Blood Of The Sun

Chapter 7

Anna’s P.O.V.

The week blurred into a storm of preparations. Seamstresses, decorators, warriors, press everywhere I turned, someone wanted a piece of me. But under it all, the tension clawed. I could feel it in the way my mother’s gaze lingered on the tree line, in how Aunt Aaliyah carried her spell satchel everywhere she went, in Serenity’s silence, sharp as a blade. Even Maria’s hands trembled as she sorted press releases.

They were hiding something.

And my father, He noticed. His eyes narrowed whenever they whispered too long, whenever the air between them grew thick with secrets. My brother Antonio didn’t care, too wrapped up with his training and stolen laughs with Diamond, but I did. Because whatever they weren’t telling him they weren’t telling me, either.

And still, through it all, the coronation loomed.

The Dios del Sol pack house blazed with gold and firelight. Chandeliers spilled light across silk-draped tables. Musicians played, laughter rolled, and the walls themselves seemed to hum with pride and history. My parents ruled as Alpha-to-Alpha, but tonight, the mantle stretched toward me.

Eighteen. My coronation. My birthday.

The moment I stepped into the grand hall in my gown of crimson silk, the crowd parted, bowing low. I stood taller, like my mother had taught me, like my father demanded. For a heartbeat, I felt unstoppable.

But then I felt him.

A shiver rushed down my spine, curling into my veins. The mate bond. Sudden. Absolute. My lungs faltered. My wolf rose, straining toward the shadows that clung to the edge of the room.

And there he was.

Tall, broad-shouldered, tan skin kissed by firelight. Short, curling brown hair framed a face too handsome to trust, too dangerous to look away from. His dark eyes locked on mine over the edge of his mask. And though he stayed still, I could feel him. Like a thread between us had just been pulled taut, binding us.

My heart thundered. I looked away, but his presence dragged at me, relentless. No flower could mask him now not from me.

The party swelled around me dancing, wine, speeches, congratulations but it all blurred into noise. The only thing sharp, the only thing real, was him.

When the pack house finally grew quiet, when laughter and music dwindled into soft embers of celebration, I slipped away. Bare feet on cold stone, cloak wrapped tight, I followed the pull toward the lake.

He was waiting.

The moon hung low, silver spilling across the water, and he stood there as if he belonged to the night itself. My pulse stumbled, breath catching.

But before I could reach him, before I could even speak, the soft crunch of footsteps echoed behind me. I froze, my wolf baring her teeth.

“Anna.” My mother’s voice. Low. Lethal.

I turned slowly, and there they were.

Alpha Christa. My mother.

Aunt Aaliyah, eyes glowing faintly with witchlight.

Aunt Serenity, wolf coiled and ready.

Their faces were shadows and fury, their gazes locked not on me but on him.

And suddenly I realized I wasn’t the hunter tonight.

I was the bait.

Christa’s P.O.V.

The bond in Anna’s eyes froze me wild, shimmering, undeniable. My heart stuttered because I knew it. I’d lived it. And I’d done everything in my power to shield her from it.

But it was too late.

The boy moved. Just a step closer, palms raised, his mask half-shadowed. “She came to me,” he said, voice low, smooth, tinged with something dangerous. “I didn’t force”

He didn’t finish.

Aaliyah’s hand snapped up, blue fire blazing from her palm. Serenity lunged forward, wolf ripping from her skin in a blur of fur and fang.

The clearing erupted.

Anna screamed, “Stop!” but my body was already in motion, blades drawn, wolf straining beneath my skin. The boy didn’t attack, didn’t strike, only blocked and twisted, moving like water. He ducked Serenity’s snapping jaws, rolled beneath my dagger, let Aaliyah’s magic sear across his shoulder.

And still, he didn’t strike back.

Blood spattered the ground, hot and coppery. His teeth flashed not in a snarl, but in restraint.

“Fight back!” Serenity roared, her wolf’s voice guttural.

“I won’t,” he ground out, stumbling under another blast of Aaliyah’s fire. His mask slipped, revealing fangs too sharp to be wolf, eyes too dark to be human. Hybrid. The thing we’d feared.

But he didn’t fight.

