Is this what family is supposed to be?

Date and time 23/03/2022, late afternoon
Location West part of the forest
Weather Foggy
Dedicated to @Adonis
Notes Mitchell is 168 cm with an athletic build

Mitchell had been about to head out, with some from the pack as he had received a text message from his father. He had to work fast and find a person futher away. He was only allowed back the 23rd march with him, since it would be distracting to have him near when there was something important going on in the evening. Mitchell had therefore excused himself and left for his little mission.

Now Mitchell was sitting underneath a hollow tree in hiding, as instructed. He was simply waiting for his father to appear so he could apologize to him and tell him that he couldn’t find the person he had asked for. While he sat there he was biting his nails both impatiently and in fear of what consequences it might have that he hadn’t been able to find this person. As soon as he could smell or feel his father being alone he slowly crawled out. He looked towards his father and scratched his neck a little. “I couldn’t find this Martin dude,” he said, having his feet well in the ground.

Adonis had most likely pulled the oldest trick in the book. Getting Mitchell to find someone who wasn't real while himself and the rest of the family had taken care of the Russian pack 'The Pack'. Not all were dead, there were still a good handful left who had summited to Damian not to end up with death as their next destination. Adonis had otherwise not been in reach for months, which was odd since he had been quite around all of January and the beginning of February till his meeting with Revna. Till he had gotten his heart back, and had found out just how heavy it was to carry.

But now he was with heavy steps reaching where he was supposed to meet Mitchell. Coming in closer he could see his son sitting there underneath the hollow tree, he couldn't really hide his scent now could he? Adonis took a deeper breath in, because it wasn't like Adonis hadn't loved his son. He loved his son, and before he hadn't known he hadn't held his heart in his chest, it didn't mean that Adonis had been completely heartless. In his way, he had loved Mitchell's mother, it was just pack law that you didn't raise werewolves in the mundane world. Had it been in Athena it would have been something else. Because even if many of the other wolves had taken the law a little too insane, it all came down to protecting humans from the werewolves and protecting werewolves from being known. That he hadn't believed that females should be werewolves was another thing, did he know better now that he had his heart? Yes he did.

Adonis breathed out a little,"it's alright, didn't need him anyways," he confirmed with a smaller smile. Taking his son in for the first time with his actual heart beating in his chest, perhaps his smile seemed more genuine for the first time in a while. "But there are some things that we need to talk about," he exhaled because now came the hardest part, correcting his mistakes that possibly could be too hard to even change up.

Mitchell furrowed his brows as his father said he didn’t need him anyways. He could see that he was smiling, and there was honestly something warmer about it. Somehow it was both alarming, confusing and something that felt safe. But what was going on? For all of Mitchell’s life, thinks like this hadn’t been taken that lightly, though it might just be Stepan who was a little tough sometimes.
“Yeah?” he said furrowing his brows in curiosity. Something definitely felt off. Even more so to the fact that he didn’t feel anyone at the pack through the telepathic bond. Had they shunned him? Left his father to tell him that Mitchell had to find somewhere else to be? It seemed wrong and not like something the pack would do. But what else could it be when Mitchell hadn’t been able to feel the bond to any of them? It was almost like the Russian pack didn’t exist anymore. “What's going on?”

At least a small amount of the pack had survived, bowed to a greater alpha that being Damian. Which made sense now that The Pack was no longer an actual pack anymore, they wouldn't feel the connection to it anymore. But Adonis was starting to get the connected to the pack he was born into back, which was nice. "The pack is no more," he said and looked towards his son. "Their ways killed them, their ways didn't work," he actually really did not know how to say this in a better way. How did you change an entire belief system around? You couldn't. "Stepan is dead and we no longer interact with them anymore," one could say perhaps that would make them lone wolves. Well, Mitchell at least till Adonis had convinced him to follow in his footsteps, only then he knew he could get a chance of convincing Damian to give Mitchel the benefit of the doubt.

