~* Chapter Eleven ~ *

After the girls' morning feeding, (regular, already dead meat, although they ran live prey sessions every other evening now) Percy sat down at his laptop to upload last night's training session and send it to the park manager. He half-heartedly flicked through some old articles about Global Orthys he found on Google Scholar, which apparently existed and which apparently he should have known about. Thalia swore up and down she didn't know how he graduated from college ("Red Bull and hope," Percy replied). The articles were boring as hell and somewhere along the line he found himself watching cat videos instead.

"Hey Perce," Grover greeted, barging into the trailer without preamble.

"Grover!" Percy said, jerking upright. "I was just doing research on Global Orthys."

Grover leaned over, his eyebrows raised as he watched the cute little tabby on Percy's screen try to get itself out of the glass container it somehow found its way into. He gave Percy a look.

"It was really boring okay?" Percy defended, crossing his arms and slouching in his chair. He pointed at the screen, "An octopus would be outta that in like, thirty seconds flat."

"Global Orthys is a research company Percy," Grover reminded him, straightening up to go rummage around in Percy's fridge. "What did you expect?"

"Not that," Percy grumbled, slouching further into his chair. He paused the video and pulled the articles up again, flicking through them with a wrinkled nose. "I mean, they go on and on about binary coding and enzymes and words I can't even pronounce. And it's all so boring."

"They're a genetic revival program Percy," Grover said, cracking open a cherry Coke and sitting down across from his friend. "I mean what did you expect to find? An article proclaiming that they're evil and using cloning for their own nefarious purposes?"

"Sure be nice," Percy sighed. "I'd rather dance in Rexy's cage with a meat suit on than read any more of this."

Grover choked on his Coke.

"Thanks for that terrifying image Perce," he coughed.

Percy grinned across the table, "Anytime. Come on, I need to get out of this trailer before I—"

"Don't say it again," Grover groaned. "I swear. Let's just go check on the raptors or something."

"Do you think they've hit raptor puberty?" Percy wondered as they walked towards the paddock. "They've started to get kind of moody. Even Ceres snapped at me the other day."

"What do you mean by 'snapped'?" Grover asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at Percy. "Your kind of snapped or a normal person's kind of snapped?"

"I mean she snapped—"

Grover groaned. "How much skin did she get?"

"What? What makes you think she actually got me—"

"Because I know you and this is clearly your definition of snapped which means bodily harm was involved."

Percy opened his mouth to protest, more out of fear of Thalia finding out than anything else, when something brightly colored caught his attention and he turned. A car was barreling down the otherwise barren dirt road that led to the paddock, bouncing as it took the potholes too quickly and the sun glinting off its obnoxious paint.

"What the heck is that," Grover asked, which wasn't too far from what Percy was thinking.

The car pulled to stop before the confused men and Travis Stoll stuck his head out the passenger window. Behind the wheel, tall and silent as usual, sat Beckendorf.

"Like our ride?" Travis called.

"Uh," Percy said, blinking at the vehicle.

The car had clearly seen better days. It was beaten up, bumps and dings spotted its painted sides, which had long streaks in the coloring as though something hard and sharp had peeled thin layers of paint off. The bottom of the car was yellow, it probably used to be a real bright obnoxious yellow but now shone at only half its glory. Halfway up the car, the yellow turned green and then, on the hood and top of the car, long red stripes could be seen. There was some writing on the side and Percy turned his head, squinting.

"Jurassic Park," Grover read aloud.

"Pretty sweet, right!" Travis grinned. "We found it in the restricted section, in the old shell where the original park used to be. Beckendorf used his magic fingers to get it running! Wait 'til the girls see it!"

Beckendorf stared avidly at the steering wheel, grunting.

"Yeah because nothing impresses the ladies like an old garbage heap people may or may not have died in," Percy snorted.

Beckendorf's jaw clenched.

"But I mean, what do I know, I'm sure Silena'll love it," Percy hastily amended.

