\u201cJudy Montague,\u201d One of the men I didn\u2019t recognize said as he stepped forward, offering me his hand, which I took and shook. \u201cYou are quite impressive. I\u2019ve been watching you and from day one I knew you were going to make it far.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d I replied as sweetly as I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the top commanders for some of the Elite forces around the world; we have gathered here to scope recruits and to meet with the victor of the competition. With that being said, we are interested in working with you and making you one of our Elite Gammas. Of course you can only choose one of us. We have put together a packet of the details for each of our forces that you can look over on your own time. But I just wanted to introduce myself properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He handed me a thick folder with his territory logo printed on the front.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d I said again.<\/p>\n
He stepped aside and allowed for the others to introduce themselves as well, pretty much the same way, and then hand me their folders as well. They were such thick folders that I knew it was going to take some time to go through. I was already overwhelmed as is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for stopping by gentlemen, she\u2019ll be in touch,\u201d Gavin said, shaking each of their hands and dismissing them.<\/p>\n
They nodded and said their farewells before leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that that\u2019s out of the way, they are the Top Elite forces in the world, but they aren\u2019t the only ones. You were sent an email with the listing of each force around the world. As the winner of the competition, you can choose any of them. Also, there\u2019s a 5 million prize money as well and a trophy. The money is being wired to your account as we speak,\u201d Levi continued to explain, my heart pounding in my chest when I thought about that money.<\/p>\n
I could do a lot with that money.<\/p>\n
Mica stepped around the corner with a large trophy and a grin on his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongrats Miss Montague,\u201d Alpha Mica said thoughtfully as he handed me the heavy trophy. Nan and Irene had to help me hold it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d I said with a proud smile. \u201cIt\u2019s surreal; I still can\u2019t believe I won.\u201d \u201cBelieve it,\u201d Nan said, patting me on the shoulder. \u201cYou did incredible.\u201d \u201cTruly,\u201d Irene agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow is the ceremony to celebrate your victory and the competition as a whole,\u201d Alpha Levi said, his eyes on me. \u201cIt\u2019s formal attire and obviously you are expected to be there. It\u2019ll be held in the resort\u2019s entertainment center ballroom. Your friends are invited as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, I\u2019ll be there,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n
My flight home wasn\u2019t until the day after tomorrow anyways, so that worked out fine. He nodded and without another word, he turned and left. Alpha Mica and Alpha Jeremy left after him, but Gavin remained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Matthew?\u201d He asked Irene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Chester,\u201d Irene replied.<\/p>\n
.n<\/p>\n
He nodded and then glanced at me. I tried hard not to meet his eyes because every time I did, I felt the same familiar ache in my chest that<\/p>\n
I always feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations,\u201d he finally said, breaking the heavy tension for a moment.<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks,\u201d I said, my tone almost indifferent.<\/p>\n
After another beat of silence, he finally left.<\/p>\n
Third Person POV<\/p>\n
As soon as Levi was out of view of any others, he grabbed his cellphone from his pocket and brought up a specific name in his contact. He pushed the call button and then<\/p>\n
pressed the phone to his cheek,<\/p>\n
waiting for the contact to answer the phone.<\/p>\n
After a few rings, the other line was picked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did well during this competition; she doesn\u2019t suspect a thing,\u201d Levi said to his<\/p>\n
contact. \u201cWe move onto the next phase. Are you ready?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel kind of bad playing her like this\u2026\u201d the contact\u2019s soft voice said on the other end. \u201cIt\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s necessary,\u201d Levi snapped,<\/p>\n
speaking through his teeth. \u201cWe<\/p>\n
made an agreement; you aren\u2019t<\/p>\n
backing down on me now, because I can get your sister to do this instead.\u201d noveldrama<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you kidding me? Chrissy would crack under the first sign of pressure,\u201d his<\/p>\n
contact hissed, her rage clear. \u201cYou can\u2019t be serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t test me,\u201d Levi murmured. \u201cNow, are you able to handle this next task?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a pause for a moment before a heavy sigh could be heard on the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes\u2026 I can handle this task. I won\u2019t let you down\u2026 father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland\u2019s breathtaking cold.<\/p>\n
We Built a Kingdom From Ashes That Still Remembered Love by Aila Frost 389 \u201cJudy Montague,\u201d One of the men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shadow-slave-by-author-novelnozi-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}