P.a.t.c.h active, Josiah presses a finger to the centerpiece of his oricula and informs the implant to initiate a connection with Eagan on a secure channel. He waits patiently for the other man to answer and when he does they waste no time in getting down to business.
“The situation is this. Rafe Zweil, a fourth tier submissive, was reported as insubordinate and violent by one Noah Frisch, a second tier dominant, and get this, Zweil’s supposed future Bonded. We’ve not been able to pull up a contract on record but there’s still the possibility that it was an in-house agreement. Apparently Zweil refused to submit to correction and instead pulled a runner, but not before he managed to wound Frisch and incapacitate at least four guards on his way out. I’m sending you a p.a.t.c.h file with all of the information we’ve managed to gather on him as of now. As for identifying him, we haven’t managed to get a recent still shot of him but there is a video from a surveillance camera that’s more than sufficient, and let me tell you right now that this one is one hell of a sub. He’s completely wasted on a two; he should be matched with someone on his own level. There’s no way anyone else will be able to handle him.”
Josiah takes Eagan’s words with a grain of salt, familiar with his superior’s almost complete inability to talk without exaggerating at least to a small degree, as he reads through the basic information they’ve managed to gather on the other male. It reads like any other straightforward report and lets Josiah know small things about his subject. Zweil is a twenty-nine year old fourth tier submissive, six foot-two with black hair and green eyes. He’s rated high on the intellect scale and apparently has a history of violence. The majority of the reports on his record have been filed by the previously mentioned Frisch and Zweil’s own Head of House, a paternal aunt by the name of Jean.
Overall it’s neither the best nor the worst report that Josiah’s ever read so he’s hard pressed to see what makes this Zweil so special. Except of course for the fact that the younger man is, by all rights, being done a grave injustice by being promised to someone he outranks to such a major degree. Functioning matches between two individuals separated by only one tier were rare, and a match between a four and a two is practically unheard of. With such a large gap between ranks there is practically a guarantee that the relationship will fail as either one or both of the pair would be unable to accommodate their partner’s needs.
Still Josiah is careful to keep an open mind when he accesses the video file that’s attached. He’s hardly prepared for the way he feels his breath catch in his throat and his cock harden against the seam of his leather pants almost immediately at the sight of his subject apparently fleeing what should be his home. The desire that had dwindled within him earlier roars back with a vengeance.
Rafe Zweil is beautiful.
His description doesn’t do him justice at all. It doesn’t say that Zweil is lean and tightly muscled with tanned skin and legs that go for miles, or that his raven hair falls in a rippling wave to just below his shoulders. It fails to mention that he is obviously skilled in hand to hand from the way that his movements contain the grace and awareness of a seasoned fighter as he takes down the guards that try to stop him from working his way across the open grounds of the compound.
When Zweil turns and for a moment seems to stare directly at the camera recording his every move, Josiah pauses the film with a touch of his finger and silently calculates the other things the file fails to adequately explain. It doesn’t touch on the angular planes of the male’s face, on the sharp line of his jaw and the delicious length of his throat. More importantly it neglects to mention the way that his brows arch upwards over a pair of almost startlingly green eyes that are wide with fear and pain.
It’s that look, the one that Josiah’s seen in the eyes of hundreds of other submissives over the years, that snaps him out of his daze and prompts him to rewind the video and watch it once more with analytical eyes and a dawning suspicion. It isn’t long after Zweil first comes on camera that Josiah swears softly under his breath, his dark suspicions confirmed.
Rafe Zweil had been beaten and badly from the looks of it.
It’s in the way Zweil limps on screen, his face tight with pain and his movements stiff as his eyes dart everywhere in search of an escape. He’s wearing a look of almost panic in those first few seconds before the guards rush onscreen and Josiah knows in his gut that this submissive is running from something far more damaging than a routine corrections session. The look on his face is too hunted, too desperate, for him to be doing anything short of running for his life.
Josiah’s all the more impressed at the way the other man manages to push back his pain in order to force
