Chapter 130 - 0130
Lorelei POV
Thanks to Kaelen’s calming scent still lingering heavily throughout his chambers, I was no longer as panicked as I had been out on the street.
That didn’t stop me from sitting quietly at the edge of his massive bed, though. I pulled my legs tightly against my chest and rested my chin on my knees as my mind helplessly replayed everything over and over again.
My mother’s pale face. Those cold green eyes. Her sudden collapse onto the concrete pavement. The entire scene kept looping inside my head like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
The heavy bedroom door suddenly swung open, breaking the oppressive silence, and Skye stepped inside, pushing a food cart into the room.
"The Alpha asked me to bring you your lunch," she said softly.
Behind her, the guards stationed in the hallway immediately pulled the door shut again, and the heavy click of the lock made me let out a miserable sigh.
"I’m not hungry," I admitted honestly, staring blankly at the floor. "I already ate while I was out."
Skye gave me a sympathetic look, but then her voice dropped into a conspiratorial whisper as she stepped closer to the bed.
"Paul also asked me to tell you about the plan with Hawke."
The second those words left her mouth, my head snapped up, and the fog of fear instantly disappeared from my mind.
Seeing my reaction, Skye’s lips curled into a small, knowing smile. She reached into her apron pocket and pulled something out.
"They already managed to bug his office. Here, you can listen to all of his conversations with this."
She held out a tiny black earpiece no larger than a coin. I carefully took it from her, turning the little device over in my palm as I marveled at how something so small could carry so much weight.
"Just put it in your ear," Skye said quietly, leaning in a little closer. "You’ll be able to hear everything. And I mean everything."
The way she emphasized those last two words, combined with the eager, wide-eyed look on her face, told me immediately that she had already tested it herself.
I shook my head, staring down at the small plastic earpiece in my hand.
This was really it.
The first real step toward uncovering the truth and finally getting the leverage I needed.
Taking a slow, steadying breath, I slipped the earpiece into my ear and pressed the small button on the side to sync it.
The very next second, the sound that flooded into my ear made my face twist in instant horror, quickly followed by pure disgust.
"Ah... yes... right there... don’t stop..."
A woman’s voice came through the feed, crystal clear and overflowing with unmistakable pleasure, making my entire body go rigid where I sat on Kaelen’s bed.
Every breathless gasp and moan painted a vivid picture in my mind, one I absolutely did not want to imagine. Yet my fingers froze, too shocked to even pull the earpiece back out.
"Mmmh... fuck... deeper... I need it harder..." she continued, her breathing growing incredibly ragged, broken by little breathless whimpers that rose and fell in a rhythmic pace. "Yes... like that..."
The entire time, Skye stood beside the food cart, watching my expression transform as she struggled to hold back an enormous grin. The corners of her lips kept twitching upward, and her eyes sparkled with barely concealed amusement as she caught every horrified flinch that crossed my face while the audio fed me way more than I was ready for.
The woman’s breathless moans continued through the speaker, growing louder and louder until my discomfort reached its limit. My hand finally shot up, ready to rip the earpiece out of my ear.
Then a deep, commanding male voice suddenly cut through the noise.
"Shut up."
My hand froze.
That was Hawke.
I didn’t need a second to recognize him. That grating voice had already burned itself into my memory. It had become a permanent part of my nightmares.
This was followed by a loud smack of flesh echoing clearly through the audio feed, followed immediately by his low, demeaning growl.
"A slut shouldn’t moan in pleasure like she’s enjoying herself. You’re supposed to hate it."
The woman let out a shaky, breathless sound, only half of it from the pain of the strike, before she whimpered, "But you’re just so good..."
A violent shiver shot straight down my spine.
That woman’s voice suddenly sounded a little too familiar. Familiar enough that my heart lurched painfully in my chest.
No.
That couldn’t be.
"Is this... is this Chelsea?" I whispered frantically to Skye, my voice barely audible. Even though I knew the bug was strictly one-way, I couldn’t shake the irrational fear that they might somehow hear me.
Skye’s face immediately lit up, a silent cheer flashing across her features.
"Ding, ding, ding," she whispered back triumphantly.
I let out a long, heavy breath in absolute disbelief before finally pulling the earpiece from my ear, unable to listen to another second of the audio. My stomach churned violently.
"No way." I looked up at her, my thoughts spinning. "How? Why?"
I felt sick for Chelsea’s sake. Hawke was way too old for her, and worst of all, the man looked and acted like an absolute creep. Why would she ever willingly do something like that with him?
"Why else?" Skye said, instinctively stepping toward the bed to sit beside me. But she froze halfway there. Remembering whose bedroom she was standing in, she immediately backed away, taking two cautious steps to keep her distance from the Alpha King’s personal furniture.
"How else do you think someone like her has Hawke covering up all the terrible things she’s done around this estate? Of course they’re sleeping together. I’ve always suspected it, but until now, it was nothing more than speculation."
Those words made my hands curl tightly into fists against my knees.
A bitter taste settled on my tongue as I remembered all the times Chelsea had openly mocked me, calling me a slut.
And yet, it turned out we weren’t so different.
If anything, her situation was even more pathetic.
Unless...
Unless, of course, Hawke had something dark against her.
I knew I would have to keep listening eventually if I wanted the truth, but sitting there listening to them have sex for moon goddess knows how long was something I simply wasn’t mentally prepared for right now.
I held up the earpiece, frowning down at the tiny device in my hand.
"Does this thing have any kind of stored recording, or...?"
"Yes," Skye answered immediately.
She stepped closer and reached for the earpiece, pointing at the tiny controls built into the plastic casing.
"Paul said everything is recorded in real time on a secure server. So if you want to go back and listen to an earlier part, you just press here." She gently tapped a small switch on the side. "And if you want to skip ahead, you press this one. It stores everything automatically."
After she finished explaining, I let out a long, exhausted sigh before collapsing backward onto the mattress, staring blankly at the ceiling as the weight of everything finally settled over me.
"Skye?" I called softly into the quiet room.
"Yes?" she answered, the playful amusement from earlier instantly disappearing from her voice.
"Do you really believe what Maya said?" I asked quietly. "That the Alpha had something to do with this?"
Silence settled between us.
My fingers twitched anxiously against the bedsheets beside me while my heart pounded hard against my ribs as I waited for her answer.
Finally, Skye let out a slow breath.
When she spoke, her voice had dropped into a serious, guarded whisper.
"No."