All the King's Men: The Beginning by Donya Lynne

know. And I won't let you down."
    Micah nodded tightly and kept his gaze averted. "Thank you."
    Silence filtered into the space between them, and they pretended to watch the dancers on either side of the stage, but Micah's mind was elsewhere. It was as if an hourglass sat over his soul, counting down to destruction. When he met Jackson and formed the one-sided tether to him, Jackson had been like a clear blue sky after a late summer storm, letting the sunlight shine onto the newly brightened landscape. Now, their relationship was the storm.
    Micah glanced out of the corner of his eye toward Malek, who, on the outside, feigned interest with the stripper to the left of the stage, but his mind was a tidal wave of emotion. Malek knew that, in his way, Micah had just said good-bye, and a thousand good memories of the time they had spent together before losing their mates so long ago trained through his thoughts.
    Back in the time of King Bain the First, he and Malek had spent countless nights in pubs and inns where they watched females dance and sing for their entertainment, and where they partook of feminine desire and pleasure upstairs in one of the many private bedrooms. That had been where Micah had learned how to be with a woman. Where he had been taught how to touch a female, kiss her, and delight in what she offered. And he had taken his education home to Katarina at the end of that first war.
    God, how he'd loved Katarina. But she was gone, and it looked like he would be joining her soon.
    The lights dimmed, and the music faded, bringing Micah's mind back to the Garter as the hard synthesized beats of White Zombie's "More Human than Human" pulsed out of the speakers. A few seconds later, the MC, hidden somewhere off stage said, "Gentlemen…Scarlet." It was all the introduction she needed.
    The curtain opened, and Scarlet rested in a curled position, head down, her long black hair—most likely a wig—hung down like drapes to hide her face. She was the sexiest damn creature Micah had seen in forever. That woman could dance. And stretch. And flex. And work a stripper pole like no one's business. Micah went stiff at the thought of her riding up and down his body the way she did that damn pole, which was odd since most mated males didn't get turned on by anyone other than their mate. Then again, Scarlet was a woman worth getting hard over. She never failed to arouse him. As in really arouse him. Heck, maybe the fact that he had first seen her dance on the same night that he had met Jackson had somehow linked him to her. After all, she had been the reason he'd gone in search of relief that night in the first place. He had been lustfully roused by her performance to the point of distraction, and after trying to buy a private dance with her to explore the possibilities between them further, he had come away disappointed, because her schedule had been full. Same as it was tonight and the other times he had come here. He couldn't get here early enough to get on the woman's calendar, so he was relegated always to be part of a crowd instead of an audience of one.
    As the first slide of electric guitar screamed from the speakers, Scarlet, dressed in a sexy white jumper, slid up from the floor to her feet as she eased the zipper down on the front of the jumpsuit, and then she flipped her head back, sending her long tresses flying to reveal her face. As usual, she wore a mask, which made her allure even more appealing. What looked like a contraption he might find in his long-abandoned dungeon covered her mouth. It looked like a muzzle, made of solid, black material that resembled plastic. And over her eyes was a thin strip of leather, like a Bat Boy mask. Eyeholes revealed her vivid, green eyes, which seemed to lock to his briefly as she peeled out of her jumpsuit like a sexy kitten.
    Damn. Underneath, she wore only a modern, almost tech-looking, black-and-white bikini, accented with white plastic over black spandex that clung in all