Page 57 of Sanctuary
“Ori, pass the chicken sandwiches?” the tall redheaded alpha asked. Ori hadn’t expected to have anyone pay attention to him and it made him jump, but he managed to pass the plate over without spilling anything, despite the shaking of his hands.
“First time outside?” he heard the human ask, but it didn’t sound like he was talking to Ori, so Ori ignored him.
“Yes,” Bax said quietly. “He’s a little nervous. Some of us see the walls as protection, like a cave back in Neanderthal times.”
“But you don’t.”
Bax smiled, and reached for a plate of biscuits, offering them to the human. “No, I don’t.”
When lunch was over, the humans went back to their chairs carrying leftovers of pie and salad and sandwiches. Ori and Holland packed up the baskets, stacking all the dirty dishes into two of them, using the third for the few bits and pieces of food that were still left.
“Ready to go inside?” Holland asked.
Ori bit his lip, his eyes going automatically to Willie Rose, sitting in Agatha’s lap just like the doll they were pretending she was. “Yes.” But he reached out to grab Holland’s wrist. “Promise me that you’ll look after her if something goes wrong?”
Holland gave him an odd look. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.” He beckoned to Jason, and then to Bax. “You have the omegas of Mercy Hills on your side.” He sent the other omegas a look so full of meaning that Ori somehow thought he should have heard words in it. “Not all the stories they tell about us are wrong.” And with those mysterious words, he turned toward the gate, collecting Agatha and a couple of other gun-toting, baby-carrying pups to go with them.
Ori held his breath and stared blindly ahead of him as they got closer and closer to the tall gray walls and the heavy steel gate. Holland slung an arm around his shoulders and, just as they came up opposite the humans’ security building, he casually asked, “So, you still coming to play cards with us tonight? I don’t think Quin will play, but Cas should be coming and if he comes, Raleigh will too. We’ll need to find another alpha or beta to balance out the teams though, or we’ll be wiping the floor up with those boys again.”
“I..uh, sure. Maybe Mac could come—I need to win back last week’s credits from him.”
Jason laughed. “Oh, I wish you would! He’s been insufferable since he beat the card shark! I’ll make sure he shows up.”
And then they were through, and no one had even looked twice at them.
As soon as they were out of sight of the gate, down a narrow path hedged in on both sides with short bushes covered in tiny green strands of flowers, Holland handed the picnic baskets off to the other omegas and retrieved Willie Rose from Agatha. “You were amazing, my dear. Thank you.” He gave the baby to Ori, then pulled his daughter into a giant hug and kissed her cheek. “I knew I could count on you.”
Jason touched his arm. "It'll be a while before Patton gets inside, we didn't want to try to push two new faces through at once. But Adelaide would like to check you over, and then we can take you to the house and let you get some rest."
"Thank you," Ori breathed. He was fine, for now, but he had a feeling that as soon as he stopped moving again, he'd melt like a puddle of butter in the sunlight.
"Come on," Jason said with a cheerful grin. He waved goodbye to Holland, who turned back toward the gate, and led Ori on a winding path through the bushes until they came out on the side of a road that was obviously the main one leading into the heart of the enclave.
They were joined by several of the pups, including one young girl whose name appeared to be Pip. “Papa says you’re going to live next to us,” she said, and grabbed his hand. “Do you only have little babies or do you have big ones too?”
“Just this one,” Ori told her and felt a smile growing on his face. “She’ll get bigger though.”
“Not fast enough to play King tomorrow,” Pip said confidently. “That’s okay, she can play when she’s older. I’ll teach her.”
“Well, thank you,” Ori said and looked up to find Jason hiding his giggles behind his hand.
A truck rolled up to them and a dark-haired man leaned out the door. “Taxi?” he called, his eyes dancing.
Jason grinned. “Can you take us up to Adelaide’s clinic?”
“Hop in.”
Jason turned back to Ori. “This is Duke, Bram’s mate. Come on, I’ll help you into the truck. It’s easier than walking.”
“It is. Thank you,” Ori said to Duke, and let Jason hold the baby while he climbed into the truckbed. Moments later, they were all, adults and pups included, settled with their backs against the cab of the truck, and Duke was driving them carefully through the town to meet this mysterious Adelaide that he kept hearing about. A nurse. It excited him to think they had that kind of resources to spare.
The town itself was like something out of a dream, or a movie. Miles nicer than Perseguir. As far as the eye could see, it was neat little houses all set in a row, or buildings that rose four or five stories into the air, pockmarked with windows that gave Ori glimpses into the lives of the Mercy Hills shifters as they dawdled over the rough track that served the town as a road. Then, closer to the center, there was a huge park that looked, to Ori’s overwhelmed eyes, filled to the edges with pups and their parents, and then one building, many stories taller than anything else in the enclave.
Duke pulled up in front of it and turned off the truck. “You okay to go up yourselves?” he asked politely.
“We’ll be fine,” Jason assured him. He hopped down onto the roadway and held his hands out for the baby again. Ori climbed awkwardly down and collected Willie Rose, then walked around the side of the truck. “Thank you,” he said. He seemed to be saying that a lot, but he didn’t begrudge a bit of it. “I hope I can pay you all back someday.”
Duke nodded. “We’re pack. It’s what we do.” He waved at Jason and then started the truck again.
