Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/4431551. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage Category: Multi Fandom: Jurassic_World_(2015) Relationship: Claire_Dearing/Owen_Grady, Vic_Hoskins/Delta, Indominus_Rex/Blue, Blue_& Owen_Grady, Delta_&_Barry Character: Owen_Grady, Blue_(Jurassic_Park), Delta_(Jurassic_Park), Echo_(Jurassic Park), Charlie_(Jurassic_Park), Claire_Dearing, Vic_Hoskins, Indominus Rex, Rexy, Barry_(Jurassic_Park) Additional Tags: Alternate_Universe_-_Human, Human_Trafficking, Child_Abuse, raptor family, Pack_Dynamics, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Forced_Prostitution, Angst, Humanized_Raptor, Raptors Stats: Published: 2015-07-26 Chapters: 3/? Words: 4863 ****** Alpha Knows Best ****** by thecattydddy Summary Owen Grady just wants the best for his kids, all of whom came to him broken and destroyed because of their past lives. They have something good and happy and have finally started believing there is a hope for their future, but when a mysterious woman comes in and makes Blue question his loyalties, the reality of who they are and where they came from will always come back to them. Notes Okay, I'd like to start off by saying I just watch Jurassic World not that long ago and it was fantastic. The raptor family gave me so many feels, so I decided what better way to deal with their tragic end than making a story with a different horrible ending? I'm going to just warn you right now that this story will not have a happy ending and I'll be keeping most if not all of the canon deaths. Some elements have changed because of the nature of the story, but I've tried to stay as true to each character as I possibly can. Now, as for the kids, there are four raptors: Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie. The story explains how they get their nicknames and everything, so I wont bore you with those details, but I will give you a little overview of what each kid so you wont be confused. The eldest is Blue. He is a transboy who came out at about ten. His chosen name is Jay. He's got blonde hair and blue eyes and is basically your stereotypical looking jock kind of character. He's the most mature out of the kids and works exceptionally hard to make Owen proud. Out of all of them, he has the closest relationship with Owen. He came into Owen's care as a baby after the family estate burned down. The next is Delta, whose actual name is Diana. She's an African American girl whose parents were killed as the result of a hate crime. She was brought to live with Owen by Barry and became a permanent fixture in the house when they were unable to locate other family. She's extremely level headed and very polite, but can hold her own in a fight if necessary. The third eldest is Echo, more formally known as Ellen. She lived on the streets for the first few years of her life and is the most violent of the four. She had short black hair and her favorite method of attacking something is to bite it. She talks a lot, usually about things she knows nothing or little about. She used to sneak out a lot to return to the streets, but doesn't do it as much anymore now that she's living with Owen. The youngest is Charlie. Because of Charlie's slight eye defect in the movie, I decided to give her heterochromia iridium, which is when someone has two different colored eyes. I considered making her born blind, but the trivia on the wiki says the alteration doesn't seem to have any effect on her vision, so I decided against that. In any case, her parents rejected her because she wasn't the perfect baby they were hoping she would be and she was tossed around between several foster homes and was molested until one of them was busted and she was temporarily put in Owen's care until they could find her another foster family. Eventually, he ended up just adopting her because they'd all fallen in love with the girl. She's got blonde hair. One of her eyes is pale blue and the other one is green. In this story, they do call Owen "Alpha," but it's mostly meant as an inside joke. Their ages fall in the following range: Blue is 17. Delta is 15. Echo is 13. And Charlie is 6. That's all I have to say about the raptors. Other humanized dinosaurs will show up and, if I feel it is necessary, I will give brief descriptions on them, too. I'm not too sure how often I will update this because I'm supposed to be working on a bunch of Marvel stuff, but we'll see. In any case, I hope you enjoy and I really appreciate that feedback. n.n~~ ***** Chapter 1 ***** Owen never knew what drew him to kids. He'd been good with them for as long as he could remember, but that didn't always mean someone had to like 'em. Kids, he'd noted, were relatively easy to deal with once you understood their basic needs. They needed to eat and to feel and, after a certain age, they needed to… Well, it was at least one of those was a concept that any person could sympathize with. Once you understood those couple of things and tended to them, kids were happy to listen to you. The problem most people had with them was, instead of providing for children, they tried to mold them. Instead of guiding them, they