NOT WORTHY TO BE KING: FEARLESS WARRIOR

2| WELL THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

He figured he should've gone to his mother first and told her he was not going to make it back home for dinner since he was invited to the palace.

Everyone in the palace was giving him weird looks, it's not something hidden that he is not to be seen inside the palace unless summoned by the king himself or during royal functions.

You may think because he is always at the royal functions people would stop acting weird whenever he showed up. Some of them look at him as if he was a meal for dinner while others don't bother to hide the disgust in their eyes. He's used to it though so it doesn't creep him out.

"What are you doing here?" He heard his father behind him. He turned to face him and bowed his head.

"Good evening father."

"You didn't answer my question, Logan." He couldn't remember his father calling him by his name, not in years, even if it was not nicely spoken.

He is always called, my excuse of a son lately and it always makes him feel like a piece of rubbish. He always assumed his father forgot his name or maybe he just decided to restrain himself from ever using his name.

"Father asked you a question brother. Don't you think it's disrespectful to stand there and not answer?"

"I'm sorry father. Neo told me Kade invited me for dinner."

"I did? Why would I invite you over for dinner?" Kaden asked him, looking at him like he just told the biggest lie of his life.

Okay, it was confirmed, no one in this kingdom cared what happened to him. It was either Kaden wanted to embarrass him in front of their father or Neo wanted him to embarrass himself in front of the king. Which one is which he didn't know, all he knew was that someone lied to him.

"Son, did you invite your elder brother to have dinner with us? And if you did why are you denying it?"

"Father! Why are you believing his word and not mine?" Kade was hurt his father believed Logan was telling the truth and he was pretending to have no idea about what he did.

"I simply asked if you invited him over for dinner or not. I never said I believed anyone over anyone. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill."

"I did. I invited brother Logan over for dinner. I didn't think you would mind father. I hardly saw him around here before I left and I figured it was time I got to spend time with him. There aren't many pictures of him around here either." Well, I did not expect that. Logan thought, his little brother isn't so little anymore.

"Clay?" His father called him, maybe waiting for him to explain further. No one ever did anything without the king's consent and Clayton just did the impossible.

"Come on now father. It's not like I invited a stranger. You should be happy at least one of your sons is making an effort of getting to know his elder brother." He walked past his father and went to Logan and hugged him.

"Welcome home brother, at least I look like someone in this house. I've been having trouble in the past few hours since I got back trying to look for similarities between me and Kaden or father and me." He was trouble, Logan would give him that.

"Welcome home little man. I missed you" He said hugging him back, he wasn't so little anymore though.

"I'm not little anymore big brother. I'm almost tall as you. You can still call me that though. I like it, it makes me feel like I'm 9 years again. Come in, I'm sure the maids are done with serving the food. Wouldn't want to keep the queen waiting."

He realised his father and Kaden were still outside and he didn't want to offend them. He was about to apologize to his father for not acknowledging him when Clayton practically dragged him inside.

True to his words, the maids were done serving the food and the queen was waiting at the dining table, obviously waiting for everybody to arrive before eating dinner, but she wasn't alone, there was a girl not older than 16 sitting beside her and Malia was nowhere to be seen.

She looked so scared to even be in that room let alone sit beside the queen. She looked like she would rather be anywhere than be at that dining table. When she looked up and saw them enter, her entire body relaxed.

"Mother. I hope you did not scare her with the scowl you're wearing on your face." Clayton said as he went to plant a kiss on both his mother's cheeks. Logan couldn't help but wonder what changed him. 

Clayton was always the obedient son, did everything he was told, and the playful tone that left his mouth every time he spoke was not there when he left. He also went to the girl in question and gave her a small kiss on her lips before whispering something to her which made her giggle.

"Arianna, I want you to meet one of the most important people in my life. This is my elder brother, prince Logan, and brother, this is Arianna, my fiancèe." He spoke the words with so much pride. She rose from the seat and Logan saw she was pregnant, the baby bump was small but not invisible.

"You didn't say she is pregnant." It was the king who spoke, the shock was evident in his words.

"I tried to tell you earlier my king but you were not listening." It was the queen who spoke though she also seemed shocked by that. Logan guessed Clayton didn't introduce her the way a prince should introduce their fiancèe to the royal family.

"I'm sorry father. I just wanted to surprise you. Besides, when I told Neo that I wanted to meet you before dinner he said you were in a meeting. I decided it was going to be better if I did the formal introduction while having dinner. I'm sorry if you all feel like you were ambushed. Arianna wanted to meet Logan too and I thought it would be nice if I also invited him over so that I can do the introduction all at once. Surely you don't want me going all the way to Mercia to introduce my soon-to-be wife to my brother."

