Five minutes

Chapter 12

Gabriel's POV

"When Jacob finally survives this, I'm going to kill him," I said with a bitter growl. 

Staring at his unconscious form dripping with sweat and pain, the last healer had stepped out of the room, stating that they had done all they could and his body's natural healing system was supposed to kick in. If only they knew that we had taken instructions from a werewolf and that of what we were banking to truly heal our brother, the Royal bloodline would never recover from the humiliation.

"Go easy on him," Lucien said, sitting cross-legged facing the youngest of us three.

 "He’s still growing, still learning. We can't expect him to make the best decisions all the time, can we?"

"We're barely that far apart in age," I reminded him. "...And both of us were at his age once. Neither of us were so irresponsible and dumb."

"That's because we didn't have anyone to support us if we were either of those things, but Jacob has it. Shouldn't we take that as a golden lining?"

I scoffed, straightening my back. "What do you plan to do with the prisoner, Viper?"

Lucien mused on the question. "We could hold a public execution, make a whole event out of it, prepare good food for the people, especially for our warriors. It would really boost morale right now that it is at its lowest, don't you think so?"

"I'm being serious, Lucien," I said, trying not to grit my teeth. "You know more than anybody else that the Moon Council will soon start asking questions, and when they start asking questions, so will our people. Everybody will want to know what we have planned for her."

"And leave all of that worrying for me, brother," Lucien said. "I'll take care of it, you know I always do. But right now, let's focus on Jacob."

Carefully, I allowed my eyes to go to my younger brother and then pull back to the older one with strain. Seeing him in pain like that, his expression twisted, his muscles taut, it wasn't a sight I ever thought I would see again. This had happened in our previous life, except we had never gotten the reason, only a call from one of our search wolves that he had been found in werewolf territory, his body hanging from a tree like a display. It made my blood simmer just thinking about it, and knowing that the woman responsible for it all was now under our roof, under our control, and we were doing nothing about it.

"I want to talk to her," I said, now standing behind Lucien as he kept sitting with his legs crossed.

"Gabriel, we both know that you want to do so much more than just talk with her. I've told you that we will come to a decision by the time Jacob has recovered. There is no need to lose control now. Let us just keep…"

"I would love to do anything to physically harm her yet, but I do want to talk to her. I want to know why she's here."

"She said she has decided to switch sides," Lucien said to me, finally standing up. The way he said it, the casualness that he threw the word, as if I was supposed to feel nothing but utter relief from what could simply be a bold-faced lie.

And it had to be.

This woman had plunged a silver dagger right through her heart just to never surrender to us in our first lives. Somebody so viciously loyal that they would give their life away, how could they just take a complete quality out of the blue unless it was intentional, planned... a trap?

Lucien turned to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Fine. You get five minutes with her. There will be guards escorting you."

'Why?' I asked even though I didn't know the answer. You wanted somebody that would watch me and report in case I decided to break through those bars to get to her. He let a long silence stretch over what could have been the answer instead and then settled back into his chair, observing our brother.

"Five minutes, Gabriel. Please don't force me to come down there and pull you out."

I gritted my teeth and made no promises.

Coming down to the dungeon was an irregular thing for me. I had gotten used to this stagnant air, the ever-present chill that clung to the walls and reached to any person who came down here like invisible fingers waiting to grip and hold that person. I expected to find the Viper shivering, begging for relief, after all, she had not been served anything other than the mere prisoner's meal. I'm sure that whatever act she has going for her now, she'll eventually crumble, and I intended to push that process even further to get down to the 'why' of why she was really here, because I knew it was not to join hands with us, not after spending two lifetimes of being a constant plague in our lives.

Last time I had seen her, she was a lifeless corpse, drained of color and slumped on the floor. Somehow, I had subconsciously kept that image of her in my mind and carried it until I reached her cell.

"Viper, I'm here to talk to you. I am one of the… I’m one of the Lycan princes…"

"Prince Gabriel?"

I shouldn't be surprised that she knew my name. After all, she had been able to meet both of my brothers face-to-face, so it was clear that she had been able to deduce that I would be Gabriel. At the same time, with all the facts lining up, it didn't just sit well with me either for her to address me with such familiarity.

"What are you after?"

"I'm sure your brother has already told you, so I guess the real question is, what are you after?"

Her response crawled right under my skin, and in that second, I knew I was going to do something I would regret. I turned into the guard behind me.

"Hand me the keys to her cell.”