tried to control them. Once you stop trying to paint them in your image, they're much more open to receiving it. The concept was simple, but still it floated right over people's heads. Maybe it was his pride that brought him to them. Maybe the fact that he could raise them so much betterthan the perfect all-American suburban dad was why he wanted to. Maybe part of him just wanted to do it right to show that it's not the kid's fault that their parents are fuck ups. Maybe, just maybe, he wanted to raise them right so someone else wouldn't do it wrong. When he'd gotten the first one, it'd been unintentional, at first. The tragedy had left ashes and a screaming baby in its wake. Unidentified, abandoned and alone, she'd been dumped on her own front lawn as if her own half-deranged father was doing her a huge favor by letting just her live. Owen had been outraged by the act. If you're going to drag a child kicking and screaming into this world and then take everything from her, you could at least have the decency to let her go with it. He only needed to hold her once to know that he had to help her. She deserved a competent parent from then on and he didn't trust anyone else. At ten years old, when she'd promptly marched up to him as he was eating breakfast and declared that she was a boy, Owen had looked up from his fruitloops with a confused expression on his face. After a few moments of her stumbling over her words, he finally understood. When he'd asked what name they'd be using now that they were a boy, the child had frozen, unable to answer the question. Owen had promised they could take their time to pick one. The youngest at the time – Echo – had loudly proclaimed that they should be called Blue because that's a boy color. They had accepted it with excitement, insisting that was his name, now. A little later, Owen managed to convince him to pick a something a little more common, but the nickname had stuck. Blue's female identity was all but forgotten by the other members of the family. It'd been the only lasting piece of his old life and finally shedding it had been like taking the final leap into a better future and giving up the things he'd left behind. The second had been Delta, whose actual name was Diana, but had gained the nickname from the way she always used to spell her name as a child - “It's D as in Delta and I as in Ice-cream and A as in...”. Her story had been much like Blue's in it's level of tragedy. Her parents had met their end at the hands of a hate crime and she was barely lucky to have gotten out of it with her own life. A friend of his had handed the scared four year old over to him, the poor girl having just seen her parents shot in front of her, and promised that it was just until they found her family. He wasn't in the business of accepting every kid with a problem into his house, though. If someone was directed hisway, they had a very slim chance of a better alternative. Deciding Blue could use a little sister, he'd accepted her in and showed her the love that had been ripped from her fingers so early on. The third was Ellen – Better known as Echo because the first week they'd been there, she'd repeated everything someone said before answering in an angry tone. They later learned it was a habit she portrayed when she was especially scared, but by the time she had come out with this information, the name had become a part of her. Echo had come from the streets at six, living by a strict bite first and ask questions later policy. During a particularly vicious confrontation between her and Blue, she'd been thrown into a glass lamp. The shattered glass embedded into her skin and had required stitches. It'd left a faint scar on her forearm, which she showed off all the time as a battle scar. Blue had apologized profusely and they'd made amends under Owen's watchful eye, but Echo didn't pick fights with him, again. The last and youngest addition was Charlie. She'd actually been rejected by her parents at an early age due to a defect that made her eyes two different colors. The child had lived an unhappy three years being tossed between foster homes. When her foster parent was arrested for reports of molesting a minor, Charlie had been dumped at his door with nothing but the clothes on her back and a very beat-up looking stuffed dog. He'd been promised that it was only until they could find a suitable home for her, but when the time came to give her up, Owen and his other three kids couldn't find it in their hearts to let her go. And so, the five of them had morphed into this little hobble of nobodies and found a purpose and a family in one another. They had grown as people and, despite their dark pasts, could laugh and love and feel the very joy of life. Every night when Owen tucked them in bed he kissed their foreheads and thought of how proud he was that they could be more than what they'd come from. One such memory came to mind when he thought of them, always causing him to smile when he reflected back on it. They'd been sitting around the living room, each focused on their own thing when suddenly, Charlie had spoken up. “Hey, uh...?” her tiny voice carried over to