Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 488: That Was Enough

The house was tense when I stepped through the door, which was weird, because doors shouldn’t be tense. The moment my foot touched the floor, the wood didn’t creak—it growled at me like I was some type of intruder.

Even the wallpaper was rippling like it had something to say, and every hallway felt too long and too silent.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as I prayed to myself for more patience. However, since I was praying to the Devil, there was no way that was going to happen.

Was it really too much to ask to not have my house throw a temper tantrum every other day?

"Papa, I swear, if you told the house to give me a dramatic welcome—" I started, narrowing my eyes as I looked over my shoulder.

"I did no such thing," he replied, sauntering in behind me with moss in his hair and what looked like a jungle lizard riding on his shoulder like a pirate parrot. "The house just has a flair for the theatrical. It gets it from you."

"I’m the calm one," I muttered, looking around the foyer for someone, anyone.

He cackled. "And I’m a responsible adult. Shall we lie to ourselves more?"

Before I could reply, the floor under my feet vibrated.

I turned just as the main hallway door burst open and ten very angry, very tired-looking men appeared in various stages of half-dress and total irritation.

Chang Xuefeng was first, still barefoot, with rage in his eyes. "Where the hell have you been?" he demanded like I had been gone for years.

Before I could reply to his question, Dante was behind him, already cracking his knuckles like someone needed to pay for something.

Luca looked sleep-deprived and borderline feral while Tank was playing with his favorite knife as he stared down Papa Khaos.

Eric... was eating an apple. He seemed the most calm out of all my men, but if I looked closely, I could see his right eye twitching.

"We tried to leave," Luca growled, crossing the room in four angry strides. "The house wouldn’t let us."

"I told you I’d be back—" I started, wondering where all this was coming from. Seriously, I was only gone an hour... if that.

"You disappeared, Hattie," Dimitri said, trying to take a deep breath. "For three days. Into a jungle that isn’t normal, with a man that we barely know." He pointed at Papa Khaos, who smiled and offered a wave.

"Hi," Papa chirped. "Lovely bones you have."

Meanwhile, I was still focused on the whole three-day thing. Apparently, I was gone a lot longer than I had originally thought.

Tank tilted his head, looking me up and down. "Something happened. You’re different."

Salvatore stepped forward, stroking my cheek as he looked me up and down. "You’re brighter."

"I took a walk," I said, feeling a bit guilty.

"You took a walk into an ancient jungle that tried to eat you," Luca sighed.

I blinked. "I mean... yeah. That about sums it up."

There was a beat of silence.

Then Dante rolled his shoulders and muttered, "So, are we gonna talk about the part where the house screamed and slammed the windows shut? Was it because of something that happened in the jungle?"

"It likes me," I offered. "We bonded."

Tank growled. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"She has a throne now," Papa offered helpfully.

Everyone turned to him. "She always had a throne," grunted Désiré. "She didn’t need to disappear for so long to get a new one."

"Don’t look at me like that," he said, brushing moss off his coat. "It was already there. I didn’t grow it."

Eric crossed his arms, disregarding the apple he was eating. "Did you sit on it?"

"Yes."

"Did it wrap around you like a living god-knot?"

"Yes."

"Did the jungle kneel?"

I sighed. "Yes."

There was a long pause.

Then Beau threw up his hands and stormed into the kitchen, yelling, "I need a drink. Someone get the Devil some juice or something before I lose my mind."

I followed him, voice dry. "I like apple," I said, trying to defuse the situation.

"Yeah, well, I like knowing you’re alive," he snapped back, pouring something into a cup with more force than necessary. "But we can’t all get what we want, now can we?"

Ronan handed me a blanket with a sigh. "You cold?"

"No," I blinked up at him, wondering where he was coming from.

"You looked like you needed comfort," he said with a shrug, tucking it around my shoulders anyway.

The others followed us in, tension still high but... easing.

I flopped onto the couch, the blanket trailing like a cape. "I didn’t mean to worry anyone."

"You never do," Luca muttered, sitting beside me.

"Do you like your throne?" Chang Xuefeng asked from across the room, arms folded, back against the wall.

I met his eyes. "Yeah. I do."

He nodded once. "Good."

"Do you like what you’ve become?" Ronan asked softly.

That question made me pause.

Did I?

I remembered the way the jungle pulsed when I moved. The way the beast had bowed. The way my hands didn’t tremble anymore.

"I think I was always this," I said. "I just didn’t understand it until now."

Papa Khaos, who had made himself comfortable on the kitchen table, let out a little hum. "There it is. Balance in boots."

Tank finally lowered himself so he was sitting beside me. "You’re still Hattie," he said, pointing out the obvious.

I turned to him. "Am I?"

"You are to me," he said. "Doesn’t matter what thrones you claim or monsters you tame. You are still my little lamb, still the girl who steals my blankets and falls asleep with a coffee in your hand."

"I only did that once," I pouted.

"You did it yesterday."

Gee... thanks for calling me out on that.

Beau returned with a drink and handed it to me without meeting my eyes. "I’m still mad."

I took the drink anyway. "You can be."

He sat beside me, slumping back. "I just... I love you, okay?" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

I turned to him, surprised by the simplicity of it.

"I love you," he repeated. "Not the Devil. Not the Queen of Balance. Just you. You can change, burn down the world, raise up a new one—I don’t care. At the end of the day, it’s still you. And I’d burn every jungle on this planet if it tried to take you from us again."

My throat tightened.

Papa Khaos leaned against the doorway, suddenly quiet. "That’s the secret, you know."

We all turned.

"Balance doesn’t mean standing alone," he said. "It means having enough chaos around you that you don’t fall over. You’re not the fulcrum, darling. You’re the gravity. You keep everything spinning."

"...That was actually profound," Ronan muttered.

"I have my moments," Papa replied, sipping something suspicious from a teacup that hadn’t existed five minutes ago.

The guys were right. No matter what happened, I was still me, and that was enough.