Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tony Stark was the kind of man that took a business opportunity when he saw one- so when the topic of a new Jurassic park arose, he had to jump on it.

Peter didn't know what he was getting into when he agreed to be the Velociraptor trainer at this new Jurassic Park. All he knew was that the pay was ridiculously amazing and he would be provided free living space in the middle of the prehistoric wonderland.

The young scientist wasn’t dumb, he’s heard all about how the last versions of the park were such massive fails that involved a lot of people dying.. But it couldn’t be that bad this time, right? They were hiring trainers for the dinosaurs so.. Maybe that meant that they wouldn’t be so quick to kill? Plus Tony would have everything far more technologically advanced, right?

“Are you sure you want me to be the Raptor trainer? I mean there has to be like a hundred better candidates for the job?” Peter asked Tony in shock when he was approached personally about the job. He’d only been an intern at Stark’s labs for a few months and was almost positive the job offer had to be some sort of a joke. He thought that he would have fared better as a scientist there but that didn't seem to be in the negotiation cards any time soon.

“Sure there are. But you’re the one I want to see do this. You are the most calm and in control person I have on my staff and if anyone can work with those Raptors I think it’ll be you. Besides- you already have experience fighting reptilian based enemies so if they turn on you- you’ll be able to handle it better than any human.” he chuckles and shooed Peter away to let him consider the offer.

He wasn’t sure about any of it but he took the job anyway- the little kid in him that had a deep love for dinosaurs would have murdered him if he’d refused.

So when he left his comfortable New York city apartment and boarded the helicopter to be flown to the island he didn’t know what he expected- but it sure wasn’t anything like what had happened.

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The wind whipped around Peter’s head as he climbs off the helicopter, stumbling a little as his feet touch the ground again. He was used to flying around but never in a big machine like that. He much preferred his webs thank you very much, no offence to Tony’s driving or anything but ouch.

He looks around the island that was going to be his home for an indefinite amount of time and he realized just how far from home he really was. He’s never seen so many trees and so much unregulated grass. There were fences up everywhere, massive fences that were as tall as some of the buildings in New York. Maybe Peter had slightly underestimated the size of the mess he’d gotten himself into.
“So. What do you think?” Tony calls as he shuts everything down and climbs out of the chopper, looking around his new playground in pride.

“Uh. It’s.. err.. Big?” Peter struggled to think of something to say that would not offend Tony but would plainly express his hesitance and possible regret for jumping into this so blind.

“Well of course it’s big! We’re talking about Dinosaurs here, Peter. Real damn Dinosaurs.” the billionaire crosses his arms over his chest and smiles calmly. “This might just be my best investment yet.”

“Right. Sure. Until we all get eaten by a T-Rex. Or a renegade Raptor.” Peter was not one to ever pretend to see the bright side of scary situations.

“Well it’s your job to make sure the Raptor part doesn’t happen.” Tony says crossly which made Peter just snort and shake his head.

“So basically if they decide they want some extra food I’m going to be the first to die.”

“Probably not. Opposite would likely be true actually. If these things manage to imprint on you and form a bond with you as their handler you’ll probably be the only person safe if everything goes to shit around here.” Tony shrugs and starts to walk. “Hardest part is going to be making that initial bond with the juvenile raptors.” he throws out casually as he continues walking.

Peter on the other hand slammed the breaks on. “Juveniles? You mean those things have already been born? Tony this is bad! I should have been with them from the moment of their hatching! Velociraptors are lethal by 8 months!”

“Good thing these raptors are only three months old, then.”

Peter groans loudly and runs his fingers through his thick brown hair. “Tonyyyyy this is bad. I’m going to be their chew toy! It’s too late now! They’re well past the critical stage I needed to be there for!”

“Kid. These raptors grew up surrounded by people 24/7. They’re not feral. They have been hand fed every single day and they haven’t killed any of those volunteers yet. Don’t worry about it so much.”

No matter what Tony said, Peter would not settle down and that much was made obvious by the way he was messing around with a little black and silver cube that looked like a die with weird buttons and things on it. Tony had never questioned it but if he had to guess- Peter would probably land himself in a mental hospital if he had to go a day without that cube since it seemed to be the thing that kept him grounded and calm most of the time.

“I’ll take you to your new home and then you can go meet your raptors.” For some reason the words struck Peter kind of wrong.

“They’re not my raptors. You can’t own something like a Velociraptor. You can just hope to form a mutual respect bond with them that will make them want to listen to you.” Peter was almost gasping for air as he tried to talk and keep up with Tony’s quick paced walk at the same time. For being such a short guy Tony could really get his legs moving much faster than Peter’s own long and gangly ones.

Tony completely brushed off Peter’s moral spiel and led the boy to a cute little cabin that was surrounded by a small fence but otherwise looked very homey and comfortable. “So basically this is your home now. I have the kitchen fully stocked but you are always welcome to come and get something from the cafeteria or food court- all you have to do is flash your staff badge and they’ll give you your meals for free. There will be weekly staff meetings but for the most part you will have your own agenda separate from the rest of the staff so you will spend more time with the Dinosaurs than with other people. You will not have a very strict schedule but you will have minimal time requirements that must be met every day. You’re not here as a tourist. You are here both as an entertainer and as a member of security to make sure that we do not have any major disasters that lead to anyone getting eaten. Your priority will be Raptor safety but you will receive a full training course that will include evacuation practice for both natural and unnatural disasters as well as being provided knowledge of every variety of Dinosaur we have here and how to best handle them. There will be mandatory target practice and gun safety classes that must be attended every week so if the need ever arises you will be able to shoot and knock a rouge dino out.”

The business man in Tony was making itself very visible now, the part that was very serious and in control of everything. It made Peter feel a little more comfortable in an odd way. He trusted Tony. Even if this was an extremely volatile and risky thing by nature- if anyone could pull it off and make it work it was Mr. Stark. He nodded and licks his lips nervously. “Yessir. I can manage all that, sir.”

“Because you are a mutant you are stronger than most of the other people here- even the rest of the staff. That means in the worst case scenario of Hell breaking loose you will be the leader in charge and I may have to require you to get physically close and use some of your superhuman abilities to subdue the Dinosaurs. I recommend you practice with your Raptors and forget any fear you may have of dealing with the animals. I will try to make it as safe as possible but worse comes to worse you may end up webbing a T-Rex’s mouth shut. Try to keep your web shooters on at all times as a safety measure.” he ruffles Peter’s hair and hands him a small key set. “Silver key is your cabin key, the thing that looks like a car key is for a jeep that will be provided later as easy transportation for you and the golden one is the key to the Raptor enclosure. Now are you ready to go meet the Raptors? I’m sure they’re ready to meet you. Time to get some stability in their lives. You weren’t wrong about the unfortunate time frame of your introduction but it’s the best we can do. Now. Let’s go see some Raptors.”

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The walk to the Raptor enclosure was one of the longest Peter could ever remember. All his nerves and fears had curled up into a heavy ball in the pit of his stomach and was weighing him down heavily.

Tony didn’t seem to notice the reluctance in Peter’s step and just kept right on marching forward. He was giving little bits of information to Peter as they walked but most of it went in one ear and right out the other to the 23 year old.

“Alright. Here we are. There are four raptors in here that you will be responsible for. They don’t have names yet, so I recommend you do that unless you want to be yelling for Vr-172 and so on.” Tony laughs as he swipes an automatic key card across the door. “You’ll get one of these later. For now just stick to using your little gold key.” Tony opens the door and walks into the cool building, where the sound of soft growls and chirps could be heard. “We came at a good time. They’ve just been fed so they’re mellow right now.” he walks towards the back of the room and whistles softly.

There was a big cage inside the building with an indoor jungle scape laid out. The bars were as thick around as Peter’s bicep and there was what looked like barbed trip wire strung along the bottom foot of the cage.

At Tony’s whistle, two heads pop up out of shrubbery. They were still small, only about two feet tall at the maximum. Those two raptors jumped over the shrubs they were behind and launches towards the bars of the cage, growling and snapping at the two men.

Peter jumps back and lets out a terrified squeak. One part of him could not believe that he was actually seeing a live dinosaur and the other part of him was just as terrified that a real dinosaur looked like it wanted to kill him. “Fuck! I thought you said they were not feral!”

“They’re not. But they sure as shit aren’t lapdogs, kid. What were you expecting?” Tony cocks an eyebrow at Peter and smirks a little at his interns expression. He wasn’t really expecting Peter to last long after that reaction.

“You said there’s four.. Where’s the other two?” There were only two raptors jumping at the bars now.

“Ah. Yes. Well if you look behind you you will find the third Raptor-” And sure enough as Peter turns around there was a small sleek nearly iridescent black raptor gnawing at the fence trying to get at them. “She’s the sneaky one that I would best advise you keep your eyes on.”

“Advice taken.” he immediately developed a healthy fear and respect for the raptor. “And the other one?”
“She’s.. The most laid back one, by far. She’s pretty much indifferent to anything going on around here. She’s never really bitten at anyone yet and she’s the smallest raptor. She’s a little shy though.”

“Good! I like her!” Peter immediately nods. “So.. they don’t have names yet?” he looks at the young raptors and immediately points at the black one. “That one is a Natasha. Hands down. She is just like the Black Widow.”

Tony nodded his approval at that and raises an eyebrow. “You’re right about that, kid. Never would have thought to draw a comparison like that but.. Very good job. What about the others?”

Peter looks at the raptors and bites his lip softly. One was a deep green, almost turquoise color. “Sue.” he pointed to her.
“And that one is Mary Jane.” he points to the other one that had originally jumped at the fence and was now striving to climb on top of her sibling to be noticed by the humans. She was the skinniest one them and she just had the appearance of needing to be noticed first, her coloring being a deep emerald green.

Finally a sleek, golden sand colored Velociraptor comes out from hiding, walking slowly with a curious expression on her face. Right away Peter smiles. “She’s a Gwen.” he’d already been thinking of naming one of the prehistoric creatures that to honor his deceased best friend and when he saw her beautiful gold color and laid back temper he knew it had to be that one.

“You pick some weird ass names for Dinosaurs, kid, but alright. They’re your problem now.” Tony claps Peter on the shoulder and just started to explain some basics about their schedules and how their lives worked around here when they were interrupted by a soft barking sound that did not come from any of the raptors in the cage. Peter looks around curiously.

“Where did that come from? Isn’t that the sound a Raptor makes when it’s calling for someone else?” he could plainly see the four girls laying at the front of the cage and none of them had made that sound.

Tony looked around in shock and then groans. “Oh. Yeah. I know where that came from. Don’t worry about it.”

“Tony is there an unaccounted for Raptor running around in here? If so don’t you think I should know about it?”

“It’s not unaccounted for. It’s just not going to be a problem for much longer.”

“What do you mean?” Peter raises his eyebrows. “You’re not going to kill one, are you?”

“Peter it was just a failed experiment. That Raptor is far too aggressive to be dealt with even by an experienced handler. You got scared at those girls. This one can smell fear and he will make a snack out of you. He’s already put a volunteer in the hospital for stitches.”

“He?” Peter looks up in surprise. “I thought all the dinosaurs here were girls?”

“They were supposed to be. This one came out as a male. He was the first raptor we made and he was a mistake. I meant to have him removed before you got here but-”

“Don’t. Don’t kill him. I want to see him. I want to try.” there was a firm resolve in Peter’s voice. He wasn’t going to live with knowing that he let something like that happen without even trying to stop it. The hero in him was screaming for justice despite the sane part of him that argued that there was no point in defending a rouge Raptor.

“Peter please don’t argue with me on this, son. You have four. Don’t you think that’s going to be a handful enough? And this one is well past the stage you can bond with him. He’s almost 9 months old. Nearly full grown. He’s huge. And he’s been in isolation for the past month. He’s beyond any recovery. I’m sorry kid but you’re not going to save him.” Tony looks at Peter with a plea to drop it.

But Peter refused to take this lying down. “Tony I’m the man in charge of the raptors. I think I should at least be able to meet this one before you put him down. I gotta give him a fighting chance here. Please.”

If there was one thing that could be said about Peter Parker- it was that he was incorrigible when it came to his poor good heart. Even Tony Stark had to admire him for that much. “Alright. Fine. If he eats you, that is completely your problem.” he pulls a walkie talkie out of his utility belt and dials in someone.

“Open access to Raptor VM-717.”

There was a soft click and a quiet roar of interest from the creature trapped inside the hidden room.

Tony motioned for Peter to go first towards the door that had lit up and he carefully takes his way to it, pushing it open slowly. Inside the dark room there was a cage, small and isolated from everything else. There was straw on the floor and a water trough but the room was basically a prison cell for the poor animal trapped inside.

And what an animal it was. If Peter had been intimidated by the four girls, this male Raptor just about had him pissing his pants. The Dinosaur stood as tall as Peter, extended up fully on his back legs with his head tilted curiously to the side as he investigates the people entering his little lair of isolation.

The raptor was a beautiful mix of dark crimson red and black coloring, his eyes a bright golden honey whiskey color. Said eyes were open wide, adjusting to the light from outside and calculating the threat being presented to him. He taps his large hooked claw on the ground repeatedly, which Peter could only assume was a sign of anxiety since the creature did not look particularly aggressive at the moment.

It makes a soft purring sound and hunkers down a little so his face was level with Tony’s and it lets out a high pitched screeching noise that was intended to be an angry roar, snapping it’s teeth angrily at the short man through the bars.. Tony backed up immediately and shoved Peter in front of himself. “Here ya go kid. You want to tame this thing it’s all yours. Otherwise let me know if you come to your senses and I’ll have it removed by tomorrow.”

“Wait what? What do I do with him?” Peter looks at Tony is shock. “I can’t do much while he’s in a cage like that.”

“Than I guess your first goal is to move him to the big enclosure. By the way- if he hurts one of the girls than we will shoot him. He’s your pet project. Those females are my business. Understood?” Tony turned a full businessman glare on Peter that had him nodding dumbly.

Tony left the small room with that, mumbling some instructions to some behind the scenes worker into his walkie talkie- probably warning them about Peter’s activities and giving them a heads up to different possible outcomes.

Peter turns his gaze back to the large reptile and he sighs softly. “H-hey boy.. You.. uhh.. You’re a pretty raptor, huh?” he mentally face palmed himself. He had no idea what the hell he was doing.

Thankfully the Dinosaur seemed more amused by Peter than it did Tony, pressing the side of it’s long face up against the cage and peering out between the bars at him. It’s lizard like eye blinks slowly and it makes a soft sound in the back of it’s throat, it’s claw clicking against the ground again.

“So.. uh.. Look here.. Tony wants to have you put down cause you’re too dangerous.. But I’m gonna give you a chance here, okay? I don’t want to see them kill you so I’m gonna work with you and see if we can keep that from happening. But you just gotta.. I don’t even know you just have to cooperate with me, okay? We can do this. And I am talking to a creature that existed long before the english language did like I expect you to understand me.” he laughs at himself. “Goddamnit.”

The raptor kept its eye on Peter at all times, remaining unmoving. It looked like it was probably sizing Peter up but he prefered to think positive and assume it was just curious about him.

“So.. Y’know.. Let’s get you over with the other Raptors and end this little prison stint, huh? By the way, please do not hurt the others. I know you’re used to being alone but you can’t just attack them to get yourself alone again. That’s going to get you killed. So.. come on buddy.” Peter slowly walks towards the wall and grabs a thick chain off it. He had no plan except to just see what happens if he tries different things.

The raptor follows his every move with its unblinking eye and it seemed to bristle up when he grabbed the chain. It made a sound very similar to an angry dog that got Peter’s attention.

“Hey.” he tried to put as much assertion and control into his voice as possible. “Knock that off. Don’t you growl at me I’m trying to save your life here.” he takes the chain off the wall and was surprised that the creature actually stopped making that little rumbling noise.

“Good boy.. Alright then. Maybe you do understand me.” he said it as a joke with himself but was equal parts shocked and terrified when the raptor gave a small jerk of its head, almost like a nod.

“Do you? Understand English, I mean?”

The raptor gave another definitive head movement and kept watching Peter with its cold and calculating eye but there was something in there, something deeply intelligent about this particular raptor. Peter knew raptors as a general rule were intelligent. They were scavengers as much as they were hunters and they were masters at everything they did. He supposed it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume that this raptor could have learnt some basic language cues along the way but it was still freaky. He wondered if the others were as bright.

“Alright. Well.. since you understand me than I expect you to behave, okay? You know the risk at hand here?”

Another nod.

“Good. So.. I’m just gonna put this chain around your mouth so you don’t bite me.. And I’m gonna take you to the paddock with the others. You good with that?”

The raptor gave a small growl and backed a step away from the bars, obviously not good with that plan.

“Okay. Alright. What don’t you like about that plan? The girls? You afraid of being locked in with other raptors?”

The Dinosaur gave a quick and jerky shake of it’s large head and focused it’s eyes on Peter’s slightly outstretched hands.

“My hands..? Oh! Oh you don’t want to be touched? Is that it?”

A slow nod.
“You don’t trust me?”

Another nod.

Peter smiles. “You’re a clever boy, aren’t you?”

The raptor gave a soft flick of it’s tail in agreement and Peter smiles.

“Alright. So here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna keep talking to you like the insane person I am and you’re gonna cue me when you trust me enough to move forward, okay? I’m gonna start at the back of the room and every time you feel more comfortable with me i want you to cue me, okay? We’re gonna trust each other here.”

He slowly walks to the back of the room and puts his hands up. “So. I’m Peter Parker. I’m 23 years old from Queens New York.”

The raptor gave a small nod and clicks his claw off the ground and Peter took that as a cue to move forward.

“I’m an intern at Stark’s labs training to be a scientist. I took this job because.. Oh my god I don’t even know. I think I’m crazy for taking this job.”

There was a soft noise that sounded a little bit like a chuckle and Peter grinned. It continued on like that- Peter telling that Raptor every little fragment of information about his life until he finally was standing face to face with him again.

“You good now?”

At the raptors nod, Peter slowly opened the cage door and slips the chain around the Velociraptors head, not tying it around his mouth like he had planned but instead just laying it around his neck like a lead line. If the raptor trusted him enough to let him this close- he could afford him the same trust to not turn him into an afternoon snack.

“Good boy. Gooood boyyy.” He says slowly, leading the massive Raptor out of its cage.

The creature steps forward, taking slow and steady little steps like it was scared to come out of the cage. It kept making soft little curious sounds and clicking it's toe against the floor. Peter realized that the animal was probably not used to being in an open space since it has been in a cage so long and he could understand it’s hesitance. He kind of sympathized with him, really.

Peter kept one hand on the chain to guide him and the other was outstretched to the side, keeping his palm open and clearly in the Raptors sight so he knew that he was safe and was not being threatened. That hand also worked as a visual so he could point at where they were going. The Raptor seemed to respond well to hand gestures and liked to be able to see Peter’s hands.

“Alright boy. We got this. Come on. Right this way.” He kept whispering quietly in a very placating and calming voice. He walked backwards in a slow and steady pace, continually checking over his shoulder to make sure the way was clear.