him. She had never been sure what to call him and, while Owen insisted that whatever she picked would be fine by him, it'd continued into nearly half a year of being with them. She'd tried a few things now and again, but her primary way to get his attention was to just tug on his clothes or stutter over her words until he answered her. “What's up, Charlie?” he asked, briefly glancing up from his the news. He usually didn't participate in that kind of activity because it made him feel like an idiot, especially when his kids were around, but the article had drawn his attention and before he knew it, he was sitting on the couch and pouring over the entire paper. She fidgeted a little, trying to figure out how to word her question before looking at him with searching eyes. “Um… I was just wondering… Um… What are we?” Her voice squeaked at the last part, not quite sure she could ask that. He furrowed his brow, worried that he'd somehow not made it very clear exactly what they were to the young and impressionable little girl. “We're family,” he explained, instantly, putting the newspaper aside and kneeling down on the floor to sit beside her, “I know it's hard to define specific roles and things so early, but that isn't the important thing. We love you and will take care of you and that's enough to make us family.” “That's stupid,” Echo voiced, making everyone else turn to her with wide eyes. She continued before Owen could object, “Families are dumb and they just leave you. We're better than that. We actually protect each other and stick around and stuff. Like a gang or a… A… A pack!” “Oh.” Charlie's eyes grew wide with wonder and Owen couldn't help the small smile that played at his lips. “A pack is actually a lot like a family,” he reasoned. As much as it warmed his heart that Echo felt that way about them, if Charlie started telling people she was part of a pack, it might raise questions no one wanted to answer. “Eh. Family doesn't sound as cool,” Echo brushed off his comment with a shrug. “We're like a wolf pack or Raptor! Those are dinosaurs. I heard it from his guy one time that they were proven to hang out in packs. With science.” “I think I've heard something like that,” Owen chuckled, placing his hands on the ground behind him, “I think the dinosaur you're thinking of is a Deinonychus, though.” “A.. De-a-what-us?” Echo demanded, leveling him with a blank look. “A Deinonychus. They're kind of like Velociraptors, but they are from different parts of the world.” “Okay, I'll bite,” Delta spoke up, putting her phone in her lap and smirking at Echo, “If we're a pack, who is the alpha?” “Me, duh,” Echo pointed to herself, like it was obvious. She flipped her black hair out of her face as if to emphasis her toughness. “I think Dad is probably the alpha,” Blue pointed out, not even bothering to remove his nose from his homework. He had grades to keep up so that he could stay on the football team for the next game. Owen and him had gone to extreme lengths to prove he should be a part of that team and he wasn't about to loose it because of math. “What's an alpha?” Charlie questioned, blinking her eyes in Owen's direction. “It's the one who's in charge of the pack,” Owen explained, gently pushing some of her hair out of her face, “It's their responsibility to make sure the pack is fed and protected and that everyone gets along. In turn, the rest of the pack looks up to them and listens to what they say. Usually, it's the strongest or most capable one that is chosen to be the alpha.” “Yeah, you're the alpha.” Charlie nodded and then turned back to Echo. “He takes care of us, so he should be, right?” “Fine,” Echo huffed, “Can I be beta, then?” “That would be me,” Blue turned her down, again, “And before you ask, Delta is my second-in-command.” “Uuuhhgg! Not fair!” Echo groaned, but she didn't argue. She knew better than to argue with Blue. Later during dinner, when Charlie called Owen Alpha when asking for him to pass the salt, the entire table burst into laughter and the others joined in the fun until that nickname stuck, too.   ***** Chapter 2 ***** Women coming to the house was nothing new to Blue and the girls. Owen had a lot of friends and, more relevantly, he had a lot of lovers. He never did anything with any of them in the house, but Blue knew better than assume he'd been totally celibate since he'd been a baby. The guy was obviously lonely and he deserved someone good in his life. Someone who could take care of him and the girls. Someone who Blue could trust to take up his responsibilities when he went off to college and all that jazz. He wasn't worried about being replaced – No one would ever mean as much to Owen as his kids did and Blue knew that without a doubt – So, as long as the women were respectful, he didn't feel threatened by them. Usually, Owen was pretty good about that. He didn't let people into the house who he thought would be harmful to them and always respected their wishes if they said someone shouldn't come back. He'd even gone as far as to punch the one social worker who'd been getting a little too comfortable with Delta. She'd insisted the whole thing hadn't been Owen's