Word Count: 4510

I apologize in advance for any serious grammatical errors in this chapter, I was trying to get this out as fast as possible and didn't edit as much as I normally do. I'll recheck and edit soon.

Everyone was sitting in their seats at the round table in the courtyard and the meeting was about to get started. Celie was proudly wearing a tank top with no sling even though the scars on her should were still vivid, she didn't care, she was healed and could use her arm again and wear something other than a tube top.

Jenny was going to meet Cole at around ten pm and they needed to have a plan for the meeting, it was very possible that the shit was going to hit the fan tonight and everyone wanted to be ready. Porter and fifty of his warriors would be surrounding the entire area, Eden, Matt, and the siren warriors would be waiting a few hundred yards out on rental boats to jump into the water the second he was sighted. They decided the sirens would stay out of the water until they had confirmation Cole had arrived, that way they would not be scented by any tritons before they were in the area. No one could imagine Cole would actually go to the meeting alone, he'd go onshore to meet Jenny alone, but he would have protection in the water waiting.

Celie would be onsite but was given strict orders not to join any battle that might happen, she was there to whisk Jenny away before she could get hurt. Celie was relieved, she'd had enough of fighting tritons to last her a lifetime. She would fight them if she needed to, but she didn't want to suit up and run into battle if she didn't have to. She had no illusions about herself, she knew she could protect herself, but she also knew she was no warrior.

Harper would also not be joining the battle as she had to drive the boat that would take Eden and his warriors to the site, then she was to immediately leave and return to the dock so there was no chance of her boat getting swamped by tritons. Since she and Matt were the only ones with experience driving boats in the bay at night, she was the only logical choice. It didn't make her happy, and she argued fiercely against it, because she wanted to go with Celie and make sure she was alright. But Porter had assigned two of his best warriors to protect her and Lorelai promised she would be taking a position near Celie and Jenny where she could get to them quickly if there was a threat.

They were still arguing over assignments when the young warrior ran out of the house again and pointed toward the spring pool, letting everyone know the triton was back. Eden tensed and moved protectively to Celie's side with an annoyed look on his face that made Celie smirk to herself.

Celie mind linked Eden in a sing song voice which only made his scowl more intense while widening her smirk into a smug smile.

It took a few minutes, but the triton approached the courtyard cautiously while they all waited, not going to him or escorting him, but letting him come on his own. When he made it to the corner of patio Celie smiled and waved at him, motioning him to come over to where she sat.

"Hi Bo," Celie said, cheerfully. "How are you today?"

Bo looked at her confused for a moment.

"It's a greeting," Celie explained. "We say that to each other when we see each other after a while to ask if you're having a good day or if you're doing ok."

Celie had realized quickly yesterday while they ate together that while Cole had taught the tritons to speak, he'd not taught them anything about actually interacting with each other.

"Please come and sit down," Celie said after another few seconds of Bo just looking confused.

After he was seated everyone just sort of stared around at each other until Celie rolled her eyes.

"I guess I'll lead the discussion," Celie said. "So, did you see Cole?"

"Yes," Bo answered.

"Is he going to attack us again?" Celie asked.

"Yes," Bo replied.

"When?" Eden asked.

"Soon, next night, he tell we go here to kill," Bo answered. "Must hurry, soon not change to next year."

"Mating season should be ending any day now," Matt said.

"Thank goddess," Celie mumbled.

"Moon female," Bo said, and pointed to Celie's arm.

"Do you know about the moon goddess?" Moira asked, watching him closely.

"Moon female talk sleeping," Bo said. "Say look for moon to safe."

"You saw her in a dream? She told you to come here and you'd be safe?" Moira asked.

"Yes, say sleeping, look for little moon," Bo nodded, excitedly. "Say tell of Kul to safe."

"When did she come to you?" Charo asked.

"Many day," Bo held up one hand with four fingers extended. "Say help."

"The day Cel was attacked," Adam said.

Bo turned and looked at Celie closely, his eyes moved to her shoulder, then back to her face.

"My kind hurt little moon?" Bo asked.

