Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 408

Aurora’s P.O.V

I didn’t want to cry, not again. Not in front of him. I turned my back to Caleb, forcing one foot in front of the other, hoping the sound of my footsteps would drown out the ache in my chest. The words I wanted to scream clung to my throat like they didn’t trust me to say them right. That’s when I felt his fingers wrap around my wrist—warm, firm, certain.

“Aurora, stop,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, but it trembled with urgency. “Please. Just let me talk to you for a second.”

I hesitated, eyes shut tightly as I clenched my jaw. My body stilled even though my heart begged me to run.

“Caleb, don’t—”

“No,” he interrupted gently, stepping closer, his fingers trailing down until they entwined with mine.

“You don’t get to walk away thinking you’re wrong for being who you are.”

I opened my eyes, but I didn’t look at him. I stared at the ground like it had answers I didn’t. But Caleb wasn’t having any of it. He took a step forward, closing the distance, and suddenly his hands were on both sides of my face, cupping my cheeks, forcing me to meet his gaze.

“Your ability to trust and love,” he began, his voice raw, “your ability to give freely without expecting anything in return... Aurora, that’s not a weakness. That’s the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

I let out a shaky breath, biting the inside of my cheek to stop it from trembling. I shook my head slowly, trying to back away, but his hands held me in place—not to trap me, but to ground me.

“You don’t get it,” I whispered, tears stinging at the corners of my eyes. “That doesn’t make me special, Caleb. That makes me a liability. That makes me stupid. I trust people too easily. I believe in people who don’t deserve it. And every time, I get burned.”

He exhaled sharply, not out of frustration, but out of pain for me. “No,” he said firmly, his thumbs brushing against my damp cheeks. “No, Aurora. If someone takes advantage of your kindness, that’s on them. If they see your goodness and decide to manipulate it, they’re the problem. Not you. You are not foolish for seeing light in dark places. That’s called hope.”

My lips trembled, and I hated that I couldn’t stop the tears from falling now. “But it keeps happening,” I said brokenly. “Over and over. I keep giving parts of myself to people who just... take. They don’t look back.”

He leaned his forehead against mine, our breath mingling, his voice softer now, more tender than I thought my heart could bear. “Then let them take, Aurora. Let them take, and when they walk away, they’ll carry the shame of hurting someone who never meant them harm. That shame is theirs to live with—not yours. You’re not responsible for their cruelty.”

I closed my eyes tightly, trying to hold myself together, but his presence unraveled me like a quiet storm. “It hurts, Caleb. It hurts to believe in people and be let down.”

“I know it does,” he murmured. “But don’t let them take your heart with them. Don’t let them make you believe that being soft is the same as being weak. You’re strong because you love anyway. You hope anyway. And that—” he paused, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead, “—is why you’re so special. Not everyone can do what you do. Not everyone wants to.”

I stood there, breathing him in, the storm inside me calming for a moment, not because everything was fixed, but because he saw me—really saw me. Not as foolish or naive, but as someone who still had a heart big enough to believe in the good, even when the world gave her every reason not to.

And for the first time in a long time, I wondered if maybe... just maybe, he was right.

But at what cost? My blind trust in Ashton and Maggie is the reason the wraiths are in the pack, terrorizing everyone. Riley…my baby brother…what did he do to ever deserve being haunted? Why did I trust Lucas’s kids enough to start calling them family? To bring them into my life…into the heart of the pack?

"You’ve got that look again," Caleb said softly, breaking the silence that had stretched between us suddenly. His voice was warm, but not light—it carried a weight, a depth that made my heart ache.

I looked down at the tea and sighed. "What look?" I asked, even though I already knew.

He leaned forward, brushing a lock of hair from my face. "That looks like you’re about to disappear into yourself. Like you're questioning everything you’ve ever done." He paused, eyes narrowing just slightly.

“You know those moments—when I look at you and I see the Luna you’re becoming. Those little signs that show me you were born for this. Not because you're perfect, Aurora, but because you know when to give in... and when to fight back.”

I swallowed, the words tugging at something inside me. “You mean like when I punched that kid at school for cornering me in the locker hallway?” I smiled faintly, remembering the adrenaline, the fear, the way my hand had trembled after. “Or when I had slapped Shane at the diner without even thinking that he wasn’t human? I was lucky those days. I didn’t even know how close I was to getting torn apart.”

“You weren’t lucky,” Caleb said, and there was that quiet fire in his voice again, the kind that made me want to believe him. “You were you. You’ve always had that spark in you, that edge. You stood your ground because your instincts were already guiding you, even when your mind didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

I shook my head, staring into the fire. “I don’t feel like that girl anymore. Lately I feel like… like I’m leaning on you too much. On all of you. I’m not the one making the hard calls. I wait for orders. I run to you when I’m scared. I’m not fighting back like I used to. It’s like the more I fall into this role, the more I forget who I was before all of this.”

There was a beat of silence. Caleb reached over and threading our fingers together as we began walking back to the packhouse again. “You might’ve gotten dependent on me a little,” he admitted with a crooked grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, “but you haven’t lost that fire. Not even close. You’re still the girl who stood her ground when everyone expected her to fold. And when the time comes—when we’re face to face with Lucas and Harmona—I know you’ll be right there beside me. Not behind me. Beside me. Because you're not just my mate, Aurora. You’re my future Luna. Our Luna. And I trust you more than I trust my own damn instincts sometimes.”

The lump in my throat made it hard to speak, but I didn’t need to say anything. I closed the small space between us and wrapped my arms around him, pressing my face into the crook of his neck. His scent grounded me, reminded me of who I was, and who I wanted to be—for him, for the pack, for myself.

“I don’t want to be afraid anymore,” I whispered.

“You won’t be,” he promised, tightening his arms around me. “Because we end this. Together. No more running. No more second-guessing. We finish this—with Lucas, with Harmona. Once and for all.”

I closed my eyes, letting the strength of his words settle into my bones. I could feel it again—that flicker of who I was, that ember deep inside that refused to die out no matter how many storms came to snuff it out. And for the first time in what felt like days, maybe weeks, I nodded, and I meant it.

"Together," I said. And I meant that too.