fault, but he still had pulled her close and promised not to let anything happen to her afterwards. It'd been a touching moment for all of them – Charlie had been so overwhelmed the poor girl had started to cry – and it'd further instilled in all of their minds to what lengths Owen would go for them. He had been sure to file a report against the man and the next time a social worker came, it'd been a very fragile looking woman who was shorter than Delta and spoke in a whisper. They couldn't have sent a less threatening person. And, because of his dedication, they all felt fiercely protective of him, too. Charlie was perhaps too young to fully express that like the rest of them, but it was definitely there. They all did their best to make him proud and, despite the fact he claimed reputation wasn't more important to him than their happiness, they all tried a little too hard, sometimes. Blue could remember quite a few occasions Echo had snuck into his room to get help for a math test or an English exam because she'd wanted to surprise Owen with an A. And so long story short, when they'd met Claire Dearing, they all hated her immediately. Okay, well, maybe Charlie didn't hate her, but she was too happy for something like that. She did, however, get very upset about Claire and that'd just solidified everyone else's rage. No one can waltz into their homes and their lives and cause so much misery to their family. The very idea was enough to send white hot rage straight through Blue. “Blue. Girls. I'd like you to meet Claire. She's a coworker of mine.” Owen introduced her like he always did with new people. He'd made it his policy that they deserved to know strangers that were in their home and give them the chance to judge them for themselves, “Claire, these are my four kids – Jay, Diana, Ellen and Charlie.” “J, huh? Is that short for something? Jennifer or Jane, maybe?” Claire turned to her with a smile that screamed fake and Blue felt instantly suspicious. As if sensing how uncomfortable he was with the situation, Delta and Echo both glared at the woman. “No. It doesn't.” Delta answered for him and Owen stepped in before any conflicts could arise. “Claire, Jay is a boy. Him and I picked the name out for him a few years ago.” “Oh!” she sounded genuinely surprised and the apologetic look she shot Blue seemed real. It didn't make him lower his defenses, though, “Lowery told me you had all girls.” “Well, Lowery is an idiot,” Owen returned. “I am terribly sorry for the mix up, Jay.” Perhaps it was the way Owen looked at Claire with a sad, and almost defeated look that had Blue managed to swallow his hurt and say that it was alright. That it was just a misunderstanding. The genuinely happy look Owen had in turn almost made him forget that he really didn't like this lady. When she spoke to them, she was almost patronizing, like she didn't know how to talk to kids and Blue didn't like that either. Charlie was too little to realize she was being talked down to, but Echo looked about ready to bite her. Despite years of telling her that that kind of behavior wasn't tolerated, almost wanted to encourage it. And then she'd asked to talk to Owen alone and before Owen could say that his kids were old enough to handle anything she had to say, Blue had agreed with the request simply to get an idea of what she was like without prying ears. The other's followed his example. The four of them discretely listened in, ears pressed to the kitchen door as they spoke. “They're nice kids, I suppose,” Claire noted, not exactly thrilled with the idea of any kids in general, but she did really need Owen, “You've done a good job raising them. I can't imagine it was easy having to dole out punishments when they first arrived.” “Fortunately, you don't really have to do a lot of that,” Owen shrugged. She mostly ignored the comment. “I couldn't control that many, though,” Claire laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear and leaning against a counter. “I don't,” Owen corrected, “We have a mutual respect for one another. Unlike you, I don't see people as assets and I certainly don't try to control everything.” “You don't understand, Mr. Grady-” “Owen.” “Mr. Grady,” she insisted, metaphorically distancing herself from any kind of familiarity with him, “I do a lot of important work for the good of the community and its members. Sometimes, that means making hard decisions. I didn't come here to argue my job with you, though. Are you going to help us with the project or now?” “See, this? This is why we never had a second date.” “We never had a second date because I never wanted one!” Their bickering continued until Blue got sick of listening to it and went off to sulk. When Claire finally left, he stood at the top of the stairs and said in a very calm, but serious matter, “I don't like her.” “Welcome to the club,” Owen rolled his eyes before giving Blue a soft smile, “Don't worry. House visits like these will be rare. She's just a coworker – A very annoying one.” “Why'd you bring her here in the first place?” Blue demanded, a little apprehensively. He didn't think she would cause them any harm – She hadn't even been all