Page 12 of Sanctuary
“I’d like that.” Ori walked along beside him, thinking over everything Holland and his parents had told him. He’d have to be smart about it all if he didn’t want to lose Patton entirely. But Patton was smart too. They’d figure it out. And maybe, once they were older and Ori had found a mate, they could go back to their old friendship again.
The thought left a hollow feeling in his chest.
C H A P T E R N I N E
M ore than a year had passed since Patton’s disastrous Birth Moon incident or, as Ori called it when he was in a mood, the Great Pheasant Scandal.
During that time, Ori had grown taller and the alphas had started paying even more attention to him. Patton's older brother got mated to a nice delta girl and moved into a two-room apartment that had been sectioned off in one of the old barracks, which meant that Patton got to move out of the room with the bunkbeds and into Christian’s old room.
In another step toward adulthood, Patton started an apprenticeship with the pack's plumber, working long hours that left him with little time for socializing. Not that it mattered, since his and Ori’s carefree days together were done and gone. Where Patton spent all his time working, Ori now spent all his time with the other omegas. Part socializing, part learning, his group also included Holland, who he seemed to be growing close to. Patton was glad to see that Ori had found a friend who appeared to understand him, and Holland seemed to be good to Ori. At least, Ori seemed happier now, even if being omega meant he couldn’t do a lot of the things they used to take for granted.
But no matter what, they made sure to sneak out of their houses a couple of times a month to meet each other at their tree, or at the old cabin they built when they were pups, hidden in a grove of fig trees and kiwis a bend in the creek closer to the wall than their tree. Other times, they left each other notes, crumpled slips of paper that Patton kept locked away in his dresser drawer, in a tin lock box that he'd sweated and saved to buy for himself. He didn’t know what Ori did with the ones Patton left him.
Life rolled on, one day not much different from the next. Then one morning, about halfway between Harvest Moon and Midwinter Moon, Patton was sent to fetch a loop of vinyl pipe that had been forgotten when he and his plumbing mentor had set out that morning. As he was walking back to the work site, taking a detour through the nicer section of the enclave, he saw Ori coming in the other direction, accompanied by Felicity. Patton stepped across the way so they would be close enough for Ori to pass him a note if he wanted, but as the distance closed between them, he realized Ori wasn’t looking at him. Instead, his eyes were fixed on something down a cross-street from where they were walking and his lips had started to draw back in a snarl that might have been anger, but smelled of fear when Patton got closer.
“Ori?” Patton said softly. When Ori didn’t answer, he turned to see what it was that Ori was looking at and immediately wished he hadn’t.
Holland stood on the doorstep of his home, one of the few homes built from scratch with bought-in material, a house with three bedrooms and windows that all still worked. It was a nice place, and one of the few buildings Patton hadn’t already been inside for various problems with water or what-have-you.
Except it didn’t look like someone’s home anymore. It looked like a war zone.
The yard in front of Holland was covered with a broad scatter of plastic bags, like the ones the pack used for garbage. And Holland himself looked like…Patton wasn’t sure what. His face was dead white against the black of his hair, his pupils dilated until his eyes looked as dark as his hair instead of his normal blue. “Hunter,” Holland said in a voice that cracked with strain.
His mate stood in front of him, wearing a disgusted expression. “No wonder they wanted to get rid of you. What good are you if you can’t give me pups!”
Holland flinched, as if the words had been stones thrown at him with all his mate’s strength behind them. “We can try again,” he whispered, but even Patton could tell he didn’t believe it any more than Hunter did.
Hunter snarled, then he pulled a sheaf of papers out of his pocket. Patton didn’t think Holland could go any whiter, but he did, and he stumbled down off the low step to reach for his mate. Hunter sidestepped him and then, with calm deliberation, he tore the papers in two, then did it again, and again, until they were no more than fingertip size. “Your father will be here for you later this morning. I don’t care where you go, but you won’t be staying here. This is my home.” And he strode into the house, slamming the door so hard it echoed around the small cul-de-sac.
Ori made a small noise beside him, like a bird being crushed underneath a boot. “Oh, Lysoonka.” He threw Patton a wild look, whispered, “Meet me at the tree tonight?” and then, at Patton’s nod, rushed over to help Holland, dragging a reluctant Felicity behind him.