As they got out of the room the raptor stopped, looking around the much more open room and at the cage that contained the four girls and he stretched up on his hind legs, extending his head up and started making that soft barking sound that had originally alerted Peter to his presence in the first place. That seemed to be a specific Velociraptor call, probably something like a wolf's howl that was used to communicate with others of its kind as well as alerting others of its presence in an area.

The four female raptors stopped what they were doing and they began responding to the males calls, each answering with a unique bark that Peter knew he would have to start memorizing so he could field identify them without seeing them just in case.

As the raptors were calling to each other, two armed guards stepped forward, both focusing their gun sights on the red male. “Whoa whoa hold your fire do not shoot! I repeat do not shoot!” Peter yells and throws his hand toward the men to warn them off. The male's eyes follow the sharp movement of Peter’s hand and he hisses at the guards.

“You shoot that raptor and he will never trust me again.” Peter explains and whistles softly to regain the Raptors attention. “Eyes here.” he commands softly.

He turns his full attention to the dinosaur once the guards had reluctantly lowered their weapons.
“Alright. Easy boy. Come on now it's okay. You're good. Come on bud.” Peter goes back to soothing the bothered animal.

It took a little convincing but eventually Peter got him calmed down enough to continue walking though he was keeping obviously weary eyes on the guards. The raptors long and curled fingers kept twitching like he wanted to grab at something with them. Peter just hoped he did not look like a scratching post to the dino.

“Open the door to the enclosure.” Peter instructs the guard closest to it and the man ran to leap into action. As soon as the door was open Peter gets the chain off the male’s neck and gives a shout to let him know he was free to go.

The Velociraptor gave a cry of excitement and scrapes his foot against the floor before charging into the cage. Peter nodded for the guard to shut the door and he ran up onto the observation deck above to see what would happen between the still unnamed boy and the females.

Peter could only assume they already had a pecking order established amongst themselves and he was worried where the male would fit into this pack. So far Tony’s theory about him being too aggressive to handle had been dead wrong but maybe he would have a worse time coping with others of his kind.

Immediately all four females ganged up around the boy, crouching and hissing at him. The male, to probably everyone’s surprise, bowed down and made a soft nicker of submission, digging his claw into the ground as he was jumped at by Natasha. He let himself be bullied for a few moments before the girls all just simultaneously walked away. They were evidently a very tight knit pack and were very in sync with each other and the boy was not causing any problems for them it seemed.

Peter smiles and he turns his attention to the females for a second, knowing he could not spend all his time worrying about his red beauty. He watched the pack interact with one another, trying to pinpoint who ranked where.
Though it seemed all too obvious that Natasha would have been the leader, the pack actually seemed to gravitate more around Gwen’s command.
The golden raptor carried herself lighter and higher than the others and she was the one the others watched while she didn't appear to watch anyone herself.

So Peter began formulating their story in his head. Gwen was the alpha Raptor, Natasha was likely the beta, and was probably the hunter of the group, and the other two were mid ranks. They had presumably pushed the male into an omega position but he didn't seem to have any problems with that.

He was already plotting how he would do this in his head. The Raptors saw Gwen as their alpha, which was good for them but not good for Peter. He needed to be in that Alpha spot if they were going to listen to him. Or realistically he just had to get the alpha to listen to him and than pray the rest would follow suit.

He had already managed to gain the trust and respect of what Tony had deemed to be the impossible Raptor so the rest should be a breeze. Or so he hoped.

“I’m so far above my paygrade right now.” he chuckles softly to himself as he settles back against the railing and watched the raptors play fight with each other and go about their daily lives, unaware of the major change that was coming their way.

Chapter Text

When Peter woke up in the morning he was not sure where he was at first and he began to freak out a little until he remembered everything that had happened the day before.

“Holy shit.” he flops backwards in his bed and rubs a hand down his tired face. “I went face to face with a Velociraptor. I talked to a Velociraptor like it could understand me. I think I’m going insane. What the hell is in the water here?” he grumbled aloud as he crawls out of bed and dresses in his uniform of brown cargo shorts and a blue button down with the park logo on it.

He laces up his heavy duty military style boots and grabs his key ring as he goes to report for duty. First thing in the morning was his gun safety and shooting course. Not an ideal way to start his day but.. He knew it was non-negotiable and really was for the better. He and everyone else on staff needed to be ready in case of an emergency. Even still- the idea of shooting one of these dinosaurs left a sour taste in his mouth.

During the first lesson he learned that there was a special force of military men on standby in case of major disaster but the trainers and scientists would be the first on scene and would have to keep things contained until they could arrive. Calling for those men were supposed to be an absolute last resort. Peter couldn’t help but agree. Those military guys would go in guns blazing with no regard for the animals lives. At least the people that work here could try to peacefully contain them if things ever went south.

After leaving the shooting range with a bruised shoulder from the kickback on the long range rifle he’d been practicing with, he wanders towards the raptor cage.

He wonders how his strange boy had fared throughout the night. He also wondered what was in store for him today. Tony had said he would be around later to give Peter a full run through of what was expected of him and he had to admit the idea made him a little nervous. From their little disagreement over the Raptor the other day he could tell their views on certain things were going to be vastly different.

He just hoped it wouldn’t become a problem.

He unlocks the door and slips into the indoor part of the inclosure, surprised to see his red friend standing close to the fence, looking around like he was scared of something. Peter gives a sharp little whistle to get the creature's attention, not wanting to startle the raptor and make him freak out. He somehow figured that the poor guy had some pretty wicked anxiety problems. Much like himself.

The Raptor looks up and chirps softly, brushing up against the fence and wagging its tail in welcome. At least someone was happy to see him.

The other Raptors all stood back in the shadows, watching him apprehensively. They could probably tell that today was going to be a little different. Maybe the uniform gave him away.

Peter looks around and saw a bucket of meat scraps by an emergency exit door and he looks around before grabbing the bucket and climbing the steps to stand on the overlook. Might as well try to get them used to him first before actually trying to make any dominance moves over them. And he sure as hell was not going to throw himself into a cage of hungry raptors even with the weird half bond he’d made with the male yesterday. For all he knew that bond was long since forgotten and the boy would eat him just as eagerly as the others would.

“Right. So. First things first- names.” he says to himself and whistles louder to make sure he claimed all their attention.

All their heads turned and looked up at him, necks extending out and bodies stretching to make themselves look bigger. He didn’t think they liked the idea of him being so high above them. Probably because they couldn’t eat him.

He picks a little scrap of meat up and rolls in around in his hand before holding it up for them to see. That worked well enough and they all ran forward, huddling up under the walkway Peter stood on. Mary-Jane jumped and tried to snap at Peter but he was safely out of their reach much to his relief.

“Alright. So here’s how this is gonna go. I’m going to call each of your names and give you a piece of meat. We’re gonna repeat this until you figure it out what your name is, alright? So let’s do this.” he balls the meat up tightly and aims at the turquoise raptor near the back of the pack. He could tell she was loosing interest fast so he wanted to try and keep her attention for a minute. “Sue. This one’s you.” he throws the meat at her and repeated that about four times before being satisfied that she was beginning to make the connection between the word and herself.

“Good. Mj. This one’s you girl.” he started conditioning the other green raptor, and after he’d fed her four pieces he called out Sue’s name and when she lifted her head and looked at him he praised her and threw her another small chunk of meat.

He repeated this process over and over with them, Natasha, and Gwen until he got all the girls responding to their names. He was proud of both himself and the dinosaurs. It was a good feeling. Progress was being made here, no matter how small.

Peter reached into the bucket and felt his heart drop a little to find that there was only one little sliver of meat left and he still had a raptor to name. Thankfully he knew it would only take once to get this next one named. His red boy stood a little ways away from the girls, obviously wanting in on the training but not wanting to intrude. He was a shy creature for sure.

Peter bites his lip and thinks hard about what he wanted to call this Velociraptor. He’d been fretting over it all night, really, and he still hasn’t come up with an agreeable name. Nothing seemed to fit him.

The raptor slowly inches forward when he noticed Peter staring at him and he tilts his head a little as if asking Peter if he was going to get a name himself. For some reason that Peter could not figure out, the expression reminded him so much of someone else and the name ‘Wade’ escaped his lips before he could stop it.

The Raptor cocks his head a little and perks up, straightening up a little so he stood taller. He seemed to be agreeing with that name. Peter smiles and balls the chunk of meat up and yells “Wade!” as he throws it to the dinosaur. He didn’t repeat his name several times over like he’d done with the others, but he knew he didn’t have to.

Wade understood him.

In the time it’d taken Peter to think of a name for the male raptor, the girls had disappeared off into the forest, probably had actually gone from the inside area to the outdoor enclosure. It was a nice and sunny day out so he was sure the reptilian creatures were outside enjoying the sun. As Peter was descending the stairs he heard a happy clapping sound and he startled to find Tony standing there.

“I just watched all that. Very impressive, kid. You got all those raptors responding to names. Even the rouge one seems to be doing well. I heard from the guards that you walked it out of the cage with just a thin chain around it’s neck? And it listened to you when you instructed it to move? I’m thoroughly impressed. I knew i picked the right man for the job.”

Peter knew that praise like that from Tony was a rarity so he soaked it all in while he could. “Thank you sir. That male is remarkably intelligent, and he’s far more docile than you painted him to be.” he smiles. “I think i’m going to enjoy this job very much.”

“Glad to hear it. Now, let’s talk about what your duties here will really be.” he puts a hand on Peter’s shoulder and leads him away, describing Peter’s jobs as they walked but Peter was a little distracted by the sound of a saddened Raptor call behind him. As he looks over his shoulder he saw Wade standing there, watching him leave with a definitive sadness in his golden whiskey eyes and Peter could not help but be amazed at how human he really seemed to be.

Something was vastly weird about that Raptor, but Peter did not think it was a bad thing at all. If anything he thought that Wade the Raptor would be his number one ally in this world and was glad to have him around, however strange he might be.

Peter’s work had only just began and he didn’t realize how much bonding would have to be done to get anywhere. If he thought the naming game had been a success, he had yet to realize how small of a drop of water in the bucket that really was.

But he was about to find out. One way or another.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

Training Raptors turned out to be nothing like Peter had expected. Or hoped. It wasn’t like training a dog- and while watching every Dog Whisperer episode ever did help him figure a few things out it was not enough to fully get him through this.

It was different with a dog. You could be right up close with it. Touch it, smack it or poke it if it’s bad or not paying attention. You could not do that with a raptor and Peter was not going to be the idiot to try.

He also learned that Velociraptors had some serious ADD, and keeping their attention for more than ten seconds when food was not plainly visible was next to impossible. And when food was around that was all they really cared about so getting them to actually form a bond or realize that they are supposed to be following an order was hard.

The only exception to all this seemed to be Wade, who’s eyes were always on Peter and who responded eagerly to every word and motion Peter gave. He was a good boy. Why couldn’t the others take a page from his diary?

On the upside- at least they all seemed to remember their names and they still responded to them when called directly. It gave Peter the proof and hope enough that he could train them further because they were intelligent. He knew they were.

He knew the issue really lied under the dominance order. They still saw Gwen as the alpha, not him. And Gwen was not going to be readily willing to submit her position to him. He wasn’t sure how to go about this. Only a real idiot with a suicide wish would jump into a cage with a bunch of Velociraptors and challenge the alpha for dominance and Peter liked life, thank you very much. But his options were looking less and less likely and he wasn’t going to get anywhere unless something changed.

The raptors still looked at him like he was a foreigner, he needed them to accept him as a part of the pack. But how to do that without getting too close to them….

Peter spent his entire weekend on his laptop, researching different training tactics and watching different shows and different peoples methods for making animals behave. He had his notepad on his lap and was taking notes the whole time. He was going to win this Velociraptor battle, one way or another. Nice guy, submissive and passive little Peter was gone. Bring on Alpha Parker.

The next day Peter walks into the building with a clicker, a packet of beef jerky and a little buzzer button that made a very unpleasant screeching noise when pressed. He was cracking down on this training business.

He climbs the steps and stands in his usual spot above the raptor cage, whistling loudly to call the animals to him. They all came running, but he knew it was only because they wanted food, not because they had any sort of obedience to the whistle yet. He rewarded them anyway for coming, throwing little chunks of dried meat at them but this time he paired the food with the clicker, repeating this a few times so they began to associate the click with a good thing. Once he was sure they got that message, he set the food down.

Immediately all the raptors turned their attention away but he called them back with a sharp whistle. “Alright guys. Let’s try and get this going for real. Eyes here!” he calls and raises his arm above his head with his fist balled around the clicker.

When no one actively responded Peter hits the button on the buzzer, startling the dinosaurs with the loud and horrible sound. They all started screeching and looking around in panic, frightened and angered by the sound.

“Eyes. Here.” Peter repeats slowly. “Mj, Sue, look here girls.” when they slowly raised their heads he rewarded them with a couple quick clicks, which was a welcome and soothing sound after the buzzer. “Good girls. Natasha, eyes up.” when the black raptor looked up there was another volley of clicks. “Very good. Gwen. Up here, Gwen.” the gold raptor refused to look, she understood what was happening and she was refusing it.

“Gwen. Eyes up.” when his word was met with blatant defiance, he hits the buzzer again, making the raptors hiss and spit at each other in anger, focusing their anger on Gwen since she had earned them that. “Eyes here.” he shouts again, finger on the buzzer at the ready.

“Gwen..” he says warningly and raises his hand that held the buzzer so they could see they were about to get it again.

Natasha growls at Gwen and snaps at the Raptor’s leg, giving her a clear warning to do it or she was going to have a mutiny on her hands. Slowly the golden blonde raptor lifts her head and lets her unwilling eyes meet Peter’s.

“Very good! Good girls!” he praises and clicks the clicker enthusiastically. All five dinosaurs seemed to relax immensely after the soft clicks filled their ears.

It was slow, but it was progress. The first step in becoming the head Velociraptor. He’d gotten the alpha to listen to him, so there was a real chance he could make this happen.
`-`-`-`-`-`-

The mandatory staff meeting drug on and on for Peter, and he found himself feeling a lot like how his raptors probably felt during their longer winded training sessions.

They were officially on the countdown clock till the park opened for public access. Less than a week until the gates opened and people would be flooding in to see the dinosaurs.

Peter had made much more progress with the Raptors- he could now hold their attention longer, had weaned them off of relying so much on the food and got them responding purely to the clicker, and they were beginning to interact more with him.

Their reptilian eyes would follow his every move when he was on that walkway and he had a feeling that they were directing more of their strange little sounds towards him now as if he were one of them. It was a gratifying feeling. He just hoped it was good enough. He didn’t know how the girls and Wade would react to hundred of thousands of people every day gathering around and watching them.

He was pretty certain for the most part they would remain indifferent to it, they were used to the armed guards already, after all, but that was calm and quiet people, not screaming children. He was afraid they would look like a snack to the raptors and while he was sure the fence was solid enough that they wouldn’t get through- just the sight of a hungry Velociraptor jumping at them was probably going to be enough to traumatize most kids. And to get him in trouble.

He figured he’s done about all he could do at this point though. He stood by his statement that Raptors could not be tamed- all that could be done was build a mutual respect and hope that they would do okay when push came to shove. If it ever did.

Tony wanted to discuss the possibility of having a raptor show- as in Peter making them perform tricks like circus animals for the crowd but the younger man had shot that down every time. It took over a month to get them to just look at him and walk with him, getting them to do any sort of trick was a migraine Peter did not wish to deal with.

Peter was walking from one of those meetings in kind of a sour mood, gritting his teeth together a little because Tony had pissed him off. “Not doing enough. Jesus Christ. You get in there and try to get five prehistoric creatures to listen to you! It’s not that easy!” he growls as he walks passed the raptor enclosure. He was going to go get a drink before visiting the Dinosaurs but a voice from inside caught his attention. It sounded like someone was yelling at the raptors.

As much as Peter was craving a nice cold beer to forget about how annoying Tony was about making more money, his Raptors were still his first priority, and he knew he had not authorized anyone else to be in there with them, and he didn’t think Tony did either, so either a guard was having an issue with them or someone was where they were not supposed to be.

He unlocks the main door with a quick swipe of his new key card and pushes the door open, hearing a man grumble about “stupid dinosaurs, not as smart as you seem. Maybe this’ll get your attention.”

He throws the door open and runs towards the steps. He could see everything outlined now. A kid that was probably nothing more than a janitor was standing on his walkway, holding a taser in his hands and yelling at the raptors, who were basically completely ignoring him. Even Wade, who always paid attention, was too busy rubbing his head against a rock to scratch an itch to notice the guy.

“HEY! What are you doing up here? You are not authorized to be in this room!” Peter yells as he sprinted across the floor and up the stairs. He jumps up the last step and stands on the walkway in front of the kid, already dialing his walkie talkie to alert Stark of the problem. There didn’t seem to be any guards on duty here and Peter cursed, figuring that that was how the loon had gotten in here in the first place.

Before he even knew what was happening there was a pop, a hiss, and a shooting pain centering in Peter’s diaphragm and spreading through his whole body. The force of being electrocuted threw his balance off, making him fall over the railing of the narrow walkway.

Peter’s felt pain before, hell he’s been tasered before as Spiderman, but never at such a close range and never without the adrenaline of a fight to numb the pain. He also never fell from a twenty foot drop after being tasered. That was new and vastly unpleasant.

He laid in the comfortable darkness for a few moments as the shock wore off, his body twitching as he recovers from being tased. Thank God for super human healing he was up quicker than a normal person would have been. He saw the door shut behind the kid as he ran out in a panic and then Peter realized why he was so scared.

He’d probably just sent Peter to his death.

Peter heard soft little chitters and growls surrounding him, heavy breaths of dinosaurs coming from all sides. There they all were. Meer feet away from Peter’s wounded body.

The raptors looked bigger up close. They were still young, but they had grown a lot in the time Peter’d been with them. And Wade was nearly full grown.

Gwen crouches down and snarls at Peter stretching her fingers out and flashing her claws at him, scraping her death claw against the forest floor. Peter knew that if this raptor held a grudge for knocking her down a ranking peg, now was absolutely the time she was going to act out on it.

They all were being very vocal, starting to pace in circles around Peter like hungry wolves, eyes never leaving their wounded prey.
Peter could feel that his ankle was probably broken, or at the very very least severely sprained. There was going to be no putting weight on it. Which meant that running away was out. Not that it would have been that effective anyway since these raptors could run up to 50 miles per hour if they were hungry enough.

Peter heard a soft click and saw a few guards standing there, ready to shoot at the raptors. “Agh no no don’t! Don’t shoot!” Peter yells at them. He forces himself into an upright position and he looks around at the five Velociraptors.

“So that’s how it is, huh guys?” He asks softly as he slowly puts his open hands out in front of him, a gesture he knew at least one of the raptors would appreciate. “You gonna eat me?” he asks and in response Natasha jumps forward, snapping her teeth inches away from his open palm. It was a warning, not a threat.

He pulls his hand back momentarily before putting it out again. “Back off, Nat.” he musters up his best alpha voice. “Mj I see you slinking around back there, knock it off.” he calls over his shoulder to the female that was ready to jump him. His request was met with a snarl but there were no teeth ripping into him yet. Good.

