FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Broken Pieces

Chapter Twenty-Six

By Roofles

When does it start?

When does it ever truly start?

That was the question running through Logan’s mind as Sloan topped him. The massive lion’s body engulfed the smaller, naked human underneath him. Covering his body with the tawny golden fur of the lion. The weight of him, the sounds Sloan was making filling the room. Everything else didn’t matter when they were like this.

Heaving, heavy breaths filled the room as Sloan pressed his groin down over the human’s for the second time that night. Covering it, him with his body. No one could see the human underneath Sloan. And he preferred it that way. Using his body to block out the dim light above after dragging Logan into the bedroom and stripping him down.

Peeling the layers of clothes off the human before shoving him back into the velvety sheets. Letting Logan watch as Sloan undressed for him. Taking each article of clothing off slowly, seductively as the human focused on him.

Sloan couldn’t resist any longer before pouncing on him.

It was as soft and warm as ever, Sloan’s body. Sloan’s tawny gold fur looked beautiful covered in sweat as his muscles flexed above him on the bed, keeping most the several hundred pounds of lion off Logan’s body and supporting his bulk with strong legs and arms. Logan could feel them flex against his body. Feel when they brushed his sides as the lion panted down at him from above.

The look on his face was always something worth coming back to Sloan’s place to see.

It was cute, the way Sloan’s tongue curled when he got like this. His face a look of elation, of blissful happiness as drool trickled from his lips in a hungry horny matter. Even stuffing the lion full beforehand didn’t sate the predators appetite, wanting dessert after his meal. Logan wondered if he had been the main course from the start seeing the hungry, drooling lion above him now.

Like this, in the bedroom, Sloan didn’t need to hide what he was. Who he was. That Sloan could be a feral animal with Logan and the human seemed to respond to well to that. Where others would balk at or run away from in fear, Logan was drawn towards his predatory nature and Sloan had guiltily given further into the impulse.

Wanting to lure Logan in.

To coerce and manipulate the human that used to do it to him. To entice Logan into the bedroom, knowing what would come of it.

If that was a good or bad thing, Sloan still wasn’t sure as he pressed his body down on the human. Using his powerful hunches, Sloan began to hump against Logan’s body. Raw and naked as he was. Rubbing his hefty sack and sheath against Logan and enjoying how good that felt.

The feel of him. To be grinding against one another without shame or fear. To enjoy one another’s body in cardinal bliss. Logan grabbed at him. Holding onto Sloan during the ride as the lion’s bulky body shook the bed they were in. The headboard banging against the wall as he did so.

Roughly he pressed his body down on Logan. Covering him with his musk, letting him feel the excitement building up and stirring within his sheath. Feel as it engorged and spilled out over him, his length now grinding and rubbing against Logan’s as his sack bounced and rested over the human’s.

To know this man under him, with him was just as into this as Sloan was. That. That alone was arousing. What happened a couple of days ago didn’t matter. Logan had come back with Sloan. Agreeing to stay with him for a change and the lion couldn’t be happier for it.

It was so rare, these days, for Logan to visit.

There were days Sloan thought of Logan as a feline. A stray cat that would come every now and then and grace you with their presence, maybe even rub up against your leg after you fed them. Then, just as quickly, they’d disappear. Disappear for days without a word. You wouldn’t know if they were alive or dead. Maybe you’d never hear from them again…

Until they came scratching at your door. Only ever to want something in return but still there, for you.

Sloan felt like that with Logan. The stray cat he had picked up. At first it seemed like Logan was the one picking him up, stringing him along… using him. But at moments like this, seeing his face? Seeing the look on Logan’s face under him. Sloan knew how much Logan enjoyed these brief, fleeting moments they shared together.

There was so many thoughts behind those eyes but even the human couldn’t hide the pleasure coursing through his body. Pleasure that Sloan was giving him. A physical response, sure, to what the lion was doing to him, but there was more than just that. It was still one Sloan wouldn’t have given up for the world. To see, feel and experience this with Logan was a guilty pleasure.

Like a fine glass of wine with ones dinner. A pleasure you happily partook in. Enjoying, sipping at, and trying not to guzzle down in one go. Wanting to enjoy it. While it lasted. A single glass was fine, healthy even or so Sloan’s doctor had told him. But two? Three glasses? An entire bottle would be too much.

Just like Logan.

These moments Sloan wouldn’t trade for the world, but he knew, he couldn’t keep this stray cat locked inside. That wasn’t who Logan was. So, in these moments, Sloan took advantage of the times Logan came to him. Willing came to him, wanting him. Crawling towards the lion, meowing for attention and treats. Wanting Sloan to take care of him, feed him, love him, and pet him so.

For, in the morning, Sloan would never know if Logan would be there or not.

The lion’s body stopped as he felt the building rise.

It had been too long. The lion had just been frothing with the human and he felt the release coming to him. Gripping, holding Logan tighter as Sloan tried to hold back as his jaws clenched and his tail went rigid behind him. Trying to hold it in but the thoughts, the feel of the human in his arms, in his bed was just enough to push Sloan past that point.

Logan felt the change in Sloan’s behavior and before he could try and catch it, the warmth spilled out over his body. Erupting and washing over him. Sloan gritted his teeth, unable to hold back. It’d been too long and his body’s reaction to Logan under him was natural instinct. Wanting him. Covering him. Marking him.

The warmth spilled from Sloan’s twitching member. Shooting and spurting out over Logan’s groin, his stomach and chest. It was thick and the heat, the smell of it filled the room as the lion’s musk rose from the sticky substance coating Logan’s abdomen and chest.

“Fuck,” Sloan groaned as he eased up. Eased off the human. Now sitting between Logan’s legs as he took a minute to catch his breath. “That was. Heh, whoops? A little worked up. Fondling me all morning will get a guy like this.”

“It’s been a while, big guy. I missed you.” Logan teased with a knowing smile. Neither of the two remarked further on that. Sloan not wanting to have that fight again about Logan not being around. Knowing Logan wouldn’t be able to be.

Not for him.

Not yet.

Not until he found whatever it was he looking for. Sloan could respect that. As, in a way, he understood exactly how Logan was feeling. Looking for his own answers. He might’ve been one of the only people alive who did. Or so he’d like to think.

“Is that all you got for our reunion?” Logan quirked an eyebrow, using a hand to fondle the lion’s balls. Sloan murred low at the feel of those small hands playing with his hefty orbs.

Lying naked like this, in his bed, within those chocolate velvet sheets. It was ideal. Sloan looked over at Logan and smiled. His pale skin stood out, a sharp contrast from the darker colors. Growing up in the Northwest, Logan didn’t have the luxury of getting a whole lot of sun. He looked beautiful in the dim lights, lying in his bedsheets, covering in Sloan’s release.

The only thing about such pale skin was the fact that every mark, every injury showed.

Logan wasn’t as he used to be. His arms were riddled with small cuts and scrapes. He had a nasty wound on his side and several more cuts on the lower part of his legs. All old scars. Leaving Sloan with more questions than answers about it. No wonder Logan liked to wear long sleeves and pants these days.

Sloan chuffed. He shouldn’t be thinking such things. Just be happy that Logan was here, again, with him.