"Yes," Celie smiled a little sadly and nodded. "I killed the one who did it though."

Bo seemed surprised and looked at her closely before smiling.

"Is good," Bo said. "Many kind no good."

"We've noticed that," Harper said. "You came here for us to protect you, but why should we? Your kind hurt ours, your kind eat us. That's why they hunt you, to keep people safe."

Bo looked disgusted, even wrinkled his nose and grimaced.

"No all," Bo said. "No do that, is bad, eat only fish, no others."

"Three of your kind killed a man down on that beach at the start of mating season," Eden said. "They tried to eat him alive, they literally tore him apart before we could get to him."

"Is bad," Bo shook his head. "No all do, only some bad to eat others."

Celie could see the looks flying around and figured it was time for her to take Bo to eat so everyone could talk again while they were gone.

"Are you hungry, Bo?" Celie asked.

"Yes!" Bo nodded eagerly, glancing toward the house.

"Good!" Celie smiled. "I got more crab cakes for you today, and I got plenty of shrimp too. Let's go then."

Celie stood and walked toward the house, with Eden close by her side.

"Do you think it's telling the truth?" Reese asked.

"He recognized the moon symbol on her wrist," Harper said. "There's no other explanation for that, he couldn't have known what it was or what it meant, if he's dreaming about the moon goddess, then he's here to help us."

"I agree," Silas said. "He would have no way of knowing about the moon goddess visiting in dreams either so he would not have known to say that. Unless Cole knows a lot more about us than we think he does, or unless that creature is interacting with someone other than Cole who knows about us. Is it possible a siren is working with them?"

"No!" All the siren's present answered at once.

"None of our people would ever work with a triton," Eva answered, looking appalled.

"Then he must be telling the truth," Matt said. "Cole doesn't know anyone but Jenny, and she knows nothing about wolves or them, just him. So, there is no way Bo got that information anywhere but from the Goddess herself."

"Then we need to get as much information from him as we can," Porter said. "Stop this beating around the bush shit and just ask him outright what is going on and what Cole is doing and how to trap him or kill him."

"Yes," Winter agreed. "We don't have time to waste. If mating season passes and he's free there is no telling how many other tritons he could recruit to his cause before next year's mating season. Then our problems will be much worse, and the chances of keeping this from the eyes of humans will be even lower. We must end this now."

The other sirens nodded their heads in agreement.

"If he gets away from us and goes out to sea, we have no way of knowing what he's up to, he could swim to the other side of the planet and start attacking there, we have to find him and kill him," Matt said. "Otherwise, we could end up with a true war on our hands, right now, if we can get to him, we can stop it, if he gets away, there's no telling how long or how bloody this could get."

They continued discussing strategies until Celie and Eden returned with Bo, who was patting his stomach and actually smiling.

"Bo, where is Cole going to be tonight?" Harper asked without hesitation once they got back, she knew it wouldn't be long before he would have to change back into his marine form.

"Kul go off to shore," Bo answered.

"Is anyone going with him?" Matt asked.

"He take others, he go land, they stay water," Bo said, looking perplexed by their questions.

"How many others?" Eden asked.

"Many, not all," Bo said.

"Don't go with him," Celie said, placing her hand on Bo's arm. "When he goes off tonight, don't go with him. You'll get hurt if you do, so stay away from him and don't follow him."

Bo looked around at the somber faces, then nodded.

"You fight Kul," Bo said.

"We're going to try," Matt said. "We're not sure if we'll be able to find him or not, can you tell us for sure where he will be?"

"Land near mix water," Bo answered, then tensed and clenched his teeth, glancing toward the spring pool.

"You need to go to the water, don't you?" Celie asked.

"Soon," Bo answered, then looked back at her and pointed toward the spring. "I bring female, small one to water here, safe."

Everyone glanced around shocked.

"You want to bring your mate and child here?" Harper asked. "To the spring pool?"

"Yes, safe here," Bo answered anxiously.

