Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

Gasping, I turned around to see all four of my men standing around my door. Liu Yu Zeng, who had just spoken, was leaning against the frame, his legs crossed at the ankles and his arms crossed against his chest. 

"Fuck," I said harshly under my breath as I turned to look at Crazy beside me. She wiggled her fingers at me. "And now the band-aid is off," she said with a smile before disappearing.

"Fuck," I repeated, closing my eyes and letting my head fall to the pillow under me. Well, at least I wouldn\'t have to repeat the worst of it, depending on how long they were standing there.

"Ever since Crazy mentioned bleeding to death," replied Wang Chao, answering my unspoken question as he and the rest of the guys filed into my room. Liu Wei and Wang Chao took the spot on either side of me while Liu Yu Zeng took the spot at my feet.

I looked at Chen Zi Han, who stood standing in the doorway, not moving.

"Can\'t stand the idea of touching me?" I asked him softly, my head cocking to the side. "Can\'t say I blame you. I couldn\'t stand being in my body for 10 years after that. Luckily, I died."

Chen Zi Han continued to stand perfectly still, but the expression on his face changed to something I had never seen before. His mouth twisted into a sneer, and his eyes turned pitch black until I couldn\'t even see the light green color that used to bring me such comfort. 

In fact, if he didn\'t feel like my Chen Zi Han, if I couldn\'t feel that draw, that link to him, I would think he was a completely different man. Even the guys around me stiffened when he looked at him. Liu Yu Zeng rolled out of bed and went to go stand between me and the enraged Third Horseman at my door.

"You think you are enough?" Chen Zi Han sneered, looking down at Liu Yu Zeng as if he had never seen the other man before. 

Wang Chao, who was on the edge of the bed closest to the door, got up and stood shoulder to shoulder with the younger Liu brother, staring down Chen Zi Han. 

The other man cocked his head to the side and stared at the two men. "Biggest brother and second brother. Should I be scared? Because I hate to tell you this, but I am not."

Watching the confrontation between the three men, I felt my heart sink, and I thought that I was going to be sick to my stomach. What the Hell was going on here?

"You two climb into her bed as if you didn\'t hear a word coming out of her mouth. But guess what? I did. I heard everything," sneered Chen Zi Han before looking between the shoulders of the two men and staring straight into my eye. "I heard everything."

The tears in my eyes that had been gathering ever since I knew I would need to tell them what was going on started to fall uncontrollably. I gasped, struggling to take air into my lungs, but I refused to break the gaze between me and Chen Zi Han. Whatever was to come, I needed to face it head-on. 

Sitting back up in my bed, I straightened my back and pulled back my shoulders. I was strong enough to live through that, and the nightmares after; I was strong enough to deal with this. 

"I heard everything," repeated the entity I realized was Famine. "Which is why I will only ask you this this one time," he continued, the tension in the room rising. 

"Ask," I said, not bothering to wipe the tears from my eyes. 

"Can I come in?" 

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Chen Zi Han\'s heart broke when he heard the love of his life explaining to Crazy about her fears, about her concerns with how he and the other guys would react, and he listened to her calling herself weak over and over again. 

But never once did he think she was weak. She was the strongest woman that he ever knew because it was a lot harder to live than it was to die. Death was simple: a moment in exchange for endless sleep. In fact, the only people for whom death was not easy for were those who survived afterward and had to keep going as if their world hadn\'t completely collapsed.

But that was his woman. The one he would destroy the world for. And he needed her to know that her decisions were law. She was no longer the helpless person she was in her second life. 

It would kill him if she turned him away right now, but he needed to tell her that she had the final say on who was allowed into her bed, that she had the final say on who could touch her and when. 

And that understanding needed to start right now.

He was disappointed in the other men for putting their needs to touch and comfort her in front of her needs. If the memories were riding her that hard, she might not be able to tell the difference between them piling onto her bed and the Reavers who did the same. 

No, he would wait at the door until she invited him into her room and into her bed. 

That was the best way of giving her back the power that those… things… took away from her. 

And once they found that camp, those Reavers, he would give them the most prolonged and painful death that he could. 

There would be no easy reaping for them… no, he would slowly withdraw their essence until they were weakened and punish them when they couldn\'t fight back. And then he would restore them just a bit until they thought that their punishment was over, and then he would start all over again. He would let them experience slowly bleeding to death without a drop of blood falling. 

He would introduce them to the deepest circle of Hell again and again until his Princess… his Queen, was satisfied, and then he would give her the pleasure of taking their lives. 

No, the punishment waiting for the Reavers was not going to be easy, not after what they did to his Queen.