Chapter 94 New Threats

Chapter 94 New Threats

MIRA

I stared at the video for a long time. Dr. Chen’s face frozen on the screen. Mocking me.

They had Alexander’s DNA. The extraction was complete. In one week, every powered child would be vulnerable.

I should have woken Zane. Should have called an emergency meeting. But I was so tired. So done with fighting.

Instead, I went to the nursery. Held Alexander while he slept. Breathed in his baby smell. Let myself pretend, just for a moment, that everything was fine.

“Can’t sleep?”

I turned. Kade stood in the doorway.

“Shouldn’t you be with Delilah?”

“She’s sleeping. Pain medication knocked her out.” He came closer. “What’s wrong?”

I showed him the video. Watched his face go hard.

“When were you going to tell us?”

“Tomorrow. Tonight I just needed a moment to pretend we were safe.”

“We’ll stop them. Like we did Marcus.”

“Will we? We barely survived that. And now they have everything they need. We gave it to them.”

“You saved a child’s life. That’s not giving them anything.”

“Yes, it is. I made it easy for them. Again.”

Kade sat down. “You know what Delilah said to me? Before she passed out from surgery?”

“What?”

“She said compassion isn’t weakness. That you being willing to save Danny, even knowing the risk, made you stronger than any of us.”

“That’s easy to say when you’re not responsible for dozens of children being hunted.”

“You’re not responsible. The Collective is.”

“But I enabled them.”

“No. You made the choice a good person makes. They exploited it. There’s a difference.”

I wanted to believe him. But the guilt sat heavy in my chest.

The next morning, I called everyone together. Showed them the video.

“One week,” Zane said grimly. “We have one week to find Dr. Chen and destroy the serum.”

“How?” Maya asked. “We don’t know where she is.”

“Actually,” a voice said from the doorway. “I do.”

Delilah stood there. Pale. Leaning on the doorframe. But upright.

“You should be in bed,” Kade said immediately.

“Probably. But this is more important.” She limped into the room. “I know where Dr. Chen goes when things go wrong. Her backup facility.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Marcus told me. Years ago. He said if anything ever happened, the backup facility was where they’d regroup.”

“Where is it?”

“Canada. Near the border. Old military base that was decommissioned twenty years ago.”

“That’s at least a twelve hour drive,” Zane calculated. “Maybe more.”

“We could fly,” Kade suggested.

“Too risky. They’ll be watching airports. Expecting us to come after them.”

“So we drive. Fast. Get there before they expect us.”

“Who goes?” I asked. “We can’t all leave. The children need protection.”

“I’ll go,” Delilah said. “I know the layout of the facility. And I owe you.”

“You’re injured. You can’t fight.”

“I don’t need to fight. I need to guide. Let me do this.”

Kade looked at her. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. For once in my life, let me do something that actually helps.”

We decided. Delilah, Kade, and Zane would go. I would stay with the children. It made sense strategically. But I hated it.

“You’re the one they want,” Zane reminded me. “If you leave, they’ll come for the other children. Someone has to stay.”

He was right. Still hated it.

They left that afternoon. Twelve hours to the border. Another hour to the facility. Thirteen hours total.

The longest thirteen hours of my life.

I spent the time with the children. Luna and Sol were clingy. They knew something was wrong.

“Daddy coming back?” Luna asked.

“Yes, sweetheart. He’s just gone to help a friend.”

“Bad people gone?”

“Soon. Very soon.”

But I didn’t know if that was true.

That night, I put all the children to bed. Read stories. Sang songs. Tried to pretend everything was normal.

Maya found me in the twins’ room.

“You should sleep,” she said.

“I can’t. Not until I know they’re safe.”

“They will be. Dad always comes back.”

“I hope you’re right.”

She sat beside me. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Do you regret it? Giving blood to Danny? Knowing what happened?”

I thought about it. “No. I don’t.”

“Really? Even though it led to all this?”

“A child needed help. I could help. That’s all that mattered in that moment.”

“But if you’d known…”

“If I’d known, I still would have done it. Because the alternative is becoming someone who lets children suffer to protect myself. I won’t be that person.”

Maya hugged me. “That’s why you’re a good mom. You always choose kindness.”

“Even when it costs me.”

“Especially then.”

My phone rang at midnight. Zane’s number.

“Hello?”

“We’re here. About to enter the facility. Just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Be careful. Please.”

“Always.” A pause. “I love you. Tell the children I love them.”

“You’ll tell them yourself when you get home.”

“Of course. But just in case.”

“No. Don’t talk like that. You’re coming home.”

“Yes. I am.”

He hung up. I stared at the phone. Waiting.

