Aiden’s POV

I woke up with a groan clawing up my throat.

My body rebelled the moment I tried to move, and pain flared through my ribs. My head throbbed, my vision swam but none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the name pounding in my skull relentlessly. Rue.

I ripped the monitoring wires from my chest and staggered off the bed. A medic shouted. Someone tried to stop me. I shoved past them with a strength I didn’t know I still had, bare feet slapping against the cold floor as ...