In a brief present-day frame, Lowe urges Koen to tell Serena that she is his mate and to make the bond public, arguing that if Serena is known as the Alpha of the Northwest's mate, other Weres will not dare harm a Human-Were hybrid. Koen resists because Serena wants to stay near Misery, because he cannot always remain beside Serena to protect her personally, and because he believes nothing real can come from the bond even if Serena were interested.

The narrative then shifts to four and a half months earlier, shortly after Serena's rescue from two months of imprisonment in Vampyre territory. Still overstimulated and disoriented, Serena hides in Lowe's office to check her email and meets Koen for the first time while struggling with an unplugged laptop. Koen's intense reaction to seeing Serena unsettles her, and after Lowe arrives to supervise the conversation, Koen bluntly tells Serena that she is his mate.

Serena asks what that means, and Lowe begins explaining that finding a mate causes powerful physiological changes in a Were. Once Serena asks Lowe to leave, Koen tells Serena that the bond is not love at first sight but a biological, sexual drive that he can control completely. Serena, who is still processing her hybrid identity, her lifelong vulnerability, and the trauma of captivity, presses him on whether the bond is anything more than attraction and whether she might feel the same thing in return.

Koen insists Serena would know if she were his mate in return and dismisses Serena's admission that she feels unusually calm and safe with him. Serena tries to make the situation manageable by proposing friendship and then, more vulnerably, admits that she may actually like Koen and would be willing to spend time with him. Koen responds with deliberate cruelty, saying the mate bond is only about sex and that the part of him that matters is not interested in Serena, turning their first meeting into the emotional wound that defines their current relationship.