Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 412

Aurora’s P.O.V

I rushed back to the apartment where Ashton and Maggie were staying, my heart hammering because I knew this was the only time Avery would be alone.

As I raced up the stairs, a strange feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach. I’d been to this very apartment thousands of times, but this time, the reason for being here was completely different. I needed to be quick, but most importantly, I needed to get the blood sample before Ashton and Maggie returned.

But what bothered me the most was…would Avery trust me enough to give her blood freely?

I didn’t waste a second when I got to her door, pressing the bell once and waiting, but when there was no sound from inside, my mind jumped to the worst.

“Avery?” I called softly, leaning closer to the door. “Are you asleep?” I hesitated for a moment, then pushed the handle, only for the door to swing open after just one ring of the bell.

“Avery,” I breathed in relief the moment I saw her standing there. “You’re alright.” I tried to step inside, desperate to close the distance between us, but something invisible hit me square in the chest, hard—throwing me back a step. I stumbled, staring at the space in shock. My skin prickled, nerve endings on fire, as if I had just been zapped by thunder.

“What the hell—”

Her eyes widened as she ran toward me, but before she could cross the doorway, that same unseen force caught her too, shoving her back inside. She gasped, pressing her hand to the empty air between us.

“Aurora… I can’t get out!” Her voice cracked. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head, pushing against the barrier, feeling it hum against my palms not that I wasn’t trying to get past it. “I don’t know. Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

She nodded quickly but her hands trembled. “I’m okay, but… I’m scared.” She glanced over her shoulder as if someone might hear her.

“Ashton’s been acting… strange.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Just Ashton? Not Maggie too?”

Avery swallowed hard. “No… it’s both of them in a way, but…” She bit her lip, lowering her voice. “Aura…I need to tell you something. Me and Maggie—we’ve both been scared of him for a while now. We keep… forgetting things. Whole conversations, entire days sometimes.”

My stomach tightened. “Forgetting things? Like…you have blank in your memories?”

“Yes,” she whispered, eyes darting nervously toward the hallway behind me. “And whenever we ask about it, Ashton just smiles and says it’s normal. That it happens to everyone sometimes.”

I stared at her, my hands still against the invisible wall, my pulse spiking. “Avery… that’s not normal at all.”

“I know…and I just…I can’t even stay awake long enough to understand what’s going on!”

I stared at her for a moment, my brows pulling together as I tried to make sense of what she had just hinted at.

“Wait… what do you mean by that?” I asked, leaning forward a little, my voice lower than before because something about her tone made me feel uneasy.

Avery’s hands fidgeted in her lap, and she avoided looking at me directly. “I mean… I feel like I’m asleep most of the time,” she said slowly, like she was trying to find the right words. “It’s like I’m here, but I’m not… and there are days I can’t even remember what happened at all.”

I tilted my head, confusion mixing with a growing sense of dread. “What kind of days? Can you give me an example?”

She swallowed, her voice dropping even lower. “Like… the day I hurt my head badly.” She glanced up at me, almost like she was checking if I remembered it too. “I don’t even remember going to the shower and falling. I just remember waking up in pain and my head all bandaged up.”

Oh…god! It was that day…the day I had seen Avery’s eyes glow green. The day she had kicked me over and over, telling me that I had ruined ‘their centuries of hard work.’

I felt my stomach twist because now it was making sense—the missing memories, the dazed looks… the possession. The wraith wasn’t just inside them, it was taking pieces of their time, erasing moments like they never happened.

“Avery,” I whispered, shaking my head, “that’s not normal. There’s something messing with your memories.”

“I know…I see them but…” Her lips pressed together, and for a second, she looked like she was about to cry. “I didn’t want to tell you. I really…I didn’t know…I just…didn’t know what to do, Aura…”

“Why?” I asked, sharper than I intended. “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”

She flinched at my tone, and I immediately regretted it, but she still answered, her voice small. “Because… Ashton is scary when he’s mad.”

I blinked, thrown off by her words. “Wait—does he…hurt you when he’s mad?”

If that’s what Ashton was doing, then he was far worse than I had ever imagined him to be.

“No, it’s nothing like that,” she cut in, her voice trembling. “But…he doesn’t like it. If we talked to you about it, he’d find out, and… I don’t know what he’d do. We’re both scared of him, Aurora. That’s why we didn’t say anything.”

I let out a slow breath, my chest tight as I looked at her. “So you’ve been keeping this to yourself because you’re afraid of him?”

“Yes,” she said simply, looking down again. “And… because I’m afraid of what’s happening to me too.”

“You don’t have to be afraid of telling me anymore, Avery.” I told her, desperately wanting to hold her smaller form, but unable to because of the barrier. “Not about this. I promise you…things will get better soon.”