20. Taos' Harem

The Epsilon left, leaving Sona completely alone in an enclosed space with Taos. She didn’t like that fact one bit. But then he gave her another piece of paper. “Write swiftly.”
His voice was slightly strained, as if giving her the chance to talk to his enemy was difficult for him to allow.
She didn’t hesitate to write:
*I accept your rejection, former mate. Once I return, you will step down so Arden can take his rightful place as Alpha, and I’m going to take back my son and my grandfather to live in Goldwater. I refuse to stand trial when Vallea is the guilty one*.
*You loved Amaris. I hope you still love Arden. You promised me no revenge or justice. So don’t go after Redbone. Taos has taken me hostage, though it seems you would care little*.
*Grant me one last wish. Tell Raff and my grandfather that I am alive, that I love them, and to wait for me*.
She set down the pen, letting Taos read over it. “Equally cold. I enjoy a female who strives to succeed out of spite.”
“Send it with the Epsilon’s body. If he responds, please let me see.”
“I heard a ‘please.’ I will honor it. While we wait, I want you to see my harem.”
-
There was another Epsilon waiting outside the shop. “This takes priority. Let Grayhide know the body is not just a warning, but a product of his own failure to protect his own. And as a thank you,” he added with a flash of a grin, “because it resulted in my gaining of a beautiful, talented female whose value was lost on a bastard like him.”
Sona had a few things to protest in that order, but there was a truth or two in that. Conri did fail to protect his own Epsilon along with her and Arden. She didn’t want to bask in his compliment, but…it had been a while since she was appreciated.
*Stupid Alpha*.
Alone again as Sona followed beside Taos, she said, “You don’t need to worry about us conspiring against you.”
“I assumed not. But you and Arden? That is possible.”
“Is that why you’re separating us?”
“Well of course. I want to give you what freedoms I can, but I still cannot allow conspiration. Though it would be entertaining for you to try.”
“Can we make another deal?”
In her peripheral, she saw his hunter’s eyes cut to her. “I’m already thinking you like to make deals more than me.”
She kept her gaze straight. “I’ll do anything to protect my family. So, in addition to not killing Arden, you will not do anything that harms them.”
“Them?” he coaxed.
“The more you know about me gives you more leverage to manipulate me into getting what you want.”
He countered, “How would I know who to protect if you won’t specify?”
Sona inhaled deeply. On the exhale, she looked at Taos. To her surprise, he stopped walking to let her speak. “Yes. I have a son—”
“Raff.”
“And my grandfather is Auryn—”
“Who was injured alongside you.”
She wondered again how much the Moonvalley Epsilon “sang.” “Yes. I just want them safe. I…I think I still trust Conri enough to not harm them, but now I can’t be sure.” Sona glanced down, suddenly realizing she was voicing her thoughts too freely.
“I can bring them here. However I can.”
She stared, tempted to agree just to have her family with her, but she shook her head and whispered, “Not here.”
Surely the glimmer of hurt across his feral face was her imagination.
Taos shrugged his massive shoulders. His dreadful jewelry clinked, and she couldn’t help but think how well it suited him—savage adornments for a savage body. A savage soul.
But why was he offering her this…kindness?
“The offer will stand. Anything else, trinket?”
“There’s no cure for wolfsbane.”
“So you’ve said.”
“So what do you expect me to do?” she asked, half in desperation, half in anger. “I want to help! I want to save your packmates even if you don’t seem to care about them even if you’re asking in the first place. But—”
“What,” Taos wondered sharply, “you think I’m asking an outsider to save my pack from dying of poison just for the hell of it? Do you know how difficult it is to stoop that low? To put so much trust in an enemy?”
She was drawn short. “You do care.”
“Of course I do.”
“But why are you ignoring them as we walk past?” she asked, the venom in her voice evaporating.
He said softly, “Good things come with time, trinket.”
Sona almost whispered his name. Then she saw his eyes drop to her breasts she forgot were mostly exposed. “Fuck’s sake,” she hissed. *You almost made me forget how terrible you are*.
Taos cleared his throat, straightening up because he’d begun to lean toward her. “Apologies.” He didn’t sound remorseful as he started walking again. “This deal. I accept. I won’t touch a hair on their heads when I battle Grayhide—”
“No—”
“Teasing, teasing. Consider them untouchable.” They turned a corner and faced a dead-end street—ended by a large, elaborate-fronted building, not unlike the blood god’s temple. There were no werewolves in sight now. “In return I get to ask a favor whenever I wish.”
She would likely regret it later, but she hoped it would be worth the risk. “Deal. This is…”
It was an unexpected marvel of architecture, and as they came closer to the entrance that was a mere red curtain without a door, Sona could already hear giggling.
Taos held it aside for her. “My harem.”
Her connotation of harems was not negative, just apprehensive. Werewolves longed for the completion of their soul and were content with that one partner. She was cautious in asking, “Are you…looking for your soulmate in there?”
Taos’ mouth quirked as if fighting amusement. “No. Just some fun.” He pushed her forward inside.
