Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 385

Aurora’s P.O.V

"Why are you asking about that?" Alice’s voice was low, almost a whisper, but there was no mistaking the edge in her tone. "How do you even know about such a thing?" Her gaze never left mine, and I could see the questions swirling behind her eyes—questions she wasn’t sure if she wanted answers to. The atmosphere was thick with a mix of suspicion and fear, and for the first time since I’d arrived, I felt like I was standing on shaky ground.

Before I could answer, Shane's voice cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter. "It’s not just Aurora. I’ve seen it too. She’s not lying."

I turned to look at him, but Shane’s expression was grim, his usual cocky demeanor replaced by something darker, more serious. "What do you mean?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat. My mind was racing, trying to put the pieces together, but it was all moving too fast for me to process.

Shane sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced toward the window, as though the words were too heavy to say aloud. "It’s been roaming around the grounds for days now. Haven't you noticed?" His eyes flicked back to mine, and for a moment, they were full of something close to regret, like he wished he didn’t have to say it. “When? When did you see this…thing…Shane?”

"Last night," Shane continued, his voice quieter now, "But I’ve seen it before as well…the night of the rogue attack.”

“You…what?” Caleb almost spat out the words, his anger evident in his tone. “You saw something and you didn’t bother to tell me?”

“B—bother?” Shane scoffed incredulously. “Do you have any idea how freaked out I was when I saw that…thing…floating just above the dead wolves? Staring at those decaying creatures as if they were something precious to it that we had destroyed! It felt like…if I even acknowledged it’s presence, something even worse than the rogue attack was about to happen!”

“And then what?” I asked, cutting in before Caleb could. “Did you see it again? Anywhere?”

“Last night…when Avery was—" He paused, and I felt the weight of what he didn’t say hang in the air. "When she was attacking you, there was one. Right above her head. Just hovering there, like it was waiting for something."

A chill ran down my spine. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I had felt it—felt something dark and dangerous, looming in the shadows, but I hadn’t been able to see it. Not until now. My mind went back to last night, to Avery's attack, and the feeling of being watched. A surge of panic rose in my chest as I looked at Shane.

"You saw it too?" I whispered, my voice almost strangled by the weight of the words.

Shane nodded, his jaw tightening. "I’ve been seeing it a lot. And it’s getting closer. It’s not just roaming. It’s hunting." His words sent a shiver down my spine, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was lurking in the darkness, it wasn’t done with us yet.

“Wait a minute…what exactly did Shane mean by ‘attacking you’?” Caleb’s voice cut through the haze of panic, snapping me back to the present. “You told us that Avery pushed you to the ground and that’s how you got those injuries…but that’s not the truth is it?”

“Caleb…it’s really nothing—”

“Nothing?” His voice rose as he stepped closer to me, anger evident in his eyes, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. “You have bruises all over your stomach and ribs, there’s even a minute fracture, and you call that nothing? Aurora…are you still defending them? After what they did to you?”

“Caleb! Avery is only fourteen! She wasn’t herself when she did this, you heard Shane!” I told him, my voice rising in desperation. “That shadow thing…it might as well have been controlling her!”

“And what if it wasn’t? What if Avery was the one who tried to hurt you herself?”

“No! That’s not possible! Alice…please…tell him!”

The words hung in the air like a dark omen, heavy and suffocating, as Alice’s face turned an even deeper shade of worry. I could feel the temperature of the room drop, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. It wasn’t just the shock of hearing my words, but the cold dread settling in my chest, gnawing at me like something dark and predatory.

“Aurora…the creatures that you’re talking about…I know of those.” Alice finally confessed, her expression cautious, as if she was about to divulge some kind of ancient secret that wasn’t supposed to be whispered in the open. “Those things, those shadowy beings…they are real, and very, very dangerous.”

“What are they?” Caleb asked, his voice impatient.

“They’re called Wraiths.”

Wraiths. The kind of creatures that belonged to nightmares, not reality.

“They aren’t visible to everyone, but if you’ve seen them, both of you,” she addressed me and Shane. “Then it’s very much real…and they are here…in this pack.”

“But…I didn’t see any shadowy figures around Avery,” I said, trying to make sense of it, my voice trembling just a little despite my best efforts to hold it together. “There was only one, wasn’t there?”

Alice shook her head slowly, her eyes narrowing as she seemed to sift through the pieces of the puzzle, piecing them together in a way I hadn’t. “That’s what you thought, Aurora. But I’ve been keeping track, and I’ve seen traces, remnants of their presence. Wraiths don’t just appear in the way you’d expect. They hide, moving through the darkness, manipulating your perception. You probably only saw one, but there might be more.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog that was thickening in my mind. “More?” The word felt foreign on my tongue, impossible, but Alice’s expression told me she wasn’t one to exaggerate, not when it came to things like this. My heart skipped a beat, a pang of anxiety tightening its grip on my ribs.

“But… wraiths? What kind of creatures are they?” Caleb asked finally. “What exactly are we dealing with here, Alice?”