Rejected Luna's Return, Forbidden Bonds

Lyra POV

The rendezvous was an old deserted cabin three miles off of pack territory. I came in and was already being leaned against by Kira leaning against her motorcycle with her arms crossed. Her typical black leather jacket was on, and her red hair was tightly twisted back. As she caught sight of my car she sat up and walked towards me.

Talk, okay, talk, Kira said as soon as I got out of the car. You have a ghost of a look on you and your hands are shaking.

I didn't know where to start. It was crazy the entire situation and it would become real when I uttered it aloud in some way I was not prepared to experience. But Kira was never a liar with me, and neither ought I to have lied to her.

It was four men in the forest I met, I said gradually. And one thing happened to my wolf. This will not be something that should be possible.

Kira's eyes widened. "What kind of something?"

Silver eyes they all have, said I. At once. Like everybody feels that I am their mate in some way. But that's not possible. It is a well known fact that mates are one to one. That's how it works."

Kira was quiet for a moment. Then she drew out her phone and was typing something. "Give me their names. I'm going to check something."

I explained to her Dane, Owen, Ethan and Zane. I said each name denoting the face of Kira which I was watching. She did not respond to the first three, but when I mentioned the name of Zane, her brows went high.

"The hybrid?" she asked.

"I guess. He was bitten and turned and not killed.

Kira nodded and kept typing. Alright, I am writing this to Marcus. And he is the historian of the pack, right?

I said the name of his uncle, Ethan, and it was bitter on my tongue. "Why are you sending it to him?"

Since when you tell me that it is true, when you tell me you are having more than one mate, then this is one of the old wolfe days, right? Kira told her. And I should know whether this is dangerous or you are safe.

And it hurt something inside of me that she was worried. Kira was the only person who knew what was happening to me, she was my sole true friend of five years. She had trained with me, fought with me and never had she requested me to be less angry or less broken. She just accepted me as I was.

I said it does not feel safe. It seems like I am losing control.

"Your wolf or your heart?" Kira asked.

Both, I said, and I detested the sound of my voice.

My phone went off and I received a message on an anonymous number. The message only said one thing; we need to talk. Not about mates. Of the reason why the Council dispatched you here. Meet me at the river tonight. Come alone. - Owen"

Don't do it, I read over your shoulder, Kira said. "That's suspicious as hell."

Something in the message which Owen had sent aroused my curiosity. He replied that it was not about mates, which meant that he was thinking of something. There was something to it about the reason I was here. The Council mission was to be of rogues but what of it should be otherwise?

There was another message that came through and this time it was sent by another unknown number. "Lyra, please don't run again. I have five years of working at becoming somebody you would be proud to know. Let me show you I've changed. - Dane"

Then yet another: The rogue business is related to us. To all of us. Before something bad occurs, you need to know the truth. - Owen (different number)"

And one last, one last, one last: Do not trust anyone but your four. The Council is deceiving you of the purpose of your visit. - Zane"

My heart was pounding. "What is happening?" I whispered.

Her jaw tightened and Kira read the messages. "This is bad. This is really bad. And you have to think that, in case the Council is lying to you about the mission, then that is a big problem.

"But why would they lie?" I asked. "I work for them. I'm an enforcer."

"Exactly," Kira said. "You're valuable. You're strong. And in case Zane is not wrong and your kin are a rare lot like he told you, then there must have been a purpose why the Council sent you here, which has little to do with rogues.

My phone made one more buzz, and this time it was Marcus, the former war strategist. What he meant is more: Lyra, there is something wrong about your family history. Before your mother passed on, she visited me and gave me something to give you, in case you ever came back. The reality is more than what someone has explained. We should meet. - Marcus"

My parents had passed away five years ago, in what everybody claimed to be an accident. I was away at the time, and working with the Council, and I had never asked it. Now I was asking myself whether there was something more to their deaths than I had heard.

You must know what the real situation is, I said. "But we do it smart. We are collecting information prior to making any moves.

I nodded my head, and deep down in my breast my wolf was howling. She wished she could go back into such woods. She needed to locate all the four of them and discover what this connection entailed. She desired things that were frightening to me since I had five years to know that I should not desire anything of this place.

When the sun began to go down, turning the sky orange and red, I made a decision.

I shall see Owen at the river to-night, I told him.

"Absolutely not," Kira said.

I said it was not about mates. He said the rogue activity is associated. I need to know what he means."

Then I am going with you, Kira, said.

"No," I said. "He said come alone. When I do not obey him, he will not say anything to me.

Kira did not resemble someone who wanted to argue, though she did not. To her credit, she caught me by the arm and drew me near. "Be careful. These men may be your friends, but it does not imply that they will not beat you up. And when the Council is intrigued in something bad then nothing is safe anymore.

The darkness descended on the forest and I drove into the river where Owen was waiting. My phone rang again with a message by Ethan: Whatever Owen says to you, know this is true. I can feel you inside my chest. And my wolf is not going to cease to call on you. And I will make it up to what I did the rest of my life.

I turned my phone off.

I could not switch off my wolf, nor could I switch off the voice within me which was beginning to ask its questions whether running away five years ago had been running at all toward something I was always supposed to seek.