To try to help Holland, really. The older omega snarled at him and tried to push him away, but his movements were about as coordinated as a newborn’s and he ended up sitting on the ground watching blankly as Ori collected the scattered bags. Felicity refused to take any and whispered angrily at Ori until Ori turned and shoved her back out onto the street again. Holland watched dully as Ori yelled at Felicity to go home if she wasn’t going to be useful, and then Ori got him on his feet and gave him a couple of the smaller bags to carry, loading himself up with the heaviest ones.
They disappeared in the direction of the gate at the pace of Holland’s halting steps, and if there was ever a dead man walking, Patton thought it was Holland at that moment. He hoped the other shifter had family nearby that could come help him, and that Ori wouldn’t get in trouble for this act of kindness that was so typical of his friend.
Patton met up with Ori earlier than usual at their tree that night, Patton unable to sleep, and Ori no better. They climbed silently up the branches and this time Ori ignored his own branch to curl up in the V of Patton’s legs and sob hopelessly into Patton’s shoulder.
“It’s not his fault,” he said at one point, sitting up to wipe at the tears that streamed down his face. “No one knows if they can have pups until they have them.” He sagged against Patton again and his breath wavered in and out as he fought the sobs trying to break out of him. “He did everything else right. He cooked, and he cleaned, and he always had things ready ahead of time for Hunter. And it’s not like there aren’t families who can’t afford all their pups, who might be glad to give one to a rich alpha like that.” He was talking about Holland, but there was something in his voice that told Patton Ori was seeing his own potential future, made more real and frightening for the immediate reality of Holland’s.
Well, he had a right to be scared. It had been a terrible, horrifying scene, even to Patton, who admittedly understood only the very edges of an omega’s world. Given how Patton felt about it, he could see why Ori was in tears. “Maybe he’ll find someone who doesn’t want pups,” Patton suggested in hopes of drawing the sting out of the memories.
Ori laughed bitterly. “No. Omegas who can’t have pups are broken. There’s a word for it, I can’t remember. Maw used it tonight. They’ll send him home and he’ll have to hope his family will take him back, or he’ll have to live on the street.” He sniffed and a harsh sob escaped him. “I listened when Maw and Da were talkin’, after Maw thought I’d gone to bed.” He paused and then added, in a matter-0f-fact way that made the hair stand up on the back of Patton’s neck, “Maw’s gonna see if she can take me to see a doctor, to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to me. Da was pretty upset about the cost, but Maw put her foot down.” He sighed. “I guess that means that if I’m broken, I’ll at least have a place right? If they care enough to do that?”
“You’d always have a place. I’ll have a place for you.”
Ori sighed again. “I’m so lucky to have a friend like you.” And then he went silent and Patton would have thought he’d fallen asleep, exhausted by his tumbling emotions, except for the restless patterns his fingers made, seeking what comfort he could in Patton’s presence.
Patton stroked Ori’s hair and held him and wished there was something he could do.
C H A P T E R T E N
A month after that terrible night, Ori was able to report during one of their clandestine meetings that the doctor had declared him fit as a fiddle and couldn’t see that there’d be any problem with him having pups. Not that the humans knew much about shifter biology, but it was promising. Even if it was a lie, Patton didn’t care, because it took the weight of that fear off his friend’s shoulders.
He was finding it harder to stand back now, though, and watch the alphas as they were drawn to Ori, very much like the honeybees that hummed around the flowers blooming each spring in the gardens and woods. Every time one of them smiled at Ori, Patton remembered Holland, but instead of the black-haired beauty, it was Ori on that step, watching his life crumble before him. He kept reminding himself that Holland’s problems were not Ori’s, and that Ori’s future was bright, for an omega.
And, as always, where Holland had been alone here, Ori had Patton.
It helped him a little to watch the color rise in Ori's cheeks as the pack’s young unmated alphas paid him compliments and brought him small gifts. It helped even more those times when Ori shared those treats with him. But as the years flew by, their secret visits by the head of the creek grew farther and farther apart, buried in the minutiae of their everyday lives.
