42. Trust

Sona was so incredulous that she almost laughed. “I don’t see you as someone who believes in destiny.”
“Fuck no,” Taos snorted. “I just know who I’m attracted to.”
“Clearly.”
Taos leaned back and spread his legs. She covered her eyes and he howled with laughter. “You can look! I can show you *without* pants if you want. That’s what you were thinking in the bath, wasn’t it, trinket? That we’d see each other naked eventually, might as well be now?”
“Stop reading my mind,” she told him curtly.
“Not your mind. Your expressions. As a future Luna, it’s something you need to work on. Now, should we begin where we left off?”
Sona dropped her hand and met Taos’ eyes with the ironclad resolve not to look at his crotch anymore—how long could he keep his erection, for hell’s sake?!—and said, “No thank you.”
His mouth skewed. “Hm. Two days of rest really set you sober. Boring.”  
“Getting enough rest will—did you say *two* days?”
Taos nodded and, getting to his feet, brought a tray of meat. It wasn’t the elk anymore, but it was still fresh. “You passed out. I had Laleh finish bathing you, dressed you, and braided your hair. You were near-comatose. Be glad to know, trinket, that I brought the elk to your patients to divide among themselves.”
Relief eased her worries quickly…and found it oddly easy to believe him, even if she was wary about the jealous cook handling her naked body. “Thank you.” She took the lamb flank gratefully just as her stomach growled. She clutched her arm around it. “Fuck’s sake.”
“Stop being embarrassed, trinket,” Taos said with a sudden edge. “Be unabashed in everything you or you will be seen as nothing but weak.”
Sona stared at him; he glared back. Taking a bite of lamb—it was fucking delicious—she took note of the sudden, dark outburst. “You speak from personal experience.”
His jaw clenched. He didn’t speak for a moment while he deliberated what to reveal. “Difficult times growing up.”
“I think you need to work on controlling your expressions,” she said lightly. 
Taos raised a sharp eyebrow. “Do I now?”
“Yes. And I need to get back to the shop.” Sona finished the meat and wiped her mouth and fingers with the napkin tucked under the plate. Then a thought occurred to her and her hand flew to her cheek—completely smooth. “They’re healed.”
“They made you look like a warrior.”
Her relieved smile faded when she met Taos’ gaze again. “Taos,” she said quietly, “I’m a healer—”
“You’d make an excellent warrior. Think of all the ears you could bite off.”
“Thank you, but I’d rather stick to healing them.”
“Then our enemies be relieved.” Taos crouched down in front of her; she let him take her hands in his. “To the shop we go.”
—
And they did without interruption or distraction. 
Sona changed into something more modest and walked alongside Taos as he rambled about how he really did hate butterflies as a pup. He also followed her into the shop and hovered while she oriented herself and her things. 
She let him stay for an hour or two of clearing up, researching the books he’d found for her, and treating a young male patient with a stomachache after his friend dared him to eat his own shit.
After giving him the appropriate herbs and sending him off, Sona muttered, “Why is it always shit?”
Taos scoffed. “Sorry, what?”
She waved a hand and turned to face him. “Nothing. By the way, don’t you have important Alpha duties to attend to?”
“My pack can govern itself,” he said with a shrug.
“It’s small enough to be.”
“Is that a hint of scorn in your voice, trinket?” he purred, crossing the room to yet again invade her personal space, yet again trapping her between his muscled body and, this time, the wood wall warmed by the afternoon sun. “You think the might of the Redbone pack is exaggerated?”
The dusty roads, the decrepit houses, the starving and dying werewolves. That was not what decades of rumors claimed. Sona, knowing her own ignorance, expected rowdy streets filled with throngs of drunk wolves through night and day. Vaguely, more blood and bone-related things. But all she had seen was calm and dismal. 
Taos set his palms on the wall on either side of her head. “Do you think this is all we are?”
Sona’s mind—distracted by his closeness—put together pieces that had been floating around for a while in her mind. “It’s all a ruse, isn’t it? You said these wolves were quarantined. Quarantine away from who? Where?”
Taos purred, “Smart trinket.”
“But you’re not going to tell me,” she guessed.
He tapped her nose with a finger and winked. “Correct. The key word is *yet*. I need to trust you wholeheartedly before I reveal Redbone’s greatest secret.”
“I’m trying to think of a quip, but—”
“But this?” he murmured, starting to press his body against hers. “Can we start where we left off *now*?”
Sona squirmed out of his cage. She refused to acknowledge that her throat had gone dry at his weight—and his bulge against her leg, of course. All she did was arouse him and it did nothing but confuse her…as to what she felt in all aspects of her own body.
