Chapter 147 Truth Revealed
Jolie pov
They feel what she felt. She was young, taken from her family to the Northern Academy. Told it's an honor, a privilege, a chance to serve her people.
The first lesson was her being locked in isolation for days. No food, no water, no contact. Just darkness and her own fear. When they finally let her out, they asked what she learned. She said "I learned to be grateful for what I have."
Wrong answer so they put her back in for a week. The second lesson—watching another student get beaten for showing emotion. Celeste cried as they beat her too. Told her tears were weakness, empathy was vulnerability and connection was a trap.
She learned not to cry. The third lesson—her wolf's first shift. It hurt so badly she screamed. They punished her for screaming. Made her shift again and again until she could do it in silence, until the agony became just another sensation to suppress.
She learned pain didn't matter, years of this. Systematic destruction of everything that made her human. Every time she felt something, they punished her. Every time she connected with someone, they separated them. Every time she showed compassion, they called it contamination.
They didn't just train her, they tortured her. Broke her down piece by piece until the girl who entered the Academy at a young age no longer existed. Until Celeste Whitmore became a hollow shell that could perform any role, feel any emotion on command, but actually experience nothing.cThe perfect weapon.
And the Council called it education.The gathered wolves gasp, sob, retch. Some collapse, overwhelmed by the horror of what they're experiencing. Even the hardest alphas look sick.
Because they're not just seeing it. They're feeling it, living through the years of systematic abuse in the space of minutes. Understanding exactly what it takes to create an emotionless wolf.
When I finally pull my empathy back, the garden is silent except for crying.
Councilor Ironwood stands near the back, his face white with fury. "You've just declared war on the Council." His voice shakes with rage.
"No." I meet his eyes steadily. "I've just shown everyone what you really are. What you've been doing to children for years. What you want to do to divine wolves like me."
"Those were necessary measures." He tries to regain control. "The Academy creates stability, eliminates the chaos of uncontrolled emotion."
"The Academy creates victims." I cut him off. "It takes children and destroys their humanity. Turns wolves into tools and you call it necessary?"
"It is necessary!" He shouts. "You just demonstrated why! Your empathic abilities are too powerful to go uncontrolled. You forced an entire amphitheater to experience trauma without consent. You violated every wolf here with your divine power!"
"I showed them the truth." My voice doesn't rise. "About what you do. What you've been hiding, the systematic torture you call conditioning."
"It's not torture if it serves a purpose." Another Council operative speaks up. "The Academy makes wolves strong, removes weakness"
"Removes their souls." An alpha stands, his face streaked with tears. "I felt what they did to that girl. That wasn't training, that was destruction."
"Agreed." Another alpha joins him. "My daughter is twelve. If anyone tried to do to her what they did to Celeste, I'd burn their facility to the ground."
"This is exactly the problem." A council elder voice turns desperate. "You're all reacting emotionally instead of logically. The Academy serves a function in wolf society. Without it, we'd have chaos."
"We have chaos because of it." Gio's voice cuts through. He's standing now, facing the Council operatives. "You took children and made them into weapons. Embedded them in our packs to control us. Used them as breeding stock for your experiments and you call that order?"
"Stay out of this, boy." My father snarls. "This doesn't concern you."
"It concerns all of us." Gio doesn't back down. "Because if they can do this to wolves at the Academy, they can do it to anyone. Any wolf the Council decides is 'too emotional' or 'too empathic' or 'too difficult to control' becomes a candidate for conditioning."
"Including divine wolves." I add. "Which is why they wanted to capture me. Not just to breed me, but to condition my children from birth. Create a bloodline of divine wolves who could heal or share empathy on command but never feel anything themselves."
Horror ripples through the crowd again."That's the breeding program." An alpha realizes. "That's what you were planning. Not just studying divine abilities but creating emotionless divine wolves you could control."
"Divine power requires oversight." A council member falls back on his script. "Left unchecked, wolves like Jolie can manipulate entire populations."
"Like you manipulated Celeste?" I challenge. "Like you manipulated hundreds of students at the Academy? Like you've been manipulating traditional packs through embedded brides for decades?"
"That's conspiracy theory." He tries to dismiss it.
"Is it?" I gesture at the replacement bride still standing at the altar. "This woman isn't Celeste Whitmore, she is a backup. Another Academy graduate sent to replace the real Celeste when she defected. How many backup brides do you have ready? How many marriages here are Council plants?"
Several alphas turn to look at their wives with new suspicion. Some of those wives have the same empty eyes, the same mechanical precision that Celeste demonstrated.
"You've infected our packs." An alpha breathes. "Embedded your weapons in our homes, our beds, our families."
"They're not weapons." Ironwood's speaks up his control is slipping. "They're stable, loyal, functional pack members who don't cause drama or emotional chaos."
I stare at Ironwood, even after inflicting empathy on him, it seems the council also hired someone to remove the empathy from him just as Thorne blackwater did. "They're victims!" I shout. "They're children who were tortured until they couldn't feel anymore. And you're proud of that? You think that's an accomplishment?"
"It's survival!" He finally cracks. "You want to know why the Council implements these measures? Because wolves like you are too dangerous! Your empathy, your divine power, your ability to make entire amphitheaters feel whatever you want them to feel—that's terrifying! We need checks and balances!"
"You need control." I correct. "You need wolves who won't question authority, who won't rebel, who won't feel strongly enough to oppose you. That's what the Academy creates. Not stable wolves but obiedent ones."
"And what's wrong with obedience?" He demands. "What's wrong with stability and order and wolves who know their place?"
"Everything." My moonfire flares brighter. "Because wolves aren't meant to be obedient tools. We're pack animals, we thrive on connection, on emotion, on the messy complicated bonds that make us more than just functional individuals."
"That's idealistic nonsense." He sneers. "In the real world, emotion is weakness. Connection is vulnerability. And wolves who feel too much become liabilities."
"Like me?" I ask quietly.
"Yes!" He throws his hands up. "Exactly like you! You're so busy trying to save everyone, to heal everyone, to force empathy on wolves who don't want it, that you don't see the bigger picture. Some wolves are better off without emotion. Some wolves function better when they're empty."
"No wolf is better off empty." I say it with absolute certainty. "And if you really believe that, if you honestly think Celeste was better as an emotionless weapon than as a feeling person, then you're the one who needs healing."
"I don't need anything from you." His face twists with contempt. "You're a runt who got lucky, developed abilities you don't understand, and now thinks she's qualified to judge the Council's methods.even when you tried to inflict your so called empathy on me to try to make me vulnerable, such a shame it was taken out of me, you are a pathetic creature, you are nothing."