Dane POV

My muscles were burning as I struggled with the third rogue who attacked me, yet I was not able to stop. Whenever I would pummel one of them to the ground I would see two more coming at me at other angles. My wolf was growing weary, and that was dangerous. An exhausted wolf was prone to mishaps and mishaps equated to death.

And that was not the worst part at all.

The most awful thing was that I could touch her. Lyra was here. I could feel the pull in my chest, as she was moving closer with each second. My wolf would have preferred to cease combating and go to her, but I needed my attention to remain focused on surviving.

One of the blades flew at me and I just avoided it. The rogue swung once more, and this time before he could get free I caught him by the arm and plunged him into the ground so hard that he was knocked out. He didn't get up.

It was at the moment I watched her come humping out of the woods.

She was in her wolf-shape, and she was the prettiest object I ever beheld. Her fur was blue and silver which appeared impossible and real simultaneously. She went like molten energy, like she would have been a composite of violence and grace. When she caught sight of me, she made no mistake. She rushed out in the midst of a battle against me.

"No!" I howled back at her. "You need to stay away!"

But Lyra wasn't listening. She waded through the rascals as though they were air, and every opponent she touched was beaten. She was more than any of them, quicker than any of them, more skilled than they had any training in. It was as though you were experiencing a person who was no longer in the know of losing it.

Ethan walked up beside me, and he was in wolf form, black, left to look like a shadow. We must take her away here, said he, over the connection which all wolves had together. This is what they want, all right.

She will not listen, said I through the link. "And I can't make her."

Zane leaped down a precipice above us, and stood in their path between us and the marauding rogues. He was huge, a hunter and a wolf together and this made him appear as though he should not be. He bellowed and the bellowing was heard throughout the land. The rogues literally moved away from him.

"Fall back!" someone shouted. The rogues began to retreat, to pass out of the battle and towards the woods. It was as though somebody had sent them a message as though this whole assault had been a trial run.

When the rogues had vanished in the darkness I was able to breathe again. I felt my chest heave as I transformed back into a human being. This was done by Lyra with her human body emerging as she transformed back as a wolf. It was not just, it was baffling, and made my heart ache that she was beautiful in both forms.

We have to discuss something, she said, glancing around at us. "Marcus is here. He is dressed in a Council uniform. He's involved in this."

Ethan's face went dark. My uncle would die before he betrays the pack. Something must have caused it to happen.

"Then where is he?" Lyra asked. "Ask him yourself."

But Marcus was gone. He was not to be found anywhere in the battle ground. As though he had disappeared into the darkness as soon as the attack had been stopped.

We must regroup, said Owen, and come running to us. His garments were ripped, and he had a nick on his cheek. There are hurt people, who require assistance. But we must, too, find out what has just happened.

The next hour was chaos. I brought injured packs to provide help to Owen to the temporary healing center that they had established. I observed Lyra at work, as she moved around people, assisting in some manner or other. She did not behave as having returned to a place that had hurt her. She played the role of a caring person, as she felt like she should save people even though they had denied her.

It was dangerous, because it made me love her even more. It was moronic to fall in love with a person when they were in danger. It rendered you feeble and thoughtless and ready to take chances which you ought not to take.

With Owen to ourselves, the four of us sat round in a small tent after everyone was attended to. Kira, also, was on guard at the entrance to ensure that no one could overhear our conversation.

Marcus left this," Kira told Lyra, and gave her a sealed envelope. Before he vanished, he dropped it.

Lyra opened it carefully. It contained a letter written by Marcus. She read it without speaking, and I saw her face transform itself between perplexity and surprise and indignation.

"What does it say?" Ethan asked.

Lyra was trembling and reading it aloud. My dear Lyra, when you get to read this you will see the truth about your bloodline. But you don't know everything. Your mother was not killed in an accident. The Council killed her lest she should reveal what they had learnt about you. Your father had perished empirically in her defence. These rogues who are coming to-night are not accidental. A member of the Council is controlling them and would like to enslave you to bring your power to overthrow the present leadership of the Council. I cannot do that before your eyes, since they are watching me. But I have left you something at your family home. It is what can only establish who is behind all this. Do not trust anybody, just your four mates. Not even the Council. Especially not the Council. - Marcus"

The words are suspended between us in the air. My parents had been murdered. It is not rogues or enemies who did it, but the people who were meant to safeguard everyone.

I had to take you to the home of your family, I said. "We need to find what he left."

