Blue sniffed the air again, trying to get a better handle on where her youngest son had run off to. It was still early in the morning, and she had hoped that she would be able to catch him while he was sleeping.

Light often went on these little solo adventures, but this time he'd gone off in the direction of one of the large predators from Blue's old island home, one with short arms and horns on its head. She wanted to find Light and take him home, then they'd wait out the wandering creature.

Unfortunately for Blue, her son was a natural runner, and the frequency of his travels just made him all the more proficient. She was sure that he had noticed the scent of the big horned predator, but nothing on this continent had ever been able to harm the pack, so he must have dismissed it outright.

She knew how to avoid the big horned predator, but her son had no idea what it even was. Luckily the predator hadn't gone towards the glade, where Blue and her mate had made their home. He was there now, with their other four children, keeping them safe.

She took in one more whiff of air, looked off at where she wanted to go, and ran.

The sun started to rise as she continued on her son's trail, and her hopes of catching him asleep were fast falling.

The scent was getting stronger, so she knew she was catching up to him, but she still didn't know how far ahead he was.

She kept running until she could see a big lake a bit farther ahead. Light had been here, and he swam for a bit before he continued his run. Judging by the fresh footprints on the muddy shore he had been here less than an hour ago, so he couldn't have gotten that far ahead.

Try as she might, she couldn't stop herself from wading a bit into the water herself when she went to take a drink. It had been awhile since the pack had gone to the beach at the edge of the continent, and she missed the deep water. She looked up when she finished, admiring the tall mountains in the distance.

She shook her head, there would be time for the whole pack to explore this area later. Right now she needed to find Light.

She left the water and started sniffing the ground. It looked like he had gone up one of the hills up ahead, so she went up it as well.

His scent was getting stronger, he had gone up the hill slowly. What had made him slow down?

When she reached the top, she realized why he had been cautious.

There was a wooden structure at the top of the hill, but it was the only building there. There were moving boxes, but not as many as she would have expected.

There weren't any buildings around it, it was a lone den.

She approached cautiously. Why was this by itself? The only other time she'd seen a building by itself it had been absolutely massive, and this was nowhere near that size.

Perhaps it was abandoned?

She decided to see if it was. If there were people living here, then the lake won't be safe as a vacation spot.

So she got closer, sniffing it carefully to be absolutely sure.

As she continued, she became sure that the den was occupied, but there was something vaguely familiar about the scent that made her curious. So she went closer than she would have otherwise dared, as the scent was too faint behind her to make any conclusions.

It was when she got to the front door that she realized what had made her keep going.

It was her surrogate father.

She recoiled when she recognized his scent, as well as two others. He was here, of all places he was here. With the red haired female and another female she didn't know.

She had never expected to see him again, it had been so long. She thought that he would be with the others of his kind, not out here.

She paused, considering. He had always been different.

The real question was, now what?

She wanted to stay, to see what he was doing and who else was with him, but she didn't know where to start.

She debated opening the door, but she didn't want to intrude in his home.

How would he react if he saw her anyway? Would he shoo her away?

She was certain that the two females weren't just visitors, so he might just end up turning against her to protect them.

But what if he didn't?

She shook her head, she needed to focus on finding Light.

So she reluctantly backed away, and followed her son's scent.

He had lingered near the wooden den for a long while, and he hadn't gone far, she was certain of it.

When she thought she was close enough, she started calling his name, louder every time he didn't answer.

When she was about down the hill, she heard him reply, though he sounded confused.

She ordered him to follow her, and stood waiting for him, impatiently tapping her clawed toe in the meantime.

When Light got to her, he asked her a general question of why, but she didn't answer him, instead reiterating her order to follow her.

So they started their journey home, and neither lingered near the wooden den, no matter how much Blue wanted to.

o-o-o

Owen woke up with a start, he was sure that he'd heard something.

He got out of bed and looked out the window, unsure of himself. His ears could be playing tricks on him again, making him hear things he knew weren't there.

But then he heard it again, but it was farther away.

He looked behind him, and shook Claire awake.

She groaned, but got up. "Owen?"

"There's something outside."

That woke her up. "What kind is it?"

Owen shook his head. "I don't know yet, it's making noise for some reason."

"Maybe it's an herbivore?"

"Maybe, but I don't want to take any chances. Grab the radio and go to Maisie's room, I'll be at the window by the front door. I'll call you if we need to go to the basement."

Claire nodded, hoping that that wouldn't be the case.

He heard the sound again, and this time he vaguely recognized it, but he wasn't sure how.

He ran as fast as possible while still keeping quiet, going down the stairs of the cabin until he reached the ground floor. On his right was the door to the basement, but he didn't need to go down there, not yet.

Darn he was tired, the sun wasn't even that far past when it started rising. He hadn't checked the time, but he was somewhat curious what it was.

He didn't hear whatever it was anymore, but he stayed near the window regardless.

He waited for what seemed like an eternity, but what he saw left him somewhat lightheaded.

Raptors, two of them.

He shook his head, that was impossible. There was only one velociraptor on earth, Blue, and she shouldn't be anywhere near here.

He looked closer, focusing on making out their colors.

One of them was mostly black, with splotches of white in a few places. The other was mostly greenish grey, but with a blue stripe glinting in the rising sun that he'd recognize anywhere.

It really was Blue, and somehow she'd found another raptor.

She looked in the cabin's direction, and he could have sworn that she made eye contact with him. But she didn't even seem to think twice, and her and the other raptor were on their way.

