Victor rules his ranch with commands that leave no room for weakness, but Walter's immediate compliance under that authority awakens a craving Victor has spent years denying. The groom carries his own scars of rejection, and their charged exchanges in the corrals at dawn turn discipline into the only language safe enough to speak.
The exclusive cattle contract demands their focus, yet Victor pulls Walter into the tack room where lantern light falls across the bench. Trousers lowered, the command to present hangs in the air between them. Victor's hand lifts, ready to deliver the correction that could shatter their carefully guarded partnership or seal it forever.
