Elas

For almost a century, we’ve believed the prophecy to be a hoax. The promise of Fated Mates being the cure to this ruined world was a beautiful story, a romantic lie told to keep us in line. Nothing more than an idyllic promise to make us work together.

Only we never did, and the world only suffered more.

Joining the military has turned my life into a monotonous cycle of schedule, routine, and order. Day after day, I wake at the same time, and wear the same uniform, and stare at the same power-hungry faces I’ve been commanded by for decades. Days blur into weeks, and weeks turn into years where it feels like nothing ever happens. Nothing ever changes.

Until the day it does….

The prophecy is real, my best friend has disappeared with his mate, and now I’m here, alone, keeping my last promise to him. Protect August.

It’s not hard to track him down, but the human is the last thing I expected. August, a medic, is confined to a cell with the rest of his rebel friends, but despite this waste of a world and the terrible things he’s seen in this life, he’s good. Sunshine and smiles, endless curiosity and infallible happiness. He views the world with a positivity I can’t figure out, and it pulls me into his gravity, eliciting conflicted feelings that have no place in a warrior like me.

In a life that’s riddled with darkness, August is light, and I can’t seem to look away from his glow.