로그인Jolie POVI wake to voices in the main room. For a moment, I'm disoriented—the cabin is dark, Ryder's arm heavy across my waist, my phone showing 2:47 AM. Then memory crashes back. The escape, Celeste's video, the threat of breeding programs and torture weapons.I slip out of bed carefully, not wanting to wake Ryder. He needs rest too, even if his alpha instincts want him awake and planning.The main room is bright with laptop screens and tactical maps. Luna, Phoenix, Gio, and Doc huddle around the table, speaking in low urgent voices."Jolie." Doc looks up when I enter. "You should be sleeping.""Couldn't." I move closer, studying the documents spread across the table. "What did you find?""Nothing good." Phoenix pulls up files on his laptop. "The Northern Academy is real. Located in Alaska, officially listed as a private boarding school for troubled wolves. It has been operating for thirty years.""Thirty years?" My stomach drops. "How many wolves do they have""At least two hundred
Jolie pov "No." I pull 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
Jolie POVThe mountain wind cuts through my leather jacket as we race away from Nightshade Estate. Seven bikes roaring 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 s
Ryder POVThe garden ceremony is set up like something from a magazine. White chairs arranged in perfect rows, flowers everywhere, an archway covered in roses where Dominic and Celeste will exchange their official vows. Classical music plays from hidden speakers. Everything designed to look romantic and traditional.But instead it makes my skin crawl. We take seats in the back row—strategic positioning for a quick exit. Jolie sits between Luna and me, her light dimmed but pulsing with barely contained emotion."Are you okay?" I ask quietly."No." She doesn't look at me. "But I will be once we're out of here."Guests fill the garden. I recognize several Council-sympathetic alphas that Luna briefed us on—wolves who lost power when Jolie destroyed the Elders, who would love nothing more than to see her brought down.They're all watching her. "They're enjoying this." Knox murmurs from my other side. "Watching her sit here after this morning's humiliation.""Let them enjoy it." Cass is sca
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
Jolie POVWe're halfway through packing when someone knocks urgently on our door. Ryder moves to answer it, knife already in his hand. He checks the peephole, then opens it just enough to see who's there."It's Gio." He looks back at me. "Alone.""Let him in." I'm too emotionally exhausted to care about security protocols right now.Gio slips inside, closing the door quickly behind him. His face is pale, hands shaking."You can't leave yet." He's breathing hard, like he ran here. "Not until you hear what I found.""We're done here." Ryder zips up a bag. "Your future stepmother just humiliated Jolie in front of half the pack leadership in the region. We're not staying for the actual ceremony.""That's exactly what they want." Gio moves to block the door. "They want you to run, they want you to feel defeated and leave before the real trap springs."I look up from where I'm sitting on the bed. "What trap?""The wedding isn't the endgame." He pulls out his phone with shaking hands. "It's







