Chapter 153 - 0153
Lorelei POV
I didn’t think he would react so strongly.
The truth was finally out. He really had nothing to do with my trafficking, which was a huge relief, but he had reacted with so much anger that it reminded me once again that he was, in fact, the Alpha King. It made me start wondering if I had said something wrong or if I should have chosen my words more carefully.
I had honestly thought this would be a happy moment for both of us, but I had failed to realize just how serious the situation actually was. I had suspected the Alpha King of being involved in something as horrific as human trafficking right under his own roof. Of course he was angry.
Thankfully, I had Raven by my side now, so I wasn’t completely consumed by fear. At least, not until he spoke again.
"How did you get this?" he asked.
My entire body stiffened, immediately catching his attention as one of his brows lifted slightly.
I hadn’t really thought this far ahead.
Answering him meant admitting that I had asked Paul and Isaac to plant it for me. Wouldn’t that just get them into serious trouble? But lying to his face after everything that had just happened certainly wouldn’t make things any better either.
"Please don’t be mad," I whispered, fidgeting nervously with my fingers as I struggled to keep my voice steady.
I took a shaky breath and forced myself to tell him the truth before I could lose my nerve.
"I... I had my guards help me."
The second those words left my lips, I watched his face closely, searching for any sign of explosive anger or raw fury, but his features slowly settled into a cold, unreadable mask. For some reason, that emotionless silence made me feel infinitely more uneasy than if he had simply yelled at me.
He didn’t scream or even ask another question.
He simply gave a single, stiff nod, pulled his phone from his pocket, and made a brief call.
A few minutes later, three men stepped into the office, with Darius following closely behind them.
Darius cast a quick, utterly confused look in my direction before walking over to stand beside Kaelen.
The two of them began speaking in hushed, urgent tones. As Kaelen spoke, Darius’s eyes widened briefly in shock. His brows pulled together as he stole another sharp glance in my direction before quickly looking away, but I didn’t miss the way his fists clenched tightly at his sides until his knuckles turned white.
Meanwhile, the other three men moved toward a corner table and immediately got to work on the small earpiece. They connected the device to a sleek piece of equipment before running several wires into a portable audio amplifier. Their movements were quick and precise as they adjusted the settings, checking the frequency feeds and signal strength.
My heart continued to race as I watched the tense scene unfold, but Raven reached over and gently took my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Don’t be scared," she whispered, her eyes searching mine. "You are innocent, Lorelei. As long as I’m standing here, nothing bad is going to happen to you ever again."
At her words, my trembling lips curled into a tiny, genuine smile.
"It feels like I’m dreaming," I whispered, staring up at her face.
But as I looked at her more closely, my heart sank.
Compared to the bright, fiercely confident Raven I had left behind, the woman standing before me looked worn down and exhausted. Dark shadows bruised the skin beneath her bright blue eyes, and there was a deep, lingering tiredness etched across her face.
The sight made my chest ache with guilt.
I could only imagine how relentlessly she must have searched for me, how many sleepless nights she must have endured, and how many horrible possibilities she must have imagined while I was missing.
Yet despite the guilt twisting painfully inside me, a warm, overwhelming relief spread through my chest simply knowing that she was really here.
She had found me.
I tightened my grip around her fingers, holding on to her as though I was afraid she might disappear again if I let go.
"It’s all set up, Alpha," one of the technicians finally announced.
He stepped away from the console and glanced toward Kaelen. "The receiver is connected to the amplifier, and we’ve isolated the audio feed. The signal is stable, so we should be able to hear the recording clearly."
Kaelen gave a brief nod before his cold gaze shifted toward the device.
"The amplifier will project the recording loud enough for everyone in this room to hear it clearly," he explained, his voice carrying that calm, authoritative edge that always seemed to make the entire room fall silent.
He stepped forward and pressed the play button on the receiver.
The audio feed hissed to life, filling the heavy silence of the office with static and muffled background noise. Whenever a useless conversation or a long stretch of silence came through, Kaelen’s icy voice would cut in with a simple, "Skip."
The technician would immediately fast-forward the recording by a few minutes.
Within moments, they finally reached the exact segment I had listened to earlier. As Hawke’s distinct, arrogant voice echoed through the room, casually talking about raiding unprotected villages and trafficking women to Alphas, the atmosphere inside the office seemed to turn suffocatingly heavy.
Kaelen’s and Darius’s expressions darkened, their faces becoming terrifying masks of barely restrained rage.
"Do you recognize this other voice?" Kaelen growled, his gaze fixed on Darius, who just shook his head, his jaw tightening.
Then Kaelen turned toward the technician. "Isolate the frequency and run a voiceprint match against the estate directory."
The man nodded quickly, his fingers flying across his laptop as he began analyzing the vocal patterns while the recording continued playing in the background.
It went well beyond the point where I had stopped listening earlier, continuing through conversations I had never heard before. I remained tense beside Raven, my fingers still wrapped tightly around hers as I listened to every word.
Then Chelsea’s sharp, grating voice suddenly rang through the speakers.
At first, I assumed Kaelen would immediately order the technician to skip past it, but nobody moved.
Instead, her voice sneered through the room.
"I’m so damn tired of that bitch..."