Hideaway Strath if you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow

this round ends sunday, april 9th — there is no posting order but please try to only reply once unless it's necessary to post a second time before the end of the round.

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Arturo realizes now that he has made a grave mistake. He can see it now that it is long passed but re-analyzing it puts into focus what he has done wrong and reinforces how he will handle situations like it in the future. The night that the pair returned to Teaghlaigh bloodied and broken he should have cut them from The Family right then and there. He has allowed them to think of themselves as victims and he assumes now that they think The Family is picking upon them. As if they are innocent. Still, after everything that is how they continue to paint themselves. It must be so because why else would they keep asking things of him? As if they have the right to request anything of him and The Family. As if he and The Family are mistaken. Arturo speaks things as they were presented to him and the wolves of Teaghlaigh were capable of making their own decisions. Arturo had no desire to convince them to see his way because he didn’t need to: they did it on their own. “You have no right to request anything of me or this Family,” The gangster snarls at them, lifting his lip as his tail curls over his back as he takes a daunting step towards the accused pair with hackles bristling. “Am I fucking clear?!” Because he’s had enough of the “woe-is-me” act. “Choice?” Arturo scoffs at the pair. “Why should we give you a choice? I should have chased you from my fucking borders when you crawled back to us bloodied and broken with treason on your lips. You have earned no choice from us.” He is angry and he feels justified in his position on this. He is Ceannasach and his word is fucking law and if anyone didn’t like it they could get out of his Family.

“Does that surprise you?” Arturo asks Olive softly but his smoky timbre is not gentle. It is something smooth and sinister. He is not a good man. He has earned his reputation as gangster the way all do: by being ruthless and calculating. It would do Teaghlaigh good to remember who sat upon it’s throne — in case he, at any moment, had failed to make himself clear. “I would fucking kill them, if that is what it takes.” He had made that threat. Subtly, of course, but it had seems to have gone largely ignored. When push came to shove Arturo is not afraid to take action. “Lie? About what have I or anyone else lied about? Your child is ill, perhaps on the cusp of death and yet you continue to speak as if you have any fucking idea what being a parent means.” Duana hadn’t let their newborn babes out of the den until they were near two months old and even then it was well supervised and never far. “You speak of wrongness and justice as if you two have not broken one of Teaghlaigh’s cardinal rules. The Family before Everything Else. To compromise this Family is to bring death upon your head.” Arturo was fairly certain he hadn’t left that out in either her recruitment or Dakarai’s joining.

Olive’s pleas and begs fall upon deaf ears. He is done sacrificing for them, done catering to and protecting them. He has asked Teaghlaigh for too much for the pair. No more. “I am not sure how you twist visitation rights into turning them against you. They should be made to know the truth and they can decide what they think of it without interference either way. All children have a choice. I have no interest in harboring wolves who have no interest in being apart of The Family.” He’d sooner feed them to the proverbial wolves than harbor dead weight who refused to do anything for Teaghlaigh. That was senseless. Rollo makes a good point as he strides forward to give his opinion. Aside from Arturo’s own generosity and kindness in the completely non-kind way of showing kindness he thinks about why it is fair for Teaghlaigh to be responsible for the pair’s children? How was it fair of him to ask them to raise and feed and shelter bastard children? It wasn’t. If his own children survived, Teaghlaigh would already have their hands full with his and Lotte’s litter. If they survived. “This Family feels no guilt for those who have wronged us. We will sacrifice no more. You will be escorted out of this pack and furthermore out of these Hinterlands. The moment you are clear of these borders a kill on sight order will be placed upon you and your children. Stay away from this pack and stay out of these Hinterlands.” He would not make the same mistake that he did on the coast — he wanted control of the Hinterlands. “Sirius will stay with us. He is ill and without Hemlock’s attention he will die. A small sacrifice to pay for what you have put this Family through.” If they wanted the ruthless gangster well…now they got him.

“Now get the fuck out of my pack and stay away from my Family.” He moves towards them to seize the shivering, ill babe, ready to defend himself if the banished attack.

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