Akin to the bathhouse, the space was wide-open, massive, and warm. But instead of marble, dark red pelts acted as carpet on the smooth wood floor that was near-hidden by the sheer amount of pillows scattered everywhere. And on a good many were lounging, half or fully naked female werewolves. They all stopped what they were doing to stare at the intruder.
While Sona shied away from male strangers’ bodies, she was comfortable with females’. Still, she’d never been in this kind of situation where so many were amicable.
Certainly united in baring their teeth at Sona with their features starting to Shift until Taos joined her side with a chuckle. “No biting this tasty morsel, my sweets, she is our new healer.”
The air of hostility didn’t thin. Every face glaring at Sona was sour with distrust and disgust. Some rose to pad over to Taos and drape themselves on him; the moment they took their eyes off her, they pouted and whimpered innocently to their Alpha, all overlapping croons:
“Have you forgotten us, my lord?”
“Do you favor fragile, meek bitches over your own females?”
“How can you expect a shy thing like that to save our packmates?”
“Yes, she reeks of innocence. How boring.”
“She’s Goldwater. Why and how in the blood god’s hell is she here?”
They bombarded Taos with more and more questions, and Sona was left to find anywhere else to look but at exposed privates.
One question Sona managed to catch was, “Does she not think we’re beautiful?”
“I think you’re all beautiful,” she said automatically, turning. Indeed they were. Smooth, sun-tanned skin, bountiful curls of auburn hair, all types of body shapes…perfect assets.
What she turned to was Taos enjoying them. His hands roamed and squeezed anything they could, his face lost in a curtain of hair as he kissed the column of a neck, every inch of his body being admired in return—every part. And the female stroking his asset was looking at Sona with a wicked grin that asked, *Are you jealous*?
She shook her head adamantly, and the Redbone’s black eyes narrowed and she hissed, “If you don’t want him, leave.”
Taos’ hand pet her head, and she immediately leaned into it, purring. “Now, now. The trinket is bound to me. See that armband? She’s mine, so you can’t be mean to her.” He was talking to them like pups. “Of course I haven’t forgotten my sweet beasts. Remember, we are not here to judge. Not in my harem, not in my pack.”
Sona thought dryly, *It’s a wonder he can speak straight with a hand around his cock.*
The female he was kissing tilted her head so their lips met, and they both moaned into each other’s mouths.
Sona couldn’t take it. “Alpha,” she barked.
It startled the consorts. They whipped around to glare and growl again. “How dare you speak to him like that—”
“My lovelies,” Taos groaned, “she’s only useful to my objective for the future of our superior pack. If she can do what I need to, she can speak to me however she wishes. Even if”—his eyes opened, pinning her to the spot with the seriousness of them—“it irks me. If you wish to befriend her, you can bond over being scorned lovers.” He smirked at Sona’s sharp look and added, “I am not said lover, for the record.”
“My Alpha fucks better than mine,” one female sneered.
Another said, “Better a quick rump than being shackled to a subpar single mate.”
Sona wasn’t sure how harems came to be populated, but it was clear that all these concubines joined willingly. And, unlike her, were blind with adoration for him. The real question…did he really lie with *all* of them? There had to be at least a dozen bodies in here. No males, however. Had he been bluffing about his preferences?
As if reading her mind, Taos asked them, “Where are my males?”
“Oh, it’s bathtime for them,” a female stroking his bare chest said.
“A rarity,” Taos chuckled, echoed by tittering. “Alright, my fiery companions, we must move on. Fear not, I’ll return at the next heat.”
As he pried himself from the tangle of limbs, a couple excitedly announced how close their heat cycles were from starting, and Sona was almost thankful. Hers had already passed for the month, and she would not be upset if Taos had his hands full of anyone but her. Though the thought of him pleasuring—
“What are you imagining, trinket?” Taos crooned in her ear. “You’re welcome to—”
“Let’s move on,” she interrupted.
Taos chuckled. “She’ll come around, don’t you think, lovelies?”
“You belong to us, my lord!”
“She has no meat on her fragile little bones!”
Taos guided Sona with a hand to the small of her back. The featherlight touch sent a shiver up her spine. She arched out of it. And ignored the faint sigh of exasperation from him. “My house next. Through this door.”
“Your harem is connected to your living space?”
“Well of course. Your thoughts on that?”
“None.” Though trepidatious to enter a place usually private to most wolves, she entered through a large wooden door with a knocker fashioned from, of course, an animal skull. “So you really don’t want a mate?”
“Debatable.”
She tried to sound nonchalant when she asked, “Do you have any offspring with your copious amount of wombs?”
Taos burst out into laughter that bounced off the walls of a warm and lavish foyer. “How creative a description. No. I only bed females the day after their heats end.”
*To avoid the chance of the female catching his seed and becomming pregnant*. “You don’t want pups—an heir?”
“It’s tortuous, really,” he sighed dramatically, ignoring the question. “Being surrounded by eager females and their heats constantly, having to restrain my eager—”
She blocked out the last word. Werewolves in heat or rut cycles were volatile. Unmated females would claw anyone in their way to knot with an unmated male, who went senseless with sex drive. They were very possessive of whoever they chose to mate with; she’d have to patch up a wolf every now and again who got in the way of a pair mating. Sona did not want to see how dominating Taos Redbone was.