"Not tonight," Zane said. "Too dangerous. The rogues know we're here now. They will be waiting, till we move.

"Then what do we do?" Looking at one of us, Lyra said, What? "Just wait? Just let them attack again?"

The tent flap was unzipped, and Kira got in with an expression of concern. "We have a problem. One of the rogues was taken in the retreat. He is awake now and he wants to speak to Lyra. He tells him that he has something she must hear.

Trust him not, was the first thing Zane said. "It's another trap."

Or he may say something out of it, Owen said. We have no idea unless we question him.

Lyra stood up. "I'm going to talk to him."

"I'm coming with you," I said.

We trailed Kira to a detention facility where they had taken the arrested rogue prisoner. The young man was in his early twenties, and had scars on his arms, and a rebellious expression in his eyes. He smiled as he was aware of something when he saw Lyra.

Hello, Luna, he said, and his voice was full of queer respect. I have a message to you from my leader. According to her, you must learn the real mother you had. According to her, you must have known that your mother did not want a single mate. Your mom wanted to transform the whole world of werewolves. And my leader is still doing that mission.

"Who is your leader?" Lyra demanded.

The rogue's smile got bigger. "You should know. You've seen her face. She has been all the time with the Council waiting until you get home.

The body of the rogue convulsed before anybody could put another question. His eyes opened wide, and then he spurted blood in the mouth. He was sick, poisoned and we could do nothing to prevent it.

When his body lay lifeless I saw the truth.

A member of the Council, somebody strong enough to poison one of his own prisoners when he was in jail and under guard, was the actual enemy. And here they still had been, still observing us, still under control.

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.

Owen POV

The initial bullet struck the pavement three inches to my foot. I did not stop and attempt to compute the happenings. I simply turned into my wolf-shape and ran. My human mind was screaming to me how bad that was, but my wolf knew how to fight. My wolf knew how to survive.

Zane was already on the move beside me, with his hybrid form that gave him the appearance of a man and a beast. He did not flee away from the guards. He dashed at them, right in the danger as though he had been created to do so. His scratched face was serene, as though death and violence were everyday items on his agenda.

Lyra crashed through a side door which I had not even previously seen, and moved with a kind of speed which should not have been possible. Neither was she fleeing the guards. She was combating them, disarming them without killing them, and was intelligent and mercifully moving despite their desire to have her dead. It was such a treat to see somebody dancing to tunes she could not hear.

"Inside!" Dane called through the door. The security system goes offline for half a minute. Move now!"

We had perhaps a minute to pass the out defence and get into the building. Then we would be locked down and there we would be. I transformed back and ran as quickly as my human legs could run. Ethan stood close beside me and his face was dark with anger and determination.

And with Owen, I thought to myself; and we ran through the door. "Help me navigate. You have been with Council systems before.

I had dealt with them, though not in this way. I had been working with them as a person who was trusted, as an inside person. That knowledge was now helping me to break in and attack, and the irony of it was not lost on me. I was out to guard Lyra, and now I cared to give my life to her.

Iris will be in the command center, I said, and my head was racing through the structure of the whole place. "It's on the top floor. The simplest process is via the elevator, which is the main one, and is locked with several locks.

Then we go through the stairs, Zane said. And we ruin everything on our path.

We passed rapidly along the corridors. It was not a good thing because the building was not as full as I expected it to be. Had Iris known we were in the offing, why were there not more guards? Why was not this place absolutely locked up?

That was when I understood.

It is a trap, I said abruptly. "She let us in. She wanted us to come here."

Lyra didn't stop moving. "Then we move faster. We will find her and finish this."

We went to the staircase and began to climb. My heart was a-thumping and my wolf was struggling to escape, wanting to save Lyra, wanting to be useful in this struggle. But I forced her down. I had to think. I must have recollected all I remembered about the building and about Iris.

Iris had a fifteen-year term of Council. She had backed all the decisions which were detrimental to the outer packs. She had voted on resource cuts. She had also suggested imposers such as Lyra to be considered as a means rather than a human being. She had smiled at me during meetings and secretly delivered people to kill the parents of Lyra.

And I had not the least idea.

We flew up the door into the executive floor, and the first sight I encountered was Marcus. He stood in the hall-way, and he looked old and weary and melancholy.

Stop, you have to stop, Marcus said, with his hands up. You are not even aware of what you are doing.

