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.

He’d likely want to worship Liam’s balls for a while, inhale his scent, get drunk off his pheromones, become swollen and receptive, and encourage a big load from the Dominant. And a submissive like this should want to get bred hard and long then want a secure plug to keep all that goodness inside. Daniel should be smug and content after the experience.