Beckendorf's face flushed as Travis laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, she's crazy about you. Come on boys, we were just heading into the park to take the girls to lunch and we thought we'd pick you guys up."

"Sounds great," Percy said, reaching for the door handle. Grover hesitated behind him, eyeing the car nervously.

"Bla –ah –ah, nobody really died in here did they? I mean, it probably just sat in the old building collecting dust and wasn't involved in the incident at the old park right?"

Percy neatly moved to hide a long scratch mark on the side of the car, "Of course not buddy, hop on in."

Travis twisted around in his seat as Beckendorf started the car, the engine giving a low groan before coming to life, spewing a cloud of dark smoke before careening down the path. Percy hoped the sound didn't startle his girls.

"So, is Connor going to meet us there or are we picking him up too," Percy tried to ask casually.

Beckendorf gave him a sympatric look in the review mirror that told him everybody knew about the feud between him and Annabeth.

"He's meeting us there," Travis assured him. "Now, you won't believe the prank my brother and I pulled the other day, it was hilarious."

"So some of the girls had a spa escape this weekend, right? So while they were all having their mud baths or whatever, we spray painted an apple gold and tied a note to it," here Travis' grin grew, causing his features to look even more elfish than usual, "that said 'for the prettiest'. Then we left it where they would be sure to see it when they left the changing room and ran."

"Oh no," Grover said, his eyes wide.

"Oh yeah," Travis cackled. "All hell broke loose about ten minutes later. You should have heard the shouting. They turned on each like your raptors. There was crying and shouting, shoes went flying."

Travis waved his hands around to demonstrate.

"That's terrible," Grover tried to disapprove even as his lips twitched. Percy didn't even try to withhold his laughter.

Up front, Beckendorf slammed on the breaks, causing Travis to tumble against the dashboard.

"Wait," Beckendorf's deep voice sounded troubled as he handed his credentials to the guard at the entry gate. "Wasn't Silena at that escape?"

There was a kind of horrified silence.

"Oh shit."

"I will file your paperwork for an entire month," Travis bargained as Beckendorf strode towards the café they were meeting the others at. "I'll – I'll – Beckendorf! – I'll do anything please just don't tell her."

"Don't tell who what?" Katie asked from under the canopy of the café, sounding exasperated.

Silena stood beside her, looking as beautiful as always, but she was holding herself stiffly and in obvious agitation. Connor peered over the girls' shoulders, his eyes wide and panicked. Beckendorf held his arm out to Silena, whose eyes widened ever so slightly as she hooked her arm through his.

"You look beautiful," Beckendorf said.

The agitation melted from Silena's shoulders in an instant, her face brightening as she curled her fingers around Beckendorf's biceps. She shot Katie a delighted look over her shoulder before turning hooded eyes back to Beckendorf.

"Why thank you, Charles, you clean up nicely yourself."

The pair disappeared into the café, a delighted flush on both of their faces.

"Dude," Connor said, thumping Travis.

"Oh, I think we're safe?" Travis guessed, peering after the pair. Katie gave them both a suspicious look as she stepped forward to greet Percy and Grover.

"I don't want to know what you two are up to, but leave Silena alone," she said fiercely.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," Travis saluted, dragging his brother into the café.

"You guys settling in okay?" Katie asked as they followed the others into the café. It was the same one from that first day, with the spectacularly on point dinosaur theme.

"Oh yeah," Grover said, his eyes brightening as they sat down. "The apartment's great and I love all the amenities. There's even a little vegan restaurant right next door."

He turned and grinned at Percy at the last part. Percy laughed, shaking his head as he opened his menu.

"Good for you big guy," he said charitably as Katie laughed as well, a soft, rich sound as she patted Grover's hand.

"I'm glad," she said giving his hand one pat before turning to Percy. "And how about you Percy? You know, just because you live in the restricted area doesn't mean you can't come into the park. We don't get to see much of you."

"Ah, I've settled fine," Percy fumbled, squirming a little under her concerned, warm gaze. "The ah, girls, keep me busy and, ah, I wasn't entirely sure if I should come up – "

"Is this about Annabeth?" Silena interrupted from her spot across the table.

