61. Amaryllis

Not too deep down, Sona knew it was all a ruse. The desolate town couldn’t house an entire pack, much less one as powerful as Redbone—the countless decades-old rumors couldn’t have lied about the sheer power of their numbers.
Taos asked for her trust in the glowworm cave. ​​*“Asking and receiving trust is rare in Redbone, yes.”*
*“Earning it is even harder.”*
*“For me to trust an outsider and you…”*
*“To trust the heir of a pack known only for violence.”*
*“I think we can work it out, don’t you?”*
 It was time for her to fulfill her own promise to trust and want to earn his trust because he was letting an outsider, likely the first one ever, into his true home.
As she walked beside him, she stole glances up at his side profile. They both knew she was being obvious but he didn’t break her train of thought about what she planned to say. 
The one thing she was getting caught up in—besides reliving his touch, his whispers, his finger inside her body, the talk of their souls—was, *I don’t deserve this. What have I done to earn your trust? All I’ve done is applied burn salve, gotten kidnapped, and created an enemy for Redbone to worry about. I’ve just caused more problems in two weeks than they likely had in a long time. I’m just an under-qualified coward.* 
Sona didn’t keep track of where he was leading her. But she did notice, after a while, that it got noisier. Voices, barking, livestock braying, wood being hacked to pieces. There were new smells too: the livestock and wood, of course, bt meat and alcohol and musk and dye and…and all the things she missed about the streets of Valleytown.
She blinked out of her daze when a male nearly ran into her and snared, “Watch it, bi—shit, you’re—” 
Taos stopped the male in his tracks and rested his arm around Sona’s shoulders. “I am your Alpha, Rumo, and this is your future Luna, Sona Mai. my betrothed.”
He said it loud enough that it halted the movement of the entire street. Sona wanted to shrink at the dozens of near-black eyes pinning her in place.
Taos noticed, too, of course. He raised his voice higher, its tone taking on a dangerous edge. “And we do not gawk like pups who don’t know better! If I hear talk that isn’t how beautiful her hair and eye look, you’d better be willing to part with a chunk of your flesh! You get to choose which limb!”
The activity returned. 
But when Rumo tried to squeeze by, Taos snatched his shirt collar and yanked him back. “How fond are you of apologies, friend?” 
“Extremely, Alpha,” the male stuttered. He looked at Sona with eyes trembling. “Forgive my impotence, Mistress Mai. It won’t happen again. I—”
Taos released him with a shove. “That’ll suffice. Get out of our sight.”
As he scrambled off into the crowd, he turned to Sona with a beaming smile. “It’s so entertaining… Why are you glaring at me?”
Sona shrugged off his arm to cross her own and indeed fix him with a hard look. “Was that supposed to impress me?”
His grin turned into a contemplative skew. “I am sensing the answer to be ‘no.’”
“Correct.” 
“Different definitions of amusement.”
“Correct. But…” Sona dropped her arms and sighed. “This is your pack and you are the Alpha. I won’t condemn—”
Taos bent down to kiss her forehead. “You are not condemning anything. It’s a deal: I won’t use violence when I’m in your presence.”
It was all she would get. She couldn’t ask him to change on her behalf. But she had to be careful. If the “fake” Redtown didn’t trust her, then this Inner Redtown would trust her even less; and hate her more. This was a secret place and they wanted one but their own here.
“We’re much more amicable at night. Amicable being another debatable definition.” 
She rolled her eyes at his waggling eyebrows. “What are you trying to show me again?”
“How we have *fun*, trinket.” Taos’ arm looped around her waist and pulled her along down a few buildings before stopping. “That starts with this.”
Sona glanced up at the swinging wooden sign with deer antlers above her head. It read: *Drink and Die*. 
“Classy,” she sighed.
“Did you expect any less?” she purred, opening the front door. It was unobstructed by other patrons because Taos’ mere presence scattered most of the vicinity. “This is where your honey ale awaits.”
A few minutes later, Sona had a massive tankard of sloshing gold alcohol. It smelled exactly how Moonvalley’s tavern made it; the familiarity eased some of her uneasiness. 
Taos, carrying two tankards, led her down the adjoining alleyway that spilled into a wide-open green space bursting with red amaryllis flowers. In the center was a rearing buck skeleton. It would have made Sona turn right back around had it not been decorated in more amaryllis, vines, and hanging moss. It gave the impression that even after death there was still life to be found.
“It’s beautiful,” Sona breathed. 
“See,” he teased, “we’re capable of less brutal beauty.”
Though she ducked in shame, her awe was stronger, and she had a feeling Taos would appreciate that more than an apology. “Who…?”
“My mother actually made what it is now,” Taos said as he guided her to a white-wood bench on the other side of the deer. “Before Serkin met her, he constructed it in honor of it being his very first kill after becoming Alpha. If you think *my* ego is big. A year later, my mother, pregnant and bored, took it upon herself to make it, in her words to me when I was seven, ‘less a trophy and more a celebration.’ Serkin was apparently torn between annoyance that she would blemish his accomplishment in hunting such a large buck and admiring the work his beloved mate did.”
He glanced down at her still staring in wonder. “Didn’t think you’d be this fascinated, dear. Hah. *Deer.*”
“You’re so immature,” she told him. “Just…I’ve never seen anything like it. Neither Goldwater nor Moonvalley had displays like this. Goldwater had statues of gold and Moonvalley had its fountains, but this… This is made purely from nature. Werewolves thrive off nature—meat and plants keep us alive, not gold or stone… What?”
“You’re fucking magnifient,” Taos said quietly. 
Sona laughed under her breath and shook her head. “Don’t praise me, Taos. I don’t deserve it.”
Expecting him to protest, he shrugged his massive shoulders and said, “Very well. Can we toast to your philosophy?”
“Sure. *If*.”
“If?” he repeated, intrigued. 
“If you sent this letter.” Sona pulled out the paper from the side of her waistband that she’d stuck there before they left the shop. Then watched his intrigue sour. She copied his devilish smirk. “Different definitions of amusement. You were really hoping for something else, weren’t you?” she purred.
His eyes glanced at her chest. “Yes, I had a few ideas.” 
Sona slapped it on his thigh. “Send please and I’ll hear one of those ideas.”
“What a wicked wolf,” Taos sighed heavily, setting one tankard beside him on the bench to pick it up. “A dandelion seal. Adorable. Leto, I’m guessing?”
“Are you more curious or irritated?” she asked, ignoring the fact that *she* was annoyed that he figured it out so quickly. 
“Both. Your wish is my command, Mistress Mai.” Without warning, he whistled sharply. A moment later an Epsilon stalked out from between another alleyway and dipped his head. “Take this to that bastard Rand. Tell him to respond as fast as his ass can.”
Sona smacked his arm. “This requires being nice!”
“I am not nice, dear,” Taos told her, handing the letter over, “and if your written word is, it shouldn’t matter.”
“Unless your lack of nice makes him petty—” The Epsilon was walking away. She called after him, “Nice as possible please!”
He promptly ignored her. Taos was true to his word and didn’t lash out. 
Instead, he lifted his jug to cheers. “To your poetic perchance, impulse to make deals, and desire to irk me.”
Sona clinked her glass and stuck her tongue out at him to make him bark a laugh. “Cheers to your willingness to make another deal?”
Though he narrowed his eyes, his mouth was quirked. “As long as it leads to my mouth on your body as soon as possible.”
Sona tipped her glass back and drank half of the ale. Then she slammed it on the bench and licked her lips. “We’ll see."