By the time I arrived at Aro's office, the room was already full. Marcus and Aro were both sat on the sofa while Caius stood behind Aro's desk where a large whiteboard had been placed. The Elite guard, including Felix, Demetri, the twins, Renata, Santiago, Afton, and Chelsea, were standing around the small room wherever there was space.

I noticed Jane still had a bottle of O-positive with her, and she'd had a chair brought in so that she didn't have to stand for an extended period of time. She was still considerably weak, especially for an immortal, after that whole attack, which was completely understandable.

Caius was already talking, and everyone else in the room was silent. Not wanting to interrupt his speech, I squeezed past some of the guards, high-fiving Afton as I went, and sat myself down on the sofa in the small space between Aro and Marcus. Aro had Amethyst in his arms, and from the looks of things she was fast asleep.

Marcus leaned in to whisper into my ear. "Where were you?"

"I got distracted," I whispered back and shrugged when he gave me a questioning look.

Leaning into his side, I focused my attention back on Caius. The blonde had a black whiteboard pen in his hand, and attached to the whiteboard was a world map. The map had several pins already stuck in it, most of them in Russia.

"So," Caius continued, "now that we have established the likely venue for this battle," he tapped one of the pins with the tip of his pen, "we must discuss battle tactics."

He rubbed off a few scrawled notes with his sleeve, giving him more space to work with. "We have been made aware of which gifts will be made redundant against the mutts. Gifts such as Jane's, Renata's, and Eliana's are useless against this army. However, utilising Alec's gift may give us the upper hand."

He then began scribbling down something. I didn't really understand his notes and diagrams whatsoever, with arrows pointing in every direction and random points being circled, but I tried to be a supportive fiancée and nod my head with a smile as if it all made sense to me.

"But Alec's gift has limits, which may be an issue considering the size of this army. However, I believe our gifts may be unnecessary with the correct training and combat techniques."

The next few notes he wrote began to make sense, but the content itself didn't. From the looks of things, he was suggesting that our 60 odd guards could take on 50 wolves, which was just stupid talk.

"You sure that's gonna work?" I interrupted lazily from the sofa.

Caius turned around and cocked his head to the side in question. I stood up and manoeuvred myself around the desk to join him beside the whiteboard and snatched the pen from his grip. He stood back with his arms crossed over his chest, perched on the edge of the desk.

I quickly turned back around to him before I began adding to his plans. "Do you mind?" I asked, holding up the pen.

He rolled his eyes, assuming I hadn't noticed. "Go ahead, carissima."

"Thanks." I smiled at him and whipped back around to the whiteboard. "Correct me if I'm wrong, because these random scribbles make little sense to me—and this is from the girl who took Chinese for her A-Levels, but are you really suggesting we are in any way evenly matched against an army of 50 wolves? 60 vampires against 50 wolves?"

"With correct battle formations and tactics, yes," he responded, curious as to where I was going with this.

I snorted. "Honey, the twins and I failed to defeat 1 single wolf together. That's three of your best fighters here, unable to kill one single mutt. Now tell me, how exactly are you planning on making this work? 60 vampires is already a low number compared to this threat, and when you factor in fatalities and injuries . . . well, we're screwed."

"So what do you suggest then, hm?" he questioned, and I could tell from his slightly icy tone that he didn't like being proven wrong in front of everyone. Not at all.

I lifted the sleeve of my hoodie up to wipe the board off and then paused. "Can I?" I asked, pointing to Caius' notes.

Caius sighed. "Yes you may."

After quickly wiping the ink off the board and swiping the remaining clumps of black stuff off my hoodie, I began writing notes myself. "Of course, we will have to introduce some serious training as you correctly suggested. Along with said combat training, I think it would be reasonable to suggest 4-5 vampires for every single mutt. That would mean we'd need to increase our numbers to more or less than 200 vampires."

"Are you truly suggesting newborns?" Aro questioned in disbelief.

I giggled. "I may be crazy, but not that crazy. No, not newborns, that would just be dumb. Any guesses as to where I'm going with this?" I asked the room. "Any at all?"

Nothing.

"You guys, we're not the only vampires around here." I gasped melodramatically. "We have plenty of allies. In that confrontation back in December alone, there were approximately 120 vampires in that snowy field. That's already double. Look."