Her legs were thrown across Beckendorf's lap, whose face was flushed but pleased. She leaned forward to snatch Percy's hand, her perfectly manicured nails and flawless complexion a stark contract against his rough, calloused hand.

"Ah, well um," Percy said intelligently, his face growing hot.

"She can be hard to get along with at first," Silena said knowingly, "but she means well. She takes care of us all you know. There isn't a better park manager in the entire world. Or business manager period. She can be a little hard headed and stubborn sometimes."

"Sounds like someone I know," Grover muttered under his breath.

"Besides," Silena tossed her hair. "Even if Annabeth doesn't like you, it doesn't mean we feel the same. We like you. So visit us more, got it?"

She squeezed his hand with more pressure than he thought possible from her slight frame.

"Got it," Percy quickly echoed.

Apparently satisfied, she released his hand and leaned back against Beckendorf.

"Thanks," he added and was rewarded with a table full of smiles.

After lunch broke up, Beckendorf walked Silena back up to her temporary office and the Stoll brothers disappeared off to who only knows where, leaving Percy and Grover to walk Katie back to the nursery.

"We mean it, don't be a stranger," Katie said, smiling at Percy and Grover as she held the door open to the nursery.

"Or you'll send Beckendorf and Travis out to get us again?" Percy asked with a grin.

"Something like that," Katie agreed, her eyes sparkling. "You boys have a good rest of the day now. I expect to see more of you."

"Have a good day Katie," Percy laughed as she disappeared inside the nursery.

"So, that was nice huh?" Grover asked, bumping his shoulder lightly as they walked away.

"Yeah, it was," Percy agreed.

"So, you'll come up to the park more often now, right? Socialize, see people? Not hide away in your trailer, seething in jealousy as you watch cat videos."

"I socialize and see people," Percy objected. "And I got bored okay!"

Then, after a beat, added with a scowl, "I wasn't seething with jealousy."

"Okay," Grover easily said, grinning. "Whatever you say Perce. Hey —"

Whatever else he was about to say was cut off as his cellphone started to ring. Grover glanced down at it, his face lightening up before peering guiltily up at Percy.

"Ah —"

"It's Juniper isn't it," Percy grinned. Grover blushed. "Go ahead and answer it G-man. I'll just —"

"Head back to the paddock and sulk some more?" Grover scoffed.

"— go visit Ethan. You know, socialize, see people," Percy teased back, taking a few steps backward as he goaded his friend.

"I don't want you back in the paddock before dinner!" Grover called, swiping his phone to take the call.

"Yes, mother!" Percy called over his shoulder as he jogged away.

The nursery wasn't all that far away from Ethan's lab. Sure, he had to cut through the tourist crowd to get to it, but Percy grew up in New York. This was nothing. It was a nice day for a walk, he thought, sticking his hands in his pockets and turning his face towards the sun and soaking in its warmth. The crowd buzzed pleasantly around him, giggling little kids and their equally excited parents, the constant click and flash of cameras going off. He had to shoulder his way through most of it, but the excitement and adventure on the faces he passed made it hard to feel anything other than residual happiness.

"Mommy, mommy I want to see a baby dinosaur!" A little girl in front of him squealed, tugging on her mother's pant leg.

"I know honey," her slightly frazzled mother tried to placate, trying to juggle a stuffed animal, her purse, and the park map. "Just ah . . ."

"The petting zoo is just around the corner," Percy helpfully interjected, smiling at the mother and her adorable little daughter.

"Really?" The mother asked, pausing in her struggle.

"Yep, just right behind the stand over there with the blue umbrella. Can't miss it." Percy crouched before the girl, smiling, "My friend works there. You'll love her. Say, what's your favorite dinosaur?"

"T-rex!" the tiny girl shouted, eyes bright, holding her chubby fingers out like claws. "Rawr!"

