Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 329

Aurora’s P.O.V

The sun was beginning to lower into the horizon, casting the sky in swirls of pale orange and lavender. The salty wind brushed against my cheeks as we headed towards Ashton and Maggie, the pebbles crunching under my feet. I could hear the waves lapping softly against the shore ahead, and somewhere beneath it all, a heaviness pressed against my chest—a sense of urgency I couldn’t shake.

I needed to talk to them. I needed to understand what was going on inside their heads. Ashton had been too quiet lately, and Maggie… she had told me about Ashton knowing magic even before he turned eighteen. Something wasn’t adding up, and I needed to figure out what it was.

I turned slightly, glancing at Avery walking beside me. She hadn’t said much either, just offered me a look earlier that I couldn’t quite read. Maybe she felt it too—this strange distance that had settled between us all, like the tide pulling us apart without us even noticing. I was rehearsing the questions in my head, the gentle ones that wouldn’t make them defensive, the ones that would get them to open up, when I saw them.

Ashton and Maggie were crouched low near the shoreline, their backs to us, their silhouettes still against the shifting colors of the sea. Something about the way they leaned forward made me pause. There was no tension in their bodies, no whispering, no laughter. Just… stillness.

“What are they doing?” I asked Avery under my breath, narrowing my eyes.

She shrugged slightly but didn’t answer. Instead, we both began making our way down toward them, stepping over the dampened sand, the cool ocean breeze now stronger against our skin. As we got closer, I saw it.

A tiny turtle.

It lay there, unmoving, its delicate limbs splayed out on the sand like a broken toy. My breath caught in my throat. For a second, the world around me seemed to hush, the waves fading into a far-off echo. I forgot about the questions I came here to ask. My heart simply clenched.

“Oh…” The sound escaped me before I could stop it, soft and aching. “What happened?”

Ashton turned his head slightly, his eyes finding mine. There was something raw in them. Not dramatic or overwhelming—but quiet. The kind of sadness that doesn’t need a performance.

“He’s dead,” he said, voice low, barely above the sound of the tide. “Might’ve gotten lost. Maybe the waves carried him here.”

I dropped to my knees beside him without thinking, staring at the small creature. “He’s so little…”

Maggie was silent, her gaze fixed on the turtle like she was hoping it would suddenly move. Maybe she was imagining it would twitch, or blink, or miraculously crawl back toward the sea. But it didn’t.

Ashton reached out gently, brushing a bit of sand away from the turtle’s shell. “They hatch and try to find the moonlight, you know? That’s how they know which way to go. But if there are lights from houses or cars or anything else, they get confused. They go the wrong way.”

I looked at him, really looked at him. There was something in the way he said it—like he wasn’t just talking about the turtle. Like maybe he was talking about himself. About all of us.

“They get lost,” I echoed, my voice barely audible. “And they don’t make it.”

“Yeah.” He glanced at me, eyes meeting mine for a moment longer than necessary. “Yeah.”

I felt something shift in my chest. The questions I’d rehearsed seemed suddenly small. Insignificant. Maybe this moment was already answering some of them. Maybe the silence, the way they huddled together like this, was their way of grieving something they didn’t know how to name.

Maggie finally spoke, her voice tight. “He never even had a chance.”

I reached out slowly and placed my hand on her back, rubbing in small circles. “He was trying,” I whispered. “He was just trying to find his way.”

We all sat there for a moment, four of us surrounding this tiny, lifeless body as if it had been someone we knew. I couldn’t explain why it hit me so hard. Maybe because everything lately felt just as fragile—like we were all just one wrong light away from getting lost.

Then suddenly…a strangled sob broke the moment.

Avery dropped to her knees on the wet sand, her hands trembling as she cradled the lifeless creature against her chest. Her sobs echoed around us, raw and heart-wrenching, like the very sound of something breaking inside her. I had never seen her like this—so shattered, so desperate. She wasn’t just crying; she was begging, her voice quivering with hopelessness as she looked up at Ashton with tear-streaked cheeks.

“Please,” she choked out, clinging to the creature like she could warm it back to life with her touch. “Ashton, you have to help me. Do something—please, just bring it back. It wasn’t supposed to die, it—it didn’t deserve this!”

I felt my heart squeeze painfully as I took a hesitant step toward her. “Avery…” I said softly, unsure if I should even say the words that weighed heavy on my tongue. “Sometimes… we don’t get to fix what’s broken. Sometimes when something is gone, it—”

But I didn’t get to finish.

“I can try.”

Ashton’s voice cut through the air like lightning slicing across a stormy sky. My eyes darted to him, startled, as he stepped forward, his usual calm demeanor replaced by something darker, more intense. Avery’s head snapped up, hope flickering in her eyes like the last ember of a dying fire.

I blinked. “Wait, what?” My voice was barely above a whisper. “You can do that?”

He nodded, kneeling beside Avery, and for a moment, his fingers hovered above the creature’s small, still body. “It depends,” he said carefully, “on how long it’s been gone.”

“You mean—time matters?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around the idea. Magic had its rules, sure, but this—this was flirting with the impossible.

“Yes,” he said, glancing up at me, and I caught a strange glint in his eyes. “It’s actually a simple spell. Not easy, but simple. The thing is… there’s a window. A soul—whether it belongs to a human, animal, or something supernatural—doesn’t immediately cross over. There’s a threshold of time. If I can catch it before it fully leaves this plane, I can bring it back.”

“But if it’s already gone…?” I asked, barely able to breathe.

“Then there’s nothing I can do.”

I felt the weight of that sentence like a stone dropping into my chest. Avery’s hands clenched tighter, her lips trembling. “It’s probably only been a few minutes,” she whispered urgently. “Ashton, please. I’ll do anything—just bring it back. You have to.”

I looked at her, then at him, torn between disbelief and hope. I had spent my whole life believing in the finality of death. I’d buried people, creatures, and dreams. I’d looked at lifeless eyes and felt the echo of absence. But now… Ashton was saying there might be a way. A loophole. A miracle.

My voice was hoarse when I spoke again. “You’re serious. You can really do this?”

“I can try,” Ashton said, his tone firm but not unkind. “But we’re racing against time. And if we’re too late…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Avery looked at me, desperation shining so brightly in her gaze I had to look away. I couldn’t stand to see her fall apart. Not like this.

“Then try,” she whispered. “Please. Just try.”

I stared in stunned silence, my mind struggling to grasp what I'd just heard—bringing someone back from the dead? That wasn’t something you just said out loud. But before I could even question it, my eyes widened.

Ashton’s hand… it was glowing. A soft red light pulsed from his palm as he hovered it over the turtle’s still body. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. All I could do was watch and wonder—is this really happening?