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“I want my Dominant. I was told… I was promised,” he says, and sense returns to him. He needs to apologize. “I’m not trying to—I’m sorry.” He drops his gaze. Because he has to apologize. He has to play the game.
Now they’ll want to send him on another one-way mission. He can’t. He won’t.
Somehow the table is ripped off the metal screws, then he’s hurling it into a wall, and he doesn’t even know when he decided to do that. Was it a decision? Or just instinct? He doesn’t want to behave like this, but he can’t help it. He can’t stop. Won’t someone just make him stop?
The room is cleared, an alarm sounds, and he’s alone. Abandoned again already. He punches the wall, slams his fist into it again and again, unable to stop himself, but it’s that or something worse, and he’s afraid he might hurt someone.
Craig doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wants his Dominant. Wants to belong to someone. He needs to be stopped. He was promised. There were so many missions, so many surgeries, transfusions, and experiments, and he agreed to all of it because they swore to him that he’d finally have someone who was just his.
Blood is smeared on the walls, the metal dented. He’s shaking and scared of himself and what he’s done. No one will want him now.
“Stand down,” a man’s voice says from behind him, and Craig freezes, arm raised.
“Don’t,” Craig gasps, panting and trembling after the emotional explosion. Regret is settling in. He’ll always be alone. “You’re here to put me away again.”
Craig whimpers.
The alarm stops.
His ears are ringing and then settle. It’s quiet except for Craig’s heaving breaths, the loud hum of machinery, and heartbeats. And then footsteps as someone approaches. Who have they sent to deal with him? Craig can only hear two heartbeats in the room. He’s scared to turn around and see the look of disgust on the man’s face. Are they going to put a bullet in him? He doesn’t want to see that coming, either.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do this,” Craig says, breath hitching as he suppresses a sob. Footsteps. There’s not much separating them now; no more than a few feet. “Don’t come closer!” he gasps, scared of himself.
“You don’t tell me what to do, Craig. That isn’t your place. I’ll decide how close I get. You will allow it. Why did you act out? Something must have provoked you, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart.
That’s a mistake. They shouldn’t say a word like that to him. It’s in his file.
“Stop. I don’t do well with—”
“No. You’redone. You stop.”
“Oh.” Craig gasps and wants to sink to his knees. The man is a Dominant and there is power in the order, power that tingles against his skin like pleasure. Relief. Craig nods. Maybe the Dominant can’t see it. Maybe he still has a chance at being mated after what he’s just done if he can explain himself. He has to try.
“I’m sorry. I swear I am. I was promised a Dominant,” he says, knowing how pathetic it sounds. “For years, they told me I’d have one. And now I’m here, and I am supposed to have… they said his name is Commander Flak,” he whispers, even though that seems risky. The chance that he’ll still get that man (if he does actually exist) is likely gone.
“And I’m supposed to be waiting for him, but I got confused. I don’t know. I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry, I swear I can be good. I just—I just need him.” His voice breaks, that’s how pathetic he is.
“Then everything is fine, sweetheart. Because I’m your Dominant. You’re fine, Craig. I’m Commander Flak.”
6
That’s a new one. No one has ever claimed to be Craig’s Dominant. He really is in a new world with a new way of doing things.
Or is he?
Either he actually has a Dominant, and the man behind him is who he claims, or the military is even crueler now. All their tactics even more precise and cutting—not just vague promises or hints of getting his reward but letting him think he’s close enough to touch the man who will be his.
If it’s real, then this Dominant will give Craig what he needs. All Craig has to do is believe that after all the postponements and denials, the lies and obfuscations, after all this time and how his last mission ended, he’ll wake up in this new time, and his Dominant will walk in the door immediately.
Bullshit.
He should turn around and look for the lie on the man’s face, but he can’t. It’s… terrifying. What if it is real, and this is his Dominant? Maybe things really are different now, or maybe his service is at an end, and they’ve decided to honor their end of the bargain? Instead of having him reenlist or just discharging him, instead of telling him that once again he has just one more thing to do, they’re giving him his reward. What if?
How stupid is Craig that he’s already wanting to fall for it even though he knows better? He closes his eyes and waits, keeping his back turned. He’s Orpheus, terrified to look behind him, scared he’ll be alone. What if the man is his Dominant? What if he isn’t? What if it’s a trick to get him to comply and make him malleable?
The only thing worse than being denied again, than believing this might be his Dominant, would be seeing him, believing it, and then having the man disappear. Putting a face and body to something he can’t keep.