Percy laughed, "Yeah Old Rexy's pretty cool, but I don't think we have any little Rexy's at the petting zoo. But the other dinosaurs are pretty cool too, I promise."

"Thank you," the mother said, taking the girl by the hand.

"No problem," Percy said, standing up and shoving his hands into his pockets. "Have fun!"

"Rawr!" The little girl exclaimed happily, waving as her mother dragged her away. Percy grinned and waved back as the pair disappeared into the crowd.

"That was nice of you."

Percy jerked in surprise, spinning on his heels and gaping at the woman behind him. Annabeth Chase stared back, a cup of coffee in each hand. As Percy stared wide-eyed at her, probably doing a pretty good impersonation of a deer caught in the headlights, she extended one of the cups towards him. He stared at that too.

"It's coffee, Jack - Percy," she said, as if this explained the whole strange ordeal.

"Um," was all he managed to say as the warm cup was forced into his hands, "it's not poisoned is it?"

"Why would I poison my only raptor trainer?" Annabeth asked, exasperated, rolling her eyes. "No. I was wondering if we could talk."

Percy examined her from over the rim of the coffee cup. Her face was as professional as always, although her eyes might have been a tad softer, sincerer. He waved her on with the cup. She motioned her head and he fell into step beside her as they walked through the park.

"Thalia called me the other day," Annabeth started without preamble.

"She's your friend right?" Percy asked, taking a sip of the coffee. It was horribly bitter, far too little cream and sugar in it. Of course, Percy never took much to coffee, he much preferred to get his caffeine from those frozen sugary diabetes-in-a-cup things, as Grover liked to call them.

"Yes," Annabeth said shortly. Then her lips twitched, the corners pulling down in agitation as she held the coffee up to them. "My best friend."

"She was ... concerned," Annabeth said slowly. "About us."

That sounded vaguely ominous. Percy half scowled, half frowned down at her, "I don't call and cry to Thalia if that's what you're implying. In fact, I don't tell her much of anything. She gets most of her information from Grover and Ethan, the traitors."

The last part of that he huffed in a whisper, more to himself than the park manager as he braved another sip of the coffee.

"I know," Annabeth said much to his surprise. At his look of surprise, she waved her hand. "It doesn't matter anyway. She was just concerned. And she said some things that got me thinking."

She took a long drink of her coffee, looking pensive. She abruptly stopped walking, twisting around to face him. Percy ungracefully stumbled to a halt and let her serious gray eyes meet his. Her jaw was clenched and face set, like someone going off to war.

"I can be ... a little hard to get along with sometimes," Annabeth admitted and it sounded like she would rather have her teeth pulled than say anything else but she persevered. "Running this park gets to me sometimes. It's a high maintenance and high-risk job. And not only am I young but I'm also a woman, which just makes this job that much harder because people are always watching what I do, waiting for me to mess up. So I run things my way and micromanage this park because it works. I don't let anything stop me.

"That's why I was irritated when Zeus brought you on without my consent. It was like a slap to my face and an insult to everything I've worked so hard for. I admit I took it a bit ... personally and took a little of that out on you. You were an easy target. Your lack of professionalism, lack of credentials and carefree attitude didn't help," she glared at him and he just shrugged helplessly because yeah that was true.

"Yeah, I wasn't exactly helping," Percy freely admitted. "So where does that leave us?"

"I thought we could start over," Annabeth said all business like. "I'll keep an open mind and you'll be more professional. For Thalia."

She had to add that, Percy mused. Not that he would have turned down an olive branch anyway, but he definitely would have given her a harder time about it. Now all he could think about was Thalia's weary face. Percy sighed and then, with that image in mind, decided to take the plunge.

"Well then, hello I'm Percy Jackson, your new raptor trainer who is definitely underqualified but doing a damn good job anyway and is striving to be more professional," Percy said, holding out his hand with mock graveness.

Annabeth heaved a great sigh, as though severely put upon, but there was a small smile on her face as she grasped his hand in a firm handshake, "Hello Percy, I'm Annabeth Chase, your boss and park manager."

