Isla Nublar wasn't a large island, but it also wasn't small enough to always be aware of everything happening on or around it. Costa Rica had set up a patrol unit to catch the adventurous and the crazy. InGen was doing its best to add to those patrols. They cruised closer to the coastlines and were there in case someone took a dive off a ferry or a tourist boat. All over the park, cameras and security troopers kept an eye on matters, together with the employees.

The restricted area was smaller than the park as such, but it enveloped the old Jurassic Park and a very long stretch of rugged coast line that was hard to patrol. There were high cliffs, small bays, and inaccessible beaches. Most breaches had been from landside, with people thinking Jurassic World hid some new attractions or were doing some unspeakable experiments.

Well, yeah.

Indominus Rex. Enough said.

There had been one memorable incident with a group of animal rights activists breaking into the restricted area, using the gyrospheres to maneuver close to the massive fence and trying to crack the lock or climb over it. Reggie had caught them. It hadn't been pretty afterwards.

Owen and Carter had done their best with setting up cameras and sensors in the restricted area, and the pack patrolled and checked their territory whenever they were here, but it was a lot of ground to cover and things might still get through.

Something had gotten through.

Something big.

Owen couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at a very well-camouflaged cargo ship, anchored in a narrow bay not far from the old ferry terminal. It was difficult to get in, but the moment the ship had passed the toughest spot, it would disappear from sight for anyone looking at the coastline from the sea. It was a sheltered little haven.

It was also an area where they hadn't placed a camera. Risk assessment had made this a low threat entry point. Back then, Carter and Owen had made up a list and on top of it were adventure seekers and tourists who could navigate the narrow channel with a small boat. There had been multiple occasions with idiots trying to parachute or parasail into the restricted area. One had come in with a boat, anchored, and then tried to swim to the shore. The coast guard had dragged him out of the water, half drowned, protesting all the way. The most memorable occasion had been the guy with the single seat helicopter.

Neither man had expected a cargo ship to end up on this particular beach, though.

Whoever had piloted it, he was good, Owen decided. Really, really good and probably absolutely crazy to attempt this kind of landing. He had probably had a very good nautical chart. The entrance to the bay wasn't the only navigational hazard. You had a one in a thousand chance to make it here without the ship ending up scrap metal.

A make-shift camp had been set up outside. It looked like these people had been here for about a week. The tents had been up for a while. Three men with guns milled around.

"That's why Carter's guys found no trace of any poachers on Sorna," Owen said softly. "They moved the whole operation here to wait out the heat."

Patrols had been tripled and Sorna was under close guard. Any boat that wasn't a cruise ship or a ferry was immediately stopped and boarded. The cargo ship would have been stopped right away.

Blue was at his side, teeth bared, snarling softly.

Intruders. Into their territory!

They hadn't been in this area for a while and now there were intruders!

Owen reached out and placed a hand against her side, calming his beta and with her the pack. Her flanks were shivering with tension, with tightly controlled emotions. Instinct told her to hunt the trespassers, chase them away, out of what was theirs. The deeper seated primal core wanted her to rip their throats out.

Charlie, Echo and Delta moved in, soundless, barely a whisper of twigs or leaves in their wake, as they joined their alpha and his beta. Delta growled softly, the sound more felt than heard.

I know, Owen murmured over the bond.

Charlie tracked a guard, eyes narrowing, sizing him up and deciding he would go down without so much as a gurgle. Echo agreed, talons twitching to bury them in his soft flesh.

Owen kept them calm with a soft order over the pack connection. He balanced them easily.

"Not yet, ladies. Surveillance first. This is a big operation," he murmured. "Professional. Wasn't the first time for them."

Maybe the first dinosaurs, but not the first smuggling operation for live animals. Then again, they knew Nublar's tiny nooks and crannies. They had definitely napped dinosaurs before.

Owen now counted five men he could see. Probably more. There had to be guards around the perimeter, which meant they had to be careful and they had to get out of here before they were discovered.

Let Carter handle this. Even with four raptors who were very eager to show those poachers what they thought of the intrusion he couldn't take them down.

Delta burst into his thoughts, pushing the fact that they could do this in his mind.

"No, girl. I know you're good and I trust you, but they have guns. And probably more. I don't want you to get killed."

Blue agreed, though her tension spoke for itself.

There was a bark, a ululating call, coming from somewhere aboard the ship and the pack stiffened, heads swiveling like one into the direction of the boat. The tension was suddenly thick enough to cut with a knife.