His father told him what Mitchell had feared. The pack was no more. Now it wasn’t really because it was that visible on Mitchell, but his shoulders sank a little and there was a minimal downward pull on the corner of his mouth. Their ways killed them. But who killed them? Who in their right mind had killed the only logical pack? It could only be a pack that didn’t understand the ways it was meant to be. A pack with females or alike. Their ways didn’t work. It was obvious that they hadn’t succeeded, and Mitchel could only think about how he might’ve been able to change the outcome if he had been there.
Stephan was dead now. It ran Mitchel cold down his back. “What-” Mitchell whispered. He looked confused around before he gained eye contact with his father again. “C-can’t we just recruit?” he almost stumbled over his words, trying to find a meaning in everything. “I mean, you could be the alpha. You know-” He felt out of touch with reality. How could the pack just die like that? Mitchell’s thought pulled him around and thought about how it was possible that everyone was dead. His friends through years. Partners, comrades. “I can go and find someone right now, just give me a day and-” his eyes started to glisten a bit. He tried to stay as strong as possible, but the pack had been a part of his family.

To be fair, when you did the math to Adonis Stepan wasn't really a good alpha. Just the only alpha that he had found easiest to manipulate. It hadn't taken much to get into Stephan's head, and his father before him, and so on. It had been so easy. "There is no need to recruit," he licked his lips a little bit, knowing it had to be hard. After all, Mitchell was brought up beside them. Even if him and Mitchell had travelled side by side as well away from them. More or less it was the views that he was raised by. "I could, but it still wouldn't be right," he exhaled a little, replying to Mitchell's storm of words before adding more to the cook book of theories that Mitchell seemed to be brewing. "Mitchell," he took a few steps closer to his son, and placed his hands on his shoulders to maintain eye contact. "It's over," he breathed out. "Not everyone is dead, the ones alive has summited to your uncle's pack. Myself included," Adonis carefully watched how Mitchell took it. Well, in Adonis' heart he was now back where he belonged. He was home and he wanted nothing more than to bring Mitchell with him, but also knew it would take some work first. "There is something that happened that I need to tell you about, can we sit down?" He suggested they could sit underneath the shadow of the big tree that Mitchell had hid close by moments ago. Because he needed to tell his son about the curse Rebekah had held him under for so long. What it had done to him now that he knew it. Because things had changed.

Mitchell swallowed a lump in his throat as his father told him there was no need to recruit. So that was it. There wasn’t going to be a pack anymore. No matter how stupid some of the members had been, they had still felt like family to him. He had seen countless members die through the many years, but he had never thought all of them would either die or turn their back on the pack.
His mouth shut close when his father said his name and he looked directly up at him. He felt how his father’s hands weighted down on his shoulders, almost as if his father tried to ground him from all of the ideas. It’s over. He took a sharp breath in, feeling a pain spreading in his chest. A slight bit of hope lit up as he explained that not everyone was dead. Some of them were still alive… His uncle’s pack? Himself included? “What?” his brows furrowed, and he tried to take a step back. This was so odd, and he couldn’t believe his own ears. Why would his father be a part of his brother’s pack, when he had always said so many bad things about him, and how not to cross him? It simply didn’t make sense. His father then explained that there was something they had to talk about, which only made Mitchell more aware. Now, had Damian manipulated his father to try and make Mitchell bow down into some pack which didn’t know a thing about how werewolves should be? Without putting a lid on it, he turned his head in different directions to try and see if he could spot anyone near them. An ambush or anything alike. None of his senses told him anything he should be aware about. “Fine,” he said while looking away, before he looked towards his father and with a nod of the head gestured both of them to go to the tree and sit down. As Mitchell sat down, he let his elbows rest against his knees, and his arms dangling from there. He grabbed his own fingers and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and thinking worst case scenarios though. He turned his head slowly to look at his father.

