Page 100 of Scars of the Sun

Sylvie started forward, but Catalina pointed the gun at her. “Try anything, and I’ll shoot you between the eyes.”

My chest tugged, the distance of the golden thread shortening, and called to it, I looked to my right, where Río emerged, half-shifted. He was nude and held his clawed hands up. “Cata. Stop this.”

She rolled her eyes and shot him an annoyed glance. Her sharp lip sneered his way. “Oh, perfect. Something else. Hello, Río.”

My mate stepped even closer, but he wouldn’t look at me. Why wasn’t he looking at me? “You have the power to stop this. To leave and let these people be.”

She watched her brother with everything but love and care. No relief after not seeing him for eight years. A nearly silent shuffle sounded to my left, but I fought not to react to Sylvie moving closer to the firing squad. Her mumbling was a string of fervent chants, tingling the air around us that seemed to grow even hotter by the second. The nighttime insects that were undoubtedly all around us were scared to silence with the volume of shifters congregated here. On my brother’s sacred land.

“Of course, I do. But this is business, which you never had the patience to understand. And this pack has been uncooperative. So,” she shrugged and started to turn her head back toward us.

“I’ll go back,” Río said, taking another step toward his sister and ripping my breath away. “Leave this pack and my mate alone, and I’ll join the family again.”

Catalina waved her gun, as if batting away Río’s bargaining. “As if I care about any of that. Pai hasn’t said anything about you in years, and crossing paths with you now is an unfortunate blip.”

Almost too fast to see, her arm straightened, aiming the gun at me. Before I had time to gasp, Tyler materialized in front of me just as she pulled the trigger. The smell of vampire blood, like dead roses, tickled at my nose, and I stood, frozen, as Tyler dropped to his knees.

Delaney screamed and ran to Tyler to catch his head before he hit the ground. Río growled, fangs and claws drawn, as Catalina turned the gun on him. “Never seen a vampire trade their life for another before. What a waste of immortality.” She shrugged, as if it couldn’t be helped.

Río’s Jaguar was pulling forward again, his features twisting and his rational mind taking a backseat to his desire to protect me. At the expense of himself when someone important to him was already lying bleeding. “I’m okay, baby. I’m okay,” my voice trembled, but Río stopped looking like he was going to do something stupid that Catalina was more than prepared to counter as she stared him down. “Te amo, te amo.”

I glanced back at Sylvie who was even closer behind the Serafim goons and caught her eye. She muttered something else to herself before nodding, just a minute tilt of her head, and turned to do the same at Mom and the Wolves on the front porch.

What the hell did that mean? Go, right?

Drawing on every class and training session I ever took, boxing, judo, and otherwise, I shot forward, swerved around Delaney and Tyler, reaching for Catalina’s wrist that held her gun. Using all my strength, I forced both of our arms skyward, sending up her rounds in reaction straight toward the stars. Snarls broke out behind me, but no other guns sounded. Switching hands and wrapping my arm around her waist, I twisted my body. Planting my hip against the small of her back, I felt her tense, her muscles bunch, but I managed to send my ownforce up and backward. I flipped Catalina over my shoulder until she landed face-down on the ground.

She screeched, but I dove on top of her and wrestled the gun out of her hand. Her fingernails scratched at my skin, drawing blood, but I kept on until I was able to flip her over and pin her wrists. She was just as strong as Río had been in the throws of his night terror thatshehad a hand in causing, but what I lacked in ability to shift, my body made up for in adrenaline-boosted brute strength.

With the butt of her gun, I pistol whipped her face twice, as hard as I could, before cracking into her cheekbone with my elbow. My heart raced in my chest, but my rage, remembering the exact flavor of Río’s terror when I’d witnessed his nightmare, made my vision a bright crimson. Catalina’s head lolled to the side, her breaths shallow. I hit her once more for good measure, feeling her body go lax beneath me.

“Mommy!” Dahlia’s voice cried out again, though this time, it wasn’t from inside the cabin. Risking a glance to my left, I saw Sylvie amongst the flurry of Wolves and suited shifters that were fighting with fists instead of their weapons or other forms. They were quickly losing to my mother and the Wolves. Especially—I almost couldn’t tear my eyes away—as Sylvie held one heart in her hand and was snatching another out of the suited chest of a felled shifter on the ground. She was a mixture of elegant and feral with blood staining her t-shirt and shorts, the lower half of her face dripping as she took bites of the still-beating hearts and muttered with each swallow.

Scrabbling footsteps stole both of our attention, and when I looked in the direction of the lake, I saw my brother, naked from shifting to human form and pulling Dahlia toward the trees. Where was Ollie? I looked and saw my mom, a silver-colored Wolf amongst the bloodshed at the front of the house. Sylviewas already starting over as Dahlia’s piercing scream had me whirling back around.

To see Río pounce behind Orion, wind his arm around his shoulders, and grasp his throat, plunging his claws into his neck.

My body jerked in shock, and the second plunge was my mate’s other hand sinking into Orion’s torso. Blood spurted from his throat, and he dropped Dahlia’s wrist, who kept running straight for the trees.

In paralyzing horror, not knowing what way was up or down, I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out as Orion writhed and shook in Río’s hold.

My brother turned his head to the side, to look Río in the eye as blood spurted out of his mouth and ran down his front.

And he grinned a cheek-splitting smile.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

RÍO

Ilet the scent of the Wolves, the sounds of their quiet and hungry breaths, guide me. While we ran, vaulting over fallen trees and winding around paths that they certainly were familiar with, I could only marvel at their coordination. How Leader didn’t need to give orders—they moved with an innate synchronicity while I tried to keep up. And when we came upon the scent of a dozen and a half shifters hidden within the dense, dark wood, they fanned out.

As Jaguar, I was used to ambush hunting. Not this event of endurance. But, as Leader’s glowing green eyes cut to me through the blur of my vision, I took it as a command to join the mob. In my own way.

I climbed while the Wolves cut a wide circle around the Serafim soldiers, some shifted and some not. My claws sinking into the bark of the tree was comfortable. Even when working within a group was new territory.

But they knew the land. And what I couldn’t see, I could smell and hear. Quick, panicked footfalls. Harsh breaths of prey. My tail swished in my perch, waiting and observing until the twelve inched the enemies close enough to attack.

I felt my mate’s distress, square in my heart. She didn’t feel as far away as she should have, but before I could fully set my attention to her, the bloodshed started.

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