Letting out a heavy breath as his faced pulled up with amusement, smiling down at the smaller male in his bed. In Sloan’s home. The smaller male in his bed teasing him. It felt right. A smaller man treating and taking care of the larger one. He had half a mind just to flop on top of Logan and put him in his place. Under him. Fall asleep like that as the human struggled under his body’s weight.

“Do you want more?” Sloan was the one to ask, to tease. To play along with the human for a change. This feline enjoying the game the two had with each other.

Sitting up slowly, Sloan turned to face Logan. The human gave him a look.

“What did you have in mind?” Logan asked and Sloan flashed his fangs.

“Seconds.” The lion answered and the human actually giggled next to him as the lion felt him up roughly. Rubbing his spunk and musky scent into and over the humans body. Making sure he was nice and coated from it all.

“S-Sloan!” Logan squirmed and it only got Sloan worked up for seconds.

Picking up one of Logan’s legs, the large lion bent down to sniff at his groin. Then, tilting his head to the side, the lion licked up his leg. That large, thick scratchy tongue made Logan’s toes curl as it licked up his leg as if it were a lamb chop.

Tasting him. Savoring him after basting his body with the lion’s flavor. Sloan groaned a growl that made his black tipped lips quiver. He could feel that building sensation rising up with the heady scent coming off Logan. Rising up before pooling back down between the lion’s legs, making his shaft twitch back to life.

“If you are up for it.” The lion grinned down at him, feeling lustful and alive. Feeling twenty years younger as if Sloan were Logan’s age instead of nearly of a man old enough to be his father.

“You know I always do.” Logan played along. It was hard to tell if the human did, even after what they had just done. Sloan had practically fapped over his body, covering him with his seed and the human looked as if it were just another Tuesday.

“I do,” Sloan didn’t argue or press further. Just… enjoy. Enjoying these times together. His tongue curled around Logan’s ankle before teasing his toes. “Tasty,” the lion growled before his jaws opened and he took Logan’s foot into his mouth.

Logan tensed at the sight. Watching his foot vanish into the lion’s jaws. Even knowing Sloan was just playing around with him, it was still an experience to watch a body part get chewed on like this.

The taste of him, of Logan, the feel of skin and meat and bone between the lion’s jaws, in his mouth made Sloan drool.

He wasn’t as young as he used to be. He needed some heavy foreplay after blowing a load out. Back in his youth, Sloan could’ve gone three or four times before tossing in the towel. Now he needed to stop and catch his breath like an old lion. Something he was glad Logan didn’t tease him about, too much.

So, Sloan would. Savor these moments. Enjoy them. Let his body recover enough to go again. And again, until they passed out in each other’s arms.

Logan could feel that tongue lapping at him. Feel the way the teeth brushed dangerous close to his toes, threatening to lose one in the process. Sloan was still tasting him. Savoring it. Tasting him as if he were a cut of meat placed on the lion’s plate for dinner. Drool covered his foot, dripping down his leg as the lion’s fangs brushed against his skin.

Logan visibly shivered and, at that, Sloan pulled back. He held the leg, looking at it. How bare it was. Furless with the skin so exposed. Not like his usual meals. It would be so easy to sink his fangs into and leave his mark. A part of him wanted to. Not to hurt Logan, no. Sloan just wanted to see his teeth marks on the human’s body after it all.

Jaws parting, Sloan bent down, lower, between Logan’s legs and brushed his whiskers muzzle against his thigh.

“Logan?” Sloan asked with a deep purr that rumbled in his chest. The lion on all fours between his legs, butt up in the air as his tail swayed back and forth, a clear sign the lion was curious about something.

“Yes, sir?” Logan said and the lion’s tail flicked behind him at the submissive voice the human had given him. It was such an enticing aphrodisiac to a man like Sloan.

“I want to bite you.” Sloan admitted. Not wanting to hide these feelings any longer from him. To share even this side with the human.

“I know.” Logan said, because he did. It was obvious with predators. If you knew what to look for, you could tell. It was all about their eyes… feline’s made it so easy to tell the signs. They’re eyes turning into sharp slits when they got particularly frisky… or hungry.

Sometimes, both.

It was a look Mikhail often had. The tiger, Logan’s ex, had that look in his eyes when he looked at others. Others he had an… interest in. Logan didn’t understand back then what it had meant. Not seeing the signs. He had been so innocent and naïve back then. What that look had meant and the dangers behind it. The way the tiger’s bright orange eyes would practically glow with excitement, glinting dangerously as his pupils turned into cat slits, drooling at the dark thoughts he had kept hidden even from Logan.

Maybe, if things had been different, Mikhail, Milo, would’ve told Logan such things. If he thought the human could… stomach them.

“Can I?” Sloan asked, drawing Logan’s thoughts back to the present.

“Sir? Are you going to eat me?” Logan half-asked, half-teased the larger male between his legs. Looking down his cum soaked body at the feline. He could see Sloan’s tail swaying behind the massive beast of a man staring at him.

That look was one of affection, of hunger and a mixture of something else that made goosebumps form on Logan’s arms.

The bed sunk in where Sloan was. He was such a large man. A predator. Logan sliding down towards him from the massive weight that was there. A body so large and thick. Muscle rippled underneath Sloan’s fur and despite not working out as much as Logan did, he looked good. Sloan looked fit and healthy. Sometimes a lion’s genes were a blessing.

Logan was so envious of it, of them. How much stronger Sloan would forever be over the human. A body of a predator, made to hunt and kill and here Sloan was asking him, a human, such a thing. To partake such a thing in.

“If I could?” Sloan muttered, teasing a clawed finger over Logan’s exposed thigh. Running the back of the nail against the skin. Not letting the sharp tip touch but letting Logan feel the claw against him. Having the human know just how easy it would be to just…

“I’d let you,” Logan answered and got a look from the lion. “If it had to be anyone to do such a thing. I’d be happy to know, that it was you, sir.” The human looked into his eyes, and he could see Sloan’s pupils contract at his words.

Logan practically offering himself up on a plate for the lion to devour.

Sloan swallowed heavily, drool pooling in his maw before he wiped it away. Trying to hide the rush that had filled him at those words, the idea of it. Something to tease about but never do, no. Sloan wouldn’t hurt Logan like that. No, never. Not like that.

This was different and the two of them knew that. Tip toeing a fine line between predator and prey. Roleplaying it, teasing each other about it, even talking with one another in an intimate embrace. But never doing it.

Sloan’s nails sprung out as he grabbed hold of Logan’s leg. The nails gripping, holding him still as the lion’s drool covered fangs parted and a warm gust of air rushed out to tickle the hair on Logan’s thigh. A warm breath from the bowels of a lion. Those large hands easily took hold of Logan’s limb as if it were nothing more than a chicken leg you might buy at the store. A drumstick and the hungry lion’s teeth sunk into it.

Not deep. Not enough to draw blood. That hadn’t been the point as Logan watched the lion, this man, “eat” him.

Just enough for Logan to feel it. That’s all Sloan really wanted. To have Logan grit his teeth, groaning low as the fangs sunk in. Not enough to break the skin, just enough to leave their mark. But such sharp fangs weren’t made to tease. They were made to bite, to rip and tear flesh open. Blood trickled down from the spot and Logan had to look away. Sloan lowered his lips around his fangs, holding Logan’s leg in his mouth. Keeping his teeth clamped over it as his eyes looked up at the human’s face.