"Nice to meet you," Percy said serenely with a straight face. "I'm sure we'll get along fabulously."

"Don't oversell it," Annabeth snorted, releasing his hand. "I'll be stopping by the paddock from now on for updates."

"Every day?" Percy asked, wrinkling his nose.

"God no, the raptors are hardly the only dinosaurs in this park," Annabeth huffed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "I've got to run. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me Jack— I mean Percy."

"Thank you for being honest ... and the coffee," Percy said, tipping the half drank cup at her.

"Don't go in the paddock by yourself," Annabeth called in lieu of a proper dismissal as she put the phone to her ear and started walking away.

"Who me?" Percy called after her, grinning. "Never."

He was still snickering to himself when he finally made his way to Ethan's lab, tossing the half drank coffee in the trash along the way.

"Hey Nakamura," Percy called, sticking his head inside the lab and ignoring the disgruntled looks the other scientists shot him. "It's feeding time for the girls, chop, chop."

A moment later, Ethan was dragging Percy out of the laboratory with a scowl firmly in place. To the average passerby, it might look like displeasure, but Percy was like, eighty-five percent positive it was just a front to mask the fact that he was glad Percy rescued him from a boring night of binary coding or whatever.

"I don't come to every feeding you know," Ethan grumbled, dragging Percy along by the collar of his shirt with a surprisingly strong grip for a guy who, prior to Percy's arrival, only saw the sun every year or so.

"Well yeah, but I need a ride and you needed to escape so win-win," Percy said cheerfully, wrenching himself free from the scientist's grasp. "By the way, we need to pick up Grover."

Ethan heaved a great sigh as he dug his keys out of his pocket.

"And why aren't you taking your car?"

"Because both mine and Grover's cars are at the paddock," Percy said sliding into Ethan's pristinely kept white car as soon as the door unlocked. "Beckendorf grabbed us for lunch and dude you should see what he's driving. It's one of those cars from the old park the Stoll brothers found that he fixed up."

"I'm pretty sure Annabeth forbid us from messing with the old park," Ethan said, starting the car. "On behalf of it being distasteful and all."

"And by doing that she all but asked the Stoll brothers to go mess with it," Percy said, causing the scientist tosnort.

They picked up Grover and headed to the paddock.

"So we're not doing live prey tonight right?" Grover asked suspiciously, "I can't look Pithys in the eye some nights because I know we just sacrificed one of her kindred to the raptors."

"Their sacrifices are recognized and honored," Percy said gravely. Grover kicked the back of his chair.

"For the greater cause of education," Ethan joined in, giving Percy a rare small grin.

"But we're not—"

"No live prey tonight," Percy assured him. "Just a few exercises and regular, already dead, frozen and thawed meat of questionable origins."

Grover looked relieved. The paddock was silent when they pulled up, but as the men got out of the car and approached the lightly buzzing fence, four shadows emerged from the forest. Juno led the pack, her head held haughtily as she glanced, seemingly disinterested, at the men out of the corner of her eye.

"They're growing quicker than before," Grover said fretfully as Percy pulled on his gear.

"They've hit puberty," Ethan confirmed, tilting his head to the side as Diane prowled the edge of the paddock, flicking her tail as she hissed.

Percy groaned, "That's what I was afraid of. Every once in a while, they get in little moods, even Ceres."

Ceres' head perked at her name, eyes wide and innocent like who me?

"And it'll only get worse," Ethan said, walking along the edge of the paddock as Diane repeated the motion on the other side. "Hopefully, they'll settle as their hormones calm down but be aware that their aggression levels will spike. They may start doing little things to test your authority and strength."

Percy stared mournfully at his girls. "Aw, girls don't you love me?"

"They won't try to usurp you until they've reached their full size," Ethan clarified. "So we don't have to worry about them intentionally killing you."

"Intentionally?" Grover repeated weakly and Percy shot Ethan a dirty look. Great. Looks like he could expect a phone call from Thalia tonight.

