The beta rode so fast that the moment they arrived the destination, she fell and threw up. The clothes were stained when she got up. Regretting, she looked up at him in apology but he was scouting the area.

"Stay close..."he said, and bared his claws.

Seeing the claws, she was convinced something was wrong.

Before them was a tower reaching out into the sky. The moon seemed to rest at the pinnacle. And the gathering of bats flying about it heightened the dark aura around the place. But Melisandre was not scared, unlike the beta whose heart paced a million steps a minute. It was the place in her dream. She could imagine the interiors from her dreams.

"Mel, come closer. Something isn't right." The beta said in a whisper. And raising his voice, he called out. “ I'm here as commanded. A life for the keepers of the sacred gate. A maiden to be wed in death to the king.”

Her legs sagged and she fell. Reality dawned on her. She wasn't just sent away to marry a strange man or wizard. She was sent to the gates of hell itself.

Within the two years she had stayed in the Crescent territory, Melisandre heard a lot that could pass for  fairytale. And among it all, nothing was more dreadful to speak than the sacred gates itself. The wolves treated it like an abominable word, yet it instilled awe and great fear in them. No one ever told her why.

Footsteps falling in sync approached them. When they were close enough, the beta motioned her to get up and go.

Frightened, she shudder. Getting up and falling back until he gave her a hand. “ Please, I don't want to go.”

He said nothing and continued on with her.

"You may stand there or depart. We will take the ritual from here," said a man wearing a signet with a skull. Melisandre knew he was of the witches. And there were two more, a man and a great red wolf. It was very rare in all the lands just as it was to have a male witch.

The beta tightened his grip around her waist. " She is like a daughter to me. I must see it through myself." 

The witch rolled his eyes and motioned to the platform before the sealed door.

Melisandre panicked, and gripped tightly to the beta. 

He led her up and took the dagger. His eyes lingered on it for a while before he cut into her palms. She yelped in pain and pushed him, falling back on the great pillar by the platform. 

The beta watched as the witch approached, and waited to return the dagger. The moment his hands got on it, he spinned and stabbed him in the chest, and before the wolf could make a move, he threw the dagger and it pierced his chest. " I'm sorry, my brother." He said and turned to the witch suspended by his hands. " I told you she is like a daughter to me." He deadpanned and cast his cold body away like some rag.

Melisandre watched in a daze, panting and growing faint. She teared up at the scene before her. He could kill his kind to keep her alive, yet she always doubted him.