“No,” Lilliane answered. “We weren’t exposed to many vampires, and we were basically locked in that house. Ladies? Any ideas?”
Her sisters shook their heads.
“This is good, trouble,” Atlas said. “Thinking outside the box.”
She grinned at him. “Oh? Is that an alpha mate thing?”
“Nope. That’s a Lilliane thing.”
“This is too cute,” Val fawned. “Too bad we gotta deal with this bullshit, though.”
Atlas agreed with her. But now, they had a good lead. A good plan. With every passing second, they were getting closer to a life without Victor. Closer to happily ever after.
TWENTY-EIGHT
LILLIANE
Turns out, getting vampire secrets … likehowto create new vampire councils … wasn’t that easy. The vampires were a secretive bunch, which wasn’t a surprise to any of the wolves, but it was a bit of a surprise for Lilliane and her sisters.
Kept, as they were, completely separate from the vampire world for being Half-Bloods, they were really cut off. Lilliane liked the idea of having their own Half-Blood council because it gave them a voice, and it was pretty fucking clear that the vampires needed to be shaken up if one could go full stalker on one of their own.
“I don’t know where else to look or who else to call,” Celestine whined. “You?”
Valentine shook her head. “Nope. I really like this idea, Lil.”
“Thanks.” She blushed.
“No, really. This is good. Too bad we can’t actually use it,” Val continued.
“But I think that maybe there’s another way to do it,” Lilliane said, keeping her voice low. Atlas looked over at her, frowning. “What are you thinking?”
“Well, this might be nothing, but Victor said something once. Something about how vampires don’t need to ask for power because they’re alreadythepower.”
“Arrogant ass,” Atlas grumbled.
She shot him a grin in agreement. “And then Atlas said something about how, in the vampire world, Victor is at the top of the food chain. He’s not. Councils are. Sure. He’s on them. Local and international, but that means he still has to listen to his fellow council members.”
“Right,” Atlas nodded. “Kinda like all three of us do,” he added.
“You do what you want,” Reece jokingly accused Atlas.
“So do you,” Atlas shot back.
“But the point is, you work together for the good of all packs. If wedeclareourselves a council, then we are a council. Vampires don’t ask for power. What if we just contact the international council and tell them that Victor is harassing us? Well, one of us, so all of us. You get it,” Lilliane waved her hand. “So, what makes a council? A collection of vampires.” She motioned to her sisters. “We’re three. That’s a collection. We need to have roles in this council. Probably a crest and a motto also.”
“Yeah,” Val said. “That’s not a bad idea. We can say that Longborn was our power seat but was burned down, and now, our new council seat is here.”
“It’ll give this house a protected status,” Lilliane explained to the wolves. “Victor wouldn’t be able to set foot here and do bad things without getting the council on his ass.”
“We all know that it might not be enough to stop this psycho, though, right?” Nero said.
Atlas shot an angry look at his friend, pulling Lilliane into his side. “Regardless. This is a good idea. It’ll keep any form of vampire councils from causing trouble for the ladies again.”
“That’s the main benefit,” Lilliane nodded. “It makes us our own authority.”
“I love it,” Val said.
“Ditto,” Celestine agreed. “So, what would our motto be?”
