Chapter 125 Family Reunion
Jolie POV
The guest suite they give us is obscenely luxurious.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook manicured gardens, costly furniture, a bathroom with a tub big enough for four people. I walk to the window and look out at grounds I used to sneak through, trying to avoid pack members who thought tormenting me was entertainment.
"Are you okay?" Ryder closes the door behind us, immediately checking for security threats out of habit.
"I lived here for years." My voice sounds distant even to my own ears. "And I hated every single day of it."
"We can leave." He moves behind me, hands settling on my shoulders. "Right now. Say the word and we're gone."
"No." I lean back against him. "I need to do this, I need to see it through."
A knock interrupts us. Ryder tenses, hand moving to the knife at his belt.
"It's me." Gio's voice comes through the door. "Can we talk?"
I look at Ryder. He nods and opens the door cautiously.Gio stands in the hallway alone, his hands visible and empty.
"Hey." He meets my eyes, and I see genuine nervousness there. "Can I come in?"
"Yeah." I step back. "Come in."
He enters slowly, like he's approaching a wild animal that might bolt. When the door closes behind him, he just stares at me for a long moment.
"Little Ash." The old nickname sounds different in his mouth now. Gentle instead of mocking. "You look"
"Different?" I finish. "I am different."
"I was going to say powerful." He shakes his head. "The way you walked into that hall, faced Father without flinching, gave him blessed silver as a wedding gift. That was"
"Necessary." I cross my arms. "He needed to know immediately that I'm not the girl he remembers."
"You made that very clear." Gio's laugh is rough. "Half the alphas in that room are terrified of you now, the other half want to recruit you."
"Good." I told him, "You're afraid."
"Yeah." He doesn't deny it. "I'm terrified."
"Of me?"
"For you." He corrects. "Jolie, you shouldn't have come here. This wedding—it's not what it seems."
Ryder moves closer to me. "We know about Celeste's Council connections."
"Do you?" Gio looks between us. "Do you know what she is? What they made her?"
"We know she was in Project Equilibrium." I keep my voice steady. "That she was conditioned to suppress emotions. That your father is marrying a Council-made weapon."
"It's worse than that." Gio sinks into a chair, looking more exhausted than I've ever seen him. "But first, I need to say something. Before we get into the rest of it, I need to say I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" I repeat.
"For everything." His voice cracks. "For the years of abuse I watched and did nothing about. For the times I participated because it was easier than standing up to Father, for arranging the deal with Thorne Blackwater. For" He stops, breathing hard. "For being a coward who let his little sister suffer because protecting her might cost him his position."
I feel his emotions through my empathy—genuine remorse, crushing guilt, self-loathing so deep it's almost physical pain. This is what the empathy I forced on him did. Made him feel everything he'd done, everything he'd allowed, every moment of pain he'd caused or enabled.
"I don't expect forgiveness." He continues when I don't respond. "I don't deserve it. But I need you to know that I see it now. What I was, what I did, how wrong all of it was. The empathy you gave me—it's torture sometimes, feeling everything I made others feel. But it's also a gift. It made me see the truth."
"The truth about what?" I ask quietly.
"That you were never weak." He meets my eyes, and his are wet. "You survived years of daily abuse and still had enough kindness left in you to save my life when you could kill me. That's not a weakness. That's a strength I could never match."
Something tight in my chest loosens slightly. "Why did you call me?" I ask. "Warn me about the wedding?"
"Because I felt something in Father's office." He leans forward. "An emptiness that scared me more than any violence I've seen. Celeste was standing there discussing wedding arrangements, and I realized she felt nothing. Not happiness, not nervousness, not even calculation. Just void where emotions should be."
"That's what the Council program does." Ryder's voice is hard. "Creates emotionless soldiers."
"It's more than that." Gio pulls out his phone, glances at the door nervously, then lowers his voice. "I overheard Father and some Council representatives talking last week. They mentioned you specifically, Jolie. Said your empathic abilities were 'problematic' and needed to be 'balanced.'"
My blood runs cold. "Balanced how?"
"By creating wolves who can't be affected by empathy." He shows us his phone—a photo of a document he must have taken secretly. "They want to breed an entire generation of wolves immune to emotional manipulation. And they're using Father's wedding to legitimize the program, show that emotionless wolves can integrate into traditional pack structures."