"But what if Cole decides to come here and attack us?" Celie asked. "He's attacked from the pool before, if he finds her here, he'll know you're working with us."

"He no going water here soon," Bo answered. "Other die here, he come from water there."

Bo pointed toward the dock, indicating that Cole would be coming from the marina, which was much further away from the house, but still close enough to be accessible.

"Ok," Celie said, nodding, not even asking the others. "Bring her to the spring pool, you can stay there with your baby. But you need to stay in the pool, do not to come to the house tonight, warriors will be here, and they'll kill you if you come here tonight without us. Do you understand?"

Bo looked at her with confusion, not understanding why he couldn't bring her here.

"Food?" Bo asked.

"I'll bring you some food, I'll make sure you both have plenty to eat," Celie assured him. "But you have to stay in the pool unless one of us is with you. Just for tonight, ok?" Celie indicated those around them.

"Stay water, you come," Bo said, nodding. "I go, I bring female and small one."

He stood and looked around a little nervously but tensed again as his skin rippled.

"Go on," Celie told him. "Bring your mate and baby back as quick as you can."

Bo turned with a nod and ran toward the spring.

"Are you sure that was a good idea, Celie?" Silas asked.

"Yes," Celie answered and turned back to them. "He won't leave them here alone; he doesn't trust us enough for that. So, if they're here, he'll be here too, so we know he won't be out there with Cole."

There was a collective realization of her meaning and Harper grinned at her.

"And you say I'm the one doing all the thinking," Harper nudged her.

"If he really does bring her here, that is," Celie shrugged. "He could have just been saying that, or he could wait until later tonight, in which case, we won't know for sure where he'll be. I'm hoping he goes straight to her and brings her back quickly. We have cameras in and around the spring, we'll be able to see every move they make."

"We'll need to make sure the house is adequately protected," Luna Sophia said. "The elders and the baby will be here, so we want to make sure we have enough people here to protect them in case Bo double crosses us and Cole attacks while everyone is gone."

"I'll send another squad over here, we'll have one in the house and one outside," Porter said, rubbing his chin in thought. "If our warriors start losing, we can retreat into the house, they won't be able to get in easily, and hopefully the rest of us will have time to get here and back them up."

"I can't imagine them being able to get through two squads of wolves," Ara said. "Unless there are far more of them than we think."

Everyone nodded, though the siren elders appeared concerned.

They moved on to the topic of the meeting with Cole and decided the best course of action would be to have a few wolves walking up and down the beach and the others hiding in the nearby woods and behind the dunes.

Celie would walk Jenny to the edge of the beach, but would hide behind the dunes and watch her while Lorelai and another female warrior would pretend to be drunk beach goers wandering up and down the shore nearby. Since this had happened before, Cole would not be too suspicious, especially of females. Lorelai was new to the area so the chances of Cole seeing her before or suspecting her were slim.

Porter wasn't thrilled with that plan as he wanted Lorelai close to him, but she shut him down pretty quickly, telling him if he doubted her fighting ability, she would be happy to challenge him then and there to prove her skill, but for him to prepare to be hurt too badly to make it to the battle later. That comment had everyone biting their lips to hide smiles and smothering chuckles as Porter glared at an unimpressed Lorelai.

Harper and Matt would take their rental boats north and south of the beach and wait offshore for the signal and the sirens would dive into the water and attack from behind. Once the sirens had left the boats, Harper would immediately speed back to the marina and get away from the water in case she was followed. She wasn't happy about this but couldn't argue too much after being reminded of what had happened when they'd been attacked at sea. She knew she couldn't fight them in the water and if they attacked her on a small speed boat it would be easy for them to just grab her and throw her overboard where she would be dead.

Harper and Matt had spent the night before arguing over this plan, she absolutely did not want to leave Celie and Jenny alone to meet Cole, but she couldn't argue with Matt about the fact that she was the only person besides him with experience navigating a boat through the bay at night. She'd tried to convince him to only take one boat and have all the sirens together but that didn't make sense either because if they had only one boat, they couldn't cover the north and south waters beyond the beach, leaving a large escape area for Cole to retreat if he made it back into the water and away from the wolves.

