Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 398

Aurora’s P.O.V

"I need you to tell me exactly where you saw it, Riley," I asked him softly, crouching beside him so we were at eye level. I tried to keep my voice steady, calm, but I could feel the tremble hiding in my bones. My fingers clutched the edge of the nightdress as if it would anchor me.

He looked up at me with those wide eyes, the ones that always made him look younger than he was. His lips parted, hesitated. "Outside the window," he whispered. "It was just… standing there. Looking in at me."

A breath left my lungs before I could stop it. I didn't even realize I was holding it in. The image — that thing outside Riley’s window, watching him — burned itself into my mind like a brand. My spine stiffened, and I shivered, involuntarily.

"Looking at you," I repeated, almost to myself. "It saw you."

Riley nodded slowly. "It didn’t move. It just stood there like it was waiting for something. I pulled the blanket over my head and I just… I hoped it would go away."

Caleb’s voice cut through the air, a little too sharp. "Wait, what did you mean when you said you saw it in Aurora’s room too? When was that?"

Riley turned his head, blinking like he'd been caught in a lie — but not the kind you tell to deceive, the kind you tell yourself because the truth is too strange, too wrong. "It was when Caroline and I were having a sleepover… in Aurora's room. She was gone for a few days, remember?" He looked between us, like we might recall it differently. "It was raining that night. Really bad storm. I woke up, and… it was there. At her window."

I felt my breath catch in my throat. My room.

"I didn’t say anything then," Riley continued, quieter now, almost like he was confessing. "I thought I was dreaming. It looked so real, but I told myself I imagined it. I didn’t want to scare Caroline or Aura. I didn’t want to believe it."

The storm. My room. The window. That night…

I stood up so fast I barely felt my legs under me. My heart was pounding in my ears now. I knew exactly what night he meant. The first night I’d come back… after Lucas and Harmona had dragged me through hell. The bruises on my wrists still hadn’t faded back then, and the shadows in my head definitely hadn’t. I remember lying in bed that night, staring at the ceiling for hours, trying to convince myself I was safe, trying to pretend that the silence meant peace and not the eye of a storm.

I had no idea something had been outside my window. Watching. Waiting.

I looked at Riley again, but I wasn’t seeing him anymore. I was looking out the window. The rain on the glass. The darkness beyond it. Something pressing close to the boundary of this world, maybe smiling, maybe breathing — something that knew I was back.

"That thing… it followed me," I murmured, almost too low for anyone to hear. But Caleb heard. I could see the flicker in his eyes.

"You don’t know that," he said quickly, too quickly. His hand found mine, but I wasn’t reaching for it. "We don’t know that for sure."

"Caleb," I said, looking him straight in the eyes, "Riley saw it in my room the night I came back from that place. That can’t be a coincidence."

He didn’t argue. He didn’t have to. The silence was loud enough.

And somewhere in the back of my mind, something whispered: It never left.

Lucas and Harmona…their wraiths…they had followed after me that very day, and they had stayed in hiding all along…

They were gone now, retreated into the night like shadows slinking back into the void they came from. But I felt their presence still, like a whisper trailing across the back of my neck.

“It…can’t be possible…it just—” Caleb was mid-sentence, his voice tense, low, just a notch above a growl, trying to piece it all together. He was always trying to make sense of things, to protect, to shield. But my heart was pounding too loud, and my instincts kicked in before he could get another word out.

“We should sleep,” I interrupted, my voice sharper than I intended. Caleb blinked at me. I softened my tone. “The demon’s gone. You scared it off, Caleb. It’s done, for now. Let’s not keep Riley up with talk like this.”

Riley, wide-eyed and still trembling, gave a sleepy nod. “Okay,” he murmured through a yawn, rubbing his little fist against his eye like a cub curling into the safety of the den. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced a smile, though my hands were cold and my skin felt too tight.

We went back to my room—Caleb and I, Riley sandwiched between us like a fragile shield we both needed. I made sure the door was locked, bolted, and tested it twice. Then we pulled the curtains, heavy velvet ones, shut so tightly not even the moonlight could sneak in. I couldn’t bear the thought of those eyes—those horrible, ghostly things—watching from the trees, waiting.

Riley curled into the bed, nestled between the two of us, his breathing slow and steady within minutes. I watched him as the rhythm of his sleep took over, the way his chest rose and fell, the way his fingers relaxed one by one. He was safe. At least for now. We had done that. We’d kept him safe.

But then… I looked at Caleb. And he looked at me.

And I saw it. That same unspeakable dread reflected in his eyes. The kind of fear that goes deeper than bone—it cuts into your soul. We didn’t say anything for a long moment. We didn’t need to. Everything I was feeling, I knew he was too.

“They came back with us, Caleb,” I whispered, my voice cracking in the middle like glass under pressure.

Caleb’s jaw clenched. He shook his head slowly. “They don’t return without a reason, Aurora. Something’s wrong and I think Ashton and Maggie might be in on it as well.”

I nodded, but my heart sank. Because I knew. I had known the second I saw them. It wasn’t over. It had only just begun.