63. Sweet

Sweet

Sona’s first thought was rather cruel. *You have more family?*
But then it turned to relief. *You have more family. Cerise isn’t the only one you have.*
“Oh, is he?” she indulged the pup. Her sweet smile was directed at Taos, who was purposefully looking anywhere else but her.
 “Yes,” said the young one vigorously. “He said I have a chance of becoming Alpha one day!”
Sona’s eyes widened. “Did he?”
“Look at you,” Taos said suddenly with a raised voice, “getting so big, Corsen! Let me see you closer.” He scooped the pup, Corsen, right up out of Sona’s light grip. “Wow, have your canines just come in? Bare those pearls for me.”
Corsen gladly did, showing off a set of half baby, half adult teeth. “Almost!”
“Very impressive. Where the hell’s your mother?”
Corsen pointed again, this time at a butcher shop across the street. 
Taos set him down with a gentle shove. “Go find her and stop causing trouble.”
“But—”
“Future Alphas still listen to current Alphas. Say thank you to Mistress Mai and go on.”
Corsen scampered off with a wave over his shoulder. “Thank you, Mistress Mai!”
When he was quickly lost in the crowd, Sona planted herself in front of Taos and crossed her arms. And when he acted like she wasn’t there, she pinched his forearm. He didn’t even flinch. 
“While I’m glad to know you have family, why do I sense you’re hiding something?”
“I would never.”
“*That* is a lie.”
He looked at her. “What, have you never given a pup false hopes?”
“I have not!” she protested. “Certainly not that big! Taos, explain.”
Sighing, Taos told her, “He is my mother’s sister’s grandson. I told him once that if he didn’t stop misbehaving then he couldn’t be eloquent enough to be an Alpha. And he didn’t fucking forget it.”
“So you couldn’t break his heart. But Taos…the longer you don’t tell him…”
“I’m well-aware, trinket. Don’t think I’m not. Why is this so important to you?”
“Because pups are important to me, Taos,” she snapped, “and lying is a shit thing to do. Wouldn’t you know, lying to pups is fucking unfair.”
“You miss your son.”
The busyness of Redtown carried on without them. They were at a standstill in the middle of a river. All the noise and smells and sights narrowed all to Taos’ steady heartbeat, his sweet musk, and his sharp-angled face. But in her mind’s eye, it was all centered around Raff. 
“Yes,” she breathed. 
Taos took her face between his hands and wiped away a tear trailing down her cheek with his thumb. “You’ll see him in a few days, remember?”
Sona tilted her head into his touch. “I’ll miss him every minute until then and every minute after.” She paused to think. “Am I tipsy already?”
“I can tell you are going to be an angry and sad drunk, yes,” Taos said gently. “You know, alcohol isn’t just a forgetter. It’s a truth-teller.”
Sona’s mouth popped open. *How did he know almost exactly what Auryn told her?* “But I don’t want to forget and I already told you a truth.”
“You have plenty of truths left yet to tell I’m sure. I meant *I* could tell some truths.” 
“Your tolerance is probably—”
“Extremely impressive. Let’s get to that limit, shall we?”
Wiping away the last tear and tucking her under his arm, Taos led Sona to another sop that said, *Sticky*. 
“I expected ‘and shit’ to be added to the end of that,” Sona mused, using humor to distract from her melancholy. 
“I can have that arranged.”
Just like the tavern, Taos ordered and a few minutes later they exited with a handful of candied fruits and nuts in a small wooden box set in her arms and two more tankards of honey ale in each of Taos’ hands. He led her to another garden behind the building. This one featured a large hourglass-shaped vase bolted to a marble pedestal in the center of an explosion of red germaniums. 
Sona shoved the box into Taos’ arms and ran to the vase. “You’re fucking kidding me,” she breathed.
Taos roared with laughter. “My mother horrified, my father impressed, how could I not honor their absences and my new mantle of Alpha?”
It was the vase she couldn’t believe he actually made: the one with tits and cocks—and they *were* regrettable detailed. 
Sona sighed and shook her head. “We’re sitting somewhere else.”
“Right here is fine,” he said lightly. “Because I was reasonable enough to place benches facing away from it.” 
She agreed to sit because indeed her back was to the vulgar art…and because there was an entire box of sweets now in her lap. She took the sticky honey-coated strawberry between her fingers to observe it first. Then it hit her.
“The theme!” she exclaimed. “It’s honey!”
Taos drank from his mug with one hand while the other wafted air toward her; it implied his own scent. The soap he’d been using…
“I started utilizing it after our first bath. To think I would actually come to *like* being clean.”
She snorted. “So you’re scared of butterflies but not bees?”
“I have enough stings to prove that I am not fond of bees in the slightest,” he said, picking up a piece of candy. “Try it together?”
They popped the little nuggets into their mouths. 
Sona exclaimed wordlessly at the burst of sweet flavor. She felt transported twenty years ago to her first remembered time she ate a piece of candy that Auryn bought her. Tears sprang to her eyes again, but this time they were happy.
After sucking all the honey off, she chewed and swallowed the strawberry. She looked at Taos to beam about it, but her attention was drawn by his hand in the box…which had significantly less candy in it. “What—”
“Have a few more,” he interrupted. “Then I’ll explain.”
*Might as well*, she sighed inwardly. They sat in surprisingly comfortable silence until not a single piece was left.
Sona set the box on the ground just as Taos finished his second tankard. “Okay. Why did you eat so many—”
 Taos pressed his lips to hers. Immediately the honey coating on both pairs stuck them together. She tried to pull away—only to have Taos pull her close with a strong arm around her waist. He matched her moan of mingled pain and surprise.
It was so ridiculous. So stupid and weird and embarrassing and likely a dozen other things. The fact that she was in this situation. If she knew she’d be glued by the lips to the Redbone Alpha whose father decimated an entire pack… Well, she didn’t know what to do with that information.
Thinking on it later, Sona would realize that she could never penalize Taos for his father’s sins. *You are not your father*. 
How could he be mistaken for a mass murderer when all he was doing was eating sweets and kissing her in a flower garden?
*I’m not unlovable*.
And then she was laughing—giggling. Happiness washed over her and she climbed into Taos’ lap, chest-to-chest, legs on either side of his waist. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him in earnest. Deep and slow and sweeter than the honey.
And Taos, the hulking brute that he was, melted at her touch.