Zane POV

I have served numerous people in my life. I had hunted werewolves on account of money. I had assisted strong individuals to do horrible things. I was not concerned about any person or thing but survival. But seeing Iris playing with Lyra like this, seeing someone attempting to destroy her soul by compelling her to make a decision between impossible things, something broke in me.

I did not consider the after-effects. I did not compute probabilities and planning. I just moved.

The hybrid that the rogue bite had bestowed upon me was stronger and faster than a full human or a full werewolf. I made use of that strength just now, and bounded myself off at the console Iris was at hand. I took her wrist in my hand, and squeezed it until she screamed.

The button which she was stretching to press was not pressed.

You are wrong, I told her, and I managed to make my voice reveal all the violence and the anger I had been withholding. You believed we should be under your regulations. You imagined we would play at your game. But we are just doing what nobody is going to hurt Lyra.

Iris made an attempt to free herself, and I did not release her. Dane leaped to the controls of the holding cell, and attempted to be puzzled how to open the doors. Ethan was looking in the room to see more guards or traps. And Lyra was searching through the belongings of her mother, at the traces of what her mother actually was.

You are mistaken, a voice answered us behind. We all swiveled round to find Owen standing in the doorway, and by his side Marcus. The old man was slowly bleeding and slowly moving, and yet he was awake and angry. I examined the Council books. Lyra does not even mean that her mother intended to begin a war. Iris doctored all of this. She created false evidence."

"Prove it," Iris snarled. She did not look frightened, in spite of the fact that I was holding her, in spite of the fact that she was caught.

Owen said, The signatures are false. One of the screens had documents that he was looking at. Your mother put a little mark on everything she signed. One of those marks that were private, something that only very close people were aware of. These marks are absent in these signatures. Iris forged all of this."

Something shifted in the air. The prisoners below began to move, and their eyes opened, as they were waking out of a deep sleep. The drugs or magic which had been keeping them weak and helpless was beginning to wear out.

And Lyra gazed at Iris with such an expression as was worse than indignation. It was the expression of a person betrayed by another one whom she wanted to trust, and now that person had nothing to lose.

Put them out, Lyra said to herself. "Or I'll make you."

Iris laughed. It sounded mad, as though someone had at last been shaken. "You don't have it in you. You're too weak. You're too human. That is why your mother and I were not successful and I succeeded.

Lyra stepped forward. Her eyes were already growing silver, and I could sense the power in the room. It was as though one were in the presence of an electrical storm, as though the air was going to burst. This was not her wolf power that she was using only. There was something else, and more dangerous, with which she was using it.

She was operating on her power of bloodline.

The prisoners beneath screamed as they were able to feel her strength. They weren't in pain. They were waking up. Their cell walls began to break. The glass started to break. And in the midst of it all I had understood something dreadful.

Iris was only telling us the truth, not all the truth. Lyra was not only able to make a connection with many mates. She was able to make new werewolves. And prisoners down beneath were not only prisoners. They were humans that the mother of Lyra had transformed to and Iris had been keeping them in the lockup as they were living evidence of what her mother could do.

Iris screamed, even as my grip broke her wrist.-- Your mother made an army, Iris, I said. She had plans of using them to take over the world. I was defending everybody against her.

"By killing her?" Lyra asked. "By lying? By having innocent people in prison?

The initial captive escaped. Then another. Then all of them. They emerged out of their cells as water bursting a dam, and they gazed upon Lyra as on everything. Just as she was their creator, like she was their Alpha, their reason to live.

"What do I do?" one of them asked. A girl perhaps, twenty years old, into whose eyes she had put her desperate hopes. "What do we do now?"

Lyra gazed at them and I could tell that the burden of that responsibility struck her at the same moment. These individuals were there since her mother had brought them into life. They turned to her to find answers. And she did not know what to say to them.

"You're free," she said finally. "You can do whatever you want."

We wish to give you a hand, the young woman said. "We can feel the bond. We're connected to you. We want to help you fight."

Dane grabbed my arm. "We need to get out of here. Now. It is becoming too large, too complex. We are not yet aware of what will happen.