Once he was over his initial shock, he radioed Claire to say that they were gone.

"They?" She asked.

Owen shook his head. "Yeah, raptors. Two of them."

She took a long pause before answering. "Are you sure they were raptors?"

"I'm sure. Blue and a black one with white splotches."

"We never made a raptor like that, and even then Blue should be the only one alive."

"Well there's another one, and the two of them just walked down to the lake."

"Do you think they know we're here?"

Owen nodded slowly, though he knew she couldn't see it. "They definitely know that there are people here, I don't know if they know it's us specifically."

"Do you think they were interested in the cabin?"

"No, they just looked at it and walked off. I think they're wandering."

"Then let's go to bed, I don't want to be exhausted when I take Maisie to school."

"I'll be up in a minute. I'd like to keep looking, just in case."

o-o-o

Owen woke up late, having stayed up a bit longer than he had meant to.

He looked to his side, Claire was gone.

Figures, she and Maisie are probably in town by now.

He stood up and looked out the window, once again wondering if he'd see his beta.

He shook his head, he never thought he'd see her again, not after she left the Lockwood Manor. Things were simpler back then.

The dinosaur situation was getting more complicated. At first there was a panic, but the animals had little in the way of numbers, and only a few of the herbivorous species had been granted the ability to breed. That had apparently changed however, and it was rumored that some Russian had released breeding pairs of several species down in Southern California, just so he could see how much chaos they could cause.

Malcom's warning hadn't been entirely fear mongering, genetic power had indeed been unleashed. The good news was that these other groups and companies lacked the expertise that had made InGen so successful, and they were lagging behind almost all of Henry Wu's most notable achievements.

He sighed. Those achievements had been the deaths of a lot of people over the years, and the latest one was possibly still alive and out there.

He walked downstairs and went towards the table, where a single lonely pancake sat cold at his spot. He ignored it, and simply poured himself some coffee.

It was good to know that Blue was alright, given how terrified he was that she would be killed by the escaped Indoraptor. Where that Indoraptor was now was beyond his knowledge however, if it was even alive at all.

It was possible that the thing's life in captivity could have been its downfall, having no actual hunting experience or experience in anything at all. Without the right know-how, life in the wild was next to impossible.

But that creature had defied expectations before, and it could still again. The question was, where was it?

He sat down at the table, declining the pancake's expired invitation and instead looking out the window as he pondered another question.

Where did that other raptor come from?

The unnamed Russian could have released it, but the rumors said that he had brought in pairs, so there should be two new raptors, not one. Maybe the other hadn't survived?

Owen shook his head. Now that didn't make sense, if the other one was fine then what would have killed it's companion? It couldn't have been starvation, otherwise the one he saw should have looked much thinner.

He shook his head, taking a sip from his mug. He needed to stop thinking about this, Blue was alive, that was the most important thing.

o-o-o

Blue and Light were silent on the trip home, as neither knew what to say. Light still had no idea what had made his mother so distraught. He had thought that it had something to do with her calling him home, but for some reason she had stayed upset even when they started their journey back.

Why had she called him back anyway? Did Black have one of his tournaments ready? Now that was some good fun.

He sighed. No, that couldn't be it, she would be happy if there was a tournament coming. So what was making her feel so, off?

Did it have something to do with the den that he found? She had looked at it in a way that he could only describe as longing, but he hadn't cared enough about the building itself to ask why.

It probably didn't matter, she would be fine, she was always fine. In the darkest of moments, and those moments were very few thanks to her and his father, she was strong, unmoving, valiant. Both of his parents were powerful, willing to do anything for the good of the family. He was proud to share their blood, and he knew that they were proud of him as well.

In the spirit of the contentment that pride gave him, he briefly nuzzled his mother to encourage her. He may not know why she was upset, but he knew that he would help her as she had helped him since he had hatched.

Blue appreciated her youngest son's gesture, and returned it in kind. He was home for far less time than his siblings, but that didn't mean that he was loved any less.

She didn't know how to explain what was so special about that structure, and who was within it. She just wasn't sure what to do now that she knew where her old alpha was.

She hadn't seen him in a very long time, and she had never even tried looking for him. Sure she missed him a bit, but she had made peace with her choice, she wanted to remain free. She didn't regret it in the slightest, she was happy out here, happier than she ever was in the cages she once called home.

So what to do now? She wanted to see him again, it wasn't fair to not at least let him know that she was alive. But how to go about seeing him?

The gears of her head started turning as she tried to figure out what she wanted to do. She'd never be able to go by herself, her family would just get nervous and paranoid, and she didn't want to force that on them. How could she move her family all that way then? Her mate would never willingly go anywhere near people, and she didn't blame him for that, but she wanted to show her old alpha her new life, and maybe give him the peace of knowing that she was thriving.

What else out there would interest her family?

She almost stopped in her tracks, but she continued forward as if nothing had happened. The lake, she would take them all on a vacation to the lake, and show them to her old alpha on the hill.

With a plan now in place, she prepared to convince her mate that she and Light had found a new vacation spot.


Okay, so I was originally planning on having a different project come out first, but this one I just really enjoyed writing and I found that I couldn't let the Indoraptor rest for very long.

The horned predator is a carnotaurus, and the building Blue finds is Owen's cabin that he was building in Fallen Kingdom, now finished.

Come next chapter we'll see the rest of the family, and we'll see if the Indoraptor decides to kill Owen outright.