I read the document, It's exactly what Luna suspected—Project Equilibrium wasn't just about creating a few weapons. It was about fundamentally changing what it means to be a wolf.
"They're afraid of me." Understanding settles heavy. "Of divine wolves with empathic gifts, so they're creating the opposite."
"Yes." Gio nods. "And Jolie, there's something else. They expect you to attend tomorrow's ceremony. They're counting on it. I think" He stops, looking genuinely frightened. "I think they're planning to study your reaction to Celeste, to see if your empathy can affect someone who's been conditioned to feel nothing."
"I'm bait." I process this. "They invited me here to test whether their program actually works."
"That's what I think." He stands, pacing. "And if it does work, if Celeste is truly immune to your empathy, they'll use that as proof that their program should be expanded. They'll start conditioning children across multiple packs."
"Over my dead body." I almost yelled out.
"That might be the alternative they're hoping for." Gio says grimly. "If your empathy does affect Celeste, if you break their perfect soldier, they might decide you're too dangerous to live."
"Let them try." Ryder's voice is pure threat. "They'll learn what happens when they threaten my mate."
"I'm not telling you this to scare you." Gio looks at me. "I'm telling you because you deserve to know what you're walking into. And because despite everything I've done, you're still my sister. I don't want to watch you die."
I feel the truth of his words through my empathy. "Thank you." I say finally. "For warning me. For caring enough to risk Father's anger by coming here."
"He doesn't know I'm here." Gio admits. "He thinks I'm in my room preparing for tomorrow's ceremony. If he finds out I warned you."
"Then you come with us when we leave." I decide. "After the wedding, after whatever happens, you're not staying here. You've proven you're different now, I told you already you are part of my pack."
“I know I don’t deserve all the mercy you showed me“
"You're trying to be better." I move closer. "That's more than Father ever did. More than most of them did. So yeah, if you want to leave this place, Iron Fangs will take you."
"I" His voice breaks. "Thank you."
He pulls me into a hug, and this time I don't pull away. I feel his relief, his gratitude, his desperate hope that he can actually change and be better.
"Be careful tomorrow." He pulls back, wiping his eyes. "Please. Whatever they're planning, whatever happens with Celeste—be ready to run."
"We will be." Ryder promises. "We have exit strategies."
"Good." Gio heads for the door, then pauses. "Jolie? For what it's worth, I'm proud of you. Of who you became despite everything we did to you. You're more of an alpha than Father ever was."
He slips out before I can respond.
I stand in the middle of the expensive guest suite, processing everything. The wedding tomorrow isn't just a ceremony—it's a test. A demonstration. A trap designed to either prove I'm not as powerful as people think, or to eliminate me if I am.
"We should leave." Ryder says quietly. "Right now. This is too dangerous."
"No." I turn to face him. "This is exactly why I need to stay. If Project Equilibrium succeeds, if they start conditioning children to be emotionless, they'll create a generation of wolves who can never experience real connection, real love, real pack bonds. They'll be tools, not people."
"You can't save everyone." His voice is gentle.
"No." I agree. "But I can save Celeste or at least try."
"She might not want to be saved." He points out. "She might be exactly what the Council wanted to create—a weapon who chose her purpose."
"Then I'll know." I move to the window, looking out at the darkening gardens. "But I have to try. Because if my empathy can reach her, can break through years of conditioning and show her what she's lost, then it proves the Council is wrong. That you can't breed empathy out of wolves. That connection is stronger than any program."
"And if it doesn't work?" Ryder comes to stand beside me. "If she really is immune?"
"Then we deal with that too." I lean against him. "But either way, we face it. Together."
"Together." He kisses the top of my head. "But I'm putting Knox and Cass on extra security tonight. If the Council is planning something, I want us ready."
"Agreed." I pull out my phone to text Luna. "And we need to document everything. If this is really about legitimizing their breeding program, we need evidence to expose them."
We spend the next hour coordinating with our pack. Knox sweeps our room for surveillance devices and finds three—cameras disguised as decorative elements, microphones built into light fixtures. We leave them in place but move our real conversations to the bathroom with water running and Luna's signal jammer active.
By the time we finally get to bed, exhaustion weighs heavy on my bones.
"You should sleep." Ryder pulls me against him. "Tomorrow is going to be intense."