Liam woke to warmth.
That was his first thought, slow and heavy, surfacing through a body that felt as though someone had taken him apart, inspected every piece, found most of them unacceptable, and then put him back together with medical spite.
Warmth beneath his cheek.
A steady heartbeat under his ear.
An arm around his back, heavy and careful, not trapping him but making it very clear that escape had not been included in the current recovery plan.
For a moment, Liam did not move.
He knew that scent.
Clean skin, dark ether, faint caramel beneath it, and something colder now, older, threaded so deeply into the familiar figure of Arik that his half-asleep mind accepted it before understanding it.
Arik.
Liam's fingers curled faintly against soft black fabric.
The heartbeat beneath him changed.
"You are awake," Arik said.
His voice was low, close, and careful in the way dangerous things became careful around fragile ones.
Liam tried to answer.
