Page 22 of Sanctuary
Ori laughed, and bumped his shoulder. "Can I see the map? How far is it?"
Patton gnawed at the end of his apple core, too hungry to want to waste even that little bit. "Sure." He dug out the phone and turned it on, already worried about the way the battery was draining. Even with the pack's data turned off, it went down faster than he'd expected.
He pulled up the saved picture of the map and handed the phone over. "It's a long walk."
"I don't mind." Ori peered down at the tiny screen and his excitement colored his scent in the air.
"I’ve done some more thinking and it's probably going to be closer to two months to get there." Unless they started moving faster than he thought they were. He was already tired, shocked at how out of shape he actually was. Ori couldn't have been any better, though he was hiding it well today.
"So we won't be there for Midwinter? Or Harvest Moon?" Ori frowned, then handed the phone back. "I'm sorry to miss it." Then, more shyly, so unusual between him and Ori, "I hope they like us. It feels like an adventure." His eyes landed on Patton. “This is the most alive I’ve felt since the night you gave me the pheasants. I missed you.”
The deep longing in the words squeezed Patton's heart with guilt. "Once we get settled in at Mercy Hills, things will be different. If you want a job, you can have one. And if you want to travel... Well, the Mate goes all over the place. Maybe he'll take you along if you ask nice. Omega solidarity, right?" He started packing the rest of their food away in his bag.
Ori looked up at him. "I hope." His hand went to his belly again, the briefest of gestures, but it raised a nagging worry in the back of Patton's brain. Was Ori...? No, it was too soon. Patton wasn't alpha. He was reading too much into it. It was probably just belly cramps, from the stress and the different food and all the walking.
"You want to rest a little longer?"
Ori shook his head. "I’m not that tired. We should probably get as far away from home as possible, before they think to start looking in this direction." But he didn’t look eager to get going again.
"They should be looking toward California. Or Nevada."
"No one would go to Nevada." Ori made a face and got to his feet. "Come on. Where do you think we should stop for the night?"
"The next spot we find a bit of shelter," Patton said, and was glad when Ori accepted his response without question, because he didn't actually know where they should stop. This wasn't turning into the quick and romantic rescue he'd hoped for. Shyly, he glanced over at Ori, and got caught doing it.
"Something wrong?" Ori asked, falling into step beside him.
"I'm sorry this isn't going the way I'd planned."
"Well," Ori said consideringly, and draped an arm over his shoulders. "Since I didn't have any plans at all, you're definitely ahead of me by miles."
"Still, I wanted to whisk you away from danger and make everything okay for you."
Ori pulled him to a stop and wrapped his arms around Patton's neck so they stood eye to eye. "You made everything more than okay, you goof." Then he kissed Patton and made a humming noise into his mouth. "You know, if they’re going to be looking toward California and Nevada, maybe we don’t need to be in such a rush. Not that I’m saying we should take the rest of the day off, but what would you say to an hour?" He brushed his cheek against Patton’s, his eyes heavy-lidded and seductive. “I mean, maybe I am a little tired, and maybe I think you need to understand how happy I am to be here with you.”
Patton took a breath, and Ori’s scent filled his nose. Suddenly Patton couldn’t imagine why he was in such a hurry—it looked like a pretty quiet area. And Patton had excellent hearing. He placated the seed of worry that kept trying to sprout in his brain by promising they wouldn't take long, and then he forgot all his good intentions.
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - O N E
I n the end, they didn’t actually move on until the next morning, which was almost entirely Ori’s fault. Maybe. Patton had seemed to be having fun too. And Ori couldn't help feeling a little smug about that.
But the carefree joy of yesterday's shenanigans had evaporated overnight. Ori had woken up this morning with a snarl on his lips and the hair standing up on the back of his neck, convinced that someone was close, a threat he couldn't see but that instinct told him was right on his tail. He'd jumped out of their bedroll to find it, shaking Patton awake as he did, but even though they searched for a quarter mile around them, slinking through the landscape in their wolf forms for their speed and agility, they found nothing. There was no threat around that either of them could sense with nose and ears and eyes. Just that creeping sensation in Ori's back.
When they got back to camp, Patton pulled him into a hug and kissed him, telling him it was probably just that he was worried and that worry was coming out in his dreams. Ori wasn’t so sure, but he let himself be comforted by it.
Or tried to.
Because even though Patton seemed satisfied with their fruitless search, the hair still prickled on the back of Ori's neck. And maybe it had a right to. After all, they were on the run, hiding from their pack and still far too close to home to be stopping for romantic encounters. He shouldn’t have teased Patton to stop so early yesterday, but it was done, and he'd just have to hope to avoid the consequences.
And, in the end, he'd found he really didn't regret his impulsive seduction of his sometimes awkward beta mate. It was absolutely wonderful to be here, with Patton, and with no one to tell them it was wrong and they were ruining their lives. Plus—in some corner of his brain—he rather thought the pack owed him this period of happiness, for all the sadness and quiet despair he'd learned to hide over the years.
So if they were ruining their lives, Ori didn’t care. They’d figure it out, and maybe the pack's idea of ruined wasn't Ori's version of it.
With all these thoughts in his head, it occurred to him that he'd grown somehow in the past few days—maybe not grown up, but changed the way he saw the world. He wondered what Patton thought or felt about the situation, and considered asking him, but Patton seemed happy standing in the middle of the campsite and holding Ori close. He'd ask him later.
But as for Ori himself, he still felt…unsettled. And when Patton murmured something about getting going and started to move away, Ori clung briefly to him, suddenly afraid to let go, as if something would rip Patton away from him if he did.
“It’ll be fine,” Patton assured him, and kissed the top of his head before going back to their packing. He fussed over Ori a little, though, as they got everything packed and then he did a last careful check of their campsite to make sure they hadn’t left any signs that would give them away.
