My heart was breaking when we were saying goodbyes to my father. I promised for a hundredth time we would get him out, packed the book with the description of the resurrection ritual and finally left the chamber. I locked the door behind us, so that nobody would suspect he had visitors.

The guardhouse we were looking for was at the outskirts of the castle, right at the main gate. The Cabal must have been decimated or we were unbelievably lucky, because we met nobody as we traversed the dusty halls of the castle. Thirteen was guiding us with solemn determination, brows furrowed, teeth clenched. I wondered if she was worried about getting Dominik to Ilona.

When we finally arrived at the guardhouse I was surprised to see it devoid of any signs of activity. The dust was as thick as everywhere else, making me cough violently when I accidentally kicked it into the air. I was ready to think that we got the wrong place or Thirteen's visions were false when I heard a muffled voice coming from behind one of the stone walls.

"Hello!, Is anybody here?"

We started to look for the source of the sound and finally we found a small cell tucked into a nook between the main hall and the living quarters. Behind sturdy bars we saw a young man chained to the wall by a silver studded collar. His golden hair were falling onto his face, only partly revealing light blue eyes in a handsome face. He jumped to his feet when he saw us, wincing when the collar bit into his flesh.

"Dominik?" Thirteen asked.

"Yes! Did you come for me?" there was hope in the prisoner's voice.

"Ilona sent us to get you," the huntress said calmly, inspecting the lock on the cell's door.

It was a bulky, old fashioned thing that probably needed a big key. She looked around trying to find it, but it wasn't dangling conveniently from some hook on a wall nearby. She sighed, took her axe and just slammed it into the lock. With a terrible noise the massive metal contraption was cracked open. I can't even imagine how much force she had to use to do that.

Dominik watched in awe.

"The alpha sent you? For me?" he wanted to make sure.

"Yes," I confirmed.

The huntress approached him and took out a necklace from her backpack.

"Look, I have this from her. I think it belongs to you," she said, handing him the small medallion.

Touched, he took it from her and caressed gently.

"Thank you", he almost whispered.

Thirteen took a closer look at the collar.

"Lily, would you care to help me with this thing?" she turned to the vampire.

"With pleasure", the redhead responded and was already putting her hands on the device.

Surprisingly she didn't mind the silver studs, although they should be burning her palms. Thirteen took a hold of the collar from the opposite side and they pulled at the same moment. With a loud crack the sturdy metal ring broke in half.

The werewolf looked bewildered, so I approached him and held out my hand to him. He took it gratefully.

"So the alpha wants me back? She didn't renounce me?" Dominik seemed excited.

"She's mad at you as hell, but she really wants you back. I think she won't be nice when you meet though," I said.

Frankly I was expecting him to be resentful towards Ilona. He supposedly ditched her because of the way she treated him.

"Of course alpha is rightfully mad with me. I ran from her. Caused her so much trouble!" Dominik sincerely regretted his escape.

Thirteen looked relieved, probably because she wouldn't have to drag the werewolf by force to Ilona. I didn't really understand him, but I think it must be a pack thing.

"Renounce?" I asked.

"Yes. We are fated mates, but alpha haven't marked me yet. She can still throw me out of the pack," he answered, a hint of dread in his voice at the mere thought.

"But she'd have no fated mate then?" I wondered.

"Not necessarily. She's alpha, she can choose a mate for herself, she'd mark him as if they were fated," he explained sadly.

"This necklace..." I just had to ask. "It was the reason you escaped?"

"No, it's not like that. You see, it belonged to my mother. I was angry with alpha, with how she... gave me orders. I compared her to my mom, who was always kind and caring for everyone. I said she was not fit to lead the pack. She got angry, took the medallion from me. It's the reason I took the pass. I didn't know how it worked, I just thought it was an attribute of alpha's power and I would get back on Ilona by taking it," he sighed.

"But when I held the pass, I was so sad and angry, I think I said something about going away. And the darn thing teleported me here and just disappeared. I was stunned, had no idea what was going on or where I was. When I was trying to look around there came a flash of bright blue light and the next thing I knew was that I got into this cell. I tried to free myself, but there was silver in the collar and I couldn't..." his voice broke.

Soon enough we found the portal my dad was speaking about. It was a kind of a stone gate, adorned on top with a wolf head beautifully carved in red marble. When we approached it we heard a low hum and the air in the opening started to shimmer. The huntress took Dominik by the hand and entered the portal. I followed them with Lily. The world whirled around us and we were spat out of the void right into the werewolves' dining hall.

Judging by the darkness behind the windows we spent the whole day in the Cabal's hideout. All eyes turned to us, as we stumbled to regain our balance. Ilona stood up violently, I heard her chair crashing down behind her. In a blink of an eye she was right beside us, her look a strangest mixture of anger and relief I have ever seen.

She immediately tried to get to Dominik, but Thirteen stood in her way.

