But I was getting ahead of myself. First, I had to continue to break him down, which meant breaking myself down a little in the process. If there was ever a time to sleep, though, it was now. It would give him plenty of time to think.
I retreated to my room, pulling the blackout curtains in place to keep the sun at bay. I stripped down, crawling naked beneath the sheets, and I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
It was evening when I woke again, and I headed straight into the shower. My new pup had to be thirsty and hungry again, and it would be time to see him wrap the collar around his own throat…
I could picture it in my mind, the strip of leather against his neck, the padlock shining in the light. I could see him kneeling. I could see him eating out of the bowl again without his hands. I could imagine what he’d look like with the mitts I ordered, too, though I wasn’t ready to take away the use of his hands. He had a little bit of a ways to go before that because it meant he wouldn’t be as easily able to humiliate himself for me…
I groaned, fisting my cock tighter, and stroked myself. Iimagined the look on his face, and I imagined him barking for me, playing with his ball and his squeaky toys and—
My release sprayed against the wall, quickly washed away by the shower.
I leaned my head back, breathing heavily. His face lingered in my mind, the way he’d looked when I’d bathed him and he’d gotten fully clean. It had been a good look on him.
I turned the water off and got out, drying myself off vigorously before plodding back to my room to get dressed. It didn’t take me long, but it was important that I look impeccable compared to his nudity.
He didn’t say anything when I got back downstairs, and neither did I. I went straight to the boxes of supplies I’d had delivered over the past few weeks I’d been planning this, searching for one item in particular. I started to take it out, then I paused.
No, he didn’t need to see what I was planning. I grabbed a second collar, like that was the thing I’d really been going for, and headed back to the kennel.
He was awake, gazing out over the cell, and he refused to look at me — like that was going to make me go away.
The collar I’d put in there was nowhere to be found, and I slowly shook my head. “What did you do with the collar?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure if he was going to answer me for a moment. He kept ignoring me, and I waited for a moment, curious to see how long he’d play this game.
“You’re only making this worse for yourself,” I warned him — as though he really needed the reminder. He knew what he was doing, even if he didn’t know just how bad I could make it… or how prepared I was to do just that. “Acting like a sullen child isn’t going to help.”
“Nothing is,” he finally said, still staring across the kennel instead of turning his head to look at me. “No matter what I do, you’re still going to keep making it worse.”
“It’ll get better,” I promised him, playing with the collar in my hands.
He scoffed.
“Once you learn to behave.”
“You mean once I let you turn me into yourdog.”
How he could put so much vitriol into one word was beyond me, but I ignored it. He’d had to deal with a lot in a short period of time on very little sleep — and most of it drugged, at that. I didn’t want to be outright cruel, even though he probably would have argued that all of it was.
He had no idea. He could’ve landed in the hands of a true sadist who got off on his pain, who’d already started raping and whipping him. What I was doing was positively mild in comparison.
There was a part of me that wanted to show him how bad it could get, how gentle I’d been in comparison, but I bit back that part of me. I had plenty of other toys and punishments I could use without ever touching him that would make him miserable.
“What happened to the collar?” I repeated.
He finally looked at me, and I could see the tear streaks down his cheeks. “I threw it down the drain,” he spat. “Where it belonged. Then I pissed on it.”
I stilled. I hadn’t expected that answer, and I wasn’t even sure why it was a surprise. I nodded slowly. “That was an expensive collar,” I told him, but I still spun the new collar around in my hand. “But the good thing is, I have a spare.”
“I’m still not putting it on.”
“No food or water until you put that collar around your throat and snap the padlock into place,” I countered.
He flinched. “You’d kill me?”
“You’ll give in before it ever gets to be dangerous,” I told him, dismissing the words. I knew I was right, too. He had yielded so beautifully so many times before. “Are we going to play the same game again? Bark when you’re ready to give in?”
He stared at me, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He had to be hungry and thirsty already, and it wouldn’t take long for him to give in. “What if I don’t?” he asked, putting on a brave front — but I could see the scared little boy behind the adult’s defiant mask.