But Lyra wasn't moving. She was glaring at Iris, and her strength was mounting ever higher and higher. The whole building was beginning to tremble. The walls were beginning to show cracks.

"Lyra," I said. "We have to go."

She murdered my mother, Lyra said and her voice was so cold that I am terrified. "She lied about everything. She tried to break me."

"I know," I said. But kill her now, should you choose to allow your powers to become utterly wild, you will bring this entire establishment to the ground. Also you shall slay all these new werewolves. Is that what you want?"

Lyra's eyes locked onto mine. She had such pain in her gaze, so much confusion, and rage, and betrayal all together. And then I felt she could not help herself.

But then she took a breath. And another. And slowly, her power receded.

Put her in a cell, said Lyra of the werewolves that were set free. "Keep her alive. The Council will desire to interrogate her.

Something had happened in the building as the prisoners took Iris with them and pulled her over towards one of the holding cells. The alarms stopped. The guards which were pursuing us vanished. And another voice came in the intercom system.

"Lyra," the voice said. The leader of the Council was a man known as Thorne and he had served a period of more than twenty years. I see that you have found out what is the truth about Iris. I praise you that you prevented her before she could inflict further harm to our organization.

"You're still there?" Ethan asked, confused. Why did you not have more guards?

This, Thorne said, because I wanted to see whether Lyra could manage this by herself. "And she can. Actually, she has achieved something incredible. She has shown that she is prepared to play her actual role in the Council.

"What role?" Lyra asked suspiciously.

There was a pause. We would like to offer you a position. Not as a policeman, but as a member of the Council yourself. We need your power. We need your leadership. We need you to take Iris's seat."

The lights were put off before Lyra could reply. The whole place was blacked out. And I heard something in the darkness that made my blood go cold.

Footsteps. Thousands of them. Entering through the under building.

Lyra POV

The darkness was complete. I could not see anything, even the outlines of the bodies of my mates beside me. My wolf was striding about impatiently, trying to determine what had occurred. Footsteps became more distinct and I knew that there was something under the Council headquarters of which we were ignorant.

Something big. Something they had always covered up.

Emergency lights, Owen said, in a search to discover back-up systems. A couple of seconds later, weak red lamps were switched on. They produced no more than enough light to expose the surface beneath our feet and the features of the people surrounding us.

And to have the opening in the floor astern.

Werewolves came cropping through the opening. Not prisoners or guards. Soldiers. They were armed and equipped, and of the type of organization which indicated that they had had a thorough training. One looked with an expression of respect and of terror at the same time on Lyra.

"What is this?" Dane said, and his hand reached to his side, where his weapon was.

The soldier who had arrived on the top of the stair climbed down and bowed. Actually bowed. To me.

Hello, Moon-beam," the soldier said. "We've been waiting for you."

"Waiting for me for what?" I said, and I was not trying to be brave, but my heart was beating.

The soldier said that in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled. When the Council found out what your blood-line was capable of, fifteen years ago, they began to train us. They were aware that sometime one day, a Luna would arrive with your power. And when she did she would have needed an army that was loyal to her only.

The voice of Thorne reached through the intercom. I am sorry I deceived you, Lyra. But we were not able to tell the truth. It was necessary that we should see you sturdy enough to meet what follows.

"And what comes next?" I demanded.

"War," Thorne said simply. The battle that will change not only the whole world of the werewolves. There is something the Council has been concealing to the whole packs. It is something that makes Iris and her conspiracy look like a child game. And you alone can prevent it.

"Stop what?" I asked.

There was a long pause. And then did Thorne say in which all changed. Did you ever ask yourself how come that some werewolves are born to be powerful and others are born to be normal? Have you ever thought why the Council has to rule everything? We have been concealing the truth to all of you because the truth will ruin everything.

"What truth?" I inquired, though I knew I was not going to be pleased by the answer.

There are creatures of the world, Thorne said. Creatures that are not werewolves. Older and more dangerous creatures. And they are just beginning to wake up. Centuries have been passing and they've been sleeping, in the places which we believed to be safe. But the barriers are failing. And they will not be concerned with the werewolf society or the human civilization once they have completely woken up. They'll consume everything."

