"I've been taught that girls have no value, and he's the only one who assures me that I do."
Soleil is a girl. A young woman. A female. She couldn't hate it more, because in her society that cursed gender makes her expendable.
The war that was wrou...
The gym is busy with life as a group of teenage boy's dribble a basketball around, shouting and jumping and grinning as they have their fun. They act as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. How nice it must be to be that uninhibited.
I sit beside Elodie while I munch on a green apple. Elodie watches anxiously at the game, almost like she's trying to get one of them to look at her by sending brainwaves. She's always hopeful that someone will pay attention to her, that maybe a guy will find her pretty despite what everyone else thinks. I hope the same thing for her. I know it's what she really wants.
My mind wanders, and I can't help but zone out completely, forgetting the game and drifting far away from here. I find myself in front of a window with a large, dark stranger standing over me. Orange eyes. Chiseled face. Massive muscles. And that dark silver hair glinting in the starlight. A picture of a Greek God is more like it.
And the way he looked at me was like I was... important somehow. I can't explain it.
I'm still not sure if it was a dream or not. He was so handsome, so strange, and his eyes seemed to glow. Is that even possible? I don't know. The orange yellow color of his pupils almost seemed fake, like he wasn't human...
"Hey, Soleil!" A voice yells, and I'm caught off guard. I look up to see a very sweaty Harrison jogging up the bleaches towards Elodie and I.
His friends call after him and he grins, waving them off. They pick the game back up, playing without him as he slides down to sit between my best friend and I. He's panting, his t-shirt plastered to his chest.
"How are the girls?" He teases, throwing his arms over our shoulders. Elodie laughs, but I shove his stinky limb off of me. He smells like a hamburger, and not in a good way.
"We're great. Just came to watch the sweaty idiots play since we can't go outside. It's the only entertainment around here." I muse, watching Harrison laugh, right before he grabs my apple and takes a large, crisp bite out of it. I narrow my eyes.
"Yeah, all those big scary guys lurking around the compound." He says around the food he's chewing, my food that is.
I picture the man I saw outside in the courtyard. Sure he was big, and covered head to toe in muscles, but was he scary? Maybe to some people, but to me? No. I wasn't scared of him one bit. Intrigued? Sure. Pleasantly surprised? Absolutely. Attracted? Hell yeah. He was so strikingly handsome standing out there.
Elodie suddenly perks up. She scoots forward to hear every single thing she can.
"What, you mean you saw them?" She presses Harrison, and I look away. I feel bad for keeping something so major from my best friend, but we're on tight lock down right now. The Group has gone crazy. If someone found out about me sneaking off to see some stranger that has been labeled as dangerous, I would get reported.
We're not allowed to go outside, or close to any windows. Every blind is shut up tight. The only way to see outside is the window wall that looks into the courtyard. I guess they think it's hidden enough to be safe.
They were wrong.
If the President found out, he would immediately have them block the one way I have to see the sky.
"Yeah, when my Dad wasn't looking I peaked through our window. There was one right by the gates. The guy was huge, I'm talking 7 feet tall at least. All big and terrifying." Sounds like a perfect description of the guy I ran into last night.
Harrison chuckles when poor little Elodies eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Her mouth drops open. We wait expectantly for him to say more, but he doesn't.
I notice that Harrison is zoned out now, watching one of the players with keen interest, following the guy with his eyes.
"That's it? Nothing else?" Elodie urges, grabbing Harrison's arm. He shakes his head.
"That's all I know. I'm not exactly invited to the top secret meetings about this whole mess." He explains, not looking away from the court as he takes a bite out of my stolen apple.
Elodie fidgets, and I know she does that when she's thinking.
"Well, do you think they'll let them join the compound?" She wonders hopefully, and we both whip our heads around to look at her like she's absolutely crazy, because she is.
Harrison laughs, I sigh. If only they would let the new guys in. Seeing that one man last night had me anxious to meet him. He spoke a strange language, like a rougher version of Latin. He was mysterious, and every part of him called my attention. His eyes were mesmerizing, his gaze promising of things far away from here. He watched me with so much interest and kindness. A guy has never looked at me like that.
But, knowing the Group board, they won't let them in. They're too much of a threat, too large and too domineering. One of them chased a poor old woman through the woods, and now they won't leave. They're muscle bound builds are enough to terrify every man here.
I just wonder if President Garick will even address it, or even try to speak to them. I doubt it. He has a reputation for staying hidden and silent when it best suits him.
"If you ask me, they should just leave us alone, go back to where they came from. They're just causing trouble." Harrison says, and Elodie puts her head down, looking dejected. I quirk my lips in distaste before standing and grabbing the apple from Harrison's fingertips. He calls out when I scoop up the half eaten fruit.
Without missing a beat, I throw the apple from the bleaches all the way to the other side of the gym. The basketball game goes undisturbed, but Harrison is bewildered as I walk away quickly.
"Where are you going?" He asks. I look at him over my shoulder as Elodie gets up to follow me, a satisfied smile on her lips.
"Away."
And with that, I leave him there as I take two stairs at a time, my best friend hot on my heels. Even when we're far away from the gym, I can only picture the mystery man that I've thought of so often.
The last thing I want is for him to go away, and I can't figure out for the life of me why.
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Welcome to my new book! The third installment of the Rytarian Romance series!
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I will try to update as often as I can. Thank you all for the patience! Happy 4th of July! Love y'all
