United, page 1
part #4 of Protectorate Series
I would like to dedicate this book to my wonderful editor.
Meagan you worked so hard, and I couldn’t have finished this series without
all of your ingenuity and creativity.
Contents
Part One - Ella
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Part Two - Theo
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Part Three - Ella
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Prologue
I don’t mean to be a bug but…
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Books by S. L. Harpel
Contained: Book I of the Protectorate Series
Absorbed: Book II of the Protectorate Series
Released: Book III of the Protectorate Series
United: Book IV of the Protectorate Series
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S. L. Harpel
“I could not put this book down! I was completely engrossed in Ella’s world from start to finish!”
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-Marsha
Part One
Ella
CHAPTER ONE
Theo and I walked silently, hand in hand, as we made our way from our room to Ursula’s command center. We didn’t need to receive the messages via our tablets to know that there would be a gathering of all the top leaders first thing this morning.
Frankly, I was sure there were more things on the docket than could be solved in one day. Or month. Or even at all.
Ursula’s headquarters for the Freedom Fighters had also served as one of the largest settlements outside the dome-covered Communities. In the span of twenty-four hours since President Reynolds had made his jaw-dropping announcement, the cavernous settlement with its windblown skylights had gone from several hundred civilians to mere handfuls.
I had no doubts that the ones that stayed only did because of loved ones who were a part of Ursula’s military ranks. Civilians may have been free to go at will, but those who signed up to join the ranks of the Freedom Fighters had, in essence, signed their lives over to their matronly leader.
We stepped out of the relative darkness of our own tunnel and into the dim, early morning light of the main communal area. Ironically, I had a harder time seeing in the early morning light than the dark tunnel.
It was by far the biggest of the cavernous labyrinth. I’m not really sure this room could be called part of the cave. There was only one more naturally made cavern directly ahead of it and unlike other or the tunnels and other chambers of the settlement, this one had a ceiling made of one giant porthole that took up more of the surface than rock. The other large cavern shared in the dome covering but it was more of a porthole almost center of the chamber.
The soft sandstone that made this particular layer of the mountain was easily blown away when exposed to the outside elements, allowing natural sunlight into the caves within the belly of the mountain. When Ursula’s people had come upon this area, they had chiseled away the oblong shape to make the perfect edges needed to place a fiberglass covering like the kind used Communities.
It gave more sunlight than ever experienced by Outskirt dwellers, allowing for farming and other self-sustaining resources. Though my eyes were at their worst in the dim light of dawn or dusk, I could still easily make out the gentle green saplings of a rich second harvest.
“It’s so quiet,” Theo remarked, scanning the room the same as I did.
It was still early enough that not very many were awake, but even still I had to agree that I had never heard of this room–this settlement–so silent. One lone man walked some of the rows, feet of hose in his hands. His hobbled pace gave away his age, if his hunched back and weathered hands didn’t.
I would guess he was from the Outskirts by his general condition. I wondered if that was why he stayed here. He didn’t have a walled Community to return to. I would have liked to think it was loyalty that had swayed those who remained to stay, but I knew that just wasn’t true.
They either had no choice like the soldiers, had nowhere better to go like the old man, or—for the rare few that had children of their own—Reynolds’s enticement held no validity to them. It didn’t leave us with many left in our civilian ranks. Certainly not enough to win back the country from tyrants by way of popularity. Without winning the hearts of the people there was little chance of overthrowing the regime.
We skirted along the wall, keeping our feet out of the fields. I watched as the man went about his lone work. He would be laying out the hoses, all punctured with tiny drip holes along their way. Once they snaked along as many rows as could be reached, a man-powered pump would pull the water from the underground source. It would be pumped until the ground along the hose was sufficiently dampened. Then the process would be repeated along the next rows until all the fields were watered for the day.
Usually the job was done before lunch. But then, there were normally a lot more people working together to get it done. I hoped more would join him soon, but didn’t necessarily believe it would happen.
Even the ones that stayed had a general sense of defeat and failure. With far more fields of food than were needed for the current population, I had a feeling the desire to cultivate was going to severely decrease.
I squeezed Theo’s hand in mine, looking up at him. I didn’t have to respond to his statement. We both were feeling the same worry, apprehension, and fear that had been surmised in his simple phrase. What was going to happen to us now?
