Page 15 of Sanctuary
"Not until it's consummated." A wild and crazy plan began to grow in his head, as crazy as anything he'd ever heard in the old stories. "And he doesn't want to consummate it until you're in heat, right?"
Ori sat back and nodded, his face blotchy and shiny with tears. "That way it's valid under the old laws and the new ones. But that won't be long. It's already November."
Patton took a deep breath, his heart racing like he was hunting, or readying himself to fight for his life. He took Ori's hand in his and gazed into his best friend's eyes. Into his love's eyes. "Do you trust me?"
Ori's grip on his fingers tightened and Patton watched as realization grew on Ori's face. "Oh, yes."
“Then this is what we’re going to do.” And then he laid out his plan.
C H A P T E R T H I R T E E N
T hey prepared for their escape carefully. Patton began packing away clothing for himself, old things that wouldn't be missed. Travel food, things that wouldn’t go bad at room temperature--jerky, dried fruit, dried vegetables. Containers for water. Ori began working on his mating wardrobe, because Hagen had declared the clothes Ori currently owned unfit for the mate of a shifter of his stature. And he started a new hobby, spending his days mixing up crushed herbs and flowers, soaking them in oil to make different scents he could wear. Scents that would hide the first signs he was going into heat, in case it came on before they were ready to go.
The nights they met in their tree, he giggled like the old Ori while he told Patton about how his parents had approved heartily of his new obsession, never realizing what their omega son was planning. He sounded excited, but underneath the burble of words stretched a high tension that grated against Patton’s nerves, if only because he was as scared and excited and afraid as Ori was, but he didn’t dare show it. Patton had grinned and high-fived him, all the while pushing away his worry about what they'd do if they couldn't get to their goal before Ori went into heat. He'd tried, but he couldn't get any human money from the pack, which meant they were going to have to make their escape on foot.
That might be the better choice anyway. If they were walking, no one would be able to track them, and he’d quietly looked into how to get to Mercy Hills on one of his rare days off. It would be a long journey on foot, but they could do it. The trick would be to not get caught by humans while they were outside walls.
He briefly considered how they’d deal with Ori going into heat when it happened. Hopefully, Ori had some secret thing that he could use to ward that off while they were outside walls and vulnerable. But mostly, he didn’t think about that at all, and Ori never said anything, so Patton assumed he had it under control.
They met one last time a few days before Harvest Moon.
The last task he had to do before they made their escape was to loosen the grates that closed off the gaps in the wall where the creek entered and exited the enclave. Once that was done, he only had to rig a sabotage for the sensors on the tops of the walls, and then it was simply a matter of waiting for the right moment.
Ori, poor Ori, was nearly beside himself with apprehension. "I know where Dad keeps his human money," he said in one of his notes. "I'll take some, just give me some warning before we go."
It was a relief. It also felt a little like Ori was starting to rescue himself, which ruined some of the satisfaction for Patton—he’d dreamed for years of spiriting Ori away from some dreadful fate. But it only took seeing Hagen smarming around the enclave to remind him that this wasn't a game and his best friend's future depended on them getting away and making it to Mercy Hills.
And then came the day where Ori strolled casually past him on his way back from the gardens, and dropped his gathering basket, spilling leaves and slips of paper all around. "Oh, darn," he said, his voice strained.
"I'll help you pick them up," Patton offered, and bent to gather the scattered bits of greenery off the ground. Ori pressed one of the slips of paper into his hand as he dumped the last of Ori's harvest back into the basket, and said, "Thank you, Patton," in a weird voice.
Patton hid the paper and nodded indifferently to him. "No problem." He stuck his hands in his pockets and watched Ori walk away, peering into the basket as if worried he'd forgotten something. The paper burned against Patton's palm and his hand twitched with the desire to pull it out and read it.
It was at least an hour before he had a chance to look at it. Excusing himself to go take a piss, he pulled the note out of his pocket and felt the blood drain out of his face. "It's now. Help."
Ori was going into heat.
What could he do? He pushed aside the answer his body instinctively jumped to, though it made his blood race to think of Ori, all grown up now and his. But Ori had never said anything to him about liking Patton that way.
They had to leave tonight.
He crumpled the paper up and went back to work.
C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N
T hey met that night after everyone was asleep, at the site of their old cabin.
"I can't do this," Ori said. "I can't mate him. Lysoonka!" He sat on a nearby stone and dropped his face into his hands. "Please tell me everything's ready. I got some money."
Shit. "I couldn't get to the power grid."
Ori stared up at him in betrayal. "Can you get to it now?"
"I can try. It won't take much, I set things up already." He was lucky they’d never had the money to spend on cameras to monitor the walls or the panel where the power came into the enclave. "You remember where we're going to go over the wall?"
Ori nodded and then impulsively reached out to hug Patton. "Thank you," he whispered.
Patton could smell him now, sweet and enticing. His mouth watered and his cock went hard in an instant. "Let's go then." Reluctantly, he put Ori away from him and dug out the bags they'd hidden their supplies in. The rope and the blanket he handed to Ori as well. "I'll see you soon."
