Kris tiredly checked his watch.

6:09 AM.

He groaned as he leaned back in the cheap bed that he and the others had to bunk in while they waited out the boredom in Garza. It wasn't exactly the Hawaii accommodations he'd had once, but it was comfortable. Nothing had been going right for them so far, so being able to sleep was a blessing.

What was supposed to have been a simple smash and grab had been dragged out into a waiting game. They had to wait for a storm to cover their insertion onto the island from there, they would have 20 minutes to get the raptors and get the hell out of there.

It would've been longer but their shadowy benefactor was...demanding to say the least. Idiot, they couldn't go any faster. He sighed as he got up and walked over to the open window. The radio in the room tuned to the local weather station. The biggest thing that would cover them was a tropical storm, and as it so happened there was one such storm currently brewing just off shore. They had arrived at this time for the storms, but had just missed one a week or so ago.

He stilled as he felt arms around his middle and soft, yet toned skin pressed up against his back. He looked over at Bedu Nyantah, one of his fellow mercenaries assigned to him for this job. She was a skilled huntress hailing from the Ivory Coast, and made a name of her own by tracking and trapping anyone, or anything.

When she had casually suggested they bide their time with a night together to maintain their cover as just a group of tourists, he had almost said no. Kris was not one to mix business with pleasure. Though after a powerful argument with her mouth and hands, he'd given in to it. That was a week ago though. She still stayed in his room, and when asked why, she'd only say that it was because; "He was the best she had in her bed."

Between the two of them though, he knew they were getting closer. A risky gamble considering their line of work. He still knew to keep both his eyes open on her, if offered enough they knew they'd kill the other, it was the nature of their work after all.

He turned as she began tracing the tattoo spanning his shoulders of Atlas holding the heavens high in his hands. That was their unspoken sign of wanting attention; she'd trace his various tattoos, he'd kiss her nearly invisible freckles.

So she was feeling wanton this morning?

He turned, taking her face into his hands as her dark eyes bore into his. He gently ran his hand through her short kept dreads as she pressed her chest closer into his. He could almost count all the freckles dotting her breasts and chest as he bent to capture her mouth.

They both turned up as the radio crackled with a warning of the tropical storm hitting Garza's port and canceling any and all ferries to and from Jurassic World.

"Time?"

She hummed in a thick honey voice.

"Time."

He rumbled as he turned.

Rio growled as he trudged along the paths that led to Elder Mother's territory. He groaned pitifully at the throbbing pain behind his eyes. Alpha Owen had taken him to be examined after he'd been found by a particularly persistent hatchling. But instead of being his usual prankster self, he'd hissed in pain, and rubbed his head along the cooler ground as though that would ease the burning inside.

From what Rio understood and the pained expressions crossing Alpha's face as the one with red fur spoke to him, it wasn't good.

Alpha Owen had rubbed him wonderfully before helping him to Elder Mother's home. He stopped at the edge of her territory and watched him keenly as he staggered off into the trees. Alpha knew that pack stayed together no matter what, yet he also knew better than to blindly blunder into a dominant predator's territory.

Alp- Owen was a good Alpha.

He roared out into the jungles as he groggily cleared his head. He heard the gentle reply and adjusted his route as best he could. His hackles raised and flexed as he sensed the winds shift and the sharp taste of salt laced his tongue.

He growled darkly, of course there was to be a storm today of all days.

Rio sighed as his gait became more sure and straight, and the pain ebbed away slowly. Though he knew, and Alpha knew this was just the beginning, he refused to simply lay down and die.

He growled and pushed away his darker thoughts in favor of the lighter moments that now filled his mind. Playing Seek and Tag with the hatchlings, learning from Alpha Owen, spending time with Curious One and Elder Mother. He purred softly to himself as he followed a fresh scent trail.

She turned as her young came home to her. He looked ill, and sniffed him as he rumbled greetings to her. She recognized the growing sickness in his bones, but she also still smelled that fire in him as well.

Her fire. Now it was their fire, shared between two separate beings of time. One meant to have long since vanished from the living world, the other meant to have never existed at all. But here they were; alive, and fighting to survive.

An instinct ingrained into all life; the instinct to fight and remain. The Small Ones had long lost this sense of fighting to survive until the next dawn. Yet she and now her Young One still retained this fire to resist and remain upon this plane of life, and to simply live life the best they could.

She turned at the gathering clouds and rumbled as the first fat drops pattered along her snout. She turned down as her Young One curled under her massive legs. She crooned at him in humor, to which he lightly bumped his snout against her larger one. So often he proved himself to be growing up into a male any mother would be proud of, yet it was these tiny moments that made her life and her own instinct to remain that much more powerful.

Instinct was powerful on its own, but if finely mixed with strong emotions it became something more. It became the reason to fight on. To survive on. To live on. She nuzzled his side lovingly as they trekked to her nest.

This Young One had been in her life only a short time, and already he had become perhaps one of the most singly important pieces of it. As they settled down to weather the storm, she rumbled softly to him as he nuzzled into the crook of her neck.

She swore then and there, that as his mother, she would protect him regardless of his illness. He would survive.

She had no doubts about that.

Kris slowly surfaced and gestured to Butz Rauch to get the drone in the air. He did as soon as he was told and went about the setup of their temporary rendezvous point as the other 4 began to move into the jungle off the beach. Butz would keep them invisible to sensors as well as alert them if they hit any hostile dinosaurs.

It was him, Bedu, Andrew Walker their walking ammo dump, and Ige Rei as their on site over watch. With Butz covering them as secondary over watch, navigator, hacker, and just overall tech expert. Kris took a deep breath as Butz's drone began leading them out into what would either be a big payday, or a hellish experience that would kill them all.

Kris just tried to suppress the mounting dread he felt as he had Ige go up into the trees and maintain watch from there while directing Bedu to take point. He covered their rear as Andrew kept his gun trained to either side as they trekked on.