The men who surrounded us began to stir about. The way they made a clearance to a huge door, which I had not before realized was there. Beyond the door I had the stairs down into darkness deeper and colder than anything I had ever experienced.

Thorne said, we need you to go down there. We cannot get by without you knowing what we are dealing with. And we want you to make your decision whether you are willing to be the head of the war that is coming.

"No," Zane said, grabbing my arm. "This is another trap. We don't go down there. We don't trust any of this."

"I agree," Owen said. Thorne has already demonstrated that he can manipulate and be deceptive. Nothing that he says can be relied upon.

But Ethan was staring at the soldiers, at their armor and weapons and the horror-stricken reverence of their eyes. "What if it's true?" he asked. What in case there are creatures and the Council has been concealing it?

Then shall not going down there still be the solution, said Dane. "We find another way."

I looked at my four mates. I saw the hundreds of freed werewolves who were looking at me in order to be guided. I looked upon the soldiers who were awaiting my decision. And I noticed that it was the first time in a long time that I was here since I returned to the scene that I saw how my strength was.

It was not concerned with control or dominance or superiority over the rest. It was about choice. The decision I would take would bring impact to all these individuals. It would depend on my decision.

"I want proof," I said to Thorne. I want to have evidence to prove that these creatures exist, before I descend down there, before I think any of this.

"Of course," Thorne said. "That's reasonable."

The lights went out again. And this time, as they returned on, there was something standing in the clearing where the command center had been.

It was massive. It was composed of an appearance that resembled scales and bone and shadow blended. It had too many limbs and too many eyes and it hurt my brain only to look at it, my brain did not even know how to understand something like this. It was liquefied horror, and as I looked at it I was sure that all that Thorne had told me was the truth.

These creatures were real. They were coming. And the war the werewolf world was soon to experience was going to be one that they had never witnessed before.

The animal opened what could have been a mouth and there came a sound that was not words but was of earlier origin. Something that caused all the people in the room to scream without any intention.

And that is when I realized that it was practice to fight Iris. The actual fight was yet to be started.

Dane POV

I had ears full of blood with the scream of the creature. Not in any tangible sense, but that is how it seemed to me. My whole body would like to move and run, to have a safe place and hide there until this nightmare is complete. However, I could not move, as Lyra stood there, frozen, and staring at it as though it had stolen all the air out of her lungs.

I grabbed her hand. Something happened the moment we were in contact. The hysteria in my heart was reduced. The fear became manageable. Her presence was almost as though I were anchored to reality like some sort of anchor that made me not lose comprehension of my own self.

Then we should go, I said, dragging her to the door. "Now."

But Lyra didn't move. She was gazing at the animal with a face I had never seen before. It wasn't fear. It was recognition. Or like she knew what this thing was, or worse still, like it knew what she was.

The eyes of the creature fixed on her own. All of them. There were dozens of eyes staring at Lyra simultaneously. And then it did what almost frightens me more than anything.

It bowed.

"What does it want?" Father, asked Ethan tremulously. He stood near Lyra as well, and his wolf was in a frenzy to safeguard her.

"I don't know," Lyra whispered. Something new I have never felt like this.

At last the spell was broken and the creature began to move toward us. Zane and Owen took arms as I dragged Lyra in the stairways. The liberated werewolves who should have been under her began running in varied directions with panic taking hold. The troops that Thorne had trained confronted him, with armed shoulders up, but they looked frightened, as well.

The soldier who was nearest to the creature was one of them. She defended herself gallantly, her gun on the object. However, once the monster touched her, she simply changed. Her form had transformed herself into something that was neither human, nor worse still, wolf. She screamed, but the scream became a howl which was not herself.

"Don't let it touch you!" Owen shouted. "It's corrupting them! It is making them out of what they are not!

We gained access to the stairs and began to climb them. I could hear the sound of chaos and death at the back of them. The beast was making its way through the men, as they were nothing beside it, colliding with them, transforming them into what they were not supposed to be. The freed werewolves were attempting to fight it, however they were in the dark on how to employ the rules of normal combat to battle anything that would not go by them.