"Damn," Owen murmured.

He knew that call.

Raptors. There were raptors aboard.

They had caught live Sorna raptors!

There were a lot of things running through Grady's head, most of them uncomplimentary terms for the smugglers, calling them all kinds of idiotic names. He cursed to himself as he slid deeper into the jungle.

More calls came, then a violent screech of pain and outrage.

Owen felt it almost down to his bones, his mind jittering away from possible contact. He hadn't been aware of the raptors because they were just one of the many voices that made up the background murmur. Now that he knew… Yep, there were three sharp points, clustered together, like the t-rex was a solo dot and the mosa, too. Predators.

"Scatter," he ordered, voice low and urgent.

He had to call Carter, get the teams here.

Blue hummed, disappearing into the darkness, sliding into the foliage like a ghost, and then she and the others were gone.

Owen hurried away from the cargo ship, heading toward the old ferry dock. He took out his radio and hit speed dial. Number one was Claire. Number two was Carter. Number three had been assigned to Gary Themming, the hapless veterinarian who had the honor of treating the pack when Owen's basic medical knowledge wasn't enough.

This time it was number two.

There was another call from inside the cargo ship, then a different screech of pain.

"Damnit!" Owen muttered, pulling in his shields.

"Grady?"

"Dan, found your poachers. By accident. The small bay near the old ferry landing. Ship's camouflaged. And they have raptors aboard."

There was a soft curse. "Stay put, Owen. Don't approach! I mean it! We'll be there as fast as we can!"

"I'm not going to storm in there," Owen replied, feeling almost affronted. "I'm not stupid."

"Debatable. And you better not. We'll be on our way in ten. Carter out."

Carter hung up and Owen headed toward where he had parked his bike, trying to be as soundless and phantom-like as his girls. Him being human, he failed a little.

There was a sound, a cry of a monkey, leaves whispering, and something small darting off into the underbrush.

Owen turned, coming face to face with an unpleasant and unfriendly looking man in jeans and baseball jacket. The man was carrying a gun, which was aimed at him.

Both men stared at each other.

"Over there. Move it," the man growled, an accent to his voice.

"Hey, man, I'm just…"

"Shut it," the man interrupted him. "Wouldn't mind putting a bullet in you, but boss wants to talk to dead men first." He smiled, showing off gapped teeth.

Blue pushed into his mind, rushing forward and enveloping him. Owen?

Stay where you are! he ordered immediately.

The pack was around him, cold eyes watching the stranger threaten their alpha. They were invisible to the guards. It would be so easy to bring them down…

Someone else came closer, carrying a machine gun.

Stay! Owen ordered again. I won't have you kill yourselves!

They listened.

For now.

x XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX X

Carter had just been about to go off shift, hand over duties to his second-in-command, when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and almost groaned.

Owen Grady.

For Grady to call him throughout a shift was rare and only on serious matters. Normally Dan dropped in on their raptor specialist when he came off a shift or had his days off.

To check up on things, he always told Owen.

Grady was a person of interest to Carter, though not in connection with a crime. He was just interesting. A preternatural with an insanely strong talent, someone who had connected himself permanently to a pack of genetically engineered velociraptors, and who was now the accepted and respected alpha of them.

When Carter had come to Jurassic World, hearing about the raptors had made his hair stand on end. Hearing about Grady had had the alarm bells ringing. He had pulled all files on him, on the pack, on incidents involving them.

Especially the i-rex incident.

And Dan Carter had been impressed, stunned, shocked and terrified. In that order.

Two years later, he and Owen had gotten to know each other quite well. He had witnessed the interaction with the pack often enough, sometimes on a daily basis, and he knew part of what made the other man tick.

Their relationship had grown from formal, wary, stilted, where Grady was still deciding whether or not to ever trust one of InGen's security again, to friendly, trustworthy and toward drinking buddy comradery.

"Carter," he answered the phone.

Then he stiffened as he listened to Owen's words.

Fuck! ran through his head. "Stay where you are! Don't approach!" he ordered sharply, catching the attention of the men around him.

"Ramirez, full team suit-up!" he snapped at one of his lieutenants. "We've got a situation! Two teams, assault force! I want medical on stand-by! Someone call the vet units! One unit on call, another ready to go! Grady has found our poachers and they're hiding right in our backyard!"

There was a tense knot in his stomach, a foreboding. Owen had a penchant for getting into trouble without really looking for it.

