It took Thorin a good while to get rid of the spikes and by the time he did, Zi Mei was already half asleep. It turns out that pretending to be asleep is the best way to become sleepy and fall asleep. When she felt him get into bed next to her, she could barely move. Her limbs are heavy with sleep and she could feel the heaviness of sleep on her eyelids. Just as Thorin arranged his body against her, spooning her warmly, she gave in to the soft tendrils of sleep, welcoming the dark respite it provided her from the scary thoughts of the demon.

If she had expected a dreamless peaceful sleep, Zi Mei was so wrong. At first she was sliding comfortably into a dreamless sleep but suddenly she found herself gasping against Darren who is choking her. Then she is falling and she flailed about trying to scream but she couldn\'t scream. She kept falling and falling and suddenly she is back in her old home and the Darren demon is grinning at her, blood dripping from its lips.

"Where\'s your papa? He is so delicious, we will enjoy him piece by piece," the demon said and he licked his lips. She wanted to scream again but couldn\'t and suddenly she is Thorin\'s luxurious home. She is in their room waiting for him and suddenly a huge giant rod with silver spikes started flying towards here. She ran and ran and ran, gasping and crying. Then the Darren demon, still with blood on his lips, appeared and chased her too.

"Thorin! Thorin! Please!!!" she screamed, finally finding her voice. Distantly, she heard Thorin\'s voice calling her.

"Lil Zi, lil Zi!"

"Thorin please help me!" she screamed trying to find the voice but she couldn\'t find it. It was too distant. Suddenly something was grabbing at her arm and she struggled against it, screaming shrilly. She opened her eyes and it was Thorin staring down at her.

"Lil Zi, it\'s me, you\'re safe, you\'re with me now," he murmured, embracing her, enveloping her in his warm arms and holding her against his chest. Her heart is beating a thousands beats per minute from the disjointed nightmare but something stood out clearly.

"My father!" she said. She looked up at Thorin. "Where is he? Is he safe? What if they went after him?" she asked. Her father may not have been a good father but he is still her father. She only has one father after all.

Thorin stroke her head gently and kissed the top of her head.

"Don\'t worry, he is safe, I have my men watching him and they will report back if anything happens to him," he told her.

Wait. He had men watching her father? She narrowed her eyes at the old dragon.

"Why would you have your men watch him?" she asked.

"Just to make sure he doesn\'t come back to make your life miserable again," he replied. "If he finds out that you are a millionaire now, he will definitely come back to claim it all for himself and I do not want to have loansharks sniffing around you again,"

"Surely he can\'t gamble away millions," Zi Mei said. She has about three million left over after paying up the loansharks and buying her house.

"I won\'t be surprised that he would go through it all within a week at the rate he gambles,"Thorin replied succinctly. "So, it is best that he is kept in the dark about your financial status and he stays away from you,"

"He might still come back to look for me," she reminded him. Surely her father still has a tiny bit of love for his only daughter? He can\'t be so cold as to forget about his daughter entirely?

"Well, um, he might not," Thorin said. The way he said it raised some suspicion. Zi Mei sat up and looked at him pointedly.

"Why? What did you do?" she asked.

"You must understand that it\'s only to protect you," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. That didn\'t sound good. Thorin\'s skewed sense of \'protection\' could mean a lot of things.

"Tell. Me. What. Did. You. Do." She demanded.

"Fine, if you must know, we sort of made it seem like the loansharks took you and made you pay off the loan as a prostitute so as far as he knows, you are with the loansharks now," he said.

"What?" she can\'t believe it. Yet, her father made no attempts to come rescue her. There was not even a peep from him. Or did he?

"Did he try to save me?" she asked Thorin.

"No, he went deeper into hiding, he fled the city and went to some rural area and changed his number yet again," he said.

Zi Mei thought she was numb over the things her father did but this takes the toll. Her heart felt as if it has been stabbed repeatedly. Yet, she couldn\'t cry. She doesn\'t have anymore tears for the man who is biologically her father. She decided there and then that she doesn\'t want to acknowledge him as a father ever again. She doesn\'t need someone like that as a father. Especially not when he left her to be used by loansharks while he went to hide to save himself. What sort of a father does that?

She let out a heavy sigh. It felt as if her heart is breaking. She now literally has no family in this world. Thorin lean forward and hugged her.

"My dear lil Zi. Forget him, you have me, I will protect you," he murmured. She let him embrace her and sank into his arms gratefully. He is right. At least she still has Thorin.

But for how long? He might get sick of her and discard her after she gave him babies. As she settled in his arms, hugging him back, she wondered if she could make Thorin love her too. Maybe if he is in love with her, he would never want her to leave. They could raise their children together. Like a regular married couple. It doesn\'t matter if she is merely his mistress, his contracted baby making slave. This might change too.

"Will you ever love me Drags?" she asked in a soft whisper. She could feel his body stiffened at the question, as if he was surprised and not very pleased with it. She looked up at him. His face was cold and expressionless.

"Will you?" she asked again.