Lyra was crying. I would even touch her tears on my hand since I was still holding her as she was running. She was gazing over her shoulder with the carnage, at the troops changing, at the nightmare that was the disease.

"I have to stop it," she said.

"No," I said firmly. "We have to survive first. Before we wage war on it we must know what we are dealing with.

Dying, dying, people, dying, said Lyra, and the sound of it hurt her voice, and broke something inside my chest.

"I know," I said. "And we'll save them. But not like this. Not by the sacrifice of your life.

We made it out of the building. As cold and real and living as the night air that struck us. In the background, the Council headquarters was already crumbling as the monster kept on destroying the lower floors. Alarms were still blaring. Rescue vehicles were beginning to come into the scene without knowing what they were driving towards.

In the shadows was waiting Kira, with a car. She didn't ask questions. She merely opened the door and drove away. Ethan, Owen, and Zane were already inside.

Lyra sat back in the seat shaking her body. The friendship between us was like the open wound vibrating. I even felt the pain and the guilt and the sense of utter failure in her. She was accusing herself of each and every human being who had died down there.

I went nearer to her and embraced her in my breast. I had not yet stopped approaching her because my heart was racing as a result of the chase, but I was in her vicinity, and it decreased. My wolf was anxious to reassure her, to make her see that I was there and I was not leaving.

It is not your fault, I told her into her hair.

"Isn't it?" Lyra asked. Thorne answered that he was training an army. He told the creatures that they were waking up because of me, because of my bloodline.

Because they are getting up, he said because the barriers are failing, Owen said, in the front seat. And that is not anything to do with you.

But Lyra wasn't listening. She was lost in her guilt and pain, and I was not sure how to take her back. I had been a five-year-old searcher, half five years convinced that all would be well as long as I could discover her, and make her aware that I had repented my sins. But I hadn't imagined this. I had never even thought that I would grow up in the world where I simply had her in my life and I would be hunted down by the things which should not be.

Pull over, down with you, Ethan said abruptly. His voice was harsh as though he had decided about something significant.

Kira drew the automobile into a shady road. All around us trees enclosed us. There was not a single person in sight.

Ethan turned to look at Lyra. I gave you a failing five years back, he said. I have allowed politics and power to stand above the relationship between us. I have been regretting it on a daily basis after that. But I am telling you now, till you will excuse me, as you will believe me, that I will never fail you again.

Lyra had wept, and had the eyes of the crying. How do you make such an offer when we do not know what we are up against?

It does not matter what we are confronting, Ethan said. He touched and clasped her face in his hands. "It could be anything. It could be everything. And I would still choose you. We all would."

He kissed her then. It wasn't a passionate kiss. It was a promise. It was him he finished putting all that he had to the relationship between them. And, communing with the mate bond, I would experience the reaction of Lyra. She was still too frightened, still guilty, but now there was no longer any one alone.

Ethan drew away and Lyra gazed towards Zane. The fanatic hunter sat in the blackness of the car with his face, which was scarred, not to be read. but when his eyes looked at her I saw it. I watched all the savage guardianship that he had been barring, all the loyalty and those devotions.

I would burn down the world to you, Zane said in no more than a second. I would be the monster you would remain safe.

Then Owen moved forward. The deem good doctor who was brought up to be prudent and polite took the hand of Lyra. I have always been told to do it somewhere by rules and follow orders, he said. However, when we met you helped me realize that there are other things in life, which are more important than rules. You matter more."

And finally, Lyra looked at me. I did not utter anything beautiful or poetical. I simply took her hand and allowed her to experience what I was experiencing with the connection. Five years of searching. Five years of never giving up. Five years of thinking that at some place in the world, she lived and one day I would see her. And now that I had, nothing in the universe could take her away out of my hands.

You see, I am afraid, I told her; and she had so little bit of a voice that I would have shielded her against the whole world.

"We all are," I said. "But we're scared together."

The car started moving again. We had to seek shelter, a place where we should work something out to do with the monster and Thorne and the whole impossible mess that we were in.

But as we rode our creaking way in the darkness my wolf was making himself felt within me. As I was able to sense something on the part of Lyra of which she was not audible. She was aware of the presence of the creature even this far. And it wasn't going away.

It was getting closer.