Word Count: 3965

Saturday night Ara and Sagan had accompanied the Key's pack back to Islamorada to get settled in and Matt and Eden did patrols around Key Biscayne. Though they did pick up a few small traces of scent, the waters seemed to be clear of tritons and everyone's worries eased a little.

The longer they went without a sighting the more reassured they became that maybe the tritons who had come ashore had only been part of a small local group. Since they'd lost so many they'd likely retreated to lick their wounds, realizing they didn't stand much of a chance against the sirens and their allies. By Monday morning, everyone was bracing for the storm and cautiously gaining hope that the worst of the triton attacks were over.

The hurricane was a solid category two, and while that was very concerning, it had veered to the east enough that it was not considered a major threat to Florida and no evacuation order had been issued. There were still major warnings for the area, because even though they would not face the storm head on, the island was still going to get a major lashing and those who could evacuate were advised to, just to be on the safe side. But Matt had built the house to be virtually indestructible to anything but maybe a direct hit from a category five, so they were secure in staying. The house had double cinderblock construction, steel frame and roof, and quadruple pane windows with shatter proof glass. It had cost him a near fortune to build it, but they never worried about storms coming through and hadn't had to evacuate yet.

Of course, Harper, Matt, Celie, and Eden were staying put, and Porter even insisted on staying with them, though they suspected it was mostly just because he wanted to see the hurricane close up. Being born and raised in inland Florida had given him both a healthy respect for and fascination with one of mother nature's most destructive forces.

After much discussion Alpha Lucas, Reese, and Adam had decided to remain in Florida for the duration of mating season. Even though the Everglades and Keys' packs had promised warriors to help patrol and guard the house, they felt it was necessary to have at least a few warriors onsite at all times. And though Alpha Lucas was retired, he was still a warrior in his prime, and of alpha blood, so he was far more formidable than most wolves half his age.

Luna Sophia and Callum would return to the pack after the storm to make sure everything was running smoothly there until the others returned. The pack could only go so long with the gamma in charge before other packs would start considering them weak. Luna Sophia had proven herself a formidable leader and Callum would step into the beta role beside her. But the situation was temporary, as mating season would only last for a few more weeks.

Though they weren't thrilled about it, Harper and Matt had decided to have everyone stay at the house during the storm. If it had been up to Harper, she would have left Callum, Reese, and maybe Adam at the hotel and only invited the alpha and luna. But she knew it would be petty and immature to do that, so she had agreed to extend the invitation to them as well.

Since the house was now full to capacity, Porter had been relegated to staying on the fold out couch in the rec room, but being a teenage boy, sleeping on a couch was no hardship to him. He was just happy they were letting him stay instead of sending him back to the Everglades packhouse.

Matt was outside working with the others to get the storm shutters put on the house while the girls were inside getting all guest rooms ready and setting their hurricane supplies out in case they lost power.

By the time it got dark, the winds had picked up and the waves had gotten choppy at the shore, so they knew the storm would be kicking into high gear soon. Harper and Celie were in the kitchen making snacks and getting ready for a night of riding out the storm when Celie stopped what she was doing and stood like a statue for several minutes before she turned to Harper with wide excited eyes.

"I just thought of something that could totally help us scare the tritons off!" Celie said excitedly, then ran to gather the others.

"I think we need to let at least one triton go the next time they attack," Celie announced when everyone was seated in the rec room.

"What?" Adam asked.

"No way, we can't let them go, they're too dangerous!" Reese said.

"Hear me out!" Celie shouted to quiet everyone when they all started talking at once. "We need to let at least one of them go because they don't know about werewolves!"

"Huh?" Harper asked, confused.

"Think about it! They think it's just Matt, Eden, and a few humans living here, they don't know we're werewolves!" Celie tried to explain. "They don't know what a werewolf is, they have no idea humans can turn into big scary wolves, and they have no idea that we're allies with the sirens. If we let one see us shift, see us fight beside the sirens, then let them get away. They'll go tell the rest of the group that there's a threat they were not aware of, that there is a species that can hurt them, that they never knew about!"

"But that will give away our advantage," Callum argued.

"We don't need an advantage if they're not attacking us," Porter pointed out.

"Celie is right," Eden said. "They don't know anything about your kind, they have no way of knowing you exist, when they see your human form, they don't see anything but prey. If they realize you're more than you appear, it will make them wonder what else they don't know."

"They probably don't even know what a wolf is," Celie said. "Wild wolves don't go near oceans, they don't hunt in or around oceans, tritons probably will have no idea what we are if they see us. All they will see is big and furry with large teeth and sharp claws."

"And if we shift in front of them, it will be an even bigger scare. We didn't know there were other species of shifter out in the world, and we knew all the old legends. They have no history to even understand we could exist, much less that we actually do." Adam agreed, grinning at Celie.

