Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 442

Caroline’s P.O.V

I watched in frozen horror as Aurora plunged the dagger straight into her chest, her face a mask of pain and defiance.

“Aurora!” I screamed, my legs moving before I even realized it. I tried to run to her, my heart slamming against my ribs like it was about to burst out, but just as I reached forward, a hand clamped hard around my wrist, yanking me back.

“No, Caroline,” Alice’s voice was sharp, urgent, almost desperate, “don’t…don’t interfere!”

“What do you mean don’t interfere?” I snapped, wrenching against her grip, my eyes burning with tears as I saw Aurora swaying on her feet. “She’s bleeding, Alice! She’s….she’s…” My throat caught.

“I have to help her, let me go!”

Alice’s hold only tightened, her nails digging into my skin. “You can’t,” she hissed, her own eyes wide, glistening, but steady.

“This is the only way. If you go to her now, you’ll ruin it, don’t you understand? She’ll die for nothing if you do!”

“I don’t care if I ruin it!” I shouted, my voice breaking. “I can’t just stand here and watch her…”

Before I could finish, Ashton’s roar shattered the air, a sound so guttural, so broken, that the very ground quaked beneath our feet. The tremor shot through my legs, and I stumbled, doubling over as a sharp, searing pain exploded in my chest.

“Ahh!” I gasped, clutching myself, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

“Caroline, hey…Caroline, stay with me!” Alice pulled me upright, her arms strong and steady even as I fought against the agony tearing through me.

“You hear me? You hold on. For Aurora. She needs you to hold on, damn it!”

“I, I can’t…” I whimpered, tears streaking my face. “It hurts, Alice it feels like I’m being torn apart—”

“Then let it tear you apart,” she snapped, shaking me once, her voice trembling but fierce. “You don’t get to give up. Not now. Not when she’s fighting harder than she ever has.”

Just then, a blinding red light burst from Aurora’s chest, so bright it forced me to shield my eyes. I could hear her scream, but it wasn’t just hers, it was something else, something vile, being ripped out of her. The wraith burst free, its shadowy form twisting, shrieking in a voice so horrible, so inhuman, that it chilled the marrow in my bones.

“Father!” Ashton’s voice cracked like it had shattered into a thousand pieces. He staggered toward her, his hand lifting as if he could will the light to stop, to save the wraith.

Aurora collapsed, the dagger falling from her trembling fingers, her body crumpling to the ground. My knees buckled.

“No, no, no, please, not like this…” I begged, my voice hoarse, straining against Alice’s grip again.

The wraith writhed in the air, its form unraveling like smoke in the wind. “You can’t do this to me!” it screeched, its voice echoing like broken glass, but its cries grew weaker with every passing second.

“No!” The second wraith shrieked in fury, its clawed hands reaching desperately toward the fading one. “Don’t leave me! Don’t….don’t.”

But no matter how it lunged, no matter how it clawed, it couldn’t stop the inevitable. The first wraith’s body disintegrated into ash and dust, scattering in the air like it had never existed.

Ashton, his face contorted in desperation, dragged a dagger across his palm, blood pouring freely as he held it out.

“Take it! Take my blood, don’t go! Please…please!” His voice cracked, thick with anguish. “I offer as sacrifice! Take my blood!”

The wraith’s scream pitched higher, trembling with something that almost sounded like fear, before it was swallowed by silence. Its body dissolved completely, nothing left but the faint curl of smoke drifting away into nothingness.

Ashton fell to his knees, his blood dripping onto the ground, staining the dirt. His chest heaved, his eyes wild, his lips trembling. “No… no, come back… come back to me…” he whispered, over and over, like a prayer he knew would never be answered.

I stared at him, my body shaking so violently that Alice had to hold me up. My throat tightened, the words barely making it past my lips. “It’s gone… it’s really gone…”

Alice’s grip trembled against me, her own voice raw. “Yeah… Lucas…he’s truly gone…”

Ashton sat there on the dirt like a broken statue. His gaze was fixed on the empty space where the wraith had been, his broken sobs echoing through the trembling silence.

But then my eyes locked on Aurora’s body sprawled on the ground, the blood pooling beneath her making the earth look darker than it should. My lips trembled as I whispered, “She’s gone… oh god, she’s really gone…” I could hardly breathe, my chest tightening with every passing second as I took in the lifelessness of her face, the stillness of her body. My hands shook, reaching slightly toward her but never quite touching, as if the air itself would shatter if I did.

“Caroline,” Alice’s voice broke through, sharp and urgent. She crouched beside me, her hand gripping my wrist tight enough to pull me out of my trance. “Look at me. Listen to me. If your pain is subsiding, if it’s not tearing you apart from the inside right now, then she isn’t dead.”

I blinked rapidly, confusion flooding my face as I shook my head. “What? What are you talking about? I feel…” I paused, actually pausing to feel. The ache in my chest, the splitting agony I thought would kill me when Aurora fell, it was gone. My eyes widened. “Alice… I’m not in pain anymore.”

“Exactly.” Alice’s voice grew firm, almost grounding me. “Caroline, if she were truly dead, if that Lunar bond had broken for good, you would have felt it. It would have torn you apart, ripped through you just like a mating bond breaking. You’d be screaming, you’d be on the floor writhing, begging for death to take you too. But you’re not. You’re breathing. You’re standing. That bond didn’t break.”

My throat went dry. “So… so you mean…”

“She’s alive, Caroline.” Alice’s eyes darted back to Aurora, hope flickering in them for the first time.

“She’s alive, and she’s coming back to us.”

I turned to look at Aurora again, my heart hammering in my chest. My lips parted as if to call her name, but before I could say anything, her body jerked violently. A sudden, ragged gasp tore through the silence, so loud it sent me stumbling back onto my knees.

“Aurora!” I cried out, crawling forward, my hands desperate to touch her but terrified at the same time.

Her hand twitched against the dirt, her fingers curling weakly before she let out another sharp, wet gasp. Her chest heaved, and with a pained groan, she wrapped her fingers around the dagger lodged in her chest.

“No, no, don’t…” I started, but the words caught in my throat as I watched her grit her teeth and yank it out with one brutal pull. Blood gushed for a moment, crimson staining her hands, but then, before my horrified eyes, the wound began to close.

A blinding green light filled her body, enough to make me shield my eyes. And as I watched, the skin knitted itself back together, the blood drying as if swallowed back into her veins, and within seconds, there wasn’t even a scar left behind.

My voice shook violently as I whispered, “That’s… that’s impossible.”

Aurora’s head tilted slightly toward me, her breathing uneven but growing steadier with each second. Her eyes cracked open, their familiar glow flickering weakly at first, then burning stronger.

I let out a sob that sounded half like a laugh, half like relief breaking through the dam in my chest. Aurora was back! She was alive!

But that’s when a brutal roar tore through the dimension.