It's Not The Raptor DNA

Chapter 17

A/N

Thank you for your wonderful reviews! Please enjoy!

"Trypanophobia."

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine!"

Elise couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips as she continued to walk along her side of the broken fence. She had been content to hug Owen to her chest, and it seemed he had grown incredibly mushy or very bored because he had taken to singing loudly.

"You make me happy when skies are grey!"

Granted it didn't sound all that great; she had heard the 'singers' on Barry's radio, and they sounded a little more…smooth than this, but the sincerity of the words warmed her.

"You'll never know dear, how much I love you! Please don't take my sunshine away!"

Elise gave a long croon when Owen relaxed back into the large palm. She liked that song, and Owen began to gently bat his hands at the clawed fingers around him. He shifted to peek over the tall hand, and he asked, "So, Claire said you gave her your permission to sell tickets to see you?"

Elise didn't want to shift her hands around to sign, and she remembered what the tall man on the platform had said. She nodded her head once, and Owen blinked at her before asking, "Where'd you learn that?"

Elise thrust her nose in the direction of Rexy's paddock, and Owen chuckled as he said, "So you met Tim? He's Rexy's caretaker; he seems like a pretty smart guy."

Elise liked Tim; he had been polite to her. At first she thought he had been afraid of her, but she liked him for being concerned about Owen. He was quick to realize she was smart enough to answer questions. Rexy had talked a little bit about a tall man she liked; Elise assumed she was talking about Tim. Elise glanced down when Owen said, "I'm sorry you got attacked by that Triceratops, Baby. That wasn't supposed to happen."

Elise figured that much, and Owen added, "Claire ordered Lowery to turn off the fence, that's why Rexy was able to bite through the cables."

Then Elise was very grateful to the both of them for their quick thinking. She was glad Claire was a good Alpha who looked after her own. Claire respected the other Alphas of this island, and she even knew she could depend on Rexy to help if she wasn't able to do anything.

They remained quiet until Elise began to weave through the trees, and Owen finally said, "Are you feeling okay, Baby? How's that leg doing?"

It stung horribly, and yet it wasn't the worst pain she had ever dealt with. Elise found physical pain much easier to endure than dull aches in her chest. She always knew physical pains would scar, and heal over, but something about the constant rawness in her chest that had eroded hope for her before meeting Owen.

But now she had hope, she had something to live for besides a promise made to a creature who had breathed her last long ago. Now, Elise had a family, she had someone to talk to, people and animals who cared about her.

Elise felt like she had a new purpose in life; she would get to scare people.

The simply innocent, yet sadistic, delight of scaring people made Elise's tail curl in on itself, and her lip pulled higher. Elise looked down when Owen said, "I know that look. You're having an evil thought, aren't you?"

Elise snorted at Owen when she caught his playful grin, and she crooned at him. Elise suddenly paused, and did a double take when she saw the massive, fallen log. It didn't look right to her, and she tilted her head at it. Owen craned his neck to follow her gaze, and he said, "That's where the people will be if they want to see you. Rexy has the same thing in her pen, but they feed her goats to get her over there."