When I squeezed Theo’s hand his brows shot up in shock, and he tugged his free, pretending that I hurt him. He flexed his hand open and shut to make sure I didn’t break any bones. I rolled my eyes at his dramatic acting.
“Oh please, I barely squeezed it,” I said, giving him a slight shove. “You’re acting like I abuse you.”
“Well, last night was…” he let his voice trail off as he rubbed a finger along his chin.
“It was not,” I blurted out, shocked.
Last night has been nothing short of magical for me. The only thing that could have topped those intimate moments was waking up wrapped in Theo’s arms this morning. I never asked if I had let go a little too much, though. I had just assumed he would have told me. For the first time since I took him by the hand to my bed, I feared that what I had seen as the perfect first time for me had been horrific for him.
“I’m joking,” he said quickly, a soft smile on his lips.
He cupped my face in his two hands, halting us to the place and closing the little gap between us. Tilting my head up, he met my green eyes with his rich chocolate ones.
“I was just teasing you, I didn’t mean it,” he half spoke, half whispered sincerely.
No doubt he could see the questioning fear on my face. I was never one to hide my emotions.
“It was perfect for me too,” he continued. “See?” he took a step back, releasing the warm, gentle hold he hand on me.
He pushed back the sleeves of his sweater to show his bare forearms and tugged around at his sweater neckline, exposing little bits of his warm flesh underneath.
“Not even a single mark,” Theo confirmed. “And trust me, I bruise like a peach,” he added, stepping back up to me and wrapping his arms around my waist.
I rolled my eyes at him again, but I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. I leaned my forehead against his chest. I couldn’t decide if I was short for a girl or he was tall for a guy, but we were just the right size for each other. My head fit perfectly against his chest, resting my cheek against his tight muscles. Theo easily rested his chin on the top of my head. Two pieces of a puzzle perfectly fitting together.
“Well,” I said with my own wicked smile against my small lips, “We didn’t check everywhere. Who knows where I might have marked you? You might not even know,” I added, letting my fingers creep up under his sweater and shirt and dance along his rippling abs below.
“True,” he replied, the heat beginning to rise easily between us. “But this probably isn’t the right place to check,” Theo added, scanning the room.
“We’re practically alone,” I teased back.
I, of course, had no intention of taking things much further than playful banter like Theo, but still, I was relishing this newfound connection between us. I think I once heard Virginia call it the “newlywed phase”.
“Practically isn’t the same as totally,” Theo said, but still he didn’t stop my hands wandering against his warm skin.
He seemed to be debating if he would actually stop me, clearly enjoying the intimate exchange just as much as I was. He made his decision in a blink of the eyes. Dipping his head low, he enveloped his thick lips over mine.
I relished in his kiss, wrapping my arms up against his back beneath his clothes. Pulling me close to him, we both enjoyed the warmth of each other’s touch.
“Really?” DJ’s voice called from behind us. “I believe you two had a room for that,” he added in disgust.
I took a step back from Theo, letting my hands fall to my side. I knew my cheeks were burning with embarrassment. We hadn’t said anything to DJ about Theo staying in my room the night before. In fact, we hadn’t spoken to anyone outside of each other about our decision to marry ourselves. I had a feeling DJ was smart enough to put two and two together when Theo didn’t come back to their shared room last night.
After all, he was the smartest person in the whole of Protectorate, able to weasel his way into any computer system, or in this case, a perfect kiss. I didn’t like the idea of the smooth talker, DJ Reynolds, talking about our choice of a shared room and what that all entails.
But he wasn’t just a genius, he was also Theo’s little brother, and if there was one person Theo and I would want to tell first, it would be him. Even if I knew it meant every other word from him for the rest of the day—at least—would be some form of making fun of us or embarrassing us.
“We made it official,” I said, holding up my ringed finger.
I don’t know why I did that, I had been wearing Theo’s ring for a while now.
“I just mean,” I tried to explain, realizing that holding up the metal was little proof. “We decided we didn’t need some Protectorate-sanctioned paper telling us we were married, or whatever. We can make that promise ourselves.”
I looked up at Theo for reinforcement in explanation. He clearly didn’t care to explain himself to his little brother.
“Okay,” DJ said with a shrug. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Kitten,” he added with a charming smile. “What you do in the privacy of your own room is your own business,” he added with a wink.
