Blood Of The Sun

Chapter One Anna’s P.O.V. The Dios del Sol estate burned with morning light. Sunbeams spilled through glass walls and gilded marble floors until the whole mansion seemed carved from fire. Servants hurried across the halls, voices low, carrying silks, scrolls, weapons polished until they gleamed like mirrors. Preparation hung in the air like incense. In three days, I would turn eighteen. In three days, I would be crowned. And nothing about me felt ready. “Again,” Aaliyah snapped. She paced in a slow circle, sparks licking her hands, red dreadlocks catching the light like live flame. “You’re stiff. A queen doesn’t look like she’s wearing her crown for the first time she looks like she was born with it.” “Enough,” Serenity said, brushing an invisible crease from my sash. Her hazel eyes softened, though her grip on my arm was iron. “Don’t let her rattle you, niña. But don’t ignore her either. They will be watching every breath you take. Do not give them doubt.” They weren’t my blood aunts. But they had been my mother’s sisters by choice forged through battles and scars, bound to her long before I was born. When Christa became Alpha, they swore to raise me as if I were their own. They had kept that promise with a fierceness that still left me breathless. Sometimes I loved them for it. Sometimes I hated them for it. And sometimes, like now, I wondered if they even saw me or only the Alpha I was meant to become. The air shifted. My wolf stirred before I even heard the sound. CRACK. A raven slammed against the glass, wings broken, black feathers scattering across the stone. It slid down the window and stilled, its eyes burning an unnatural, hellish red. Serenity pushed me behind her instinctively. Aaliyah’s magic flared so bright the glass shuddered. She bent, snatched the parchment tied to its leg, and broke the wax seal without hesitation. Her mouth tightened as she read. Come beyond your walls, daughter of the sun. The fire cannot protect you forever. The words burned against my skin like brands. For the first time in my life, I wondered if even the sun’s fire could be swallowed by darkness. Aunt Aaliyah looked up violently “I’m calling a meeting with you parents” Anna’s P.O.V. The council chamber smelled of cedar smoke and sun-warmed stone, the great firepit at its heart burning low. My parents sat side by side at the head of the long table, power rolling off them in waves Alpha Christa, my mother, radiant and terrible as the dawn, and Alpha Carlos, my father, a shadow of iron at her side. Antonio slouched in his chair beside me, taller than me now, though he’d never admit how much he still trailed me in strength. At sixteen, he was all sharp angles and restless energy, his wolf itching just under the skin. He drummed his fingers against the table, a habit that drove me mad. Aaliyah dropped the blood-marked parchment onto the table with a snap. “It’s not a warning. It’s a summons.” Father’s growl shook the chamber. “It’s a threat.” His fist slammed against the oak, rattling goblets. “No one dares summon a child of the Dios del Sol. Not here. Not in our house.” Mother’s brown eyes flicked to mine, sharp as blades, soft as sunlight. “What did you feel when you saw it?” The question made my throat dry. The whole room waited. I wanted to shrug, to laugh, to pretend it was nothing. But the truth clawed up my chest. “Cold,” I whispered. “Like the sun blinked out. Even my wolf went still.” The silence that followed was worse than shouting. Serenity crossed her arms, gaze like flint. “It reeks of hybrids. That’s their stench — half-death, half-wolf, all blasphemy. They wouldn’t dare strike within your walls. But out there” She nodded toward the window where the raven’s body still lay twisted in the courtyard. “They’re waiting.” “They want her to come to them,” Aaliyah said. Her voice was a low, furious hiss. “And they’ll have to burn the world down to get her.” Father rose, broad shoulders casting long shadows across the chamber. “The tour is over. No more visits, no more speeches, no coronation until the threat is ash.” “No.” The word slipped out before I could stop it. All eyes turned toward me. My pulse thundered in my ears, but I kept my chin high. “I will not hide in the tower while the world watches,” I said. “If I cower now, they’ll smell weakness. I’ll face the packs. I’ll stand before them, before the gods, and claim my place. Even if it means stepping into the shadows to do it.” Antonio sat up straighter, eyes flicking between me and our parents. “She’s right,” he muttered, surprising everyone. His voice cracked with youth, but his words landed heavy. “The packs need to see her. They need to believe in her, like I do.” Mother’s lips curved not in pride, not in amusement, but in recognition. Because for the first time, I sounded like her. Father’s jaw clenched. “And if they come for her?” he asked, voice rough. Serenity stepped forward, her hazel eyes fierce. “Then they’ll find us standing