Blood Of The Sun

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Anna’s P.O.V.

I sat at the vanity in the chamber Blue Moon had given me, hands clenched so tight around the brush I thought it might snap. The music of the masquerade was long gone, replaced by the silence of midnight snow pressing against the windows.

But my mother’s reflection burned behind me, steady as firelight.

Christa Rivera, Alpha of Dios del Sol. My mother. My judge.

“Turn around, Anna.” Her voice was calm, but that calm was worse than shouting.

I set the brush down and obeyed. Slowly.

She stood with her arms crossed, still in her gown, her mask discarded, her power filling the room like sunlight through storm clouds. Her brown eyes were sharp, reading me like a story she’d read a thousand times.

“You felt something,” she said. Not a question. A truth.

I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you mean—”

“Don’t lie to me.”

The air cracked between us. My wolf shivered under the weight of her Alpha command, even though she hadn’t unleashed it fully.

“You think I didn’t see?” she pressed, stepping closer. “Your eyes locked on his like you’d known him forever. You didn’t scream when he touched you. You didn’t fight when your brother shoved him back. You listened when he whispered in your ear.”

Heat rushed to my face. My chest ached. “It wasn’t—”

“Don’t,” she cut me off, her voice sharp as a blade. “You are my daughter. I felt the shift in the room the moment he laid eyes on you. And I saw the way you froze when he ran. That wasn’t fear. That was bond.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. I opened my mouth but nothing came. No words. No denial. Just silence.

Mother’s expression softened then, just barely, but it was worse than her anger. Her voice dropped to something fragile, pained.

“Anna… why didn’t you tell me?”

Tears threatened, stinging at the corners of my eyes. “Because—because he’s not just a wolf. He’s—”

“A hybrid,” she finished, her tone bitter.

I flinched.

She closed her eyes for a long breath, steadying herself. When they opened, the steel was back. “Do you understand what this means? Hybrids bring ruin everywhere they walk. Your aunts bled to keep them from our lands. I’ve lost too many people to their kind. And now one dares lay claim to my daughter?”

Her words were fire and stone, but there was something else beneath them too—fear.

“I’ll protect you, Anna. Even from yourself if I have to.”

Her vow carved through me, leaving me torn between the truth screaming in my soul and the loyalty that bound me to her.

I wanted to tell her everything. About the way his voice settled into my bones. About how, for just one heartbeat, I felt safe. About how the bond wasn’t strong yet—but it was there, waiting, undeniable.

But I said nothing.

Not yet.

The tension between my mother and me was so thick, I barely noticed the door open until a soft knock tapped against the wood.

Aaliyah slipped inside, closing it behind her. She was still in her gown, but her sharp eyes and the restless tapping of her fingers against her arm told me she hadn’t slept either.

“Still at it?” she asked quietly, looking between us.

Christa didn’t move, didn’t take her eyes off me. “She’s hiding something.”

Aaliyah tilted her head, studying me. Unlike my mother, she didn’t press right away. She just walked over, settled on the edge of the bed, and let the silence stretch.

Finally, she said, “I felt it too. His scent was wrong. Masked. Like roses rotting under sunlight.” Her gaze sharpened on me. “But you didn’t flinch. That tells me enough.”

My throat tightened. “You don’t understand—”

“Oh, I understand.” Aaliyah’s voice was low, almost dangerous. “Hybrids don’t just walk into masquerades unnoticed. They’re killers, Anna. Every time one of them shows their face, the ground runs red. You think you’re the first girl to get caught in the pull of something dark and forbidden?”

I looked away, ashamed, but her hand caught mine. Firm. Not unkind.

“Listen to me, mija,” she whispered. “You’re not safe if this is what I think it is. And your father—” Her jaw clenched. “If Alpha Carlos finds out, there will be no talking him down. He’ll destroy that boy before you ever know what the bond means.”

My chest tightened. “So what do I do?”

Aaliyah’s hazel eyes softened just enough. “You tell us—your mother, me, your aunts. We’ll protect you. But you keep your mouth shut around your father. Swear it.”

Christa’s lips pressed into a hard line, but she gave the faintest nod. “She’s right. Carlos would burn the world before letting a hybrid near you. This stays between us.”

My heart raced. “You promise?”

Christa’s hand brushed my cheek, tender despite the fire in her eyes. “I promise. For now.”

Aaliyah squeezed my hand tighter, her voice a whisper but her vow iron. “On my blood, Anna—I won’t let your father find out. Not yet.”

Relief and terror tangled in my chest. I nodded, the secret heavy on my tongue.

Three of us in the room. One truth binding us. One lie hanging between us and my father.

And outside, in the cold night, I swore I could still feel him. The stranger in the mask. The one who whispered run.

Christa’s P.O.V.

The moment we were back in our chambers, the mask of civility shattered.

“How dare you, Carlos Rivera,” I hissed, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the hinges. “An arranged marriage? You would trade our daughter like some prize cow without so much as speaking to me first?”

Carlos peeled off his jacket, tossing it across a chair, his jaw set like stone. “I acted to protect her. To secure her future.”

“Protect her?” My voice cracked, sharp as a blade. “You just promised her to a boy she doesn’t know, a boy she hasn’t chosen. That’s not protection—that’s control.”

His head snapped toward me, eyes burning. “We may share the crown of this pack, Christa, but don’t mistake it—I lead this family. My word is final.”

For a heartbeat, I was silent, too furious to breathe. The audacity of him. The man who had once fallen to his knees for me, who had begged me to choose him when the world was against us—now standing before me like some tyrant.

I stepped closer, eyes locked on his. “You forget yourself, Carlos. You forget who I was before all this.” My voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “The most deadly assassin this world has ever seen. I would sooner slit Daniel Ironfang’s throat myself than watch our daughter shackled in chains of your making.”

His nostrils flared, his wolf raging beneath the surface, but I didn’t stop.

“And as for this hybrid boy…” My hands curled into fists. “You sit here throwing money at strangers for his head, but you forget who you’re married to. Who my sisters are. We will find him. We will end him. On our terms, not yours.”

Carlos stared at me, his chest heaving, the great Alpha of the Dios del Sol pack brought to silence by his own Luna.

Finally, he growled, low and dangerous. “Careful, Christa. You walk a thin line between partner and challenger.”

I met his gaze without flinching, fire blazing in my chest. “Then maybe it’s time you remembered, Carlos Rivera—I am not your challenge. I am your equal. And you will never again make a decision for this family without me.”

The air between us crackled, two storms colliding, the bond that tethered us straining under the weight of power and pride.

Neither of us yielded. Not yet.

But the war line had been drawn.