The keep was somewhat dark, but my eyesight wasn’t hindered in any way, so I led the way figuring we would encounter baddies on every floor. I knew the dungeon was the logical path so we worked our way towards the stairs to go down. Suddenly, we heard some shrieking and grunting. A few more steps, we heard low groans that I couldn’t decipher and laughing coming from down below. Slowly and carefully, we made our way down to find gnolls and warlocks taking advantage of some females. I couldn’t really tell in the low light down here what they were, but I knew what the assholes were up to.

We came upon five cells that these shitheads were using to get their jollies off. Raping isn’t something I tolerate, so I whispered back to the others, “Wait here and whatever happens, do not make any noise until I make myself known.”

They nodded and I turned back to the raping sessions, my anger was so palpable that my peeps were backing away from me. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I let my magic flow through me and shifted to my shadow form. Squeals and gasps were heard behind me, but were quickly handled by others to shut them up. I disappeared and walked towards them slowly, and slipped through the bars into the cell. Two robed bastards were having their way with an elf and some kind of were I suppose, both had a collar around their necks that I assumed suppressed their magic. I turned and towards the other cells to find similar collars around their necks. It seemed that these were the only guards on this level. I smiled at the torment that I’m about to hurl on these assholes and rubbed my hands in glee, then got started. I made sure to be as quiet as possible to sneak up to the warlocks or necros; I really couldn’t really tell what they were, but swung my fist at both of them and knocked the fuckers out in mid-thrust. They fell over like a sack of potatoes. After making sure they were out, I went cell by cell and did the same thing.

The naked females were crying, but were shocked frozen by the sudden state the fucktards were in. While they were still, I checked the collars carefully to see how I could release them. I didn’t have my pack with me that had the specific key that they needed, but one of these assholes had to have one. I checked the six that were down and found the one in the second cell had it. Letting go of my invisbility, I pulled it from his neck and made sure it was the same size before I walked to the females, but loud shrieks stopped me from moving. As gently as I could in my shadow form, I spoke to them, but it was still raspy.

“Please hold still so I can get those collars off.”

“What are you?”

“Please don’t hurt us!”

“Calm down, I will make it quick. When it is off, I will continue on to the next cell. Please spread the word.” They were still suspicious and very cautious, but relented and stayed still. Opening the collars I could hear the ladies sigh, which let me know their magic was released.

“Where are your clothes?”

“Over there, and thank you for the help. What about those assholes?”

“Let me release the others before we talk about that.” They nodded so I went and took the collars off the rest of the ladies. “Okay, ladies choice, you take care of these pussies or I will.”

They all wanted to take care of the bastards themselves, so being the nice asshole that I am, I separated them into different corners and cut their ham strings then the Achilles, so they couldn’t move. Screams and grunts were heard throughout the area, blood was running everywhere. They were aware of their fate.

“All yours ladies!” The fucktards all pleaded for mercy as I went down the rows of cells to break the locks. “Everyone line up quietly and follow the one in front of them, you’re getting out of here.”

Tears of joy and hope flowed down the faces of numerous folk. I kept going down the corridor to a dark room and found torches that were unlit, so I put some fire on them. Let me tell you, white fire lighting up the room was eerie. I shuddered and released my shadow form to shift back to my regular self.

“Viki!” I shouted down the corridor.

“Yes?” She asked as she walked into the room.

“Hey, are we close to your mistress?”

“Yes, I believe the next room over,” she replied looking around the room that we were in.

“Alright, let’s take a look at these cages then.”

I noticed the others strolled into the room as I was scanning the door for any traps. I found five locks on this door, and remembered the last time I opened a door like this. Bracing myself, I broke the locks and opened the door to find four red eyes staring back at me. Not knowing what the hell it was, the creature came into the light. I heard growls coming from the huge beast, it was a two headed wolf looking creature standing on four legs, but had talons on its big ass paws. A fuckin hellhound.

“Shit, it’s a hellhound! Close the fuckin door!” Viki shouted.

The hellhound took its chances to get out as it lunged at me. I dodged and put a right cross in the fucker’s jaw, knocking his ass down to the floor. It shook both of its heads, and then tried to get back up. I hit the other head just as hard, it sat on its hind legs whimpering.

“Calm the fuck down!” I walked over to it, observing if it would chomp at me.

“What the hell are you doing? It is a hellhound, get away from it!” Val growled and was about to run towards me, but was held back.

I eased closer to it and it growled at me again, so I slapped it across the face to show who the fuckin alpha was. It whimpered again and lowered its heads.

“I told you to calm down dammit. I’m the fuckin Alpha!”

Activating the Cerberus tattoo, it immediately sat straight up and waited patiently.

