Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 422

Aurora’s P.O.V

I froze, staring at Caroline like she had just spoken a foreign language to me. “What do you mean, Caroline?” I asked, my voice shaky, but laced with disbelief.

“See what exactly? There’s nothing there… it’s just… rocks, sand, the usual. Don’t mess with me right now.”

Caroline didn’t even blink, her eyes narrowing as she pointed directly in front of us. “Aurora, I swear I’m not making this up. It’s right there—like a circle of light, glowing faintly. Almost like those portals you see in fantasy movies. How can you not see it?”

I followed the direction of her finger, squinting so hard that my eyes began to ache, but there was nothing—absolutely nothing but the shimmering waves under the sunlight, stretching out across the horizon.

“Caroline, there’s nothing,” I whispered, feeling a weird chill crawl up my spine. “You’re probably tired, or your mind is playing tricks on you. We’ve been out here too long.”

“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head. “No, Aurora, I know what I’m seeing. It’s not in my head.” She suddenly reached out, gripping my arm tightly, and tugged me a step forward as if I was just standing at the wrong angle. “Look—right there. Tell me you don’t see it now.”

And then it happened. The moment her hand pressed against my arm, something shifted. Out of nowhere, the space she was pointing at shimmered, and a glowing circular ring of red light burst into view, hovering, pulsing faintly like it was alive. My breath caught in my throat, and I gasped so loud it echoed through the trees. I stumbled back, clutching my chest as if my heart might leap out.

“Oh my God… Caroline… I—what the hell is that?!”

Her eyes widened, relief and fear flashing together. “So you see it too now? You see it?! I told you I wasn’t imagining things!”

But the moment her hand slipped off my arm, the red ring blinked out of existence—gone, as if it had never been there at all. My mouth dropped open. “No, no, no—where did it go?” I panicked, stepping closer to the spot again, waving my hands in the air like a lunatic. “Caroline, it just vanished! I swear I saw it, but it’s gone now—”

“It only shows when I touch you,” she said slowly, looking down at her hand like it was something dangerous. “Aurora… Why does it react to me? Not you.”

I shook my head violently, my voice dropping low as if something from that ominous ring of light might still be able to hear us. “Maybe it’s not just me seeing it. Maybe… you’re the key to it. Maybe that thing needs a medium of some kind to be visible.”

Caroline shuddered before she wrapped her arms around herself. “What the hell do you mean by medium? Like it’s…some kind of ghost? Or a part of those…wraith things? Aura, stop—you’re scaring me.”

But I couldn’t stop, because this wasn’t just some random discovery…this was the answer that we had been searching for all along. “What if it’s been here all along, invisible to everyone—until you came close enough for me to trigger it? Care… what if you’re connected to it somehow?”

Caroline shook her head, a shudder running through her. “That’s insane. I don’t know anything about portals or circles of red light. This is not my world—I’m supposed to be a wolf, remember?” Her voice was urgent, as if she wanted the words to get through my head. “How can I know anything about magic? How can it even react to me?”

I froze for a moment, my heart pounding as the realization hit me. “Wait,” I whispered, staring at Caroline, “you’re right…it’s only you. You’re the only one who can see it. That’s why I kept thinking you were messing with me. Unless I’m… touching you, I can’t see a thing.”

Caroline looked at me with wide eyes, her lips parting as if she hadn’t even considered that possibility. “Are you serious? You mean without me, it’s just… nothing to you?”

“Exactly,” I said quickly, almost breathless, and before I could talk myself out of it, I reached for her arm again. The moment my fingers grazed her skin, the circle of red light shimmered back into existence, hanging in the air above the rocky patch like some suspended flame. My breath caught.

“See? It’s right there. Floating, like it doesn’t even belong in this world.”

Caroline tilted her head, staring at me strangely now, as though she was piecing something together. “Aurora… you’re connected to Lucas as his…you know. But shouldn’t that mean that only you should be able to see it? Shouldn’t it be a blood thing? Then why me? This doesn’t make sense.”

My stomach twisted painfully. “Caroline… if you’re right… then what if it’s not just a portal? What if it’s a trap?”

She leaned in close, her voice barely audible. “What if it’s both?”

I swallowed hard, my eyes darting to the space where the red ring had appeared. “So what do we do?”

Caroline’s grip on my arm tightened again, her eyes flickering with both fear and excitement. “What if we… we step through?” She asked.

“You want us to go inside the portal?” I felt my heart launch at the idea.

Caroline nodded slowly, then glanced back at me, her voice hushed but trembling with curiosity.

“Should we… Should we take a look? Just peek inside, maybe? What if this is the only chance we’ll ever get to see where it leads?”

“No.” My voice came out sharper than I intended, and I tightened my hold on her arm without realizing it.

“Caroline, listen to me. This could be a trap. Ashton could have set this up—he knows exactly how to bait us, and us walking in there blindly is the fastest way to fall right into his hands.”

Caroline frowned at me, tugging her arm just a little. “You think everything’s Ashton. Maybe it’s not him this time. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Something bigger.”

“Maybe,” I admitted, my chest tightening, “but that’s why we can’t just run in headfirst. Not without Alice. She needs to be here. If anyone can figure out what this is, it’s her. And if it’s dangerous, at least she’ll know how to protect us.”

Caroline finally let out a long sigh, glancing back up at the swirling ring of light. “Fine. We’ll wait. But Aurora… What if it disappears before Alice gets here? What if we lose it?”

“Then so be it,” I said quietly, even though my eyes couldn’t pull away from the portal. “If it’s the portal where Ashton and Maggie disappear to every night, then it’ll still be here. And if not… maybe it was a trap to begin with.”

For a long moment, neither of us said anything. We just stood there, watching the circle flicker faintly, as though it was aware we were debating its fate. Caroline shifted closer to me and whispered.

“What do you think is on the other side?”

I swallowed, letting the question settle in my chest. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I can’t stop imagining it. A place that isn’t bound by our rules…a place where the dead can walk freely and take over anyone that dares cross its path.”

Caroline shivered again, letting go of my hand as the ring disappeared. “Knowing our luck…we’ll probably be the first to become ghost-food.”

I almost laughed, but the unease in my stomach wouldn’t let me. “Yeah… but we’ll face it together. When the time’s right.”