Chapter 108 The Nightshade Wedding Looms
Jolie POV
The wedding has been postponed to 2 weeks, and I still haven't decided what I'm going to wear.
It's a stupid thing to focus on, but it feels safer than thinking about walking back into Nightshade territory. Safer than wondering what my father's planning with his emotionless new bride.
I'm sorting through clothes in our bedroom when my phone buzzes. Gio's name flashes on the screen.
I answer immediately. "What's wrong?"
"I need to show you something." His voice is tight. "Can you video call? Privately?"
"Hold on." I move to Ryder's office and lock the door behind me. "Okay. I'm alone."
The video connects, and Gio's face appears. He looks worse than the last time we talked. Dark circles under his eyes, jaw tight with tension.
"I'm sending you a file." He glances over his shoulder. "Watch it after we hang up. Don't let anyone else see it until you've decided what to do."
My stomach drops. "Gio, what's going on?"
"Father is planning something. I don't know what exactly, but Celeste isn't what she seems." He leans closer to the camera, voice dropping to barely a whisper. "I've been trying to use the empathy you gave me to read her. But there's nothing there, Jolie. No joy about the wedding, no nervousness, no emotion whatsoever. She's like a beautiful corpse walking around in expensive dresses."
My blood runs cold. "What do you mean, nothing?"
"I mean I can't feel anything from her at all." Gio's frustration bleeds through. "And I've gotten good at reading people since you changed me. But with Celeste, it's like trying to sense emotions from a stone. She goes through all the right motions, says all the right things, but there's no feeling behind any of it."
Luna's words from weeks ago echo in my mind. The Council had programs for creating emotionless wolves.
"You think she's Council-made?" I ask.
"I don't know what she is." Gio runs a hand through his hair. "But I know she's dangerous. And Father's too obsessed with restoring Nightshade's reputation to see it. He thinks marrying her will prove he's still powerful, still relevant."
"What's in the file?" I need to know what I'm dealing with.
"Security footage from last week." Gio's expression darkens. "I wasn't supposed to see it, but I've been watching her. Trying to figure out what she's really after. What I found—Jolie, you need to see it yourself."
"Send it." I grip the phone tighter. "And Gio? Be careful. If she's what we think she is, you could be in danger too."
"I know." For the first time since our conversation started, something like a smile crosses his face. "But I'm not leaving you to walk into this blind. That's what the old Gio would have done. The one who sold his sister to a monster."
"You're not him anymore." The words surprise me, but they're true. The empathy changed him. Made him capable of caring about something other than power.
"Thanks to you." He glances over his shoulder again. "I have to go. Watch the video. And Jolie? Maybe reconsider coming to this wedding. I don't think it's safe."
He ends the call before I can respond.
The file downloads to my phone. It's labeled "North Wing Security - 2:17 AM."
I press play.
The footage shows a hallway in what I recognize as Nightshade Heights main house. Expensive paintings on the walls, marble floors gleaming in low security lighting.
At first, nothing happens. Then Celeste walks into frame.
She's wearing a silk nightgown, moving with the kind of grace that comes from years of training. But something about her movements is off.
She stops in front of a painting—one I remember from childhood, an old portrait of some Nightshade ancestor. Her fingers trace the frame's edge, and the painting swings open like a door.
A hidden safe. Of course Father would have one there.
Celeste's hands move with professional efficiency as she works the combination. The safe opens, and she pulls out a stack of documents. She photographs each page with her phone, moving through them so fast she must have photographic memory.
Then she puts everything back exactly as it was, closes the safe, adjusts the painting, and walks away. The whole thing takes less than three minutes.
But it's what happens at the end that makes my heart stop.
Just before she exits the frame, Celeste pauses. She turns and looks directly at the security camera. And smiles.
It's not a warm smile or a nervous one. It's the smile of someone who knows they're being watched and doesn't care. The smile of someone who wanted to be seen.
The video ends.
I sit in Ryder's office chair, hands shaking, mind racing.
Celeste knew about the security camera. She let herself be recorded breaking into Father's safe. Which means either she wanted someone to see what she was doing, or she's arrogant enough to think it doesn't matter.
Neither option is good.
A knock on the door makes me jump. "Jolie? You okay in there?" Ryder's voice.
I unlock the door. He takes one look at my face and closes it behind him.
"What happened?" He's immediately alert. "Did someone threaten you?"
"Gio sent me something." I hand him my phone. "Watch this."
Ryder watches the video, his expression growing darker with each second. When it ends, he plays it again. And again.
"She's a professional." His voice is cold. "Look at how she moves. That's not a nervous bride sneaking through her future husband's house, that’s an operative executing a mission."