between her and death.” The fire popped, showering sparks into the air. And just like that, the decision hung, suspended but inevitable. The tour would go on. Not because it was safe but because it was necessary. “You ask too much,” Father said finally, his voice rough as gravel. His gaze pinned me, heavy and suffocating. “You are not just my daughter, Anna. You are the heir to the Dios del Sol. Every enemy in this land wants a piece of you. And you would walk into their arms?” “I would walk into my role,” I said, sharper than I meant. My hands curled into fists in my lap. “If I hide, I am no Alpha. If I stand, I am what the sun made me.” Antonio leaned forward, elbows on the table. “She’s not wrong, Papá.” Father’s head whipped toward him, and I saw my brother flinch but to his credit, he didn’t back down. “If she doesn’t stand before the packs, they’ll whisper. They’ll say she’s weak. They’ll say you don’t trust her.” He glanced at me, then back at Father. “And one day, she’ll need us to believe in her too.” The silence was broken only by the hiss of resin burning in the fire. Serenity’s voice came next, low and steady. “We walked through fire for Christa once, when she was only a girl.” Her hazel eyes found mine. “We’ll walk through it again for her daughter. Whatever it takes.” “And bleed for her, if we must,” Aaliyah added, her dreadlocks shifting as she lifted her chin. Her voice carried the weight of a vow. “The hybrids won’t take her. Not while we draw breath.” Father’s jaw worked as though he was grinding stones between his teeth. Mother, meanwhile, studied me the way she always did like she was measuring not only my words, but my will. Finally, she rose, her presence filling the chamber. “Anna is not a child,” Mother said. “She is of my blood, of my mate’s blood. She carries the fire of the sun itself. If she says she will stand, she will stand.” I straightened, heart hammering. Father turned to her, eyes flashing. “Christa” Her voice cut him off, firm as steel wrapped in silk. “Carlos. Do you not remember the council when they would have butchered me for less? Do you not remember the chains, the accusations? I survived because I claimed my place. Not when it was safe when it was necessary.” For a heartbeat, the room seemed to belong only to them my parents, Alpha to Alpha, bonded and unbreakable, yet divided on how to protect what they had built. Finally, Father exhaled sharply, his anger bleeding into weary resignation. “If we go forward with this then she does not walk alone. She does not breathe alone. She is guarded, shielded, watched every moment until this coronation is done.” A flicker of triumph and fear tangled in my chest. Mother inclined her head, sealing the decision. “So it shall be.” Christa’s P.O.V. When the chamber emptied, the silence weighed heavier than any council decree. Anna had left with her head held high, Antonio trailing at her side, the aunts flanking them like shadows. The doors shut. And in the echoing stillness, Carlos sagged against the edge of the table, both hands gripping the carved wood as if it were the only thing keeping him upright. I moved to him slowly, the way one approaches a wounded wolf. “You let her win,” I said softly. His head snapped up, storm-dark eyes blazing. “I didn’t let her win. I just” His voice cracked, raw and unguarded. “I just can’t lose her, Christa.” The firelight caught the scar that ran across his jaw, the mark of battles fought for me, for our pack. And yet this man, who had never flinched before blood or blade, trembled now at the thought of his daughter’s first step into power. I reached for his hand, prying his fingers from the table. He resisted at first, then let me take them, let me lace our hands together. “You won’t lose her,” I said. “You don’t know that.” His grip tightened, almost painful. “I buried too many under this roof. I watched my mother fall. I nearly lost you more times than I can count. And now—” His chest heaved, the Alpha stripped away, leaving only a father. “She has your fire, your defiance. And it will get her killed if I can’t protect her.” I cupped his face, forcing him to look at me. “It will get her crowned. Just like it got me crowned. You think the sun gave her its fire so she could hide in shadows?” His breath shuddered against my palm. “She’s our daughter, Carlos,” I whispered. “She is meant for this. We raised her for this. You taught her strength, I taught her will. And now she will burn brighter than both of us.” He closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against mine, a broken laugh spilling between us. “The gods help me, I thought fighting wars was hard.” I smiled through the ache in my chest. “This is the war, mi amor. But it’s hers to win now.” His arms wrapped around me then, crushing, desperate. “Then I swear, Christa if the sun itself tries to take her from us, it will burn through me first.” And I believed him. The fire roared, as if the gods themselves had answered.