“Well, I was waiting for you to get here before I did anything. One of us will do it. Ideally, he’d wake up and tell us what he’d prefer. Daniel does know me,” Dr. Chang says.

“That’s true,” Liam concedes.

But this is a submissive who should be craving a Dominant’s touch, not preferring a normal human man. This is what Liam’s trained in, what he’s good at. He helps submissives. Comforts them. Trauma is something he’s dealt with frequently. Submissives respond to him. And he’s very careful not to let his personal preferences get in the way of doing his job.

Liam puts the back of his hand near Daniel’s nose so he can breathe in Liam’s scent more easily. There’s no guarantee of a response, but he’s so Dominant that there should be.

Daniel’s brow furrows. His nostrils flare. His head tilts on the pillow and Liam thinks he might be trying to shift away, to get away from Liam’s scent, so he takes his hand back. Daniel frowns, licks his lips, and his cheeks go pink.

Huh. Those are indications he might want more.

Liam puts his hand back, watching him closely. “This is a lot of bandages,” he says, keeping his voice quiet. There’s so much unpleasantness here, so much negativity in Daniel’s past that he can practically feel it radiating from the poor boy.

“Yes.”

“And he’s in a drop.”

“Yes.”

“So he needs to be taken care of. He deserves to be taken care of by someone who wants what is best for him.”

“Yes,” he agrees, and surely, they’re all aware that although he’s talking to Dr. Chang, he’s actually talking to Daniel. “He heals so quickly we had to open up some of the wounds to get the glass out, and he needed stitches.”

“Poor boy,” Liam murmurs. “How soon will the bandages come off?”

“Probably in the afternoon. If he wasn’t in a drop, he’d heal faster. But his cortisone production is off the charts.”

“Is he swollen?” Liam asks. “His neck is warm.” His hand hovers over the submissive’s neck. He can feel the heat from an inch away.

“Again, we’ve only done a visual inspection.”

He laughs. “What does that tell you?” He knows the answer is absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, there comes a point when a person’s wishes have to be ignored for their own good. Daniel is in the military; surely, he’s used to that by now.

And because Daniel is this unbalanced and sick, he needs more than a visual inspection. “He needs proper care. He needs to be touched and examined. It can be done carefully and compassionately, but that’s where we are now,” Liam says firmly.