The Royal Beta

Ch. 36 - Dante

Chapter 36 - Dante

"Dante!" Derek called after his friend who had just taken off out of nowhere. One minute they were laughing about not all wolves being like Josephine, the next Dante's eyes had glazed over and he had shifted on the spot, running off into the woods. Derek shifted himself, taken both their bags in his mouth and darted after him. At first he thought Dante had smelled something or someone, but soon he realised what was happening. Separation Fever was giving Dante his first real episode. Derek could only hope there wouldn't be more to follow.

Dante howled into the air and finally came to a halt once he reached a river. Derek instantly pounced on Dante and growled in his face. "Snap out of it!" He shouted over the mindlink. He kept growling in Dante's face until finally Dante's eyes focused again and he snapped out of the episode.

His breathing was ragged. "She slipped away from me," whispered Dante with a dazed and shocked look on his face. It had all felt so real.

"It was just in your head, Dante."

"Yeah. You're right." Dante agreed. "We need to keep moving though." Both wolves got up and resumed their journey. Derek kept a close eye on him, prepared to keep him from reacting to another episode. He noticed that Dante was less loquacious than before. Whatever he'd just seen, had put a damper on his mood.

Four hours of silence passed by and the males hunted down a deer to fill their stomach, and drank water from a small pond.

"Do you think she's still at Woodland?" Dante asked out of nowhere.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"You know, I just can't get over the fact that she lied to me."

"I know-"

"-I mean, why the fuck did she think she had to lie?!" His anger increased again. "Have I not treated her right?!" Red clouded his vision, and he shifted from fur to skin involuntarily. "I freaking told her I've waited for her since I was three years old!" He panted, attempting to get rid of the anger. "This is a joke." He hit a tree on his left when the panting did nothing for him to get rid of the fury. "I mean, seriously?! After everything the old hag just couldn't pair me with an honest and trustworthy girl!" Dante started shaking and trembling, readying his body to shift yet again.

Whenever he got truly worked up his shifting would become uncontrollable. Normally he was able to calm own in time to prevent it from happening, but it seemed a lot harder this time.

Derek shifted to skin as well. "Dante, you need to get a grip."

But the words went by unheard - or rather, ignored.

"It's such horsecrap. I know I've got a huge skeleton in my closet all right?!" Dante ranted on. "I know that I'm no saint."

"Dante-"

"But was an honest girl really too much to ask for?" He started pacing and kept running his hand through his hair.

"You have to calm down. You're not thinking clearly-"

"-I CAN'T!" He snapped. "I keep wondering if she's not running off with another."

"I don't know, man. Didn't she say she's with Roman?"

"Yeah. She also said she went to 'train' at Woodland. How am I supposed to trust her? Ever?"

"You just have to confront her about it. Talk it over. And see from there."

"She told me she loved me. But I can't even bring myself to believe in those words. What am I supposed to hold onto then?" Dante sat down, defeated and with his head buried in his hands.