“Sue. I’ve got my eyes on you.” he looks at the turquoise dinosaur and was met with a little hungry chirp.

“Gwen. Stand down.” he stares the golden raptor right in the eyes and did not let his gaze waver from her until she made a soft little rumbling sound that wasn’t quite a growl but wasn’t a purr either.

Natasha’s stomach must have over ruled her brain for a moment because before Peter had the chance to separate his gaze from the other raptor to look at her, she was moving to bite him. But before she had the chance, a bright red and black form intercepted her, taking the bite on his flank with a pained cry.

“Hey! HEY!!!” he screams, breaking the two raptors up before they could really start fighting with each other. “Knock it off.” he raises an eyebrow and stares at them. “I’ve got my eyes on you, Natasha.” he warns and got a little chuckle sound in return. She understood. She just didn’t care.

Wade straightens up a little and taps his death claw against the ground once before stalking towards Peter. The girl raptors had backed away at this point, having lost interest in Peter now.

Peter watched as the male came forward, his head lowered and tail wagging slowly back and forth as he approached the human. Peter found that he wasn’t scared. Wade’s body language read non-aggressive and this was the raptor he had a previously established trust factor with. He didn’t move.

Wade makes a soft calling sound and pokes his muzzle towards Peter, his bright eyes staring the young man down in a friendly way. “Hey Wade.” Peter says softly and slowly reaches a hand up, brushing the back of his knuckles affectionately down the Raptors nose.

The raptor gave a pleased little purring sound and a pleasant little shake went through his body. He lifts his head and gives a soft roar as he lowers his head and gives Peter a soft shove in the ribcage.

The 23 year old was scared at first, he didn’t know what the animal was trying to do and he thought he might be about to be on the menu, but then Wade nudged him again and again, this time bumping along his arm and finally at his hand, eyes locked on his injured leg.

“You wanna help me?” he asks softly and was again thrilled to find Wade nodding at him. He smiles and bites his lip. “Alright boy, I’ll take your word for it. Stand still while I use you as a brace to stand up with.” he smiles and slowly lays his hand over the back of the Raptor’s intentionally tensed neck. He slowly puts more weight onto it and used Wade to push himself up, the raptor’s muzzle poking him in the side and helping encourage him to his feet.

After Peter was standing he was even more surprised to find the clever Raptor was not done helping him just yet. He allowed Peter to lean against him and he slowly walked towards the exit door, giving Peter support enough that he was able to limp was way to the door, unlock it, and slip out with no problems. The raptor did not even try to sneak out.

The guards rushed forward to help Peter once he was out of the enclosure, asking him questions about what happened, which Peter answered immediately. He was not going to do anything to spare the hide of that little shit kid. He could have gotten himself or someone else killed and he needed to be gotten rid of quickly.

As he was laying in the infirmary having his ankle tended to, not broken, thankfully, he couldn’t help but reflect on the entire incident.

The raptors had listened to him. He’d been face to face with the pack and they listened to him. He survived falling into the raptor cage.

His mission had been more of a success than he realized. He was accepted.

And then there was Wade, that strange and good natured boy.

Peter didn’t even know what to do about him. But he did know that now, he could get closer with his training, and those Raptors were the best group possible.
He felt a flash of affection build up inside him. He realized that he really liked those dinosaurs. They were interesting creatures, each with their own little personalities and voice. And Peter was quickly falling in love with them, and his job as their handler.

Suddenly his life didn’t seem so crazy.

Chapter Text

Any fear Peter had of the Raptors had all but evaporated after his accident.

He took two days off, well, he was actually forced to take the days since he really didn’t want to and insisted he felt fine, to give his ankle a rest and then he was back at it, slowly and painfully maneuvering the steps to the overlook with the big boot on his foot to keep his ankle stable.

When he gave a sharp whistle, all the raptors ran out from hiding and started jumping at the platform- however they were not growling or making threatening noises like they had before but instead were whimpering and seemed to be calling to him. He smiles and throws some pieces of meat down to them, calling their names pleasantly in greeting. At least he appeared to have been missed. And they were not angry at him for falling into their territory. That was the first sign that he was doing something right.

Even after the others had settled down, content with their feeding and affirming that Peter was back, Wade kept jumping, trying to get up to Peter. His lizard like eyes were gleaming, and his tail was wagging happily like a puppy’s.

He sent an extra piece of food Wade’s way and while he ate it without complaint, the raptor still did not settle down, continuing to squeak and jump towards Peter fruitlessly.

Peter felt a little bad for the poor guy, he could see the mark on his flank where Natasha had bitten him when he had saved Peter’s life as well as a few other newer marks on his long and powerful legs and neck. It looked like the other Raptors may have been using Wade as a punching bag and a chew toy.

Seeing how Peter has been Flash Thompson as well as many other bullies favored picking post in high school he could easily sympathize with the gentle natured Raptor.

Never in a million years did Peter ever think that he would look at a Raptor and consider him to be gentle natured but there was really no other way to describe Wade, or really Gwen either. Both of them were so mild mannered that they were really considered docile. Gwen was a little more aggressive than Wade since she had her high beta position to protect but as far as Raptors went she was pretty laid back.

Natasha was the scary and aggressive one, that much was obvious. Sue was just kind of what you would assume to be your ‘standard’ Velociraptor, and Mj had a penchant for trying to make herself seem better than the others when in all reality she was the runt of the liter.

From what Peter could tell, Mj was probably the one doing the worst of the bullying to Wade since she found that she could beat up on someone with no repercussions. He’d had to guess that Mj had probably challenged Gwen for Alpha position at one point and then lost and got shoved back to an omega-beta spot. He could always sense a little tension between those two girls.
Natasha didn’t seem to care much about her ranking spot, just keeping herself as an outlier to the pack activities but whenever she stepped in the other two smaller raptors bowed out to her. They were probably scared she was going to eat them if they didn’t- a fear that Peter could understand easily. If one of the raptors was going to be problematic it was her.

But Peter wanted to have faith in the raptor pack, and when his leg healed up he wanted to attempt getting closer to them and do some ground work with them. Wade may or may not be the exception but he was hoping maybe he could form a bond strong enough with all of them that would allow for him to touch them. Physical contact is a very important part of nurture that helps a bond grow so he figured that connecting deeper with the raptors could only be a good thing. But he didn’t want to be walking around them while he’s injured. It never hurt to be on the safe side with things like this.

He went through their normal routine of pacing across the top of the enclosure, having the raptors follow him while he continued to talk to them and occasionally have them do little things like stop or walk a certain direction without him following. It didn’t seem like much but to Peter every time they did something like that it was amazing. They were really beginning to listen to him and respect him.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

It took two weeks for Peter to convince Mr. Stark that his leg was good enough to remove the boot, but when he was finally cleared and had the damn thing taken off he couldn’t have been more excited. He didn’t tell Tony about his plans of crawling in the Raptor cage and working face to face with the Raptors but he was personally very nervous and excited for it. Really his default plan was that if the other Raptors rejected him and tried to eat him he hoped Wade would come to his aid again since he seemed to have a real friend in that red raptor. But if not than he was probably going to die and that was.. Disappointing to think about so he was going to try and avoid that.

Peter smiles and walks into the raptor building, whistling softly to himself as he unlocks the door and dismisses the guards. He walks over to the fence and unlocks the thick door, slipping into the open paddock with his nervous heartbeat pounding in his wrists and fingertips. He was scared shitless even though he knew he really needed to not be showing that to the dinosaurs.

There was a soft, curious chitter to his left and an answering grumble directly in front of him. They knew he was there, they were watching him. They just were not giving him the same luxury.

Throwing his nerves to the wind, he puts his fingers to his mouth and whistles sharply, calling them in. It was now or never.

Slowly the brush crackles under their feet and leaves rustle as they come out of hiding and stand in the open area around Peter. He looks at him, really looks at them, and smiles warmly.

Despite how terrifying their teeth and claws looked, they really were beautiful creatures, their colors unique and vibrant. Even Mj and Sue, who were both green hues were very unique in their markings and color tones. Mj was a pure emerald green with lighter green streaks running down her back while Sue was more of a forest green mixed with turquoise with blue lines running down her sides and tail. Their eyes were also different. Mj had brown eyes and Sue had almost cobalt blue ones. But they were both beautiful. They were also the first two to step forward towards Peter.

Next Peter saw the oil slick black raptor that was Natasha. Her skin had beautiful hues of green and purple and gold running along her black scales, like she truly was painted in oil. Her eyes were a fiery burning gold that always made her look angry, even if she really wasn’t. The look worked for her. In the wild she probably would be a top line hunter since her ferocity was unmatched by her siblings and her dark color easily let her blend into the shadows. She would be even more terrifying to face up against in the dark.

After a decently long lag time after Natasha showing herself, Gwen came out from hiding, looking like she’d just been woken up from a nap. Her tail was drooping a little and she seemed less alert than usual. Peter figured that was probably a good sign- Gwen didn’t see him as a threat as least. But as Alpha he felt he maybe should have been a little offended at how lazy she was responding to his call.

“Perk up Gwennie.” he addresses her directly, which made her shake her head and finally stand at full attention in front of him. She pulls her arms to her chest and growls softly but it was a more friendly than aggressive sound.

Natasha drags her death claw against the ground and lowers herself into a predatory crouch, her arms hanging down below her body and her tail and claws extended straight out. Her lips were pulled back and her mouth was open a little to clearly display the lethal set of teeth she possessed. She continued making a soft growling sound that was not the friendly greeting Gwen had offered.

Peter immediately turned his full attention to her, going as far as risking putting his back to the green sisters to face her. He could hear their surprise and he puts one hand behind his back, fist balled up in their established ‘stay’ sign. He did not take his eyes off Natasha.

Any normal person that saw this would have called the men in white coats to come take Peter away in a straightjacket since no sane person would ever in a million years dare to stand in front of a growling velociraptor, and stare her right in the eyes to force her into submission. Peter was unwavering though. He could feel the others moving around behind and beside him but he did not take his eyes away from Nat.

“Stand down, Natasha.” he says calmly, quirking an eyebrow when he heard the strange sound she made in return. She sounded conflicted, which he supposed was a good thing. Better confused than angry.

“I said, stand down. You’re not in charge here. I’m the Alpha.” maybe Peter had been wrong in his assessment. Natasha may have been the alpha before. But than why did the raptors follow Gwen more than her?

Natasha’s teeth click together sharply and she slowly slinks backwards, body still crouched down but she disappeared from few. The only thing Peter could think was that Natasha was not alpha for one simple reason. She didn’t want to be.

She prefered to be alone. She didn’t want the others to flock around her.

Speaking of flocking, there was one very familiar face that was missing from this scene. Wade was nowhere to be found.

Peter whistles and cups his hand around his mouth to call out for the raptor. “Wade! Wade come see me, big fella!” he had hoped that Wade would have been the first to greet him. He would have been less scared if the friendly boy had been there.

He was very confused where Wade was, actually. Judging from how Wade had jumped at the platform and cried for Peter every day, he would have figured the raptor would have been ecstatic that he was finally in the cage with him. “Wade!?” he yells again, with no results.

He looks at the female raptors and frowns deeply. “Gwen. Where's Wade?”

The golden raptor stopped what she was doing, which appeared to be playing with a beetle on the ground or something of the like, and she looks at Peter. So he repeated his question.

Raptors also seemed to have selective hearing. Interesting to know.

Gwen started walking into the woods and Peter followed, without even thinking about why that was a bad idea. He'd never been in the woods like this. Only in the open area of the enclosure. For all he knew Gwen was setting him up for a trap to make him become their next meal. God he hoped not.

He followed close behind Gwen for a little ways into the woods, looking around in wonder as he sees little nests built in the darkest and thickest part of the enclosure. So this was where they bed down every night.

He was even more pleased to find that the platform he always stood on was in plain sight of the raptor nests. They were able to keep an eye out for when he came to visit them.

They walked right through the nesting area and into a separate section of the woods, a tiny cry filling Peter's ears.

“Wade?” He asks softly. No wonder the raptor didn't come, he was pretty far out of earshot from the fence. Peter didn't know exactly how good their hearing was so odds were he just didn't hear him calling. Gwen was unphased by the raptors calls or Peter’s shouting.

It was clear to Peter that she did not care much at all about Wade’s whereabouts and she was just following Peter’s orders bringing him to him.

But the raptor still did not come up to him, or stand anywhere in sight. Peter was very worried.

Gwen stops and looks at a bush with her head tilted to the side. She was not going to go any further. Peter looks at the golden scaled female and nods his head slowly at her. “Thank you, Gwen. You can go.”

As soon as she was dismissed she turned and ran in the other direction. Peter wasn’t sure if Wade was here or not but something made that raptor incredibly uncomfortable so he’d taken pity on her and let her go.

What he saw when he looked down into the large bush made him want to call her back and give her a good kick square in the tail.

There was a fairly deep hole dug beneath the bush, and in that hole laid a familiar red and black body. Wade lifted his head up and was about to snap and growl at whoever was disrupting him but when he saw it was just Peter he instantly melted and let his head settle back to the ground, letting out a soft little warble of greeting.

He had some new wounds down his side and he was bleeding profusely from bite marks in his leg but nothing critical as far as Peter could tell.

The bullying was getting worse and worse for poor Wade. The raptors were getting more physically aggressive with him. Peter went to lay a hand comfortingly on his shoulder and the male raptor winced, looking afraid.

Peter frowns and speaks softly to him. “Hey boy. It’s alright. It’s just me. You know me.” he tries again and this time he was successful laying his hand across his side.

The raptor gives a soft little whimper and stretches his neck out, submitting to Peter. The human smiled and softly runs his fingers down Wade’s throat to show he appreciated and accepted the submission.
Wade gives a soft sound like a purr and his body shakes with what appeared to be a shiver. That made Peter frown, Raptors weren’t supposed to get cold. Than he figured out that Wade may have actually been in shock from being attacked and hurt so bad.

“Stay here boy, I’ll be right back.” Peter whispers softly to him and stands up, running back to the gate to exit the raptor enclosure. The four females all stood at attention when Peter ran out of the woods, tilting their big heads and blinking slowly as they watched him.

He was going to give them all hell later. But for now he had to get Wade back to feeling okay.

He quickly opens the door and shuts it behind himself, running to a supply closet. There were shock blankets in there, thankfully, and he grabs one, shutting that door before running back into the enclosure.

Mj seemed curious about the blue thing he held in his arms and she chitters softly, stepping forward with her eyes locked on the blanket. “Back.” he orders her sharply. To his pleasant surprise, the raptor did indeed step backwards. Still didn’t help how pissed he was at her though. He knew she was likely heavily at fault for what happened to Wade.

He continues walking passed the girls and through the woods again until he found Wade again. The raptor greeted him with the same weak little warble and his tail twitches a little in a half assed wag.

“Hey Wade. I got you something.” Peter slowly drops to his knees beside the raptor and unfolds the blanket, holding it up and showing it to Wade before slowly moving and draping it over his body.

The dinosaur seemed very confused what was happening at first but after the warmth from the blanket started seeping into his bones he makes a pleased little squeaking sound and turns his head, nuzzling against the softness covering his shoulder in wonder. It felt so good.

Peter smiles as he watched Wade figure out the blanket, moving enough to curl up under it and completely disappear. “Hey you.” he calls softly. “Now I can’t see you.” he lifts the edge of the blanket and looks into Wade’s eyes.

The raptor purrs softly and stretches his neck out, licking Peter’s cheek affectionately in thanks. “Oh eww! Raptor germs!” Peter laughs and reaches his hand out, softly cupping the hinge of Wade’s powerful jaw and rubbing it with his thumb.

Wade seemed to be completely at ease with Peter being with him now so he stayed very still, careful to not do anything to frighten his human friend. It was different with this raptor than the others. With the girls he needed to be in control of them and establish a dominance over them or they would not respect him.
Wade didn’t need an alpha. He needed a friend.

Peter knew that Tony probably messed this poor raptor up pretty severely by locking him away from others and being cruel to him, but Peter was glad that he was still willing to give Peter a chance to be his friend.

Peter sat cross legged on the ground and chuckles when the velociraptor moves to lay his head in peter’s lap. The boy softly tucks the blanket around his body again and lets his fingers run slow and gentle circles over the top of the dinosaurs head.

The scales felt weird, they were very smooth and soft but had a cool temperature to them. He could feel the vibrations in the raptors throat as it purrs silently at the touches.

Peter stayed like that for over a half hour until he was sure the young raptor was sound asleep. Only than did he dare to move and exit the enclosure. Despite how mad he was he still bid a goodnight to the girls, he was still their alpha after all.

Tomorrow he would keep a closer eye on Wade and hopefully try to break the cruelty cycle his life has always revolved around. Peter could only hope things would continue to go his way.

Chapter Text

Peter changed his approach to dealing with the raptors after his discovery of being able to get in the cage. Gone were the days of yelling at them from atop a catwalk, and now he got right up close to the prehistoric creatures.

When he finally caught MJ and Natasha both in the act of tormenting Wade, one for walking a little too close to her nest and the other for trying to eat before she was done, he had thoroughly scolded both of them, even going as far as using the buzzer they hated so much to deter them from picking on the male.

He had gotten down into the cage and yelled at them up close afterwards, standing in front of Wade protectively and giving the girls a big lecture about treating him nicely and there being major consequences if he catches them being mean to him again. He'd never seen an animal look more genuinely grateful.

Wade had healed up both emotionally and physically from his earlier attacks, though he did seem to have an unhealthy obsession with carrying the shock blanket around with him. In fact Peter actually has yet to see the raptor without the blanket since giving it to him. Wade either was carrying it in his mouth, had it draped across his back, or cradled it to his chest with his claws but he always found a way to have it with him.

The human handler found it to be cute- just one of those things that made Wade different. All this time he was spending with the Velociraptor really made him begin to think more about the human Wade back in New York.

He and Wade, aka Deadpool, were never really particularly all that close, being as at odds about their views on killing as they were, but towards the end of their time together before Peter left to come to the island, the strange man had really opened up quite a bit to Peter- showing how surprisingly nice and normal the man could be. He had a lot of issues and no one really liked him, which was probably where Peter had derived the namesake for the Raptor from, but inside and under the weirdness and the insanity, there was a bright and kind hearted man that just needed a friend.

The similarities between the two were kind of scary. But it made Peter feel better about everything involving the male Raptor. He could relate him to something he already knew and that made everything much less freaky.

Besides the affection running towards Wade, the other raptors were also really warming up to him. Even Natasha stopped growling when he came into the pen, though she did not participate in running up and greeting him like Wade and Gwen did.

They were all getting much more comfortable with him being their alpha and when he was in the enclosure all eyes were on him and they all seemed to switch gears entirely so they could listen to Peter. They were beginning to look up to him as well. MJ had found a rock that she thought was pretty and she brought it to him, Gwen would bring him bones from meals that she had buried, Wade like to play tug of war with the blanket with Peter and Sue had apparently saved a piece of her last meal and offered it to Peter, which he had politely declined because raw meat did not sound appealing in the slightest.

