The Royal Beta

Ch. 1 - Dante

Thank you for giving my writing a chance. There is nothing quite as motivating as having a wonderful reader, read your work.

Love, Charlie

Chapter 1 - Dante

The door clicked shut behind him when Dante Hall entered the dark, cold and small one-floor cabin that posed as his house. Yet, unlike normal homes, this cabin was simply too empty, too void of any positive memories and any other emotional value to provide him with the feeling of security, safety and warmth he would have gotten had he been in any other home.

Wet snow was dripping from his clothes onto the dark brown, wooden floor-boards. But Dante couldn't possible have cared less.

It was already four a.m. and he just came home from yet another long and trying day of work and making overtime. The last hours consisted of Dante fighting to keep his eyes open, he was that tired. He had let out a deep breath when he finally could call it a day. But the hard day hadn't been over yet as Dante had then to face the heaviest snowstorm he'd ever seen. He was tired, exhausted to the bone, even.

So naturally, Dante kicked off his muddy, snowclad boots and left them wherever they landed; he would clean up tomorrow.

Walking to the back of the cabin where his bedroom was located, Dante stripped himself of his wet clothes as he went along. Leaving a trail of wet clothes all the way from the front door to his bedroom. His coat was the first to join the shoes at the doorstep, and then followed his shirt, his trousers, his socks and eventually even his boxers.

Reaching his bedroom butt-naked Dante lit the candle in front of the old picture frame that held its place proudly in his bedside table to the right of his double bed.

Dante gave a quick glance towards the bathroom, but it was like just the thought of showering was sucking the energy right out of him where he stood.

He decided he did not have the energy to take a shower, Dante was ready for bed – or so he thought. Staring at the empty, worn-down double bed, Dante hesitated for a while. Was he ready to face his demons like had to every single time he slipped into that awful bed that was bound to give out under his weight any time now?

With a deep sigh, Dante told himself it was now or never and that he should just 'suck it up' and 'man up'. So doing just that, Dante gathered all the courage he could muster after such a tiring day and slid under the covers.

The bed was cold.

But no surprise there, it always was.

And while some would say it was fresh and clean, for Dante the cold he was met with every time he got into that forsaken bed, meant only one thing: there was no one to warm his bed for him, no one waiting for him, no one to come home to.

However sad it may have been, Dante had accepted a very long time ago that there was a possibility he would never find someone to love him.

Nevertheless, he just seemed unable to put a stop to that longing, the painful ache in his heart caused by the feeling of loneliness.

Though Dante knew he was only twenty-four, he was a huge pessimist when it came to finding that special someone. In the society he lived in it was almost unheard of to not have found your true love between the age of sixteen and twenty.

Because, as fate would have it, Dante wasn't a normal human being, and so weren't the people around him; they were werewolves.

Being a werewolf meant that he was blessed with a soulmate, someone to be the other half of him and to complete his soul. And by werewolf standards, he had the ability to recognize his true mate by smell, touch and eye-contact from the age of sixteen.

Yet eight years later, he still hadn't found her.

He was well aware of the fact that he'd become one of those annoying people who longed for that one thing they didn't have, rather than appreciate what they were given.

And Dante was one blessed man. Not only was he part of the Royal pack – led by the great alpha king Geoffrey himself – Dante had the extraordinary honour of calling himself the king's right hand. Dante carried – and pridefully so – the title of Royal beta.

His ranking made him the third most important person of the entire werewolf population worldwide. And even if the title came with a burden almost too heavy to bear on his shoulders, Dante was grateful to have earned his king's respect and trust.

The royal pack consisted of approximately five-hundred werewolves, all of which were well recruited, selected and trained. Not just anybody was accepted into the Royal pack.

And every individual of those five-hundred people, looked up to Dante and respected him. One would even go as far as to say that they depended on him and his approval. Dante was right in the centre of the happenings, always included.

Yet still, it wasn't enough to fight the loneliness Dante was battling every single day.

He felt ungrateful that his loyal and trustworthy packmembers were not enough for him to erase the empty hole in his dark and cold heart.

Yes, Dante had everything he could have ever dreamed of. Everything. But love. A life-partner. Someone to share his life with and someone to have his back for a change.

And more than ever did Dante feel the need to head out and search for her. He knew king Geoffrey would have encouraged him to take a step back from his beta duties and take off to finally at least have a shot at finding what he had been longing for ever since he turned sixteen.

Yes, king Geoffrey would have had his back in this, if it weren't for one little detail; it hadn't been long since the luna queen was found – which was a miracle in itself.

To make matters worse, the circumstances in which she was found were less than ideal. Queen Aryana was not in a good shape when she had stumbled upon the Royal pack's territory merely months ago. She still hadn't recovered yet.

Her story was not a pretty one and the king was more protective of her than anything.

And with the king trying to aid the queen's needs, Dante had taken even more duties on him to compensate for the king's absence. Between the king and Dante they had taken shifts to guard and help the queen where needed.

Though he would have loved to lay down his beta duties for a while and search for his own true love – his destiny – right now he knew that though it kind of hurt to be constantly reminded of what his king had gained and what he had yet to find, the pack needed him more than ever before.

He had been tossing and turning in the still freezing bed for maybe half an hour when he realised it was no use. He wouldn't be able to get some shut-eye tonight.

His body temperature was too cold due to the snow to even give him the slightest bit of hope of warming his sheets. And though his eyes were shutting on their own accord, his mind was way too active thinking of why his mate kept him waiting.

And if that all wasn't enough, there was still that ongoing, merciless snowstorm outside. The ruthless storm was accompanied by one of the strongest winds that had ever disrupted the usual so silent, dark night.

It figured that the one night off he'd got, it was impossible for him to get a good night's rest.

Usually at night, Dante was on stand-by for the troops who were out guarding the territory by patrolling the borders of the land the Royal pack had claimed as Royal grounds.

But then again, the only reason he got the night off, was because there were no patrolling troops tonight. No wolf was invincible and sending out a troop of wolves on a night like tonight was highly irresponsible.

No sane wolf would have left shelter on a night like tonight, not even the ones who had gone rogue. But, of course, Dante was proven wrong as a lone, victorious howl cut right through all the noise and havoc caused by the snowstorm; thereby effectively silencing Mother Nature herself. The howl carried further than any other howl Dante had heard before.

Dante smiled knowingly, he had been wondering when he would hear from this little she-wolf again.

And with a smirk planted on his face, he corrected himself in his mind, 'no sane wolf would have left shelter on a night like tonight, no wolf but the Blood Wolf'.