexual male satisfying his homo curiosity. It had been anything but something real, serious, and with actual emotion behind it. Hell, maybe it hadn’t even really happened and Sev had daydreamed the whole thing. Whether their time together had happened or not, Sev knew in his heart he was utterly lost to a male he apparently couldn’t have.