I began circling points on the map where different covens were located. "Cullens, they'll gladly help, have 9, 8 who can fight alongside us, Hamamatsus have 10 in total, Ukrainians have 14, and then there are nomads like the wonderful Charles and Makenna, plus the Denalis, who have 6 members. Already that's 40 more allies, bringing our number up to 100."

Caius hummed in thought with his hand resting on his chin as his eyes glanced over my notes. "How can you be certain that these said 'allies' will be willing to fight alongside us?"

"We can't," I admitted, "but remember that I'm liked by literally everyone I just listed, and I'm not even exaggerating. We ensure they're aware that they are not specifically fighting for our coven, but instead for the entire supernatural rule. I reckon these guys can all be swayed one way or another."

"You mentioned needing 200, which I agree with," Marcus added, "but where do you suggest we make up for the remaining 100 we are still short on?"

"Um, good question." I briefly pointed my pen at him and turned back to face the whiteboard. "Well, let's see, the Cullens allies include the Amazonian coven, the Irish coven, and several nomads. Once we have Carlisle persuaded, they may join, which would bring our total to 110. Factoring in any other nomads we are aware of, that brings us to . . . ?" I glanced to Caius expectantly.

"We know of approximately 50 nomads," Caius contributed, "but it is unlikely that they would all be willing to join."

"Fine, we can work with that," I said. "Let's say 40 nomads then, just to pull a number out of the air. That's 150. We have a much better chance of defeating these mutts with 150 vampires than with 60."

"We're still 50 short," Felix added from behind me.

I held the end of the pen to my mouth and lightly chewed on the lid. "I know, Tweedledum, just give a girl a break for a hot minute." The room was silent for a few moments, until I thought of a solution which could solve our problems. "I have an idea."

"Oh no," Aro sighed.

"We can bring in the Thai coven," I announced.

He sucked in air through his teeth and grimaced at the thought. "You really do not know what you are signing up for here, cara mia."

"What, your ex wives? Worst case scenario, I can blast them to another dimension, so we're good. I've dealt with my fair share of intolerable bitches in my time, and I'm sure both Sulpicia and Athenodora should be a piece of cake. Oh, and I have one more suggestion."

"Make it stop," Aro muttered dramatically under his breath as he hid his face with his hand.

I scrunched my nose up at the drama king and faced the rest of the room. "You know the Quileute shape-shifters?"

Everyone in the room either grumbled or openly whined at the thought. I looked to Caius for help, but he simply shrugged with a smirk, silently telling me that I started this mess in the first place.

"Everybody PUT A SOCK IN IT!" I shouted over the commotion.

The room once again went silent and everyone's attention was back on me. "Thank you," I sighed, "not that hard people. I should really get a whistle or something up here. Anyway, I know you hate the Chihuahuas. Hell, I hate the Chihuahuas. They're as much our sworn enemies as these mutts are."

"In that case, why on earth would you suggest us forming an alliance with them?" Caius asked.

"Because these shifters are very different. They vow to protect humanity at all costs. The whole reason they exist is to keep mortals safe from supernatural threats, such as us. These mutts," I pointed to the board, "are just as much a threat to humanity as they are to us. If these shifters are so morally correct, they will help us."

"And how exactly can you be so certain?" Aro asked, Amethyst still in his arms.

"Jacob." The room again grumbled. "Don't make me have to scream at you lot again, my daughter's still asleep. I know you hate Jacob, I mostly hate him too, but what Jacob and I have is what you might call a love-hate relationship. We despise each other to our faces but, if it came down to it, I know that Jacob would save my ass and I would save his. He's stubborn, I'll give you that, but we can break him down. That way, that's already the entire Black pack, which consists of 8 shape-shifters. Add the Uley pack to the mix—if we're lucky—and we have a total of 17 Chihuahuas."

"So, 171 now, with the addition of the Thai coven?" Chelsea asked.

"In numbers, yes," I replied, "but in strength, much greater. A while ago, Carlisle Cullen conducted a series of experiments on their blood, which proved they are somehow immune to werewolf venom. They are also almost as strong as these mutts, so that should make our lives much much easier."

"This has escalated to war," Caius growled. "Good going, Eliana."