By the time Ricardo and Ramiro arrived with warriors at their heels, the boy was bleeding, kneeling, chest heaving. Restraints of silver clicked around his wrists and ankles, burning into his skin. His gaze flickered up once only once to Anna, and the raw thread of pain there twisted something deep in me.

“Take him,” I ordered, voice flat. My blade dripped red. “To the White Room.”

The White Room.

Cold, merciless stone. The place Carlos had once thrown me into to break me. Now it swallowed Anna’s mate whole, his blood trailing across its threshold like some terrible echo of the past.

We gathered in the council chamber the pack’s strongest, the Dios del Sol alphas and elders. My husband at the head.

Alpha Carlos Rivera.

He stood tall, storm-dark eyes burning into me. “Explain,” he said, voice deadly calm.

The council stirred, whispers rippling like snakes in the dark. Ricardo looked grim. Maria pale. Ramiro restless. Aaliyah’s magic still sparked faintly, like her nerves wouldn’t settle.

I forced myself to meet Carlos’s gaze. “The boy is not just a hybrid. He’s Anna’s mate.”

The words silenced the room.

Carlos’s wolf surged so violently the torches along the walls flared. His fists slammed against the table, cracking the wood. “What?”

I didn’t flinch. “You heard me. We knew he was close. We tracked him. We tried to stop it, but”My throat tightened. “The bond took hold tonight.”

Carlos’s growl rattled the chamber. “You hid this from me. From me, Christa.”

“Because you would have killed him before you knew the truth,” I snapped back, fury slipping past my mask. “You would have denied Anna her choice before she ever had it.”

“She has no choice!” he roared, wolf bleeding into his voice. “Not with a monster like that.”

Anna’s voice broke across the silence. “He’s not a monster!”

She stood at the chamber’s edge, fists clenched, eyes wet but blazing. She looked like me at her age stubborn, furious, unwilling to bend.

Carlos turned on her, but I stepped between them, steel in my spine.

The truth was out now.

And nothing would ever be the same.

Christa’s P.O.V.

Carlos’s chest heaved, the beast in him barely caged. His eyes burned gold as he slammed the room back into silence.

“No.” His voice cut like steel, dark and commanding. “There will be no execution. Not yet.”

The council shifted uneasily. Ricardo’s jaw ticked. Ramiro muttered something about danger. Maria’s hand covered her mouth, pale with worry. Even Aaliyah, who never flinched, raised an eyebrow.

Carlos’s gaze swept the room like a blade. “We interrogate him. Tonight.”

Anna gasped. “No”

“Quiet!” His roar shook the walls. She froze, trembling, but the fire in her eyes didn’t dim.

I stepped closer, my voice low but steady. “Carlos, if you put him in that room, he won’t survive your methods. That’s not interrogation

it’s slaughter.”

His head snapped toward me, rage flashing. “Don’t you dare lecture me about what I will or will not do. This thing” he spat the word “walked into a masquerade full of Alphas, masked his scent with sorcery, and whispered in my daughter’s ear to run. He’s dangerous, Christa. And you think I’ll just let him live because of a bond?”

“He’s still her mate,” I said sharply. “You cannot ignore that.”

Carlos bared his teeth, the Alpha radiating in waves. “Mate bond or not, he’s chained in the White Room until I get answers. Who his father is. What his pack of hybrids plans. Why he dared come near my daughter. And when I’m done” he leaned forward, growling, “ then I’ll decide if he deserves to keep breathing.”

The chamber thickened with tension. Anna surged forward, but Aaliyah’s arm shot out, pinning her back. Her hazel eyes narrowed on Carlos. “Be careful, Alpha,” she warned softly. “The gods don’t play when it comes to fated bonds. If you break this one, it won’t just cost you the boy.”

Carlos didn’t even blink. His eyes burned straight through her. “Then let the gods test me.”

Anna’s broken whisper slipped through the stillness. “You’ll destroy me.”

For the first time, Carlos faltered only a fraction, but I saw it. His jaw tightened, throat working as if swallowing back the wolf’s snarl.

“Interrogation,” he repeated, harsher now, more to himself than to us. “And I want everyone in this room present. No secrets. Not anymore.”