He knew these were gestures of peace and respect and he loved the raptors more and more for it. They were finally accepting him as one of their own. They had also begun finally accepting Wade in their ranks since Peter’s scolding them, and the male Raptor was looking much better. The cuts and scratches stopped appearing on him and he walked around with more confidence and luster.

Every day Peter would go into the enclosure and give everyone a little chunk of meat and then start to walk around the woods with them. Other staff members laughed at Peter (after recovering from the shock that he was able to get so close to them) when he said in one of his reports that he had started walking the raptors but in all honesty it was the most effective time they had together. It brought them closer together as a pack.

They always walked in the same general order, Peter up front with Gwen either close behind or right beside him. MJ and Sue would walk behind them and it varied between who walked in the back, Natasha or Wade. Some days when Natasha was feeling particularly social she would walk ahead of or beside Wade but usually the male was closer to the pack than her.

Peter could tell that Natasha and Wade had actually gotten rather close, well as close as the black nightmare Raptor would allow herself to be to anyone. They were both more or less outsiders and they were both content to just let things happen. They moved easier around one another and they did not fight.

MJ on the other hand still didn't like Wade, and Peter had seen her come close to nipping him a few times before he would correct her. Sue was indifferent to him, which was a little heartbreaking for Peter to see since she was sort of the mother hen of the group, and Gwen tolerated him, finally allowing him to interact more with the pack and treating him less like an outside pest.

But where Gwen has made incredible improvements was with her relationship to Peter. The beta Raptor was now very close with her alpha, nuzzling and warbling gently at him every time he entered the paddock and barking at him to come back when he left. She had also warmed up to the idea of being pet and often times when she walked beside Peter he would rest his hand on her flank.

Peter was grateful for her efforts and he always praised her for being a good girl. She was the best beta Peter could ask for. When the Alpha of a pack was not present the job of control fell to the beta and Gwen picked that up seamlessly. But she never threw a fuss about having to relinquish that control when Peter returns, instead turning herself right away to being ready to follow his orders.

At first she was hesitant but all in all she really did fall as a perfect beta, and Peters entrance to the pack did not completely throw their lives into chaos like he was afraid it would. They adapted quickly.

The raptors also proved to be far more intelligent than Peter had originally thought. They had good memory retention, they could remember hand signals he taught months ago and just pulled out for fun. They also seemed to be picking up little by little more English vocabulary. Wade still understood the most but with how much Peter talked to them, they were all getting used to at the very least reading his tone if not understanding the words being said to them.

Their communication skills also never failed to impress him. They tried so hard to talk to Peter and he wished he could understand what they were saying because all of them were incredibly vocal, always making little chirps, critters, warbles, purrs, barks, or whatever noises they used to speak to one another. They also communicated a lot through body language, posture and the way they carried themselves were both important tells of their mood. They also could send each other signals through things like moving their tail, stomping their foot, tapping or dragging their death claw on the ground or just looking at each other and tilting their head a certain way.

Peter was learning some of their cues, bit by bit. Mostly the posture and movement ones. Back hunched and tail slightly dropping was sad, tail level and head up was their resting or normal state, chest lower than hips, tail up and head extended was alert or nervous and so on. These were important cues to learn so Peter knew what mood his raptors were in. He never wanted to make the mistake of going in to hug an alert or anxious Raptor. That is how people get eaten.

Their diet also was an important indicator of how they were feeling and each, like people, had different ways of coping with emotions.

MJ stress ate, and when she was in a sour mood she could demolish three whole cow's single handedly and she would kill anyone who tried to come between her and the food.

Sue and Natasha both cut back their eating habits when they were high strung but not enough that it was a problem.

No. The problem lied with Wade and Gwen when they were stressed. They refused to eat. You couldn't pry their jaws open and force them to swallow food. They just wouldn't do it.

Gwen thankfully was a little less emotional than Wade and Peter’s really only ever had one incident of Gwen being in a mopey mood, and that was after Tony had insisted he come in the cage and see how close he could get to them; which had stressed all the raptors out incredibly since they were so territorial but they couldn't do anything since Alpha had brought the intruder in. They were all pissed at him for the rest of the day and showed it by ignoring him.

But Wade.. He suffered. A lot.

There would be time spans of three to five days on end where Peter could not coax his buddy to eat. Wade would just lay in his little den under the bush and sulk. Nothing could bring him out so Peter would just sit in front of the den and stroke his smooth muzzle until he would doze off to sleep. Peter always made sure to tuck him in with his blankie and cover the entrance to the den with leaves so he would not be disturbed.

One such time, Gwen and Sue had both actually come over and tried to coax their brother out, worried why they haven't seen him for more than three days. Whether they were actually concerned about Wade or if they just sensed Peter’s sadness and wanted to end that was highly debatable.

By this point in time all the Raptors were full grown, all traces of puppy fat gone and replaced with lean and powerful muscles that screamed danger to anyone other than Alpha.

Tony had tried to convince Peter to stop going into the cage after they were a year old, claiming that it was far too dangerous and they could kill him but Peter continued doing it anyway. He was the Alpha. They would not hurt him.

Plus the separation would hurt too badly now. They were all used to Peter coming in and hand feeding them, walking around with, talking to, petting, and just devoting hours of his day to them.

Wade would probably find a way to commit suicide if Peter stopped coming around.

The raptors were not tame, they were not pets, but Peter loved them with his whole heart and he oddly enough felt comfortable believing that they loved him too. They had a special and deep bond that he had not believed would be possible to form since he was not with them in their infancy.

However the raptors felt about Peter, it did not reflect on their feelings towards humans in general. They openly growled and moved to frighten anyone that ventured too close to the fence that was not Peter.

They especially did not seem to like children. Except for Wade. He was honestly pretty chill about stuff like that. He wasn't as territorial- maybe because he did not grow up here and did not necessarily consider it home? But either way he never really actively participated in trying to scare the park guests.

When the park had first opened its doors to the public the raptors had almost all spontaneously combusted in a pile of angst, anxiety, and anger. They didn't know what to do with all the people looking at them. Watching them. The loud voices, the children crying when they growled.. They went a little insane.

Tony had tried again to convince Peter to do a, Raptor show, and Peter had reluctantly agreed, but after he got in there and tried to have the girls perform some tricks it became very clear that was not going to happen. They wouldn't listen. Wade and Natasha would not come out from hiding in the woods. Gwen just stood there and blinked owlishly at him as if she was questioning whether he had lost his mind and the green sisters were wrestling with each other to try and curb their anxiety.

After the park had closed, Peter returned to the paddock and let himself in, falling against the fence and crying softly.

Tony had ripped him apart for the embarrassment that show was and had threatened to can him. Peter knew he was just upset in the heat of the moment but it still hurt and scared the young man.

Gwen had poked her head out of the woods and chatters softly, confused why Peter was here and what sounds he was making.

He'd never cried in front of them before.

She must have figured it out pretty quick though because she rushed over and smoothly slotted herself around Peter, nuzzling him and purring softly in what he knew she meant as comfort. He hugged his beta and cried against her neck for a good ten minutes before he began to settle down.

When he looked up he saw all the other raptors standing there watching, unsure what exactly was happening. Even Wade seemed hesitant on how to proceed. But eventually Gwen gave a little chirp to call them over and they all huddled around Peter, head-butting, nuzzling, and sniffing at him. Even the green girls and Nat, who were not fond of being pet allowed Peter to stroke their scales and hug them close.

That was the first time Peter had ever slept in the raptor paddock, but it was nowhere near the last.

‘-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’

“I want to try and hunt with the Raptors.” Peter says one day as he walks into Tony Stark’s office.

The billionaire looks up and raised an eyebrow at Peter. “You want to.. What?”

“Hunt. With the girls and Wade? Instead of tying their meals up in the middle of the paddock I want you to let it run free and I want to try leading them through a hunt. They need incentive to run. They're getting bored.” Peter taps his fingers off the back of the chair he was standing behind.

“You want to chase down a pig with a pack of hungry raptors? Kid how hard did you hit your head? Or are you high? Did you smoke something before coming in here? I am not paying you to support a drug habit!”

“N-no! No sir I just- I know my raptors are getting bored. They need something exciting to do or they will start causing problems.”

“So you think running with them while they’re hungry is the solution?” Tony could not seem to make his face move out of that horrified expression.

“I’m their alpha. They won’t hunt without me. Or if they do I run the risk of them not respecting me anymore since I did not participate in such a big pack event. They need to do this with me.”

“Peter those animals can run up to 50 miles per hour. There’s no way you can keep up with them. And the pigs are only so big. If they decided that you’re in the way or you look more appetising than the pig than they won’t hesitate to eat you too!”

“No. They won’t. Look the way I see it, I can’t outrun a velociraptor. I’d be a moron if I thought I could. But I can outrun a pig. So I will lead them, let them have their fun, and no one gets hurt. And like I said. I’m the Alpha Raptor. They wouldn’t turn on me.” He crosses his arms over his chest. He was unwavering in his trust in the dinosaurs.

“You might just be the craziest bastard I’ve ever met, Pete.” Tony drags a hand down his face in a move that Peter took as surrender. Since having to learn to read the Raptors so well he had in turn become better at perceiving human emotions as well- he just didn’t put that to practice as much.

“Tomorrow. Don’t release the pig until I give a cue. I have to explain to them what’s going on first or they might freak out.” Peter turned to leave but was stopped by Tony’s next remark.

“You know they don’t actually understand a word you say- right kid? They’re just big dumb lizards?”

Peter stops and takes a deep breath to calm himself. “Tony maybe if you stopped looking at everything for the dollar sign in front of it you would understand how smart those animals really are.” he says slowly before leaving. He felt personally offended by Tony calling his raptors dumb. He would bet that Wade’s IQ alone was higher than Tony’s.

When the next day came, Peter met Tony at the Raptor paddock. The man insisted that he wanted to see just how smart these animals were.

Peter had rolled his eyes but let himself into the cage, whistling softly. Gwen was the first to come out of hiding, but she paused at the edge of the woods. She didn’t like that Tony was standing just outside the fence.

“Gwen.” he snaps his fingers softly. “Eyes here. Just ignore him.” Peter says softly and the golden raptor blinks and focuses her eyes on Peter again, walking towards him slowly. He pats the top of her head and as he was doing that the rest of the pack came to greet him. They were waiting for the beta to make sure it was safe.

Peter gave them all a quick rub on the nose as a greeting and told them all to step back so he could talk to them. Once they had formed a nice arc in front of him he smiled and rests his hands on his hips. “Good girls and boy. We’re gonna do something a little different today.” he smiles.

Gwen chirps softly and looks at Tony with a low growl, making Peter laugh. That was the sound they made when they were hungry. “No Gwennie we’re not eating Tony.” They all made disappointed whines at that which just made Peter laugh harder.

“We are, however, going to be hunting for food today. Tony is going to release a wild pig in here and we are going to chase it down. Gwen, you’ll be the one in charge of killing and you can eat first. But I’m leading- are we clear on that guys?” he looked each of them in the eyes and was met with a different sound of either approval or anxiousness. They were hungry.

“Alright.. We’re good Tony.” he looks at the other man who walked over to the control panel on the wall to open the trap door that held the pig.

“Wait for my order, guys.” Peter holds his hands up in front of them. This was the big test. If they could control their blood lust enough to obey him.

The door opens and a little pig runs out, squealing as it ran right past the raptor pack. They are snarled and hissed as it ran passed them, dragging their claws against the ground and lowering their heads anxiously, shifting their body weight around. They were ready to rock but they were waiting for alpha’s command.

Tony’s jaw dropped in shock at what he saw.

Peter kept his hands up and slowly turns around, crouching into a runner's position himself. “Ready… GO!” he drops his hands and takes off running, surprisingly fast for a lanky nerdy boy like himself.

The raptors all called loudly to each other before following after Peter, the ground shaking from the impact of all their heavy bodies running at once. They soon fanned out around Peter, running beside and a little behind him but never once did any of them run ahead of Peter or make any aggressive moves towards the human.

They crashed through the woods, jumping over a log and following the pig. Peter evaluated the situation and decided to try something. “Sue, Mary Jane and Natasha, go left and herd it back this way! Wade and Gwen stick with me.” he motions off to his left and the three Raptors he had called out to split from the pack and ran in the direction he pointed to.

His heart swelled with pride. They were really listening to him! He could hear Gwen and Wade’s heavy panting as they ran beside him. They were likely more excited than tired but it was good to know they were finally getting a real workout. They needed this.

The three girls he had sent away started calling to Peter as they rounded the pig off and chased it back his way. Peter tried, god bless him he tried so hard to copy the deep throaty bark of the raptor call. It was a half choked sound from how breathless he was from running but the message seemed to be received nonetheless and they rejoined the pack.

Gwen growls and locks her eyes on the pig, opening her massive and powerful jaws as she bends down to grab the pig in her mouth as they caught up to it.

Peter skids to a halt, nearly crashing into his beta as she kills the pig. All the other raptors surround her, snorting and panting as they wait to be cleared to eat. Wade stops beside Peter and head butts his shoulder, the raptors sides heaving and mouth open slightly as he pants. He looked tired but happy, warbling softly in joy as he thanks his alpha for the hunt.

Peter rests his hand on Wade’s shoulder and wipes soft sweat off his eyebrow. “Good job buddy.” the raptor side steps a little and nudges Peter playfully and Peter gave him a good firm shove back.

After the pig was dead, Gwen steps away and calls for the others to come eat. It was proper leader etiquette, and Peter was proud of her for doing it, to let the other pack mates eat before the leader. She waited while the other Raptors, even Wade, tore the carcass apart before she moved in and finished off what was left.

After they were all blood covered and full, Peter led them to the little lake in the center of the enclosure so they could clean up and get a drink. He sat on the shore of the lake, watching the dinosaurs splash around to clean themselves of the blood covering their muzzles and bodies.

Wade- who was dripping wet from his bath, comes and stands beside Peter, looking down at him with a cute head tilt. “What do you want, Wade?” the trainer knew that look. The boy was up to something.

Wade chitters softly before crouching down and ramming his head hard against the middle of Peter’s back, sending him flailing into the water before he had time to scream “no”.

He pops his head up above the water and spits a solid stream out of his mouth, aiming at the smug looking raptor standing on the shore. The girls all stopped what they were doing to watch, curious how the alpha was going to react to being shoved by what they considered to be the more inferior raptor.

Peter glares heated bullets at Wade and splashes hard at him, thoroughly dousing the boy in more water. Wade chirps happily and jumps in the water beside Peter, sloshing more water at him with his nose as Peter continues to splash at him with his hands. “You little prick!” he laughs.

Gwen and Sue came over and started splashing at Wade and Peter, turning it into an all out water war. Who knew that raptors were good swimmers? Certainly not Peter! He thought they would have hated the water but they all were perfectly content swimming around and playing with each other in it.

Peter finally got cold and tired enough that he drug himself back onto the shore, lying flat on his back to let the sun warm him and dry him out. The raptors also must have been tired cause they join him on the bank, all stretching out and sunbathing. He could have sworn that they had little smiles on their faces.

He was one with his Raptors.

Chapter Text

Peter knew something was wrong the minute he walked into the pen.

A few days ago he had come down with whatever horrible bug was going around this time of year and was left completely unable to crawl out of bed for four days.

It was the sickest Peter had ever been in his whole life and he never, ever, wished to repeat the experience.

But what was worse was in those four days he had been unable to go see his raptors and the stress of thinking about them probably only made it worse on his body but he couldn’t not worry about them. They were his family now.

He was still fairly sick when he finally was able to walk again but he medicated himself heavily and drug himself off to the raptor enclosure whether he wanted to or not.

Maybe things just felt off to him because of how sick he was but the whole atmosphere of the place was weird.

He whistles but no raptors came to greet him. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion and frowns deeply. “Gwen? Wade?” they were usually the first to come meet him but they were nowhere to be seen. His voice was horrifically hoarse and rough from coughing his lungs out for the past few days.

Finally there was a soft growl and an oil black body creeps out from under the bushes, her mouth open in a threatening snarl as she approached Peter. ‘Shit.’ Peter thinks in a panic. Peter had never really been in a one on one situation with Natasha, and this was not a good time for this to happen.

“Back, Natasha. Stay back.” his voice was weak and lacked the authority it usually held. The raptor almost seemed to laugh at him for it. Her bleach white teeth stood out sharply against her black muzzle and her golden eyes were on fire. She looked pissed. But more importantly- she looked hungry.

Peter still did not see any other Raptors around and a tiny part of him became terrified that Natasha had rebelled and eaten them all in his absence but he knew that was crazy. Well. Hopefully it was just crazy.

The raptor inches closer to him, clawed fingers ready to rip into him and make him her next meal.

In hindsight, coming to see them and barely being able to talk was not such a brilliant idea after all. Major oops.

Natasha crouched and was just about ready to jump and kill him when a loud and powerful roar came from the edge of the woods. Gwen storms over, making furious noises as she plows Natasha over, biting at her and slashing at her repeatedly with her death claw.

They fought for a moment before Natasha surrendered and ran back into the woods. Gwen stood in front of Peter, standing at her full 6 foot height. She looks at him and croons softly, lowering her stance and bumping her nose to his chest softly.

She backs away and raises her head up, calling loudly for her siblings. The ground shook and before he knew it Peter was surrounded by bubbly and excited Velociraptors. “Hello girls.” he greets them and pets them all affectionately as they made happy noises around him.

Wade was still not around and Peter sighs softly once the girls had calmed down. “Is Wade sad again?” he frowns as he looks at all the female raptors.

The girls all gave Peter a nervous look, glancing between each other like they didn’t know what to do. They all seemed to be more tense and upset than usual.

“What’s wrong girls?” Peter asks and looks at Gwen, clearly giving his beta a command for answers.

The golden raptor makes an uncomfortable growl and looks over her shoulder, towards where Wade’s den was located.

“Where is Wade? Gwennie. Come on girl you gotta show me here.” The raptor looks out of the fence and whines softly, dragging her death claw against the ground in a shy and unconfident manner.

“Did Wade get out? He’s out of the paddock?” Peter felt his heart clench in fear. He couldn’t believe that Stark wouldn’t tell him if one of his raptors had gotten loose though.

Gwen looks out at the fence again and nickers softly, looking at Peter and then, seeing the Stark logo on his shirt she coos and presses her nose against it.

Peter stumbles back a little at the pressure to his chest. It was strange. He looks at where she kept bumping her nose and frowns. “Tony.. does Tony have Wade?” the realization hits him hard and he could have screamed. That son of a bitch.

“I’ll be back girls.” his head was screaming at him to just go back to bed and handle all this when he wasn’t so sick. But his heart would not let Tony do whatever he was doing to the male raptor.

He drug himself over to the laboratory and snuck in, looking around cautiously. He crept down the halls, trying to look inconspicuous but he stood out quite a bit in his raptor trainer gear against all the white lab coats.

“Tony you cock sucker if you have my raptor I’m going to-” he never got to actually finish his threat because he saw Wade through the glass pane window.