that interested in Blue and his sisters, really – but Owen was another story. What if she tried to take advantage of him using them or something. He didn't want that happening. “My boss said we should try to be a little more… Civilized with one another,” Owen shrugged, “Thought it might help.” “Did it?” Blue questioned, skeptically. Owen at least had the decency to give a small, sheepish smile. “Yeah, probably not.” That night, when he was tucking them into bed, he came and sat on Blue's bed and brushed his hair out of his face, “You know that you and the girls mean the world to me, right?” Blue, a little startled by this, simply nodded. “Good,” he approved, staring at the wall. He seemed to be off in his own world. “Good. Means I'm doing my job right. Listen… Blue. I'm sorry about this afternoon. I should have made sure she knew before and-” “It's alright,” Blue sighed, laying his head down on the pillow, “I know. It's whatever.” “It's not just whatever. You're still my son, ya know.” Blue closed his eyes, a smile resting on his face, “Whatever you say, Dad.” “Alpha!” Charlie's small voice carried to the room, drawing both of their attentions. Usually, the youngest went to bed, first, but sometimes Charlie managed to stay awake long enough to weasel in a little extra time with Owen. “Go. I'm fine,” Blue insisted, waving away the conflicted look Owen shot the door. He sighed before leaning over and placing a kiss against his forehead. “Get some sleep, Blue.” With that, he turned off the lamp and exited the room with practiced ease. Blue imagined him walking down the hall to Charlie's room and exchanging soft words with her as to not rouse the others. He imagined Owen whispering some stupid joke to Charlie and the little girl giggling just a little too loudly, only to be shushed by him. She'd ask for a drink or a story or to have him sit with her until she fell asleep. Part of Blue missed when he'd been young enough to ask for those kinds of things – back when it'd just been her and Owen all by themselves – but he also knew that Charlie needed their father a lot more these days. Him and Delta were pretty solid and Echo preferred to dance to her own beat, so that left the other two with one another. It was really his only hope of escape that he knew that someone would be left behind to take care of the others. Having some else around to hold the responsibilities would be nice, but not worth giving up his role to just any old person like Claire. The four of them could handle themselves just fine with or without her or anyone like her.   ***** Chapter 3 ***** Chapter Notes See the end of the chapter for notes The smell of pancakes wafted up the stairs early in the morning, rousing Delta from her slumber. Rolling out of bed, she pushed her hair out of her face and scrambled around her room for a bit until she had located a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt before heading down the stairs. Already, Echo and Charlie were sitting at the bar and waiting to be served. The latter was kicking her feet back and forth and smiling, sleepily, while the former was babbling on about some interesting and likely false fact she'd learned from her friends. As Delta slipped into her place at the table, she picked up on the sound of Owen clicking. It'd been a weird part of him, at first, but she'd since come to associate it with him, especially when food was involved. She could still remember back when she'd first asked about it. It'd been back in the days when Blue had still gone by her first name and she had first arrived at the house. They'd been sitting at this very bar, the only sound in the room was the sizzling of the food and Owen's clicking. Neither of them had felt particularly interested in talking the way Echo did. “Mr. Grady, Sir?” She'd spoken up, drawing the attention of the other two people in the room. Her parents had always taught her to be respectful around strangers, especially kind strangers, “I don't mean to sound rude, but why do you do that?” “Do what, Diana?” he asked, one of his eyebrows lowering to signal his confusion. She had frowned, trying to think of a way to word her question, considering her four year old vocabulary was limited. “The… The noise.” She tried to imitate it, to clarify what she meant, but it didn't sound quite right. Realization dawned on him and he smirked, “It's more out of the side of your mouth. Like this.” He made the noise for her and she tried to repeat it. It wasn't perfect, but it was better, “There you go. You're getting it.” “Why do you do it?” Delta repeated her question, not wanting to get off topic. “Why wouldn't he do it?” Blue questioned, giving Delta a weird look, “He's always done it. Forever.” “I think she's confused because most people don't click when they make breakfast,” Owen chuckled, flipping their food onto a couple plates and setting them out in front of the two girls, “The answer to your question, Diana, I used to do it back when it was just me to keep me occupied. I suppose old habits just die hard. You don't mind, do you?” Delta had accepted her plate, looking at him with wide honest eyes and shook her head. She didn't