That didn’t ease my nerves. In fact, I just decided at that moment that I really didn’t like talking about that sort of thing with anyone outside of Theo.
“Congrats, bro,” he added, giving Theo a friendly slap on the back. “Did you bleed?” he added half under his breath but still loud enough so I could hear.
Theo gave him a shove.
“Just because your my little brother doesn’t mean I won’t punch you in the face,” Theo retorted, eyebrow raised.
I never considered that Theo might have been a virgin as well. I had never asked, honestly not wanting to know the answer. It took my concentrated effort to stuff down the image of Bridget Wong, Theo’s ex-girlfriend.
Even now I didn’t know if I wanted to bring up the validity of DJ’s statement the next time Theo and I were alone. Maybe DJ just didn’t know. The two brothers were close, but still, I didn’t know if that was information they would share between the two of them.
Theo wrapped his arm around me, and we all proceeded to make our way out of the main cavern and into the slightly smaller one. Theo and DJ continued their joking banter as we made our way.
This cavern was slightly smaller in size, lacking anything but a hard packed floor, and with large, metal doors serving as the only exit out of the caves. Other than those factors it wasn’t much different. It still had the overhead skylight hole, though much smaller, and the same walls of layered stone blown away over time. I was surprised the door was closed at all.
Arriving yesterday in a hurried hoard of injured men and women, I had encountered another mass. They marched against our flow, heads down for shame of leaving and minimal supplies on their backs. I always figured the doors were less for locking people in—or out, for that matter—and more for giving a feeling of a fortress. Yesterday the doors had been wide open, bleeding our supporters.
Today the room was a crypt, The doors shut tight, nothing but small flecks of dust floating lazily in the rays of morning light. Even Theo and DJ’s bantering came to a halt.
We made our way over to the metal staircase jabbed straight into the side of the rock. It led up to a single room carved out of the thick stone: a meeting place for all of Ursula’s top leaders.
Even before we reached the precarious steps leading to her office, I could hear the voices of the others already there. It sounded like arguing—heated and frantic muffled sounds.
I reached the abilities of my ears a little farther, but still I couldn’t really make out the words or recognize the voices to their owners. I let out a long, heavy sigh. Already I was dreading going up there and what was about to unfold.
CHAPTER TWO
ENTERING THE ALREADY small office instantly felt the more cramped by the mass of bodies already inside. Conversations were running from every direction as people tried to determine what move needed to be made next.
Much to my surprise, Ursula wasn’t already there. She wasn’t big on grand entrances. Instead, she liked to sit at the head of her little table and stare down like an overlord as each person was granted access to her most exclusive club.
Though there were still several empty seats at the table that was already situated for the meeting, not many had moved to take them. Seating was assigned, though not officially stated. Only those with the gold on their Freedom Fighter armband patch were allowed at the table. Everyone else with their silver insignia got to stand and hope for a chance to prove to Ursula they deserved the prestigious position of sitting.
I instantly recognized one of the bodies lurking near the table. Hilary may have actually been allowed to sit at Ursula’s esteemed side, but I had never seen it.
Hilary had been born a First Generation inside the Communities. Not an heir to her family but a subsequent sibling. That meant she would be living the life of a Half. Technically still a First Generation, and certainly more privileged than the Second Generations, but never really considered an entire member of the upper crust.
The lucky Halves married their way back into a family’s line of succession, and a slightly less lucky one took opportunities dictated to them from their eldest sibling. If neither happened, the remaining few took the only few good jobs offered to Seconds, and learned to live like the rest of the average citizens of Communities. Yet, all the while, remembering how good they had once had it.
I guessed that Hilary was the third option of those. It seemed the only logical reason that the Freedom Fighters—and their radical agenda to upend the status quo—would appeal to her.
Unfortunately, it just gave her another opportunity to stand on the fringe of the top ranking tier. Ursula would happily take anyone on, and connections and resources from a disgruntled Cream were more than welcome, but she would never see anyone born with a proverbial silver spoon in their mouth as her equal.
That never stopped Hilary from trying, though. I wouldn’t have doubted that Hilary had started out with a plain patch in the recruitment dungeon as I had. If nothing else, I admired the tenacity it must have taken her to work her way up to the silver armband. It wasn’t the top, though, and therefore not enough in Hilary's eyes