He’s never seen an animal look more genuinely scared. Wade’s honey brown eyes were blown wide and he could tell by the way his throat kept expanding that he was whimpering. He was shivering and his claw was tapping frantically against the ground. He was tied to the floor with big shackles around his ankles and a thick steel muzzle that surrounded his whole head but wrapped tight around his mouth to disable him from biting anyone.

“Fuck.” Peter snarls and felt fire reign through his veins. He was furious. How dare Tony.

He takes off at a sprint down the hall, running as fast as his illness and rage muddled mind would allow. He ran into Tony’s office and stands in the doorway, panting heavily and shaking in rage.

“Tony! What the fuck is wrong with you!? What are you doing to Wade?” he snarls as he leans against the doorframe to support himself.

Tony looks up in surprise and a small, faked pleasant smile spreads across his perfectly manicured face. “Ah. Peter. I thought you were ill. What are you doing here?”

“I was. But I went to check on my raptors and my boy was missing. See where I got a little worried here. Now what the fuck are you doing to him?”

Tony raises his eyebrows. “You best watch how you speak to me here, son. We were just doing a routine check-up on the raptor. Checking his health and all that.”

“Without telling me? And only him?” Peter raises his eyebrow in snarky disbelief.

“For now. If you wish to take him back to the pen you may do so. I believe we’ve gotten everything we needed.” Tony stands up and walks over to Peter. “I’ll help you get him out of here.” he offers with a gentle smile. But Peter could read through the expression. He was up to something.

But Peter didn’t call it on him yet, instead just nodding and following him back to the lab room where Wade was located. Tony swipes his access card and the door slides open.

Wade saw Tony and instantly growls, his body tensing as if he was prepared to fight despite how tightly restrained he was. Tony ignored the obvious warning signs of the distressed raptor and walked forward, slowly unshackling his legs and removing the muzzle from Wade’s head.

Peter could have told Tony that it was a bad idea but he let fate play out how it may for a minute. Wade headbutted the scientist and knocked him to the floor, roaring loudly and extending all his claws and teeth, obviously ready to tear into Tony.

Peter sighs heavily and steps into the room, stepping between Wade and Tony. He wasn’t even properly calculating the danger present here.

Wade snarls viciously and snaps his teeth inches away from Peter’s face, making him jump back in fear and surprise. “Hey! What the shit, Wade?!” he scolds firmly, despite how rough and miserable his voice was. His heart was pounding in his throat. He was terrified.

This was his sweetheart. His gentle and loving Wade that had just bit at him, and Wade didn’t even seem to care. He was blind with rage.

He moved to step around Peter to get to Tony, eyes locked on his prize. His kill. He’s never looked this murderous.

He wouldn’t stop. Peter knew that if that Raptor got his teeth in Tony there would be no stopping him besides lethal methods. The trainer couldn’t let that happen no matter what so he chokes back his fear and straightens back up.

“Wade. Stop it. Eyes here.” he snaps his fingers and points to himself, still being completely ignored.

“Get that Raptor back or I’m having it put down!” Tony shrieks in fear.

Peter had to act or things would be too ugly to fix. He does the only thing he could think of and he jumps forward, wrapping his arms around Wade’s muzzle and looking directly into his eyes, hoping to make the raptor see him and snap out of his blood lust trance.

It didn’t work as planned.

Wade snorts loudly and shakes his head, throwing Peter in the air and across the room, making him smash against the thankfully bullet proof glass and crumple on the floor.

Peter moans in pain and screams Wade’s name loudly with the most agonized voice he could manage.

The raptor suddenly pauses as if something had hit him, all his muscles freezing and his eyes slowly shifting to where Peter was struggling to push himself up against the glass wall. He makes a soft crooning sound and tilts his head, his body twitching a little and eyes blinking slowly.

Suddenly he makes a loud calling bark and runs to Peter’s side, leaving Tony on the ground. He pokes Peter in the stomach gently with his nose and he purrs loudly, nuzzling his head against Peter’s as he whimpers in apology. He knew he had hurt Peter. He had lost control and he had thrown Peter into a wall. He felt horrible.

Peter slowly lays his hand on the side of his muzzle and pulls his head up so he could look into the Raptor’s eyes. “Hey. Hey buddy. I know you’re scared. It’s okay. You’re okay. I forgive you.” he whispers softly and holds Wade’s head up.

“Come on sweet boy. You’re alright. Let’s get you back where you belong, okay? You’re still my good boy. Come on.” he holds himself up using Wade as a brace like when he sprained his ankle.

They walked to the door together like that until Peter stops and looks over his shoulder. “Don’t touch my Raptors, Stark. They’re my problem not yours. You need medical checks done, I’m a scientist too. I can handle it. And maybe we can avoid this whole mess next time.” he motions forward and Wade walks along with him all the way back to the pen.

Peter opened the doors and motioned Wade to go on in, but the raptor refused. “Wade. Come on. I really don’t feel up to arguing with you. I’m sick and I need to go to sleep.”

All the other dinosaurs came forward, looking at Peter and Wade in a mix of confusion and relief. Peter sighs and slowly steps into the cage to apologize to the girls. They deserved to know what had happened. Plus going in there himself seemed to be about the only way he was getting Wade in that pen.

Once all the raptors were standing around him, he really strained his vocal chords but he gave them all a nice long and heartfelt apology, explaining what being sick was the best he could and promising them that he was not going to just abandon them. He also promised them that Tony would not be messing with any of them again and that they were all safe.

They all seemed appeased by this explanation and the tension melted out of them, the mood changing back to how it usually was. Even Natasha had come forward and chittered softly in apology. Seemed she was just pissed off at thinking Peter had abandoned them and let them take Wade away with the bad men.

Peter, of course, forgave her and assured her that it was alright. He didn’t appreciate almost being eaten but he was willing to overlook it..he could understand her anger and didn’t blame her. Though he did make a joke about needing to find her a more healthy form of anger management. She didn’t appear to find it as funny as Wade and Peter did.

Peter sat in the pen with them for a little bit until he absolutely couldn’t hold out any longer. He apologized to them again and promised he would be back tomorrow but as he made to leave, Wade cries out loudly like he’s been stabbed and runs to him, curling his large body around Peter’s and blocking his way to the exit.

“Wade. I gotta lay down. I really don’t feel good.” he rubs the top of his head softly and tries to weakly push him away. But the raptor wasn’t having it and stayed right where he was, digging his claws into the ground.

“Come on boy I seriously do not wanna deal with this-” he looks around and saw there were no guards standing around anywhere, nor were there any people since it was passed the park's operating hours. “Alright. Fine. If you won’t let me leave than you are coming with me because I need to go to sleep and you are not stopping me.” he opens the door and walks out, the raptor close behind him. Wade was suffering some PTSD from being tormented by Tony and his lackeys and he did not want to be abandoned by Peter again. He would not allow it to happen.

He shuts the door behind them and walks across the park to his cabin not even caring that he literally had just let a velociraptor out of its cage, especially after the way Wade had lost control earlier. He was too tired and his headache had returned full force so he was unable to think about the repercussions of what he was doing.

Wade was looking around curiously, tilting his head and tapping his deathclaw on the concrete pavement beneath his feet. He was unused to anything other than dirt and grass or the smooth linoleum floor of the lab. He didn’t really get the chance to explore his surroundings to and from the lab since he was more terrified and angry in that time. Now he was with Peter. He felt safe. He makes a curious little chittering noise and wanders over to a trashcan, pulling a half full container of popcorn out of it and eating it, container and all. He made a content little purring sound and then realized that he could not see Peter anywhere and he calls out, loudly, raising up to his full height and barking fearfully.

One would think that a raptor on the loose would have a ball causing chaos and destroying whatever it could.. But Wade just stood there and cried for Peter like a lost puppy.
“Wade. Over here you idiot. Don’t stray from my side.” Peter whistles and yells to him, well as much as he could yell with how sore his throat was.

As soon as the raptor saw Peter again he runs to him and nuzzles against his shoulder softly in apology than makes a show of planting himself right beside Peter in an ‘I’ll be good’ manner. It was hard for him to resist the temptations of investigating this foreign landscape but he had to obey Peter.

Peter patted his flank softly and continued walking towards his home, the path turning from concrete back to a worn dirty road. Finally when they got to his house Peter dismissed him from his side, letting him run around and investigate the perimeter of Peter’s homestead. Peter continued walking straight and he goes into his house, leaving the door open a crack so Wade could get in if he wanted.

He wasn’t thinking how crazy it was to let a raptor run loose. Only about how good his pillow would feel under his head.

He stripped his clothes off and collapsed onto his bed, out cold before his head even hit the pillow.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

When Peter woke up in the morning his noticed a couple things. A). His fever appeared to have gone away during the night so he felt much more human besides the pain from being thrown against a wall and B).... there was a body next to him in bed. A very.. Deformed…. ‘Raptor body’ his mind provided helpfully.

“AHHHHHH!” Peter yells as he sits up in shock. Sure enough, snuggled right up beside him like a house pet laid Wade, still sound asleep despite the outburst from his bedmate. The raptor was lying on his side, tail curled around his body and laying over Peter’s legs. His head was resting on the extra pillow right beside where Peter’s head had been. His arms were curled to his chest. He looked..oddly adorable?

“Wade. Wade you dummy!” he grabs his own pillow and smacks the dinosaur in the face with it, startling the sleeping creature wide awake with a terrified squawk. He raises his head and looks at Peter with an absolute ‘what the fuck’ look.

“You can’t be here! What the hell was I thinking? I bought a raptor home! I’m losing my mind!” Wade just watched Peter’s meltdown and with a disinterested little croon he lays his head back down and closed his eyes to attempt to go back to sleep. He’s never slept on a bed before but he liked it very much and did not ever plan on sleeping in a hole under a bush again.

“No! Up! Get up! I have to get you back to the paddock right now or I am going to be in big big big trouble! Up!” he hits the raptor with the pillow again and jumps out of bed, grabbing his pants off the floor and hopping around one footed as he pulls them on and than following with the shirt.
“Wade get up!” he grabs the raptors tail and pulls on it, trying to forcibly pull him out of bed.

He got hissed at for that and the dinosaur kicks at him, careful to hit him with his heel and not the massive claw that rested on his foot.

“Don’t you give me that shit! I was loopy last night when I let you follow me here and now I need to- Shit! I overslept too! The park already opened. Aghhhhh fuck me!!” Peter knew there was no way he was going to get the velociraptor back to the raptor paddock now. People would see him and freak out. Plus he didn’t trust that Wade would be able to act as good as he did last night when there’s hoards of people running around.

Peter looked at the raptor and groans. “Alright. Fine. You can stay here until tonight but then I am taking you back as soon as the park closes! I’m such an idiot. What was I thinking.” he mumbles angrily at himself as he walks out the door and slams it behind himself. He still had to go take care of the girls.

The day had gone fairly normal, the girls were all questioning where Wade was but he assured them their brother was okay and they settled down again. Strange since he didn’t think they cared much about him but he was happy to see they were at least worried about that much.

He was sitting on the ground and petting Gwen when his radio went off. “Peter we have a big problem. You have an asset out of containment. Come to the cafeteria right now before someone shoots it!” Tony yells at him through the communication device. He sounded furious and..maybe a little scared?

“Damn it Wade!” he curses and stands up, running out of the cage and to the cafeteria as fast as his legs could carry him. He skids around the corner and saw the guards all surrounding the building, people huddled outside shaking in fear. He makes his way through the crowd. “Pardon me ladies and gentlemen. Coming through, excuse me. I’m the raptor trainer. Don’t worry ladies and gentlemen he is peaceful. He won’t hurt anyone.” he kept saying things like that until he was able to get inside the building.

He presses the talk button on the walkie talkie and dials in Tony. “Where is he? I’m inside the cafeteria right now and I don’t see any raptors.” was there some salt in Peter’s voice? Yep. But he was mostly just annoyed with Wade. Give the idiot an inch and he takes a mile. A really dangerous mile that could end with him being killed.

“Not sure. Somewhere in there. Look around. And Parker- if that thing bites anyone I will have a bullet in it’s skull. You’re lucky it’s still walking around now.”

“Yes sir I understand.” Peter winces a little. “I’m gonna find him and get him back to the enclosure now. Over and out.” he hides the walkie talkie away and walks deeper into the abandoned restaurant. “Wade?” he whisper yells softly. “Wade where are you?”

There was a loud crash and an equally loud roar from back towards the kitchen and Peter instinctively runs towards it. “Wade!” he shouts and jumps over the counter, running to the kitchen.

There, to Peter’s immense relief, the raptor laid on the floor on his back, holding a massive block of cheese in his clawed hands and was nibbling on it happily. He was the picture of calmness and happiness. “Wade you little jackass you!” Peter shouts and storms over to him furiously. “I let you in my house and then you break out and start doing things like this? What are you- are you eating a block of cheese?! Oh my god you little- ” he stops yelling when Wade rolls back to his feet and makes a confused little whine, holding his cheese out to Peter in a peace offering. He looked so genuinely confused and innocent and Peter realised that he really didn’t know how bad of a thing he had done. The Raptor didn’t understand consequences. He just knew that he was hungry and had followed his nose to food, eating what had interested him most. Which apparently was parmesan cheese.

Tears pop up in the corner of Peter’s eyes and he marches forward, throwing his arms around Wade’s heavily muscled neck in a tight hug. “Damn you. Just damn you.” he cries and hold tightly onto his raptor. “You could have been killed. Do you understand that, Wade? There are men with guns standing outside right now ready to kill you because of this. If you wanted cheese all you had to do was tell me. This is my fault for not feeding you this morning, isn’t it? I’ll get you all the cheese you want if you promise to never do this again, okay? Only walk around outside the cage with me, okay? Only with me.” he pulls away from the hug and rests his hands on the sides of Wade’s muzzle. “You’re a good boy but other people are still scared of you because you look dangerous, okay? I know you’re not and you know you don’t mean any harm, but they don’t understand that. So you only go on walkabouts with me, alright?”

The raptor gives a soft croon of understanding and reaches his head out, licking Peter’s cheek softly and then once again raising his arms up to offer Peter the mauled cheese block. He looked so guilty and sad that Peter felt horrible for yelling at him. This was his first offence. He didn’t know any better.

Peter breaks a little chunk of the cheese off for himself and nibbles on it. “Thank you for sharing your cheese with me. It’s very good.” he smiles at Wade and grins at the happy sound the raptor made in return, throwing his head back and barking loudly.

“Alright alright. Come on big guy. Let’s get you back to the paddock now. Maybe I’ll consider breaking you out again tonight if you’re really good, okay? There’s going to be a lot of people out there and you can’t growl at any of them even if they’re being loud. Just pretend they’re not even there and focus on me, okay?”

Peter waited until the raptor nodded in agreement and he presses the cheese to his chest, questioningly warbling at Peter.

“Yes you can bring your cheese with you. Now come on.” he motions with his arm and the raptor swoops out of the kitchen happily, tail wagging as he walks, occasionally stopping to nibble on his cheese until they got to the doors. He stops and looks at all the people outside, looking at Peter and backing up a step. He didn’t want to go out there.

Peter sighs and opens the glass doors, clearing his throat and yelling to the crowd. “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen! I sincerely apologize for this disruption and I assure you you may all return to your lunches momentarily. However I have to get my raptor out of here first and seeing this big crowd is making him a little skittish. So I’m going to ask you all to back up and move to the side so I can get him back to the rest of his family and you can all get back to your food. Thank you all very much. Please do not try to touch the raptor and please remain calm.” Peter instructs them and was happy that the people followed his orders as well as the dinosaurs did.

He wasn’t the shy whimpy kid he was back in New York, that’s for sure. But having to push around 200 plus pound prehistoric carnivorous animals tended to do that to a person.

“Alright Wade. Come on buddy. You’re good now. Big scary crowd is going to let you through.” he holds the door open and smiles in encouragement as Wade slowly pokes his head out of the door and creeps his way out.

Once he was out of the door Peter let’s it shut behind him and softly taps his flank, pointing to where they had to go and walking off with the raptor trailing along beside him. Wade was crouched down and was trying to make himself seem tiny at first but as he walked beside Peter he slowly straightened up to his full height and walked more confidently beside his handler.

Peter could hear their audience mumbling in wonder and he puts on his best winning smile, seeing that Wade was relaxed made him more relaxed as well. “Excuse me, mister?” a soft little voice near the front of the crowd calls.

A cute little boy with big nerd glasses, a velociraptor tee shirt and a little disposable camera was the source of the noise. “M-May I take a p-picture of your dinosaur?” he had the same little nervous stutter Peter had as a child and it melted his heart.

“Well son that’s gotta be up to the raptor. What do you think, Wade? Can the kid have a picture with you?” he looks directly at Wade and gave him a warning look. Thankfully it wasn’t even necessary and Wade just nods his head and straightened up to look pretty.
Peter smiles and motions the kid over.

“Alright son, what’s your name?” Peter smiles as he offers a hand to the child.

“I-I-’m Andrew.” he says nervously.

“Hi Andrew. I’m Peter, the park’s Raptor guy. You like Velociraptors?”
Andrew nods immediately and motions to his shirt. “Yeah! I love them! They’re super cool!”

“They’ve always been my favorite too, Andrew. Alright so what I’m gonna have you do is I’m going to take your camera and you’re gonna go stand right in front of Wade and I’ll take your picture with him, okay?”

“Is the Raptor’s name Wade?” he asks curiously and Peter chuckles and nods.

“Yep. He’s a one and a half year old Male named Wade. And he’s a real sweetheart. So don’t be afraid of him. He’s more interested in eating that block of cheese he’s holding than you.” Peter promises and takes Andrews camera as the kid walks over and slowly stands in front of the dinosaur.

“H-Hi Mr. W-Wade.” he says nervously and Wade lowers his head, looking at the child, crooning softly in affection. Peter snaps a couple pictures of them looking at each other and than whistles softly. “Wade. Eyes here buddy.” the raptor lifts his head and poses with Andrew as the kid looks at the camera with a shy smile. “Beautiful picture! Good job guys.” he walks over and hands the camera back to the kid, snapping a few pictures of the two with his phone just because it was so cute.

“C-Can I p-pet him?” Andrew asks shly.

Peter looks at Wade and the raptor seemed completely at ease so he smiles and nods. “Yeah. You can pet him. Wade, lower your head buddy.”

The raptor followed his instructions so his head was about level with Andrew’s chest. “Little secret here, Andrew, he really likes being pet right on the tip of his nose between his nostrils here, like this.” Peter bends down and shows the child right where to touch.

The boy raises his pale little hand and slowly lays it on Wade’s nose, jerking back a little when the raptor snorted but replacing it when Peter reassured him that it was okay and that he was just ticklish there but loved it.

“He’s so nice.” the little boy smiles as he slowly strokes the Raptor’s nose.

“He really is. Wade’s the nicest out of my pack. My beta Gwen is almost as nice but she doesn’t like cuddles as much as Wade does.” he laughs as he rubs the hinge of Wade’s jaw to keep him calm as the kid pets his nose.

