Page 93 of Inside the Sun

My mission will be a failure.

I won’t save Summer. I won’t find out what happened to Moon. I’ve fucked up. Why, Fate…? My poor brothers, forgive me.

"Let go, that hurts, stop…" Another slap.

I can’t. I can’t just stand here and do nothing.

Yeah, I’m a monster. But not like them.

I kill monsters like them.

I hear fabric rip.

The metal-bone plates of my internal armor are already set in place, protecting my chest and stomach. I move.

I hear Sun’s panicked cry, and fury blinds me, then… I feel my gums ache. Something presses there. A new sensation floods my awareness. My mating fangs… why the hell are they trying to emerge? That’s not part of a normal shift intoimago. And now my fingertips are itching too. What the fuck?

But there’s no time to make theories about what’s happening to my body. I break through the bushes and freeze for a second as the scene in front of me slams into my senses like a dive-bombing falcon.

Massimo and Franco are holding Sun by the arms, and Vito, who’s just ripped open his thin green shirt, is reaching for his pants, fingers curled around the waistband. Sun kicks and struggles, but he’s one against three.

These aren’t street thugs. They’re all made men. Trained. They don’t hesitate when they sense a threat.

So the second I step out of the brush, all three alphas draw their weapons at the exact same time, aiming straight at me.

But stopping isn’t an option, not with mafia guys. That would’ve ended exactly the same way anyway. They don’t have a ‘pause and talk’ setting. So I keep going.

Sun’s the first to understand what’s about to happen. He cries out, "No!" and slams his shoulder into Massimo, trying to knock the gun from his hand.

Massimo grabs him by the hair and yanks him back, tossing him out of the way.

Franco and Vito don’t hesitate.

Bang. Bang.

Two shots are fired. Both hit my left side. Good aim, but they can’t pierce my armor.

Purple alpha bodies aren’t built like normal humans. Our bones are thicker, and our plating is made from a mineral-carbide composite. Its layered structure absorbs impact, and the elastic protein weave prevents fractures.

The ballistic force doesn’t even make me flinch. You’d need a bazooka to knock me off balance, since I weigh 770 pounds.

I see the shock hit their faces when they realize the bullets didn’t work. But it doesn’t last long. Their caporegime is Luca, a purple alpha too, so they’ve seen this before. They immediately try again, aiming another burst at my neck and head, knowing those areas are more vulnerable.

Too late. I leap, crossing the last few feet in a second. Vito’s closest, so I hit him first, full force. But I have to be careful not tocrush Sun in the process. I twist midair, shift the angle, and drive us both left, away from Sun, Massimo, and Franco.

They use that moment to fire two more shots. One hits the side of my head, the other my shoulder. No real damage, but the close-range headshot rattles me. It shakes my inner ear, stuns me for a couple of seconds.

It’s obvious Luca did a good job training thesoldati. They understand that center mass won’t cut it, so they go for my temple, anticipating it might slow me down.

Using the moment, Massimo and Franco grab my arms, pulling me back. It’s not easy to lift me, but they seem to know what to do with purple alpha weight. They dig their feet into the ground and tilt their bodies back, creating leverage. For a few seconds, they manage to wrestle me off Vito. I’m still dazed, just long enough for them to interrupt my charge.

I have this surge of silly annoyance then, aimed at Luca. He actually showed them how to subdue a purple alpha. It’s weirdly disappointing, like he’s betraying our kind. There are only two of us for every hundred standard alphas. But many of us work in protection. So I guess it makes sense, he had to prepare them for encounters with enemy purple alphas.

They jerk me hard, groaning with effort, then haul me backward. I lose contact with Vito.

"You son of a bitch," Vito yells. "Let’s see you take a bullet to the eye!"

He raises his gun. But right then Sun lunges at him, trying to tackle him.

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