It was nearing supper time when they were alerted to activity in the spring, they all rushed inside to watch the cameras and they were amazed to see Bo, and his mate, surface slowly and swim to the platform.

"He really does have a mate," Enna said softly, shaking her head.

"This changes everything we know about them," Harper said.

"Yes," Eva said. "It makes me wonder what else we don't know."

"We'll have time to find out after mating season is over," Celie said, causing the others to turn to her in confusion. "We have English-speaking tame tritons who trusts us in the pool, we'd be idiots not to keep them around after this and find out what is going on with their kind. We can find a sea cave close by for them to live in and give them our protection, then we can sit on the platform at the pool and ask questions."

They all stared at her for a few minutes before Celie rolled her eyes.

"Am I really the only freakin person who thought about that?" Celie asked sarcastically.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead, honestly," Harper said sheepishly. "I've been mostly focusing my brain power on us, you know, surviving today."

"Yeah, well, you need to learn to multitask," Celie quipped grinning.

"I'm the queen of multitasking," Harper said and stuck her tongue out at Celie. "I can cook, study, watch tv, and listen to you talk nonstop, while drinking wine."

Everyone chuckled at their bickering before Celie turned to go into the kitchen.

"I'm going to run some food down to the pool for Bo and his mate, I'm assuming you're going to go with me, big guy?" Celie said, winking at Eden.

"Of course, as if I would let you near that creature without me," Eden said, stiffly, making Celie smirk in amusement.

"I'll go also," Lorelai said.

"Sounds good," Celie said, then turned to Harper. "Hey Harp, when I get back, we can tell Luna Penny our plan and ask for our favor."

"What plan?" Luna Penny asked.

"It's a long plan," Harper sighed. "I was kinda hoping we could save the favor asking for after we survive the showdown with Cole tonight."

"Nope," Celie grinned. "We'll talk after we feed the triton family."

When Celie, Eden, and Lorelai approached the spring pool the clear water appeared empty, but Celie knew it wasn't. She made her way down the steps into the spring pool, with Eden softly cursing beside her, trying, but unable to stop her. When she reached the platform that was only a few inches above the water line she sat down a bucket and dashed back up the stairs to take a large bowl that Lorelai had carried for her.

"Bo! Bo! I brought you some food!" Celie shouted, holding up a large tin of fish she'd brought.

After a few minutes of waiting a dark shape began to rise up through the water. Bo surfaced slowly, looking carefully around the rim of the pool, his glance took in Eden, then Lorelai who stood at the top of the stairs, though he was careful not to look her in the eyes.

"Hi Bo," Celie waved with a big smile. "I brought some raw fish, some steamed fish, and shrimp, and some of those crab cakes you like. Are you hungry?"

Bo watched for another few seconds before sinking back into the water without a word. But Celie was patient, she knew what he was doing and a few seconds later, two dark shapes appeared rose slowly up from the depths. Bo surfaced first, then a second smaller head surfaced behind him, hiding as much as possible.

"Hello," Celie called out, then sat down on the edge of the platform and let her feet dangle into the water, ignoring Eden's curse. She waited a moment for the female to work up the courage to peek around Bo to see her and she held up her arm so that the moon symbol on her wrist was visible. "It's alright, we won't hurt you. I brought you some food. Bo, should I leave the food here and come back later?"

Bo watched her silently for a second, then shook his head and turned a little in the water.

"What should I get out? Do you want some fresh fish or cooked fish?" Celie asked, peering into the dishes she brought down as if she were having a comfortable conversation during a family picnic instead of offering food to a man-eating sea creature. She dug a handful of shrimps out of the bowl and held it out, "Let's see if she likes the shrimp, hmmm?"

The pair hesitated for a second and slowly swam closer, Bo pulled the female close to his side and nudged her toward Celie.

"Cee Lee," Bo said to the female. "Cee Lee good, bring food." He motioned toward Celie's patiently outstretched hand, nudging the female who had sunk down to her eyes in the water.