"She smiled at the camera." I point at the screen. "She wanted to be seen."
"Or she wanted Gio to see." Ryder's eyes narrow. "If she can't feel emotions, she might not register on empathy scans. But she'd know that someone with empathy powers would eventually try to read her. Find nothing or get suspicious."
"So she's leaving evidence on purpose." My stomach twists. "Leading us to certain conclusions."
"The question is why." Ryder sets down the phone. "What does she gain from making us suspicious?"
I think about the timing. About professional manipulation and hired weapons. About Seraphina showing up right when my mate bond was most vulnerable.
"What if it's not about gaining something?" The pieces start clicking together. "What if it's about making sure I come to the wedding?"
Ryder's jaw clenches. "Explain."
"Think about it. The invitation alone might not be enough to get me there. I could refuse, ignore Father's manipulation, stay away." I stand up, pacing. "But if Gio sends evidence that Celeste is dangerous? That Father's walking into a trap? That changes everything."
"Because you'd feel responsible." Ryder's voice is grim. "You'd have to warn him, even after everything he did to you."
"Or I'd have to show up and figure out what she's really planning." I turn to face him. "Either way, I'd be there. Exactly where they want me."
"They." Ryder catches the plural. "You think Celeste isn't working alone."
"Someone hired Seraphina to destroy our mate bond." I lay out the logic. "Someone paid a professional to infiltrate our pack and drive us apart. Why wouldn't that same person hire another professional to get me onto Nightshade territory?"
"Because you're too powerful here." Ryder's eyes flash amber. "Surrounded by Iron Fangs, protected by your mate bond, impossible to isolate or attack. But at a wedding in your father's territory, with traditional pack laws and hundreds of guests."
"I'd be vulnerable." The full scope of it hits me. "This whole thing is a trap. The wedding, Celeste, probably even Father's choice to marry her at all. Someone's orchestrating this."
"Then you're not going." Ryder's voice is final. "We send a message declining, and you stay here where it's safe."
"That might be what they want too." I shake my head. "If I refuse to attend, what happens? Father uses it as proof I'm unstable, vindictive, can't be trusted with authority. Traditional packs start questioning whether I should have divine power at all."
"Let them question." Ryder moves closer. "I don't care about politics when your life is at stake."
"But I do." I take his hands. "Ryder, if I lose credibility with traditional packs, the whole new power structure falls apart. The Council's gone, but we haven't built anything stable to replace it yet. If alphas start fighting over authority, wolves die. Hundreds of them."
"So you walk into an obvious trap to maintain political stability." His voice is hard. "That's not strategy, Jolie. That's suicide."
"Not if we know it's coming." I squeeze his hands. "Not if we prepare properly and turn their trap back on them."
"How?" He searches my face. "They've been planning this for weeks, maybe months. We have few days."
I think about the video. About Celeste's smile.
"We do exactly what they don't expect." I meet Ryder's eyes. "We don't show up as the dutiful daughter trying to make peace. We show up as the Luna with an army at her back."
"Every Iron Fang who can ride." Ryder's starting to see it. "Full pack presence, not just a small escort."
"And we document everything." The plan solidifies in my mind. "Phoenix handles video, Luna manages communications, Cass coordinates security. If they try something, the whole supernatural world will see it happen in real time."
"Your father won't allow fifty bikers onto his territory." Ryder points out the obvious problem.
"He doesn't get a choice." My d power stirs, light beginning to glow under my skin. "I'm not asking permission. I'm informing him that iron fangs Luna and her pack will be attending his wedding. If he wants the political legitimacy my presence brings, he accepts our terms."
Ryder stares at me for a long moment. Then a slow, dangerous smile spreads across his face.
"You're going to make him choose between his pride and his ambitions." His voice holds satisfaction. "Between throwing you out publicly and accepting your dominance."
"And either choice proves that Nightshade's power is gone." I feel a fierce joy at the realization. "If he accepts our terms, everyone sees that he bows to my authority now. If he refuses, everyone sees that he's too petty to handle his own daughter's presence. Either way, we win."
"Unless it really is a trap." Ryder pulls me close. "Unless they've planned for this too."
"Then we spring it in front of five hundred witnesses." I rest my forehead against his. "Make it impossible for them to hide what they're doing. The more public and visible we make this, the harder it is for them to hurt me without consequences."
"I don't like it." But I can hear the grudging respect in his voice. "But I understand why you have to do it."
"We have to do it." I corrected him. "I'm not walking into this alone. We're in this together, remember?"
"Together." He kisses me hard. "But if anything goes wrong, if I sense even a hint of danger, I'm getting you out. I don't care who sees or what political damage it causes."
"Deal." I kiss him back.