A King, A Captain, A Mess

04 Departure

Ethan POV

"Thank you all for gathering this morning!" Father calls out. His voice reverberating through the town makes a microphone pointless. "My son, Ethan, has finally agreed to go off in search of his destined mate!" The crowd cheers, and I see many of my warriors whistling. "In an effort to allow my son and heir, Trevor, to mature and see the world, he will be accompanying his brother on this quest." The cheering stops abruptly only to be replaced with an angry murmur. Baby Brother really stepped in it this time. "My hope is that both of my sons will be able to grow from this experience. We wish you well, Captain. Lead your men as we know you can and good fortune in your hunt."

"Good fortune." The crowd repeats, but they all still seem upset.

The way Father addressed us tells the people he still plans to make Trevor King, and it seems the tides are turning public opinion away from the Golden son.

"Men." I address the warriors. "Those selected to join us have been informed. Everyone else..." I say, eyeing them over. "Try not to burn down the whole clan while I'm away."

"Yes, sir!" Is the unanimous reply, and I can see the grins on most of their faces. I truly love my men.

As the people go about their business and our guard gathers, Trevor speaks quietly, so only I hear. "They respect you, no... they love you." He says in awe.

"We've been together all our lives. We've fought and killed and saved each other's lives more times than any of us can count. They are my brothers." I say not really thinking until I see his sour face and sigh. I didn't mean that to hurt him. "Come let me introduce you to them." We walk over to the 4 men I allowed to join us on our trip. "Boys, zip it and look this way. I'd like you to meet my baby brother, Trevor."

"Fresh meat!" Gabriel cheers with a play growl and a grin that takes up over half his face.

"Captain Junior." Wilbur gives a nod and a half salute. We don't salute in the clan. We bow our heads so his gesture is obviously a joke.

"Baby Ethey! He's so cute! Why haven't you brought him to training before? Is it because he's so scrawny?" Timothy asks cocking his head to the side. "I mean, I thought your brother was 18, not 12."

"I am 18!" Trevor growls. "And I'll have you know I've been privately trained by the best fighters money can buy! I could take any one of you any day!"

"Let's not and say we did... or just not." I stop this before it can escalate further. "The last member of or group is over there. His name is Killian. We call him Killy when we want to rile him up and Ian when we are being nice."

"Which means we call him Killy all the time!" Timothy says.

"Not all the time." Gabriel argues and Wilbur nods.

"Only like 97.8% of the time." He agrees.

"It's at least a solid 98% of the time."

"Are you going to argue over .2%"

"Looks that way!"

"Knock it off, children." I scold them while trying not to laugh. And these are the people I chose to spend time with.

"He's quiet, so don't expect him to talk to you." I tell Trevor when I see him watching Killian. In reality, the guy is just crazy shy. He likely won't speak to or in front of my brother at all. "Come on, guys. You all packed?" I see each of them adjust a neatly packed rucksack on their backs and grin. I knew I could count on my men.

"We figured you'd want to head out as soon as possible." Timothy says with a grin eying Trevor. "But I guess baby brother isn't ready. Need mommy to pack your lunch for you?" I roll my eyes at his joke and punch him in the arm.