Page 30 of Sanctuary
"It's okay," Patton said. "I'm going to go in and see if I can find something for you." He set Ori down behind a bush and shrugged off his backpack. "You watch this stuff, I'll be back soon." He emptied everything out onto the ground beside Ori and filled it again with their empty water jugs. “You want anything in particular while I’m there?” He thought he had a decent grasp of first aid, but maybe Ori had been taught some other things as an omega, who would be expected to do a lot of the caring for sick pack members.
“No, nothing really. Unless you see some painkillers.”
“I’ll look,” Patton promised. It was a sure sign of how bad Ori was feeling that all he did was nod and arrange the packs around himself so he could lean against them. And as Patton left, he heard Ori hiss quietly and guessed that his friend had pulled his sneaker off to inspect the damage.
He went as quickly as he could, filling the jugs in the bathroom of a corner store, then wandering the aisles until he found painkillers and bandages. He grabbed up anything that might help without any thought for the cost, his worry driving him recklessly on. The total made him wince, but he picked it all up and shoved it in his backpack, then jogged back out of town to find Ori again.
At first glance, Ori looked like he was asleep, but he opened his eyes before Patton was too close, and had already sat up by the time Patton crouched beside him. "That didn't take too long."
"I only got a few things. And filled the water bottles." The air was tinged with the scent of blood, some old, some fresh like something was still bleeding. Ori.
"Oh, good." Ori winced and lifted his foot into view. "I think I need to soak this off." The back of the sock was soaked red and brown and was obviously stuck to his blister. "I don't know how it managed to dry so much inside the shoe, but it hurts trying to get it off."
"Here." Patton unscrewed the cap from one of the larger jugs and set it to one side, then sat down and pulled Ori's leg to rest across his, so his foot dangled in the air. "Once this is cleaned up, I'm going wolf so I can hunt around for a spot for us to camp for a couple of days." Ori opened his mouth to argue, but Patton gave him a fierce look. "No, this isn't working and you know it."
"And what if they find us?" Ori asked quietly.
"You can't run the way you are now. Maybe in a couple of days, but not now." he put the water down for a second and reached for Ori's face. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
Ori sighed and let himself fall backwards until he was lying on the ground, staring up at the burning blue sky. "Patton, you're a beta. If they send a bunch of alphas after you--"
"I got you your pheasants, ahead of a shit-load of alphas," Patton snapped. "Just because I'm a beta doesn't mean I can't look after myself, or you." He poured some more water over the sock, then started working the fabric away from the battered flesh.
"I'm sorry you never got your shirt," Ori said suddenly. "Maw was really mad. She made me give the feathers away." He sucked in a breath between his teeth as Patton hit a particularly tender part, then continued. "I had a bunch of denim, dark, dark blue, and I thought I could put Lysoon howling at the moon on the back with the feathers."
"That would have been pretty nice," Patton said thoughtfully. "I'm sorry I never got it." He set the sock aside and put Ori's foot down on top of the backpack before he shuffled over to lie down next to him. "I should have stolen a car."
Ori started to laugh. It began as a snuffle, hidden behind one hand, then turned to chuckles, and finally to outright peals of laughter. "You crazy beta," he said, tears streaming down his temples into his hair. "I love you. Come here."
Patton let Ori pull him down and they kissed for a while, enjoying each other's presence, the solidity of their bodies tucked up against each other.
"I love you too," Patton whispered. "And I really do wish I'd stolen a car."
"This is better, even with the foot," Ori murmured, and combed his fingers through Patton's hair. "We would have been caught right away in a stolen car. If we're smart about this, they'll never find us until we're safe at Mercy Hills."
“I hope so. But we’re going to take a couple of days to rest, do you hear me, stubborn omega? Fix your foot, and then we’ll move on.” Inspiration hit, and he ran his growing beard over the side of Ori’s neck, his lips parted so his breath danced warm over Ori’s skin. “And maybe while we’re waiting, we can practice being mated some more.”
Ori laughed, as Patton had hoped he would. “Oh, you betas,” he said, and held Patton closer. “Okay, but find us a really safe place?”
“Right after I’ve got your foot bandaged up again,” Patton promised, and sat up to start unpacking his shopping.
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - N I N E
O ri pinched the back of his thigh, hard, to distract himself while Patton soaked the dried blood off his heel and covered it with squares of gauze and wrapped the blood-stained rag around it again. But when Patton was done and had propped Ori’s foot up on his backpack again, he felt so much better that it wasn’t hard at all to find a smile and kiss for his mate.
And even with this sudden derailing of their escape plan, underneath the anxious awareness of the risk they were taking, he felt…hopeful. Happy. It wasn’t what he’d envisioned, or what they’d planned, but it wasn’t a problem. They’d dodged the first real threat to their escape and sent their trackers haring off in the wrong direction. And Patton was happy to be his mate and they were probably having a pup. He hoped Mercy Hills was okay with that.
He prayed that Mercy Hills was what he thought it was.
“I’m going to go look for a camp. You okay here?” Patton asked.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Ori patted his mate’s hand and smiled for him. “I might have a nap.”
Patton frowned. “Don’t sleep too hard. Maybe you should change shape if you’re going to nap.”
A shifter always slept more lightly in wolf form. “I could, but that would look really funny if anyone stumbled over me.” He’d never had to put on the bright yellow tabs that shifters all had to wear when they went outside walls, but he’d seen them before. Without them, he could be any human teenager out camping in the wilderness, right? He thought so—there’s wasn’t that much difference between humans and shifters on the outside. “You won’t be long, will you?” He would feel more comfortable if Patton was around.
“I don’t know. I hope I’ll find something good right off, but you never know. I want to find some water.”
