Xavier had showed up at the club last night to stay until the battle. We questioned him for an hour, making sure that Cecilia was okay and could handle this. We all knew that it would be hard for her to stay at the pack house while the rest of us fought, but we knew she could do it. She was a strong girl.

In the morning, we all met in the club early, setting up tables so that we could all sit and plan. Ashton and Frieda both had extensive military careers before they'd been turned, so they did most of the strategic planning, with the rest of us there to offer ideas.

"Xavier, where are you going to keep your phone?" Ashton asked. "It can't stay on you or it risks being damaged. We need that link to Ceci to stay established."

"I wasn't planning on keeping it with me," Xavier assured Ashton. "I planned to drop it outside the fighting range, but close enough that we'd be able to hear it if it rang."

"Does Ceci have a special ringtone?" Frieda asked, leaning forward. "We don't need to leave the battle because your mom decided to call and chat."

"I've programmed her ringtone to an old phone ringtone. Anyone else that calls will play a musical tone."

I nodded in approval. "Anyone hears that ringtone, you drop whatever you're doing and get to the pack house," I ordered. "Ceci won't call Xavier unless she's in immediate danger, so there won't be any time to waste."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"Jerome is right. Ceci has been trained extensively in self-defense since she was young, but she's only ever had human opponents," Xavier stressed. "She will be able to keep someone off her, but only for a few seconds. If that phone goes off, it's going to be a race to the pack house."

"Everyone understand the importance of Xavier's phone ringing?" I asked, making sure that everyone knew what was top priority if the phone rang. When they all nodded again, I smiled. "Then let's get down to business."

"The pack does not know the exact time that Drabek will attack," Frieda announced. "All they know is that he's planned to attack sometime tonight. We're going to hit the pack's border at sunset and wait."

Ashton picked up where she left off. "The battle will be easy to detect when it starts and we'll move in immediately. The wolves are going to be more than a little surprised by our entrance, so it's important that you immediately find a target from Drabek's pack. Maybe smile at someone from Eli and Jackson's pack or something. We can only be helpful if they realize that we're helping them and not Drabek."

"It's going to be pretty obvious that we're there to help them. The pack has all seen us at Ceci's graduation party. They'd be stupid not to realize that we're there to help them," Allison, a newer member of the coven responded.

"They're going to be in a high stress situation, Allison," Ashton responded, pinning her with a serious stare. "Most of their wolves will be in control so they can fight better. If this is going to work the way that we want it to, make it obvious who's side you're on when you get there or you'll risk screwing everything up."

I watched as Allison dropped her gaze and nodded. She was still young, but she'd learn, especially living with us. We took care of our own.

"Jackson has called dibs on Drabek," I announced, repeating what both Ceci and Xavier had told me. "We don't interfere with that fight unless Jackson's life is on the line. Ceci wants him protected. However, he is her mate and he has more of a right to kill Drabek than anyone else there."

"I figured that was obvious enough to not be said, but Jerome is correct," Ashton replied. "It's Jackson's right to take down the direct threat to his mate, but Ceci will be destroyed if anything happens to him. It's a fine line, but keep an eye on him if you're close."

When everyone seemed to understand, Frieda took over. "I don't know how welcoming the pack is going to be with our interference, but try to keep a wolf on one side of you and a vampire on the other. We're there to help protect the pack as much as we are to fight Drabek's wolves."

"I know it's weird to be protecting someone that doesn't like or appreciate our support," I told them when I noticed a few disgruntled faces, "but we're doing this as a favor to Cecilia." That was all that needed to be said. The vampires that seemed disgruntled bowed their heads in agreement. Ceci was a part of our coven and she couldn't protect herself against the supernatural. Even if she never decided to become a vampire, she would always be one of us.

Slapping the table with the palm of my hand, I stood up. "Who's thirsty?"

I wasn't at all surprised when everyone stood and followed me to the bar. Everyone would need to be at their best tonight and that would require a healthy amount of blood to be consumed. I took my normal spot behind the bar and Xavier joined me. We filled enough goblets with blood for everyone and then got some for ourselves.

"How was Cecilia when you left her?" I asked again.

Xavier sighed, but he still answered. "She's worried, Jerome, but that's to be expected. She hates the idea that we're all going out to fight for her, but she's being locked up at the pack house."

That worried me. "She does know that she has to stay there?" I asked. "She understands why we need to keep her there?"

I exhaled in relief when Xavier nodded. "She does, she's just worried about everyone and it's setting her on edge. She should have been at the pack house by noon today and I'm sure Jackson is doing his best to keep her calm."

"Did she say who would be staying at the pack house with her?"

Xavier nodded. "Alice will be there with her, along with some of the other parents that couldn't risk leaving their children unprotected. If a wolf gets by the rest of us, they'll be able to protect her until we can get to her."

'That's good," I sighed, some of the tension leaving me. "I've been worried about her."

"We all have," Xavier replied with a sigh. "I'm glad that I came back when I did. Not knowing about any of this would have killed me."

I smiled slightly. I was glad that Xavier had come back to the coven when he did as well. His parents used to be a part of this coven when he was younger, but they'd moved north and joined a coven that was closer to their new home.

"I'm glad you came back, too, Xavier," I told him, patting his shoulder. "Don't worry about tonight. We're going to get rid of Drabek once and for all tonight and Ceci will be safe."

Xavier smiled slightly. "That sounds like something to celebrate."

I laughed. "Indeed it is. Go turn up the music. We'll let off some steam until it's time to head out."

Xavier did as he was ordered and I kept my place at the bar, refilling goblets and watching my coven unwind before the battle tonight. It really was something to celebrate. Ceci was like a small, defenseless child to us, we'd protect her with everything we had. We were more than happy to help take care of this problem tonight.

Sunset was at exactly nine thirty-six tonight, so at nine-thirty, I shut off the music and the coven turned to face me as a single unit. "It's time to go," I told them. Ashton and Frieda joined me in leading the coven from the club with Xavier and Levi only a step behind us.

We were careful on the way through town, splitting up into three groups so that we didn't draw as much attention to ourselves. We met up again at the edge of the woods and headed towards the pack's territory boundary. We stopped right at the edge and then it was time to wait.

I was surprised to find that we didn't have to wait long. Only about ten minutes passed before the sounds of wolves fighting reached our ears. With a flick of my hand, my coven knew to follow me and I lead the way to the sound of fighting.

The look of surprise on the faces of Jackson and Eli's wolves was comical when we burst into the clearing. I gave the closest wolf a toothy smile as I ripped an opposing wolf off his stunned back and threw it into a tree. After a moment of shock, he returned my smile with a fierce wolf equivalent and we moved in.

Eli's pack had been pretty evenly matched with Drabek's, at least until we arrived. Drabek's wolves were surprised by our arrival just like Eli's so no one gained an advantage other than us. I grinned as Eli's pack immediately jumped back into the fighting with us. It wasn't going to take much to take down this pack with us there to help them and they knew it, even if they didn't like it.

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