The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 381

Chapter 381: Hold My Child While I Unfuck Your Strategy

The castle was in defense mode.

Every entrance was sealed. Heavy oak doors, reinforced with iron, barred from the inside. Archers lined the upper walls, their positions staggered for overlapping fields of fire. The courtyard was empty of civilians, the non-combatants moved to the interior shelters that had been designed three generations ago for exactly this scenario.

They passed through the main gate. The doors sealed behind them with a sound that carried the finality of a castle deciding that everything outside its walls was the enemy’s problem.

Captain Aldren was waiting inside.

"Alpha." His voice was clipped, urgent, carrying intelligence that had a timestamp on it. "Viremont has opened portals outside our ward perimeter. Wolves are in pursuit. They are moving in a northern arc, probing the perimeter for weaknesses."

"How much time?" Garrett asked. He was still between Cross and Agnes. He was still bleeding. His voice carried zero evidence of either.

"Twenty minutes. Maybe less. The portal signatures are mage-origin, which means they are anchored to pre-established waypoints. The probing pattern suggests they are looking for a gap rather than forcing one."

Garrett’s mind was already moving. Agnes could feel it through the matebond, the shift from pain to calculation, the particular gear-change that happened when Garrett Darkhowler stopped being a man who had just been shot and started being a commander defending his home.

"Pull the northern patrol back to the inner wall. Consolidate our archers on the eastern and northern battlements, those are the two approaches with the shortest distance from the ward perimeter to the castle. Station the reserve unit at the main gate with silver-tipped weapons. If they breach the outer wall, I want a kill zone between the gate and the courtyard."

"And get me a message to Drakenfell," Garrett continued. "Tiberon needs to know Viremont is coordinating with Orosia. Full intelligence package. Portal method, force composition, the cascading invasion strategy. Everything Agnes has reported. Send it now."

Agnes listened. Good instincts. Wrong positioning. She kept her mouth shut for exactly four more seconds.

"Garrett."

Her voice cut through the orders. Everyone in the corridor looked at her.

She was still under Garrett’s arm. Still carrying Andrew. Still bleeding from a lip that had been split by her father’s hand four hours ago. She had never interrupted Garrett during operational command. She had attended briefings silently, observed strategy sessions without comment, maintained the careful boundary between mate and officer that court training had drilled into her before she could walk.

First time for everything. Tonight was a night of firsts. First time escaping a compound. First time riding a wolf. First time interrupting a king. Agnes was on a streak, and the streak was not stopping for decorum.

She was breaking the boundary because the boundary was going to get people killed.

"My father started using Fae portals, which operate under different laws than mage. Mage portals require a ley line or anchor point that the caster has physically visited. Fae portals run on different rules. They can open anywhere, regardless of whether the caster has been there."

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