“Run?” The blond doctor—Harry—scoffed. “What do you want him to do? Enter a triathlon?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I want him to be strong enough to escape.”

“Escape from what exactly?”

“Unfortunately,” the older doctor said with a warning glance at his colleague. “He’ll be extremely weak when he wakes. He’ll most likely have significant chest pain and definitely shouldn’t be moved in case he worsens. At this point, he needs bed rest. Possibly for up to a week.”

“A week?” My voice turned shrill. “But he has to get free tonight.” Pointing at the dark sky and twinkling stars past the window, I balled my hands. “If he doesn’t run tonight then Marcus will have him back in Cinderkeep by tomorrow.”

“The moment we’ve been released, we’ll call the police,” the older doctor said, shooting a look at the door as if the guard could hear through the wood. “They took our phones and we tried the bed and breakfast landline, but it’s been disconnected. I won’t let you suffer whatever’s going on. However, it’s safer for us and our families if we call once we’ve been dismissed.”

“You’re being too soft-hearted, Roger.” Harry huffed. “The moment we step out of that door, we should forget about all of this. They made us sign an NDA. And didn’t you just finish telling me that knowledge leads to consequences? I agree. I suddenly don’t want to know a damn thing. I just want to go home to my wife and baby daughter and forget this ever happened.”

Whisper suddenly chuffed and leapt to his feet, making the bed rock. His whiskers flared as he sniffed Lucien, sneezing from a noseful of astringent antiseptic.

“Eh, do you think you could get the cat off our patient?” Harry seethed. “If that creature is the reason our patient dies, don’t blame us. As far as sterile environments go this was terrible and that beast is making it ten times worse.”

“Whisper,” I scolded, darting around the pushed-aside furniture. “Get off him. You’re—”

“That beast will tear you—” Lucien coughed, convulsing beneath the lavender quilt. “Into pieces before you can even open the door.” He sucked in a breath and raised his head. “So I’d be nice if I were you.”

Both doctors froze and me?

I ran.

Choking on a sob, I flew across the room and flung myself onto the bed. Shoving aside the huge panther as if he were a tiny tabby, I buried my face against Lucien’s neck and wound my arms around him like a python.

He smelled all wrong.

He was cold for the first time since I’d met him.

But he felt so, so good.

“Be careful of his wound!”

I didn’t care which doctor reprimanded me. Nothing else mattered but feeling his imprisoned heart against my own, finding out for myself that he truly was alive and awake and okay.

“You’re not dead,” I mumbled into his throat, squeezing him tighter.

A guttural grunt escaped him as I hugged him as fiercely as I’d longed to do for weeks. I took full advantage of him being bedbound—unable to push me away.

His body jerked as if he wanted to stop me, but another quiet groan escaped him as I pressed a kiss to his chin before burrowing into the crux of his throat. “I’m so glad you’re not dead.”

“That could change very quickly with how badly you’re choking me.” His arm swept up unsteadily, hovering over my shoulder. “Rook...let me go.”

“I can’t.” Tears rolled, no doubt splashing onto his neck and tickling him. “Let me hold you for a little longer.”

His breath stuttered, his bandaged chest rising beneath me as if I’d hurt him all over again. The metal disc flared red as his heart quickened. Sucking in a shallow gasp, his back arched with pain.

“No.” Pulling away a little, horror filled me that even here—even away from Cinderkeep and surrounded by strangers who’d fought to save his life—no one could stop Marcus from monitoring Lucien’s heartrate or punishing him the moment it strayed over a certain line.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” I went to push off him. To climb far away and stop causing him discomfort, but his hand came down. With a gentleness that felt terrible as well as tender, he cupped the back of my head and pulled me hard against him.

My elbows gave out, collapsing me on top of him.

He groaned in fresh misery.

“I’m sorry! So sorry!” I fought his hold even as he kept me trapped. “Let me go. If your pulse stays high, he’ll keep hurting you! What the hell is he thinking punishing you when you’re on death’s door? He’s an idiot. A complete dumbass who deserves to—”

“Quiet,” he panted, bracing through the burn of the metal disc. “You’re still incredibly noisy.” His fingers stroked my hair. Awkward and uncertain as if he’d never given this level of intimacy to someone before. “I don’t care about Marcus. And you attacked me, remember? I’ll say when you can leave.”

I froze as he nuzzled me. “Your closeness helps my pain. So...help.”

I shivered as his fingers sifted through my hair, claiming me and controlling me at the same time. Cool, quivery pleasure welled from my chest, spreading everywhere—filling me with chilled champagne bubbles. Relief kept building and building, cresting like a wave, glittering with frost and crystals.

The coldness felt distantly familiar.

Friendly...

I reached for it—

Lucien’s touch turned possessive and all those quivery feelings morphed into something cold and sharp and vicious. I gasped as the bubbles spun into a blizzard—surging upward, outward—an icy blast exploding so fast my vision flashed white.

Lucien sucked in a breath as if someone had punched him.

His fingers clenched in my hair.

And then...pain.

The worst I’d ever felt.

Pain, pain, PAIN.

“What—?” His voice broke. “What did you just—” He groaned as the metal disc over his heart flickered red, then...stopped.

The heat in his body flared, chasing the grey pallor from his skin as it warmed his blood and brought him back to the world of the living. I sucked in a breath as his warmth soaked into me, thawing the frigid agony around my heart, yanking me from the blizzard and halting the pain.

Relief rendered me useless.

I surrendered entirely to him, flopping over his chest.

He went rigid, even as his hand skated from my hair, to my nape, to my shoulders. Exquisitely gentle, his fingers settled on the small of my back, drawing barely-there circles in the damp fabric of my dress. “Are you okay?”

Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed away.

He let me go, his eyes searching mine as I sat upright.

And I fell all over again. Not physically...but in a way I couldn’t explain. I felt something deep, deep inside me, tugging me, warning me never to be apart from him.

The longer we stared, the more the compulsion grew.

A quiet, bone-deep certainty as if the universe whispered in my ear, ‘This one. He’s the one. The one you were made for.’

Lucien’s jaw tightened, his gaze darkening as he tracked every emotion flickering across my face. “Rook?” His gruff voice landed somewhere aching in my chest—

A warm, raspy tongue yanked me out of the spell.

Doctors. Surgery. Blood—

God, what am I doing?

We had to leave.

Right now.

“We have to go.” I wiped my cheek from Whisper’s lick. “Marcus will be back soon, and our chances of escaping are rapidly running out.”

Lucien never looked away from me as I scrambled off the bed. With a grimace, he shifted and propped himself up on his elbows, his bare chest roped with muscles and gauze. “You’re seriously going to act as if nothing just happened?” His eyebrows knitted together. “What was that?”

Throwing a glance at the doctors behind me—who kindly acted as if they weren’t eavesdropping—I shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”