Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 342

Aurora’s P.O.V

My stomach clenched at the sudden implication of the bracelet, and a couldn’t help this unsettling feeling blooming in my chest.

Maggie and Jade? Together?

How? When? What the hell was going on?

My voice wavered before I could even stop myself. “Maggie,” I said more carefully now, eyes locked on her wrist, “that bracelet… it looks just like Jade’s.” I didn’t mean to sound accusing, but maybe I did. Maybe the question was loaded, and maybe I already knew the answer. But I needed her to say it. I needed her to lie or confess—either would settle the storm brewing in my chest.

She froze, like a puppet whose strings had just been yanked tight. Her fingers stilled on the bracelet and she slowly turned to look at me. Her eyes—usually warm, always familiar—suddenly looked foreign. Scared. “Aurora…” she whispered, and then looked away, swallowing hard.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My stomach twisted.

“Maggie,” I said again, softer this time. “Does that bracelet belong to Jade?”

There was a pause. Too long. A silence that screamed.

Finally, she looked at me, eyes glassy. “If I tell you,” she whispered, voice barely audible over the rustling wind, “you can’t tell anyone. You can’t, Aurora. Please.”

I stared at her. My little half-sister. The girl who cried with me under the stars when everything else felt like it was crumbling…the girl that I had fought beside and survived a monster. And here she was, asking me to keep a secret that already tasted like betrayal in the back of my throat.

“Maggie…” My voice cracked. “What is going on? Please…just tell me.”

She bit her lip so hard I thought she might draw blood. “Just promise me first,” she begged, “promise me you won’t say anything to anyone. Not Ashton. Not Caleb. No one.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shake her and ask her why it felt like the ground was tilting beneath my feet. I wanted to rewind ten minutes ago when I thought that bracelet was a brotherly gift from Ashton and not a sign of something else. Something bigger. Something that might shatter more than just my trust.

Now she was asking me to keep this from my own mate? How? That was almost impossible!

But instead, I whispered, “Okay… I promise.” Even though I wasn’t sure I meant it.

And that’s when she finally exhaled. Like she’d been holding her breath for days. And my heart braced for the storm she was about to unleash.

“I…like Jade.”

The world around me came to a screeching halt.

I looked at Maggie, still holding onto the edge of the couch, the evening light slipping through the blinds and casting lines across her face like prison bars. Something about the way she kept fidgeting with the hem of her sweater didn’t sit right with me. Her silence was stretching too long, like a rubber band about to snap, and when she finally glanced up at me, her eyes flickered with something—hope, maybe… or guilt?

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice coming out softer than I expected, even though a thousand things were beginning to churn inside my chest. “You said you like Jade?” I blinked, heart stuttering as I tried to piece together the words she’d just said like they were puzzle pieces that didn’t fit. “Like… like, like?”

Maggie bit her lip, her cheeks blooming with color, and for a second, she looked so young—so unsure—that I almost reached out to grab her hand. Almost. “Yeah,” she whispered, almost like she was afraid the word might shatter something between us. “I think I do. I didn’t plan it, Aurora. I really didn’t. It just… happened. And I think—I really think he likes me too.”

I stared at her, jaw slack. I wasn’t even sure what emotion was crawling through me. Confusion? Shock? Betrayal? “Maggie…” I shook my head slowly. “I had no idea. I mean, you and Jade—you talk, but I didn’t think it was like that.” I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice. Jade had always been around, always present, especially when Maggie was around, and now that I thought about it…they had been sitting close together during meals as well.

I wanted to think that it was just friendship, or that Jade was offering a helping hand towards Maggie to help her adapt faster. But now…the implication of this new revelation didn’t sit right with me at all.

Maggie gave a little shrug, her fingers still twisting that damn sweater hem. “It started with these late-night talks. After the runs, when everyone was asleep. We’d stay back, and… he listens to me. He really listens. He remembers things I say. He—he told me once that he liked the way my laugh sounds, especially when I’m not trying to hold it in.” Her lips quivered into this sheepish little smile, and I felt my stomach twist.

Because Jade wasn’t just any human or even a witch. He was a wolf. A wolf…over eighteen years of age.

A heavy silence settled between us. My breath hitched as I stepped closer, the air between us suddenly thick with something I didn’t want to name. “Maggie,” I said slowly, almost carefully, like I was walking barefoot over glass, “has he… said anything about mates? About—” I swallowed hard. “About you being his mate?”

The way she froze told me everything before she even opened her mouth. Her eyes darted away, down to the floor, like she couldn’t bear to meet my gaze. My heart sank like a stone thrown into a lake—no splash, no sound, just the weight of it dragging me under.

“Maggie…” I whispered again, already knowing the answer but needing to hear it anyway. “Did he ever tell you anything about you being his mate? Or anything about mates at all?”

She hesitated. That was it. A flicker of hesitation. Her brows furrowed, and her lips parted like she wanted to say something—but didn’t. And in that moment, the silence was louder than any scream.

I felt cold all over. Like the world had shifted and I didn’t know where to stand anymore.