Page 55 of Sanctuary
And then it grew lighter and he looked up to find the Alpha. Tarquin the Mad, they sometimes called him, though studying him now as he took on the greater part of Patton's share of the weight, he didn't seem mad. Tired, and anxious maybe, but not mad. Patton considered that for a moment, thinking that Ori would be proud of him for noticing that. Alphas and betas weren't well-known for picking up on body language, but maybe he was learning something from his omega mate.
"Why are you trying to carry this tree with just two of you?" the Alpha asked.
Patton expected Mac to answer, but Jason was into the conversation, quick as lightning. "My mate's got a bad case of alpha today."
"Jason," Mac rumbled, his voice gone deep.
"He's using the effort to keep himself from worrying about everything," Jason continued firmly. "Don't you worry about him, either. He's smart and capable. And he has me," Jason ended on a smug tone, a hint of a laugh in the words.
There was a moment of silence, and Patton wondered if the screaming of his nerves was a warning of an alpha blowout to come, but then Quin smiled sardonically and directed his attention at Mac. “You know, all these omegas coming in here bossing us around, that’s your fault, right?”
Mac stared at him for a moment, and Patton held his breath. Jason, too, seemed to be waiting for something.
Then Mac began to laugh. “You ass,” he said between chuckles. “As if you don’t have your own omega.”
Quin nodded solemnly, a spark of amusement in his eyes. “Or he has me.” He turned to eye Patton. “If they don’t question you the first couple of times they see you, we can slip you in with the rest of the group.” His gaze turned inward for a moment and then he said, “I understand your mate just had a pup.”
Patton nodded, his mouth dry. “A week ago.”
Quin looked over at Mac. “Maybe we should get the car?”
“What excuse would we have? Everyone’s here already.”
“Food? Liquor? It’s a damn shame that Garrick and Laine are in Washington. Going to pick them up would have been a great excuse.”
Who were Garrick and Laine? Obviously shifters, but why would they be in Washington? Unless…were the rest of the stories true, that Mercy Hills was working to have their walls torn down and leave the rest of the shifters trapped?
No, it couldn’t be. They didn’t seem that type. And, well, if they did bring down their walls, didn’t he want that for himself and Ori and Willie Rose? Fuck it, just get inside and deal with the rest later. He could feel the exhaustion sinking in now, the supply of adrenaline in his veins scraping the bottom of the barrel. He didn’t have much left in him; better see to Ori and the baby before it ran out completely.
To his great relief, Quin said, “Let’s get this over to the gate,” and they were walking again.
C H A P T E R F O R T Y - E I G H T
O ri nursed Willie Rose while Patton was gone, more as a comfort for himself than because she really needed it, and tried his hardest not to worry. They were at Mercy Hills. Whatever would happen was going to happen. And, in moments of clarity, when the exhaustion temporarily lifted its grip on him, the kindness of the Mercy Hills shifters shone out like a beacon at midnight. They weren't the omegas he'd expected. No, they were fiercer, more like an alpha, but still, he felt oddly safe with these strangers.
The human guards, on the other hand… He peered through the bushes at the uniformed men and suppressed a shudder of apprehension.
Bram relaxed on the ground, leaning on one elbow. “So, how’d you manage to get out of Perseguir? I’m guessing you weren’t pregnant at the time.”
Ori looked back at him, startled. Bram raised an eyebrow and grinned at him in a friendly manner. “It’s okay if you don’t want to say, just making conversation. We should probably plan something to be talking about when we take you through the gate.”
“Why?” Ori demanded, a little more abruptly than he’d meant, but the words were out now and he couldn’t take them back.
A wrinkle appeared between Bram’s eyebrows and he moved his jaw from one side to the other as if thinking hard. “The omega council met last night to talk about you and figure out a way to get you inside walls. Normally, we’d just petition your pack, but that’s obviously not going to work now,” he said, an emphasis on his last words that was part humor and part frustration. “We have a car with a hidden compartment in it that we’ve used to smuggle people in, but that will only get one person through the gate, maybe two with the baby. And everyone’s already here and the guards know it, so Holland and Quin say we can’t just take it out, because there’s no good reason. So between us and the alphas last night, we came up with this plan.” He waved a hand as if to take in all the shifters roaming the woods around them.
The anxiety began creeping up Ori’s spine again and he latched onto the one piece of information in Bram’s monologue that didn’t worry him or make him wonder if he’d made the wrong choice not wanting to go to Canada. “Omega council?”
Bram grinned and plucked a strand of the grass that was trying to grow in among the bushes to put it in his mouth. “Yeah. So, you know we’ve got this deal with a rich human guy, right? Like, his family made a ton of money off our people being rounded up and shoved into the enclaves way back, and they’ve been carrying, like, this guilt around about it forever. Some sort of family…not a curse, but like they have this noble goal to help us get back on our feet when the time is right, you know? So he’s decided the time is right, at least for Mercy Hills. Abel calls us the test subject.”
Ori nodded as if he understood half of what Bram was saying, and tucked it all away to think about later. When he wasn’t so tired, or scared, or excited about the possibilities ahead. “So, the council?” he said, bringing the conversation back to something he thought he might be able to get his teeth into.
“Oh, yeah, so that goes back to the money.” The bushes behind them rustled, interrupting Bram in mid-declaration. He tensed and slipped smoothly into the space between Ori and the noise, again reminding Ori of alphas, but it was the blond omega who broke through into the half-light of the forest’s edge. “Oh, hey Seosamh, what’s up?” Bram flopped back down on the ground. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Don’t let Bax hear you talking like that,” Seosamh said and sank to the ground beside Ori. “How are you?” he asked politely, and offered a bottle of water and a small bundle wrapped in cloth that turned out to be cookies. “Thought you might be hungry and missing home cooking, so I stole something from the picnic baskets for you.”
“Thank you,” Ori replied shyly and did his best not to snatch the cookies and, more importantly, the bottle of water out of the other omega’s hands. Nursing always made him thirsty and their own bottles were nearly empty. He took a long drink, Willie Rose still comfortably cradled in the curve of his arm. Not long after he’d half-drained the bottle, he felt the familiar rush of milk, his body declaring the water he’d just drunk the property of the baby.
“Yeah, so, conversation,” Bram continued as if they hadn’t been interrupted. “Bax makes a point of being friendly with the guards. So they hear bits and pieces of gossip about the pack, and he figures if we’re having a conversation about something the guards know a bit about, it’ll make you look more at home here.” He reached for one of the cookies, only to have Seosamh slap his hand. “Hey!” he complained.