He could taste it. Taste the warmth of Logan’s body filling him, splashing over his tongue like the finest of wines and Sloan’s throat convulsed, swallowing it down involuntarily. The taste made stars burst in front of the lions eyes.

Sloan didn’t let Logan go as his tongue lapped at the marks.

Logan was breathing heavily, covering his eyes with an arm as he panted out. Falling back onto the bed as he tried to stop himself from shaking. His chest rose and fell quickly with his ever-increasing breath. Sloan waited. Waited to hear the human to tell him to let go. To stop. Maybe even to hear the human beg him.

Sloan would. He’d instantly let go and apologize for what he’d done. Going too far and yet, no matter how long Sloan lapped at those bloody bite marks, he never did.

Logan never did.

Sloan’s jaws were around his leg and Logan didn’t tell him to stop, making the feline wonder just how far he could go with this. How far would Logan let him go.

Or, rather, who had done this before to make Logan… okay with this abuse.

“D-don’t stop,” Logan said but he wasn’t sure if it was to Sloan or someone else…

“You like that, don’t you, baby?” The words had purred out of an orange, black striped muzzle. A hand petting over Logan’s side. A hand with sharp nails that dragged over his skin, leaving goosebumps and red marks in their wake as they pricked at his skin. “Oh, I love how you shiver when I do that. Are you afraid? Afraid that I won’t stop? Even if you begged…?”

Those words lingered in Logan’s head as he panted, his breaths growing quicker and quicker to the point he might be hyperventilating at this point.

“You look so good with my mark. Like stripes. That’s what these are. Instead of black, they’re red. Beautiful red stripes I leave on your skin. My mark.” The voice continued to purr. It was filled with amusement, excitement for what he was doing to Logan’s body.

Like a tattoo artist might mark someone’s skin, there were ways to leave your insignia on someone’s body. A wall for a graffiti artist to tag. That’s what this was. An artist leaving their initials behind, but in another manner.

The two of them, alone like this. All the things he could get away with. Toying with the fragile human and seeing just how far he could go until he broke him…

“Logan.”

Nails on his bed. Digging into his skin making Logan scream. A scream that was muffled as his head was forced against a pillow.

“Logan.”

The weight fell on Logan’s back. He was in his bed again. Back home. In his bed, on the bottom bunk, as the tiger topped him. A heavy weight falling onto Logan’s back making his arms and legs struggle to keep the two of them up. The breath, his breath, against the side of his face.

Logan recalled the way Mikhail’s breath smelled.

The smell of the tiger on top of him. Panting against his face. Forcing Logan to breathe the same air he was. A clawed hand pressed over Logan’s own. Covering it. Hiding it. The tiger reminding Logan how much larger he was than the human. How much stronger. How small Logan was. Insignificant and “only human…”

How helpless he was when Mikhail was like this. The two of them, in secret without anyone knowing. Knowing of the wicked things they did together. How much Logan bled to keep their partnership, what he thought was a friendship going.

For how could you ever be friends with a predator if you didn’t bleed? If only a little…

“Logan!”

“That’s right baby, you like that don’t you. You like when I hurt you. You love it, feeling me like this. In charge. You’re just so… powerless.” Mikhail nipped at Logan’s ears. Those sharp fangs could’ve taken his ear off, but Mikhail hadn’t. He kept his fangs away, just a hair’s breadth between those sharp fangs and Logan’s earlobe.

The fangs brushed his neck. Rubbing over them, along the soft side and the vulnerable back. Mikhail could just open his jaws and bite down on him and Logan couldn’t do a thing. Was it those fangs? Or was it his hands? Logan couldn’t remember when Mikhail strangled him.

Holding him down, topping him, wrapping his fangs or hands around his throat as he fucked him. Forcing him against the bed. The human unable to even cry out as tears built in his eyes, the pain growing. Suffocating. Bleeding. He had been bleeding so much.

Logan was suffocating and he couldn’t-

“Logan!” Two powerful hands shook the human who bolted upright in the bed. Logan coughed as Sloan rubbed his back, “Logan…” He said again as the human just stared down at his shaking hands. “You weren’t responding. I thought, did I, what happened?” The lion asked, begging him to tell him.

“I…” Logan wasn’t sure what that was. He was shaking so bad. His body had reacted on its own to Sloan teasing him like that. The fangs brushing his leg. Biting him.

Red.

So much blood.

His room had been painted red, turning into their rooms. A red room, like at Barnes’s place. Mikhail had turned Logan’s room into one of those rooms of horror. Maybe the tiger had experienced it before? His grandparents taking him to one at such an early age…?

To show him what a true predator was.

It was all coming back to him now. Forcibly brought back as Logan coughed, rubbing his neck. He could’ve sworn he felt Sloan’s hands around his neck. Or were they his jaws? Those nights with that striped bastard were still there, inside him. Marked by him... Nothing more than the tiger’s plaything. A toy, something to keep the tiger amused with.

As if he were a helpless rat that the tiger had caught by the tail.

“Are you,” Sloan’s voice sounded so distant. As if it were coming from a long tunnel.

“J-just, give me a sec…” Logan placed a hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. Listening to his breath. Trying to calm down as the memories began to fade away.

Memories of the very man he’d been hunting these past years. Of a man that had date-raped him.

It didn’t start like that, it rarely does. A true predator, a monster like Mikhail doesn’t start as that. They start with a smile. Polite and friendly. Learning about you. Getting close. Knowing what made you tick, what your schedule was like… when you would be home alone. Making you lower your guard, trusting them, giving them everything before they showed their true colors.

“You can’t change a tiger’s stripes.” How many times had Logan heard those words. It made him shiver involuntarily as he tried to shake it all away.

“S-sorry,” Logan apologized, looking over at Sloan. He had tears in his eyes. Logan was sure, he did as well.

“Logan…” Sloan reached out, before withdrawing his hand. There was blood on Sloan’s fingers. Logan was still holding his throat as if unable to catch his breath. Gasping for air like a fish out of water... ironic, really.

Logan hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath at the end there. Keeping a hand on his throat, Logan tried to steady his breathing once more. To even it out. Closing his eyes, he kept telling himself, his body, that it was Sloan. Not Mikhail.

His body refused to believe him. The trauma was there. In him. He was… Logan was… there was something wrong.

The lion was nothing like the tiger. He just wished his body understood that as he covered his eyes with closed fists as he cursed, hissing through his teeth.

“Stop shaking you coward.” Logan hated himself. Hated how this made him felt. He didn’t want Sloan to see him like this. “Stop. Shaking.” He pleaded. “Stop.” He begged. “Please, just stop…” Logan knew his body wouldn’t listen.

Just as how Mikhail hadn’t…

“Here,” Sloan had returned. Logan didn’t even notice the lion had left his side, now handing him a cup of water. He placed a cool, damp cloth on his thigh. Covering the bite mark and trying to clean it up. “Drink. Slowly. Easy does it… there. I… Logan, I… I’m sorry. I went too far. I got too excited and worked up and I…” Sloan looked away. “I thought you might…”

The lion licked over his fangs, still tasting Logan on his lips. It had been… exhilarating. Fresh, warm blood between his jaws.

“I was trying something new. I thought you might, you would… understand.” Sloan’s round ears folded out as his head drooped. “Spice things up in the bedroom, for us.”

