The chapter opens with Koen silently watching Serena braid her hair, struck by how exposed and vulnerable she looks. During a video call with Juno and Misery, Serena learns that the Northwest’s genetic database was not merely lost but likely destroyed in a fire twenty years earlier, around the same period of the region’s factional conflict. Juno says Human records are far less complete, but she will search them as well.

When Juno asks about Serena’s earliest memories, Serena recounts the little she knows about her childhood. She remembers appearing in the Human town of Paris at about six years old, wandering into Child Services with no memory of her name or parents, and eventually being named Serena by a nurse. Juno then reveals that even the Human files on Serena are gone, apparently destroyed by Governor Davenport’s team, which deepens the mystery around Serena’s past and suggests deliberate erasure.

After Misery ends the call, Serena realizes Koen has overheard everything. She jokes that if her Were parent came from the Northwest, she and Koen might be related, but Koen flatly rejects the idea. When he tells her they are leaving, Serena fears he plans to send her back to the Southwest and begs to go with him to the Den instead, hoping it might hold answers about where she was born.

Koen refuses to take Serena back south, but he also refuses her request to go to the Den. Instead, he reveals that because Serena wanted to be bait, he intends to use her that way. This marks a shift from merely sheltering Serena to actively turning her into part of a strategy against whoever is hunting hybrids.

Once they are driving, Koen focuses on Serena’s physical condition, insisting that she needs food and noting that she is sleep deprived and dehydrated as well as hungry. Serena reflects that she normally hates controlling behavior, but Koen’s caretaking feels different because protecting and providing for others is central to who he is. Their banter continues when Serena asks about returning to the cabin for her things, and Koen refuses.

Serena claims she wants to retrieve a plush penguin Ana gave her, but internally she admits she is hiding the real reasons: medication for her worsening condition and letters she left behind. Unable to get Koen to turn back, Serena tries to fake sleep, then finally drifts into genuine, restful sleep in the car, comforted by his presence even as her secrets and the plan to use her as bait remain unresolved.