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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better at covering their tracks than we

and defensive strategies, something began to crystallize in my mind. The pattern Lucas was describing, the careful way the rogues were operating-it reminded

read about during

I said

schedules.

I could tell were masking some doubt. I was still new to this whole alpha thing, still finding my footing as someone whose strategic

thought about it, the more convinced I became

his voice that he was

than just humoring me.

bench, needing to pace as I organized my thoughts.

inflict maximum casualties,” I began, my mind racing as the pieces

to exhaust your resources.”

“What do you

my excitement growing as I saw the strategy more clearly.

duties

and thinner trying to cover all the vulnerable

silver-blue eyes were sharp with

what happened in the corporate raids I studied in business school,” I said,

larger company wants to acquire a smaller one, they

bid.”

trying to destabilize our border defenses,” Lucas said slowly,

beginning to dawn

make you so desperate to stop the attacks that

keep reinforcing the border patrols, eventually you’ll have to weaken your defenses somewhere else. The capital, the pack lands,

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very still, the way he did when he

break through our border defenses,” he said

an opening

having my analysis taken seriously. “The

is probably

would explain why they’re

we do about it?” Damien asked, and the fact that he

what I was about to propose would

a manipulation was

give them what they think they want,” I said carefully. “We make them believe

and I could practically see the objections forming in

I said quickly, raising my hands to forestall their protests. “What if we pulled back

Made it look like the attacks had been so

coverage?”

carefully, his voice carrying the tone of someone trying not

would leave our borders completely

I said, my conviction growing stronger as I thought through the details.