“I-it’s alright,” Logan cursed under his breath. “Fuck, come on Logan.” He chided himself for the moment of weakness. His body was tired, and it had been ages since he got a proper sleep. That was still no excuse for this.

Whatever the fuck this had just been.

Being here with Sloan did help. Strangely enough, sleeping in bed with another warm body, a carnivore of all things, helped Logan sleep. Allowing him to maybe let his guard down…?

Funny, Logan almost laughed. He might’ve if the tears would just stop. Running down his face. They felt so damn hot. Hotter than the blood trickling from his wound ever did. The only times he felt at ease these days was when he was in bed with a carnivore…

“We can stop here,” Sloan told him, and Logan head snapped up at that. Glaring at the lion.

“Oh fuck no. You don’t get the luxury of getting off without letting me do the same.” Logan warned him. “I ain’t no whore, ‘ny longer.” Longer actually laughed at the end getting a tired look from Sloan.

“Really? You were paid for that…?” Sloan wondered if he should get tested. Logan just laughed though. A forced sound as the human tried to recollect himself. To gather the broken fragments of the mask he wore and try to put them back on before Sloan.

It only made Sloan sadder, seeing it. Watching Logan try to appear… normal.

“Nah, I never was paid… but I’d have probably been able to afford an entire apartment like this if I did!” Logan just grinned at the lion, trying to forget what had just transpired between them. Silently begging that Sloan would go along with the act.

Begging, pleading without words for Sloan to understand.

“Right, the apartment. It is nice.” Sloan cleared is throat, looking around the room.

They were in Luxury Hotel Apartments in pride territory. It was a complex that the family owned and where most of the lion’s held up these days stayed at. The entire area was safe and secured, with several different layers of security around them. Walls, coded gates, cameras, lions patrolling…

In the middle of the Northern part of the city, Sloan had made his den.

Reclaiming the lost territory his father and sister had abandoned when they tried to move further South, into the city. Sloan decided it was best to go north and west. Taking over the area was easy enough. All he had to do was renewed several expired contracts, shoo away some stray rats, and Sloan was used to that.

Negotiating such things out.

Changing the sign to this place, removing the eagle crest, and replacing it with a lions was the first start. A symbol. A symbol Sloan had planned to use running his campaign. Of a lion standing before others, offering them things they didn’t have. It was hard to tell who or what the others were, but the idea was clear. The generosity of The Pride was ever giving to those in need.

Especially nowadays with so many going hungry and homeless.

A bit generic, but Logan understood where Sloan was going with it. Sloan wouldn’t be targeting the larger, well-known predator groups. While powerful, they were relatively few in number when you compared them to every other group in the city.

Sloan was after them. Those that had been neglected, pushed aside by society, and even ignored by the media.

The smaller, neglected groups. Offering sanctuary to herbivores that had been overlooked, taking in the smaller predators like those back at Golden Gate. The ones that had been used and abused, forced to work in pitiful jobs to take care of the larger predators. Hoping they might throw them a few scraps from the dinner table after.

Countless smaller predator species that couldn’t defend themselves. That, for some reason, refused to band together. If they needed a leader, Sloan could be that man.

Sloan was a businessman, and it was working. He was a suave negotiator at the table, even back in the office. His appearance and presence made others take notice and it was hard to try and ignore a lion when they were there. Most would back down when confronted about it.

“I can do that,” Sloan said and the look on his face, that warm voice that could melt butter was all Logan needed to lay on back in the bed. “What would you like?” Sloan’s tail swayed; glad they hadn’t ruined the moment.

Or at least, pretend that such a thing didn’t happen. Or how much Sloan had enjoyed it until Logan couldn’t handle it any longer…

It hadn’t been the first time Logan had reacted like that. There was a trauma there that Sloan couldn’t fix. The human had been through so much, at such a young age. The pain and memories had been hammered into his body. He’d grown up with them. Not knowing anything else. Even if Logan said he was okay, his body would still react in such violent outburst when… threatened, like that.

Sloan had learned to skirt around these things, to do other things with the human. Things Logan might like. That they could enjoy together. Logan would apologize, ashamed and embarrassed whenever these outburst happened. They seemed to be happening more frequently and Logan would distant himself from Sloan whenever they did. Angry about it all, even when Sloan would tell him it was okay.

Because, even after it happened, Logan would stay here. That Logan hadn’t run away from him. Maybe Logan wanted to make up for the moment or to prove to himself that he could still do this…? It didn’t matter because it meant, for Sloan, he could spend more time with him.

Carefully, Sloan lifted up his legs. Spreading them apart. Logan gave him a look at that.

“No teeth, this time.” Sloan promised and Logan rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine.” Logan grumbled about it like a child.

“No. Teeth.” Sloan gave him a stern looked and waited for Logan to back down. Only then did he lower his muzzle down between his legs. “Oof, I really coated you, huh?” The lion growled smelling his strong musk all over the human’s body.

Sloan tried not to smile at that and failed miserably.

“You always do.” Logan rolled his eyes, resting back. “I swear you’re more dog than cat sometimes. Marking this and that.”

“You know felines mark their territory just as much as dogs do.” Sloan gave him a knowing look. He flashed a fang. “You of all people should know how much I like to… mark my things.”

Logan cough-laughed at that. Trying not to choke on his own saliva at that.

“Y-yes. Yes, I could see you now. Sloan Kincaid, Mane of The Pride, dick out in hand. Just marking everything and everyone down.” Logan said, painting a picture of it. “You get a mark. You get a mark. YOU get a mark!”

Sloan was the one to roll his eyes before lapping at Logan’s groin, cleaning the human up from the mess he had made earlier. Normally, Sloan wouldn’t bother with it. But he had a few more kinky things in mind he wanted to try out with the human since he had him here.

“You also make a good mop,” Logan grinned down at the lion holding open his legs. Sloan gave him a look before spitting out what he’d collect back onto the human, making him squirm. “Ew, gross! I thought you were a gentleman! A gentleman does not spit, he swallows.”

Sloan just gave him a look before shaking his head.

“Seriously? I jerk off on you like, once a week, and you get disgusted by this?” Sloan lifted an eyebrow at him.

“I’m a classy guy. Got to wine and dine me first before you fuck me.” Logan shrugged and Sloan rolled his entire head with his eyes at that, going back to work. Collecting the mess he had made, again, Sloan stroked Logan off as he sat up to look the human over.

Those large fingers curled around his length, jerking him off with slow kneading motions. Pressing the thick, warm paw pads against his twitching member as Sloan stroked Logan off slowly. Rubbing a thumb underneath his length, teasing his sack, before up it to the tip. Rubbing and swirling the paw pad against the slit to make the human squirm for the lion’s amusement. Such things never shut the human up for long and Sloan had to endure another sassy remark.

“Keep that up, fingers.” Logan huffed out. “And I’ll be done in no time.”

While that would be amusing to see, Logan like putty between his fingers, Sloan had other things in mind. Easing off his dick, Sloan dragged his large hand down his other thigh, around the curve of the muscle and to Logan’s ass. Running a finger between his cheeks, Sloan’s eyes drifted down to look at that perfect rear.

It was firm, yet thick enough to give him plenty of padding to use when he mounted the human. Sloan wanted to bite it but resisted that thought. If he over did it, Logan might pull away again. Sloan didn’t want that. Right now, these past three days, he wanted Logan by his side the entire time.