“That’s unbelievable, how the hell are you still alive?” Viki shouted.

“Tha…That’s not possible. How did he know what to do?” Pri asked in a low voice.

A few moments later, I noticed something trying to form in my mind and concentrated on it to find it was trying to form a link with me. Hmm…I put some magic into the signal to strengthen it and found it to be a bond link. When it was established, I heard some guttural sounds that seemed to be some sort of communication.

‘Can you hear me?’ I asked the hound.

‘Yes, master.’

‘Wow, that’s awesome. I’m not your master, just a friend.’

‘No, you are leader. No one has the mark of the gatekeeper unless Fenris himself gave it to you. I am yours to command, Alpha.’

‘How is it you are here? Is there a way to send you back to the underworld?’

‘Don’t want to go back. We want revenge on the pukes who put us here.’

Oh boy, looks like the hound will be joining us. This will be interesting. That statement alone burdened the rest of my day.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Doomfang.’

‘Really? That’s an awesome name!’ He smiled or at least that is what it looked like, but baring fangs freaked everyone out.

“What’s it doing?” Acace questioned the group in a voice just above a whisper.

“Getting ready to pounce!” Zidi shouted and moved away.

Doom’s body started shaking, a couple moments later he shifted into a human avatar with brown trousers on and stood silently. That was cool, wonder how he did that.

“Calm down, everyone. Doomfang won’t hurt you, at least when I’m around. Isn’t that right Doom?” He nodded but didn’t say anything out loud.

“How did you come up with that name, Max?” Soph questioned, watching the hellhound with curiosity.

Cass gasped, “It’s because he’s bonded to it. How the fuck did you bond to an underworld creature?”

"I will explain later ladies." Complaints were spouted from all sources, so I just turned around and walked to another armored cage. Doom followed along beside me.

‘Is any of your kin here?’

‘Yes, three more. One here in this room and the other two further down.’

‘Damn, umm…are they with you?’

He chuckled and nodded, ‘Yes, alpha. You have three more in your pack.’

‘Ooooookay. This should be a fascinating conversation.’ I walked towards the next cage and stopped. ‘Can you tell what’s in here?’

‘I cannot, but it smells from the underworld.’

“Okay, let’s open door number two.” I broke the locks and tensed when I felt something touch my senses. “Everyone get back, whatever is in here is powerful.”

They stumbled back away from the metal cage as I opened the door to find a female with red eyes up against the far wall. She hissed something incoherent, pushed off the wall, and ran towards me.

It was confusing to me that she was running in slow motion, but when I glanced around to the others they were moving very slowly. I noticed my vision was white, so I mentally assessed that my mind knew somehow to defend itself. The red eyed female had closed the distance, but was still in slow motion. When she was close, her mouth opened and fangs came out. Shit, a fuckin vamp, why the hell was she here? I stepped to the side when she swiped her elongated nails at my chest, but I side stepped and grabbed the scruff of her neck before slamming her into the metal door. She was momentarily stunned, but that was all I needed to give her an uppercut to the chin, which sent her back in the room.

“You need to calm the fuck down, vamp, or I’ll just kill you where you stand.”

“There’s a vamp in there? Kill it, they don’t deserve any mercy!” Soph shouted with venom in her voice.

The female vamp shook off the punch I gave her and spit out blood, “A fuckin werewolf? I thought I smelled wet dog.”

Soph’s eyes changed at seeing the vamp inside the cage. “If you don’t, love, I will.” Soph threw off her clothes and launched herself into the air and shifted into her wolf. She plowed into the vamp and both ended up hitting the back wall, denting it. Hisses and howls were heard for a few minutes. I decided to let Doom break it up.

“Doom, speak.”

The hellhound shifted and barked; man it was LOUD, but it got the job done. After they let go of each other, the vamp hissed over at me, but was startled. The vamp didn’t make a move since she saw the hellhound beside me with red eyes and flames flowing over its body.

“How the fuck did you tame a hellhound?” The vamp asked with incredulity.

“Doesn’t matter. You two play nice or Doom here will invite himself to play along with you. Now, all we did was let you out, and you attacked us. I should just kill you now for the pain and agony your kind has done to our kingdom, but I’m more curious to why you’re here instead of helping the demons.”

“I’m not like some of the others of my kind, most of us aren’t to be truthful," she snarled. "We just get a bad rap because of the assholes that cause trouble. They didn’t like that I stood up to them, so hence why I’m here.”

“Are more of your kind in here?”

She nodded slowly looking around the facility, “Yes, I can smell them. For some reason I can’t smell you, and that makes me cautious. What are you?”

I laughed and replied nonchalantly, “Human.”

