-Runs and hides behind a desk- Okay, I know at least one person is gonna kill me for making a cliffhanger in the last chapter and I wish to apologize for doing that. Now, at this time, I wish to thank all of those who have reviewed this story so far.

Chapter Eight: Findings Pt. 2

I just stood there transfixed on what I was seeing right in front of me. A child, perhaps twelve years of age and female, curled up in a ball crying next to what appeared to be what was left of a woman's body, well the lower half of a woman's body. My eyes widened at the very sight and my left hand quickly covered my nose as the scent of death and decay suddenly hit.

Standing there I tried to think of what to do. If I left the child here, she would surely die but if I took her with me there was a good chance the pack would try and kill her. Now this was one hell of a choice and dilemma.

Furiously shaking my head, I decided to risk taking the child to Selene.

Kneeling down next to her almost crying out in surprise as the child latched onto my waist in a death grip.

"Um…" What in the hell was I supposed to say?

"Please, help," the girl cried. "They killed my mommie!"

Wonderful! I hate being right all the fucking time!!!

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Now what the hell was I going to do now?

"It's all right, sweetie," I whispered, gently stroking her hair. "What killed your mother?"

"They were big and scary," she sobbed, "Only, one of them bit her in half…"

I inwardly cringed at this. This little girl watched as her own mother got eaten alive.

I glanced towards the last half of the corpse. And judging from what's left, I take it they weren't very hungry. Now that's something to be making jokes about.

"Do you want to come with me?" I don't know why I had to ask this because by the grip this girl was using on me I took that to mean that she wanted to stay near me. "I promise you that nothing will happen to you."

She sobbed a little. "Yes," she whimpered. "Please don't leave me here."

"All right, first, can you tell me your name?"

"Brittany," she answered quietly.

A smile crossed my face. "All right, Brittany, but if you're coming with me you'll have to understand that I'm staying with some…locals that are a little bit scary. Think you'll be able to handle that?"

Brittany nodded.

"Okay," I whispered, placing her on my back. She wrapped her tiny arms around my neck for fear that I would drop her. I might have if I still had my previous injuries unhealed. She wrapped her legs around my waist and I took off through the foliage.

It didn't take me all that long to get near the nest, but suddenly a chill ran up my spine and I froze.

Something was definitely off right now.

Little Brittany's arms tightened into a chock hold around my neck as a roar echoed throughout the woods.

It was not a T-Rex.

"Oh, now," I whispered. "Not that damn Spino…"

Another roar echoed.

"Okay, make that two Spinos."

I stopped muttering things and began heading at full speed to the nest. I knew it was the scent of blood that was leading the Spinos into the trees.

Catching a whiff of blood, I glanced down to see Brittany's hands were soaked.

We definitely need to get those cleaned, I thought, zigzagging through the trees, moving further away from the nesting area to a nearby river. There was no way that I was going to take Brittany anywhere near the nest with blood all over her form. Especially with two adult Spinos running around loose.

I wasn't going to endanger the pack that way! No fucking way!!!

"Where are we going?" she asked, the fear in her voice evident.

"I'm taking you to a river to get cleaned up," I answered. "That way we can get to where I live and not have those 'creatures' following us all the way there."

"O-okay."

Brittany fell silent after that. Allowing me to take her wherever I pleased.

Ten minutes later, we were at the river and I began scrubbing hastily at her hands and legs. Luckily enough, there was no blood on the girl's clothes so I didn't have to worry about cleaning those right off.

"Am I hurting you?" I asked, a motherly instinct beginning to take hold.

She shook her head. "No, but I'm a little hungry."

"Have you had anything to eat?"

"Um…Dad killed these little green creatures and we had to eat them…" she paled.

Whoa!

"I see," I said, sighing and standing right up with her on my back again. "Well, I'll try to make sure that you don't have to constantly eat those kinds of things."

"You ate those creatures too?"

I laughed, "Yeah. There's skimpy pickings around here. Every now and then my sister and I manage to find fruit trees."

"You have a sister?"

I nodded, "Yep." We were five minutes away from the nest now. "She's out hunting with our 'family' right now."

"Um…your 'family' besides your sister, aren't like you are they?"

She just had to ask that question. Here I was hoping to put it off a little longer, but I guess now was better to tell her than later.

"No, they're not," I answered, then hurried on as I sensed her growing fear. "But don't worry. They won't harm you. They didn't harm me or Kelly when they discovered us."

"Um…all right."

Inwardly, I was praying that I was right about this decision. I really didn't want to do something that I was going to regret.

////

Selene wasn't too threatening as I brought Brittany into the nest. The Alpha female was a little more intrigued than anything else.

Brittany was scared to death of her at first. Selene had sensed this and did everything possible to make the newest human of the pack feel comfortable.

Kelly was a little shocked to find a child on the island as well as the rest of the pack.

To my amazement, the whole pack seemed to want to welcome the child and I couldn't help the smile on my face.

"They like her," Kel whispered as she sat down next to me.

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm glad. Here I thought that I had done something really stupid."

"Probably did," she muttered as Brittany came back over to us. Selene was right behind her looking at little happy, if it was possible for a raptor to show happiness in the face.

In the eyes maybe, but facial expressions? That may have been a little impossible to do.

"She's following me…" Brit whispered as she curled into a ball against my side.

"Selene follows us all the time," Kelly said. "Actually, she follows Darla a lot more than she does me. Mainly because Dar here has been in a lot more trouble than me."

"You're name's Darla?"

I grinned, "Yeah. Forgot to tell you my name, didn't I?"

Brit nodded, "Yeah, you did fail to tell me that."

She yawned and closed her eyes, placing her head in my lap. For a little girl, she was an awfully brave and cute one.

I sort of found myself wishing that I had a child. I have no idea what brought that stirring on, but I wasn't totally repulsed by it.

"What's wrong?" Kel asked me quietly. "You look a little…off."

"Yeah," I answered, running my hands through Brit's brown hair. "I've been trying to figure out just what it is that's bothering me."

"Care to explain that?"

"I don't know," I sighed with a shake of the head. "I just got this feeling that something really big is about to happen to us. I haven't really been able to figure it all out just yet. Kind of silly isn't it?"

Kelly smiled, "No, it's not. I've been getting the same feeling as well."

Fantastic! Now the both of us are losing our fucking minds.

A soft smile came onto my lips as Selene laid down next to us; her head cuddled up against my side and up near the top of Brittany's head. I was sooo cute. I began wishing that I had a camera to take a picture, because this would have scored big with the people at home.

Sure, it'd scare them shitless, but it would score big damn it!

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-Grins- All right! You can't kill me now. I've just completed this chapter and I'm sorry that I've kept you all on your seats for this. Next chapter will be coming up here soon. Very soon actually. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. Just be patient and don't rush me on the updates. –Bows- see y'all soon.