Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 348

Aurora’s P.O.V

The hallway felt like it stretched on forever, each step echoing in my ears like a countdown to something inevitable. My palms were clammy, and no matter how many times I wiped them against my jeans, the sweat kept coming back. Caroline walked beside me in silence, her hands nervously picking at her sleeves, while Caleb kept pace on my other side. I kept my gaze fixed ahead, trying to keep my breathing steady, but it was useless. My heart felt like it was trapped in a cage, banging against my ribs, desperate to escape.

“Aurora,” Caleb said softly, breaking the silence. I turned to glance at him, and his face was laced with concern, even though he was trying to play it cool. “Ashton and Maggie are already in the office. We’re keeping Avery away for now… figured it’s better she doesn’t hear any of this yet.”

A lump formed in my throat at the mention of Avery. Sweet, innocent Avery. She didn’t deserve to be dragged into this yet—whatever this was. I nodded quickly, blinking hard to push away the burn in my eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “Seriously. Thank you for thinking of her.”

He gave me a small nod, and we walked the rest of the way in silence until we reached the heavy oak door to the Alpha’s office. Caleb didn’t knock. He just pushed it open, and the three of us stepped inside.

The air felt heavy. Tense. My eyes instantly landed on a woman curled up on one side of the couch, her body shaking as she sobbed uncontrollably. Her arms were wrapped around herself like she was trying to keep from falling apart, and she leaned into a man who sat next to her with a silent, stoic kind of pain. He didn’t say anything. He just held her, his hand rubbing slow circles on her back. But the energy coming off of him was… powerful. Familiar, in the same way Caleb’s was. He was a wolf.

Alpha Camden stood behind his desk, his arms folded across his chest, and the moment we walked in, he motioned for us to come closer. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were tight with restraint, and that never meant anything good.

He cleared his throat. “Aurora, Caleb, Caroline… thank you for coming so quickly.” He gestured toward the couple on the couch. “This is Mary and Beta Hunter. They’re from the Timber Valley Pack. Mary is…” He paused for just a moment, and my breath hitched in my throat as he turned to look directly at me. “She’s Violet’s biological mother.”

Everything around me fell away. I could hear the words. I knew what they meant. But it still didn’t make sense. Not right away.

Mary lifted her head slowly, her eyes red and swollen from crying. And God, the pain on her face—it gutted me. Her hands trembled as she looked at me, really looked at me, and something in her expression shifted. Her bottom lip quivered. “You… you’re one of them, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice cracking.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I felt frozen in place, staring at a woman who had given birth to Violet, and who was now here, broken, too late to take back the years that had already passed. I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel. Guilt? Compassion? Grief? All of it swirled inside me, so violently that it made my hands shake.

Caleb stepped closer to me, his hand brushing mine. It was a simple gesture, but it grounded me just enough.

Alpha Camden exhaled heavily and walked around his desk. “Mary and Hunter came after getting word of the incident. They didn’t know Violet was even alive until recently… and now, with what happened…” He trailed off, and I could see the guilt etched into every line of Mary’s face.

The room was thick with silence as we all stood there, not knowing what to do. It was one of those silences that clung to the walls like dust—heavy, ancient, and unwilling to be disturbed.

Then my eyes went to the couch opposite to Violet’s parent’s—Ashton and Maggie. Sitting huddled together as if they needed the constant comfort, eyes downcast, shoulders slumped, as if the air in the room itself weighed a hundred pounds. Ashton’s hands were clenched into fists, resting on the tabletop, while Maggie wrung a tissue in her hands until it looked like little more than shredded regret.

Finally, Mary’s eyes lifted—slowly—and locked onto mine. There was no anger there. No blame. Just this unbearable, hollow ache. I had to fight the instinct to look away.

“How long,” she rasped, voice cracking like brittle glass, “how long did you know my daughter for, Aurora?”

My breath hitched. I hadn’t prepared for that question. I hadn’t prepared for any of this. I could barely speak as the truth bubbled up from my gut like acid.

“Two days,” I whispered. “I only knew her for two days.”

Mary stared at me, unblinking. Then the sob broke out of her chest so suddenly, so violently, that I flinched as though someone had slammed a door behind me. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth, but the pain was already loose in the room, raw and echoing off every wall.

“Two days…” she repeated in disbelief, turning toward Beta Hunter, “She knew my daughter for two days, and look at how it broke her. And you—you two—” Her voice rose, jagged and full of rage as she turned towards Ashton and Maggie. “You knew her for almost a year—and you did nothing!”

Ashton’s eyes lifted, guilt swimming in their depths. Maggie opened her mouth to speak, shaking her head, but her voice faltered before she could say anything. She tried again, soft and desperate.

“Mary, it—it was a hectic situation. We barely managed to escape ourselves. We didn’t have time. We didn’t have options.”

“No,” Mary snapped, rising suddenly from her chair. The sound of it scraping against the floor jolted all of us. “You did escape. You are here. Alive. Safe. Breathing. Living. While my daughter—my sweet, brave, forgotten daughter—is dead somewhere, buried by silence and fear. You escaped,” she hissed, “but she didn’t.”

A sob clawed out of her throat, her voice breaking entirely now. “She was left behind!”

The room imploded. No one could meet her eyes. Ashton dropped his gaze to the floor. Maggie bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. And me—I just stood there, paralyzed, useless, guilt crawling over me like vines made of fire.

Because I had abandoned Violet too. I had walked away…I had fled when I should’ve looked back. I’d told myself it wasn’t my war. That what happened was an accident and we were all equally guilty…but not at fault at the same time. But even in the one day I’d known her, she had looked at me with those eyes—like she still had hope in humanity. And I’d let that light dim. I hadn’t even stayed to look back…to check if someone was left behind.

“I should have done more,” I said, voice barely audible, cracking at the edges. “I should’ve stayed.”

Mary didn’t look at me again. She turned away, curling into herself like someone who had nothing left to give. “You all should have,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. “You all should have.”

And in that moment, it felt like none of us deserved to walk out of that room without carrying her sorrow on our backs.