She hissed and her fangs came out, “Bullshit! No human can catch me like you just did. Tell me!”

Chuckling I replied, “Or what? You’ll rough me up? Try it and you’ll just end up as mincemeat when I’m done with you.” Not thinking the vamp was a threat anymore, I walked to the other two cages in the room.

‘Doom, which one is your kin?’

‘The one on the left, Alpha.’

I nodded and went to the one he suggested was his kin and started tearing the locks off. Realizing I might have to defend myself again, I stopped and turned to the hellhound.

‘Am I going to have to defend myself again?’

‘No, Alpha. She is waiting for you to release her from bondage and eager to serve you.’

Great, a female hellhound, ‘Your mate?’

Chuckling Doom replied, ‘No Alpha, she is too spirited for my blood, but I have a feeling she’ll pick one soon.’

‘What the hell does that mean? Are there other males in this facility?’

‘No males, the rest are females. This one and her friend are feisty alpha bitches, you’ll have your hands full with them, but they’re fiercely loyal.’

‘Names?’

‘This one is Shade, the other is Storm.’

I wondered if their names meant something, but shrugged it off. I went to the door and broke the locks off to let the hellhound out. Opening the door, four red eyes showed from within the darkness. She was as big as DoomFang, every bit of six feet off the ground, but her talons were long and vicious looking. Shade didn’t walk out of the cage, she floated out. The hellhound looked somewhat like my shadow form.

“Fuck! Another hellhound!” Soph bellowed.

“Max, get away from it!” Pri shrieked.

I just stood there waiting on the female hellhound, she definitely looked frightening. Shade let go of her power and sauntered up to me then glanced at the others before growling. She rose up on her hind legs and put her front ones around my neck to bring me close to her. The hellhound then licked my entire face with both tongues. After a few moments, she stopped and put a head on each shoulder. That’s when I heard a voice in my mind.

‘You’re stunning my alpha, but I bet you would be divine in my form. Can you show me sometime?’ Shade purred and licked me one more time before she let go and sat down beside me.

Doom cackled so hard he fell over and rolled around on the floor, gasping out, ‘That is awesome… she… just licked… you… HAHA… I told… you she was …aggressive!’

‘Umm…what just happened?’

‘She claimed you as a potential mate,’ Doom laughed even harder.

“What the fuck just happened?” Viki questioned with curiosity.

“Did that hellhound just slobber on him and hug him?” Acace asked with disdain.

“Yeah," Soph replied, then commented casually. "I believe that is a female and she was staking her claim on him as her mate.”

“She’s trying to claim him right in front of us?!” Tia snarled with fury in her beautiful eyes.

“Let’s get her, she can’t take all of us. One of us can take her out,” Rach suggested and my girls growled with glowing eyes. Shade barked her acceptance of the challenge. It was seconds away from a blood bath, so I stepped in.

“Calm the fuck down everyone, this is hardly the place for this!” I waited for them to do as I asked and then gestured towards the smug hellhound. “Everyone, meet Shade. There are two more hellhounds in this facility, so be prepared.”

“Let me guess, you bonded with her didn’t you?” Cass asked, shaking her head.

“When Doom bonded to me I think they all did.”

I shrugged and went across the room to the other metal enclosure. I thought about these cages, they must have some kind of magic suppressor, that’s why these beings couldn’t get out on their own.

“What does that mean, Max?” Cass asked worriedly.

“They are part of us now. They will leave with us and help protect our people.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me. How the hell does one see a hellhound casually walking around us and not freak out?” Rach asked sarcastically.

“Well, can’t say I’ll blame them, but it is what it is. Something we’ll have to deal with. Let’s open this last one in this area, and be prepared.”

“Umm…sir?” I glanced over to the vamp and waited for her to continue. “Some of my kind are in there.” I just stood there staring at her, not sure I wanted to ask but I did.

“How many?”

“Not completely sure, but guessing? Six, and one in there will give you trouble. He is vicious, arrogant, and will not listen to anyone that he thinks is beneath him.”

“Okay, and how do you know this?”

“We are part of the same coven, and he’s the leader.”

“I apologize, but what’s your name?”

“Kali.”

“Kali, thank you for the warning. Everybody get back into the corridor, away from here. Doom and Shade will stay.” They argued and complained but went anyway, the hellhounds shifted and came over beside me.