One hour passed. Then two. No word.

At hour three, my phone rang again. Unknown number.

My heart stopped.

“Hello?”

“Mira.” Dr. Chen’s voice. “I have someone who wants to talk to you.”

Shuffling. Then Zane’s voice. Tight with pain.

“Mira, don’t listen to her. Don’t…”

A cry of pain. Then Dr. Chen again.

“Your husband is very brave. Stupid. But brave. He walked right into my trap.”

“What do you want?”

“The same thing I’ve always wanted. Your cooperation. Your blood. Your children.”

“Never.”

“Even if it means Zane dies? And Kade? And your dear reformed Delilah?”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” More shuffling. A scream. Kade’s voice. “That’s two. Shall I move on to number three?”

“Stop! Please stop.”

“Then listen carefully. You have twenty-four hours. Bring yourself and the children to the coordinates I’m sending. Come alone. If I see security, if I see backup, they all die. Understood?”

“I understand.”

“Good. Oh, and Mira? Don’t try anything clever. I have eyes everywhere. I’ll know if you try to trick me.”

She hung up.

A text came through. GPS coordinates. And a photo.

Zane, Kade, and Delilah. Tied up. Bloody. But alive.

I sat there. Staring at the photo. At my impossible choice.

Trade myself and my children for them.

Or let them die.

I thought about what Maya said. About always choosing kindness.

But sometimes kindness wasn’t enough.

Sometimes you had to choose who to save.

I called Margaret. She was still at the palace, helping with security.

“I need your help.”

“What’s happened?”

I told her everything. The phone call. The demand. The twenty-four hour deadline.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. If I go, my children are at risk. If I don’t, Zane dies.”

“There might be another way.”

“What way?”

“We go after them. Before the deadline. Attack while they’re not expecting it.”

“With what resources? Most of our security is compromised.”

“Then we get creative. Call in favors. Bring in people who owe you.”

I thought about everyone we’d helped over the years. The refugees we’d sheltered. The packs we’d supported. The children we’d saved.

“You’re right. I’m not powerless. I have an army. I just need to call them.”

I spent the next six hours making calls. Dozens of them. Hundreds.

By dawn, I had fifty wolves ready to fight. Not trained soldiers. Just people we’d helped who were willing to help back.

“It’s not much,” Margaret said.

“It’s enough. It has to be.”

We drove north. Hard and fast. Fifty wolves in a convoy.

The coordinates led to an abandoned industrial complex. Big. Sprawling. Hundreds of places to hide.

“How do we find them?” someone asked.

I closed my eyes. Reached for that blood connection. Alexander’s DNA still linked to me. And through me, to this place.

“There. The central building. That’s where they are.”

We surrounded the complex. Moved in fast and quiet.

Dr. Chen didn’t expect us. Didn’t think I’d have the resources to mount a rescue.

She was wrong.

We hit them from all sides. Overwhelming force. Brutal efficiency.

I found Zane in a cell in the basement. Barely conscious. But alive.

“Mira? How?”

“Doesn’t matter. Can you walk?”

“I can try.”

Kade was in the next cell. Delilah in the third. Both hurt but mobile.

“Where’s Dr. Chen?” I demanded.

“She ran. When the attack started. Through the east exit.”

I ran. Through corridors. Up stairs. Burst out the east door.

Dr. Chen was there. Getting into a car. She saw me. Smiled.

“Too late, Mira. The serum is already distributed. Even if you kill me, it’s out there. Your children will never be safe.”

She started the car. I ran toward her.

But I wasn’t fast enough. She pulled away. Disappeared into the night.

I stood there. Breathing hard. Defeated.

We’d saved Zane. Saved Kade and Delilah.

But we’d lost the war.

The serum was out there. Active. Working.

Every powered child in the world was now visible to The Collective.

Including mine.

I went back inside. Found my family. Held them close.

“What do we do now?” Zane asked quietly.

“I don’t know. But we figure it out. Together.”

“Always together.”

That night, back at the palace, I checked on the children. All safe. All sleeping peacefully.

But as I watched them sleep, I felt it. A pulse. A signal. Coming from them.

The serum was working. My children were broadcasting their location.

And somewhere out there, The Collective was listening.

My phone buzzed. Text from an unknown number.

“We know where you are. We know where your children are. We’ll come for them. Not today. Not tomorrow. But soon. And when we do, you won’t stop us. You’ll join us. Or everyone you love dies. Your choice. The Collective always wins in the end.”

I deleted the text. But the words stayed with me.

The fight wasn’t over.

It would never be over.

Not until one of us was destroyed completely.

And I had no idea how to destroy something that was everywhere and nowhere at once.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​