Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 431

Aurora’s P.O.V

I froze, staring at Ashton as though my ears had betrayed me. “What do you mean by that?” I asked, my voice cracking even though I tried to keep it steady.

Before Ashton could answer, muffled voices reached us, struggling, frantic sounds that twisted my stomach. We all turned just as Maggie stepped out from behind another jagged rock, her fingers digging into Avery’s arm. Avery was bound tight, gag stuffed in her mouth, her eyes wide with panic as she tried to pull free.

As soon as she saw us, Avery’s struggles became frantic as she tried to run towards me, but Maggie grabbed her by her hair and yanked her back so hard that Avery cried out in pain, tears streaming down her cheek.

“Maggie, stop this madness this instant!” I shouted, my chest tight with anger.

She didn’t even flinch. Instead, she looked right at Ashton, her expression cold, almost triumphant.

“The vessels are ready,” she said simply, as though that explained everything.

Alice rushed closer to me, her hand clutching my arm. “Vessels?” she repeated, her voice rising in disbelief. “What are you talking about? What is actually going on here?” She looked at Maggie, then Ashton, her confusion bleeding into fear. “Why Avery? Why Riley? Why not you two?”

Ashton threw his head back, laughter spilling out of him in cruel, unrestrained waves. The sound bounced off the rocks, sharp and mocking. Maggie’s lips curled into a smile—if it could even be called that. It was the kind of smile that made my blood run cold, twisted and wrong. This wasn’t the Maggie I knew…this wasn’t the Ashton I knew…

Alice’s grip on me tightened. “Answer me!” she yelled, her voice shaking. “Why them and not you?”

Ashton leaned forward slightly, still grinning, his eyes gleaming with something I didn’t want to understand.

“Oh, Alice,” he said, his tone dripping with amusement, “if only you knew how perfectly hilarious this is.”

Hilarious? I stared at Ashton, completely thrown off by the way he suddenly clicked his tongue, the sound sharp and almost mocking.

“Ashton, what the hell do you mean by that?” I asked, my voice already sharper than I intended.

He tilted his head at me, lips curling in that infuriating little smirk. “I mean… how can you all be so damn stupid? All those wild theories, all that digging into curses and experiments and power struggles, but not once did it ever occur to any of you that Lucas and Harmona…” He paused deliberately, letting the silence stretch, “…might have had kids of their own?”

The words hit me like a slap. “What?” My throat went tight. “That doesn’t even make sense. If they had children, we would have known.”

“Would you?” Ashton cut me off, his voice low but firm. “You think Lucas wouldn’t hide that? You think Harmona would’ve paraded it around? No. They kept it quiet because they had a plan. And you, Aurora…” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “…you were so focused on being the martyr of the story, you never saw the simplest piece of it.”

I blinked at him, the room suddenly tilting. “You’re saying… you’re not just… not just another one of us? Not another victim in Lucas’s twisted game?”

His smirk faded into something harder, heavier. “No. I’m saying I’m not just your half-brother, Aurora.”

My mouth went dry. “Noo…it…it can’t be…”

But he didn’t need to say it out loud…it felt like the pieces of the puzzle just…clicked. The reason why Ashton knew magic before all of us; the reason why he was so good at magic and most importantly, why he was so good at hiding his true nature. It all started to make some twisted kind of sense.

“I’m saying…I’m their son.” Ashton’s voice didn’t waver, but it burned through the space between us like fire. “Their biological son.”

I felt my body go rigid, my heart hammering so loud it drowned out everything else.

“No… no…that’s not…possible…” Alice’s voice was just as  shaken as I felt inside.

“It is,” Ashton interrupted, his eyes locking onto mine. “I am Lucas’s son. And…” His gaze slid briefly to Maggie, lingering on her like a knife hovering over a wound. “…so is Maggie.”

Maggie took in a sharp breath, but didn’t falsify the statement. She knew…she had known all along and still decided to play us all.

I shook my head, gripping my arms to steady myself. “This… this changes everything. If you’re really…” My voice broke, but I forced the words out.

“If you’re really Harmona and Lucas’s son, then what does this mean? What does that make us?”

Ashton’s eyes darkened. “Exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you. Pawns. Every last one of you. The only difference is…” He leaned closer, his voice dropping. “…I was born into the throne while you were just dragged into the game.”

I swallowed hard, unable to find my voice, because deep down, I already knew he was telling the truth.

“So… you’re saying you had know all along?” My voice trembled, though I tried to steady it. “And you played us?”

He nodded slowly, his eyes locking on mine. “Yes, Aurora. You’re right. We really are Lucas and Harmona’s true children. And this has been going on for centuries, longer than you can even begin to picture.”

I shook my head, unable to stop the words from spilling out. “Centuries? Ashton, that doesn’t even make sense. How could they…keep this up for so long without being caught? How come no one noticed?”

“Because,” Ashton cut in quickly, his tone sharp but not unkind, “no one ever looks for the truth in places like this. No one dares. Every generation, we’ve been reborn, over and over. And every time, we’ve had to leave the bodies we grew into. Always searching. Always moving. Always pretending. Until there was a scope to attain true immortality.”

I swallowed hard. “And now… Avery and Riley? You mean to tell me their bodies are supposed to be the last ones?”

His lips curved in a grim smile. “Yes. Once our parents possess them, it ends. No more running. No more hiding. We won’t need to hop from one shell to another again. It will finally be permanent.”

The weight of his words hit me so hard I had to grip the edge of the table. “Permanent? Ashton, do you even hear yourself? You’re talking about immortality as if it’s… it’s a prize waiting on a shelf. Do you realize what that means for Avery and Riley?”

“They’ll be sacrificed,” Ashton admitted bluntly, no hesitation in his voice. “But their sacrifice will give us freedom. Don’t you see? It’s what Mother and Father always intended. This,” he gestured toward the room as if it held the proof of his claim “...was their design from the very beginning. And this time, we’re close. Closer than ever before.”

I couldn’t breathe for a moment. “Closer to what? To become monsters? To erase everything that makes us human?”

“They made us for this, Aurora,” he snapped, leaning in until I could see the strain in his eyes.

“We were never meant to live like ordinary people. We’re their legacy. Their blood. Their power. This is what we’ve been waiting for, and this time, it won’t fail.”

My chest rose and fell sharply as I whispered, “Immortality at the cost of innocent lives isn’t immortality, Ashton. It’s damnation.”

For the first time, his expression wavered, but only for a second. Then he straightened, jaw set.

“Call it what you want. Damnation. Salvation. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that when this is over, we’ll never have to fear death again.”