Fresh from the shower, Kieran put on his pink pajama pants and a tight tank top before hearing a knock at their door. Excited, he ran to open it and saw Thomas wheeling a cart loaded with pizza boxes, soft drinks and other movie night treats. “Oh, my gods, come in!” Kieran said, before turning back to the bathroom where Logan was trimming his whiskers, yelling, “Logan, lots of pizzas came! Are you going to eat all this?”
Logan stuck his head out of the bathroom. “Thomas, would you set it up in the sitting room? Coffee table will be fine since we’ll be watching a movie while we eat. Babe, is there anything else you want?”
Kieran watched as Thomas stacked the pizza boxes up on the coffee table and placed the soft drinks and snacks next to them. The smells made his mouth water and his stomach growl louder than before as he stared at his first pizza ever. Kieran couldn’t wait to bite into one and see if what Theo told him was true—the ‘best damn food on earth’ was how his friend described it, but then maybe Theo said that because he was starving.
“Thanks, Thomas, we won’t need anything else for the rest of the evening,” Logan said, walking over to join his mate, who was sniffing at dinner. As Thomas left, Logan sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and patted the spot next to him. “C’mon babe, dinner is served,” he said, lifting the lid on one of the boxes and taking out a slice, handing it to Kieran.
Surprise showed on his face when his mate handed him a slice of pizza. Scrambling to grab a plate, napkins and silverware, Kieran missed the look on Logan’s face. Finally, after everything was together, he sat next to his mate and set his plate in front of him. Unsure how to eatthe pizza, he picked up a knife and was about to cut into it when he glanced over and saw Logan taking a large bite out of a slice in his hand.
Quickly discarding his knife, Kieran copied his mate, taking a big bite out of his very first slice of pizza ever. “Holy shit balls! This is so freaking good! Theo was right! Wait till I tell him I finally had pizza,” he exclaimed before taking another bite. Then, Kieran ate without stopping, unable to get enough, pausing only to take a sip of his drink.
When the last slice was eaten, Kieran fell back against the sofa, rubbing his stomach and groaning. “Ohhh, I ate way too much but it was so good. We should do this at least once a week…maybe with Theo and Norman sometime…it would be fun…oh my gods, I’m stuffed.”
Chuckling as he cleaned up, Logan said, “I’d love that babe. When I was in college, Jackson and I pretty much lived on junk food…”
“Pizza is not junk food! It’s the food of gods!”
Laughing, Logan said, “You might be right about that. Ready for the movie?” Sitting back and propping his feet up on the coffee table, he grabbed the remote with one hand and his mate with the other, tucking Kieran under his arm. Turning off the lights, and switching on the TV, Logan settled back to watch one of his favorite movies—his teenage male crush—was in it. He wasn’t going to mention that to his mate, but he’d loved looking at the poster of his crush hanging over his bed.
At some point during the film, Logan found himself sitting in the corner of the sofa with his legs on the cushions. His mate was stretched out between his legsand leaning against Logan’s chest at an angle allowing Logan to watch his mate’s face. He loved seeing the emotions crossing Kieran’s face during the film, and when the final scene flashed on the screen, he suddenly began to cry along with his mate. When Kieran’s favorite singer began to sing the song they both loved, Logan leaned over to whisper in Kieran’s ear, “I love you and I always will until the end of time.”
Kieran melted at the romantic declaration of love from his mate and it started a fresh wave of tears. Turning his head to give Logan a ghost kiss, he murmured, “Ditto.” Then reaching up, Kieran gently caressed his mate’s handsome face. “I dreamt of you during my life with the Shaman, but I never saw your face in any of my dreams. However, I knew you were mine and would always want me. Knowing that kept me alive when I thought I’d die, gave me hope when I’d lost all of mine and granted me strength to give love to those who had none. Thank you.”
Moved by Kieran’s words, Logan said, “During all of my dark days, the days when my soul was frozen and hidden behind a wall of my making, living a half-life, not willing to take any risks with my heart, I prayed to the Fates to give me someone who could breach my wall, free my soul from its ice prison, and fill my dark world with brightness and love. And they did when they gave me you, the light of my life, the keeper of my soul and the one who found the key to unlock my heart.” With that, Logan scooped his mate up, rose and walked over to their bed, where he set Kieran down and hugged him close, not willing to let go.
Together they stood, arms wrapped around each other, as their love wound through them and peace descended on both. Logan felt it first, then saw it and finally welcomedtheir spirit into their orb of love. And the spirit filled him with the essence of Kieran, fusing it to every part of his body until there was no end and no beginning—it was just them. No longer did he fear the unknown; instead he stood strong by his mate’s side, one with each other and united for eternity.