It was a guilty act, really, in the end.

The two of them barely saw each other as it was. Not as they used to when they worked together. Sloan almost missed those days when Logan was his assistant. Seeing him each and every day in the office, bringing him coffee. When the lion had been blind to how things were and who Logan really was. Nowadays it was hard just getting ahold of Logan, let alone getting him in bed like this.

A part of Sloan wanted to tie up his wrists, hang them up on the mantlepiece above Logan’s head as the lion had his way with the human. But there was no fun in trapping Logan here, like that. Sure, the kinky roleplay aspect of it they’d done plenty of times before.

Sloan didn’t want to force Logan into this, as he felt he had done before. As he was sure others had as well…

No, he wanted the human to come willingly into his bed like tonight. Like he had back in the office. Crawling under his desk and just… that. That was what Sloan wanted from Logan.

There was something alluring about it. Someone wanting you so much. Craving your touch. Logan had slept next to Sloan these past three days and hadn’t left in the morning. Sloan knew, one day, Logan would go but for now he was here now. Craving the lion’s attention as much as Sloan craved Logan’s.

And that was all that mattered.

Lifting up Logan’s legs, Sloan ran his muzzle down his inner thigh, brushing over his sack, nosing his taint before pressing his lips roughly against the human’s hole. Forming his lips around the donut, Sloan pushed out the seed he’d collected. Using the saliva mixed salty seed to bathe and wash Logan’s hole with.

The heat of it, the smell of Logan made Sloan’s nails spring out. They pricked Logan’s legs, but the human only winced, not pulling away.

Using his tongue, Sloan scooped and shoved a decent portion of the mixture into Logan’s tight hole. Wanting to make him feel good. Swirling it around and coating his inside while tasting him, the lion groaned between the human’s legs. The heat, the smell, the taste was making the lion drool once more and Sloan took advantage of that to eat Logan out.

Lifting up his legs, pulling the human closer, Sloan practically shoved Logan down into the bed as he sat up to taste and suckle on the sweet tender flesh of Logan’s rear.

Logan was about to say something, some snarky comment Sloan was sure. Sloan stopped him quickly enough. Placing a large paw over Logan’s face, the lion silenced the smart mouthed human. Covering his face with a paw before sliding a toe inside his open mouth. Shoving it into Logan’s mouth and letting the human taste him on his lips.

The only thing Sloan wanted to hear from him right now were moans of pleasure.

The paw was heavy and warm, coated with sweat and their long days together. Sloan had rarely bathed these past three days and Logan could taste the lack of it on the toe Sloan had shoved into his mouth. It tasted of the earth, a musky tinge to it as Logan licked over it. Around it, between the others and the lion growled above him.

The flavor, the taste, the smell hit Logan like a truck. Recalling all the times he’d slipped underneath his bosses desk to play with and satisfied the tired, worked up lion. Teasing his socks off before kissing the side of his large, hard-working paws. Marveling at them, worshipping him as Logan took care of Sloan’s wants and needs.

Life had been so much easier back then.

Sloan rested back, dragging Logan along with him. Resting half on the lion, the rest between Sloan’s legs in an awkward sixty-nine position. Logan was in no better position than he had been before. Sloan had rested back so he could use both his massive paws to rub and pet and squeeze the human’s face between. Both of the feline’s hefty paws were against his cheeks, toes curling around his face as Sloan kept Logan nice and close as he licked and lapping at his rear end.

Savoring the taste of that tender, fleshy hole.

The pink paw pads were thick and warm against his cheeks. Logan closed his eyes, feeling hot and sweating from the act as Sloan pressed them against his face. It felt like his head might pop but Sloan never went that far. The lion was keenly aware of his strength and size and the countless times they had “played” together like this had left Sloan well informed of how far he could go. How much Logan could take.

Even before, Sloan had been testing the waters. He’d been gentle, barely breaking the skin and waited for Logan’s response. The human had tried to endure it but… Now Sloan knew never to try that again.

Experience could be such a wonderful thing.

Logan wasn’t used to that. Most the guys he’d been with were one-night stands. A quick hit it and leave it sort of thing. It had been ways for Logan to coerce information out of them, these others, as he emptied their balls in the process. To be with someone multiple times, like this, was a new experience for Logan.

Something he never thought he’d have again. Not after…

Sloan was reading him like a book these days. It was… odd. Picking up on the subtle shifts and changes in his posture to know if there was something wrong or if Logan liked or disliked something he wasn’t willing to openly just say and admit. The feline was getting close to him. Aware of him. Seeing him as no one else did and Logan was afraid of what that meant.

What new pain he’d experience letting someone else in again like this. What new, fresh scars they’d leave on him afterwards…

If that was the case, why did this feel so damn good? Logan couldn’t comprehend that. He was trapped between the lion’s paws, being crushed and yet he never felt better. There was something wrong with him. He knew that and yet he didn’t stop, even letting Sloan know how much he enjoyed it.

Logan moaned, without words. Letting it out. Not holding back. Giving into the pleasure of being used like this. Lapped at, bit, stepped on and taking advantage of. Taken advantage of as how Logan used to do with Sloan. Using and abusing the lion for his job, his own benefit and now… now…

It was Sloan who was making him feel like this.

Raw and exposed.

“Good boy,” Sloan growled out as he pulled back, panting heavily as he caught his breath. He’d shoved his muzzle between Logan’s ass cheeks and was eating the human out as roughly and passionately as he could muster until his lungs burned and he had to take a breath. “Now…”

Sloan moved Logan off his body, onto his back to their side. Laying there panting in bed. Looking up at the lion, still covered with Sloan’s seed on his body. Smelling of his paws. Smelling so strongly of the feline that everyone else in the world would be able to detect Sloan on him. That Logan was his.

“Fuck,” Logan panted, looking up at the lion towering over him. Sloan was so large he blotted out the dim bedroom light above them. “You going to step on me?”

“Is that what you want?” The corner of Sloan’s muzzle pulled up in a knowing smile. “You love being under me, I’ve realized that. Beneath me. Between my toes, my paws.” The lion huffed out a heavy breath, growling with the words. “Want to use your body for my seat.” The lion licked his lips, tail lashing behind him. “The things I want to do with you… Logan.”

Sloan lowered himself over Logan, crouching down before hoisting up Logan’s legs roughly. Sloan was rock hard, and his head flared with his excitement. The barbs twitching on the underside as the lion angled his length down and pushed against Logan’s rear.

“Loose,” Sloan growled in annoyance. His body tensed at the feel of it. Knowing Logan had been with someone else.

It was an unspoken thing between them, that Logan was seeing others. Maybe because Sloan was a feline he didn’t mind as much. Most felines being open in such aspects. The open relationship was still just that. A relationship. Or was this more of a business transaction for Logan? That was hard to say, for Sloan to know. That wasn’t how he saw it, but he was unsure how Logan saw all this. All the lion knew was the raw instinct inside wanting to scrap out the other man’s seed inside Logan and fill him with his own.

A primal, feral urge that made Sloan’s jaw clenched as he pushed further inside. Roughly so. Not waiting for Logan to adjust, wanting the human to feel his girth and know that Sloan knew what he had done. That even if he had been with someone else, that Sloan was the only man that could do this for him.