"Where's Francesco?" she asked in a low and menacing voice.

Alpha looked at her for a moment and waved dismissively, "At my quarters. Wouldn't want to get him bitten by accident, would we?"

Her hungry eyes darted back to Dominik. The young werewolf seemed lost, unable to comprehend the situation.

"Get Francesco here," the huntress said through the gritted teeth.

"You took your sweet time bringing my mate and now you're in such a hurry?" Ilona growled in response.

"A few hours..." Thirteen started, but Ilona cut in.

"A few hours? You've been gone for two weeks!" she snarled.

I felt my head spin. This meant that the time in the Cabal's dimension passed differently. Thankfully the huntress realized that too and was able to convince the angry werewolf to calm down a little.

Finally the women managed to clear the misunderstanding and Francesco was exchanged for Dominik. The man looked pale and tired, but he wasn't visibly hurt. He protested violently when the bald woman tried to examine him thoroughly, stating that he was all right.

As soon as Thirteen let him go, Dominik ran to Ilona and knelt before her.

"Alpha, please forgive me. I will gladly accept any punishment you deem fair, just don't renounce me," he almost wined.

The pack leader growled, her eyes no longer resembling those of a human. She reached for a coiled, silver threaded whip, that was fastened to her belt. I felt a shiver go down my spine. Dominik blanched.

Before she could do or say anything Jan knelt beside the young werewolf.

"Alpha, please, show mercy. He's just a pup, he didn't know any better. It's my fault. I should have guarded him more carefully. You should punish me, not him," he pleaded.

The silence that fell in the dining hall after that was almost deafening.

Ilona cocked her head, her eyes bleeding back into their human form. She seemed puzzled. She looked curiously at the men at her feet. They were both bowing reverently, awaiting her judgment. After a time that seemed like eternity, she cupped Dominik's chin with her clawed hand and made him stand up. She looked him deeply in the eyes and barred her fangs. In a flesh she bit into his neck, right where it was connecting to his left shoulder. He gasped, I stifled a cry. With her mouth red from his blood she kissed him fiercely and he kissed her back, almost ecstatic.

"She marked him," I heard a murmur from the werewolves.

Alpha's mate was still slightly trembling from joy, when she ordered Jan to stand up. He obeyed, eyes cast down humbly.

"Get off your shirt," she barked.

His hands shook only slightly when he unfastened the garment. On his muscular torso there were gruesome scars, probably from the duel with Ilona. His back was criss-crossed by long, reddish marks – he must have tasted Ilona's whip before. He turned his back to alpha when she commanded him to. Now he was facing us directly, teeth clenched, knuckles white, whole body tense. He was bracing for the pain.

Alfa uncoiled her whip and cracked it right beside Jan. He flinched. I held my breath. She was about to strike, when suddenly Francesco called out to her. He only said her name, it wasn't even loud. She stayed her hand and looked at him visibly annoyed. He held her gaze and she snorted.

"I'll show you mercy, Jan. Again," she spat the words out and started reeling in her whip.

Jan exhaled heavily and put his clothes back on.

We spent the night at the werewolves' quarters. I waited for a chance to speak to Francesco without the women hearing us and asked how he managed to stop Ilona from harming Jan.

"Remember the deal Thirteen made with alpha? About making Dominik pay if anything happened to me?" Francesco asked. I nodded.

"You see, when you weren't coming back for more than a week Ilona got impatient. She wasn't actually gentle with me," he said plainly.

"So that's why you wouldn't allow Thirteen to check you," I remembered.

"Exactly. When I saw Dominik I really didn't want him to get hurt. Not because of me at least," he explained.

"You think Thirteen would really do that?" I voiced my disbelief.

"She'd probably enjoy it, crazy bitch," he sneered. "Besides, even if she didn't, she'd have to keep her word, or she'd lose her face in front of the wolves. And that would be a death sentence, for all of us. The respect Ilona has for her is the only thing keeping her from shredding us to pieces," he added seeing my scowl.

As strange as she was I didn't think that the huntress was a bad person. The parasite twisted her mind to some degree for sure, but she was fighting it to stay human. Or maybe that was just my silly hope, because she saved me and I admired her. I looked at her, deep in conversation with Lily. I couldn't hear their words, but they looked like they were discussing something violently.

I praised Francesco for his kind heart and snuggled in my sleeping bag. My thoughts were circling around my family. Why did mother never tell me about aunt Cecylia, or about father? I understand she didn't want to be a necromancer, but she could have at least mentioned something, so I wouldn't be left in the dark like I was now. And what about Milena – did she know about the dark arts? Was it the reason that she got involved with the supernatural? Did it influence her research? Did it make her create the parasite? And what about aunt – Lily made her sound scary. Would she even want to help her nephew? My head hurt from too many questions so I did my best to push them all aside and just go to sleep. Better to get some rest before the next journey begins.