Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 416

Aurora’s P.O.V

I was about to leave when Maggie suddenly stepped in front of me and grabbed my arm so hard that I almost lost my balance.

“Aurora,” she said, her voice tight, “tell me the truth, what did you do to Jade? Were you the one who hurt him?”

My heart slammed against my chest, shooting straight up to my throat. For a second, I thought my face might give me away. That somehow…the tension might make me snap.

Did they already know? Did they somehow manage to find out that it was Alice and me who managed to get to Jade? Or was this just a way to trick me into confessing something? But knowing Maggie, she was more impulsive than cunning, and this just might be her getting defensive about Jade because she genuinely thought I was trying to keep them away.

I stared at her for a moment longer, my pulse thundering in my ears, and then yanked my arm free from her grip.

“Are you out of your mind, Maggie? Why would I even do that?” I snapped, putting more force than necessary behind my words. “Why would I be wandering around the woods in the middle of the night just to hurt Jade? I didn’t even know where his patrol was!”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “You expect me to believe that? After everything—”

“After everything what, Maggie?” I cut in, my tone sharper than I intended. “You’re throwing accusations without proof. That’s dangerous.”

She took a step closer, her breath uneven. “Dangerous is watching someone you care about get hurt and not knowing who to blame.”

Before I could respond, Aston moved between us, his hands slightly raised. “Maggie, calm down,” he said firmly. “Starting a fight here won’t help anyone. And Aurora is right, you’re just throwing out accusations that you don’t have any proof for!”

That shut Maggie up faster than I could’ve imagined. I saw something cross her eyes as she looked at Ashton, something that looked vaguely like fear.

Could Avery have been right? Was Ashton terrorizing them in secret somehow? But what could he possibly have against Maggie that would scare her? Or did he…actually physically harm them while no one was watching and we had no clue about this?

But before I could think any further, Ashton turned to me, his expression unreadable. “Aurora… is it possible for us to see Jade? Maggie won’t settle unless she knows for sure that he’s okay.”

Maggie demeanor changed as she crossed her arms tightly, eyes narrowing at me. “I just need to see him, that’s all. You can’t stop me from seeing my boyfriend, Aurora.”

I stared at both of them, my mind racing, trying to figure out if this was genuine concern or just another trap.

Hopefully, by now, Caleb would’ve reached the infirmary and Alice would’ve already told him what was going on. I had tried to bide as much time as possible so Caleb could reach the infirmary on time, but I didn’t think I could stall them any longer.

I took in a slow breath, looking between the two of them before finally speaking, “Alright… I agree. But listen to me carefully, no one is to go near him until we figure out what happened to him. For all we know, he could have some kind of… I don’t know, contagious diseases. So you must not touch him, you must not disturb him, and you stay as far as possible from his bed. Do you understand?”

Maggie was already nodding before I even finished, her eyes flickering with something halfway between curiosity and longing. “I understand,” she said quickly, almost tripping over her words, “I’ll do anything just to have a glimpse of him. Just… one look, Aurora. I promise I won’t touch, I won’t say a word, I’ll just… look.”

Something about her expression told me that she was genuine about this, but I still couldn’t trust them near Jade, not after seeing the condition he was in. After all, it was their fault that Jade was continuously being possessed by the wraiths, even when his life-force kept draining away.

Finally, I gave her a sharp but brief nod. “Good. Then that’s settled.” My voice was firm, but my steps were quicker now, the urgency gnawing at me from the inside.

Ashton fell into step beside me, glancing at Maggie and then at me. “You really think it’s a disease?” he asked quietly, as if the air around us could carry the words back to the wrong ears.

Was he seriously asking me that? Was he seriously pretending that he had no clue what the wraiths were doing to Jade? How? How could Ashton act so normal…so…innocent…when he’s the culprit behind all of this?

“I don’t know,” I said without looking at him, my focus straight ahead. “That’s the point. We don’t know anything yet, and until we do, we keep our distance.”

Maggie piped up from behind, “I’m serious, Aurora… I don’t even care if it’s dangerous. I’ve been dying to see him since I heard.”

I half-turned my head toward her as I kept moving. “Maggie, you’re going to care if whatever he has spreads to you. This is not about curiosity, this is about not making a bad situation worse.”

“But I don’t really care if whatever Jade has spreads to me,” she said almost nonchalantly. “I can stay by his side, take care of him.”

“Really?” I couldn’t believe she was this desperate. “Then what about Ashton? What if it spreads to Avery? Will you take responsibility for that?”

She rolled her eyes but held up her hands like she was surrendering. “Fine, fine. No touching, no disturbing… just following orders, Captain.”

That got the smallest flicker of a smirk out of me, but I didn’t slow down. “Good. Now keep moving. We don’t have time to waste.”

The three of us moved forward, my steps leading, theirs close behind, the air heavy with questions none of us dared ask out loud yet.

But all this time, all I could do was hope that no one gave my plan away when we reached the infirmary.