Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 286

Aurora’s P.O.V

I had just taken a sip of juice, and the words hit me like a tidal wave. I choked, barely managing to keep from spitting it out, before a laugh burst from my lips.

"Wait, what?" 

Riley groaned, his small hands balling into fists on the table. "It’s not funny," he grumbled, scowling. His little nose scrunched in frustration, making it even harder not to laugh. 

"Oh, it is," I said between chuckles, wiping the corner of my mouth. "Millie, wanting to marry you when the two of you grow up? That’s hilarious." 

Riley crossed his arms, cheeks turning pink. "She doesn’t get to decide that! And I don’t even like her!"   

I exchanged a knowing glance with Mia, both of us struggling not to tease him further. Poor kid. Millie had made up her mind, and if there was one thing we both knew, it was that Millie didn’t back down easily.

Now, Riley was going to have a little shadow following him around all the time and I couldn’t wait to tell Caleb about his litter pursuer. Of course, it was all fun and games because Millie was a little wolf and would someday find her mate, but seeing how they were now, I couldn’t help but smile in joy at their innocent little play.

I held up my hands in surrender, my palms facing Riley as I tried to stifle the smile that was still tugging at my lips. "I didn’t say anything," I told him, my voice light, hoping to pacify his growing frustration. But he wasn’t having it. Riley puffed up his chubby cheeks, his little fists clenching at his sides as he glared at me with all the righteous anger a five-year-old could muster. 

"But you laughed!" he huffed, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. "And now I’m mad!" 

I bit the inside of my cheek, fighting the urge to giggle again because, honestly, he looked more adorable than intimidating. But I knew better than to tease him now. Riley took his feelings very seriously. Before I could say anything else, he pushed himself off the seat with a dramatic little huff and stomped away toward his room. 

"Wait for me!" Millie’s tiny voice piped up as she scrambled after him, her little legs working double-time to catch up. Her curly pigtails bounced with every hurried step, and just like that, the two of them disappeared down the hallway, their soft footfalls fading into the distance. 

With the kids finally out of sight, I turned to Mia, who had been sitting quietly this whole time, her hands curled around the mug in front of her. The light from the kitchen cast a faint glow on her face, but even in the dimness, I could see the way her shoulders were drawn up, how her gaze was fixed downward as if she were lost in her thoughts. 

I reached out, resting my hand over hers gently. "Hey," I murmured, watching her closely. "Are you okay?" 

Mia exhaled a slow breath through her nose, her lips pressing together in hesitation. Then, finally, she shook her head. "I don’t know," she admitted, her voice quiet, almost defeated. "I just… I don’t think I can have another conversation with him." 

I didn’t need to ask who she meant. Shane. Her ex-boyfriend, who never made their relationship official. The man she had once trusted with everything, and now… now he had become someone who she couldn’t even recognize. My chest ached at the raw vulnerability in her words, the way she seemed so small sitting there, curled into herself like she was trying to disappear.

"Did he—" I hesitated, choosing my words carefully. "Has he tried to reach out? Talk to you?" 

Mia shook her head again, her fingers tightening around the mug as if drawing warmth from it. "No. But that’s what scares me the most," she whispered. "Because I know it’s coming. I know he’s just waiting for the right moment." She swallowed hard, then let out a hollow laugh. "And I hate that I’m scared, Aurora. I hate that I’m afraid to just… talk to the boy I thought I would be spending forever with." 

My heart twisted painfully, and without thinking, I squeezed her hand a little tighter. "You don’t have to talk to him if you’re not ready," I told her firmly. "You don’t owe him anything, Mia. And you definitely don’t have to do this alone." 

She glanced up at me then, her brown eyes shimmering with something I couldn’t quite place—relief, maybe, or gratitude, or just the overwhelming weight of everything she’d been holding in. "I know," she whispered. "But I don’t know how much longer I can keep running from it." 

I didn’t have an answer for that. But what I did know was that no matter what happened next, she wouldn’t be facing it alone.