When the light faded, Logan slowly and gently undressed Kieran, showing his love with each button undone, each loving caress of naked skin, each piece of clothing removed, until his strong and undefeated Kieran looked back at him with hooded eyes, his emotions reflected there.
When it was Kieran’s turn, Logan stood still, letting his mate undress him—first with his eyes, then with soft kisses and tender touches, until he stood in front of Kieran, naked in the misty moonlight shining through the windows. Then, like ghostly fingers of fog, Logan felt Kieran wrap around him until he was standing inside his mate’s embrace. Then, moving as one as they fell into bed.
Logan reached out and held his mate’s face, blanketing it with tiny kisses until he had covered its entirety. Feeling the pulse beating beneath the surface, he inhaled, knowing he would find his mate’s scent there. Licking Kieran’s mating scar, Logan felt his mate shiver, then whimper, as he continued to slowly explore Kieran’s body. Small nips and a hot tongue on his mate’s nipples had his mate moaning. By the time he reached his mate’s cock, Kieran was crying for relief; overwhelming need now held his body in its grip.
Grasping his mate’s hips, Logan opened his mouth and slowly slid down the length of Kieran’s cock until itbreached his throat. Over and over, in an unhurried fashion, he kept at it, knowing that when his mate finally came, the force of it would shoot Kieran to the moon. As he continued the slow teasing with his mouth, Logan’s hand moved down to his mate’s balls, rolling them before reaching back to Kieran’s hole where he pressed his fingertip inside, then removing it. Repeatedly, Logan teased his mate using mouth and finger until Kieran cried out, begging for completion.
When his mate’s balls had drawn up, and Kieran’s cock was iron-hard, Logan’s finger pushed through the muscle guarding the entrance, finding his mate’s prostate. Deep-throating Kieran’s cock, while finger-fucking his pleasure button, he gave Kieran the orgasm he’d hoped for. As he screamed, Kieran’s body jerked upward, his cum pulsing down Logan’s throat.
Chapter 29
Logan was uneasy as he watched his mate finish his breakfast, waiting for the right time to pose his questions about Kieran’s life. No longer caring what his mate was, he’d given all of himself last night and now carried Kieran inside him. In his past, that news would have been unsettling at the very least, but now Logan welcomed it and found he wanted more. Seeing his mate place his fork on his empty plate, Logan began. “Mo anan cara,can we talk this morning?”
Sighing, Kieran responded, “Sure, I guess you want to know what I am and what happened last night.”
“Nope,” Logan said, smiling at the surprised look on Kieran’s face. “I mean, I suppose at some point, yeah, but not right now because I don’t care. I mean I care but it isn’t important to me because I love you, all of you and as far as I’m concerned, it’s immaterial. I want you to know that it isyouI love, not because of who you are or what you can do, but just you…my pink-loving mate…who came into my life and made it far better than I ever thought it could be. So, my first question is why do you love pink?”
Kieran nearly swooned at his mate’s declaration of love because it was what he’d been looking for his entire life. Someone who would see him—just him—not someone who could be sold and traded at will or someone with powers, but a mate who would want him with no thought of how to benefit from who he was. He gazed at Logan, love shining in his eyes, and said, “Because pink represents unconditional love and understanding…and hope…the three things that are me…the three things that define me and give me my power.” Then grinning impishly, he added, “Besides, it’s so gay, isn’t it?”
Chuckling, Logan said, “Yes, it is, but why do you feel the need to tell everyone you’re gay?”
Thinking about the question, Kieran’s solemn face stared back, “Because it makes shifters’ feelings that are normally kept hidden rise to the surface and I can immediately see who has hatred in their hearts.”
“Kinda like waving a red flag in front of a bull, eh?”
“Exactly! The other reason is that pink makes me happy. When I was locked up in a cage at Arald’s, the thing I missed most was seeing the sunrise. Have you ever seen one?”
“I guess. But I haven’t seen one in a while.”
“Oh, no! That has to change! Tomorrow we’ll get up early to watch it. It is freaking amazing. Just before the sun peeks over the horizon…before you can see it…for a brief moment in time, the sky is pink signaling a new beginning, a new hope. When Cody freed me, the next morning I rose in the dark and stood at a window looking at the sky, waiting to see my pink, wanting to see my new beginning and wanting to fill my soul with hope that my life would be different,” Kieran said, his voice low and filled with emotion. “When I saw the pink…the day after I’d gotten everyone free who’d been in Arald’s house of horrors…I vowed I would always watch the sunrise whenever I could because during all those days, when I was caged, I couldn’t see the one thing that would have given me hope.”
