11. The Redbone Alpha

Sona threw herself through the tunnel entrance. She looked back to see Arden inside, too—and kick the Epsilon square in the face. He scrambled to shut the portrait, throwing a thick plank of wood across it to prevent it from being opened.
“Left,” he panted. 
“You take the lead! I can’t see shit!”
They left banging, shouting, and cursing behind them as Arden led her this way and that, deeper into a pitch-black maze. Sona tried to keep her bearings, recognizing that they came to at least four forks until they hit a wall. A little crack of orange light pierced through a crack. 
Arden stopped; her face nearly collided with his back as he rose up on his knees and started slamming his shoulder into the rock to get it to budge. A few hard shoves had a chunk of it rolling forward to reveal an exit. 
Arden grabbed Sona’s hand. “Brace yourself.”
“Why? Oh.”
Looking out, Sona realized that they were quite high up. The only way to get down to the wildflower field below was either to sprout wings and fly…or skid down the steep dirt hill.
She was grateful for not wearing a dress tonight.
She sat beside Arden and, clinging to him, they both pushed off the edge and slid. The earth was not kind to her ass, not even when they landed in the grass that sent up a cloud of dandelion fluff. 
Sona was faced with staring at a seemingly endless field with mountains far in the distance with the dawn rising in rosy hues. “Where are we?” 
“The back of the manor.” He was already standing, and pointed; Sona craned her neck to look up at just how tall the Alpha’s family home was. “East.”
*East*. They were facing Redbone territory. 
Sona didn’t know how far Moonvalley’s extended. She’d never even been close to any pack borderline except the single time she’d crossed it when she left Goldwater twelve years ago.
“I used to play down here when I was younger—when I wasn’t with you or Conri, of course—and my father”—his voice cracked on the word—“took me to the edge of Moonvalley’s territory.”
“So you know when to stop before we hit Redbone.”
He looked back at her grimly. “Yes. Which is why we’re going northeast into neutral land. Once we do, we can essentially claim sanctuary. Unless we’re forcibly returned to Valleytown because it’s my place of birth—and you’d have to go to Goldwater.” 
“That’s it!” Sona gasped, yanking him back when he tried to keep walking. “We just go to Goldtown.”
Arden’s brow furrowed. “We could. But you’ll be tried there, too, Sona. What you’ve been wrongly accused of is worthy of the death sentence in any pack where you belong to it or not.”
Clearly she wasn’t brushed up on pack legal issues. 
“Our best bet is to hide out until—”
“What have we here?” a male voice purred.
Sona dropped onto her hands and knees into the flowers as Arden shielded her from whoever that voice belonged to. And it did not sound friendly. 
“Ah, do I recognize the young Beta Roshan? What are you doing out here? And who is that? Having a quick rump with a mated female?”
Anger flared in Sona’s chest at the crude accusation. She whipped her head up to find the speaker peering around Arden. Their eyes met the moment Arden said,
“Taos.”
Sona’s breath caught. *The Alpha of the Redbone pack*.
*Oh fuck*.
The blushing light of sunrise was too soft for the beast that looked back at her. Too gentle for his near-black hunter eyes and dark, straight brows. But his stubbled smile that stretched his tan skin—that was spotlessly white. She’d never seen more perfect teeth bared from a mouth that was known only for its ravaging abilities.  
Objectively, Taos Redbone was beautiful. But it was in the way of carnality. If there was anything to embody *wild*, it was him. And it sent a violent shot of terror down Sona’s spine because of how sure she was within the second of meeting him.
His head cocked to the side, features spreading into predatory intrigue. “A pretty Goldwater trinket.”
Behind him, Sona heard someone mutter, “Fuck-ton of blood.”
A muscle feathered in Taos’ strong jaw and he growled, “Since when were you bastards struck by the sight of red?” Silence. “That’s what I thought. What’s your name, trinket?”
Arden blocked Taos’ view. The back of his leg was a welcome sight for Sona to fixate on instead of that tyrant’s ogling. She suddenly couldn’t catch her breath. 
“She’s none of your business, Taos.” Arden’s voice was stone-cold and it was the first time Sona had heard such authority in it. “State your business on Moonvalley territory. I can have you—”
Taos quirked his head to the other side. “Why the cold words when your old scruff sent a summons?”
“What? My father didn’t—” Arden whirled, and Sona barely had the strength to lift her head to see the horror and confusion on his face. He had a face meant for calm, kind dealings, for strolls in his town to enjoy nice weather with his packmates. Not fleeing his own home and brother to encounter his sworn enemy.
“Ah, isn’t this interesting,” Taos purred in a tone that rumbled into Sona’s bones. “Someone else has pulled my leash. If he didn’t summon me…who did?” Sona glimpsed him sidle to the side to see her. “Was it the wolf who battered your poor face? I didn’t think Moonvalley treated trinkets with such little respect—”
Arden lurched toward Taos. “Watch your damn mouth—Agh!”
Taos’ entourage moved faster than Sona could follow; one blink later, Arden was lying on his stomach with two males keeping him down with a foot to his back. One spit on his cheek. “*You* watch your mouth, whelp.”
The Redbone Alpha whose choppy hair was as deep red as his reputation sauntered around them to crouch in front of Sona. His leather boots were worn ragged and smattered with dark stains—mud or blood? His forearms, twice the size of hers and laced with scars, rested on his thighs. That was another brutal thing Redbone did to flaunt their prowess—preventing wounds, no matter size or depth, from healing completely to preserve the marks.
When he crooked a knuckle under her chin, Sona’s nose burned with his stench—it was strong enough to get past her own dried blood—that had to be the accumulation of too much time and activity went without bathing.
“Do you find me revolting, trinket?” he murmured, soft and sensual as if it was only them. 
Sona had no opinion on the Redbone Alpha but for a solidified disgust at his and his forefathers’ pitiless actions. Now, if she’d been lucid, would have bared her teeth to stop herself from telling him to piss off—but she felt strength and consciousness siphoning out of her like water from a bucket.
Maybe it was because she felt the piece in her soul—Conri’s piece that made her fundamentally complete—shiver as if loosening, as if about to tip into oblivion and dissipate.
*What’s happening to me?!* 
Her body shuddered and she felt vomit burn up her throat—and expel it just inches away from Taos’ boots. 
His Epsilon roared in outrage, but Taos only sighed; she heard him rise to his feet with a grunt. “A question for later, I guess. Little Beta, what are you running from?”
“Fuck off, Taos.”
“Wrong answer.”
That was the last thing Sona heard before her world crashed into darkness.