Logan was left dumbfounded, not only did his brother gain a playful tone, but he also forgot to keep his mouth shut. The hard slap on the face he received from his father was not something anyone saw coming, Clayton too was shocked. The king never laid his hands on anyone unless he was seriously pissed and if Clayton didn't think he was angry, well let's just say he just proved it.

The queen rose from her seat immediately. "Your majesty!"

"I will not be disrespected by my son, in my own house. I never taught you any of this rubbish. A few years away from home and already you've forgotten who you are. I never raised a child of mine to talk ba-."

"Except you didn't raise me at all. You ran away from your responsibilities the second you sent me to those barbarians. Do you think I don't know why you did that? You were so afraid of facing your son. 

"The moment you realised I looked exactly like Logan you sent me away because I remind you of a mistake you made. You were afraid that every time you set your eyes on me you will see him. You hated him so much that you couldn't bear seeing him even in me.

"You wanna talk to someone you actually raised? Talk to your precious son who always jumps at every single word you say because he is afraid you'll wake up one day and feel like he doesn't deserve the throne of Mercy because no one will ever be enough for you.

"You couldn't even love your own wife, she was never enough for you, you ended up cheating with your maid. I will not stay here and be insulted by you because you're a king. Arianna, let's go. We're leaving this place."

The poor girl followed him out of the dining hall. Logan realised that his little brother always kept to himself because he knew once he was provoked he won't be able to keep his mouth shut. He couldn't help but wonder for how long he has kept those words in his chest. Maybe it was the day he learned how to talk.

He could still remember how curious he was all the time when he saw him, he always knew he was his brother but maybe the little boy always wondered why he was not staying with them because that was what he asked him on his 2nd birthday, the words he spoke were not clear but he heard exactly what he was saying and everyone pretended like they didn't hear.

He never saw him until he was two months old because the queen was visiting her family for Christmas and they were not expecting her to go into labour while she was still there.

When she came back, everyone was so eager to see him and the king had to name him and he named him Clayton, after his father because his father too was born on Christmas and in another kingdom just like Clayton.

It was more of a history repeating itself than a tragedy. He decided it was time he left too before getting caught between a family meeting or more like a family argument. He was not fast enough though.

"Are you happy now? Was this your idea of payback? Did you want to get back at me for sending you and your mother out of this palace? Did you poison my son against me? Is it not enough that he looks just like you? Or the fact that each time I see you I want to find your mother and kill her with my bare hands? You stole all my son's glory you imbecile. You were supposed to die in that place and you came back to taunt-" The queen was cut off by a very angry king.

"Liliana! You will close your mouth right this moment. This is my son you're talking to and I will not stand by and let you say all those things to him."

"You will choose your bastard child over your wife? Father? What has gotten into you? The same thing happened outside when I asked Logan why he thought I invited him. You took his side and now you're doing it again. You're supposed to take our sides, me, Clayton, Malia and mother. Not his."

"If you don't want me to beat the hell out of you, you will shut your mouth. Why does everything have to be about sides to you? If your mother wants to disrespect my son then she should not do it in front of him. I would never allow any of my children to be disrespected, especially not in front of me."

Logan was left speechless, he had no idea how to react to the revelation his father and the queen just put before his eyes. All these years he believed his father didn't want him and that he forbid him from entering the kingdom while the truth as Logan believed was that he always avoided him because he never wanted to have any sort of bond or relationship with him and held guilty for judging him so quickly.

The question now was what made the king allow his wife to dictate everything that happened around him because Logan was sure no man in his right mind would allow such a thing to happen.

Maybe it was a promise he made when she found out he was cheating it was the only way to keep the royal household peaceful. It also made him wonder who made the decision of sending Clayton to The Enclave because he now understood his father may not be the person behind it.

The queen had no reason to send her own son there, he understood why he sent him personally, she believed he was never going to make it, and because she was hell-bent on killing him she had no choice but to send him to the only place a 7-year-old boy could never survive, it was a battlefield on its own.

People believed he went on a battlefield at the age of 15 but he actually started fighting for his life at an early age. He never expected any of the things that had happened a few minutes ago but he never expected the next words that left the Queen's mouth.

"I want your bastard child out of this kingdom. Banish him if you have to but I don't want to see his face anywhere near this kingdom or you'll see what I'm capable of."