Beneath A Ruthless Sun Novels & Stories

The warmth under the metal felt like a promise. "But I’m not going to fight them with muscle. I’m going to fight them with the sun."

╭──────────.★..─╮ Selena's POV ╰─..★.──────────╯ ⛧☾༺♰༻☽⛧ The sun was a merciless fucking bitch, scorching the back lawn of the mansion until the grass felt like hot coals under my flip-flops. I had come out here to breathe, to escape the suffocating cedar and alpha power of Jeremiah, but it seemed even fresh air was a luxury I couldn't afford. I spotted an old man slumped on the dirt, his legs splayed out like they had finally given up on him.

Roksolana was grateful to Jamal for not leaving her defenseless even though it was for his selfish purposes. By the time the sun rose to its highest peak at noontime, Roksolana felt hot and itchy all over. Her clothes were covered with sweat and clinging to her body, making her feel miserable. The sun burned her face without care. But the worse of it was the fact that she had no means of shielding her face from the harsh sun or cleaning the sweats away from her body. Her throat began to itch because of thirstiness. Now, she knows why the place was called the sun punishment.

The dawn that broke over the Ravine was not the soft gold of a Northern spring. It was a harsh, terrifying white. High above the atmosphere, the Southern Council’s mirror-satellites were shifting, catching the unfiltered intensity of the sun and focusing it into a singular, lethal beam. The air already tasted of ozone, and the ancient snow on the peaks of the Frost-Pins was beginning to weep, turning into torrents of meltwater that roared down the cliffs.

​The strike team emerged from the subterranean darkness like survivors of a shipwreck. Marcus was supporting Sela, whose eyes were still dilated from the psychic feedback of the Feral-Reset. Around them, the skeletal remains of the Sun-Tower groaned in the wind, a thousand shards of glass vibrating with the residual hum of the dead machines.

She buried herself under her blankets, letting the silence consume her as she tried to ignore the pounding of her own heart. In the dimness of her room, as daylight faded and the shadows grew long, Channary clutched her pillow, sinking deeper into her shame. The Moon had betrayed her, left her vulnerable, her mate unclaimed. She was the Alpha’s daughter, Moon-Kissed and blessed, yet here she was, abandoned and marked only by the emptiness of broken promises.

Joseph felt the wind knocked out of him as he heard the whistle followed by the loudest sound he's ever heard in all his 16 years under the Tau Ceti sun. A whiz and BOOM. Whiz and BOOM. Explosion after explosion came pummeling down onto them. An unending barrage of terrifying heat and sound and fireball crashed all around them. Joseph covered his face as clods of disturbed earth pelted and rained down on him. His screams were drowned out by the loud thunders. It went on forever. Until it didn't. Then it stopped. He heard nothing afterwards except the constant ringing in his ear.

She's probably just wandering around. I faced the sun as it started to rise. The beautiful dawn faced me too. It was like a staring contest. I broke my stare with the brand new dawn. I hope we can find you, Asherah. END

Drew's POV The sun was just breaking through my blinds when I opened my eyes, that pale morning light spilling into the room like a silent reminder that life was moving with or without me. I exhaled deeply, running a hand down my face before reaching for the phone beside my bed. Messages, reminders, emails, the usual flood. I scrolled through them absentmindedly, but my mind was far from business.