CHAPTER 110: THE MILL ROAD.

They got to the mill, Killian stumbled in first, his bitten arm swollen and angry beneath the bandage. Fever glazed his eyes. "This place smells like my grandmother’s bread," he muttered, then laughter flowed from his lips, sharp and delirious, before Cassian caught him by the collar.

"Sit," Cassian ordered, guiding him to a splintered crate. "You’re burning up."

Bella’s white marks pulsed in time with her heartbeat, each throb a needle of green light under her skin. She pressed a palm to her sternum. "She’s close. Two miles, maybe less. The altar’s echo, it’s in me now. Like a compass."

Luca crouched beside her, scanning the dark. "Which direction should we head to?"

"Northwest. Through the subdivisions." She closed her eyes, breathing through the pain. "She’s scared. And packing up her things. She’s also panicking and waiting for Marcus to call back."

Rafe was already moving, scaling a rusted ladder to the loft. "Cassian and I will take the roofs. You two should go on foot. Killian—"

"I’ll stay here with the phone," Killian finished, pulling a burner phone from his pocket. "I’ve got a surprise if things go south." He nodded toward a row of stale flour sacks, their contents dry and volatile. "Just one spark is all I need. It’ll create a big boom. Controlled, but loud and would cause all the damage I need it to."

Cassian tossed him a lighter. "Don’t try to play hero, Killian."

"Define hero," Killian grinned, sweat beading on his forehead.

The plan solidified in final sentences. Cassian and Rafe vanished through a broken window, their silhouettes flickering across the rooftops like twin shadows. Luca and Bella slipped out the side door, melting into the overgrown path that cut behind the mill.

—

Angela’s Kitchen – 11:47 p.m.

Angela’s hands shook as she wrapped fresh gauze around her arm. The claw marks had scabbed, but the skin around them was hot and angry. The journal lay open on the counter, pages fluttering in a draft she couldn’t feel. Marcus’s voicemail had been terse. It said "Stay put. I’m coming." But that was three hours ago. Why is he taking so much time?

She zipped the small bag full of the things she needed. Journal, USB drive, a small power bank and Carla’s silver locket on its broken chain. The locket hummed against her palm, warm and insistent. "Bella is near,’ it seemed to say. But that couldn’t be possible. Angela shook her head. Grief made people crazy. Maybe I’m going crazy.

Outside, a dog barked once, then fell silent.

She grabbed her keys, slipped out the back door, and froze.

___

Cassian’s breath fogged in the cold as he and Rafe vaulted from one house to the next. The subdivisions sprawled below like a circuit board, porch lights blinking in sequence. Rafe’s shoulder screamed where he’d landed wrong earlier, but he kept pace.

"There," Cassian hissed, pointing.

Two streets over, a black sedan parked beneath a broken streetlamp. Two men leaned against it, human-shaped but they stood very still, their noses were tilted to the wind. Enforcers. Must bearen’s.

"They’re tracking the echo," Rafe whispered. "Bella’s marks."

Cassian’s eyes narrowed. "We go closer and take them quietly."

They dropped to the next roof, silent as owls.

___

Luca and Bella moved like ghosts through laundry lines in the backyard. Bella’s marks glowed brighter with every step, casting shadows on the fences. She could feel Angela now, heartbeat to heartbeat, fear to fear.

"We take our left, towards the direction of the oak," she murmured.

Luca nodded, vaulting the fence. They landed in Angela’s yard just as the back door opened.

Angela stepped out, her bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes locked on Bella’s across the moonlit grass.

"Bella?" The word cracked in her throat.

Bella’s marks flared white. The locket in Angela’s hand blazed silver.

Then the fence exploded.

BOOM!

Two enforcers burst through the pickets, shifting mid-leap. One lunged for Angela, the other met Luca’s shifted form head-on.

Bella’s power detonated.

White light lashed out like a whip, carving a smoking trench through the lawn. The second enforcer staggered, blinded. Angela, with her pure human instincts, grabbed a garden trowel from the porch and flipped it against the wolf in the calf. He howled, spinning, but Luca was already there, closing his jaws on its throat.

Neighbors’ lights snapped on. A dog went berserk three houses down.

"Inside!" Luca roared, human again, blood on his teeth.

Angela didn’t argue. She bolted for the SUV in the driveway, the keys already in her palm. Cassian shot the enforcers’ sedan tires from the rooftop with a slingshot and ball bearings. The tires went flat in seconds.