Wade raises his cheese block up to his mouth and nibbled softly on it as he was being pet and Peter laughs softly. “Little fact about Wade, apparently his favorite food is cheese.” he pats the raptors back and laughs.

Eventually Wade straightens up and stomps his foot softly, looking at Peter and wuffing a big breath of air into Peter’s thick hair. Peter smiles and pats his side and thanks Andrew for visiting with them but explaining that they had to go now before Peter gets in trouble for not returning the Raptor to his pen.

The kid thanked Peter and gave him a high five before running off to find his parents.

Peter clicks his tongue and turns to walk Wade back to the enclosure. People were taking a lot of pictures of them and Peter stopped a few times to let people take pictures of him and Wade together but he didn’t let anyone else come up for today. He didn’t want to push his luck.

When they got back to the enclosure Peter throws his arms around the raptors neck and grins widely. “Oh my god Wade you’re such a good boy I’m so proud of you! Thank you for doing that!” he praises him enthusiastically.

The Velociraptor seemed to melt into the hug, now understanding it as a deep gesture of affection. “I’ll come get you tonight, you deserve it after this. We’re just gonna have to get up early so I can get you back here before anyone realizes you’re gone.”

And Wade went peacefully back into his cage, not seeing to have any objections with Peter’s promise in his mind. He trusted his human.

Chapter Text

And so begun the cycle of stealing the raptor from the enclosure at 10 o'clock every evening then rushing back at six and returning him every morning.

At first Peter struggled with the new early rise time, he was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew he had to do it if he wanted to keep stealing Wade away at night.

Speaking of which, the Raptor was no help at all in the situation since he apparently felt the same way about mornings and waking up before the sun. The first couple of days it was almost impossible to coax the dinosaur out of bed and one day Peter had actually half drug and half carried him out the door before he finally started walking on his own.

There were multiple times Peter questioned why he continued doing this- it was a giant pain in the ass- but.. the answer was pretty simple. He'd grown used to the company. Also Wade would throw a fit if he got left behind at night.

The whole Tony lab incident has been pretty well left behind now, on both parties ends, but Wade still had a difficult time being separated from Peter and did not like letting the boy out of his sight.

Wade was a pretty decent houseguest all things considered. He couldn't quite fit on the couch but he liked to lay beside it and watch tv while Peter messed around on his laptop or they would watch a show together.

Peter has always been fond of the history and travel channel but Wade seemed to enjoy the Food Network more than anything so they compromised. If Peter was watching it was usually History. But if he was distracted in his computer or phone, Wade got to watch the Food Network.

There were a couple of things they could both agree to watching at any time, though. They both loved Ghost Adventures, Shark Tank, and Alone.

Wade particularly liked Ghost Adventures and he must have had some sense of date and time because whenever Saturday would roll around he would get all anxious and twitchy until Peter got him in front of the tv and put the show on.

He also was a scaredy cat because it always seemed like every time they would go to bed after watching that show Wade always ended up snuggled far closer to Peter than any other night.

Peter wasn't sure where exactly he stood on believing if ghosts were real, or if anything on the show was actually real, but he knew that Zak Bagans was hot and he had a pretty major crush on the guy. Plus the show was actually pretty scary, real or not.

The only place Peter struggled with living alongside Wade was where food was involved.

Wade was a major foodie, to put it simply. But he was an adventurous eater so just eating meat wasn't good enough for him. He liked to sample everything Peter made for himself. And to the man's horror, he seemed to like it all.

The Raptor also had ridiculously bad table manners, stealing food off the counter or even directly off Peter’s plate, sitting and begging like a dog, even going as far to cry and bark at Peter until he is offered a bite.

The only safe harbor was if he made a pure, plain kale salad. Wade was smart enough to not even bother picking off his plate if that was the meal of the day. But Peter was not that fond of kale himself so that rarely happened.

Other than that the two lived pretty easily alongside each other. Wade’s sad days had nearly ceased existing since he had moved in with Peter and Peter quite frankly has seen a major increase in his own mood.

Ever since he was a teenager Peter has suffered some minor to major emotional issues, to the point his aunt has even tried to convince him to go to a psychiatrist which he fought tooth and nail. He's been prone to having some days where he could hardly pull himself out of bed, much like Wade. Since coming to the park his mood has gotten a little better but he still felt like garbage some days. But since Wade had started living with him… it was the first time he's ever felt really and truly happy with no strings attached.

Wade wasn't human and Peter didn't try to pretend that he was, but he was someone. He had very clear emotions, interests, human like capabilities, and he was good company whenever Peter needed someone to bitch and moan to or just to feel like someone is listening when he talks. Wade was always there, happily.

Peter was the crazy kid who lived with a Velociraptor, but he loved his life regardless of how insane it all was. To him, everything was perfect.

‘-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’

Peter wakes up to a soft and scared crying sound and his heart immediately leaps into his throat as he throws himself out of bed, looking for Wade.

Peter had gone to bed earlier than he normally did, leaving a still wide awake Wade to roam. It was only about 12:30 now and the dinosaur was nowhere to be seen.

“Wade? Wade where are you?” Peter yells quietly as he checks the entire inside of the cabin. He wasn't there. His heart beats rapidly in panic, he couldn't find where the Raptor was and he sounded like he was in serious pain. Peter was terrified what had happened to him.

“Wade!!” He yells louder and a soft warble came from outside on the porch and Peter finally realized that the door was open. He quickly runs outside and freezes in place at the scene laid out before him. “Oh my god. You… you idiot.” He laughs in relief and shakes his head as he watches the Raptor just stand there, crying out for help with a pair of Peters boxers on his head.

Wade must have let himself outside to take a leak, which he did just about every night since he had learned that he could let himself in and out as he wished, and walked into the clothesline, where Peter had been too lazy to remove his clothes from the day before and gotten the underwear stuck on his head.

Peter didn't know how, but somehow Wade must have figured out that Peter would be angry if he ripped the clothing article so he just stood there looking pathetic as he waited for help with removing it.

“Wade you're beyond help.” Peter laughs as he walks forward and carefully removes his Spider-Man pattern boxers off the dinosaurs head. “You poor boy.” He pats the top of his head and laughs when the Raptor croons in thanks and nuzzles his nose against Peter's chest.

“Come on now. Enough of getting my clothes stuck on your big head. Bed time.” He pats his side gently and turns to walk back to the house, the Raptor eagerly following and pushing against Peter's back with his snout to encourage him to walk faster.

Peter shuts the door behind them and laughs as Wade races back to the bed and jumps into it with an excited squawk.
“Big scary dinosaur my ass. You're a glorified teddy bear.” Peter laughs as he crawls into bed beside the Raptor.

Wade moves so he could lay his heavy head across Peter’s torso. Whenever Wade thought he has done something bad he always cuddles a little closer to Peter than usual and Peter understood this to be his way of pleading for forgiveness and hoping that Peter wouldn't abandon him because he was too stupid.

Which was a silly practice since Peter never planned to leave him. Especially just because he made a silly mistake. Everyone screws up and does dumb things sometimes. He wished his friend would get to understanding that so he wouldn't panic so much every time he thought he did wrong.

Half the time the things Wade thought he did wrong were usually just amusing to Peter, like getting underwear stuck on his head. There was no harm done with it. It was just a funny little mistake that was so typical to the clumsy and friendly velociraptor.

Peter had really grown fond of Wade’s silliness. After the big ‘Cheese incident’ as Peter has dubbed it, there have been no big dangerous things like that occurring.

There was one lamp sacrificed to the Raptor jumping around without paying attention and knocking it over but that was on Stark’s wallet not Peter's so there was no complaints there.

Peter puts his arm around the neck of the already dozing Raptor and fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

‘-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’

Peter always had loved music.

It was something that made him happy and allowed him to escape off to another world. So when he purchased a set of little speakers and hooked his phone up to them he was very excited to share music with Wade.

The Raptor sat in the middle of the living room floor, watching Peter with a cute little head tilt that showed that he was interested but would stay out of the way. He didn't seem to realize how much mass he actually had and had frequently tripped Peter with his long tail until he learned to just stay back when Peter was concentrating on something.

Peter was bent over the coffee table plugging the speakers into the wall and he jumps back with an excited whoop when he got it figured out. “Alright boy. Now that's fixed. What do you want to listen to first? What's a good introductory song?”

He plops down on the couch and pulls his phone out of his pocket, fingers tapping furiously at the screen than moving as he scrolls through his hundreds of songs. He hums and carefully considered his options.

“Ah-ha!” He grins and taps something and happy upbeat music spills from the surround sound speakers.

Wade's head raises up and his eyes looks around, trying to find the source of the sound before looking at Peter in confusion.

Peter was grinning ear to ear as he looks at the deeply confused creature. “This is called music. It's fun!” He bobs his head with the verse and then jumps up onto the couch, grabbing the tv remote and singing loud and offkey with the chorus.

“I'm on top of the world, hey! I'm on top of the world hey! Been waiting on this for a while now, paying my dues to the dirt!” He shouts and jumps up and down on the couch, throwing his head back in laughter as he has a fun time just singing and being silly.

Wade watched him for a moment before standing up uncertainly, unsure whether Peter was okay or not but after determining that he was smiling and just having fun the dinosaur starts to roar along with Peter's singing and bob his head, letting himself relax and watch Peter happily.

After that song ended Peter skipped ahead a couple songs on the album and another fun little song started to play. He jumps off the couch and walked towards the dinosaur. He started to move his body in some very uncoordinated ways and sang along with the song happily.

He was trying to encourage Wade to dance with him. “Oh I love to be the underdog!” He laughs and hits his shoulder against Wade’s to force the confused Dino to move.

Wade sort of thought Peter was having a seizure. He was not a good dancer at all, but again he figured the boy was having fun and he slowly moves his feet a little, wagging his tail and beginning to jump around with Peter, barking excitedly when Peter threw his arm around Wade's neck and pressed his head against the raptors as he sang loudly to him.

Peter had a dreadful singing voice but Wade loved it nonetheless.

After that song ended, Peter’s eyes widen and he hops over to the couch, determined to keep his fun energy up. He quickly changed the song over to a new band, something that was a little more club-pop-feely and immediately started singing along with that as well but his moments changed a little.

They were no longer the goofy and uncoordinated jumping and shuffling he was doing before but he found his rhythm more with this and his hips moved in a much smoother way, actually managing to pull off some sexy and fun moves.

Wade was amazed by the change, stepping back a little to watch his handler. Peter jumped a little circle around Wade, trailing his fingers down the raptors back as he grins and jumps on top of the coffee table, still grasping the remote as he sings into it. His voice was somehow a little better, like he was actually trying now.

As the chorus started up he put one hand on his hips and pops them out in time with the music. Wade watched him and roars in approval, finally getting the idea and beginning to really dance himself.

The bass from the speakers was nearly shaking the house but Wade’s dancing certainly took it the rest of the way. He was mostly just jumping and wagging his tail, calling and making other various sounds of excitement and joy.

But they were both having so much fun that they didn't care how stupid they looked.

As the song wound to a close Peter jumped and did a backflip off the table, landing in front of the startled Raptor. He wraps his arms around the dinosaur and hugs him tightly, panting from exertion and happiness.

Wade carefully puts his arms around Peter’s waist like he's learned to do to return the hug, keeping his claws away from Peter's back as he rests his head on the boys shoulder.

“That was fun huh boy?” He pants happily and pats the velociraptors shoulder.

Wade gave a little nod and steps back, looking at Peter with what he hoped looked like a smile.

Peter put a softer song on and turned the volume down, going to sit on the couch again. “I listen to music a lot. So.. hope you don't hate it.” He laughs softly and lays his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes.

Wade crawls over to him and rests his head on the couch beside Peter’s leg, mouth open slightly as he pants. He coos softly and closes his eyes, yawning a little as he and Peter both fall asleep right there.

‘-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’

Peter stands in the middle of the open field, a large bone that still had some meat on it gripped tight in his fist.

The raptors were all surrounding him, hissing and growling with their eyes locked on the prize. He had enough for all of them. But they didn't know that.

They were all in predatory crouches and were waiting for Peter to give them instructions or something to happen with that bone. They wanted it badly.

He gave a sharp whistle to call all their attention and their eyes all locked on him, jaws dripping with saliva. None of them made a violent move towards Peter though. He was Alpha. You didn't snap at Alpha, no matter how hungry. It was the Raptor Rule. Kind of like a code of honor sort of thing.

The only one who'd even come close to breaking that rule was Natasha and she has repented for her crimes by now, having been shunned by the pack for a few days after the incident despite her making amends with Peter. Gwen had still seen it as necessary to really drive the lesson home and there have no problems since then.

Gwen was sweet and docile until someone pissed her off or threatens the pack. Peter was just surprised how she had turned to protect him over one of her own kind. She must really have seen him as their leader.

But as respectful and kind as Gwen typically was, she had blood lust in her eyes as she stares at the bone in Peter's hands.

A few weeks ago Peter probably would have been wetting himself and crying to be let out of the enclosure at the sight of five hungry raptors circling around him, snarling and snapping their teeth at the air surrounding him. But now he was really just amused and knew their growls were really more pleas for food than anything aggressive.

Peter pulls his arm back and squares his hips up to make sure he had good strength pulled up and he throws his arm forward, letting the bone sail out of his hand and disappear into the woods. The raptors all squawk and look at him desperately.

“Go get it guys!” He dismisses them and watches as they make a giant dirt cloud and disappear into it as they chase the bone. He nearly got whipped by a raptors tail and jumps out of the way quickly with a nervous laugh. That would have hurt. Probably even broken a rib. Thank god for Spider reflexes.

He could feel a presence lingering behind him but he figured it was probably just a park visitor watching him interact with the raptors.

It was as close to a ‘show’ as Tony was going to get. No mass crowds at scheduled times. But if people showed up and watched to watch him play with the Raptors he was beginning to allow small groups in.

Peter had begun to lose his argument about the raptors not wanting to perform after Tony had reminded him of how Wade had interacted with the crowd after his escape party but he still was not going to be an entertainer.

However the presence grew closer and Peter felt his hat be plucked off his head and the sun shone brighter in his eyes without the hats protection.

His hands fly up immediately, patting his hair to confirm that it was gone, as if he couldn't believe that something had just stolen his hat right off his head.
"Hey what the- Wade. Give me my hat." He turns to looks at the raptor that stood beside him. Said animal lowers its body into a playful crouch and makes a soft nickering sound, wagging its long tail; Peter’s thieved hat clenched gently between the raptors sharp teeth.

"Give. Me. The. Hat." He takes a step towards the raptor as the raptor steps backwards. Peter tried to chase him but the reptile very quickly outpaced him and disappeared into the shrubs. "Damn you Wade if you eat my hat I'm going to kill you, skin you, tan your hide and turn you into a new one! It'll be genuine velociraptor leather!! You dick!!!" Peter screams into the woods.

He could hear a soft call from off to the side and Gwen stood there, cow bone between her teeth as she tilts her head in confusion. She didn't see what had happened. All she knew was that Alpha was angry and Wade was running away.

The other three sisters stood in a loose semi-circle fan around Gwen, also watching Peter. They were hoping he had food for them too since Beta Gwen had won the bone.

He pushes aside his aggravation at Wade and steps outside the fence for a moment to grab the hidden bucket of bones, handing them out to each of the other raptors, making them take the bone gently from his hand. He trusted them enough to know the difference and not bite what they shouldn't, even when hungry.

“Wade you bastard get out here. I have food for you.” He calls. He somewhat doubted Wade would be very hungry now considering he had eaten half of Peter’s crockpot Mac and cheese this morning along with splitting Peter’s morning bacon with him. But no one else could know that so he had to give him the bone just for appearances sake. And Wade would probably appreciate having something to gnaw on throughout the day. Maybe Peter could trade his hat for it.

The raptor slowly steps out of the woods and low and behold, Peter’s safari hat was resting atop his scaly head. Peter raises a hand to his mouth and snorts. “Oh my god. Wade. You freaking dork.” he laughs and shakes his head. “You are impossible. So bad. Come here and get a bone. And you can’t keep my hat. It’s the best one that keeps the sun out of my eyes.” he motions the raptor forward.

Wade slowly creeps forward and whines, lowering his head so Peter could take the hat as he reaches for the bone at the same time.

Unfortunately they did not plan the movement very well because Wade pushed his head forward too much and Peter lost his balance, sending him sprawling over the velociraptors back.

Wade straightened up immediately and looks around, wondering where Peter had gone while Peter wonders how on earth he ended up here.

He squeezes his legs lightly around Wade’s neck as he pushes against his back to right himself. Wade squawks in confusion and tips his head back, looking at Peter out of the corner of his big eyes.

“Hi. You threw me over your back.” Peter laughs as he squirms around and finally was sitting upright but still backwards on the Raptor. Wade did not seem to be affected in the least by the extra weight on his back, more just curious what Peter was doing.

Peter bites his lip and slowly turns around so he was sitting on Wade facing forward, moving his legs to bracket the ribs of the animal. “Not too bad. Feels pretty much how I’d imagine bareback riding a horse to be.” he hums as he settles in on him.

Wade didn’t really move much, just standing there in confusion. He really had no idea what the hell was happening to him. He makes a little chitter to express said emotion and Peter laughs, patting his neck softly.

“It’s alright buddy. Is this hurting you? Am I too heavy?” when the Raptor shook his head Peter smiles. “Good. You remember how much that kid liked seeing you out of the pen? We’re gonna try something new here. Push our luck a little.” he grins and unties the wet bandana he had tied around his own neck and he lightly loops it around Wade’s to give him something of a rein to hold onto. “Go towards the gate.” he instructs him quietly.

Wade did as asked, walking a little awkwardly at first with Peter on his back but eventually getting used to it and walking more normal. Peter unlocks the door and lets Wade walk out, shutting it behind him. He hoped some kids got a kick out of this at least cause the chafing was going to be horrible!

They walked out into the crowd and Peter motioned Wade to walk towards where a few younger kids being led by a teenager clearly stuck on babysitting duty were reading a sign about the Raptors. “Slow and steady boy. Non-aggressive stance.” he instructed Wade before sitting straighter on his back.

“Hey kids! You wanna learn some more about Velociraptors?” Peter calls, making them all turn around and gasp at the sight before them. “I’m Peter Parker and I’m Jurassic Park’s official Raptor trainer and caretaker, and this here is my best friend Wade!” he pats the dinosaurs neck.

“Is that a real dinosaur? Or is it one of those.. Those.. Animatonic thingys?” one of the kids asked.

“He’s very real, I assure you. Wade is a one and a half year old male, born and raised right here in the park. He’s one of the most friendly and gentle raptors to ever live- hence how I am able to sit on his back like this. I’m bonded to the girls but I doubt they would let me get away with something like this.” he laughs and tells Wade to lower his head so the kids could see his face better.

They all crowd around and look at him, gasping and mooning over how beautiful he was. The teenager looked skeptical still. “That is really impressive animatronics.”

“That’s the word I was trying to think of!” the kid chimes in but was ignored.

“He’s not a machine. Wade is a living creature. Go ahead and put your hand on the center of his chest. There’s a heartbeat there. I’d offer to let you feel his saliva but you probably don’t want to do that. He just ate lunch.”

