The next day, Misery wakes late at Emery’s estate to find a playful note from Lowe, who has gone on a run. While bathing, she drifts into a memory of Serena’s habit of saving candy wrappers, which reminds her of their old fights and affection. Lowe returns unexpectedly while Misery is still in the tub, and their teasing quickly turns charged as Misery studies his half-dressed body and asks to see him shift into his wolf form. Lowe refuses, but the flirtation deepens when he grips her ankle after she splashes him and keeps touching her as they discuss their plan for the evening.

Lowe explains that Koen has agreed to distract Emery so Misery and Lowe can slip away after dinner and plant devices in Emery’s office. Misery offers to go alone, but Lowe firmly refuses because Emery’s guards would attack a Vampyre on sight. Misery is left unsettled by both his protectiveness and the intimate undercurrent between them, especially after he finally releases her and leaves her thinking about the feel of his touch.

At dinner, Misery meets Koen and immediately sees that he is abrasive, funny, and openly contemptuous of Emery. She also notices how close Koen and Lowe are, and learns that Koen is Emery’s nephew through Emery’s sister. The meal is tense: one guest, John, wears a vial of what looks like Vampyre blood until Lowe silently forces him into submission, and Emery tries to challenge Lowe’s new alliances with Humans and Vampyres. Lowe shuts her down by making clear that he is acting for his pack’s survival, and Koen pointedly sides with him. When Lowe asks whether Misery needs to feed, both use the pretense to leave the table and head for Emery’s office.

On the way, Misery keeps questioning Lowe, learning more about Koen’s pack and teasing him about celibacy vows before they reach the office. Misery picks the lock and starts hacking Emery’s system so Lowe can gain access to her communications. While she works, their banter turns unexpectedly sincere: Lowe tells Misery that she deserves better compliments and names her intelligence, bravery, resilience, kindness, and beauty. The moment is interrupted when Lowe hears Emery’s guards approaching the office.

Misery refuses to abandon the hack before it finishes because she is determined not to leave without evidence against Emery. To buy time, she first proposes pretending they slipped away to make out, but Lowe points out that everyone expects Misery to be feeding from him. He insists that the deception has to be real enough for Were senses, which means Misery must actually bite him. With the guards almost at the door, Misery finally sinks her fangs into Lowe’s neck just as the office door opens, turning their cover story into a dangerous new intimacy.