Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 217

Chapter 217: Chapter 217

Kael’s POV

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The new defensive positions were in place by dawn.

I’d spent most of the night walking the perimeter with Ronan and the unit commanders, marking out the changes Aria had suggested. Pull back from the northern ridge—not all the way, just enough to make Magnus think we’d weakened. Reinforce the southern approach where he wouldn’t expect it. Rotate the flank coverage so the patterns he’d memorized for twenty years were suddenly wrong.

Close the gaps. Shift the angles. Make him second-guess everything he thought he knew.

By the time the sun came up, I was running on coffee and adrenaline and the particular clarity that comes when you’ve been awake so long that your body stops arguing and just does what you tell it to.

Fenrir was pacing. He’d been pacing all night, restless and eager, sensing what was coming.

*They’ll take the bait,* he said. Low growl in my head, satisfied. *They’ll see the weakness and they’ll come.*

*Let them come,* I thought back.

The trap was set.

Now we just had to wait.

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The attack came at eleven hundred hours.

I was in the command tent reviewing supply routes when the alarm went up—three short bursts, the signal for enemy contact on the northern approach. Exactly where we’d left the gap. Exactly where Magnus would expect us to be vulnerable.

"Here we go," Ronan said beside me.

I grabbed my jacket. "Get everyone in position. Nobody moves until I give the signal."

"Already done, Alpha."

Of course it was. Ronan had been running drills on this for two days straight. Every soldier knew their position, knew the timing, knew what happened if they broke formation early.

I walked out of the command tent and headed for the observation point on the eastern ridge. It gave a clear view of the northern approach—the ravine, the tree line, the narrow choke point where the terrain funneled anyone stupid enough to charge through it into a kill box.

The perfect place for an ambush.

If you were the one doing the ambushing.

I reached the ridge and dropped into a crouch beside the forward lookout. He handed me the binoculars without a word.

I raised them.

Scanned the tree line.

There.

Movement. Fast and low, using the underbrush for cover. I counted eight—no, ten—wolves moving in formation toward the gap we’d left in the northern defenses. Dark fur, coordinated movements, disciplined enough to stay quiet.

These weren’t rogue ferals. These were trained soldiers.

Magnus’s men.

They hit the perimeter at the weak point exactly as expected. Slipped through the gap we’d left open, quick and confident, thinking they’d found an opening.

Fenrir growled low in my chest. *Now?*

*Not yet.*

I watched them move deeper into the trap. Watched them spread out, start to flank what they thought was our defensive line. Watched them position themselves for a strike that would never land.

Because the defensive line they were flanking wasn’t there anymore.

"Signal," I said quietly.

The lookout raised his hand. Three fingers. Two. One.

The forest erupted.

Our soldiers came from the sides—from positions Magnus’s men hadn’t even known to check, because we’d never held those positions before. Thirty wolves, moving as one, cutting off the retreat, boxing them in. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The enemy wolves tried to scatter. Too late. They were already surrounded.

The fight lasted four minutes.

I stayed on the ridge, watching through the binoculars, calling adjustments when I saw openings. Ronan was down there leading the ground team, his voice cutting through the chaos with clean, precise orders. Our soldiers moved like they’d been doing this for years instead of days—tight formation, controlled aggression, no wasted movement.

Exactly like we’d drilled.

By the time the dust settled, we had two prisoners pinned on the ground in human form, silver cuffs around their wrists. The other eight were either dead or fled back into the woods.

I lowered the binoculars.

Stood up.

Fenrir was practically vibrating with satisfaction. *Told you they’d come.*

*You were right.*

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