But he had the pack with him, Dan reminded himself.

They wouldn't let their alpha get hurt if they could help it.

He almost laughed at that thought. Two years around the pack, countless training exercises with his men to not shoot the raptors, and he was thinking of them as more than animals.

And they were, actually.

Now he hoped his trust was well-founded.

x XX JW XX X

The teams were ready within ten minutes.

Twenty minutes after the call they were on their way.

x XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX Xx XX JW XX X

Owen was introduced to the man in charge of the operation not long after his capture. He was tall, probably South American, clean-shaven and cultured looking. He was wearing black jeans, a clean white shirt, and a light gray vest. He didn't fit into this environment. Not at all.

"Well, you came here at a very inopportune time. Who are you?"

No accent. He sounded almost British.

"You trespassed on this property," Owen replied. "The island belongs to Masrani Global."

"It's just a stopover, I assure you. Now, who are you?"

"How about you introduce yourself first?"

Play for time. Carter was on the way.

It got him a blow to the head from a mountain of a main who had shadowed the boss.

"You're not one of them troopers," the bodyguard growled. "So whatcha doin' here?"

Owen glared at him through the blood running into his left eye from the cut above his brow. "My job."

The man raised his brows. "Your job, hm? Well, you're alone," the apparent captain of the ship and boss of the operation pointed out. "One gun, a knife, a bike."

Owen felt the pack push against his mind, but he kept them back. They were no match against machine guns.

We can take them, Blue insisted.

No!

"No ID on him?" the boss asked.

One of the two men who had forcefully escorted him here shook his head. "Just a radio, some gear, nothing else."

"Well, ranger boy, too bad for you. We have very precious cargo and someone who wants to pay us a lot of money for it. We've been stuck here for too long already and now, sadly, you're in the way."

"I can just leave," Owen offered with a crooked smile.

"You could, yes, but that would be bad for us. So you're going to stay for a while and make the cargo happy."

The bodyguard grabbed him and pulled him roughly to his feet. Owen struggled only briefly, because it got him a hard blow to the kidneys and he groaned, sagging a little.

"I hope you like dinosaurs," the boss chuckled and gestured at his man to get Owen somewhere.

That somewhere was over to the cargo hold. The ship wasn't massive enough to hold a t-rex, but as Owen discovered, it had a deep vault-like room. It was accessible from the top. A crane was not far away, affixed to the ship, and there was a cage-like construction hooked up to the lowered crane.

"And to make it more interesting," the boss said with a cold smile as he pulled out his knife, "give those three some incentive. Not that they really need it. We haven't really fed them all too much, except for the weak and sick. Too bad for us, because those little dinos are worth a fortune."

Owen gave a yell of pain as the knife was dragged quickly over his lower arm. Blood welled up, dark and red. Before he could so much as curse, the bodyguard slashed him in the thigh as well. His khaki pants stained red immediately.

"Have fun. I'm sure they will."

Then he went flying.

Into the dark.

x XX JW XX X

The air was driven out of his lungs.

Then there was a brief moment of nothingness, of just the harsh panting, forced breaths, trying to get air into his lungs. His body hurt, was bruised in too many places, and his thigh burned.

Owen forced himself to open his eyes, his inner voice screaming at him to get moving.

It was not completely dark, but more twilightish. It smelled rather familiar.

Of animals.

Dinosaurs.

There was a chittering sound.

He knew those chitters. He recognized them, though not as a language. There was soft growling, whuffling, curious and strangely hungry.

The clickety-click of sharp claws on steel floors.

The gentle pad of taloned feet approaching.

The rumble.

Velociraptors.

He was in a room, locked in, with velociraptors.

Owen felt something, his preternatural mind feeling the presence before he even saw a scale.

But see them he did.

There was a soft hiss, then a shadow, and finally a head.

Owen locked eyes with the lead raptor, aware of the other two who had started to circle, ducking low, jaws open, showing impressive teeth.

Stalking.

Hunting.

Hunting him.

"Hey," Owen murmured, raising a hand. "You're new around here, aren't you?"

The coloring was all wrong. Darker, almost black in places, with bright spots of red and orange, some yellow, even blue. There were quills on the heads of two of them.

"You're wild ones. Sorna. They napped you from Isla Sorna."

The lead raptor snarled and Owen found himself reaching for her like he would for one of his pack. Her mind was… not Blue's. Not Delta or Charlie or Echo. She was alien.

