To keep Emery’s guards from discovering that she and Lowe are searching the office, Misery bites Lowe and feeds from him. Because it is the first time Misery has taken blood directly from a living person, the experience overwhelms her: Lowe’s blood feels intensely pleasurable, physically warming, and deeply intimate. Lowe encourages her to keep taking what she needs, and the feeding leaves both of them aroused and emotionally shaken.

When Misery finally stops, she instinctively tends the bite until Lowe’s skin seals. As the immediate haze fades, Misery realizes how sexual and personal the feeding became and apologizes, worried that she hurt Lowe or did something wrong. Lowe’s reaction makes it clear that he is affected just as strongly, and the distance between them feels unnatural to both of them.

Remembering why they staged the scene in the first place, Misery disconnects the hardware and hides the USB because the data transfer has finished. Lowe draws her back into a close embrace, and they briefly admit how powerfully the moment changed them: Lowe says he has never felt so turned on and smitten at once, while Misery considers asking for more blood. Their conversation is cut short before they can make sense of what happened.

Emery enters and finds them together, notices the marks on Lowe’s neck, and reacts with disgust, but Lowe keeps the exchange controlled. Koen then appears, amused by what he has clearly inferred, and once Emery leaves he tells Lowe that Cal has been urgently trying to reach him. The message concerns Ana and suggests that Lowe may need to leave for home that very night, shifting the chapter from secret intimacy back to the larger danger facing the pack.