The teen, still thinking Peter was lying put his hand on Wade’s chest, jumping back when he felt the thrumming of a pulse there. “Holy shit.”

“I told you. He’s as real and genuine as they get.”

“You tamed a raptor?” everyone was in shock, a small crowd gathered around by now.

“He’s not tame. He trusts me and I him in return. It’s a mutually shared bond that lets us work together and get what we want. Wade and I are friends and we know where we stand with one another. He’s also dangerously smart. So. Does anyone have any questions about Wade, his sisters or just Velociraptors in general? I would be happy to answer your questions.”

As Peter was bombarded with questions he did his very best to answer everything, and keep the smile on his face. Normally the man would shut down being surrounded by so many people and asked so many questions but here.. It was different. He could speak easier and he was proud to share his knowledge with eager young minds, teaching them all he could about his beautiful raptors.

He loved his job.

After that crowd had dissipated, Peter rode Wade around a while, letting the raptor steal people's hats, pose for pictures and even steal bites of food from people until he bought him his own corn dog and bag of popcorn.

Wade was completely at ease with Peter’s weight on his back and the man’s voice in his ears. If Peter was okay with this than he was too.

As the park closed and people left, Peter walked Wade back to the enclosure and was called into a meeting by Tony. “Shit. And this is where I get in trouble. Oops.” he laughs and promised Wade he would be back to take him home later.

He walks over to Stark’s office and sighs as he walks in. “Yes I know I should not have done that but the kids loved it and I had complete control of the situation.”

“It’s not about you riding the raptor around the park, though traditionally I would give you hell for that too.” Tony stands to face him. “I have something else I need to talk to you about.”

Chapter Text

Peter froze in the doorway, caught off guard by Tony’s almost melancholy tone of voice. “Uh..okay...what's up boss?” He figured whatever was coming was bad so he best try to butter up now by being polite and laid back.

There were people surrounding the desk, a bunch of lower class executives, some other trainers and a few lab guys. Clearly a meeting had been going on for a while since everyone looked frazzled and worn down.

Peter's eyes rove around the room, looking at every person there, reading and cataloging them without even realizing that he was doing it. The mood was tense, almost scared. People looked nervous.

Tony seemed upset and Peter himself was confused. This was not a usual meeting. Normally even if everyone else was losing their shit, Tony was holding it together well enough.

A couple doctors/ scientists stand around the back corner of Tony’s desk, huddled around it and murmuring softly to one another. One looked like a small fry, the weakest link in the room. Peter couldn't help but silently categorize every person, his alpha instincts taking over his human mind for a moment. Tony was the other alpha in the room, his authority the only one matching up to Peter.

Maybe Peter has spent just a little too much time in with the raptors.

Tony sighs and looks at Peter with his dark eyes, he looked tired and worn out as if he just lost a hard fought battle. It was not a look Peter was used to seeing on the entrepreneur. “There's been some conversation of.. well alright I'll just cut right to it. Studies show that people are growing more violent. And as a result they like things that involve violence to be shown to them as entertainment.”
Tony did not have to explain where he was going with that any further. Peter understood. He just didn’t want to believe it.

Peter’s blood runs cold in his veins and he felt his knees lock under himself. “Hah.. hahaha that's.. that's funny Tony. Really. That's cute. Can I go back now? The raptors kinda need their night meal or they'll be angry again.” He was praying desperately for it to all be a big joke. ‘This isn't funny.. But it must be a joke.’

“Peter. Take this seriously. We are doing this. I want you to start preparing the raptors for fighting. We will try to keep it non lethal, break it up before any of the assets can be hurt. I can make no promises but we will have staff with sedatives at the ready to break it up every time.” Tony stands up from his desk and crosses his arms across his chest.

Peter glares at Tony and shakes his head. “No. No way in hell. You are not using them as fighting dogs. Tony you've got to be kidding!”

At Tony's stone face Peter feels rage boil up inside himself and he lost control of his mouth. Something took over him that he could not filter out or control.

“You're fucking crazy! You are a batshit insane, cruel, and heartless motherfucker!” He balls his fists up and glared heatedly at him.

“Peter..” Tony seemed desperate to nullify the situation but it was to no avail.

“They won’t do it anyway! And I won’t make them. I went through so much effort to get those raptor’s to be friendly and sociable! They wouldn't survive in a fight. They don’t do aggressive anymore.” Peter was grasping at thin straws here trying to make Tony see some sense in all this. He felt helpless. Weak.

“Peter if you don't work with me on this than I will have no choice but to replace you with someone that will.”

“HA! Now I know you really are crazy! No one else can work with them the way I do. They bonded to me and they trust me. No one else will be able to get the cooperation out of them that I do!” The young man could not stop his mouth from firing off his anger despite knowing he was just digging himself into a deeper hole because of it.

“Oh don’t you worry about that, pretty boy.” a creepy and rough voice purrs off from the side, slowly entering into the room. “I can change that loyalty in a heartbeat.”

The man had a close shaved head, a sick and sadistic smile plastered on his face. He looked like the kind of person Peter would willingly feed to the Raptors as a chew toy just because of his personality.

“You’ve got to be fucking with me.” Peter growls and looks at the man and back to Tony. “Right?”

“Peter, this is Ajax. He’ll be taking your place if you don’t accept your place on this island and do what I tell you to do.” Tony’s voice sounded like it was breaking a little.

“You’re just as bad as your father!” Peter snarls furiously and watched the color drain out of Tony’s face from anger and shock.

“What did you just say?” Tony asks slowly, as if he really couldn’t believe Peter had just said that to him.

“I said you are no better than your goddamned father! You’re a money hungry alcoholic that doesn’t care who the fuck you hurt!”

Ajax snickers quietly from the corner and Peter realized he had just nailed his coffin shut. Tony straightens up and all sympathy melts out of his voice and attitude. “Well. At least I’m not a disappointment to mine. Richard Parker was a strong and great scientist. Where did you end up going wrong? I’m doing rather well with my life, thank you very much. Unlike you, Peter. I don’t have to make friends with Dinosaurs to be less lonely and pathetic.”

“No. Just a bottle of whiskey.” Peter felt that little twist in his gut that alerted him that he needed to stop but he couldn’t. He was far too upset to let sanity work. The insult involving his father had just about floored him but he was fighting to keep his head up and stay strong. He didn't want to lose this.

“But there’s the difference between us. I’m a rich and successful billionaire who drinks a little. You’re a poor, pathetic employee that has no future other than following orders. And I’m sure you’re going to just fall apart without your little raptor friends since you can’t seem to make any human ones, as pathetic as you are! Get off my island, Parker. You are fired.” And there was the vindictive alpha in Tony.

Peter’s heart stopped.

He knew it did.

He forgot how to breathe. He forgot how to move. How to speak. Think. React.

He was in shock.

His mind was racing around in circles trying frantically to figure out why Tony had said that. The saddest part was that Peter knew undoubtedly that it was all true. He wasn’t good at making friends. He wasn’t made for any leadership positions. He was a quiet and shy kid from Queens. And maybe that was all he was ever supposed to be.

Peter lets out a shaky breath and he nods slowly, licking his lip and stumbling over his feet as he backs up slowly. His knees were buckling and the tears forming in the bottoms of his eyes were blinding and distorting his vision. “F-fuck you Tony. At least those Raptors loved me. Write a list of people that love you. Bet it’ll be shorter.” he was trying to hold onto as much of his pride as he could.

“People. Not dumb animals. I think we’re about even. I’ll have you out of here first thing in the morning. Pack your things.” Tony responds in an icy calm voice.

Peter nods and managed to walk out of the office, and even out of the building before the dam broke and he lost it. He curls up against the side of the building and sobs violently into his knees, shaking and blubbering as he tried to gasp for air that wasn’t coming.

He laid there for an indistinguishable amount of time. But finally he did manage to force himself up off the pavement and back to his cabin. He gathered the things he needed to take with him and locked the place up, walking to the raptor enclosure. He was going to sleep with them one last time.

He slowly opens the door to the pen and drops his bags against the fence, closing the door and dropping to his knees as he whistles softly for them.

Slowly the confused faces of his Raptors pop out of the forest and they all race to him when they saw the tears falling down his face. They knew now that the heavy breathing and water falling from his eyes meant that Peter was sad and they knew best how to comfort him with cuddles and loves.

They all curl up tight around Peter and make a little nest for the human out of their own bodies, nuzzling him and making soft and friendly noises. He pulls his phone out and takes a picture of all of them together. He wishes he had taken more pictures over the year. He took individual pictures of their confused faces and hugs them all, even Natasha.

None of the velociraptors understood what was happening. They didn’t know why their alpha was sad. And he didn’t want to tell them. He didn’t want them to miss him.

It’d be better if they thought he just abandoned them. In someway he figured that had to hurt less than explaining this to them. He’d rather them be angry than hurt.

“I love you guys. I want you all to know that. You’re my pack. I’ll never forget you. Any of you.” he whispers and slowly lays his head on Wade’s ribs, using him as a pillow.

The male was the only one that understood what Peter had said and he whimpers, trying to ask what was wrong but Peter just ignored him and forced himself to sleep.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

When Peter woke up in the morning he took better pictures of all of them standing up, and then he lined them up and took a shot of the family together, setting it as his phone background. “I’m gonna miss the shit out of you guys. I love you all so much. Be good.” he gave them each a small kiss on the nose before he locked himself out of the pen for the last time.

Immediately after Peter turned his back they started making a fuss, calling loudly and running at the fence, trying to jump over it or claw their way out. They were screaming for Peter to come back. Even without the words being said they could understand the feeling of a goodbye and they didn’t want it to happen.

Peter forced himself to keep walking, to not even acknowledge their pained cries. He couldn’t break down again. He had to stay strong at least until he made it back to New York.

Peter had no idea what he was going to do once he got back home. But he knew it was going to be a lot more lonely and sad than his life here. Nothing would ever be the same.

As Peter was walking away he saw Ajax walking towards the raptor pen, a big black duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. “H-hey Ajax. Be nice to them. They’re good Raptors. Gain their trust and they’ll give you everything they’ve got.”

The man pauses and snorts. “Who needs trust when you have control and power? Thanks kid but I think you should be leaving now and let real men take care of the situation. Have a nice trip back to lonely land.” he smirks and walks into the building with no further comments. Peter had a very bad feeling about that man.

He forced himself to walk away though and if anyone were to ask him, that took more strength than anything.

Peter slowly drug himself onto the ferry to leave and he settles in a cabin for the long ride back to New York. He didn’t look out the window. He didn’t look back at the place that had been his home for almost a year now. He just couldn’t do it.

He was going to miss Jurassic Park. But more so he was going to miss his Raptors. Peter closes his eyes and cries silent tears as he mourns the loss of everything he’d loved.

`-`-`-`--`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-

The days turned into weeks which turned into a month away from the park. He kept trying to tell himself that every day it was going to get a little easier, that he would become more numb to it, forget about the raptors and the life he’s been forced to say goodbye to so suddenly.

But everyday that proved to be false.

He couldn’t let it go. He could not forget about it.

Peter fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of extreme crippling depression. He couldn’t crawl out of bed. He stopped eating. He never really got any phone calls or texts anyway but he had let his phone die and did not bother to charge it.

He didn’t read books or news articles online, he didn’t listen to music or try to doodle.

Anything that made him happy before had become obsolete and made no difference. And he really just didn’t have the drive to try anyway.

Nothing mattered to Peter Parker anymore.

He was an alpha without his pack and the weight of being alone again was slowly killing him.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

After a month or two- he wasn’t really sure how much time exactly had passed- Peter finally began to attempt to do things again. He started eating at least once every other day and began moving around more.

One night he had even decided he was going to take a chance and put his old Spiderman suit on, maybe even go on a small little mini patrol to see if he could still do it.

He climbed out the window and onto the roof of his apartment building but he didn’t get any further than that.

He sat on the edge of the roof, just looking down at the city beneath his feet. He couldn’t help but think about how tiny and insignificant he was. No one would really miss him if he were gone…….

Just as he stood up to take a step off the roofs edge, a loud and stunningly familiar voice yells out to him.

“SPidey!!!!!!! OmG OMgOMg Spidey you’re back! Holy shit bro I missed you where have you been?” Deadpool barks excitedly as he runs across the roof to Peter’s side, pulling the scrawny boy into a nearly bone crushing hug.

Peter looked incredibly uncomfortable at the hug and tries to squirm out of his arms. “Busy, Deadpool. How did you even find me?”

“Well I mean.. I have been looking for you every night since you seemed to just drop off the face of the earth!”

Peter looks at him in surprise, the expression pretty visible even under the mask. “And… why were you doing that?”

“What? What do you mean why was I doing that? Dude you’re my best friend! Why wouldn’t I be looking for you? I was worried something happened but the papers never reported anything about finding Spider Man's dead body but then I was thinking what if you just got hit by a car or something in your civvies and I just.. I was really scared I was never gonna see you again.” Wade confessed with a deep frown.

Peter was.. Shocked by the display of emotion.

“Um.. no nothing like that..uhh… thank you for worrying- Wade. That’s actually very kind of you.” the words were coming out of his mouth but he didn’t really believe it. Wade was probably just over exaggerating like he always did.

Peter meant nothing to anyone-- there was no way Wade thought so highly of him!

“Are you okay Spidey? I’m getting all sorts of weird, sad vibes from you. It’s very unlike what I’m used to picking up from you.” Deadpool leans a little closer to the arachnid themed superhero and seemed to peer at him questioningly.

“Yes I am fine. Thank you. You can.. Uhh… you can go away now if you would like..” Peter felt very uncomfortable and he was regretting ever leaving his bed.

Wade frowns and seems to hang his head a little. “Guess your opinions about me haven’t changed a whole lot, have they baby boy?” he chuckles humorlessly. “Sorry for bothering you. I’ll go away now.”

“Wait Deadpool- Wade- I.. I’m sorry. It’s not anything you did. I’m just.. Err… I’m having a bit of a rough time emotionally adjusting from something and I just.. I’m sorry. I’m being very rude to you.” He could feel the heartache radiating off Wade in powerful waves.

“Hey don’t worry about it bud. I get it. I know when I’m not wanted. Sometimes I just wanna pretend for a little while that I am.” Wade sighs and chuckles softly, giving Peter a lazy wave before preparing to jump off the roof himself.

“Wait! Don’t do that!” Peter lunges forward and pushes against Wade’s chest, shoving him back onto the roof fully.

“Aw baby you know I’ll just pop right back up after taking a nasty fall like that.”

“I don’t care it will still hurt you! Look Wade I’m not really the same guy I was a half year ago. I’ve changed a lot and I..”

“You were gonna jump off the roof. And you weren’t going to catch yourself.” Wade interrupts him.

“I.. what?”

“Before I called for you. I saw what you were doing. You were gonna jump. And I know you weren’t planning on catching yourself with your webs.”

Peter suddenly starts laughing. “Ah. Of course. That’s why you said all that. You were trying to talk me out of suicide.”

“Well yeah. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t mean every word I said. Come on Spidey seriously you’re the only guy that’s even come close to putting up with me these past few years and I’ve really grown to like you.”

“Stop lying!” he suddenly explodes, turning to face Deadpool, ripping his mask off in his anger. “Stop lying to me about this. It’s not funny.”

Wade appeared to be stunned by the outburst, stepping back from him a couple inches before he adjusts. “What’s your name, Spidey? Your real name?”

“It’s Peter.” he sighs softly. He really didn’t see how he had much to lose if Deadpool knew his identity now. If the man hadn’t shown up and distracted him when he did Peter wouldn’t be more than a smear on the ground below now.

“Alright. Peter. I don’t know where you picked up that I was lying to you but..”

“You have to be!”

“On what grounds?”

“No one likes me, Deadpool. No one gives a shit and I’m a horrible weird person that might as well just die because I’m no good to anyone in the world anyway and I-” he was cut off by Wade wrapping his arms tight around Peter and pushing the boy’s head into his broad shoulder.

“Whoever told you that shit was dead wrong. You’re a wonderful guy and I care about you a lot and you do a lot of good in the world! You’re Spider-man for crying out loud!” Wade slowly pulls them both down to sit on the ledge of the roof, keeping Peter tucked in his arms though.
“Why don’t you tell me about the past year? Where have you been? What have you been up to? And who convinced you that you were so worthless?”

So Peter began unloading all his pent up heartbreak to Wade, sobbing into the man’s shoulder as he tells him about the Raptors, how much he grew to love and care for them and how Tony had brutally fired him because he refused to fight them against other animals for some entertainment for sick and twisted people.

He told Wade individual stories about every Raptor and what made them so beautiful and special. It felt better to talk about them rather than pushing them down and trying to pretend they didn’t exist. Peter even smiled a little when he was talking about what an angel Wade was and how close he and the raptor had become.

Deadpool had gotten very excited when Peter shared that he was closest with the raptor named Wade, and he was incredibly honored that Peter had named one of his “babies” after him and that he took such good care of him.

Peter hugged Wade furiously tight and thanked him. He thanked him for listening, and being there, and really just saving Peter’s life in general.

Wade accepted everything with a little smile and pressed a soft kiss on Peter’s forehead, having lifted his mask up hours ago. “You’re so welcome Peter. Any time you need anything, just give me a call.” he handed Peter a little slip of paper that he had written his number on.

Peter was very grateful for that and promised to text him as they parted ways for the evening, Peter feeling okay for the first time since coming home.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

Peter had followed up on his promise. He had texted Wade immediately after he got in the window and the two had been texting back and forth almost constantly since then, excluding the times they hung out together in person.

Since that night, which was about a month ago, Peter and Wade have gotten remarkably closer. They began getting together every night either as Spider-man and Deadpool or just Peter and Wade. Either way they were happy and slowly Peter began leaving Wade’s apartment later and later at night. Then not going home at all for a few days. Then drawers of his things began to migrate over to Wade’s much bigger apartment and soon enough Peter had completely moved in with Wade and neither of them had a single complaint about any of it.

They still had not exactly declared themselves a “couple” but they were as good as it. Peter officallty could not sleep unless he was snuggled up in Wade’s arms. And both their moods had stabilized greatly since moving in together.

Peter had a purpose again. He had someone to care about and who cared about him.

Deadpool had been on a good streak of not killing people for a year now, he had sort of actually taken over Spidey’s patrol lines when he had disappeared to which Peter responded with a big hug of gratitude and a declaration of how proud he was of Wade.

And Peter had stopped thinking so negatively all the time and smiled much more. He was slowly getting over his heartbreak though he still thought about his raptors all the time. He wondered if he would ever not miss them.

His curiosity was brought to a close when one night around midnight he got a call from a number he never expected to see on his phone again. He answered hesitantly. “Hello?”

“Peter! Oh thank god you answered! I know what I said to you was horrible, and I know I have no right to be asking you this but- come back! Things are going insane over here! Your raptors are terrorizing the park, and me! You were right, kid. You were the only one who could control them. Please. Please. Come back! I have a helicopter flying to Stark tower right now! I'm going to text you an access code that you have to show the front desk then run to the helicopter pad on top.” Tony hung up and sure enough, seconds later his phone chirps with a text that was a weird code.

