Chapter Fourteen
Jethro
It was hard to wrap my head around how accepting Miles was of the South’s decision to treat him as less a person and more a useful tool. And the undercurrent in everything he said that suggested that when it came down to it, he might choose to go back. I knew it would be much easier to convince him to stay if either of us was feeling what we were meant to be feeling right then.
We stopped to eat some food around midday but not for long. In the distance, I heard a noise, like a plane or a chopper. Or a drone.
Miles didn’t seem to have noticed it, so I didn’t bring it to his attention but was mindful to keep us under the covers of the trees, the thicker the better. This had the benefit of keeping us in the shade and didn’t raise any questions from Miles.
It was late afternoon when we reached the base of the mountain. Getting up was going to be the toughest part of this journey. And if there was air support up in the sky searching for us, getting up there without being spotted might be next to impossible.
Before we started the climb, I checked Miles and his backpack to make sure there was nothing that would reflect the light and give away our position. I got him to do the same to me.
“This will be a tough climb. It’s not that steep but the trails are narrow and it’ll be slow going.”
There was only one path I knew of to the top of the mountain that didn’t involve climbing gear. What it did consist of, were a handful of narrow paths between sheer rock faces. Not a good place to be if you were claustrophobic. But I knew my way around them and was confident I’d get us through.
I positioned Miles in front of me for the climb, meaning I was there to catch him if he slipped or fell. Twice he lost his footing and windmilled backward. Both times he slammed into me and I caught hold of him. I noticed he was in no hurry to extricate himself from my arms. Was it a sign that things between us were taking a turn for the better?
He wasn’t too happy when we reached the first of the narrow passages. He’d walked right past the entrance and I called him back, pointing to it.
“We’re going through there?” he asked. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. It’s a tight squeeze and a bit of a climb, but it’ll bring us to the top of these cliffs,” I said, gesturing to the rock face jutting out above us.
In the distance, I heard the buzz of an engine getting closer.
“Come on, Miles. You don’t want to do this climb in the dark, believe me.”
That got him moving, and we were out of sight seconds later. I chatted to him to keep his mind off our surroundings.
“So do you study or work?”
“Father wouldn’t let me study past high school. I work at my uncle’s business, making copies, filing, that sort of thing.” Busywork to keep him from getting bored or restless while they waited for him to come online.
“What would you have studied, if you’d had the choice?”
He was silent for a moment as he climbed a difficult step, all his energy focused on getting over the obstacle in his path.
“You’ll laugh,” was all he said when he got past it.
“I won’t. I promise.”
He mumbled something I didn’t quite catch.
“Say again.”
Bracing himself against the rock wall, he turned to face me. “Early childhood education. I wanted to learn about how to teach young children.”
“Why would I laugh at you for that?”
He shrugged one shoulder but I could guess the answer well enough. If his father had such strong opinions on Alpha and Omega roles, he likely had equally strong opinions on gender roles.
“What made you interested in that?” I asked as I urged him to keep moving. That engine noise was nearer now, and I hoped our talking would distract him from realizing it was there.
“My younger brother and sisters. Watching them as babies and toddlers, how they grew, how they learned things. It was so fascinating to watch and to see how I could influence them, reading to them, playing games with them. I loved it. I thought, if I could do that for the rest of my life, I’d be content.”
He stopped again and turned back to me, a sad smile on his face. “I guess maybe I was always a traitor in my heart.”
“It’s not traitorous to want to choose a life that will make you happy, Miles.”
“But making that choice is.”
“Not all laws are equal. And neither are all crimes.”
“What happens to you if they find us?”
He still hadn’t noticed whatever it was that was circling the skies above us. I was starting to think that either he was a little deaf or my proximity to him was making my hearing unusually sensitive. That wasn’t something I’d expected to happen until after we bonded.
“That’s not something for you to worry about. Not now and not if it happens.”
I wasn’t going to guilt him into giving in to my way of thinking. He came willingly into a bond or not at all.
The craft above us came closer.
“Do you hear someth-” Miles started to ask, silenced by my hand across his mouth as my body pressed him into the wall of the cliff.
We both held our breaths as the noise grew echoingly loud, a shadow passing over us before disappearing. Helicopter.
“Did they see us?” he whispered as I took my hand away from his mouth.
“They can’t have, not with how narrow this passage is.”
Sure enough, the noise was moving away into the distance. I kept us there another few minutes, listening for the sound of the chopper turning around to do another pass, but it kept going.
“Let’s get moving.”
“If they see us, will they land and pick us up?”
“There’s nowhere to safely land on these mountains and the wind speed is too high to winch anyone down. They’ll send a ground team. Coming after an Alpha is no easy job, they won’t send fewer than a dozen officers.”
“Twelve people, just for you and me?”
I leaned in and whispered into his ear. “I stole you, right from under the South’s noses. This right here, you and me, is an international incident.” I pulled back and grinned. “And the most fun I’ve had in my whole life.”
He managed a bewildered smile and let me help him back onto the path.
“So, if you could study early childhood education, what would you do with what you’d learned?”
There was a point to my questioning. If I could get Miles to talk and think about having another life like it was a possibility and not the impossibility he’d been taught it was, it might help him come around to my way of thinking.
“I guess I’d work in or run a kindergarten, caring for and teaching little ones.”
“What if I told you that, as my Omega, you could do that?”
“But wouldn’t you need me, to fulfill my duty as your Omega?”
“Of course, but it’s not exactly onerous. It’d be like any married couple. We’d spend our evenings, nights, and weekends together and during the week we’d do our own thing.”
“But aren’t you military?”
I wasn’t too surprised Miles had picked up on that though I hadn’t made a point of telling him. Given his recent experiences with soldiers, I hadn’t wanted to freak him out.
“Not in a combat force. I’m part of a peacekeeping unit. The North isn’t as combative as the South, we’re more interested in making friends and allies and less into warmongering.” And maybe the South wouldn’t need to burn through Omegas like firecrackers if they spent a little more time on diplomacy and less on the use of military force.
“How often are you deployed?”
“Once every eighteen months for two to four months at a stretch. Our military likes to rotate us home frequently, they feel it keeps us all on an even keel and helps us keep the peace better than if we’re gone for long stretches of time. The distance and isolation can be quite trying.”
“Would I go with you, when you were deployed?”
“A bonded Alpha must have physical contact with their Omega for one week in every four while on deployment. They’ll fly you out to the base, we get to spend some time together, and then they fly you home.”
“Why not have us there all the time?”
“Oh, some Professor of something or other did studies and found that consistent Omega contact for one week produces improvements in senses and acuity that persist for about twenty-five days after contact ceases. So we can get away with a week every twenty-eight days. It’s less disruptive for everyone involved and safer for the most important people, namely you.”
“But Alphas are the primary concern. Omegas are secondary. We exist to allow you to fulfill your potential. We fulfill ours by being of use to you.”
That was a harder statement to refute. The position of Omegas in the North was certainly better than in the South but they didn’t have the same absolute and guaranteed freedoms of every other citizen. With Miles, it was even harder, because, as a citizen of the South, and an Omega, his rights and freedoms in the North were further curtailed.
“I know that’s what you’ve been taught at home, that’s what the South tells you, but it’s different up here. It’s not a perfect system and Omegas don’t have the exact same freedoms that other citizens have, but the Alpha-Omega relationship is considered a partnership. A marriage effectively. With rights and protections. Founded on love and respect.”
And lust, of course. Couldn’t forget that.