Page 35 of Sanctuary
“Brrrr. No thanks. I don’t want to have to compete with polar bears for my food.” Ori leaned forward to check the water, then sat back again. “But that’s a good idea. I think I’ll do that.” He leaned away to peer up at Patton. “You should send something to your mother too.”
“I will.” What would he say? Hi, Ma, I ran away with an omega and you’re gonna be a grandma. Hope everything’s good, I have no idea how I’m gonna support a mate and a baby.
Yeah, maybe not that one. He’d have to do some thinking about it.
With a bit more nursing on Ori’s part, the water soon boiled and they were able to set their tea to steeping, then Ori mixed some more of the rapidly dwindling supply of oatmeal into what was left and added a small chunk of crystallized honey to it. They drank their tea in silence while it cooked, and carefully avoided the topic of their parents. Instead, they talked about what Patton should look for in the little town and how far north they should go to soothe that itchy nervousness in Ori’s spine.
Then the oatmeal was ready and they ate in a silence that was at once companionable and filled with unsaid things. Patton thought maybe Ori was missing his folks and his home—Lysoon knew Patton missed his. He desperately wanted to ask his Pa about how to make this trek across the country safely, and his Ma how to go about walking the narrow path from friend to lover and mate, which he still wasn’t certain he was doing right. It was a good thing he had Ori, who seemed mighty forgiving of all Patton’s awkwardness and mistakes.
With breakfast accomplished, Ori took the pot and the mugs to wash away from the camp. Patton emptied all the rest of the water they had left into one jug and set it in the shade underneath their shelter. "I'll be back by noon, I hope. Anything you want me to look for in the town?" He fitted the jugs into the larger of the two backpacks and tucked the two leftover bottles into one of their sacks.
"Food, I guess. Light things, though if you can get some more peanut butter, that would be good. And granola bars, if you see any." Ori jumped back down into the camp and set the dishes on their bed. "Whatever else you think would be useful."
Patton nodded. "Be careful, okay?"
"I will. You too."
"I will." Patton leaned in for a kiss, much the same as he'd seen his father do every morning when leaving the house for work. It felt a little awkward, kind of contrived, and then Ori kissed him lightly on the lips and briefly touched his cheek, and it suddenly felt entirely normal. This was a mate, a relationship, these small things. He thought he could live on these small things, as long as they came from Ori. And then he climbed out of their camp and set off to find them water again.
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - T H R E E
P atton had found Ori’s food requests pretty much as soon as he got to town and was scouting around, looking for someplace to fill their water jugs where it wouldn’t look suspicious. He ended up in the bathroom of a gas station, using the smallest of their jugs—the only one that would fit in the sink—to fill the larger ones, packing them away into his backpack as soon as they were done. The door rattled a couple of times, making his hands shake as he poured water from one bottle to another and creating a mess on the floor. He did his best to clean it up, and breathed a sigh of relief as he gathered up the key and his backpack and left the bathroom. But his relief was only a short-lived one.
As he walked up to the counter in the tiny office, intending to just drop the key next to the cash register and leave, he noticed a picture, tacked up in the corner of a bulletin board fastened to the wall behind the counter. It was a couple of years since the picture had been taken, and the image was grainy and printed out on regular printer paper, but no one could mistake it for anyone but Ori.
Patton scanned the board, looking for other pictures of Ori, or of him. He didn’t think he’d find any of himself—who took pictures of a beta, except maybe family? But just in case, he needed to know if it was only Ori’s face plastered over their escape route, or if his anonymity had been compromised too.
They’ve asked the humans to watch for us too. And if they’d done that, they must have figured out which direction Ori or Patton were heading in, because they’d sure left enough clues to send the pack looking west and south. Which meant that they couldn’t go to Mercy Hills. Not right now— they were still too far away to get there without dealing with at least a few humans. Dammit. He let the key fall on the glass of the counter and bolted for the door, not even caring if the humans noticed. The water sloshed about in his backpack, and he cursed it for its weight, that kept him from running at full speed all the way back to their camp.
He made it back in just under two hours, sweat running down his neck and his clothes soaked through. Ori’s going to kill me if he has to wash these again. Patton would have to do it, whenever they were near water. Fuck.
Ori was sitting in the shade when their camp came into sight, leaning against the walls of old wash with his eyes closed and a small smile on his face. Everything looked packed, neatly piled beside him.
Patton stumbled and caught himself, but the noise it made was enough to make Ori sit up in alarm.
“What’s wrong?”
“They left a picture of you in the town with the humans.” Patton staggered down into the depression and leaned against the wall. “I only saw it in one place, but if they left it there, they left it in other places too.” Because that’s how hunts went, covering as much ground as possible, cutting off as many escape routes as you could until your prey had nowhere to go but into your jaws.
Ori stilled and his hand went to his belly, right over their now-for-certain pup. “So the humans are looking for us too.”
“Around here anyway. You were right, we need to confuse the trail a little, go north then cut across to Mercy Hills.” Patton slumped to the ground beside him. “I’ve got the water. We should head out.”
“You’re exhausted.” Ori put a hand on his shoulder. “Rest a bit, then we’ll go. And give me your shirt, I’ll rinse some of the salt out of it before it starts making you itch.”
“I don’t want to waste the water. We don’t know when we’ll find the next source of it.” He really missed his phone now, and wondered if he could find one somewhere else. But where would he find money to pay for it? No, that wouldn’t work. “I did grab a map of the state, though. We at least have that.”
Ori leaned in to kiss him on his sweaty cheek. “At least change the shirt, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” He started to reach for his backpack, but Ori beat him to it, waving him back to his seat against the wall. Patton shrugged out of the water-filled backpack and accepted the t-shirt, switching it out for the one that had already dried on his back, then didn’t know what to do with the dirty one.
“We’ll hang it off your backpack,” Ori said, and that was when Patton noticed that Ori had been busy moving water jugs from Patton’s pack to his own.
“That’s going to be too heavy!”
“I can carry it,” Ori said dryly. “You’ve just run how far? And I’m pregnant, but not fat yet. I can take some of the weight. It’ll be good for me.” He glanced up from shoving one of the smaller jugs into his bag, his eyes saying that he knew Patton was worrying already about the baby. “He’s nothing more than a dab of cells right now anyway. Apart from watching that I don’t eat anything poisonous or get bitten by anything, he’s as safe as he’ll ever be in his life. A little exercise isn’t going to hurt him.” Then he grinned. “Enjoy it now. When I’m huge, you’ll be carrying everything. Maybe even me!” He punched Patton in the shoulder, laughed, then went back to closing up the backpacks. “You okay to walk yet?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Patton snuck a couple of the medium-sized jugs out of Ori’s backpack. “Don’t argue,” he said sternly when Ori raised a hand in protest. “We’re not going to be running. I’ll be fine.”
