Chapter 132 Curled up with Ryder
Jolie pov
"No." I pulled it away. "I need to hear this."
"Your father was so easy to seduce." Celeste continues. "Powerful men always are when you make them feel powerful. A few strategic touches, some calculated vulnerability, letting him think he's corrupting me instead of the other way around. Now he's completely wrapped around my finger."
She stands, walking to the window. "And tonight, after I consummate this marriage very thoroughly, I'll have everything I was promised. Legal access to Nightshade Pack resources, political power through his connections, and the satisfaction of knowing I made you watch it all."
Her expression shifts. Something colder sliding beneath the pleasant mask. "But here's what they didn't tell you at breakfast." She turns back to the camera. "The Council's plan wasn't just to study you, it was to breed you."
My blood turns cold.
"Find a suitable male, force a bond, produce offspring with your empathic abilities under controlled conditions. Then study those children to understand divine power at its source. Maybe even breed multiple generations, creating an entire bloodline of test subjects."
"Oh god." The words come out strangled.
"They approached me first, actually." Her laugh is cold. "Offered me the same deal. But I'm not interested in being a broodmare, even for science. So I negotiated differently. I demonstrate that empathy can be resisted, provide them with your power profile, and in exchange, I get wealth, status, and immunity from ever being bred myself."
She moves closer to the camera.
"So thank you, Jolie. Your desperate attempt to save me gave them everything they needed. The power readings, the public demonstration, the emotional profile. Now they know exactly how to contain you when they finally catch you."
"When?" I whisper.
As if she knew what I was about to ask her reply answered my question "Oh yes." Her smile is sharp. "I am sure you would be asking yourself when not if. You think one escape means you're safe? They have your scent, your power signature, your emotional triggers and they have something else."
She holds up a small vial of silver liquid.
"Blessed silver that's been modified with your blood from this morning's contact. When they inject you with this, it won't just suppress your power. It'll make you feel every emotion you've ever forced on someone else. Simultaneously until your mind breaks or your heart stops."
My hands shake so hard I almost drop the phone.
"Sleep well, stepdaughter." Celeste blows a kiss at the camera. "I know I will. Right next to your father, maybe in the bed where he used to plan your punishments."
The video ends. I sit frozen, phone still in my hand, her words echoing through my skull. They wanted to breed me, study my children. Create generations of divine test subjects and Celeste just handed them the tools to do it.
"Jolie." Gio's voice sounds distant. "Jolie, look at me."
I can't move, neither can I breathe. The cabin door slams open as Ryder crosses the space in three strides, pulling me against his chest.
"I felt it through the bond." His voice is rough. "What happened?"
"Celeste." The word comes out broken. "She sent a video. The Council—they want to breed me, create test subjects from my children. And she gave them my power profile, my blood, everything they need to"
"No." His arms tighten around me. "No one is touching you. No one is breeding you. I'll burn down every Council facility still standing before I let that happen."
"They made blessed silver from my blood." I'm shaking so hard my teeth chatter. "Designed to make me feel every emotion I've ever forced on someone until I break."
"Show me the video." Luna's voice echoes, when did she get here?
Gio hands her my phone. She watches in silence, her expression darkening with each second. "This is a declaration of war." She looks up when it finishes. "She's telling us exactly what's coming and daring us to stop it."
"Can we?" Phoenix asks from the doorway. "Stop it?"
"We have to." Knox appears behind him. "Because if they succeed in capturing Jolie, if they actually implement this breeding program, it's not just about her anymore. It's about every divine wolf who comes after, every wolf with unusual abilities. They'll hunt them all down and turn them into experiments."
"So we don't let them catch her." Cass is already thinking tactically. "We disappear. Take Jolie somewhere they can't track, somewhere their blessed silver modifications won't work."
"Where?" I pull back from Ryder. "Where can we go that Council remnants can't reach?"
"Nowhere." Doc's voice comes through the comm system. "Not permanently. They have resources, contacts, and wolves in every territory. Eventually they'll find you."
"Then we go on offense." Ryder's voice is pure alpha command. "We find out where they're operating from and we end this. Permanently."
"With what army?" Luna challenges. "We're seven wolves against however many Council operatives still exist."
"We're Iron Fangs." His eyes glow amber. "We've fought worse odds."
"Not against blessed silver designed specifically to torture divine wolves." She gestures at my phone. "That weapon Celeste mentioned? If they use it on Jolie, her empathy gift becomes a death sentence. Every emotion she's ever shared with someone comes flooding back amplified, it will destroy her mind."
"So we make sure they never get close enough to use it." He looks around the room. "We've got one advantage—they think we're running scared. I think Jolie is broken by today's humiliation, now we use that."
"How do you use it?" Gio asks.