[Psycho]

I wouldn't retreat, that's an invitation to get killed by assassinations. It's tricky business. Depends how expendable your hunters are and how important it is not have your blood slave flow interrupted.

An expensive solution is to blood hunt inside a castle. A cheaper one is to bring a thug or anti-thug of your own into the province. If you don't care about your blood hunters or losing the blood hunting province for a turn or two, then either 1) or 2) is good.