Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

90 Chapter 90

90 Chapter 90

Seraphina’s POV 1

The peaceful moment in the garden was interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps on the gravel path.

Lucas appeared around the corner of the main building, his expression grim and his usually perfect posture

slightly disheveled.

“Damien,” he called out, his voice carrying the urgency that meant bad news. “We need to talk. Now.”

Damien immediately shifted into his Alpha King mode, his entire demeanor changing from the gentle mate

who’d been listening to my theories to the commanding leader his pack needed him to be. But his hand

remained on mine, a small anchor of comfort in what was clearly about to become a difficult conversation.

“What happened?” Damien asked, rising from the bench but keeping me close to his side.

Lucas’s eyes flicked to me briefly. The hesitation lasted only a moment before he seemed to remember that I

was no longer the omega assistant who needed to be protected from pack business.

“Three more patrols hit in the past six hours,” Lucas reported, his voice tight with frustration. “Same pattern

as before-coordinated strikes designed to inflict maximum casualties without engaging in prolonged

combat. We’ve got eight more warriors down, and morale is starting to crack.”

I felt my stomach clench with anxiety. “How bad are the injuries?” I asked, already starting to rise from the

bench.

“They’re being treated,” Lucas assured me, though his expression softened slightly at my obvious concern.

“The medical team is doing everything they can. What we need now is a strategy to stop this from happening

again.”

Damien ran his free hand through his hair. “Have the patrols been able to track the rogues back to their

base?”

“That’s the problem,” Lucas said, his frustration evident. “These aren’t random attacks. The rogues are hitting our patrols and then vanishing into the wilderness like ghosts. Our tracking teams can follow their scent for maybe half a mile before the trail goes completely cold.”

“Magic?” I suggested.

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agreed grimly. “Or they’re just better at covering their tracks than

them discuss patrol routes and defensive strategies, something began to crystallize in my mind. The pattern Lucas was describing, the careful way the rogues were

read about during my business

wrong?” I said suddenly, interrupting their

schedules.

masking some doubt. I was still new to this whole

I thought about it, the more

could hear in his voice that he was genuinely interested in my

than just humoring me.

stood up from the bench, needing to pace as I organized my thoughts. “The rogues

or inflict maximum casualties,” I began, my mind racing as

to exhaust your resources.”

“What

I continued, my excitement growing as I saw the strategy more clearly. “Every time

have to pull warriors from other duties to provide medical care,

patrols. You’re spreading your forces thinner and thinner trying to cover

sharp with interest now. “Go

raids I studied in

company wants to acquire a smaller

bid.”

destabilize our border defenses,” Lucas said slowly, and I could

beginning to dawn in

make you so desperate to stop the attacks that you’ll pull warriors

about it-if you keep reinforcing the border patrols, eventually you’ll have to weaken your defenses

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gone very still, the way he did when he was processing information

to break through our

opening somewhere else

I felt a rush of satisfaction at having my analysis taken seriously.

is probably something

nodding now. “It would explain why they’re

we do about it?” Damien asked, and

knowing that what I was

to deal with a manipulation was to

what they think they want,” I said carefully. “We make them believe their strategy is

me in confusion, and I could practically see the objections

my hands to forestall their protests. “What if we pulled back most

it look like the attacks had been so effective

coverage?”

the tone of someone trying

“that would leave our borders

conviction growing stronger as I thought through the