Lorelei POV
Should I baby-trap him?
The thought followed all the way back to my room as I changed into a fresh, clean uniform.
It was a stupid idea.
A desperate one.
But if Callista had managed to use a pregnancy to steal Jaxen from , wasn’t there a chance it could work on him too?
Dammit.
"Get a grip, Lorelei," I whispered to myself, my voice trembling as I carefully fastened the high collar of my gray dress to hide the dark bite marks scattered across my neck.
Alpha Kaelen was known across the territories for his cruelty.
And from what I had gathered, he was already in his thirties.
So what kind of man reached that age, especially a ruthless Alpha King, without producing an heir for an empire that practically demanded one?
If he wanted a child, he would have chosen a high-born alpha female from a powerful pack.
Not a naless captured maid.
If anything, he would see the pregnancy for exactly what it was: a trap.
And then he’d probably drive a sword straight through my stomach just to erase the insult.
The thought made shudder.
I was still pacing back and forth across my room when the door suddenly swung open, causing to flinch.
But it was only Skye.
The second she saw , her eyes widened and she hurried over.
"Where have you been?" she demanded, her voice sharp with concern. "You didn’t co back last night."
My heart nearly stopped.
Of course, I couldn’t tell her the truth, so I scrambled for a lie.
"I got lost," I said, and her brow imdiately furrowed.
"This place is huge," I quickly added. "I was trying to get to my next chore and ended up losing my way. I was too embarrassed to ask anyone for help, so I just found sowhere to sleep until morning."
The mont the words left my mouth, she let out a long sigh of relief.
"Here I was thinking you’d escaped."
That made my brow twitch because I could do that. That had been the plan all along, after all.
"I had to cover for you, you know," she continued, crossing her arms. "Otherwise, people would have started asking questions."
Hearing that, I forced a grateful smile.
"Thank you," I said. "I owe you big ti."
She waved her hand dismissively.
"Just don’t do it again. If Mrs. Vex had noticed you were missing, she would have had both our heads."
That made swallow the lump in my throat. My fingers twisted nervously at my side before I blurted out,
"What’s the Alpha like?"
The words left my mouth before I could stop them, and my heart imdiately dropped as I realized what a massive gamble I had just taken.
What a stupid question.
Within seconds, Skye’s face turned pale.
"Why... why do you ask?" she whispered.
Well, I was just in bed with him, so I’m trying to figure out exactly how fast I could get killed.
"Just curious," I replied instead. "I’ve heard stories about him, but you’ve been here for two years. I figured there might be so truth to them. Or maybe people are just exaggerating."
"Exaggerating?" she repeated in a harsh whisper.
Then she imdiately stepped back and glanced toward the door, making sure it was fully closed before turning back to .
"Ella, whatever horrific stories you’ve heard about Alpha Kaelen, double them. That man is practically a monster. He’s so evil that I heard even his mate couldn’t stand him and ran away."
My brows furrowed.
"He had a mate?" I asked, unable to hide my shock.
"That’s what I heard." Skye nodded. "I wasn’t here when it happened, but people who witnessed it said it was one of the worst periods this palace has ever seen. They say he was... different before."
"Different how?" I asked, and she shrugged.
"Not kind exactly," she replied, "but not the monster he is now. When she left, sothing inside him snapped."
Hearing that, a strange feeling settled in my stomach.
"What happened to her?"
Skye shook her head.
"No one knows. She just vanished one day. So people say she escaped. Others say he killed her and buried her sowhere no one would ever find her."
She lowered her voice even further.
"But everyone agrees on one thing."
"What’s that?"
"Never ntion her. Never ask about her. He’s been known to execute people on the spot for even speaking her na."
A heavy silence settled between us while I stood there trying to process all this new information.
He had a mate.
A mate who left him.
I have been celibate for too long.
His words echoed through my mind, sending an uncomfortable shiver down my spine.
Was that because of her?
If it was, then I had practically signed my own death warrant.
Which was all the more reason to get out of this place before it was too late.
***
Like the Moon Goddess had finally read my thoughts, one of my chores during my afternoon shift was to sweep the outer courtyard and collect the fallen leaves that had blown against the estate’s back walls.
It was a simple task. Mindless. Perfect for soone in my state of mind.
The courtyard was massive, surrounded by high stone walls topped with iron spikes. Guards patrolled the periter, but they were few and far between in this section. Most of them were stationed near the main gates or the Alpha’s wing.
I swept slowly, letting my eyes scan every corner of the yard, and that’s when I spotted a loading dock tucked away behind the kitchen’s exterior wall.
A large truck was backed up to it, and workers were hauling crates out of the building and stacking them into the vehicle.
It looked like supplies being delivered sowhere outside the estate.
My grip tightened around the broom.
Noting that none of the guards were looking in my direction, I quickened my pace and ducked behind a large, crumbling stone fountain near the edge of the courtyard, close to the east wing’s outer wall. The fountain had long since stopped working, its basin dry and filled with dead leaves, but the structure was massive enough to hide completely.
This area was quieter than the rest of the yard, probably because it was so close to the old servants’ cetery. The very sa cetery where I would likely end up buried if I didn’t find a way out of here.
The guards were even fewer here, likely assuming nobody would be stupid enough to hide so close to a place like that.
Well, here I was.
From behind the fountain, I had a clear view of the loading dock. I crouched lower, watching the driver, a middle-aged man, lean against the side of his truck with a cigarette hanging from his lips and boredom written all over his face.
Another reason to be grateful for having little to no scent. It made it a lot harder for him, or anyone else, to notice I was hiding nearby.
The workers moved in and out as they stacked the crates while I counted the minutes between trips, noting where they placed the heaviest boxes.
When the last few crates were loaded, the workers stepped back, and the driver flicked his cigarette away before climbing into the truck and starting the engine.
I watched as the truck rumbled toward the gates.
The guards waved it through without even looking inside the back.
Because why would they?
It was just supplies.
No one would notice if there was one extra crate in that truck.
Or one extra person.
My hands trembled around the broom as I exhaled softly and made a ntal note of everything I had seen. I could already picture it.
Maybe today.
Maybe tomorrow.
But I was going to escape.
"What are we hiding from?"
A voice suddenly whispered so close to my ear that I nearly jumped out of my skin.
A soft gasp escaped as I spun around so fast that I twisted my ankle. Just as I was about to fall flat on my face, a pair of strong hands caught by the waist.
I slamd into a hard, solid chest, and an unfamiliar yet overpowering scent imdiately filled my lungs.
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