The Mellifer intelligence arrived five days after the blood pact.
Sarah's compound eyes glittered with information as she spread documents across the Council table. "Vienna has been... active since Viktor's return. The Royal families are reassessing their Portland strategy."
"Reassessing how?" I studied the reports she'd provided—intercepted communications, surveillance summaries, analysis from sources embedded across Europe.
"Viktor is disgraced. His family has lost significant influence—failed campaigns aren't forgiven in Royal politics." Sarah pointed to specific passages. "But other families see opportunity. Portland isn't just a rebellious territory anymore; it's a functioning alternative to traditional power structures."
[INTELLIGENCE REPORT: EUROPEAN ROYAL RESPONSE]
[VIKTOR STATUS: DISGRACED - FAMILY INFLUENCE DECLINING]
[ROYAL ASSESSMENT: PORTLAND = THREAT/OPPORTUNITY]
[CURRENT ACTIVITY: DIPLOMATIC DELEGATION BEING ASSEMBLED]
[INTENT: NEGOTIATION (NOT MILITARY ACTION)]
"Diplomacy." Monroe's voice held surprise. "They want to talk?"
"Some of them want to co-opt what we've built. Others want to understand it before destroying it. A few seem genuinely curious about alternative governance models." Sarah's analysis was clinical, detached. "The delegation being assembled represents multiple factions with competing interests."
"Who specifically?"
"The Habsburg-Sforza alliance has shown particular interest. They're traditionalists, but pragmatic—they've seen Viktor's approach fail and want to try something different." Sarah pulled out additional documents. "The Kronenberg family is more aggressive. They'll push for submission or destruction. The Bonaparte remnants are wildcards—they might support independence if it weakens their rivals."
The political complexity of European Royals had always been abstract—distant threats to be defended against rather than engaged with. Now they were considering direct contact.
"What do they know about the pregnancy?" Adalind's voice cut through my analysis.
"Unknown. The binding ceremony was private, but Catherine has connections throughout Europe." Sarah's expression suggested she'd considered this. "If she's informed Vienna about the heir..."
"She hasn't." Adalind spoke with certainty. "Not yet. She's waiting to see how valuable the information becomes before selling it."
"That's disturbing confidence in your mother's mercenary nature."
"That's accurate assessment of who she is." Adalind moved to study the maps Sarah had provided. "Catherine will use the pregnancy for leverage eventually. The question is whether we control the revelation or she does."
The Council debate that followed lasted hours.
Monroe advocated caution. "We're not ready for full Royal attention. The Pack is strong, but we've never faced coordinated European response. If multiple families unite against us—"
"They won't unite." Ariel spoke from experience—her years of moving through European Wesen communities had taught her Royal politics. "They're incapable of sustained cooperation. Each family sees the others as rivals first, allies second."
"So we negotiate with factions individually?" Scalpel's voice held doubt. "Play them against each other?"
"We negotiate from strength." I'd been forming the strategy as the others debated. "We don't submit to any Royal authority. But we might accept recognition, mutual non-aggression, trade relationships. Legitimacy has value—it reduces the number of factions willing to attack us."
"And if they demand the heir?" Sarah asked the question everyone was thinking.
"They don't get to demand anything." My voice carried finality. "The child isn't a bargaining chip. Isn't leverage. Isn't negotiable. Any faction that treats them as such becomes an enemy."
[STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT: ROYAL NEGOTIATION]
[POSITION: STRENGTH (RECENT VICTORY, ESTABLISHED TERRITORY)]
[OBJECTIVES: RECOGNITION, NON-AGGRESSION, TRADE]
[RED LINES: SUBMISSION, HEIR ACCESS, PACK AUTONOMY]
[RECOMMENDATION: SELECTIVE ENGAGEMENT]
The preparation for diplomatic contact consumed the following days.
Representatives were selected—Monroe for military matters, Rosalee for social infrastructure, Sarah for intelligence coordination. Adalind would attend as my partner, her enhanced abilities providing both protection and magical assessment of Royal intentions.
Position papers were drafted, boundaries established, contingencies planned. If negotiations failed, we needed to be ready for the war that would follow. If they succeeded, we needed to ensure the agreements actually benefited the Pack.
"This is new territory." Monroe reviewed the diplomatic protocols we'd developed. "Grimms and Royals negotiating as equals. It's never happened."
"Everything we've done has been unprecedented." I studied the maps of Europe spread across the table. "First Grimm to build a Pack. First to claim territory through alliance rather than fear. First to defeat Royal forces through coordinated Wesen response."
"And now first to negotiate diplomatic recognition."
"The pattern holds. We keep doing impossible things until they become normal."
The Royal delegation wouldn't arrive for weeks—European bureaucracy moved slowly, especially when multiple factions needed to coordinate. But the preparation was essential. Every detail mattered when dealing with families that had practiced political manipulation for centuries.
Adalind found me in the planning room late that evening, studying trade routes and territorial boundaries.
"You're thinking about expansion." She read the maps over my shoulder.
"I'm thinking about possibilities." I traced routes from Portland to other West Coast cities. "Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Communities of Wesen who might benefit from what we've built here."
"That's ambitious."
"That's long-term." I turned to face her. "Someday—maybe years from now—what we've built might extend beyond Portland. A network of protected communities. An alternative to Royal dominance across an entire region."
"Or continent."
"Or continent." The idea had been forming for weeks, but saying it aloud made it real. "But first we survive the delegation. Establish legitimacy. Protect what exists before building what doesn't."
Adalind's hand found mine, the blood pact humming between us. "Our child will inherit this. Whatever we build, whatever we become—they'll carry it forward."
"Then we'd better make it worth inheriting."
The night stretched toward dawn, maps and plans spread around us, the future taking shape through careful preparation. The European Royals were coming to negotiate, to assess, to decide whether Portland's experiment deserved recognition or destruction.
We'd face them prepared. We'd face them united. And we'd prove that what we'd built could survive contact with powers that had shaped the world for centuries.
The Pack had started as survival. It was becoming something larger.
Something that might change everything.
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