Page 4 of Sanctuary
“He’s my friend. I’ll be careful, but I’m not going to give him up.”
She sighed and came close to hug him and he was reminded that she only said these things because she loved him. “I know it’s hard. All change is hard. But if Patton is really your friend, he won’t tease you with things you can’t have. And you can’t have him.” Then she turned and went inside, the opening and closing of the door letting the sounds of the rest of the family escape briefly into the still morning air. Ori was left standing on the path with no notion of how to get his old life back, but a rock-solid determination not to lose Patton in this sudden redirection.
C H A P T E R T H R E E
D espite Ori’s determination not to lose touch with Patton, he was soon brought to realize that his life was different now. His classes changed— he was moved out of the general education one with all the other youths and into one that was just him and a dozen other omegas of varying ages. A few were almost adults, and he watched with curiosity and an emotion that couldn’t seem to decide if it was apprehension or jealousy as the courting grew serious. He certainly envied the gifts they received, and that they never failed to show off immediately after getting them, turning class time into a never-ending jockeying for position and importance. Class seemed to be more about who had the most stuff, or who had stolen a kiss from the best looking alpha in the pack last night, than it was about learning things that were useful.
Ori had no time for that and while he was glad to be done with math, he was dismayed by the volume of stuff he had to learn now that he was officially in omega classes. Oh sure, it would all be useful--he knew he was going to be a homemaker in the end. But it all felt so pointless. Wasn't there something more he could be doing to help the pack, instead of being this...drain on its resources? He thought he wasn't the only one who felt this way, watching the faces of his classmates as they sat through lectures and demonstrations and practice, but it was only the ones around his age whose faces twitched. The older ones treated it all like this was how they expected their lives to be and he wondered how long it had taken the class leaders to numb them to the uselessness of their lives.
How long would it would be before he stopped fighting against his fate?
Then one day, in late October, as they were preparing for the Harvest Moon celebrations, a whisper went through the omega classroom. Hunter, the Alpha's oldest son and the expected heir to that position, had brought home a mate. Not just any mate, but a foreign omega.
"I heard he's very handsome, but tall. As tall as Hunter, almost," Felicity whispered in Ori's ear as they practiced their embroidery in the corner during free time. "From Buffalo Gap."
"Huh," Ori said and pulled the thread through the cloth. "You think it's a love match?" He'd already figured out that omegas mated for security, and alphas mated for looks and obedience, if they mated an omega. But love matches did happen, and he couldn't see any reason for Hunter to have to look outside their own pack unless he'd seen someone he wanted better.
She shrugged and leaned in to whisper, "I heard his cousin is Alpha's Mate in Jackson-Jellystone."
"Ah. Well, that explains it." That connection would compensate for the new omega's height. Though Hunter did like tall partners. "What's his name?"
"Holland," Felicity said, and giggled.
Ori snorted. "At least if he's going to monogram anything, it'll be easy. Just the same letter over and over again." He paused and looked down at his own embroidery, a wolf's pawprint in black on a denim shirt. "On second thought, that would get pretty boring."
Felicity shrugged. "He's going to introduce him at Harvest Moon." She nudged him. "Get sewing, we're getting the evil eye."
Ori grimaced, and turned back to his project. He wondered if he could get a message out to Patton--he hadn't seen his friend in over a week. Everywhere he went, someone was with him, putting an end to his carefree days of roaming the enclave lands. But he'd figured out a couple of weeks ago how to get the bug screen out of his bedroom window so he could sneak out without anyone knowing, and if he could just get a message to Patton, they could go back to their old ways. Sort of. He eyed Felicity with speculation, wondering if he could trust her to pass on a message and not let it slip to anyone else.
Maybe not.
Later, while they were memorizing the recipe for grilled poultry and all the variations in seasoning they needed to know if they couldn't get actual chicken and had to settle for whatever wild bird was stupid and unlucky enough to land in the enclave, he managed to get his hands on a scrap of paper and write Patton a note to meet him at their old tree after everyone was asleep. Then, when classes were over for the day and they were on their way home, he managed to maneuver Felicity past the regular school house.
All the alphas, betas, gammas and deltas came pouring out the door, a flood of youngsters running in all directions. He saw Patton and waved, then nudged Felicity. "I'm just going to say hi to Patton, okay?"
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Fine. But that's a waste of time."
Ori shrugged casually. "We're just friends." He spotted Elmer strolling out of the building, sixteen years old with the looks of an old-fashioned movie star. "Maybe I'll have him," he said, partly a joke, partly to rile Felicity up, since he knew she had the biggest crush on him, just like all the other omegas. Well, except for Ori. It made him want to snarl and bare his teeth, the way Elmer looked at him like a piece of meat he could have for the asking. But Felicity didn't seem to notice at all.
"Not if I get there first," she said and elbowed him.
He grinned, even if she had almost taken the wind out of him, and pushed her in Elmer's direction while he met up with Patton. "Hey," he said, and casually stuck his hands in his pockets. He palmed the note and waited for a chance to pass it on. "What's your mom bringing for Harvest Moon?"
"I don't know, I don't think she's decided." Patton looked confused and a little hurt.
Ori reached out and patted his forearm, then slipped his note into Patton's hand as he stepped away. "Can you find out for me? I don't want to double up on anything, so I'm either doing apple tarts with cheese or maybe rice and beans." He gave Patton a look and then sauntered away, looking for someone to escort him home since Felicity had paired up with another older omega named Coralina to giggle and flirt with Elmer.
T hat night, once he was sure everyone was asleep, Ori carefully lifted the bugscreen out of his window and let it down onto the ground outside his room. He climbed out, then put the screen back in place so no one would know he was gone unless they gave his room more than a casual glance. He'd stuffed his bedcovers too, to make it look like he was fast asleep, just in case.
The crescent moon hinted at the path to his eyes, but his feet didn't need the help. They knew this path, from the thousands of times he'd trekked it before, when he and Patton were just best friends with none of these adult worries to get in their way. He found Patton in the old apple tree that they'd claimed for their own, stretched out along the heavy branch he always sat on and staring up at the stars. "Hey," Ori said as he pulled level with Patton's branch. "Thanks for coming."
"I read your note," Patton said. His voice was cool, strained. "What do you want, Ori?"
"I want us to still be friends." Instead of climbing up to his own branch, Ori stopped and crammed himself onto Patton's, his back scraping against the trunk of the tree behind him. "I'm sorry."
Patton sat up suddenly. "It's not your fault," he said fiercely. "It's stupid."
Ori nodded, but he didn't say anything. What was there to say, when your best friend had just told the whole truth of your existence?
