Page 42 of The Protective Gryphen

Ian laughed.

“Exactly. I love animals,” he said. “As a kid, we had all different kinds on the farm. Pigs, sheep, horses, and a very stubborn mule named Clifford.”

Gryphen was curious.

He didn’t grow up around animals or kind people. That was lost on him.

“What was it like?” he asked.

Grabbing some feed, Ian held it in his hand and fed the white horse.

“It was fun. Me and my siblings got to ride them, and play with them. It was a lot of work, but children should have pets. It teaches them compassion, love, grief, and responsibility,” he admitted. “When they die, it’s hard, but when you have them, they are special.”

Gryphen listened, and he tried to picture himself taking care of a pig.

Then again, Raven the dog was mostly his, and she ate every and anything she saw. It was very pig-like.

“Sounds like a good life to have,” Gryphen admitted. “You’re lucky to have those memories.”

Ian glanced over.

“I was. Then, I wasn’t,” he stated. “At one point, it all fell apart.”

Gryphen heard the tone, and he sounded broken inside. Since he knew what that was like…

He wanted to help.

“Want to talk about it?” the bigger man asked.

Ian shrugged.

“I don’t know that there’s anything to talk about. All I know is that I can’t go home. My mother hates me, and my siblings don’t speak to me. Every Christmas, I hope someone will call, but they don’t.”

“Do you call them?” he asked.

“They don’t answer. I’m a disappointment,” he admitted.

Gryphen knew why. It certainly wasn’t going to be because he’d been a Secret Service Agent, or now because he worked for the FBI.

“Is it because you’re gay?”

He nodded.

“My mother, she’s religious, and raised ‘me better than this’,” he said. “When she found out, I think that day ruined her life.”

Gryphen sat on a bale of hay, and let him talk. It broke his heart that his mate felt empty over just loving a man, and that his family crucified him for it.

“When did she find out?” Gryphen asked.

He shared.

“When I was sixteen, she caught me with a boy. It was my first sexual experience. We were parked behind our barn, and we were awkwardly trying to navigate sex.”

“Who was he?”

Ian smiled at the memory.

“His name was Timothy, and he had dark hair and blue eyes. We were in the same gym class, and let’s just say we were bad at it.”

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