Ethan gave a little shrug. "Just be careful," the scientist offered.

"It's almost like he cares," Percy told Minerva, who had slunk close to the gate, waiting for him to come in. The raptor gave him an unimpressed look, cawing at him in irritation for his slowness.

Diane whipped around from where she had been sizing Ethan up, loudly echoing the call. Juno snarled, causing both Minerva and Ceres to duck their heads low. Diane however, huffed a breath through her nose and stayed where she was. Juno shrieked, taking a step towards the insubordinate raptor. Diane took half a step backward, stopping before her tail hit the electric fence. Her cold little eyes flickered briefly to the fence, then back at Juno, realizing she was cornered.

Juno shrieked again, claws fully extended and feathers ruffled.

Diane lowered her head. Satisfied, Juno swiped at Diane's side, who hissed but took the abuse.

Percy watched the little display as he stepped inside the paddock, letting nature take its course. Juno wouldn't seriously hurt her nest sisters so he wasn't too concerned.

"We done?" He asked and Juno hissed, striding over to him with her head held high.

She stood between his knee and hip now, Percy noted sadly, how much longer until she was full grown? She chirped at him and he obligingly mimicked the sound back. Pleased, Juno bent over to pick at something caught in her feathers.

"Alright girls just a few quick exercises tonight," he said conversationally. "We need to work on sharp corners. And running off some of that icky puberty energy you've got. So, ready to get started?"

Ceres chirped happily, butting against Percy. Percy barely managed to keep his balance, swaying slightly at the force his littlest girl used. He cleared his throat, lightly nudging Ceres back as he tried to correct his balance. Diane's beady eyes locked onto him, her head swaying with his body.

"Get moving Diane," Percy said fiercely, narrowing his eyes at her as he brought out his alpha voice.

Diane huffed but followed Juno as the pack set out across the paddock.

The route Percy had the girls run wound around the paddock, a few sharp curves added in after the Pithys incident to improve their reaction time. The girls picked up on the exercise almost instantly when he introduced it after Pithys' miraculous performance. He was convinced they could run it in their sleep by now. Ceres was the quickest of the four, but she couldn't navigate the turns as quickly as her sisters so she never emerged first. Minerva handled the curves perfectly but her speed was lacking.

Juno was the Goldilocks of the race. Her speed and agility allowed her to outperform her sisters as she honed her skills to deadly perfection, conquering the course with frightening speed and accuracy.

"Thirty seconds faster than last time," Percy murmured as Juno cawed victoriously as she seized the prize at the end of her race.

"I was watching the cameras," Ethan's voice buzzed from Percy's earpiece and the raptor trainer looked up to find the man and Grover standing on the boardwalk above their heads, watching.

"They practice at night," Ethan continued. "Juno most of all. She leads the girls in practice runs. And not just on your course, but around the entire paddock."

"Yeah I know," Percy whispered back. "They're trying circles on their own. I didn't teach them that."

Minerva came in second and scooped up her own treat, settling a safe distance away from the beta to gorge herself. Ceres was a heartbeat behind her and whined pitifully to find the two best pieces of meat gone. She was sniffing the final two, nudging one with the end of her snout, when Diane appeared. The aggressive raptor snarled and pounced on her little sister. Ceres gave a startled shriek as Diane's claws sunk into her skin, long streaks of red marring her scales.

"Hey," Percy shouted, stomping heavily as he started for the girls, "that's too hard Diane, you're hurting her."

Diane shrieked, letting go of Ceres to twist around. She crouched low to the ground, her body tense, claws extended and jaw unhinged as she cried at him. She was in attack position. Percy tensed, drawing himself up to his full height in alarm. Diane pounced before he had a chance to snap at her, warn her off with his voice or the clicker.

He knew better than to step backward, his muscles tensing as he prepared to shove the raptor to the ground, knowing he had to subdue her quickly if he wanted the girls to ever respect him again — when a blur of blue flashed.

