The MacDougall family meeting had gone better than expected. Ian MacDougall, a silver-haired Alpha in his sixties who controlled shipping routes from Scotland to Scandinavia, had listened to our proposal with keen interest and agreed to support our alliance in exchange for guaranteed protection against vampire incursions in his territory. His daughter Fiona, a sharp-eyed woman in her thirties who managed their business operations, had been particularly impressed by our market replacement strategy against Cross-Blackwood.
"You're not just defending yourselves," she'd observed as we concluded the meeting. "You're reshaping the entire competitive landscape. That takes vision and courage."