Not pack.

The other two ducked and he glanced at them.

"I can see you," he told them, trying to ignore the pain from his bleeding wounds.

They didn't.

They knew he was weak. He was prey. He was food. He was bleeding and their target.

The pack smelled the blood and their instincts told them to bring him down.

"I'm on your side. I really am."

He was also stronger than what their prey normally was. They felt the alpha, but were unsure.

But he was only human.

"Yes, I'm human," he murmured. "But not prey. You can hear me. You can feel me, can't you?"

They made nervous growling and clicking sounds, circling, unsure. The two left and right of him looked at the apparent leader.

She wasn't their alpha.

Just a stand-in.

Owen felt it. He almost knew it.

Like she seemed to recognize him as a strong alpha.

Human and the alpha of a raptor pack.

The female barked, shaking her head in confusion and anger.

Owen was the absolute alpha. Able to touch the other dinosaurs on Isla Nublar.

Owen pushed his will more against their unfamiliar minds. While he understood his four girls, this one was just gibberish. It was a weird, cold sensation. It wasn't warmth and pack. It wasn't pack at all.

There was movement, talons flexing in anticipation.

"Ey," he chastised the one on the left. He dubbed it… him, yes, a male … he dubbed him Red. "I can see you. Stand down!"

Red shifted, uncertain, curious. He was hungry, but his instinctual reaction to the alpha energy Owen projected was almost automatically there. It confused him.

"Yes, you. I'm not food."

The other one, which Owen dubbed Yellow for the abundance of that color along his back, snorted, barking at the female. He simply thought of her as Beta. Not fully alpha, but a strong beta like Blue was and able to lead a pack one day – if they survived this.

Beta hummed, then barked back at Yellow and Red, who rumbled and snarled, vicious little sounds that were aggression and anger.

The blood was enticing. They were so hungry. So very, very hungry. Days without food, trapped in this metal cage, and the taunting of their captors. They communication was like listening to an ancient dialect. It wasn't familiar, but it felt like he understood basic emotions. Owen stretched a little toward them, his mind opening up, listening to the turmoil.

Hungerpreyeat!

Nope, not good.

Owen wasn't a raptor, but he wasn't easy prey either. He projected it into their minds, keeping them at bay, but it was straining him.

Not prey, he told them, his stance sure, energy even.

Don't falter, he told himself. Weakness would let them attack. Hold them. Help is on the way.

But even another predator would be attacked if it meant sating that churning hunger in their guts. With the way he smelled, of blood and pain, Owen was first on that list. He was the only prey in here and the moment the confusion over the alpha energy faded, he would be right back on the menu.

Red and Yellow hissed, ducking, circling him.

Owen gave the two males a mental slap, making them stagger, his eyes still boring into Beta. She was in command of them, even if her status was new, and she could stop this or order the attack.

"Eyes on me," he said sharply, pushing into their minds again, hands up and keeping them at a distance. "That's good. Really good. I know you're hungry."

Ravenously hungry.

This was a hunt.

She was in the lead and she wanted food.

"No, girl. Listen to me."

He pushed again, his will against hers, but she wasn't one of his. She wasn't inside the bond. Even if she was receptive, Owen's mind was connected to his four girls and he wasn't about to expand. Pushing was draining him. He knew he could control them to a degree, but it was by force, expending his energy and force in turn.

Even if he managed it now, he might not be able to keep it up for a longer time. He was alone; a lone alpha. Without the pack he had no real power. He couldn't fight them, just keep them out of reach.

Red growled and Yellow hissed, moving back and forth, wanting to jump.

Owen went deeper, digging in his mental heels.

"No!" he snapped at them and they reeled back a little. "I want to help. We can get out here together," he told them, voice dropping to soothing and calm once more.

He tracked Yellow and Red out of the corner of his eyes. Blood ran freely down his leg and he was starting to tremble, but Owen knew that if he showed even a single sign of weakness, they would attack.

Right now it was a stand-off. His preternatural ability was his weapon, able to strike at their minds. Owen pressed his lips together as pain shot through his leg from the deep cut.

Fuck, he thought.

Beta snarled and Yellow slid closer, a little unsure, making up for it with open jaws and narrowed eyes.

He struck at both simultaneously, making the male screech and scatter back, almost running into a wall, the female staggering.

It was what Red had been waiting for. Like an opening.

He spread his claws and homed in on Owen.

tbc...