Your niece dishonored you, said Lyra, with her wolf eyes. "You know about it, don't you? You know about Iris."

"Yes," Marcus said quietly. And that is why I must make you come to a halt.

He was quicker than I had imagined an old gentleman to be. He changed into his wolfish appearance and hurled himself at Lyra. But Lyra was quicker, more powerful, and wittier. She avoided his attack and struck him in sufficient ways to cause him to crash against the wall. He didn't get up.

I did not wish to hurt him, Lyra said; it was not as though I were hesitant. She was no longer concerned with saving those who saved Iris.

We kept moving. The door of the command center was ahead. I was able to look inside through the glass walls and saw Iris standing at one of the consoles, staring at screens that displayed security feeds of all the areas within the building. At the same moment she saw us she saw us seeing her.

And she smiled.

Welcome, said Iris, as we broke through the door. She spoke in a quiet tone, as though it was what she had been anticipating. You have been waiting in my presence.

My parents were killed by you, said Lyra, shaking with anger.

"I did," Iris admitted. She did not attempt to deny it and excuse herself. She simply confessed like it was something that she had already accepted. Your mother had been going to tell it all. She was to ruin the plans of the Council. I had no choice."

Always you had a choice, Lyra said.

"Did I?" Iris asked. She flicked a button on her console and as if by magic, the screens became illuminated all round us. They showed images of people. Hundreds of people. Thousands of people. You are aware of what that bloodline of your mother can do unless it is regulated? What sort of power would she have made of herself had she accepted it on a full diet?

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Iris was gazing at me as though I were a child who had not understood something obvious. Your Luna does not simply possess the ability to hook up with more than one mate. She is capable of manipulating minds. She can make new werewolves. She can transform the structure of our world. Your mother discovered this. She would destroy the Council with it and establish a new world order.

Lyra moved aside as though struck. "That's not true."

"Isn't it?" Iris asked. Why, then, was she having all these people? How did she manage to have the werewolves of all the different packs coming together in undisclosed places? Why did she even make arrangements of overthrowing not only the Council, but all the Alphas in the world?

You are lying, it's not true, Lyra said but I could tell she was doubtful.

"Come," Iris said. She went to a file on her desk and opened it. Photographs and documents inside were all of Lyra, the mother. They exhibited meetings with werewolves in other packs. They showed plans for war. They revealed a map of a world in which the mother was the ruler of Lyra as opposed to the Council.

Your mother was not victimized, Iris said. "She was a revolutionary. And I would have to put a stop to her with the killing of thousands of people in a war that would have ruined all we had created.

Since I had known Lyra, I had never seen her hesitate. I saw doubt cross her face. And during this hesitation Iris did something that I had not anticipated.

She pushed another button and the floor below us began to move. We were on to a sort of platform, and it was stooping into the ground. I was able to see what was below through the glass floor.

It was a holding cell. And there were no less than a hundred werewolves in the cell, all in human shape, all in reinforced glass. They were feeble and ill, as though they had long been put to prison.

Those are the followers of your mother, Iris said. The ones that were itching to engage in a war. I have kept them here in the lock-up, so that they cannot harm anyone. And I have been saving the world the confusion your mother was out to make.

Lyra's face was white. "What have you done?"

"What I had to do," Iris said. "Now, you have a choice. You may accompany me and I will show you all. I would demonstrate the truth to you concerning your mother, and you would finally come to realize that what I did was required. Or you may fight me and I will set all these prisoners at once. They will pour into the world and thousands of innocent individuals will perish in the anarchy that ensues.

Dane reached for Lyra's hand. "Don't listen to her. This is a trick."

But Lyra was looking down upon the prisoners, and all her emotions were visible in her face. Rage, betrayal, confusion, and something. Something that resembled the necessity to know the truth, at whatever price.

To which Lyra replied slowly, "You will leave them to it should I come with you?

I will keep them here, where they are safe, Iris said. And we will see how to manage your power in such a manner that it does not destroy the world.

It is not what she said, you growl, Zane, said. "She said she'd release them."

"Does it matter?" Iris asked. She was about to touch the other button with her hand. "Either way, you lose. Either will your Luna with me, or I shall destroy you all and bear her with me in my unconsciousness.

I knew at this point that Iris had made this all work out. She had known we would come. She had let us in. She had even made us think that we had a chance. Yet she had been playing us along all the time to this particular point.

And now, when it was a matter of a hundred lives, Lyra needed to make a decision which will determine everything.