"Oi, if it was up to you, we'd all be slaughtered out there, blondie," I snapped, handing him the pen. "Feel free to edit whatever you want in my little evil scheme, but that's our best shot."

Once he took the pen from me, I sat back down on the sofa and curled up between Aro and Marcus. I slipped my shoes off and tucked my feet comfortably underneath me, leaning against Aro so that I could coo over Amethyst who was now awake yet again.

"Eliana is correct," Caius confessed. "Whether you agree with this plan or not, this is in fact our best option." He wiped off the board and I whimpered when my careful notes were erased without a second glance. "Our next steps include gathering said allies, but more importantly preparing for battle.

"The Child of the Moon." On the board appeared a very quick sketch of one of the werewolves, a sketch with incredible detail that only my blonde mate would be able to achieve in such a short time frame. "This is our enemy, our opponents. Since we last took on these mutts, they appear to have somewhat evolved and mutated far beyond their previous capabilities. They have mental shields, with much likeness to that of Isabella Cullen. Moonstone allows them to shift at will when it makes contact with their skin. The venom, when makes contact with ours, causes paralysis which, if not removed, will result in death."

He wrote each of these points down in a list and continued to add to them, basically summarising everything completely necessary to know about the werewolves and their physiology.

Eventually, he finally finished what he'd been writing and placed the lid over his pen. "That is all for tonight. Meeting adjourned."

Once everyone had finally left the office and the whiteboard had been removed, I sat back on Marcus' lap on the sofa. Aro passed Amethyst over to Caius who allowed her to rest comfortably with her head on his chest.

"You did a very good job in this meeting today, tesoro. I am very proud of you." Marcus smiled warmly at me and tightened his hold around my waist.

If I could blush, I'd be every shade of red possible. "It was nothing," I giggled as I looked down at my lap and tucked my hair behind my hair. "Um, can I . . . ask you something?"

"Anything at all," Aro replied happily, shifting in his seat to face me better.

"Okay, um . . . how do I put this? . . ."

Aro extended his arm out so that his hand was in front of me with his palm facing the ceiling. "Perhaps I could help?"

With a sigh, I placed my hand in Aro's and allowed him to flicker through my thoughts. When he reached my question, he dropped my hand with a venomous growl and shook his head.

"No," he answered firmly.

"What is it, brother?" Caius asked.

The corner of Aro's mouth twitched. "She would like to return to her home in England to retrieve her housecat," he hissed in displeasure.

Caius was the next to begin growling unreasonably. "I will not allow you to leave our presence again, Eliana, is that understood?" he snapped.

"That's the point," I cut in. "One of you guys can come with me. Unlike last time, this doesn't even have to be a solo mission. Should there be someone or something at that house, you can help me kick their ass." I sighed and glanced down at the ground. "Look, I've lost almost everyone I love, my family gone like they never existed. I'd at least like Fernando back. Is that too much to ask for?"

They went silent for a moment before I felt a hand lift my chin. I was moved to face Marcus who nodded in understanding. "If you so wish, I see no issue in sending Caius with you to find Fernando, bellissima. That is, as long as you do not do anything reckless or stupid, and follow Caius' orders."

A smile crept onto my face. "If there's one thing I can do, it's listening to blondie being a bossy boots." I then turned to Caius, since he was the one I needed to persuade. "Pleeease?"

He groaned defeatedly and his head tipped back so that he faced the ceiling. I let out an excited squeal and threw my arms around his, while I could hear Aro and Marcus laughing either side.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" I gushed.

After a moment, his arms came to wrap around my waist as he nuzzled into my shoulder. "You are most welcome, carissima. Let us find that filthy vermin."

I pulled away from his neck to see his face. "Cat," I corrected.

He sighed. "Yes, your filthy cat."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Hahah, I told you I'd bring back Fernando! That little fur baby couldn't stay out of the story permanently, I just wouldn't allow it. As if having a baby isn't enough, now there'll be an obese tabby cat leaving fur all over Caius' expensive suits. Yay!

Also, who's excited for the queens to come back? I have some interesting shit coming up, but I feel like it will be more funny than angsty if I'm honest. (jealous bitches)

And soon we'll have a big werewolf battle. It's gonna be a mess, and I can't wait to ruin your lives. But for now, enjoy the story mwahahahahah.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love reading your comments, stay safe, and ily lots!