I waited till the last person was out of sight, then turned to the door, and swiped my hands over the locks to break them. I opened the door wide to make sure my hellhounds had a good view as they sat beside me. Looking inside, twelve sets of eyes stared at me; I guess Kali was right. Moments later, all of them hissed but only one ran towards me. Standing my ground I felt my magic roll through me waiting just on the inside for release, but I waited to see what the pecker head would do. He was fast, I will give him that. As the male vamp was near me, his fangs came out as he lunged at me, since the fucker was committed there wasn’t any way for him to move. I pulled back my right arm and hit the asshole in the jaw. He flew back into the cage, hitting the back wall, and landed with a thud. Not wanting to give him a chance to move, I made my way over to pick him up by the scruff of his neck and brought him up to my height to find multiple fractures on his face, but the wounds were healing already. He came awake and hissed at me, so I throat punched the shithead and felt his pharynx crush under my blow. The other vamps hissed and came towards me at that time, but the hellhounds walked in to put a stop to that. They were awesome looking: one with fire covering his body, the other in shadow form. Turning back to the male vamp, I put my hands around his throat and squeezed to make him stop fighting. He wheezed out something incoherent, but I let up on my grip to let him speak.

“Please… let me…go. I...will… give you… my children… just spare…me!” The vamp pleaded with me, but the others in the room hissed at his statements.

‘Kill him Alpha, he is the reason they are in here," Doom stated. 'He betrayed them and ended up in here too.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘We are creatures that know when people lie, cheat, and deceiv,' he replied firmly. 'He will betray his kind again.’

‘He is correct in his assessment, Alpha,’ Shade confirmed.

“Did you betray these people?” I asked the male vamp.

“No, no, they betrayed me!” The vamps inside the cage shouted their disagreements. I decided to ask the one that would probably tell me the truth.

“Kali, get your ass in here!” I waited for the blonde haired vamp to stroll in here, but she was hesitant to show herself.

“What do you need, sir?” Kali asked submissively. I thought it was interesting but answered, “Get in here so I can confirm something.” She slowly entered the room and her demeanor when she saw me with the male’s throat in his hands was hopeful.

“How did your kind end up here?” She glanced at the male but didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“I-I don’t remember. My m-memory is not so good,’ she looked the other way. I knew what was going on and figured this prick was her lover or mate.

“Is this your mate? Is that why you won’t tell me?” She whipped her head around so fast I thought her neck would break.

“That filth isn’t my mate, he is a bastard. He makes us do things we can’t control: kill, steal, lie, and betray. So no, he isn’t my mate, but will beat and rape us when you let him go,” Kali spat. My anger was palpable now, everyone in the cage could feel it.

“She’s a lying bitch! Tell him girls, please!” He asked the others around, but I didn’t know they were all females.

“How did you end up in here?” I growled in a raspy voice, trying to keep my anger in check.

Kali looked at me with an unknown emotion and gestured to him, “He betrayed us to the evil bastards, because we wanted to live free and not under someone's rule. They wanted us for their army, but we rebelled and tried to get away. He led them to us. They betrayed him as soon as we were in custody.”

That was all it took, my magic flared to life when it was released, and it took on a life all its own. I felt my body cover itself in something, it seemed to be some kind of scale. Fire and lightning burst out of me like a volcano, flowing white hot. All of the vamps were screaming and the one that I held was the loudest. He tried getting out of my grip, but my strength overpowered him, and just held the bastard while he roasted alive. His screams finally ended right before he was a pile of ash on the floor; I tried to calm down with deep breaths but I couldn’t. The metal was bending and melting around me. The vamps inside with were terrified and were screaming at me, but I couldn’t calm down.

‘Alpha, are you okay?’ Doom asked with trepidation.

‘Please calm down, Alpha,’ Shadow expressed concern.

My crew came in at that time and stopped cold. “Max? Max!” Cass screamed.

“What’s wrong with him?!” Pri shouted.

“Baby, please calm down!” Soph bellowed.

I had to calm down somehow, but they were breaking my concentration. I responded in a deep gruff voice, “Get everyone out now.”

“Hell no, we’re not leaving you!” Rach quickly retorted.

I held myself against a wall, took a deep breath and exhaled; fire erupted out of my mouth and melted some of the metal.

“Oh shit, he just melted the wall,” Viki hoarsely commented.

“Get out and close the door,” I calmly stated while trying to keep myself propped up.

‘Doom, Shade, gently guide them out.’

They nodded and escorted them out the door. I sat down on the floor and tried meditating. In no time at all, I felt my body sinking. Opening my eyes, I stood up and saw that the metal had turned into liquid and fell to the earth underneath. It was still white hot and caused the terrain to start burning as well. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t stop myself from roaring, which made the whole cage rumble. After some thought, my mind came up with a plan of sorts, it was about sinking into the earth to maybe bleed the excess magic from myself. Thinking of what I wanted to do, I stepped down in the hole that I made, then felt myself descending into the earth.