Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 356

Aurora’s P.O.V

The door clicked shut behind us, muffling the low hum of voices that still echoed in the hallway. I could feel my pulse thudding in my cheek where Maggie’s hand had landed, hot and sore beneath the surface. Caleb was right beside me, his hand steady on my lower back as he guided me toward the edge of the bed. The silence between us felt heavy—unspoken words pressing on both our chests, coiling in the air like smoke.

"Sit," he said gently, already moving toward the small cooler he kept tucked away in the corner of the room. I sat, biting the inside of my cheek to hold in a wince, though the sting had become more emotional than physical now.

Caleb returned moments later with a cloth-wrapped bundle of ice and knelt in front of me, his dark brows drawn together in quiet frustration. “She had no right,” he murmured, dabbing the cold compress to my cheek with a tenderness that nearly broke me. “I don’t care how angry she was. That... that wasn’t okay, Aurora. No one gets to lay a hand on you.”

I swallowed hard, blinking back the heat behind my eyes. “She was just trying to protect him,” I whispered. “She thought I hurt Ashton. That’s why she did it.”

Caleb’s jaw clenched, but he kept his touch gentle, his eyes searching mine. “And did you?”

“No.” The word escaped me as a breath. Then I exhaled fully, the weight of guilt twisting deep in my gut. “But… I feel like I did. I didn’t physically harm him, no. But I let him believe in me, in something I wasn’t even sure of. Ashton was the first one at Lucas’s den who treated me with kindness, who extended a hand in friendship. He gave me hope when I needed it the most. And now... he’s being interrogated like a criminal…and I can’t stop thinking it’s somehow my fault.”

Caleb’s eyes softened, but his mouth stayed a firm line. “That’s not on you. You hear me?” he said, voice lower now, almost gravelly. “What’s happening to Ashton was not your fault. You didn’t plan any of this. And maybe, even Ashton didn’t know the consequences of what he was doing. The magic could have adverse effects on him as well, and if anything, you just might have saved him from himself.”

“But at what cost?” I bit back, my voice cracking as I looked away from him. “Maybe Maggie’s right to hate me. Maybe I should’ve just handled this on my own without getting Alpha Camden involved…”

Caleb set the ice down and gently took my chin in his hand, turning my face back to his. “Stop. Don’t do that. You don’t get to hate yourself just because someone else doesn’t understand the full picture. Maggie is hurting, yes. She’s scared, and she’s angry, and all of that is clouding her judgment. But that does not justify what she did to you.”

I nodded slightly, the cold from the compress now numbing the ache but not the guilt. “I’m just saying… I get it. I get why she snapped. If I were her, and someone had done something like that to you, Caleb, I’d probably lose it too.”

His eyes flickered—something unreadable passing through them—but he didn’t deny it. Instead, he sighed and stood, pacing a few steps before turning back to face me. “We’ll get the verdict from Alice in the morning. She said she'd do a full read, no shortcuts, just the truth. Once that’s done, we’ll know for sure. It’s better safe than sorry.”

I looked down at my hands, feeling the weight of that truth. “You think I’m a bad person…for what I did?” I said quietly.

“No,” Caleb said immediately. “I think you’ve been through hell, and I think you’re scared. But I don’t think you’re a traitor, Aurora. I’ve seen what that looks like. You? You’re a survivor.”

I nodded again, though the knot in my throat remained. Caleb continued, “I can understand Maggie a little better now, especially since Ashton was the one who practically raised her since she was—what, twelve? The way she came at you—rage like that doesn’t just come from nowhere. She lost people, her mother and possibly her uncle as well. People she cared about. And she’s worried about losing Ashton as well. But…that’s the thing—this pack isn’t just one person’s grief. There are innocent lives here, and we had a close call with the rogues. We need to get to the bottom of this. For everyone’s sake.”

“I know,” I said, voice barely above a whisper.

He came closer again, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear and letting his hand linger for a moment on my shoulder. “So let’s wait until morning. Let Alice do her thing. No more guilt-tripping yourself. You’ve got me now, alright?”

I didn’t answer right away. I just looked at him—this man who always saw the good in me, even when I couldn’t. And for a moment, just a fleeting breath of peace, I let myself believe him. Maybe I wasn’t the villain of this story. Maybe I was just another broken piece trying to fit somewhere I didn’t belong.

And maybe, just maybe, Caleb was the only one keeping me from falling apart completely.

I nodded slowly, the air heavy with the weight of my own thoughts as I turned to Caleb. "I can't help but think," I said, my voice low and unsure, "that Harmona left that spell book in her room on purpose. I mean—come on—out of all the places to hide something like that, she chose her nightstand? Practically begging someone to find it. Ashton and Maggie didn’t just stumble upon it by accident. No, they were meant to find it. Lured in like moths to flame.”

Caleb furrowed his brows, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the edge of the bed. “Okay, but if Harmona and Lucas wanted them to find the book and mess around with magic, what for?” he asked, skeptical. “If the plan was always to sacrifice them… why even give them the tools to learn? Why not just keep them naive and helpless until the right moment? Why see if they were good or bad at magic? What was the point?”

That gave me pause.

Caleb was right—if power was all they needed, if they were just pawns for something darker, then why the elaborate theatrics? Why give Ashton and Maggie even a chance to become something more? Something stronger?

I bit my bottom lip, tugging it between my teeth as the pieces refused to line up. “There’s something here that doesn’t fit the equation,” I finally said, lifting my gaze to meet his. “Some variable we haven’t seen yet. A part of the plan that doesn’t align with the rest.”

He watched me quietly, waiting.

“It’s almost like…” I trailed off, trying to find the words that matched the feeling twisting in my gut. “Like Harmona wanted to watch what they would do with the magic. Maybe it wasn’t just about the sacrifice. Maybe it was some kind of test—or worse, a trap to see what they would become. Lucas didn’t do anything without purpose. If he wanted darkness to rise in them, this could’ve been the perfect way to breed it.”

Caleb ran a hand down his face and sighed. “And if that’s true, then it means they were trying to create something… not just destroy.”

The thought made my stomach turn. “Yeah,” I said quietly, feeling like we were back to square one once again. “But it still doesn’t add up, does it? If we were all meant to be sacrificed…then why let them learn magic at all...”