mind. “Morning, Alpha,” she yawned, back to the present. He glanced over his shoulder to see who the voice was from before returning to his cooking. “Morning, Delta. Sleep well?” he wondered, flipping a pancake with a click. There was already a stack of them next to him, but four kids could go through pancakes pretty quickly. “Yeah, I guess,” she shrugged. Charlie pulled on her shirt, trying to get her attention, “What's up, Charlie?” “Alpha says you're going to go out with Uncle Barry, today” she said in a hushed tone. Her different colored eyes held a sense of childish curiosity in it and Delta smiled. “Yeah. That's right. He said he was going to let me drive the boat, today,” Delta answered, excitedly. Barry was an old friend of Owen's and Delta had had a good relationship with the man since he'd brought her to live with him. Once, Barry had said that he had considered taking her in, himself, but knew that Owen would have been able to provide better for her. As much as she loved Owen for his kindness, there had never been a place for her like there had for Blue. Blue had been Owen's first and so, Delta understood, but sometimes she wondered if maybe she considered Barry a little more like the father she had lost than she did of Owen. “How come I don't get to drive a boat?” Echo demanded, feeling cheated, “You know, I've got a friend that says he drove a boat straight into a cliff, so then he had to get his jet skis out and use those to get away before a shark ate him!” “A shark!” Charlie squealed, terrified by the prospect of a shark eating someone. “Yeah! He said the shark had seven thousand teeth and could smell fear! He said the shark kept almost biting him!” Echo exclaimed, dangling her fingers in front of her mouth in what must have been a display of teeth. She snapped her jaw with a snarl and Charlie mimicked the action, “Yeah, Charlie! Just like that!” “As much as I'm sure we'd all love to hear this story,” Owen interrupted, setting the plate of pancakes on the bar as well as four empty ones, “Breakfast is ready.” Before any of them could dig in, a hand reached over Charlie's head and snatched up a pancake, taking it off with them. “Woah! Hold up there, Blue! You aren't going to eat with us?” Owen questioned, making the boy in question stop. He had a pancake dangling out of his mouth and about seven books precariously balanced around him. Taking a bite of the pancake and pulling the rest of it out of his mouth, Blue shook his head. “Sorry, Dad. I've gotta go practice with Bryce. The game next week against the Rats is gonna be a flop unless he can get down the plays, so I'm gonna help him and then we're gonna study for the test on Friday,” Blue answered, arranging some of his books to get a better hold on them, “I'd love to stay, but he's out front right now and we're on a tight schedule. He's got a date at six so he'd kicking me out at five thirty. I'll be back around then.” As if to justify his rushing, a loud car horn blared out from the front of the house. “Oh. Alright, then. Be safe,” Owen permitted. Blue flashed a grateful smile and was out the door as quickly as he'd come. They all had just about finished up breakfast when the doorbell rang, followed by the sound of Barry's voice. “Hey! Anyone home!” “In the kitchen, Barry!” Owen replied, stacking the dishes in the sink and running water over them to rinse them off. As soon as the man entered the room, all three of the girls piled on him in greeting. After a few moments of talking, Delta and Barry were leaving for the lake. As they were getting into their car, a van stood idle some ways down the street. Two people sat inside, hidden behind tinted windows. The one in the passenger's seat leaned forward, eyes blown wide with lust as Delta came into view. His companion looked at him over her sunglasses, a disgusted frown on her face. “I'm going to presume that's her.” “Oh yes,” the man confirmed, licking his lips, “She's as sexy as I remember her being. Maybe more so.” “Uh huh,” the woman replied, pulling her lipstick out of her purse and applying it. She was tired of all this waiting around, especially with this creep beside her, “Is she the only one you're interested. I want to make absolute sure you wont try and make a grab for all four of them.” “No. She's the one I want,” he insisted, nearly pressing a hand to the window before she swatted him away, “I'll supply you with any information you need, as long as you can get me her.” “Consider it done, Mr. Hoskins.” He hummed in appreciation and the woman focused her attention to the window of the house, spotting the figures playing just beyond it. The youngest was a very cute looking blonde and the other was a black haired girl with a fiery personality. Even the boy who'd left some time earlier would fetch a fair price in her line of work. It would be a shame to see the eldest girl go, but it was a small price to pay for the other three. She'd stumbled onto a gold mine with this lot and, if she played her cards right, they'd be answering to a new alpha very soon.   Chapter End Notes Is that a plot development I see???? What????? Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!