"So we patrol in human form all the time, when a group of them attack us, we shift in front of them, kill most of them, then let one get away from the fight. He runs back to the others, tells them the sirens were fighting with these humans who can turn into big ass mean furballs, and they all get too scared to come back and attack again." Porter said, laying it out.

"Right!" Celie said, nodding. "We've fought them a few times, but none of them have survived to go tell the others about us so they're not scared of us."

"It might work, at least in short term," Matt said slowly. "I can't imagine them just giving up on fighting back forever, but it definitely should make them rethink attacking with humans around, and here in particular. They wouldn't have any way of knowing which human is a werewolf and which isn't, so then the prey becomes a potential predator. I like it."

"The only thing it might actually accomplish is to keep them from attacking on land," Alpha Lucas said, with a frown. "It won't stop them from trying to attack in the water or stop them from ambushing you."

"Well, they're going to do that anyway, at least this keeps them off land, and protects any humans in the area where they might come onshore." Matt reasoned. "Plus we only need to worry about them coming onshore during mating season, the rest of the year they can't anyway. But at least it would make us safer here for the next three weeks, until we can get the word out to the rest of the siren community and try to figure out what is happening with them."

"Alright Cel!" Porter said, high fiving her. "Way to use your brain Chica."

**

It was getting late, and the storm had officially arrived, the storm shutters covered every window and door except for the glass doors of the rec room. They still wanted to be able to see outside and check the progress of the storm and they were confident the doors would hold. Porter and Luna Sophia had spent most of the evening sitting in front of the doors watching the fascinating display of mother nature's fury while Porter regaled the luna on all the storms that had come through in his lifetime and all the damage they had done.

Everyone was considering going to bed when a sharp thud on the glass doors drew their attention. They turned and were shocked to see nine tritons staring in the doors at them, they were crouched outside the glass, bracing against the vicious wind hammering them. One of them had hit the glass trying to break it to get inside the house to attack. But the heavy doors and shatter proof glass was more than enough to keep them out.

Everyone jumped to their feet and stared in shock at the glass as the tritons began striking and clawing at it trying to get in. They were hissing, shrieking, and baring their teeth in fury that their prey was right in front of them, and they couldn't get inside.

"Everyone shift!" Celie shouted. "This is perfect, they can see us but not get to us, let's show them what we got."

They ran to stand in front of the window and all the wolves started shifting, their clothes ripping, and tearing off them. Soon there were two smirking sirens and six large snarling wolves staring at the stunned tritons through the glass. They watched the tritons faces go from furious to shocked and horrified at the sight before them.

Porter suddenly lunged forward, rearing up on his hind legs he put his front paws on the glass, and bared his sharp teeth, viciously growling at them even though they probably couldn't hear him over the wind.

Porter was an alpha wolf and the biggest among them despite his young age, so standing on his hind legs put him over a foot taller than the tallest triton. His sudden action made the tritons scream and recoil in fear, they quickly decided braving the storm and attacking the house was not a good idea. They turned as one and fought the wind to run from the deck back toward the beach.

Everyone stood at the doors watching the deck intently to make sure the tritons were not coming back before they moved away from the window, and the wolves went to the other rooms to shift back to their human forms and get dressed.

Celie came running back into the rec room, practically bouncing with excitement. She jumped into Eden's arms hugging him tightly and kicking her feet when he lifted her off the ground, laughing.

Adam's face fell when he saw Celie run to Eden instead of him.

"That was awesome!" Celie squealed.

"Did you see the looks on their faces?" Porter said, laughing.

"I'd say that worked," Matt said smiling. "They were definitely shocked when you shifted."

"Porter made a big impression on them too," Harper laughed and shook his arm.

"That was an amazing idea, Celie," Adam said. "I think they'll seriously reconsider coming here again."

"I think we can certainly expect them to be more hesitant to attack on land going forward." Alpha Lucas said. "They must have been wondering why none of their warriors survived the attacks against us, now they know."

"Nothing like fear of the unknown to throw someone off their game," Reese said, rubbing his chin. "If they are as primitive as we think, when it comes to communication and tactics, they will likely go into full retreat now. At least as far as land attacks go, I don't think there's much we can do about attacks at sea though, so sirens are still in danger."

"But we have always been at risk from triton attacks, that is as old as our species," Eden said. "We just never had to worry about pods of tritons, but we always figured they would at some point start taking mates. We have wondered for centuries why they have not developed family units, that is the first step to protecting their species."

"Yes, protecting the young and child bearing females is usually the best way to preserve the population," Luna Sophia said.

"The first priority for us now must be to protect incoming sirens answering our calls. We need to converse with our people to see if we are the only ones who have observed this behavior. It could certainly have happened elsewhere, and we just have not heard of it," Matt smiled wryly. "We don't have the internet to share such information, so we may want to start encouraging more of our kind to live on land and communicate with each other and relay that kind of information to those who dwell in the sea."

"Definitely wouldn't hurt for us to develop more advanced means to communicate with each other and spread information," Eden said. "Even to start a formalized school system for the young to learn more about humans and living on land."

