The Raptor's Alpha (Zach Mitchell X OC)

Little Gestures

"What is your name?" The small one asks me. I look down at him and try to smile stiffly.

"Harlow." I state clearly and Zara yawns behind me.

"Im Gray Mitchell." He says excited and I can't help but smile genuinely at the innocence radiating off of him.

"Nice to meet you Gray. What's your name?" I ask turning towards the older one who is in the middle of putting his earbuds in and is focused on his phone again already.

"Zach." he mumbles before completely turning his focus to whatever is on his phone. Instead of trying to talk anymore I just start walking out of the center, and towards one of the attractions.

"You don't seem happy about having to babysit us." Gray states slightly disappointed as he adjusts the fanny pack on his waist. As I open my mouth to respond, Zara interjects. To be honest I completely forgot she was even still with us.

"She is just missing her babies."

I scoff and look over my shoulder at where she stands which is right next to Zach. He is looking up, seemingly listening in on our conversation. "We were about to run an important drill. Echo and Charlie have been training far too long to get this in motion. Owen is going to be pissed I'm missing the whole day." I state and as Zara rolls her eyes Zach actually speaks for the first time.

"You sound fun." He says and he looks at me. I give him an unamused face. "So do you, angsty child." I retort and he scoffs. "We are like the same age. I'm 18." He replies and when he says this I notice how nice his voice sounds in my ear. I look to Zara with wide eyes. "I am babysitting a fellow adult?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Claire, your job is cool and she thought you could take them to see Echo and Charlie up close later." Zara mumbles looking down at her phone. Gray watches his surroundings with wide eyes the whole time we are talking.

"They are not for show." I mumble facing forward again. "And you are not a babysitter yet here you are." She replies and I immediately stop in my tracks and turn around to face her. Zach and Gray both stop walking in surprise while Zara gives me an unamused face, looking up from her phone.

"Putting up with your shit is not on my to do list today." I calmly state to Zara and Zach mumbles a 'yikes' next to me as I keep my eyes on Zara. "I should have known my girls would be having tourists. I already have Hoskins on my back and now this. God, just shut up Zara." I say getting irritated and she just stands there silently looking anywhere but me. I rub my face with my hands and sigh into my palms.

"Look, I just had my day planned and it all got flipped. Let's just go have some fun and see the Mosasaurus. Yeah?" I say, trying to turn this all around. Gray's eyes light up at my words and a genuine smile forms on my lips when he starts to run in the direction of the Mosasaurus show. When I turn around I catch Zach looking at me with a slight smile but when I make eye contact with him he clears his throat and looks down at his phone like he was never looking at me in the first place, his eyebrows furrowed.

Without another word we make our way toward the show. In the stands, Gray wanted to sit next to me and I ended up between Zach and Him. Zara was nowhere to be seen, too busy on her phone to care that we were no longer with her. There were still a few minutes before the show started as people were filling in when my phone rang. Owen. I hover my thumb over the green answer button and am thinking about ignoring it when Gray looks to me.

"You should answer that." He says with a smile and that is what decided it for me.

"Yes love?" I say jokingly into the phone and I hear him chuckle. He asked me how long I was going to be gone and I completely forgot that he just thought I was meeting with Claire. He clearly figured I would be gone longer when Claire called to meet with him and I had not returned to the raptor paddock.

"Oh.....well, all day?" I say more like a question. I can hear him sigh into the line and scrunch my face up waiting for him to complain yet all I hear is silence as Barry's voice is heard in the background.

"Don't do that. I hate it when you do that childish silence thing Owen. Grow up." I say and I can see Gray chuckle beside me at my words. Owen just sighs again before going on about how he has to meet with Claire now. Zach strangely tenses as I continue my conversation.

"Look I have to go, I am babysitting, I will see you later and I will even let you buy me food. Now go complain to Barry, I'm done listening to it." I say into the phone and before he can reply I hang up.

"Welcome to the Mosasaurus show!" The lady announces and Gray wiggles in his seat with excitement. I smile at him and then turn to Zach to see him staring down at his phone at a picture of a girl. I assume his girlfriend who he would probably rather be with instead of his brother.

"Your girlfriend is pretty." I say nudging his shoulder and he quickly glances up at me before redirecting his eyes to the picture again. He shuts the phone off and for a second I feel like I have overstepped. He just scoffs.

"I bet your boyfriend is cool too." He says cooly and I furrow my eyebrows at his comment. Boyfriend? What boyfriend?

"Boyfriend?" I ask, still looking at him.

"Ya Owen, right?" He asks now, raising an eyebrow at me and I immediately laugh at his question.

"Ya no never. He is like 25. Good god, he would have to be so rich for me to date that mess of a man. It does help that he is easy on the eyes though." I state and it makes Zach chuckle lightly as a small smile crosses his pink lips. I smile at him and we stare at each other in silence for a short moment before his cheeks begin to tint pink.

"Any boyfriend?" He then asks with genuine curiosity but he is clearly trying to hide it.

"No, no boyfriend." I say as I look straight ahead with a small smirk on my face. The announcer talking about the sea dino, keeping Gray fully captivated is in the middle of her speech and Zach and I continue to talk.

"Me and that girl you saw...we broke up a few days ago by the way." Zach mentions and I couldn't help it when my smirk grew bigger. I never verbally responded but it seems by the looks on Zach's face from the corner of my eye that he saw my reaction on my face to his statement.

"Will you two stop flirting?" Gray asks, startling both of us. I laugh as Zach blushes and puts all of his attention on the pool of water in front of us.

"What is your job here?" Gray asks after giving his brother a funny look for some reason.

"I....well I am a trainer for a sorta secret project you could say." I state and as Gray opens his mouth to ask a follow up, the announcer speaks.

"She is extra shy so lets give her a round of applause when she comes up!" The shark sits at the end of the crane and I can't help but dread the amount of water that I will soon be drenched in. The Mosasaurus comes up and latches its jaws onto the shark pulling it from the crane. Applause and gasp fill the open arena and I clench my eyes shut with anticipation of a heavy weight of water being thrown at me. Within seconds, a big wave of water hits me and I feel a hand grip onto my leg from my right. Once the water stops dunking on me I open my eyes to see Gray staring at the tank with amazement and Zach has mirrored expressions. I looked down at the warm weight on my thigh to see that Zach had moved his hand there when he was surprised by the water being drenched on us. I smile at the warmth as it trails up my body to my face making me blush slightly at the contact. I make no mention of his hand when he doesn't remove it, I can't complain and he clearly isn't bothered by it either. Little did I know he was currently freaking out about whether or not to remove his hand.

Every so often I could feel Zach look over at me but I tried my best to ignore his looks and stares as I kept my eyes fixed on Mo who swims with a shark tail dangling from her mouth.

Near the end of the show I look to Zach just as he snaps his head to face the tank. He tries to plaster a bored expression on his face but the glint of wonder and excitement is present in his eyes as a pink tint shows on his cheeks. I smile at him then look at my feet, why am I being like this with a kid I just met literally an hour ago? Get it together Harlow. I feel a sensation on my leg and look down to see that Zach has absentmindedly began to swirl his thumb in circles on the side of my leg. I can see Gray next to me looking at Zachs hand with a small smile before he returns his eyes to the show. Only a few more minutes before we get to stand and walk again, I can do this.