Chapter 230 - 0230

Lorelei POV

Raven.

With everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours, Kaelen’s breakdown, his terrifying relapse, and the agonizing confession he had made beneath the blanket, I had completely forgotten to call her back. I hadn’t even gotten back to Emily either.

Fuck. At this rate, I was going to lose my entire social life and spend the rest of my life waiting for Kaelen to stop being busy long enough to remember I existed. That was a horrifying way to live.

And Raven had no idea what kind of storm I had been caught in, let alone what had happened with Jaxen.

"Excuse me for a moment," I said to Margot, offering her a quick smile before stepping toward the far corner of the open balcony attached to my new chambers. It gave me a little privacy from the decorators moving furniture around inside.

I swiped across the screen and pressed the phone to my ear, my smile widening at the thought of finally getting to talk to her. Maybe I could even ask about Skye and find out whether that awkward tension between them had finally disappeared.

"Hey, Raven," I said almost immediately. "I’m so sorry I didn’t—"

"Lorelei..."

She interrupted me so abruptly that I stopped.

Her voice was sharp and breathless, but there was something else beneath it. Something dark and panicked that made my heart skip.

"Where are you right now?" she asked. "Are you somewhere safe?"

My smile disappeared.

I straightened, my fingers tightening around the phone as a cold wave of dread washed over me.

What did she mean, where was I? I was still at Kaelen’s estate, surrounded by enough security to make breaking in nearly impossible. Why wouldn’t I be safe?

"What’s wrong?" I asked immediately, leaning against the balcony railing. "What happened?"

"It’s Jaxen," she choked out.

The raw panic in her voice made my blood run cold.

For a second, my mind went straight to the possibility that she had somehow found out Jaxen knew I was alive.

And while seeing him again still made my stomach twist, I wasn’t completely helpless here.

Kaelen would protect me.

He was literally the Alpha King. Jaxen couldn’t touch me inside this estate.

I tried to reassure her, forcing out a small laugh. "Ah, about that... I was actually planning on telling you sooner, but I completely forgot. Silly me, I—"

"You don’t understand," she cut in, her tone wiping the fake laugh right off my face. "He called me."

At those words, my grip tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white.

"He called?" My voice came out much lower than I intended. I swallowed, suddenly unable to shake the uneasiness crawling up my spine. "What... what did he say?"

"A lot of absolute bullshit," Raven replied, her heavy breathing coming through the speaker. "He was talking about how he finally found you, but that you’re being held against your will by the Alpha King."

I shook my head, my brow furrowing deeply. "What? Held against my will? What kind of rubbish is he telling people? I’m not being held captive by anyone!"

"I know that!" Raven snapped, clearly frustrated with the situation rather than me. "Anyone with a working brain cell knows the Alpha King has found love again. That’s not even the problem, Lorelei. Jaxen has completely lost his mind. He’s talking about getting you back. He said he’d go to any length to reclaim you, even if it means going directly against the Alpha King!"

My jaw dropped as shock gave way to a surge of frustration. I dragged a hand through my hair before pressing my fingers against my temple.

"He’s already married to my sister!" I hissed, my voice rising before I remembered the decorators inside and forced myself to lower it. "She’s heavily pregnant with his child! He got the Alpha position! What more could he possibly want from me? Why can’t he just pretend I stayed dead?!"

"I don’t know, Lorelei. I don’t know..." Raven’s voice trembled, sounding dangerously close to tears, which was strange as Raven wasn’t one to shed tears so easily. "He doesn’t sound like the brother I left behind anymore. Even when he thought you were dead, he wasn’t this unhinged. I’ve never heard him like this before. He genuinely believes the two of you are meant to be together, and I’m terrified."

My stomach tightened.

"I’m terrified he’s going to do something completely insane to you. I’m worried he might actually hurt you."

Hearing those words from her was enough to set off every alarm bell in my head. But instead of letting panic take over, I forced myself to draw in a slow, deep breath, grounding myself before my thoughts could spiral.

I wasn’t the same Lorelei I used to be. I wasn’t that abused, broken girl who had spent years begging for scraps of love and accepting whatever little affection people were willing to throw her way. I had survived too much to let fear cloud my judgment that easily now.

"Raven, you need to calm down," I said, keeping my voice soft and steady in an attempt to anchor her. "Listen to me... did he say anything specific? Did he give you any idea how he plans to get me back?"

"No, he didn’t," Raven replied with a sniffle. "He just kept rambling for over an hour. And the more I tried to reason with him, the worse he got. He became more aggressive, and honestly, Lorelei, it was freaking me out."

A small sigh of relief slipped from my lips.

That was almost what I had expected.

Jaxen had always been a coward when it came down to it. He couldn’t even stand up to his own father or the pack elders to protect me back then, so how exactly did he expect to steal me away from a man as fiercely possessive as Kaelen?

Confronting Kaelen directly would practically be a suicide mission.

"I’ll talk to Kaelen about this as soon as he gets back," I reassured her. "I’m sure Jaxen is just throwing around empty threats because he can’t handle the humiliation he suffered at the banquet, but it’s better to be safe than sorry."