*I’ve known you less than two weeks*, she wanted to tell him. *Some females, clearly your own packmates, are more than willing to tear their clothes off for you, but me*…
Sona prided herself on her restraint. No male werewolf heeded theirs; that was why some cared for nothing except sexual fulfillment.
No doubt Taos’ libido was high. That was obviously why he kept the harem that Edom founded. That was another odd thing. A Gamma so desperate to matchmake for the Beta too young crowned Alpha that he went so far. No wonder he was unhappy with Taos’ choices—or lack thereof.
“We just got here, Taos. The day’s only just started—”
He kept prowling after her. “We can go back to my pools or even the temple bathhouse,” he coaxed.
“Taos. No.”
The Alpha stopped at her command. Though his jaw tightened, he nodded. “As you wish. Now that you mention it, I do have matters to attend to.”
He started to walk past her toward the door slowly as if giving her the chance to think on it and maybe change her mind. She only crossed her arms and flicked her eyes toward the exit.
“What about tonight—”
“Taos! Out!”
“Going, going!”
Sona slammed the door behind him as he left. It filled everything in and around her with a gaping silence. *Gods! Finally, I can work in peace*.
She didn’t let that silence bug her. Now that she was distraction-less, she could get more work done, which included creating more poultices to apply to the wolves who were only burned by the wolfsbane. The singed skin would never heal to the clean, smooth flesh it had once been, but Sona could at least ease the pain with herbs. 
No other wolves had come into contact with the plant that no one could find. It was frustrating to believe that after so many had been affected, no one thought to gather the flower that they touched, or even remembered it to warn others what it looked like and where it was.
It was the greatest mystery that Sona needed to solve. 
The best news, and really, the only news that was needed, was that it wasn’t a contagious disease, and every wolf in the other room could return to their homes and families. 
But not yet. Sona had to treat them first. She had to find a way to prevent them from dying.
Easier said than done.
Finishing the sticky paste in a large earthenware bowl, she hopped over to the camping room, as she called it, where wolves of all ages made the best of their temporary stay. 
They were all still cautious of her even after a week. She’d learned not to let it bother her because she knew they were secretly grateful but too proud to admit it. They didn’t want to face the fact that a Goldwater healer suddenly appeared one day and actually wanted to help them instead of acting as the enemy they believed she was. 
Again, she didn’t blame them. She’d been overly cautious of them, too, and what they could do if they decided they *really* didn’t want her here. But as someone who adored helping others, Sona knew that placing names and keeping borders helped no one. It didn’t matter which pack a wolf came from; she would treat them as a friend in need.
“Alright,” she called above the chatter over the lunchtime meal, “burns, make a line!”
The young the wolf, the more willing they were to follow her requests. It pained Sona to see that there were more young ones than older ones with burns. She’d learned days ago that it was because all adolescents loved playing in the fields and forest where dozens of different kinds of plants were impossible to narrow down to the culprit. But she’d rather them be burned than dead.
It took a minute or so, but eventually, the line formed at the little table Sona set up. She went one by one applying the poultice to the wounds, some worse than others, but none debilitating. 
And one by one, she would ask the same questions: “Do you know how you got this? Where were you when it happened? Can you describe what you smelled like—maybe like bitter fruit?”
They would all shrug at every question and say they never paid attention.
*This is getting nowhere*.
After finishing the wounded, Sona went to each cot, all lined up by the far wall away from most of the noise, to administer a pain reliever to the sick who somehow ingested the wolfsbane. They often couldn’t sleep, had trouble eating or drinking, and had difficulty breathing. There was only so much she could do; even though loved ones cared for them when she was gone, this wasn’t a life to be living, confined to a bed in a communal room.
Wolfsbane had been discovered centuries ago. If no one had found a cure yet, how in the world did Taos expect Sona to?
The next step was for her to go out and search the fields and forest herself.
Herself…and Taos, because he would not let her go anywhere alone.
*"I need to trust you wholeheartedly."*
The Redbone Alpha was worried she would reveal his apparent greatest secret to others. There was the smidgeon chance she could run back to Moonvalley or Goldwater and tell someone whatever this secretive pack was hiding.
Even if she was close to anyone of import enough to utilize insider information, she would never betray a promise. And that was what Taos would ask of her—make a vow to know and keep protected knowledge.
What he protected, he wanted her to protect too. And moon goddess’ sake, that demanded an immense, intimate amount of trust.
*You can trust me, Taos*, Sona thought as she returned to the shop after unsuccessful small talk. 
She looked out the window; it was nearing evening already. That’s what she got for sleeping near-comatose until the afternoon.
“Where are you?” she murmured to the empty street. Then she heard footfalls crunching the gravel toward the shop entrance. “Taos?”
But when she opened the door to a knock, it wasn’t the Alpha.
It was his sister.
Cerise’s smile was viperous. “Hello, Goldwater.”