Adonis could feel the slight pain just above his eyes starting to increase by the thought of what he had to tell his son. As if the burden of having gotten your heart back wasn't heavy enough, now you had to make things alright again when it came to the people who had been hurt or wronged by choices he hadn't had any control over. Adonis then followed Mitchell towards the tree and watched his son sitting down. Adonis slowly sat dow himself. Now came the hardest part, not because Adonis had done anything terrible to Mitchell than perhaps letting him be brought up in a vision that was horrible. "Remember when I told you about my family going up against the vampires many years ago?" Adonis started and licked his lips a little bit as he then took a sharper breath in. "When we returned home back then I had a visit from Rebekah Sinclair," Adonis kept his sentences very short, because it was just pieces of the puzzle that would come together. "She took my heart and blurred my memories of the encounters I had with her. Turned me against my sister, my brothers, my pack," he could feel his heart bleed by the thought, because even if Adonis then had been a bit pushy on how things were supposed to be. He would never in his right mind have gone after his sister, his nieces or the sake of cleansing the world. "Leon and his girlfriend found out my heart was missing before I did, so that's where I've been the past month, back with Damian and Melanie - getting my heart back, my memories. All the things Rebekah took from me," Adonis tried to explain knowing it was a rather strange event. "It's important for me that you know, that what we have been taught, how we have lived is nothing but a grand plan of the witches to tear us from the rest of the family. And she has been at great success of doing so for far too long."

Mitchell sat down, and his father close by. A true father to son talk. He furrowed his brows just a little when his father wondered if he could remember the story about his family who went against the vampires. Of course, he remembered. “Yeah?” he mumbled noticing how his father licked his lips. A sign of stress. As the story continued the brows only knitted closer and he seemed to feel more confused as the story went on. He could even feel how his heart was getting upset, without even knowing the true reason behind it. His eyes widened as Adonis explained that Rebekah Sinclair had taken his father’s heart. His eyes corrected themselves towards his father’s chest, right where a beating heart should be. He swallowed something that tasted awful. He looked back up his father’s eyes. Had everything been a trick? Was Mitchell’s live just a part of a trick? A game? It was odd, it was pulling and clenching his chest to shout and scream. He wanted to do something. Correct the wrongs that had been done. Even though Rebekah was a godlike witch, he still cursed her in his mind. He knew that trying to compete against her would be foolish, but damn who he wanted to. He wanted to hit something, let out the rage that was building up in the bottom of his stomach. He explained how it had been figured out that his heart had been missing and how he had gotten his heart and memories back. Once again, the mention of Damian and Melanie sickened him – because he had been brought up to think they were idiots. Mitchell looked away, folding his lips into a thin line, and tried to process the new information. He closed his eyes trying to only focus on his father’s voice and how his body felt.

A grand plan of the witches.

He shook his head a little and put a hand up in front of his mouth. “It has got to be a joke-” He looked over at his father, “It is a joke, right?” he questioned with eyes slightly red from suppressing all the emotions that welled up in him. “We are just pawns in someone’s fucking game?” his arms spread out from his torso as if he didn’t know what to do with the information. He licked his lips slowly, sighing before he leaned back towards the tree he was sitting against. He scratched his cheek a little, thinking, shaking his head as odd thoughts appeared. He shrugged a little, shaking his head, looking like someone who felt lost, “What do you want me to do?” he wondered blinking a little before he looked directly at his father.

"It's not a joke," he responded rather seriously, because no way that he would joke about this, knowing how much it painted him. How much pain he had been through to simply getting back what was rightfully his. "What I want for you to do, is lay low, till I talk to my brother. Then I want you to forget everything The Pack has ever taught you, and believe it to be corrupt, and when it comes to it, you listen to Damian. You listen to Melanie, and you apologize to Zoe and Angel for the trouble we have caused them over the years," he pointed out knowing it went against everything Mitchell ever had learned, but it was the only way for this to even work. He had to believe that if his own soul could be saved, so could Mitchell's. "And don't work against me on this, please," Adonis almost begged his son.

Lay low. He gave him orders that sounded so wrong in his ears. Listening to the werewolves he had always been taught not to trust and apologizing to some of them. It sounded absurd. Had his father lost his mind? “No, you can’t be-” he was just about to work against his father about a whether or not he should do as he had just been told. He looked into his father’s eyes, feeling pain spread both around his head, but also in his chest in pure confusion. Everything was being swirled around and he soon didn’t know what was right or wrong. “Alright-” he replied as his father had told him not to argue. “I won’t argue,” he said and leaned a little back thoughtfully. How was he going to unlearn what he had been taught all of his life?