Insanity | a Jurassic World Fanfic & Zach Mitchell X Reader

Revised Chapter Three

OWEN WATCHED AS YOU entered Foxtrot's habitat, biting his lip as he obviously fought the urge to join you. He had a tranquilizer in his hand, ready in the case of an emergency.

Despite how much you had tried to comfort him, he was still wary of the dinosaur. Which was to be expected; his girls were far less docile as Foxtrot. His were much more animalistic, retaining the alpha pack structure firmly. Whereas Foxtrot had never had another velociraptor to teach him such structure, and solely depended on you for socialization.

The shrubs rustled, the noise and feeling always made your hair stand on end. No matter how familiar you were with the raptor, he still made you feel like prey at times. The feeling subsided as his head emerged from the bushes nearby, cocked inquisitively at you.

You held out the feeding bucket, whistling for him to join you. You set the bucket down, and he approached, sniffing the air intensely before diving his head into the bucket of rats. The squelching noise made your stomach churn, but you ignored it to look toward Owen.

His brow was twitching. You couldn't help the smirk from crawling onto your face as you made a point of running your hand over Foxtrot's neck and shoulder. You could feel the awe and jealousy of Owen, even from the platform above. This was one of the very few things you had over Owen, one of the few things you could be proud of, but the way he was looking at you--it somehow killed that feeling entirely.

Foxtrot paused, gaining your attention as you watched his tail sway gently. He slowly lifted his head from his bucket, looking directly at Owen. It must have been then that he had caught Owen's scent, his nostrils flaring to distinguish it. His head cocked, and he took a step toward Owen.

You could almost see the gears turning in his head as he gauged how high the jump would be, and you instinctively threw yourself in front of him to break his view. "Foxtrot," your voice was low, but panicked. His stare transferred to you, which he held for much longer than you'd liked.

Foxtrot abruptly turned away and disappeared into his foliage with a low, rumbling chirp, leaving his bucket half-finished. This left a horrible churning feeling in your stomach, but you shrugged it off as you quickly exited the paddock and returned to Owen.

"That--" Owen started.

"Don't," you growled. Surprisingly, he stopped.

"Claire asked me to meet her today," he changed the subject as you climbed onto his bike behind him.

"For what?" you weren't very interested in the conversation, still trying to make sense of why Foxtrot had shown such sudden interest in Owen. It had scared you, the way he had so intensely stared. The way you could almost see him thinking... planning. You had never witnessed such intelligence from him before.

"She wants me to see whatever is in Paddock 11," Owen yelled over his shoulder as he started the bike, following the overgrown dirt road toward Main Street.

"Paddock 11??" you yelled back, your heart jumping into your throat. You knew the higher numbered paddocks meant larger animals, like how Paddock 9 was the queen herself, Rexy. What would 11 be? A giganotosaurus, maybe? A spinosaurus? "Why?"

"She needs a predator behavioral expert," he replied, "there's been some issues with the animal that don't make much sense to her team."

"Can I come?"

"Nope."

"But--"

"You'll be babysitting her nephews again," Owen interrupted, "Zara isn't feeling well today."