Chapter 129 Jolie Pain
Jolie pov
"So we sit through my father's wedding to a Council weapon." I laugh bitterly. "Watch him solidly his marriage to the woman who played me like a violin, knowing that afterward, armed operatives are coming to kidnap me."
"Yes." Gio moves closer. "But while you're sitting there, I'll be getting your bikes ready, clearing an exit route, and making sure you can run the second the ceremony ends."
"You'd do that?" I look up at him. "Risk Father finding out you warned us?"
"I'm not staying here." He says it firmly. "Whether you take me with you or not, I'm not staying in this pack after what I've learned. Father sold you to the Council for political advancement. Celeste is a weapon designed to eliminate empathic wolves. This whole thing is sick, and I won't be part of it."
"Then you come with us." I stand. "When we run, you run with us. Iron Fangs takes care of its own."
"We need a solid plan." Cass pulls out a tactical map of the estate. "Exit routes, timing, contingencies if things go wrong."
We spend the next two hours planning. Gio provides details about guard rotations, security weaknesses, where the bikes are stored. Luna maps evacuation routes through the mountains. Knox prepares weapons and supplies as we call Phoenix to set up communication protocols.
By the time we're done, we have three extraction plans depending on how things go wrong.
"The ceremony starts at four." Gio checks his watch. "You have three hours to rest, prepare mentally, and look like you don't know you're sitting in a trap."
"I'm good at pretending." I say it more bitterly than I intended. "Spent years pretending abuse was normal. Three hours pretending I don't know I'm about to be kidnapped should be easy."
"Jolie" Gio starts.
"I'm fine." I cut him off. "Just give us the room, we need to finish preparing."
He leaves reluctantly, promising to signal us when the ceremony is about to begin. The moment the door closes, I sink onto the bed, all the false strength draining out of me.
"She really got me." My voice is small. "Celeste. She felt everything I showed her and turned it into a performance. Made me think I was saving her when really I was just proving their program works."
"You tried to help someone." Ryder sits beside me. "That's not weakness."
"Isn't it?" I look at him. "She's right about my savior complex. I see someone damaged and immediately try to fix them. Never stopping to ask if they want to be fixed, or if they're actually just using my need to help against me."
"Morgan wanted to be fixed." Luna points out. "The empathy you gave her was torture, but it was also transformation. She's out there right now trying to make amends because you forced her to feel the pain she caused."
"And Celeste felt the same thing and turned it into a weapon." I drop my head into my hands. "What's the difference? How do I know when helping is actually helping versus just making things worse?"
"You don't." Doc's voice comes through the comm unit. He's been monitoring from the compound. "That's the risk of empathy, Jolie. You can show someone a connection, but you can't control how they respond to it. Some people will choose healing. Others will choose to weaponize what you showed them."
"So I just keep trying?" I ask. "Keep offering empathy even knowing it might be turned against me?"
"That's what makes you divine." His voice is gentle. "Not that your empathy always works. But that you keep offering it anyway, even when it hurts, even when you're vulnerable. That's courage, not weakness."
"Doesn't feel like courage." I stand, moving to the window. "Feels like I just handed the Council exactly what they wanted—proof that I'm dangerous and need to be controlled."
"They would have found a reason anyway." Ryder joins me at the window. "If not this, something else. They're not afraid because you're dangerous. They're afraid because you represent everything they're trying to eliminate—connection, empathy, the ability to feel deeply and choose differently because of those feelings."
"Celeste is what they want all wolves to become." Understanding settles coldly on me. "Functional but empty. Capable of following orders without moral conflict, perfect soldiers who'll never question authority because they don't have the emotional capacity to care."
"And you're proof that their plan fails." Luna looks up from her tablet. "Because no matter how much conditioning they do, no matter how many wolves they breed for emotionlessness, there will always be wolves like you. Divine vessels, empathic healers, wolves who feel too much and change the world because of it."
"That's why they want to study me." I turn to face them. "To figure out how to prevent more wolves like me from ever existing."
"They won't get the chance." Ryder's voice echoes his alpha command. "We're getting out of here tonight. All of us, including Gio. And when we're safe, we're going to expose this whole operation."
"The ceremonial wedding first." I check my reflection in the window—dark circles under my eyes, my hair slightly disheveled, leather dress still perfect despite everything. "I have to sit through and watch my evil father marry a devil who is more evil and dangerous than him, knowing she played me, knowing they're all watching and judging."
"You don't have to." Luna offers. "We could cause a distraction and extract you early"
"No." I straighten my shoulders. "They expect me to run. Expect me to be humiliated and defeated but I am not giving them that satisfaction. I sit through this ceremony with my head held high, and when it's over, I disappear before they realize what hit them."
"That's my Luna." Ryder's smile is fierce. "Face your enemies without flinching."
"Even when I'm flinching inside." I lean against him. "Even when I feel like I just made the biggest mistake of my life."
"You didn't make a mistake." He holds me close. "You offered compassion to someone you thought needed it. That Celeste chose to weaponize it says everything about her and nothing about you."
"Tell that to every alpha who watched me try to 'manipulate' her." I close my eyes. "By tomorrow, word will spread. The Moonfire Luna tried to force empathy on an unwilling participant, she used her divine power as a weapon and proved she's exactly as dangerous as the Council always said."
"Let them think that." Luna's voice is hard. "Let them underestimate what you're actually capable of so when we expose the Council's breeding program, when we show the world what Project Equilibrium really is, they'll understand who the real villains are."
A knock on the door makes us all tense. Gio's voice comes through. "The ceremony starts in thirty minutes. Most of the guests are already heading to the garden. If you're going to do this, you need to move now."
I take a deep breath, checking my appearance one last time. The leather dress still looks fierce, the blessed silver hardware gleaming. My mating mark is visible on my neck—a reminder that I'm not alone, that I have a mate who stands with me.
"Let's go watch a wedding." I open the door to face Gio. "And then let's get the hell out of here before they realize we know what's coming."
"I've got the bikes ready." He's wearing formal clothes but practical boots. "The exit route is clear. The moment the ceremony ends, we move."
"Good." Ryder checks his weapons one last time. "Because if they try to take her, they're going to learn exactly what happens when you threaten an alpha's mate."
We walk through the estate halls toward the garden. Pack members and guests stare as we pass—some with judgment, some with fear, all of them having heard what happened at breakfast.