Juno pinned Diane to the ground, her jaws encasing her sister's throat, one claw resting below the powerful death grip and the other resting over Diane's heart. She was hissing even as she clung on, her claws drawing blood. She gave a little shake and Diane cried out in pain. Juno unhinged her jaw enough to give a bloodcurdling shriek before chomping down again.

Diane went limp.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Movement ahead caught Percy's eye but he didn't dare move to check it.

Slowly, Juno released Diane's neck, but kept her claws over her sister's weak points. She gave Diane a long look before turning to Percy, her gaze questioning.

"Good girl Juno," Percy said lowly. "Very good girl. Best girl."

Juno made a low, pleased noise. She snapped her jaws inches from Diane's face one last time before climbing off of her sister. She stalked over to Ceres, who lowered her head in submission. Juno chirped, nuzzling Ceres once before moving onto Minerva and repeated the motion. Finally, she approached Percy, who keep himself tall and imposing.

"Good girl," he repeated, gently tapping her with his boot.

Juno chittered. She turned, her tail lightly whipping across his calves as she slowly made one more pass by Diane. Diane kept her eyes shut, her chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow breaths. Juno snorted then scooped up Diane's cut of meat and in one gulp, swallowed it.

Satisfied, Juno curled into the dirt. The mood broke. Ceres pounced on her treat and Minerva returned to her own. Diane stayed still.

"Percy?" Grover's slightly shaking voice sparked in Percy's ear and it took every ounce of self-control he had not to flinch.

He looked up.

Grover was paler than a ghost, gripping the railing tightly as he peered down at his friend. One of Ethan's hands was on Grover's arm, the other held up to one of the guards … who had his weapon drawn. As Percy looked out, he realized all five guards assigned to his paddock had their weapons drawn all, four long sleek barrels pointed at Diane's prone form and one on his best girl.

Percy narrowed his eyes, raising his hand and then lowering it, signaling them to lower their weapons. The guard next to Ethan glanced at the scientist, who nodded. One by one, the guards lowered their weapons.

Percy let out a long breath.

"Well then," he said.

He left Diane alone. She had been humiliated by her beta already and punishment had been served. Her eyes opened a crack as he walked and he sent her his best alpha look. Her eyes slid closed again and Percy felt like he could breathe again. She still respected his authority.

Percy stayed to wrap the night up. The other three girls followed him around with their heads held high, like look at us, we're good girls while Diane's stayed down.

"Good girl," Percy reminded Juno as he prepared to leave. His best girl chittered back, ruffling her feathers in pleasure.

Grover and Ethan waited for him on the other side of the dual gates.

"I'm okay, she never ever finished the pounce," Percy said, holding up his hands as the gates slid shut behind him.

"Let's talk somewhere else, they can sense fear," Ethan said, grabbing Percy by the arm the second he cleared the gates. He pulled Percy all the way to his car, Grover tagging along behind.

"That was too close," Grover said, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

"It wasn't really even that close," Percy denied, adrenaline still flooding his system as he bounced on his heels in agitation. "She was just irritated. If she had jumped, she was off-balanced enough that I would have caught her no problem. She's still small enough for me to pin down without much difficulty."

"If she does it again," Ethan said, "you need to get her face down as quickly as possible. Claws in the dirt and facing away from your body. There's a lot of muscle in her, even in this juvenile body. For god's sake, sit on her, put your knee on her neck and keep her down."

"Got it," Percy said, nodding. "So ah, what was that?"

"Irritation, like you said," Ethan said with a wave of his hand. "And like I said earlier, they might start testing your position as alpha. Diane knows enough that she can't usurp you, especially with Juno in the way. If anything, Juno will be the one to usurp you. Diane's just testing. Her hormones are raging, her adrenaline was up from the run, and she was irritated. She saw herself as inferior, little Ceres is edging her way up the ranks. So she lashed out."

"She'll behave for a while," Ethan explained, "she's been humiliated and put in her place. The other sisters will give her the cold shoulder for a while and you need to follow their lead. She has to work her way back into the pack's good graces. She shouldn't try anything like this for a long time. Tthe others saw their beta backing their alpha."

