They leave medical together, Liam with an arm around him, seemingly unwilling to let Daniel be away from him at all. It’s nice. It makes him feel protected and wanted. He feels smaller somehow, and he finds himself slouching and ducking in close, wanting to touch and scent his Dominant.

“You’re going to stay right next to me. Snug and close, understand?”

Daniel blushes and smiles at him. It’s exactly what he wants.

8

Daniel is much taller than Liam expected. He’d seemed so much smaller in the bed. Daniel looks at him, then away, and a blush crawls up his cheeks. His shoulders hunch in.

“What happens now?” Daniel asks.

“We get you comfortable with being my submissive. Your heat isn’t close, which is for the best. It’ll be enough of an adjustment without that, I imagine.” Liam reaches up a hand to Daniel’s face, touching his cheek. “Are you familiar with the traffic light system? If I ever do something you can’t handle or that you don’t like, I want you to say red. And I’ll stop immediately. If you’re scared or panicking, need a moment or something like that, you say yellow. If I ask you what color you are and you’re happy with what’s happening, what will you say?” He’s staring at Daniel’s mouth, thinking about getting his cock into that wet heat.

“Green.”

“That’s right, my good boy. I won’t be mad if you say red or yellow.”

“What about—I’m prey. Shouldn’t I not be allowed red?” Daniel tries to shrug, to make it seem like he doesn’t care very much. As if he hasn’t thought about what it might mean to be prey since the moment he came into his designation.

“That might be more advanced than what we have time for. Nonconsensual play is something we’d engage in if we knew each other well. Let’s see how it goes and if you’re not evening out well, then we might experiment.”

“What if… what if I’m too strong? What if I resist?”

It’s an interesting enough question that Liam wonders what Daniel has heard, how much he knows about his designation. “You won’t be, honey. If you were able to fight me, then I wouldn’t even try it. Your body will help me.”

“That’s—” Daniel whispers the next word. “Weakness. Isn’t it?”

The submissive is gorgeous, attempting to pretend he doesn’t know what the condition means.