CHAPTER 58: RULES OF THE HOUSE

"You’re staring again."

Sera didn’t look up as she pulled another vacuum-sealed bag of rice from the pantry and set it on the counter. Lachlan leaned against the frame of the kitchen doorway, arms crossed, still damp from his shower, eyes sharp.

"I’m not staring," he said mildly. "I’m studying and listening. You are a lot different at home than you are at the gym. It’s frankly fascinating watching you move when it is just us."

"Studying and staring are the same thing," she muttered, slicing the bag open and measuring out half a cup of rice into a bowl before she went over to the skin and started washing it. She had decided to make rice porridge tomorrow morning for breakfast. It was the best thing she could think of to make the supplies stretch and have a filling meal.

"And since you’re both dry, fed, and not currently bleeding, I figured now’s a good time," she continued as she swished the rice around in the water.

Lachlan raised a brow. "For?"

Sera looked up from her task, slow and deliberate. "Rules."

Noah groaned from the couch. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," she sneered, looking at him from over her shoulder. "Five of them. Learn them. Live them. Love them."

She let the silence settle before continuing, voice flat and clipped.

"Rule one. You are in my house, and you will treat it with respect. That means no wandering into rooms you weren’t invited into. No touching things that aren’t yours. No snooping. No assumptions."

Noah scoffed quietly, but she ignored him.

"Rule two. My supplies are my supplies. If I share, it’s because I chose to. Don’t touch what you didn’t bring in. Don’t take what wasn’t offered. If you decide to break this rule, I will break something on you as well. Be it a bone, your spirit, or your neck. I am not playing around with this one. Don’t touch my supplies."

Lachlan nodded once as he reached around Sera and took the bowl of clean rice from between her hands, wiped it off, and put it into the rice cooker. "Of course, that is understandable," he said softly, letting her punch in the settings.

Noah, on the other hand, stayed quiet.

"Rule number three. You aren’t prisoners. You can come and go as you please. But if you run into trouble, don’t expect me to come save your ass. I won’t. I can’t. Which brings me to—"

She held up another finger.

"Rule four. Don’t expect me to save you when I can barely save myself. You get into a mess? You get yourself out. That’s not me being cruel. That’s me making sure that I survive."

The creature inside her stirred, warm and calm. It liked laying down law. It liked watching them learn their place. It liked enforcing things.

She folded her arms and met both of their gazes.

"Rule five. No one enters this cabin without my permission. I don’t care if it’s your mother, your sister, your fiancée, or the baby Jesus himself. If they aren’t cleared by me, they don’t come in. Refer back to rules three and four if you have questions. I’m not going to keep your from your families, they just can’t come into my house."

Noah sat forward, visibly bristling. "You’re not the Queen of the Apocalypse, Sera. You can’t just sit here making up rules and expecting everyone to bow to them."

She tilted her head to the side as she looked at the man who gave her the creeps. Didn’t he understand that he should be grateful that she even let him here in the first place? She should have left him in the coffee shop when he tried to play the hero.

In fact, if Lachlan hadn’t gone in after him, she probably would have.

"You’ve got enough food in here to feed twenty people for a year. I’ve seen your shelves. I’ve seen your backup power and your fuel stash. You’ve got enough to help, but instead you hoard it like some dragon sitting on a gold pile," Noah continued, either unable to read the atmosphere or unwilling to.

Sera blinked once. Slowly.

"We need to protect everyone that we can. People are scared and dying out there. Humanity had its issues before, yeah, but now—now we need to come together. Now we need to forget our differences, and work as one. That’s what the future needs." Noah started pacing back and forth in the living room as he spewed everything in his mind.

Sera left the area of the kitchen, walked to the front door, and opened it. The cold night air drifted in on a pine-scented breeze.

"I’m sure there are plenty of empty homes in the city," she said, voice calm. "Go find one. Fill it with hope and humanity and whatever else you think will protect you. Then let’s see how your future holds up."

Noah’s mouth opened. Then closed.

"I’m best served staying with my team," he said finally. "And my team is coming here. I’m not leaving."

Sera’s voice didn’t change. "Then you follow my rules. Or I kick your entire team out at the same time."

Lachlan cleared his throat. "Rules are important."

His voice was low but firm, enough to cut through the tension.

"We’ve lived long enough in the military to know they’re there for a reason. We’ll follow yours," Lachlan continued, narrowing his eyes at Noah.

Noah, on the other hand, muttered something under his breath.

Lachlan’s jaw tightened. "Those rules were put in place by our superiors. For our survival."

Noah looked up. "Exactly. Not some random woman we found in a gym who thinks she’s G.I. Jane."

The air in the cabin shifted.

Lachlan’s glare was sharp enough to cut bone.

"Obey or be kicked out," he said. "It’s really that simple."

Sera let the silence stretch again, then exhaled slowly. The moment passed.

"I think we could all use a distraction," Lachlan added after a beat, quickly changing the subject. "How about a movie?"

Sera didn’t answer.

He walked to the cabinet and pulled out a dusty stack of DVDs. "Sci-fi? Horror? Something inspiring? It looks like you got it all."

She raised an eyebrow. "I could use some mindless violence right about now. What about you?"

He smirked. "Always." Scanning through the built-in shelves of DVDs, he found one and put it in.

The player clicked on. The familiar 90s static-filled intro screen loaded. Lachlan dropped onto the couch first, arms stretched along the backrest.

Sera didn’t hesitate.

She curled up beside him, grabbing a pink pillow from the floor and tucking it behind her back. The candle still flickered on the table, casting soft light across the room.

The creature settled again, quiet and curious.

Maybe this wasn’t peace.

But it was... still.

Still enough.

By the time the spaceship hit the White House, Lachlan’s breathing had evened out. His shoulder rested warm against hers. He didn’t move.

Noah was curled up in the oversized chair, one foot dangling off the armrest, snoring softly.

And Sera?

Sera stayed awake.

Because something outside had shifted.

Something was watching.

And she knew the rules didn’t mean much out there.

Not anymore.