Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 309

Caleb’s P.O.V

Jade took a step back like the information had physically struck him. “We were fighting corpses. Reanimated. That’s why they didn’t speak. That’s why they didn’t stop.”

I felt a chill crawl down my spine, every hair on my body standing on end. “Then the real enemy wasn’t them,” I murmured. “It’s whoever brought them back.”

Alpha Camden didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His silence was louder than any howl. The war we thought we’d been fighting just changed shape.

And we were already too deep in it.

I stood there, arms folded tightly across my chest, trying to make sense of the rising chill that seemed to have seeped into the very air we breathed. The hallway was dimly lit, a faint hum of tension vibrating beneath the sterile silence. And then, Alice stepped out of the room, the door clicking shut softly behind her.

She looked pale, her eyes flickering with that haunting sort of knowledge—the kind that weighs heavier than words can carry. The doctor lingered behind her, his expression unreadable, as if he too hadn’t yet fully grasped the implications of what they’d just discovered.

Alice swallowed hard before speaking. “The bodies… they’re gone.”

My brows furrowed. “Gone?”

“Decayed,” she clarified, voice thin and brittle, like a thread about to snap. “They didn’t just decompose. They… reverted. It’s like… whatever was holding them together—some kind of magic—it just gave out. The bodies turned to dust. Literally.”

Murmurs rippled through the group. I caught the slight shift in my father’s jaw as he processed the words, his usual calm beginning to fracture.

“You guys have it right though, they were resurrected,” she said, glancing at the doctor, who gave a small, silent nod of confirmation. “Something brought them back… and when that force faded, they returned to what they should’ve been all along. Dust to dust.”

A sick weight settled in my stomach. My gaze lingered on the spot just beyond Alice, as if I could bring the bodies back into existence—anything to disprove what I already knew was true. I turned to my father slowly, my voice quiet, but laced with the sharp edge of suspicion. “Is history repeating itself?”

His brows drew together as he turned to face me. “What do you mean?”

I stepped closer, lowering my voice, though my words held the heat of panic barely restrained. “This feels too familiar. You remember what happened with Aurora’s stepfather, don’t you? He was dead, for three days, and then—he showed up to terrorize Aurora. And now this?” I gestured toward the room Alice had just emerged from. “These rogues died, but they came back. And now they’re dust. This isn’t just necromancy gone wrong. There’s a pattern.”

Father’s eyes narrowed, flickering with the kind of intensity I knew all too well. “Caleb… Harmona and Lucas died. We saw them. You saw what happened to them. They were crushed. Bones shattered. You won't come back from that.”

“But what if it didn’t matter?” I pressed. “If they were using magic to keep themselves alive for centuries, what’s a broken body? What if there’s a spell that activates after death? Or worse—what if someone else is pulling the strings? Someone powerful enough to mimic what happened before.”

Alpha Camden looked around the room, tension rippling through his shoulders. He didn’t like where this was heading—I could see it. “If someone is behind this, then they’re playing a long game,” he muttered. “One I don’t think we’re prepared for.”

“No,” I agreed, running a hand through my hair. “But we need to find out who. Because if this is anything like what happened before… then we’re already steps behind. And we both know what happened the last time we were caught off guard.”

Father looked at me for a long moment, eyes dark and calculating. “Alpha Jackson confirmed their deaths,” he said, as if speaking the memory out loud would somehow anchor it in reality.

“And I believed they were dead,” I said, my voice softening. “I really did. But so was Aurora’s stepfather. And Harmona and Lucas brought him back.” I met his gaze fully then. “Tell me this doesn’t feel the same. Tell me you don’t feel it too—that pull in your gut that says this is more than just coincidence.”

The silence that followed was deafening.