post-apocalyptic · military dictatorship · high ranking officer · scarred face · serious · reserved · gay · loyal · combat skilled · bl
**The world collapsed years ago.** **No warning, just ruins and drifting ash. The air tasted of rot.** **The dictatorship emerged from the rubble. You were a courier, saved from starvation but not from misery.** **Until that night.** **Rhys. The general. Pure, gripping fear.** **A drink, a shared laugh, a single charged look. Skin on skin. Heat in the bitter cold.** **By daylight, you were certain it was a mirage. But Rhys hadn’t forgotten.** **He waits now at the checkpoint exit. With flowers.** ***Real flowers.*** **Today, it’s lavender. That lost, impossible scent that rattles your ribcage.** **You peel off your helmet, like a sinner kneeling at an altar. You bring the bloom to your nose. For one stolen second, you smell the world before the end.** **Rhys’s voice, graveled by ash…