Blaine Anderson had spent the last half hour skimming through a textbook. Along with math, science, language arts, and other basic subjects, one of the core classes every student was required to take (and required to pass) in order to graduate from Dalton Academy for Boys doubled as sex education and what Dalton called the “Responsible Dominance Course,” usually shortened to RDC. In RDC, students were taught the basic principles of owning and humanely caring for a sub. The generic course was designed to share the necessary information in a vague enough way that each young Dominant could use and apply the knowledge, no matter what lifestyle or kinks they may enjoy.

Flipping through the pages, the 18-year-old paused on Chapter Three, “Making the Bond.” Paragraph after paragraph of black text spelled out different ways of approaching one’s first night spent with their chosen sub. There were a few graphs of statistics, and several lists of quick tips to make everything go smoothly for both individuals involved. With a groan, Blaine rolled onto his back, abandoning the textbook beside him.

Blaine exhaled loudly. The air passing through his nostrils filled the quiet room with a nervous sound. He shouldn’t be this anxious. This happened every day. Blaine would even venture to guess every few minutes, somewhere around the world, a ceremony was taking place. It was the natural order of things, and Blaine had known about it from an early age. But nothing he’d ever been told by his parents or read in the RDC textbook could fully prepare him for the weight of knowing that in a few short hours, he’d be claiming his own sub.

This day had been long approaching. The agreement had been made before Blaine was old enough to even know how the world worked. A friend of Blaine’s father had a son. Kurt Hummel was the boy’s name. The sub was a few months older, but the arrangement had been made as soon as Blaine was born and his tests results arrived bearing the words “Dominant” and “homosexual.” From the time they were toddlers, Blaine and Kurt were destined to be bonded to each other and no one else. When his parents had finally told him of the arrangement, Blaine had been furious. It wasn’t unheard of for Dom and sub pairings to be planned from early childhood, but Blaine was still frustrated by it. What gave anyone the right to take away his chance to find his own sub, to dictate such a huge part of his life?

Even now, after he’d had years to adjust to his arranged future, Blaine was still upset by the lack of choice he’d had in the matter. He’d only met Kurt a few times when they were kids, the last time being over eight years ago. From what Blaine remembered of their brief encounters, Kurt had been quite shy and reserved. Even when they were both young enough to be clueless of the true meaning behind their Dominant and submissive urges, Blaine’s playmate had been naturally subordinate, always letting Blaine choose what game they would play, or what toys they would pull out of Kurt’s closet.

Blaine had missed out on the excitement that all of his friends at Dalton shared. He would always feel a little jealous of the wonder they had at an unknown future full of possibilities. They woke up each morning not knowing if it would be the day they found the perfect sub. Blaine had gone through puberty with raging hormones, desperate to exercise his developing Dominance, all the while knowing that he didn’t have the same opportunity to look forward to his own search for a partner. The decision had been made for him. As a Dom, the very idea that someone could control him, especially in something so important as bonding with a sub, revolted him on pure instinct.

He felt a little anger when he thought of the boy he was due to bond with later that evening. If Kurt wasn’t in the picture, Blaine would have the freedom of making his own choice. If Kurt wasn’t so vulnerable that he’d been holed up in his house for years to prevent a forced claiming, Blaine wouldn’t be the one forced to bond with a sub he hardly knew.

Sighing in frustration, Blaine got up from the bed and paced across the floor of his bedroom, pressing the heels of his hands against his closed eyes. Anger was the very last thing he should be feeling right now. The anxiety was okay, probably to be expected before any event as life changing as the one he was about to have, but anger was completely uncalled for, especially when that anger was directed at Kurt. He glanced down at his watch. Two hours. In two hours, he would be making promises to care for this boy for the rest of his days. He would promise fair treatment, protection, safety, control, and the proper amount of respect every person deserved, regardless of their status. The anger definitely had to go.

“Get your head out of your ass, Anderson,” he hissed at himself, “This is not the time to start screwing things up. How do you expect to be able to control him if you can’t even get a grip on yourself?” He took a deep breath, crossing the room to his dresser. Blaine ran his fingertips across the small box he’d placed there last night. A welcome, calm feeling settled over him as he traced patterns on the smooth wood, and a smile pulled at the corner of his lips.

Would he have preferred having his own choice, rather than the arranged bonding? Of course. But this was his reality. In—he glanced at his watch again—an hour and fifty-seven minutes, Blaine would be exposing himself, in more ways than one, to a boy that would be part of his life for the rest of the foreseeable future. He needed to focus. This was the day every Dominant was born to look forward to. This was the day he’d been preparing for his entire life. This was the day Blaine Anderson would finally create one of the bonds that held their society together. He would claim Kurt Hummel as his own, and tonight he would reinforce his Dominance and seal their futures together by taking the boy’s virginity.