"We should be safe," Ethan sighed, "for now."

"That wasn't safe," Grover snapped, glaring at the scientist.

"Nothing happened," Percy pressed.

"She attacked you," Grover argued.

"It could have been much worse," Ethan agreed, interrupting. "But Percy was aware and watching. If Juno hadn't intervened, he probably could have neutralized Diane without much trouble. He probably would have gotten a few scratches from it but nothing serious."

"If those trigger happy idiots had shot my girls," Percy huffed, glaring over his shoulder.

"They're just doing their jobs," Ethan said.

"I say they should have shot," Grover grumbled, crossing his arms.

"No, the guns are a last resort," Ethan said firmly, "we need to keep the girls' trust in Percy."

"And what's the last resort?" Grover retorted. "When Percy's dead?"

"I'm not dead," Percy loudly interrupted. "And they're not going to shoot my girls. I got this Grover. Juno intervened, but even if she hadn't I would've been okay."

"You don't know that," Grover argued, crossing his arms and setting his jaw.

"You've got a knife right?" Ethan asked and Percy nodded, pulling his old fishing knife from his pocket and tossing it the scientist. Ethan caught it and turned the knife over in his hands, nodding approvingly. "It'll act as a makeshift claw. The girls will see it that way anyway. Use it if you have to and don't be afraid to do damage. With a human's strength, you can't do that much damage anyway and you need to keep the girls in line."

"Got it," Percy said, taking the knife back and tucking it in his pocket. He turned to Grover. "They're velociraptors, Grover, they're always dangerous. Nothing's going to change that. We knew that from the very beginning. And I know you don't like it, but you have to trust Ethan and me okay? I'm here to train these girls while I can and take care of them when I can't anymore. When it comes time for me to step down as alpha, I will. I do what's best for my girls, Grover."

Grover grunted, still looking upset. "Yeah, but how will we know when it's the right time? After one of them takes a chunk out of you?"

"Our sharks did worse," Percy reminded him.

Grover chewed on his lip. "I don't like it," he declared. "They're much smarter than sharks."

"Just a little," Percy grinned. "But don't worry, Ethan's smarter."

They both turned to the scientist, who raised an eyebrow.

"I am," he confirmed and even Grover gave a reluctant chuckle at that.

"Don't think I'm not telling Thalia about this," Grover warned as he climbed into his car.

"I don't suppose there's any good in asking you not to?" Percy asked, leaning over the window as Grover started the car.

"Nope," Grover said, popping the 'p'.

"Alright," Percy sighed, backing up. "Give her my love then."

He watched with a heavy heart as his friends both pulled away, giving a halfhearted wave as their tail lights disappeared from sight. As he trudged his way back to the trailer, thinking unhappily that he should probably send footage of tonight's action to Annabeth before Grover or worse, Thalia, got ahold of her, his phone rang. For a terrifying second, he thought it was Thalia, already calling to yell at him. He glanced at the screen.

Incoming call from Poseidon Olympian.

Percy clicked the red end button and went to send that email.

A/n Nerd time: let's talk about size. JW/JP is very off about velociraptor size. In fact, the JW/JP raptors are based on a completely different animal, the deinonychus, but for some reason chose to call them velociraptors. Regardless, neither animal gets as tall as JW/JP depicts them. So I was conflicted on how big Percy's girls should get. In the end, genetic modification wins: in my headcanon the scientist want to make the raptors as close as possible to how people think they should look as opposed to how they should look. So our girls will be in between the size of a real velociraptor/deinonychus and the movie adaptations - so they will be eye level with the average human's chest.

There was supposed to be a conversation between Percy and Nico at the end of this chapter but then it turned out so long (the longest chapter yet) and there was already so many feels in this chapter that I bumped it to the end of Percy's next chapter.

Thanks to rhig122 for beta'ing!

I hope you guys enjoyed and please let me know what you thought ~*