Was Logan teasing him doing these things? It wasn’t like Sloan wasn’t doing the same thing, on his side. Having someone on the side during the days Logan wasn’t around. Their relationship was so strange, so unhealthy, toxic even… and yet then why… why did Sloan want to fuck Logan more than ever?

More than any other man in his life.

The look on Logan’s face. Looking up at him. Was he smiling? Or was that a smirk? Was the human teasing him even now as Sloan mounted him? Took him? Filled him with his seed. Sloan wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he needed to make sure Logan only ever experienced the best high with him above all those other nobodies.

It didn’t matter who they were as the lion humped forward.

It didn’t matter that Logan was possibly seeing someone else as he dragged out, his barbs pulling and teasing at Logan’s inside making him cry out in pleasure from the feeling.

All that matter was that Logan was his, that Logan belonged to Sloan at the end of the day. Let him play with some nobodies, no one could match or compare to the lion. His girth, his size, his smell. Sloan was more than all of them combined as he humped roughly forward again. Holding the human’s legs as he looked down at him. Pressing Logan into the bed, making him moan like this. Let the entire hotel apartment complex hear them.

Sloan wanted them to know.

Sloan’s toes curl as Logan groaned out, moaning out for him like an alley cat in heat. It was a sound that sent shivers down Sloan’s spine, making his tail stick out behind him.

“That’s right,” Sloan growled deeply, to the point Logan couldn’t understand him. “Moan for me, bitch.” He needed this. He needed Logan like this. Only he could give Logan such pleasure. To make him forget it all, to forget his scars.

Sloan was sure, in that moment, that he was the only feline in Logan’s life. Unaware of how many there had been. How many had left theirs scars, and how many were left…

“Come for me baby.” Logan wasn’t sure who those words were as he closed his eyes being taken like this. Used like this. Nothing more than a condom, an old sock for them to use and abuse and throw away. He could feel Sloan pressing further inside him, spreading his cheeks and hole. Pushing against his prostate as the lion’s girth filled him.

The feline filled him. The feline… filled him…

“That’s right, I’ll make you feel so good. You’ll forget about everyone else.” Logan panted and moaned, groaning out as he grabbed at the sheets. He was so rough. SO vocal with him. The sounds of him growling out, the expression that was surely on his face.

Logan didn’t look at Sloan. He covered his eyes as everything was hitting him all at once. Again. Again. And again.

Flashes of orange. Flashes of tawny gold… flashes of smokey gray.

“You need to try harder.”

“I’m trying…” Logan felt a tear run down his cheek. Or was that blood? It was hard to tell. He was so exhausted. His hand felt numb, his fingers tingling as he held the knife tighter.

“You need to be better.” Cold golden eyes stared at him from the shadows. “Better!”

“I know.” Logan bit his lip as the bed shook around them.

“You can be better than this. Than what you were born as. Prove to everyone that you aren’t just some… weak, furless thing.” The voice had growled at him. A feline’s voice.

“I’ll do better next time.” Logan had promised in return.

“You better. I don’t need a dull, broken tool…” Bosch had said to him, the jaguar leaving Logan naked in the bed after mating him.

Roughly, almost violently the jaguar had taken Logan. After taking him in. Saving him from that place, The Market, so many years ago. Saving Logan, training Logan, using and abusing Logan and now… and now asking Logan to do the unspeakable to another large feline bedding him.

Logan really knew how to pick them.

“Logan,” Sloan groaned above him. Saying his name. Repeating his name. Over and over again as if it were the sweetest of things in the world. “Logan, I’m going to…. Logan you feel so… Logan I just…” Sloan couldn’t finish his words. Couldn’t finish the sentences as his muzzle tilted upwards, eyelids flickering open and shut as he felt it. Felt the rush again.

The rush that made Sloan feel so young, again. Like a drug. Logan was his drug. A drug he couldn’t quit.

Falling over the human, Logan was bent upwards, legs above his head as the lion got on all fours above him. Falling onto all fours, still inside him. Still breeding him as Sloan humped down at him making Logan wince as he felt his spine bend with every move; he was just glad he was so flexible.

“Ah, Logan. I’m about. So close. I just. No other.” Sloan muttered. He growled. He was baring his fangs above the human as he clawed at the sheets around them. They’d need to buy another pair of sheets after this. “Just… Just…”

Sloan’s nails dug into the bed. His body went still, rigid even as his tail stood up high as his legs visibly spasmed before Logan felt it. He felt when Sloan’s sack tightened, felt when the lion, on all fours above him like a feral animal, came inside him.

It was a rush. It poured out of Sloan’s body, even being his third climax this night. It was still as plentiful as the others had been. Thick and heavy, like Sloan was. Logan could feel Sloan’s dick bulge as the warmth pumped out of him. Pumped out of the lion to fill Logan. To make him feel so good. Like a drug… pumping into his system.

Load after load of the lion’s hefty seed that made Logan feel full like no other could. Or so he wanted to say. Or so he wanted to think. Or so… he wanted to believe.

“I love you.” Sloan said and Logan’s face blanked at that.

He moved his arm away, to look at the lion’s face. Sloan was looking down at him. Just watching him with soft, caring eyes. With a finger, Sloan brushed a stray tear away from Logan’s face. A tear that Logan hadn’t even felt.

“I don’t expect you to say it back. Or feel the same,” Sloan carefully eased back, lowering Logan’s legs back down and gently placed them on the bed as if afraid, only now, that he might hurt the human. “I just,” he panted. The exhilaration from these moments was overwhelming. “Needed you to hear them. Those words. From me.”

Sloan had another he would bed, but it was nothing like this. Nothing like it was with Logan. To have him as his first, made everyone else in comparison seem lacking. In so many ways.

“Logan,” Sloan pet the side of Logan’s face. Cradling his head in one large hand. “Even with all yours scars,” Sloan swallowed. Taking a second as his eyes looked away, to the side. “After everything. I know. Things can’t be. That we can’t. That it’s just not how it is but… but I wanted to have this. To feel this. Thank you, for letting me know such… joy. Even if we can’t…” Be together.

Was it because he was a human? The lion wasn’t sure.

Sloan had wondered that many times before. If it would’ve been possible if Logan was a lion, like him. A smaller, cute, yet sassy lion with a mane of fur that was only half the size of Sloan’s. The two would’ve been confused for brothers going out on dates but Sloan wouldn’t mind.

For, to the lion, who only had his family left, Logan was family. He was… family.

“Thank you,” Sloan could only say resting his larger forehead against the human beneath him. Pressing it against Logan’s chest, allowing Logan to hug his head and bury his face into his mane. Getting lost in the feel of it.

It smelled like Sloan and Logan took a guilty breath of it.

“Sloan,” Logan eased back and felt when Sloan slipped out of him. His rear end was leaking, and he was sure Sloan still was as well. Messing up the bed even further. His ass would be so sore in the morning from that. “I,” Logan reached back, over a shoulder, to touch one of the scars on his back. “I just…” His finger brushing one of the scars.

He had so many scars these days. Not like these, though. These. These were specially given…

Gruesome scars from a feline that had torn his back to shreds, into ribbons, leaving red stripes behind.

“I don’t know.” Logan admitted, not looking at him. He was the one who felt vulnerable, open, and exposed after sex these days. He. Not Sloan. It left him feeling… good, though.

And Logan wasn’t sure what to do about that.