"It might also be time to share your existence with the werewolf world," Alpha Lucas said, causing the sirens to tense. "It doesn't hurt for you to allies on land."

"Yes, but it could also create enemies for us as well," Matt said, frowning. "From what I understand about your kind, you cannot get along with each other, introducing a new species might not be a good thing to some."

"That is certainly a concern," Reese sighed. "Unfortunately, we are a volatile race, but I can't see your species remaining hidden for much longer, both the Everglades and Keys packs know of your people."

"We'll tell our pack not to share the information," Porter argued quickly. "No one will hear about it from us."

"You can't stop all gossip, Porter," Callum said sadly. "You might be able to delay it, but eventually it will spread, then other packs will be pissed at you for keeping it from them."

"Maybe we just talk to the high council first," Luna Sophia suggested. "They are actually good at keeping information from the packs if necessary, they are the keepers of many secrets of our kind."

"Yeah, we'll have to tell the council," Alpha Lucas said. "They will have more insight into how the packs will react if they find out about your species."

"We would appreciate if you let us talk to more of our people before you go to them," Eden said. "Our wise ones need to consider these things as well and advise us on how they think we should proceed. We are very different from you, we choose as a society what is best for all, we do not operate as individual pods and disregard what is good for others. But that takes time, unfortunately, the siren world often moves slowly. The oceans are vast, and it is sometimes hard to communicate, even through song, to the ones who dwell in the remote regions."

"I'll tell my pack not to talk about it to any outsiders, and I'm sure Alpha Michael will have no problem doing the same," Porter said. "Then we wait until you have had time to meet with your people and let us know your progress. But if it gets out somehow, we'll have to go to the council and let them know immediately."

"I think the siren world is going to have to speed up though," Reese said. "Because you're not just going to be dealing with werewolves finding out about you, you need to get ahead of the evolving triton threat, and you don't know how fast that will spiral out of control."

"Yes, that is the most pressing issue we're facing now," Matt agreed.

"Well, I'm beat guys, so I say we take shifts and watch the doors in case they come back, then get some sleep," Harper suggested.

**

"I think they've evolved further than we thought," Alpha Michael said. "If they worked out that they could attack during the storm and catch you off guard, that's far more than we thought them capable of."

They all sat in the rec room in front of Harper's laptop having a zoom call with the Everglades and Keys' packs.

"Yes, and it would have probably worked too. If we had gone to bed at a decent hour and they'd been able to get into the house, we would have been caught completely by surprise," Harper said, "they could have killed all of us in our beds."

"They're definitely planning and strategizing their moves now, we have proof of that," Alpha Alexander said, then smiled. "But it was a stroke of genius to shift in front of them and scare the crap out of them. Well done, Celie."

"Thank you!" Celie gave a cheeky grin. "The cherry on the Sunday was Porter jumping on the window though, that is what sent them running."

"It must have been a truly amazing thing for them to see," Luna Diana snickered. "Humans freak out seeing us for the first time even though they've heard the legends all their lives. I can't imagine the shock it must have been to a species that had never even seen a wolf and had no idea it was even possible."

"Especially since it's such a drastic change," Eden laughed. "It startled the hell out of me the first time too. With us sirens, we only change a little and we look mostly the same. With you, everything changes into a completely different creature with no similarities at all. I've been meaning to ask, does it hurt?"

"At first," Celie answered turning to Eden. "The first shift is horrifically painful, but the more you shift the easier it gets. It's still a little painful if you don't shift often, but it doesn't hurt at all if you're someone who shifts all the time, your body gets used to it. You also get faster at it the more you shift, like Porter shifts seamlessly because he's a warrior and trains every day. It takes me longer because I don't shift very often."

"So what is our plan now?" Ara asked, bringing them back on topic.

"We continue doing what we've been doing until the end of mating season," Matt answered. "We patrol, send out calls, and try to get as many sirens here as possible."

"Or just get them on land with someone who knows how to use technology," Harper suggested, then pointed at her computer. "Zoom calls would be safer for them since we know the tritons are here, hunting our waters."

Everyone nodded, surprised at themselves for not considering that before.

"We think we will probably have less worry about land attacks now, but we still want to keep up our patrols. And we need to guard the house since we know for sure they know exactly where we are and are not scared to come here. Well, they weren't scared to come here before, they probably are now. But they may just decide to be more sneaky next time, or bring more warriors, so we'll install some motion sensors and a heavy duty alarm system. Most of our beach cameras were damaged or blown away during the storm, I'll replace those today, so we have visibility on the coast again."

"We think we'll need to be extra careful about sea attacks now though," Eden said. "And we need to include that in our calls, we must let our kind know to be on the lookout for group attacks. We need to advise them to travel in pods if possible or to come onshore away from our primary location and travel over land if they can."

"Is that a possibility?" Alpha Alexander asked.