Chapter 3: Duality of Two Brothers

Where am I?

The thought drifts through the haze first, then the pain. My whole body feels like it’s been wrapped in iron. I try to move and razor wire bites into my skin. I can’t feel my limbs — only a dull throbbing that spreads with every heartbeat.

Have I been poisoned?

The air is thick and unmoving. Sweat trickles down my neck, stinging where the metal cuts deep. A single bulb sways overhead, its light dragging shadows across the concrete floor. The scent of rust and blood saturates everything.

Figures stand in a ring around me — tall, broad, breathing slow and steady. Their scent is unmistakable. Lycans. Lucian’s kin.

So they caught me.

Their eyes track my smallest movement. They’re not afraid. They’re waiting.

Footsteps echo down the metal stairs — heavy, measured. My chest tightens. That scent… familiar. The same undertone of wild earth and power as Lucian, but sharper, soaked in rage.

He steps into the light.

He looks like Lucian, but his presence burns instead of calms. His shoulders are tense, his eyes bright and hostile. His aura presses against me like a storm.

“You know,” he begins, voice low, strained with fury, “I used to think my father’s stories about your kind were lies — tales to justify the blood spilt by my ancestor Henri.” He circles me slowly, his boots scraping the floor. “But when I turned, I understood.”

He stops in front of me, eyes narrowing. “It burns me to think he might have been right about all of it.”

Blood seeps from his clenched fist where his claws pierce his palm. “Where is my brother and sister?” he snarls. “Back there — when I was chasing them. Something stopped me in my tracks. There’s another one of you isn’t there?”

I keep my expression neutral. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He leans in, close enough that I can smell the heat of his breath. “Don’t lie to me.”

“My brother and sister made contact with you. Their scent was all over the place where we found you.”

His hand shoots forward, clamping around my throat. Pressure builds; the world starts to fade at the edges. Then he drops me, and I crash back against the chair, coughing.

He paces. “My siblings fled — Lucian and Alix. I almost had them. Then something hit me — something powerful.” His voice shakes with humiliation. “No matter. If you were taken down by one of us then the same counts for the one with my siblings.”

I stay silent.

He grits his teeth, bones shifting under his skin. “You’re afraid,” he says, almost laughing. “I can smell it on you.”

“You didn’t expect to find anything down here, did you?”

“Then you came face to face with whoever tore you to shreds and realised that you never left hell. You just traded one for another.”

Before I can speak, a voice cuts through the air like a blade.

“Enough, Alexandre.”

The temperature in the room changes instantly. Even the soldiers straighten.

Another man descends the stairs — taller, broader, his movements controlled and quiet. The same scent of bloodline lingers, but tempered, steady. His presence fills the space with something heavier than authority.

Sweat gleams on his bronze skin. The sleeveless shirt he wears clings to a frame built by discipline — every muscle defined, but still. His eyes, gold-brown and watchful, take in everything without judgment.

“If you could still your temper,” he says calmly, “you might actually learn something.”

Alexandre retreats, chest heaving.

The newcomer takes the chair opposite me and sits with perfect posture. “I am Gabriel Durand,” he says, voice low but resonant. “Captain of the Durand family, servant of Rose — and eldest brother to Lucian and Alix.”

So now I know their names.

He studies me with unnerving focus. “Tell me, Fallen One — what are you called?”

“Ella.”

He studies me with quiet intensity. There’s power in his stillness — something refined, dangerous. He doesn’t need to raise his voice. His authority speaks for itself.

Alexandre steps forward again, impatient. “She’s not going to talk,” he snaps. “Why are you wasting your time with this thing?”

Gabriel doesn’t even look at him. “As Captain of the Durand family and second-in-command of Rose, it’s my duty to protect this kingdom and its people.”

Alexandre growls, fades back into the dark.

Gabriel leans forward, resting an elbow on the table. “We know what you are, Ella. We know where you came from — and that more of your kind will likely follow. We’ve prepared for you and from looking at the state we found you in your kind isn’t as strong as you were made out to be. So, tell me — why shouldn’t I let my brother indulge in his violent nature and kill you right now?”

He means it. His aura tightens around me like a vice.

I could lie. But lies won’t buy me time — not with him. I must plant a seed instead.

“I’m not your enemy,” I say.

Alexandre scoffs. “You expect us to believe that?”

“Ignore him,” Gabriel says without turning. “Proceed.”

“They’ll come for me,” I whisper. “Because I’m important.”

Gabriel raises a hand, silencing me. “Let me be clear. I don’t care if you’re important. As I’ve said we’ve prepared for your kind. I don’t fear you. Clearly the one who attacked you did not either.”

His gaze doesn’t waver. “You’re still alive because of your connection to my siblings but also killing a defenceless prisoner would be dishonourable and beneath me. But if you lie again, I will not be able to protect you from my brother.”

The air between us hums. I can feel my heart pounding. Then I whisper it.

His name.

Gabriel freezes. For a second his composure wavers.

For a moment, I see it — the crack beneath the captain’s calm.

The temperature in the room drops. Alexandre stiffens, eyes wide.

For a moment, no one breathes. The bulb flickers overhead.

“What did you say?” Gabriel asks, voice softer now, but sharper than a blade.

“You heard me.”

Alexandre surges forward. “I’ll kill her where she sits—”

“Enough.”

Gabriel’s single word cracks like thunder. His aura floods the room, the soldiers flinch. Alexandre freezes mid-stride, trembling.

Gabriel rises to his full height — towering, sweat glinting down his arms — and the silence that follows feels sacred.

His eyes shift, revealing the beast within, yet his stare doesn’t waver — not an ounce of fear.

“Place her in the cell,” he orders.

Two guards drag me up by the shoulders. As they pull me toward the door, I glance back.

Gabriel stands perfectly still beneath the swaying light, his shadow cast long across the wall. Alexandre lingers behind him, eyes blazing but silent.

They don’t look at each other. They don’t need to.

The air between them feels like a war waiting to happen.

The guards throw me into a stone cell. The impact knocks the breath from my lungs. I lie there, staring up at the ceiling, the scent of iron thick in my throat.

They’re brothers — but different halves of the same curse.

Maybe the real monsters weren’t born… maybe they were made.