To feel good, happy about things? Was he allowed to be… happy? He didn’t think so. Logan didn’t deserve to be happy. And yet when he looked at Sloan. He wanted to tell that dark part of himself to go fuck itself. That he could be, here, with him.

“I know.” Sloan chuffed, resting at Logan’s side. Patting his chest, Logan moved over to join him. Resting against the lion’s chest and getting lost in the secure feel that it brought him. Sloan wrapped an arm around him, pulling him closer. “I know it’s… complicated. I just. Wanted you to hear that. For someone to tell you, for once, that they loved you.”

Logan had to bury his face between Sloan’s furry pecs to stop himself from laughing.

Plenty of people had told him that. Even offering Logan outrageous things in return for him to stay with them. Cars, houses, money? And so much more. They’d offer him love and everything they could offer, even threatening to abandon their family for him.

Logan had refused them all.

Even from Domino.

He knew what such things… what love brought him. Love was a luxury, a weakness, he couldn’t afford. What weaknesses left you in the end. Others, other felines, had said the same thing as Sloan had. Telling him, telling him what Logan wanted to hear.

Before making him bleed for it.

He deserved it. Logan wasn’t a good person. He didn’t deserve happiness or love or things normal people had.

Because he was… Logan didn’t deserve such things. Knowing what he had done. Been responsible for. Why he did these things with them, with Domino and with Sloan… with Mikahil. And whose lives he had ruined because of it.

Logan was a bad person at the end of the day and bad people don’t deserve to be happy.

“Bad people deserve to be hurt, Logan.” Bosch had reminded him. Tracing a clawed finger around Logan’s jaw, against his neck after tying him up and working on his chest. It was supposed to make him stronger, a tougher person. It just felt like torture, this training. “They don’t deserve to be happy.” It hurt when the nail pricked him. Drawing blood. “They deserve to feel what they have done to others. What we’ll do to others.” The jaguar had told him.

The jaguar had moved closer.

The lion had moved closer.

The tiger had moved closer.

Jaws parting, tongue drooling out before they licked him. Licked against his neck, licked against his thigh, licked against the scars on his back… Licking away the blood they had drawn from the human’s body. Swallowing it away, to know that Logan had bled for them. Was not a part of them. Their connection, eternal.

And only them. Right?

Forever with them… right?

Right…?

“I don’t know what to do.” Logan had said, holding Sloan’s chest. He was shaking, shivering in that moment as if suddenly very cold. He was sure the tears were slipping out, but Logan couldn’t stop them. Couldn’t stop them even when Sloan rubbed his back with a hand.

A hand that was so large it could’ve gripped his entire head, popping it like a balloon if Sloan, this carnivore, this predator had wanted. How easy it was for a man like Sloan to take a life. If h had the “appetite” to hurt Logan as so many others had.

“Don’t know about what…?” Sloan asked him as Logan pressed against his body. Seeking warmth, seeking security, seeking something Logan wasn’t even sure of these days was there. What he was looking for.

The missing piece that could solve his problem.

“Whose side to take…” Logan wanted to say. It was on the tip of his tongue. Wanted to blurt it out, to talk to Sloan about this. To ask for the lion’s opinion and being unable to. Wanting to Sloan everything, to have at least someone in his corner he could talk to.

Logan didn’t. He couldn’t. Sloan’s life was already on the chopping block and the more the lion knew, the further ahead in line he’d be push. Until he was next in line to be taken out.

“Logan.” Sloan asked of him, wanting Logan to explain.

“There is something wrong with me and I don’t know how to fix it…” Logan said sounding like the kid he was never allowed to be growing up. Not after everything he’d experienced and been through.

“I,” Sloan was caught off guard by that and just stared towards the ceiling trying to find the right words to use. To say. It wasn’t often, or ever, Logan was open with him about these kind of things. It was easy to forget that Logan was still so young. “I think I need more context in order to help…” Sloan let out a breath.

This was not the post-nut clarity Sloan had been hoping for. Or what he had wanted to ask Logan, again, for.

He had a whole thing set up, an entire monologue prepared and memorized. Wanting to talk to Logan about him officially moving in here with him. Where it was safe and that Sloan could keep an eye on Logan, for his protection of course.

But the tighter you try to hold onto something, the more it tries to run away.

Something Sloan was still trying to learn. Still trying not to do. No matter how much he wanted to grab Logan and just… devour him.

“Tell me,” Sloan bumped a finger against Logan’s chin and pushed the human’s face up until they were looking at each other. “Oh, Logan.” Sloan purred his name out. Brushing away the tears. “What is it? You know you can tell me anything… is this about that tiger?”

It took Logan a second to figure out which one he was talking about. “You mean Troy? No, no. Thank you for holding him up here. Where it’s safe… I really appreciate that. I don’t… I don’t have a lot of people I can come to these days for favors. Or… anything.”

“After everyone figured out you were a cop?” Sloan chuckled and licked Logan’s cheek to stop him from pouting about it.

“Detective. I am a detective, not an officer… any longer.” Logan grumbled as Sloan just licked his cheek again. Wiping away the tears with his tongue.

“Yes, yes. The big strong policeman that needed to be rescued, if I recall, by the criminal lion.” Sloan teased, thinking of the time he had jumped into a fighting pit to save Logan’s life.

“Are you still bringing that up?” Logan groaned low and loud, dragging it out as he did.

“You still haven’t paid me back yet for it.” Sloan bumped his nose against the human’s cheek. “Or lying about it…” He added in a low voice. Sloan held Logan securely, not letting him go.

“Right…” Logan sighed, turning onto his back, and lying next to Sloan now in the bed instead against him. Sloan let him go, leaving his arm underneath the human. Just in case he needed to grab him if he tried to fly away again. “It’s… something like that. Again.”

“Again.” Sloan repeated the word with a frown. “Who, uh, are you working for this time?”

“Can’t say.” Logan said, still staring up at the ceiling.

“Would you have to kill me if you did?” Sloan joked but the look Logan gave him told him how true his words were. “Oh. OH! Oh, my. That is something.” Sloan rested back in the bed, thinking it over. “So, then. Just to be clear. The issue is you aren’t sure who you want to help…? What about your family?”

“Dead. Gone. Insane.” Logan shrugged. Sloan had to give him a look at that. Logan didn’t clarify. He rarely talked about his family, if ever. It was odd for Sloan who was so indebted to his own.

“Well, then who do you want to help? Or is ask help of?” Sloan was trying to figure this riddle out. If he did, then Logan didn’t directly tell him, and the human wouldn’t have to… kill him.

“Something like that, yeah.” Logan admitted without going into any further details knowing he had already said too much as it was. “There is just. A lot. A lot on my plate. Everyone asking to put more onto it, even when those portions conflict with other peoples… portions.” Logan wasn’t liking this analogy.

He wasn’t sure why it always came back to food with the lion, but it did. Sloan’s stomach rumbled in response and Logan gave him a look. Sloan just gave a guilty smile.

“Well, Logan. I thank you.”

“For?” Logan asked, confused.

“How you forget so easily… I’ll never know. You saved my life the other day. Again. Logan.” Sloan reminded him, looking over at the human. “Does that mean… I’m at least one of those people you want to help? To… ask help of?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Logan laughed but Sloan didn’t join in.

