Chapter 131 The Rehearsal Dinner
Jolie POV
The mountain wind cuts through my leather jacket as we race away from Nightshade Estate. Seven bikes roared through tight curves, engines screaming, putting distance between us and the trap that almost closed. Ryder leads, Knox and Cass flanking, Luna and Phoenix covering the rear as Gio rides beside me, his face grim with determination.
My hands shake on the handlebars. The adrenaline from our escape is fading, leaving behind cold reality. Celeste played me. My father tried to sell me to Council remnants while I demonstrated my empathic power in front of witnesses who'll use it against me. And I ran once again.
"Compound in twenty minutes!" Ryder's voice crackles through the helmet comm. "Stay tight, stay focused!"
I lean into the next curve, trying to focus on the road instead of the humiliation burning through my chest. But Celeste's satisfied smile keeps flashing through my mind. She won, she got exactly what she wanted.
No. I grip the handlebars tighter. She got what she thought she wanted but this isn't over. The Iron Fangs compound appears through the trees. We roar through the gates and the moment we're inside, I'm off my bike.
"Jolie" Ryder starts.
"I need to think." I'm already walking toward our cabin. "Just give me an hour."
"We should debrief"
"One hour." I don't look back. "Please."
He lets me go. I feel his concern through our bond, but he respects my need for space. Inside the cabin, I strip off the leather dress that was supposed to make me look strong. Now it just feels like costume jewelry—pretty but ultimately useless.
I pull on worn jeans and an oversized hoodie. Then I sit on the edge of our bed and let myself feel it. All of it. The humiliation at breakfast. Celeste's cold calculation, the edited video making me look predatory. My father's satisfied smile as guards moved to surround us, the trap that almost worked.
I tried to help someone, tried to offer connection to a wolf I thought was suffering. And she turned it into a weapon.
Doc's voice echoes in my memory: "That's what makes you divine. Not that your empathy always works but that you keep offering it anyway."
But what if offering it makes things worse? What if my need to help is just making me an easy target? A knock on the door interrupts my spiral.
"It's me." Gio's voice. "Can I come in?"
I consider sending him away. But he risked everything to warn us, rode with us when he could have stayed safe. "Yeah."
He enters carefully, like I might bolt. His formal clothes are rumpled from the ride,his hair windswept.
"Are you okay?" He sits in the chair across from me.
"No." I pull my knees up. "But I don't think I'm supposed to be."
"Fair." He leans back. "For what it's worth, you handled that better than I would have. Most wolves would have attacked when the guards moved in, you used your empathy to confuse them and got everyone out alive."
"I shouldn't have needed to get us out." My voice is bitter. "If I hadn't fallen for Celeste's act, hadn't demonstrated my power in front of witnesses, there wouldn't have been a trap to spring."
"They would have found another reason." He meets my eyes. "The trap was already set, you just gave them an excuse to spring it early."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"No." His smile is sad. "But it's true. Father decided to sell you out weeks ago. The Council remnants have been planning this since you destroyed the Elders. Celeste was sent specifically to test your abilities and provide justification for taking you. None of that is your fault."
"Feels like my fault." I rest my chin on my knees. "Feels like I keep trying to save people and just making everything worse."
"You saved me." He says it quietly. "When you gave me empathy, forced me to feel what I'd done to you—that was torture. Worst pain I've ever experienced. But it was also the first time I understood what I'd become, you didn't make things worse. You made me human again."
I look up at him. "Was it worth it? The pain?"
"Yeah." He doesn't hesitate. "Because now I can actually feel things, I can choose differently. Can be someone other than Father's golden child weapon. So yeah, it was worth it."
"Celeste felt the same thing and turned it into performance art."
"Because she's been conditioned for years." He leans forward. "I had emotions beaten out of me at a young age, and your gift still broke through. Celeste had it surgically removed by experts who knew exactly what they were doing, she is not playing you because your empathy doesn't work. She's playing you because their conditioning does."
"So what do I do?" I ask. "Keep offering empathy even knowing some people will weaponize it?"
"You do what divine wolves have always done." He shrugs. "You offer connection and let people choose how to respond. Some will choose healing. Others will choose cruelty, now thats on them, not you."
Before I can respond, my phone buzzes with an unknown number. I almost ignore it but something makes me check. It's a message with an attached video file.
"What is it?" Gio notices my expression.
"I don't know." I hit play.
Celeste's face fills the screen. She's in what looks like a hotel room, makeup perfect, still wearing her wedding dress.
"Hello, stepdaughter." Her voice is pleasant. "I hope you made it safely back to your compound. I'd hate to think guards actually caught you after all that effort to warn you through your brother."
"Yes, I knew about Gio's warning." She smiles. "Honestly thought he'd be more subtle, but I suppose blood loyalty clouds judgment. Anyway, I wanted to clarify something before gossip spreads too far."
She stands, moving to sit on the hotel bed as the camera follows her.
"This morning's performance wasn't about you." She touches her hair, casual. "Well, not entirely. Yes, I needed to demonstrate immunity to empathic manipulation for the Council witnesses. Yes, your predictable savior complex made that easy, but that was just business."
Her smile sharpens. "The wedding display was personal." She leans back on her hands. "Did you catch all the little touches? The intimate gestures? Making sure you saw exactly how much your father desires his young bride?"
My stomach turns.
"See, they didn't just train me to be emotionless." She examines her nails. "They trained me to weaponize everything. And the most effective weapon against someone with your particular trauma is making them watch their abuser find happiness with someone else. Someone their age, someone who gets affection and desire instead of contempt and violence."
"Turn it off." Gio reaches for my phone.