Together, they all piled into the SUV and Angela floored the pedal.

Back at the mill, Killian’s hands shook as he flicked the lighter. The flour dust hung in the air like golden fog. He counted to three, then sparked it.

WHOOMPH.

The controlled explosion bloomed out the mill’s windows, a mushroom cloud of white lit the night like a second moon.

Cassian and Rafe dropped from the roof as the SUV screeched to a halt outside Angela’s gate. Rafe yanked the back door open, while Cassian dove into the cargo space.

"Go, Go, Go!" Bella shouted, slamming the passenger door.

Angela floored it. The SUV fishtailed, the tires screaming on the asphalt. In the rearview, three more black sedans peeled out from side streets, giving them a hot chase.

Angela looked in the rearview mirror and sitting in the lead car’s passenger seat with a grim expression...was Jonathan.

His face was pale, gaunt, the leather pouch clutched in white-knuckled hands. He rolled the window down, wind whipping his hair.

"Bella!" His voice carried over the roar of engines. "Stop!"

Bella’s marks blazed so bright the SUV’s interior turned daylight. The speedometer needle buried itself past 90.

"Don’t stop, Aunt Angie. Keep going!" she screamed.

Angela’s foot never left the gas.

The chase tore through the sleeping town, past the diner, past the high school football field, past the mill they once gathered to plan this escape.

The sedans gained, then fell back as Cassian lit a smoke bomb, leaned out the window and threw it over to them. One sedan spun out, crashing into the road demarcation. Another swerved, the tires smoking.

But Jonathan’s car stayed on them, relentless.

Angela pressed on, the old covered bridge loomed ahead, wooden, narrow and only one lane. She didn’t slow down.

"Hold on!" she yelled.

The SUV plunged into the tunnel of planks. For three heartbeats, everything was darkness and the roar of the engine.

They burst out the other side into moonlight.

Behind them, Jonathan’s sedan braked too hard. They didn’t see the wooded bridge on time. The car fishtailed, slammed into the bridge’s support beam and crashed. Metal screamed. The sedan flipped, rolling once, twice, before coming to rest on its roof.

Angela didn’t stop. They ditched the SUV in an abandoned barn ten miles out, switching to a rusted pickup Cassian hot-wired in thirty seconds. Killian passed out in the back, fever breaking in sweat-soaked waves. Rafe pressed a cold compress to his forehead.

Angela finally pulled over on a dirt road by the side of a corn farm. The engine ticked as it cooled. No headlights in the rearview.

She turned to Bella, eyes wide. She threw her hands over her. "Bella! I’m so glad you’re alive."

Bella nodded, her throat tight as she hugged her back. "Aunt Angie I’ve missed you so much."

They spent the next minutes hugging and crying before Angela reluctantly pulled away. "I also can’t believe my sister and niece are werewolves. Everything’s happening so damn fast I can’t even process it."

"I was surprised too when I found out," came Bella’s reply. "But don’t worry, when this is all over I’ll explain it to you to the best of my ability."

"I hate to break this moment, but we don’t have time." Rafe spoke up.

Angela’s hands trembled as she pulled the USB drive from her pocket. "Everything’s on here. Photos from the Sanctuary. Maren’s resurrection ritual, caught on a trail cam. Your dad’s signature on suppression orders. Dates, times, locations."

Luca took the drive, turning it over in his fingers. "This ends her."

"Or starts a war," Cassian said grimly.

Bella looked out at the moon. Her marks had dimmed to a soft glow, but she could still feel the altar’s pull, like a hook in her sternum.

"Jonathan’s working for her," she said. "He saw us."

Cassian’s voice was quiet. "He looked... broken."

"He chose Maren," Bella replied grimly. "He betrayed our family. Therefore, he deserves every bad thing that would happen to him."

Angela reached across the seat, hesitating, then resting a hand on Bella’s knee. "Carla would’ve been so proud of you."

Bella’s eyes stung. "She’s not gone. Not entirely. I felt her inside of me. In my visions, she’s still fighting."

Killian stirred in the back, his voice hoarse. "So are we."

Cassian checked the rearview. "We’ve got maybe an hour before they regroup. Maren’s clan will come for the drive. For Bella. For all of us."

Luca slipped the USB into a hidden pocket. "Then we don’t give them an hour."

Bella ooked back at the five of them. "We have to get back to Whitethorn tonight."