The Royal Beta

Ch. 13 - Dante

Chapter 13 – Dante

As he was on the phone with Derek, Dante couldn't help but keep getting distracted by thoughts of Emmaline and their first kiss. The way she had tasted as she had granted him access to that sweet little mouth of hers. How she had tugged on his hair and her other hand had roamed his chest. The way her smooth skin had felt against his roughed hands when he sneakily slipped them under her T-shirt.

At one point Dante had let go of his self-control enough to subtly grind against her when his need for her became too much to ignore. He didn't want to ignore it, he wanted to give into it and take her right there in the forest.

But of course there was no way Dante would actually go as far as to initiate something more in the woods. He respected Emmaline too much to treat her as if she was a one night-stand. Perhaps if he and Emma had already shared the bed once, had he changed his mind about it. But for now he wanted their first time to be special, for her.

"Are you even listening to what I'm telling you?" Derek's voice brought Dante back and chased away all thoughts that were drifting through his head – or most thoughts, because Emmaline was never truly banned from his mind.

"Yeah, of course I am. You were saying something about... what again?" Dante rolled his eyes, Derek may have been one of his few real friends, he honestly couldn't care less about what the man had to say. Derek sounded a loud laugh, clearly not offended with Dante's lack of interest.

"I can tell when something's got you occupied. So tell me, is she pretty?" Now it was Dante's turn to laugh, but not quite as loud as Derek had.

"You have no idea," Dante breathed. "I've found her, Derek. I've found my mate."

"Wow." Derek was quiet on the other end of the line. "That is something, indeed. I'm happy for you. You finally got what you've dreamed off for so long."

Dante frowned, Derek knew? He had tried to put on a good show, not to make it obvious that he had been unhappy. Had he done a worse job than he thought? Or had Derek just been really observant?

"And I assume now you could have let the feelings you harboured for you-know-who's-mate go?" Dante choked on his own saliva when hearing those words fall from his friend's mouth. He appreciated Derek's secrecy in not letting any names fall, that could get him in all kinds of trouble.

"I don't recall telling you about feelings for a she-wolf? Let alone someone else's mate. Who do you take me for?" Dante all but roared over the phone. He tried to keep quiet in case someone overheard, but it angered him that he hadn't been as secretive as he intended to be.

"Please, Dante, who do you take me for? I'm no fool. I've known you for quite a few years now. Shit I even know what happened when your father..."

"Don't!" Dante growled, now no longer hiding his anger. "Not a word of that."

"Ah, I see." Derek mused, but it wasn't in an evil way. Dante knew he could trust his friend to be discreet. "You haven't come clean about that yet. Understandable, what would the king think of you? The counsel? Your mate?"

"I will tell my mate in time. She deserves to know. I'm just not ready to go down that particular memory lane just yet."

"I understand." Derek sounded sincere when he spoke his next words, "and I hope your mate does, too."

"She will." Dante stated, but he couldn't be too sure. Would she? Would she, really? "How did you know?" he asked then.

"I overheard you talking with your mom."

"You weren't even part of my pack back then," Dante pointed out. At the time it had happened he hadn't yet joined the Royal pack. He had lived in the Spirit Light pack until the day he had turned fifteen. That day – his birthday – had been the day he had packed up and moved his ass to the Royal pack.

"No but you forget I was coming to Spirit Light around that time. I moved to live with my grandmother and happened to walk by as it all spiralled down. Do we have to talk about this now?"

Dante shook his head, "I suppose not".

***

There was a knock on the door just when Dante was about to doze off. He was lying on his bed, facing the ceiling and thinking about his conversation with Derek. Of course his old friend had seen it. He'd forgotten that Derek had moved down there only weeks before his fifteenth birthday. When the day came Dante left the pack, Derek followed him.

Dante had found it weird that the boy, who was two years older than him, had decided to leave his grandmother only weeks after moving down to Spirit Light. But then again, the old lady – who had really only been 69 at the time – didn't have the time to have her seventeen year old grandson live with her. The lady had far too much energy still and had a love for travelling. Dante remembered both Derek's grandma and grandpa leaving Spirit Light just a day before he had.

Knowing the person behind the door was Emmaline, Dante got up off the bed and opened the door in person. The door had not been locked, but he did not want to be lazy or rude and not make the effort of giving his mate a true welcome.

"I'm sorry for just dropping by, you must be busy..." Emmaline immediately apologized. Dante smiled and shook his head.

"Not at all." He would tell her he was only lying in bed, but then she would feel guilty for keeping him from sleeping and he didn't want that. He didn't mind. He was glad she stopped by to see him. "I know I just saw you last night," Dante took Emmaline's hand and tugged her inside his room. "But I missed you really bad." Emma giggled at his admission.

"I missed you, too."

Last night Dante hadn't wanted to leave her side, but he felt like he would overstay his welcome if he had invited himself into her room – and her bed.

"May I kiss you again?" Usually Dante wasn't one to ask permission. As Royal beta he more often gave permission than asked for it. But he was so scared of screwing this fragile little thing that he had going on with his mate up, that he found the question falling from his lips before he even realised he was hesitating.

"Do you really have to ask?" Emma chuckled and took a step towards him, looked up to him through her eyelashes. Her blue eyes instantly had him under their spell. "I'm yours, aren't I?"

Dante couldn't possibly agree more. "You are. As I am yours." And then he gently and tenderly cupped her neck with one hand, while the other pushed away a loose strand of beautiful blonde hair out of her face. And as he leaned in, he slowly closed his eyes before his lips captured hers in a loving kiss.

Emma didn't take but a second to respond to him eagerly. She met his pace perfectly and she still tasted as heavenly as she had yesterday, if not even better. His memory of their first shared kiss didn't do her any justice at all. His mind had come up with a version that didn't come halfway compared to the real deal.

And as the kiss progressed he felt he was beginning to think with something located lower than his brains. But if Emma's reaction was anything to go by, she was, too.

Unceremoniously Dante picked her up and Emma tried to suppress a squeal against his lips as he did so. He carried her over to his bed and when she made no move to stop him, he allowed himself to love her like he had yearned to do yesterday in the woods.

That night, the two of them had completed their mate bond. By default they were now a package deal, one person.

Yaaay! They are a fully mated couple right now! And I reached 100 followers yesterday, which makes me really excited. Also this story has almost reached 500 reads, which means a whole lot to me, too.

Hope you had/have a wonderful weekend.

Love, Charlie