“Yes.” Sloan said and the words made Logan turn on his side, facing away from Sloan. Feeling guilty about it. That the lion, even now, needed Logan to say the words to him. Words that were on the tip of Logan’s tongue, but he wasn’t able to say.

To say in the way Sloan wanted him to, anyways.

“Of course, I’m going to help you Sloan. Even since the beginning… I was trying to prove your innocence.” Logan said, closing his eyes as if about to sleep. He got an amused chuff from the lion behind him. The only man that could laugh at him like this, to face towards his back… to see his scars, and still laugh.

“Even with those unorthodox methods of yours? Coercing such vital details out of my balls.” Sloan tip toed two fingers over Logan’s side, teasing him now. “My balls had some very important information. You just kept coming back, again and again.”

“Oh, shut up you fat feline. Arrogant son of a… You were the one coming…” Logan grumbled. “But, uh, yes. Even with those unorthodox methods… I was trying to help you. To get proof, evidence that you were just… Sloan. And not a Kincaid.” Logan looked back at him. Over one shoulder, at the lion lying in bed with him.

Sloan just gave him a sorrowful look as if in apology.

“I am a Kincaid, Logan.” Sloan told him. “That… that never changes. Family. You are part of them whether you like it or not.”

“I know…” Logan sighed, resting back. His own family was crazy enough without knowing about others. “Why do you think this is all so damn complicated, huh? It’s not like I want to just… but they are… I owe them and yet…”

“Family…?” Sloan dared to ask, to figure it out.

“Something like that.” Logan admitted, staring up at the ceiling. Wondering if that was what Bosch was to him. Some sort of… adopted family, after he lost his own?

Sloan took a second, before letting out a laugh. Logan gave him a look.

“You know, I doubt they’d hold up in a courtroom if you brought evidence in from, say, illegally wire tapping my phone or coercing information out of me via sex, officer.” The lion turned on his side, spooning up behind the smaller human. Sloan pulled him closer, giving him a tight squeeze before easing up. “Amongst all your other ill-gotten evidence. I’m a lawyer. Trust me on this.”

“I’d make it work.” Logan closed his eyes, resting his head on Sloan’s muscular arm.

“How would you manage that?” Sloan asked, already knowing the answer. He could see Logan smiling the entire time, waiting for the moment to say it.

“I’d sleep with the judge, jury and prosecutor!” Logan laughed and Sloan joined in, a deep rumbling sound that shook his chest against the back of the human’s head.

“Yes, of course that would be your answer. Sex is the answer to life. 69, or something along those lines… You know I’d be the prosecutor, right?” Sloan asked and Logan turned around to face him, looking over his shoulder at the lion staring down at him.

Logan smiled.

“I know.” Logan said as he kissed Sloan’s lips softly. “That’s why I know I’d win.”

“Damn,” Sloan brought his hand down quickly to stop Logan from turning away from him. He liked it when Logan looked at him like this. Facing towards him. The playful, sassy secretary he once had. “You got me there.”

And Sloan kissed him.

Slow and deep, gently pressing his large muzzle against the human’s lips. Feeling them against his own. The way they brushed between his black lips lining the edge of his cheeks, slipping in just slightly due to their size difference. Feeling Logan kiss at his teeth, breathing in his breath as Sloan parted his teeth just enough for his tongue to meet those lips. To press against them and feel Logan kiss it in turn before pulling back.

Sloan was the first to pull back, having been drooling over Logan’s face. He apologized for what had happened.

“One of these days,” Logan breath was heavy as he rested back. Not even wiping the drool off. “You aren’t going to stop.”

“Maybe,” Sloan continued to hold his face in a large hand. “Would you mind?”

“Not if it was you.” Logan answered, kissing him once more. Feeling Sloan’s jaws part and his fangs brush over his cheeks as the lion inhaled his face in a deep, passionate kiss as Logan grabbed at the lion’s mane.

Unsure what he’d do if Sloan ever tried to go further than this.

Tilting his head back, Sloan kissed down Logan’s chin, over his jawline and down to his throat. His breath washed over it. Hot and heavy, leaving a dampness behind as the lion nosed at him. Sloan could feel the pumping of blood there, where his thumb was holding Logan’s neck. He could feel Logan’s heart beating faster and faster.

In excitement? In fear? Maybe a mixture of the two as Sloan bent down, turning his head to the side, and planted two lips against Logan’s throat. Feeling as Logan swallowed. The human was tense, waiting. Waiting for Sloan to go further.

To bite him? Sloan didn’t know…

“Logan,” Sloan said as he pulled back looking down at the human he had in his hands, melting like butter between his fingers. “I have an idea.”

“W-what’s that?” Logan panted.

“The issue you’ve been having?”

“Oh,” Logan said in disappointed and got a look from the lion. “Sorry. I just thought. More sex.”

“And you call me horny.” The lion chuffed as Logan pushed against his chest. Sloan held him, though, keeping him close.

“You are. You really, really are…” Logan said and yet he smiled with his eyes and it warmed Sloan’s heart. “The idea you had?” Logan asked when Sloan didn’t continued.

“Ah, right. Right. Sorry. I got lost in your eyes,” Sloan cleared his throat. “Why don’t you just help everyone?” Sloan offered and got a look from the human now. Logan sat up a bit more, calming down from the fearousal he had been experiencing. “While, as The Mane of The Pride, I should be saying to help only us... I know that isn’t feasible for you. In your position… But I know you will help me,” Sloan said, and Logan bit his lip at that. “I trust you Logan. With my life. With… with everything. I hope you know that.” Sloan said, watching the human who couldn’t look at him from such a confession. “Then…” The lion continued. “Then if the issue is who to help… why not try for everyone? Or, rather, as many people as you can. I should be saying, that includes me.”

“Felines. It’s always about you in the end.” Logan said and squirmed as Sloan rubbed his whiskered muzzle against him. “I relent, I relent!” Logan gave up with a laugh and Sloan smiled at that.

Sloan tapped a finger against his chin, thinking it over.

“Logan, just try and figure out who you can help and how many other people you can help through them. Find the one where you help the most. That might help you figure this all out, Logan.” Sloan said as he rested down against the pillow. “I just hope when you find that answer you are looking for. I’ll be part of it…”

“In other words,” Logan said resting back against Sloan’s arm. Against the lion’s chest, just staring at it as he faced towards Sloan. The lion was so much larger than he was. Logan only ever came up to his chest. “I should pick you and from there… see how many people I can help?”

“That would be the ideal outcome, for me anyways.” Sloan chuckled as he hugged Logan close.

“Sloan…?” Logan said his name and the lion rumbled in reply. “…thanks.” Was all he could say. Wanting to say more but afraid of what would happen if he did.

Logan couldn’t admit that Sloan might not make the list. Even if Logan didn’t directly hurt or try and kill Sloan… he wouldn’t help him. Right? If the greater good meant sacrifices Sloan, Reese, Domino… Alan? Could he do that. For the greater good?

For family…?

Logan wanted to be greedy, in that moment. Wanting to keep Sloan and the others. To have a life where he could somehow magically make it all just… work.

But the battlelines had been drawn and Logan needed to figure out which side he stood when the next shot was fired.

He just hoped it was on the side Sloan was on. Unable to imagine a life without the lion in it.

Then again, that was the very same thought Logan had once had for Bosch… for Mikhail. Of a life where he was, forever in it.

Forever, together. Until the end…