Under Orders
In a brutal all-male cadet academy where discipline is law and weakness is quietly erased, obedience is not requested—it is engineered.
Elias enters the institution for survival. Debt, obligation, and limited options leave him with one rule: endure. He believes discipline is a tool, something external he can master and leave behind once his training is complete.
He is wrong.
The academy does not simply train bodies—it reshapes awareness. Silence becomes instruction. Proximity becomes pressure. Choice erodes long before it is ever questioned.
Elias draws the attention of Instructor Vale, a senior authority figure whose control relies not on punishment, but on restraint. Vale does not command often. He observes. He waits. He allows Elias to adjust himself—until obedience feels voluntary and resistance feels unnatural.
As training intensifies, Elias finds himself isolated, refined, and increasingly dependent on the presence that once unsettled him. The line between discipline and desire begins to blur, forcing him to confront a dangerous question: is he being controlled, or is he choosing alignment?
In a system designed to strip autonomy while calling it order, Elias must decide whether obedience is something done to him—or something he is willing to claim.
Under Orders is a slow-burn psychological MM novel exploring power, conditioning, and the unsettling intimacy of control—where submission is not demanded, but learned.