43. Acceptance

Sona smiled at the Dog Rose Princess. “Hello.”
Cerise’s smile was brief and aloof, shouldering her way inside the shop. “Hi.”
Sona had no idea what the Redbone heir was capable of and wasn’t fond of being alone with her—no one else was around—but she had to keep trying to be nice. Their conversation in the consort’s bedroom before the meeting had been tense and sprinkled with threats, but, in hindsight, had bits of foreshadowing.
“Still attempting the impossible?” she wondered, poking about the room, tapping jars, sniffing dried herbs.
“Yes. Cer—Princess,” corrected Sona when Cerise narrowed her eyes. She was wearing an actual shirt and pants, even if they were still tight and revealing. “I’m glad you’re here. I was hoping to speak with you about a few things.”
She knew exactly what Sona wanted to talk about; the devilish smirk proved it. Padding over to the table in the corner, she perched on one chair and gestured to the other. “Excellent. Let’s speak.”
Sona kept her guard up as she approached. “Can I get you something to drink? Lavender tea?”
“No. Thank you,” she added as an afterthought. “Tea is too…earthy. Alcohol is better.”
“Right.” Sona sat, and while she kept Cerise’s sharp gaze, she couldn’t help but be lost in her beauty. If she and Taos were as attractive as they were, how beautiful had their parents been? No one Sona knew ever knew what their mother, the former Luna, looked like. Their father, Serkin, was portrayed as harsh and cruel…but that was it. There were no adjectives for a murderer. “I just wanted to ask—”
“Oh, first I have to tell you why I’m here.”
“Of course.”
“To apologize.”
Sona blinked. “For?”
Though Cerise didn’t appear apologetic whatsoever, her voice had a thin edge of sincerity. “Well, not apologize really, more clear the air. Anyway, I’ve said things that apparently upset you. Goldwater skin must not be as thick as Redbone—”
“Princess.”
Cerise waved a hand. “Right, right. Two males who obsess over you for a reason I’m yet to understand told me that we need to make things right between us.”
“Arden?” Sona asked, ignoring the first half of the sentence.
“Yes. We’ve claimed each other. He’s going to—”
Sona said, “Wait,” before fearing the implications of interrupting the savage princess. “I don’t understand. Is he really joining your harem—”
“Mistress Mai,” Cerise barked, “I did not finish speaking!”
*I can’t be afraid of an imperious adolescent—or be ordered around by one*. Sona flattened her gaze and leaned back in the chair. “Please. Continue.”
With a glare of suspicion, she did. “I’ll make it quick for your impatience. Yes, he had pledged to join my harem, and his initiation is next week”— 
*Next week?!*
—“which means he’s unofficially renouncing his title and status. He unfortunately still loves you, but what he said was true too: he moved on. To *me*. Gladly, I add.” Cerise beamed proudly. “I’ve charmed him with my true dog rose power.”
Though it seemed Arden had frayed the tie between them, the one that had joined them together their entire lives, he must have a wholehearted reason to want to be with Cerise. Sona had a gut feeling that Cerise wasn’t holding him prisoner—there was still the chance she was hanging something over his head—but Sona still trusted him. She’d renounced her old life, too, so she couldn’t be angry with his decision.
But was love involved?
She had to know.
“Do you love him, Princess?”
Cerise’s smile snapped off. “Do I what?”
“Love him. Or…is he still just a plaything?”
Just like that, Sona disarmed the wolf into the—dare she say it—innocent young female. She blinked in confusion, her voice soft, “Love him… Why… What does that have to do with…”
Sona felt her motherly instincts take over. She reached her hand over the table; Cerise watched it narrowly but did not react negatively. “You learned to take what you want, right? You take something—or someone—because you feel strongly about it. You want to be around it. I’ll be honest, when we first met…when you saw Arden…I felt something in the air between you two. When you wanted him to stay so quickly, I wondered why in hell you’d want to. I knew that most Redbone had never seen anyone who *wasn’t* Redbone—and vice versa—so I thought it was pure intrigue.”
She searched Cerise’s beautiful face, her beautiful dark eyes, and felt her hunch inching toward her, about to demand she accept it. Saying it out loud would create a chain reaction of shit, but she felt the need to anyway.
“It’s the same sensation I had when I realized who Conri was to me,” she said softly. She felt no fondness for the memory, only bitter nostalgia. “Cerise, do you think Arden is your soulmate?”
Cerise stood so hard and fast that the chair banged to the floor. “I never knew my mother,” she said stiffly. “But I knew whose dress I was giving you to wear. I knew it was her wedding dress. Wedding outfits are important in Redbone tradition. I told you to prove you’re worthy of it because of what it means. Yes, I’d rather you die than hurt my brother. But if he’s this serious about making you his Luna—*my* Luna that I would swear fealty to, as a leader of my pack, to protect us—then…he’s doing so for a reason. He wouldn’t let you wear that dress if he didn’t think you were worthy of it.”
Sona’s heart ached for the passion in Cerise’s voice, even if it was still through a harsh tone. It wasn’t her accepting Sona’s presence or upcoming new status, but it was still progress toward them not disliking each other.
Was it wrong to feel so motherly to a female who would legally become her sister?
*Best not overthink about it*.
Cerise crossed her arms. She wouldn’t look at Sona, likely embarrassed about her passionate speech. Sona found it shocking for her to be capable of feeling embarrassment after knowing nothing but shamelessness and pride. “What did *you* want to talk about?”
She fought a smile. “You’ve already addressed everything, Princess. I wish you happiness with Arden. Treat him well, please, and tell him I’m sorry and that I wish him well too. He’s still my best friend and I don’t want to sever our tie over our new lives. And…give him this.”
She moved to one of the cabinets where she’d stashed a letter she wrote a couple of hours ago. Her swirling thoughts and emotions had become too chaotic to hold in anymore, so she’d freed them onto paper.
Handing it to Cerise, she told her, “I poured my heart out about all the things I’ve kept inside me. He’s still my confidant, too. It also has everything that happened at the Alpha meeting.”
Cerise took it absently; she was staring at Sona with a mix of confusion, thoughtfulness, and wariness as if she couldn’t trust Sona’s shift in demeanor. “I heard you bit Grayhide’s ear off.”
“Just the tip. I wrote about that too.”
“He won’t know how to feel about that.”
“I’m sure about that.”
“Why are you being nice to me?” 
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because I’ve been not nice to you.”
Sona let her smile show. “Because it seems like you mean something to Arden, and I trust his judgment. And we’re going to be family, right? Family cares for—”
Cerise turned abruptly toward the entrance. “Don’t get carried away. We’re not family yet, and don’t expect me to call you *sister* any time soon.”
“Understandable.”
She opened the door and started to walk out without a goodbye, but then she stopped and glanced over her shoulder to say with a sly smirk, “A request for you from me: just fuck my brother already, his horniness is getting on my last nerve.”