Page 8 of Designation Prey

“Agreed.”

“Could you give me a few minutes alone with him? I’m going to examine him and then he’ll hopefully wake up and we can get confirmation that this is the best course of action to take.” Liam wants to help him. He can barely resist touching Daniel as it is. His cock is hard already, a sign his body is identifying Daniel as a submissive in need of settling.

Liam has worked with enough struggling submissives that he’s got a good handle on controlling his own needs and desires, but Daniel is very alluring. He’s attractive, and even though he needs a bath, he still smells good. There’s a biological pull towards the submissive.

“I’ll go start the paperwork,” the doctor says.

“Who was he assigned to before this?” he asks, double-checking.

“No one. You know where gloves and lube are,” he says. “Thermometer is on the tray. If something is really out of whack, let me know? I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Got it,” Liam says, and Dr. Chang leaves, closing the door behind him.

From this point on, Daniel is his.

4

Liam takes out his phone so he can make an audio recording of their session. Daniel hasn’t moved. He’s still in the bed, breathing even, limbs loose. Dried blood is everywhere. It doesn’t hide the fact that Daniel is beautiful. Must have been handsome, maybe even delicate, before he was altered.

Liam puts his hand on the man’s cheek, needing to see how he’ll react to being touched. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m Commander Liam Stone, and I’m a Dominant. I’m here to take care of you. And it looks like you need a bit of caretaking.”

There’s still no response from the submissive in the bed. Hell, considering all he’s been through, maybe passive consent is as good as it gets.

“I need to check you, sweetheart. I’m going to feel your neck glands first. I’ll be gentle. Soft, okay? With my fingers. Very light, just like I’m touching your cheek now. That gentle. We need to get a sense of your cycle and where you are hormonally. Nothing I do should hurt, okay? At least… not yet,” he adds, because this is a high-level submissive who is going to need a certain amount of pain to submit and get his needs met. For a submissive as high needs as Daniel, saying “not yet” is akin to flirting.

But he isn’t going to do anything to the boy until he’s talked to him. His reactions are odd, and Liam can’t be too careful with this one. He touches two fingers to Daniel’s neck and Daniel whimpers, pulling in tighter to himself, brow furrowed. He doesn’t open his eyes, though.

“I know. It’s weird when you’re not used to someone touching you. I won’t hurt you. You’re doing so well. I’m almost done,” he says, finding the edges of Daniel’s gland with a gentle touch.

The gland is warm and enlarged, but not swollen and hot. Swollen and hot would be better. That’s fixable. That indicates he’s about to go into heat and his body is working overtime to get him ready. That’s normal.

Warm but large implies a chronic condition. The gland should be soft, and touching Daniel’s neck should make the submissive slump in relief. But his body is tense and his brow is furrowed in worry.

“I won’t hurt you,” he repeats. “I think you’ve had a tough time with all of this, haven’t you?” Then he rattles off a note for his own file. “Neck gland is large, relatively solid, and the condition seems chronic. Temperature is elevated but not feverish. No sign of redness or infection.”

Liam lifts his hand away from Daniel’s neck and Daniel relaxes, his breath sighing out of him. “Possible aversion to touch, possible… abuse. Atypical response to Dominant touch.”

Daniel swallows. The “awake but pretending to be asleep” is also an unusual response.

“We can talk about it when you wake up, honey,” he says gently. “I’m going to touch your hair now,” he murmurs, soft and close, radiating calm and gentleness. “I won’t hurt you.” Liam puts the back of his hand near Daniel’s nose again so the submissive can pick up his scent. Daniel is going to need to get used to it.

Liam isn’t going to leave here without him.

It’s decided. His own arousal is distracting, his knot wanting to fill, a primitive part of him just wanting to mount the submissive. But that’s not how things are done. That’s not the appropriate reaction when there’s this much trauma, and he’s a little disturbed by the intensity of his inappropriate response. Liam doesn’t let his instincts dictate his behavior. He never has, and he won’t start now.

“I’ll touch your hair now. Soft, baby,” he whispers, and Daniel goes tight and tense, hands fisted in what might be panic.

Liam rests his hand carefully on Daniel’s head, brushing his hair back just a little. “This is all I want from you, sweetheart. Right now, this is it. And look how good you’re doing. You’re perfect. What a good boy. Look how soft you are, submitting for me,” he says, waiting for a reaction. There isn’t one.

Which is odd.

Submissives love praise, love doing a good job. He’d expected Daniel to blush, maybe to smile. Maybe even open his eyes so he could see Liam’s approval for himself.

Instead, a tear courses down Daniel’s cheek. Liam wants to kill whoever got Daniel to this point. This is an atypical reaction. “I know, it’s gotta be a lot, baby,” he says, watching Daniel’s face. “But I’m happy with you. You’re doing well. This is all I want from you, and you’re giving it to me.”

Daniel should be very interested in Liam. He should be trying to move closer, entice the Dominant, and want to please.

His biological response to a powerful Dominant should be to mate——to be bred. He should want all of the Dominant hormones inside him that he can get. He should be moving in close, undoing his clothes, getting Liam’s pants open, presenting, and appealing to Liam’s nature to breed. He ought to want to see Liam’s balls; see just how much cream he could get from him.

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