By the time Liam emerged from the bathroom, he had a plan.

It was not a good plan.

That had never stopped him before.

Arik was awake now, sitting against the headboard with one knee bent beneath the blankets, scrolling through reports projected above a thin black tablet. Morning light spilled across the sharp line of his jaw and the loose dark shirt hanging open slightly at the throat.

He looked offensively composed for someone who had spent the last hour committing emotional sabotage before breakfast.

Liam narrowed his eyes while toweling his hair dry.

The heat was gone enough now that his instincts had stopped trying to climb Arik like a medically necessary tree. His mind felt sharp again. Functional. Dangerous.

Which meant he could finally think about the disaster waiting for him outside this suite.

Lab V.

His people.

The Vanguard.

The fact that he had vanished for almost two days while Wrohan publicly announced his engagement to a foreign crown prince and the entire country probably believed he was either dead, kidnapped, or participating willingly in a diplomatic sex scandal.

Honestly, the third option offended him most.

Arik glanced up from the tablet and narrowed his eyes, immediately suspicious.

Liam smiled.

That made Arik more suspicious.

"What are you thinking about?" the alpha asked.

"Nothing."

"A deeply concerning answer from you."

Liam ignored him and moved toward the wardrobe where fresh clothes waited. He dressed quickly, already reorganizing schedules in his head.

The problem was extraction.

The diplomatic palace security was a nightmare now. Wrohan guards outside, Agaron shadows inside, ether-monitored corridors, layered access checkpoints, and Arik himself apparently developing territorial instincts strong enough to qualify as infrastructure.

Using ether directly to bypass security was impossible.

His body rejected raw ether violently.

Every attempt ended the same way: nausea, tremors, and migraines sharp enough to split vision apart. His channels processed converted systems beautifully and engineered flow perfectly, but direct manipulation?

Disaster.

Still, there were other ways out.

Service corridors. Maintenance shafts. Civilian relay routes beneath the western wing. He probably still had enough clearance codes to reach the lower transit systems if he timed it correctly.

And today, thankfully, Arik had meetings.

Several of them.

Liam knew because the prince’s schedule had appeared briefly on one of the floating projections before Arik closed it with suspicious speed the moment Liam looked interested.

Diplomatic negotiations.

Trade review.

Security discussions.

Perfect.

Liam adjusted the cuffs of his coat and mentally calculated how long he needed between Arik leaving the suite and the security rotation near the east elevator changing.

Possibly twenty-three minutes.

Twenty-seven if the palace staff remained incompetent.

He could work with that.

Behind him, Arik’s gaze followed him silently, a brow rising with each thought he read on Liam’s face. He titled his head, wondering if he should tell Liam that he was very obvious, but the only thing that continued moving was his brow.

Liam ignored it with dignity.

The problem with Arik was that the alpha looked at him too directly now, like every movement Liam made had become personally relevant.

It was deeply inconvenient for stealth operations.

"I’ll probably stay here today," Liam said casually while fastening his sleeve. "Rest. Read. Recover from being emotionally attacked before sunrise."

"Mhm."

"That sounded fake."

"It was."

Liam narrowed his eyes slightly.

Arik remained seated against the headboard, tablet resting loosely in one hand, gold eyes calm and entirely too observant.

Liam continued toward the door anyway.

Confidence was important during escape attempts.

He had almost reached the suite entrance when movement blurred behind him.

Then fingers hooked suddenly into the back of his collar.

Liam made a deeply offended sound as he was pulled backward.

Straight into solid warmth.

Arik caught him effortlessly against his chest, one arm wrapping around his waist before Liam could regain balance.

"What—"

"You’re plotting," Arik informed him calmly.

"I am not."

"You walked like an engineer about to commit a felony."

"That is profiling."

Arik’s mouth curved faintly near Liam’s temple.

Liam tried to pull away. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The attempt achieved absolutely nothing.

"Lab V?" Arik guessed softly.

Liam froze.

Traitorous body.

Arik made a quiet sound of satisfaction.

"You were going to escape the diplomatic palace."

"I prefer the term temporarily relocate."

"You were going to vanish through maintenance infrastructure."

Liam looked away.

"You’re frighteningly specific."

Arik laughed under his breath.

Warm stone and caramel wrapped around Liam again as the alpha leaned closer.

"I have the experience of having Gabriel as a mother," Arik said smoothly against Liam’s temple. "I know how to read a dedicated engineer."

Liam stared at the wall in front of him.

"That," he said carefully, "is somehow the least reassuring sentence you’ve ever spoken to me."

Arik laughed softly.

The sound vibrated warmly against Liam’s back, which was deeply unhelpful for maintaining resistance.

"You were calculating guard rotations."

"I calculate everything."

"You looked at the east corridor cameras twice yesterday."

"That proves nothing."

"You also checked the maintenance access schematics while pretending to read the civilian grid reports."

Liam slowly turned his head.

"You noticed that?"

"Liam," Arik said gently, "you squint when you lie to technology."

"That is not a real tell."

"It is now."

Liam narrowed his eyes with the grim realization that he had become observable.

This was a disaster.

Arik’s arm remained firm around his waist, holding him effortlessly in place while still somehow feeling more protective than restrictive.

Which was arguably worse.

"You are overreacting," Liam muttered.

"To your public engagement being announced without consent while Wrohan quietly rots around us?" Arik’s voice lowered slightly. "No. I am reacting appropriately."

The warmth beneath the teasing settled into something heavier for half a second.

Real.

Liam felt it immediately and unfortunately understood it.

That was the problem with Arik now. Liam could tell when the alpha was joking, when he was flirting, and when something colder moved beneath all of it.

It made him dangerous in a completely different way.

Arik rested his chin briefly against Liam’s shoulder.

"We’ll go to Lab V together later."

"You saying ’together’ doesn’t solve the problem."

"It does for me."

"That is not how negotiations work."

"I’m a prince. It frequently is."

Liam barked out a laugh before he could stop himself.

Arik smiled faintly at the sound.

Then his fingers brushed lightly against the side of Liam’s neck, absentminded and warm.

"You are not leaving this palace alone right now," Arik said quietly. "Not while Felix exists. Not while your country is collapsing around a poison you cannot even see yet."

"Poison?" Liam tilted his head back against Arik’s shoulder and looked up at him properly now, crimson eyes suddenly sharp and awake. "What do you mean poison?"