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.”