Rejected Luna's Return, Forbidden Bonds

Ethan POV

I was furious. Not with the rogues or the Council or even with Marcus. I was furious at myself. I was the Alpha of this pack, and I had allowed all things to go wrong under my charge. People were injured, and I had not considered that. Worse still, I had been mistaken for the people I had the most trust in.

Lyra was in the old house of her family, and she was searching with Dane and Zane. I was meant to help, when I was in fact standing outside the house doing nothing as everything fell into pieces. Owen was there at the healing center with Kira and ensured that no other person was killed.

And I was failing everyone.

My wolf was impatient, and desired to do something, and wanted to mend things. He would be close to Lyra, to take care of her, to show her that I was not the same man that rejected her five years ago. However, I did not know how to establish anything like that and more so when my entire family appeared to be plotting against her.

"Ethan?" a voice called from inside. It was Dane. "You need to see this."

I went inside. This house reeked of dust and recollection that nothing has changed since the day that her parents died. Dane was standing, where Lyra once had a bedroom, and holding in his hand a leather journal.

Zane, reading behind his shoulder, had a serious face with its scarred features. Lyra sat on the bed, with her gaze upon something. As she stared at me, I perceived in her the anguish of feeling in her soul the terrible truths.

Your family maintained records, said Dane as he gave me the journal. Lyra, the history of her bloodline through the generations. The authority has manifested itself earlier. It never failed to appear in women and it always rendered them dangerous.

I picked up the journal and began reading. Handwritten pages covered the history of the family of Lyra. Her grandmother was equally powerful and the Council had attempted to employ her. Her great grandmother possessed one as well, and she had never been employed, hence the interruption of the whole family lineage in the Council during more than a century.

Until Lyra was born.

I read, I read, they have been spying on your family. Waiting to see whether the power was going to come back. The Council determined to strike as soon as you had it, when it was obvious that you had it.

Lyra said something low, but her parents did not catch it. "That's what's in this letter." She was holding a scrap of paper that was aged and yellowed down to the edges. They heard that the Council wanted to make use of me. So they attempted to bring out the truth. And they were killed by the Council because of it.

There was something that Zane was examining on the wall. Old photographs were pinned there and they captured Lyra's parents at various stages of their life. They were in most of the pictures accompanied by other individuals. The same woman with dark hair and sharp features was depicted on one face in a few of the photos.

This woman, Zane said, indicating. "Who is she?"

Lyra got up and observed the picture. Her whole body went rigid. "That's Councilwoman Iris. She was my mother's friend. Or I thought she was. The day before they died, she had come to see my mother.

I realized it all fell into place in my head. Iris. The fifteen years old woman in the Council. The woman who had always appeared older and smarter than all. The woman who had the power to shift the resources and issue orders without anyone doubting her.

The lady who had the power to poison a prisoner in a closed room without being noticed.

The whole time, I said, it was her. This has all been caused by her. It is she who dispatched the scagaways. It is she who was in charge of Marcus. It is she who wished you were taken prisoner.

And she killed my parents, Lyra said and her voice was steady but deadly. Which is that I will kill her.

"Lyra--" I started.

"Don't," she cut me off. Do not tell me to be cool or witty or cautious. Do not say to me to trust the Council to it. The Council is the problem. My parents were killed by the Council and the murder had been hidden. Rogues were sent by the Council to raid my people. I'm done waiting. I'm done being careful."

Dane touched her on the shoulder. You will not do this single-handedly. We're all going with you."

In the capital city there is the headquarters of the Council, Owen said. He had already come in the door, and I had not heard him enter. "It's heavily guarded. It is made to be inimitable. You can not simply walk in and beat up Councilwoman Iris.

"Then we don't walk in," Zane said. "We break in."

That would amount to a declaration of war against the whole Council, I said. "You understand that, right? Attack Council headquarters we shall have hunted all our lives.

Lyra checked me out, and in her eyes I could see the girl who had been loved by me five years ago. I also witnessed the hurt of being rejected and the resilience she had created out of her hurt and the sheer willpower of a person who could not lose anything.

Well, we are going to have a war then, I said.

In the following few hours, we made plans. It was hazardous and most likely impossible, but we had nothing but another option. The Council was a corrupt body and the best way to get them to cease was to bring Iris into the limelight and all the activities that she had engaged in.

Kira had arrived and the rest were asleep. She dragged me aside and told me something in low tones to ensure that no one would hear. "Lyra is making a mistake. She is basing it on emotion and that will lead to people being killed.

"I know," I said.

"Then stop her," Kira said.

"I can't," I said. I lost the right to judge her what to do five years ago when I turned my back on her. It is only something to follow her, to make her live.

Kira looked at my face a bit. Then she shook her head as though she knew something serious. Please, make certain you do that. Keep her alive. Whatever is the case, do not allow her to sacrifice herself.

On the following day we went to the capital city. We drove after dark, we moved through the forest and used our wolf bodies and were covered by a lot more distance than the speed of a car. When we managed to reach the city, the sun was beginning to come up.

Council headquarters consisted of a huge structure of stone and glass designed to appear strong and invincible. At each entrance guards were on duty. Cameras watched every angle. This is where the individuals who regulated the entire werewolf civilization were employed.

And we were about to break in.

We were cowering in the shadows on the other side of the street of the building, when Lyra turned to me. "I need you to know something. Should this fail, should I fail to get out--

"Stop," I said. "You're going to make it out. We all are."

"You don't know that," Lyra said.

"No," I agreed. But I know that I am not losing you again. Not this time. Not ever."

She was about to answer this when an alarm sounded in the building. Lights started flashing. The guards of each entrance all at once became alert, taking weapons and radios.

Somebody somewhere inside the building had heard us coming.

And when the first guard came into sight and drew his weapon, I knew that Iris had made a trap even better than we had thought.