Rejected Luna's Return, Forbidden Bonds

Lyra POV

The forest smelled as it had been five years ago, and this was odd, everything seemed different. I had a steering wheel in my hands of my black car and I was heading down the known dirt road that led to the pack territory. Trees were crowded on either side, and the branches of the trees were stretched out toward the road, as though they were trying to seize me. My wolf was awake in me, and pacing and impatient, of which I never found myself.

I sighed and attempted to make her calm down. This was merely a trip, that was all. I was going to do my business and go because the Werewolf Council had sent me here to enquire of some rogue traffic that was going on in the neighbourhood of my old home, and which I was to enquire into. It took five years to get over feeling anything about this place. I had also changed, grown stronger, and become somebody. The frightened girl that ran had long since perished.

My wolf would not believe me and that made me more worried than I cared to say.

I parked my vehicle at the periphery of the woods and got out. I was struck with cold air on my face. I had on my enforcer uniform, which was all black and had the silver wolf badge of the Council on the arm. All of my body muscles were tight. I heard the voices of the other members of the pack going through the trees and leading their lives in the same manner that they had instead of the fact that the girl whom they had left was back.

A sound made me turn around. Footsteps, which crunched on the fallen leaves, came heavy enough, and a man came out of the trees behind. My breath caught in my throat.

It was Dane.

Five years had passed since I last saw him but his face was the same only it was older. His dark hair plunged to his eyes, and his jaw was even harder than I remembered. He was in ordinary street clothes, torn jeans and a gray shirt, however, he moved with the air that he was dangerous. I heard my wolf within me make a noise that I have never heard before, and that caused my whole body to tingle and shake.

The eyes of Dane fixed upon mine and then shifted. The brown was washed away and in its place was bright silver, which indicated that his wolf was staring back at me, not at the human side. His mouth was open to say something but nothing came out. He stood where he was and stared at me as though I were a ghost that he did not believe existed.

Dane, I told you, and my voice was hoarse to my ears. "What are you doing out here?"

He didn't answer. He made a step forward to me, another. His breathing became more difficult, and I could see his hands also shaking at his sides. The silver of his eyes was brighter, more intense. He gazed at me as though I were the greatest object he ever saw in his whole life, and that horrified me.

"You're here," he whispered. "You're actually here."

My wolf was getting out of control within me. She would have liked to run up to him, to lean against him, to do what I did not comprehend. I tightened my fists and made my breath come out in a steady manner. This wasn't right. There must be something terribly wrong with the way my body was responding towards him.

I went back to a Council mission, I said, and I tried to make my voice sound professional and cold. "Nothing more."

Dane shook his head slowly, but never averted his gaze. "No. No, this is... you're my..." He hesitated and messed his hair as though he was angry that he could not say the words right. I had been seeking you, Lyra, five years. Every single day. I never stopped looking."

I had not had a chance to reply when I heard another voice in the opposite direction. The man this time was a white doctor walking between the trees. It was Owen, the pack's healer. He was a long, pale, kind-eyed soft-featured man with kind eyes and soft features that made him look gentle. As his eyes settled on me they turned silver, as well as those of Dane. His stride went dead as though it were someone who knocked the wind out of him.

"Impossible," Owen breathed. "It can't be..."

"What is happening?" I answered, not so much to either of them. Now my wolf was screaming within me, drawing in the directions I had not known to exist.

Then I heard running. Fast, powerful running. A man broke through the trees as he was pursuing something, and, on seeing me, he halted. It was Zane, who was turned into a wolf, the hunter. He was a big man with dark eyes and a threatening air that made people feel unsafe about him. His eyes met mine, and with a surge of silver they filled and a sound deep in his chest, a growl, and something, said he.

"No," I whispered.

And then, the worst thing happened, Ethan arrived.

The Ethan I had loved since I was eighteen years old. Ethan who had turned me away before all the pack and shattered my heart into bits. He had grown taller and broader with the appearance of a person who had already become a strong leader. His dark eyes fixed over me, and I saw them turn to silver as the rest. We stood and stared at one another a minute.

His voice sounded as though he was in pain, he said, Lyra.

Four men. Four silver eyes. Four wolves knew me at once precisely.

My own wolf was driving me mad, inside, attempting to turn into them, attempting to run to them, attempting to do everything at the same time. I did not know what was going on. This was not an expected thing to do. Each wolf acquired one mate, one individual to whom they were supposed to be. I had believed that I had been found five years before and lost.

But evidently I was very, very wrong.