Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 378

Aurora’s P.O.V

I felt sick. "God, Caleb! I keep telling you but you’re not listening!" My chest rose and fell faster, each inhale making my ribs scream. "I didn’t fall, damnit! I swear to you. I don’t know what’s going on, but something about last night… it wasn’t right."

He hesitated for a long moment, then finally moved closer, brushing hair away from my face with a tenderness that nearly undid me. "Okay," he said finally, softly. "Okay. If you’re sure… we’ll figure it out. I believe you."

I wasn’t sure what was worse—the ache in my body, or the terror that something even worse than Lucas and Harmona’s terror might be going on.

"Please," I whispered, tears burning at the corners of my eyes, "Don’t leave me alone tonight."

"You think I could?" he said, voice thick with emotion, and then he tucked himself beside me, his arms wrapping gently around my trembling body. "I’m not going anywhere, Aurora. I swear."

But even in his arms, I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever had happened last night… was just the beginning.

“What about Ashton and Maggie?” I asked suddenly, remember the danger hovering over them. “Are they safe? Are they okay? I was running after them…I tried to reach them, but…it felt like they couldn’t hear me.”

“Ashton and Maggie?” Caleb frowned, looking to the side. And that’s where I noticed Caroline, sitting off the side, looking worried.

“Caroline?”

“It’s alright, Aurora.” She gave me a reassuring smile, but it didn’t really reach her eyes. “I think you must have mistaken something. You…didn’t make it to Ashton and Maggie.”

"That's not true!" I blurted, my voice rising higher than I intended. "I did catch up to Ashton and Maggie. I saw them just—"

But my sentence was sliced in half like paper through a blade when a voice, all too familiar and unmistakably smug, rose from the far side of the room.

"I never saw you."

Ashton.

My breath hitched, and I turned around slowly, my heart suddenly heavy, like someone had tied a rock to it and tossed it into a river. There he was, leaning against the arm of the arm of the couch, his expression filled with concern, an expression I didn’t trust any longer. Maggie was seated beside him, looking as pristine and innocent as ever, and right next to her… was Avery.

But Avery wasn’t looking at me with her usual warmth or mischievous grin. Her face was pale, almost gray under the light, and there was a white bandage wrapped firmly around her head.

My stomach twisted. It was at that same spot…

"Avery?" I breathed, my voice trembling slightly. "What… what happened to you?"

She didn’t answer. Her lips barely moved, but before she could utter a word, Ashton stepped in, again.

"Last night, Maggie started feeling a bit off, so I took her back to our place early. When we got there, we found Avery in the bathroom, injured. She had slipped on the bathroom floor. She hit her head. Fell while taking a shower." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but I saw the way his jaw clenched—tight, rehearsed. Like a line he’d practiced.

I looked at Avery again, her eyes darting between Ashton and Maggie, then to me, but she still didn’t say anything. Her silence hit harder than any spoken word. Because it solidified my resolve even further.

"Is that true?" I asked her directly, my voice gentler this time, hoping to crack through whatever shell they’d placed around her.

Avery hesitated—only for a second, but long enough.

"Yeah," she whispered, "it was nothing. I’m okay now."

Nothing.

It didn’t feel like anything. None of this did.

Something was off.

I could feel it in my bones. The way Maggie kept looking everywhere but at me. The way Ashton delivered the story too cleanly, like a script he couldn’t afford to mess up. And Avery’s eyes—God, her eyes—they looked like they were screaming behind a glass wall no one else seemed to notice.

I swallowed hard. "I know what I saw," I said, barely above a whisper now, almost like I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else. "I saw you both. I swear I did."

"You must be confused," Maggie said, finally speaking, her voice sugar-sweet but laced with something sharp underneath. "You must’ve seen someone else."

I wanted to protest, even as my heart thudding in my ears. I looked at Caleb, then back at the trio in front of me. This wasn’t the right time…if I kept on charging them with questions, I didn’t think it would lead anywhere. They were guarding some kind of secret, and I think I might just have stumbled upon something that they hadn't comprehended.

The room felt like it was tilting. Everything was spinning but no one else seemed to notice. My instincts screamed louder than ever. This wasn’t right.

And as Avery sat there quietly, her bandaged head a glaring beacon of something hidden, something wrong, I realized I wasn’t just imagining it.

“Aurora, we need to get Avery back to her room to rest.” Ashton said firmly as he got up, followed by Maggie. “Take care, okay? I’ll come visit you again when our classes are over.”