“Who was…”

“Tony. He wants me to come back to Jurassic Park. Something about the raptors causing terror around the park..” Peter says with disbelief.

“Are we goin?” A slow smile spreads across Wade's face.

“Well I did tell you that you had to meet your other self someday. Come on!” Peter jumps out of bed. “He's having a helicopter pick us up at Stark tower! Let's go!” He couldn't keep the grin off his face as he hurriedly packs some things and runs out the door, all but dragging Wade along behind him.

He was going back. He was going home!

Chapter Text

~3 months back, day Peter left on the island~

Wade and the other raptors stood behind the fence, watching Peter turn his backs on them and leave.

They did not understand what was happening. Peter had never said it but they could all feel an air of finality in Peter’s walking away.

Between him crying and sleeping with them last night and his face and tense mood now, they knew he was not going to be coming back.

‘But why is he leaving us? He promised!’ Wade thinks anxiously as he paced along the fence line.
‘Maybe he is coming back. I'm sure there's some other reason he was so sad.’ Wade’s head hangs down a little bit and his tail droops. He looks over at his sisters and croons softly in heartbreak.

They looked at him with the same look of apprehensive sadness they usually did.

They were never really all that fond of him and he knew that, but in the event of a major political upset like their alpha leaving they all had to group tighter together and figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

Despite everything they were still a pack.

Gwen walks up to the fence and growls softly, bumping her shoulder to Wade’s.
‘It's alright. We’ll figure it out.’ She says in a soft act of comfort. She was Beta. And the beta was a source of strength to the lower pack members when alpha was gone.

Wade hits her softly with his tail and sighs heavily, seeming to completely deflate.
‘Hope you're right. I don't like this.’

‘I don't either, Wade.’ Gwen nods and turns her back to the fence, facing her sisters as Wade walks off into the woods to retreat to his den.

‘Where Alpha?’ MJ tilts her head and looks at Gwen. The youngest raptor had eventually settled for being fond of Peter after a long emotional battle of struggling to decide where she landed with him.
She also struggles the most with picking up on fluent English unlike her siblings.
‘Gone. He abandoned us like I said he was going to! I didn’t trust that human freak and now look where it’s landed us!’ Natasha snarls, stabbing her death claw into the ground furiously.

‘Please Natasha don’t do this now. We don’t know that he left for good. He might come back. He didn’t explain to us what was happening so maybe he will be coming back.’ Gwen tried to keep herself and the rest of the pack positive.

‘Alpha not come back.’ Mj cries and raises her head, barking sadly.

‘Mj! Enough of that! He will come back! I trust Alpha!’ just as soon as she had said that the door opens and a new form enters the building where Peter usually did.

But the body very clearly did not belong to Peter, it was a different kind of skinny build. Peter was a little taller and had broader shoulders. And the smell.. It was a sharp and nasty scent compared to Peter’s sweet and familiar air.

Gwen faces the intruder and she growls, lowering her head threateningly and staring the new comer down. ‘Not Alpha.’ she warns the pack and they all immediately take a defensive pose, mouths opening in snarls and bodies tensing in preparation for a fight.

The human man walked closer to the fence, letting the raptors get a better look at his evil face. He looked like a bad man, smelled like a bad man, and Gwen knew well enough that he was not here to make peace with them like Alpha Peter had.

He proceeded to studiously ignore the growls of the raptors and opened the cage door, stepping into the enclosure and smiling with his wicked teeth at them. Everything about this man screamed ‘dangerwrongbad’ and the pack knew this.

He opens his black duffel bag and pulls something out that looked like a strange stick with thorns on it.

Gwen was not intimidated by his stupid human toys. She was a raptor! And he was an intruder in their territory. Alpha was not there which meant that Gwen was in control of the pack now.

A low growl builds in the back of her throat as the man looks directly at her in a challenging manner.

‘No mercy!’ Gwen snarls and jumps at the man, reeling back in shock when she felt a sharp blow to her nose that felt like being bit by one of her siblings but it was not- it had come from that stick.

She rubs her nose with the side of her hand and shakes her head as she looks at the man, who was smirking smugly at her.
“Want to try that again?” He asks with an annoying accent that bothered all of their ears. Peter had a faint little accent himself but it wasn't grating and condescending like this mans.

The pack seemed frozen in shock, horrified that the scrawny and gross human had just hit their leader! They weren't sure how to react to it, really.

Gwen takes a fighting stance again and roars viciously as she lunges forward, biting at the man to establish her dominance. He jumped back and struck her again this time on the side, seemingly unphased by the raptors aggression.

Gwen did not let up her attack and she was now joined by Natasha and Sue, who were both angered at seeing their beta in pain. Mj stood back, looking around in fear before deciding to just go get Wade. He was biggest. He could fight bad human off!

‘Wade!’ Mj calls as she jumps and runs through the woods, sliding to a stop in front of Wade’s hideaway hole. ‘Trouble! Bad human!’ she cries loudly.

Wade’s head pops out from under the shrubs and he looks at Mj with a disinterested glare until the smell of whatever human was there caught his nose. ‘Bad.’ he repeats and nods, getting up and roaring loudly as he runs towards where his sisters were fighting with the human. He'd recognize that man anywhere. It was the man that had tortured him in the lab.

At this point the man had knocked Sue unconscious and Gwen was wobbling on her feet, her nose bleeding and eyes lacking their usual glow. She was being beaten down slowly but refused to give in.

Wade snarls loudly to divert the man's attention from his beta sister and runs towards him furiously. The man looks up in surprise at the new raptor addition and crosses his arms with an evil smirk on his lips. “Ah. There you are. I was wondering if that little sad boy had somehow managed to steal you away with him.” the man laughs specifically at Wade, who stops running and glares fire at the man, chest heaving as he pants angrily.

‘Peter! He’s talking about Peter!’ Mj barks.

‘Sister shut up! I know what he’s talking about. He’s trying to make us angry. Don’t react to his bullshit. Don’t give him what he wants!!’ Wade growls and backs up, standing tall as he takes a dominant stance against the man. ‘Not pack. He is never pack.’ He warns them all.

Mj stands beside Wade and chitters softly in aggression, her head lower than the males for once. Wade was the biggest and strongest despite being an omega. He could protect them. ‘Gwen, sister, he will only hurt you more if you continue to fight. Walk away now and ignore him.’ he tries to reason with her but Gwen was pissed.

‘He walks into our territory after our alpha left us! He deserves death!’ The beta female snarls and Wade watches as she jumped at Ajax and the man and watched as he brought that club down on her head and knocked her to the ground.

Wade growls when he saw Gwen’s golden scaled body fall and his natural instincts to protect his sisters pushed to the forefront of his mind and he lunges at Ajax, mouth open in a furious snarl. Wade watched Ajax pull something out of his pocket and felt something hot go into his chest, the electric shock knocking him over and making his world go black for a few minutes.

Wade knew pain. He had been thoroughly introduced to it when this very same man has run experiments on him and collected data from his body in the lab. But never before has he felt the agony of being tasered.

“I'm your alpha now. And you all would do yourselves well to realize how little control over that you have.” Ajax says happily to the wounded pack before packing up his bag and moving out of the pen before they could all come to.

Peter had taught them respect, love, and kindness.

Ajax was about to teach them hate.

-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’-’

Ajax came in everyday at roughly the same time as Peter had. But he was never greeted with enthusiasm. Or even at all if the raptors could help hiding away when he came.

They'd all already lost a significant amount of weight just by refusing to come out and eat most of the time and than the few times they did they were given so much less than when Peter had controlled their food supply.

Peter had always understood how grouchy and miserable they were when hungry so he always did his best to give them as much food as possible throughout the day to keep them happy. He had also learned what they all liked especially as meals and what each of their favorite snacks were, and he tried to tailor their diets so they got their favorites as much as possible.

Ajax gave them whatever roadkill scraps he got his hands on. Nothing was ever fresh and good.

He would come in the pen and yell for them, and if they didn't come he would just leave and take the food with him but if they did come out they would not be fed until they did something he wanted.

But it was difficult to understand what he wanted of them. He never gave clear instructions and he never addressed any of them by their names. Except Wade. He would say his name. But the way he said it made the raptors claws curl with fear and a heavy feeling of discomfort settled in his belly every time.

Ajax seemed to assume, like Tony had, that they were just lizards that did not understand a thing other than pain, dominance, food, and anger. This wasn't true of course but no one could tell him that.

Every time one of them would get close to him he would strike at them and command them brutally to back away. He wanted to be their alpha. But he wanted nothing to do with the pack. He just wanted them to blindly and stupidly follow his every command like brainwashed soldiers.

They also learned that he liked their anger.

But he wanted to turn that anger away from himself and towards each other. He was always trying little tricks to make the pack turn on each other but they stood together closer as a family now than they had before. In times of dire crisis like this there was no space for them to not get along flawlessly. Even Natasha and Wade joined up closely and slept closely huddled with the others, always remaining as a close knit group that Ajax could not get through.

A weak link would mean the whole pack could fall through and none of them were willing to risk opening that up as an option.

Gwen tried to stay positive. Even as more scars begin to line their bodies from being whipped and hit by that crazy man she never gave up her hopeful ideals that someday Peter was going to return and save them.

She was the only one that still thought it.

Even Wade had come to terms with Peter abandoning them in the hands of a psychopath. He was pissed about it but he accepted it. He had no choice but to. Dwelling meant hurting, and hurting meant leaving himself weak and vulnerable which Ajax would love to attack him on.

He had matured a lot since Ajax’s attempted take over. Wade and really stepped up and was no longer the meek and mild little omega but now stood just as tall as Gwen, being her reinforcement and a guide for the pack. They all began to look up to him.

He was the closest to Peter. And when the human was gone, Wade took over his place as the support. Gwen was the leader, but Wade kept everyone together and strong. He pushed them to not give into Ajax’s brutality and not become the mindless beasts he was trying to corner them into being.

He knew what was going on. Ajax wanted them to get angry and lose control so he could take advantage of them and gain the upper hand of control once they gave him the chance.

He wasn't going to let it happen. He'd already lost Peter. He was not willing to lose everyone else too.

Eventually Ajax must have realized that his plan was not working and he was not going to break them while they stood together.

So he had to single them out.

Wade knew something was different the moment the man walked into the cage one morning. He always had a sinister aura and a cocky attitude but today he was just beyond overbearing with it.

He only carried the stick that had shocked Wade into unconsciousness that first day Peter had gone.

They all stayed tucked back into the woods, watching him. They were all hungry but not going to chance it.

However today really was different because Ajax brought even more men in with him this time, all armed with the shock sticks that Wade thought he recognized as being called a taser.

He could feel Gwen twitching in aggravation at all these strangers invading her territory but he rubs his muzzle gently against her neck to beg her to keep calm. He did not want to see the hell that would certainly break loose if she tried to attack.

They all heard Ajax yelling for them but they, like always, ignored him. Until he motioned his henchmen forward towards the woods to chase them out. Gwen had been the first to break free from hiding, and the first to be electrocuted and dropped to the ground.

The three other girls looked terrified but Natasha recovered quickly and attempted the same as Gwen except she tried to attack them from behind. But she was caught and taken down in one shot as well.

The green sisters were blinded with rage at their sisters being hurt and despite Wade begging them not to they gave away their positions too. So only the male was left hiding in the woods.

He watched as other men came in and started to remove his siblings unconscious bodies from the enclosure. He didn't know where they were being taken but he was scared to find out.

Turned out while he was distracted watching that a human had found him and was able to shoot him from his spot without Wade even knowing he had been seen.

He felt the now almost familiar burn of electricity and his world went dark.

When he woke up he was in a dark room with a single weak lightbulb over his head. His sisters were not anywhere to be seen. He was alone. He calls out sadly and pushed against the bars, trying to find a weak spot or a way to get out of the cage. He was definitely trapped. He realized he had been knocked out and transported here so he really had no idea where he was.

He paces around the cage and kept calling for his sisters, for Peter, for anyone.

But no one answered him.

He lays down on the cold floor and thought about Peter, about how warm and soft his blankets and bed was. How happy he looked when he would dance around and sing to music, how he would laugh at the silly things Wade would do. He missed his voice. He missed everything about his alpha.

A small tear falls from Wade’s eye as he stares at the empty wall in front of him and wished for Peter to come wake him up and reassure him it was all a bad dream.

Despite how he had encouraged his sisters to stop dreaming about it, he had never really fully stopped thinking about Peter himself. How could he? He loved Peter.

He just wished Peter had loved him back enough to stay.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

It was not a dream.

Wade didn’t know how many days, weeks, maybe even months, had passed.

He couldn’t see the sunlight. He had no way of knowing. All he knew was that every, what he presumed to be day, Ajax would come in, beat the shit out of him, then leave again.

It was the same cycle over and over. Nothing ever changed.

Wade’s skin was covered in scars from Ajax’s beatings, varying from puncture wounds from the club, long lashes from the whip, or whatever other toy the man would bring into use on the raptor.

His heart was broken but his spirit would not waver. He still growled at the human every time he would walk in. He still snapped at him. He refused to break.
That was what that monster wanted.

One time it was different though, and Wade knew he finally had a chance to get out of there. Ajax came in with more men, armed with a thick steel collar and chains. They cornered the angry dinosaur and bound him up tight, pulling him out of the cage with more force than what was really necessary. He wasn’t fighting it. He wanted freedom and the only way he was getting it was temporary submission.

They led Wade through a dark and twisty hallway, leading him to a big open pen that looked like a sports arena with bleachers behind incredibly high fencing. Wade looked around curiously and let his eyes fall on the other end of the cage where he saw his sister Natasha being led forward in the same manner as him.

She snarls when she saw him and wade whimpers softly, looking at her pleadingly. The men unleashed him and unwound the chains from around his mouth, letting him free and running out of the ring to get out of the way.

Wade stands in front of his most aggressive sister and croons softly at her, offering his neck out in submission. He had always liked Natasha. She was always angry but she had a good heart.

Wade felt a whip lash against his back and he roars, running forward and jumping around Natasha, eyes looking anywhere but at his sister. He was looking for a way out.

‘Play along with me, Nat. Make them think we are fighting. I will get us out of here.’

‘We will get out together.’ she agrees and swipes at him with her tail, lightly hitting his side to act like she was fighting her brother. She seemed as happy as him to finally see one of her siblings again.

‘Where are the others?”

‘Not sure. I had hoped you would know. We’ll have to find and save them too.’ Natasha growls and lightly sinks her teeth into the tough skin on the back of Wade’s neck, holding onto him with a gentle pressure.

He kicks at her and his eyes land at where Ajax was standing off to the side, watching them. The idiot was standing right inside the cage. Easy prey. ‘There! Kill him and we can get out!’

‘Agreed. Plan?’

‘No plan. Just kill him. I have a feeling Peter leaving was all his fault too.’ Wade snarls and his mind calculates the best way to do this. ‘Nevermind. I have a plan. Keep gradually inching that way and when we are close enough, throw me into him. Than help me rip him to shreds.’ he bites Natasha’s flank softly and immediately got her approval.

They slowly rolled towards where the man stood and before he could react enough to move, Natasha slammed Wade’s body into the man, snarling as she bites into his arm to hold him there.

They both felt a little thrill of pleasure run through their spines as they heard him scream. They were both hungry and blood lust from the idea of a fresh kill was all too enticing.

‘You can take him, brother. For Peter.’ Natasha smiles and holds Ajax down as Wade stands and straightens himself out. He looks down at the man and gave a furious snarl.

‘I don’t know what you did with my alpha, but you are going to pay. And for everything you’ve done to my sisters and I. This is my giant FUCK YOU!’ he rips the man's head off in one solid bite.

He had Natasha felt the shared pleasure of killing that rotten man and they both preen happily when they had ripped his corpse apart. They were covered in his hot blood but they didn't lick it off themselves like they normally would have. It didn't taste good. It was bitter and strange like the man himself had been.

There were guards everywhere. Of course there were.

But they did nothing. They held guns but they did not shoot at the raptors.

Wade looks at them and chitters softly, straightening up and staring one of them down curiously. The man stepped back.

Really, everyone had hated Ajax. Staff and all.

He was a cruel and miserable human and no one was going to mourn his death.

One guard opened a door off to the side and Natasha ran off through it, already on the hunt for their sisters.

Wade however kept looking at that guard, nickering softly in thanks. Peter had taught him manners and he was very grateful that the man had not only spared them but seemed to be giving them an easy way out.

The man gave a half assed little salute to Wade before turning his back and walking away, leaving Wade to run after Natasha.

She had already found one sister and had broken the door down, freeing Sue and nuzzling her affectionately. She did not look at bad off as Wade or Nat injury wise.

Wade and his two sisters made quick work of finding the others and breaking them free of their cages, running around and greeting each other excitedly. Their family was mostly back. Minus Peter.

Wade had the worst injuries out of all of them, the most permanent scars and mental damage but he was thrilled that they looked better than him.
‘Now we just have to find Peter.’

‘In light of all that just happened, I suppose it’s safe to assume that he did not leave of his own free will. That Ajax man certainly was the reason why he left. Maybe now that he is gone, Peter will return.’

‘Either Ajax, Tony, or a mixture of both.’ Natasha growls lowly.

‘Tony. Ah. Yes. We should find him. He can bring Peter back.’ Gwen nods and lowers her head angrily. ‘And if he does not- we will just have to make him.’ She stomps her foot on the ground and growls lowly as she says that, a definite promise on the beta’s part and they were all happy to support her on that.

The raptors all have each other a soft head bump to reaffirm themselves as a pack before running off, easily slipping out of the arena and running off into the woods. Finding Tony would be easy. Convincing him to bring their alpha back without being able to talk, not so easy.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

It was Natasha’s idea to stalk him, originally. The raptor was the master huntress so she located Tony easily and convinced the others that the easiest way to convince him of anything was to intimidate him and pressure him silently to bend to their will. Let him know they’re there and they’re watching but never let him catch them. Easy enough for her to say thanks to her dark colors, poor Gwen was going to have a more difficult time. She struggled with it but she allowed Natasha to take over the operation, standing back and following her younger sister’s orders.

Nat instructed them all on how to stand watch, to stalk, follow, and spook Tony whenever possible but the number one priority was to not get caught. They were sure he has been made aware of the raptors on the loose by now so that made it a little more challenging but they were smart animals. Nat believed in their abilities to pull it off.

They took up positions around the base where Tony was located and made sure to keep their eyes on each other, working like a pack to mutually achieve their goals of bringing their beloved alpha home.

After a little while of waiting the girls finally saw Tony through the glass window and called softly to Wade, cueing him to make his move for attempt number one of scaring Tony. He jumps up onto the deck and scratches his nails across the floor, breathing heavy and making random sounds so Tony new something was out there. He than jumped off the structure and returned to his stake position.

Mj took the next round and jumped at a tree, grabbing a branch in her mouth and hanging from it so the branches scratched against Tony’s window, starling him even more. They could hear the man’s confused mutterings and they knew it was working. They backed off for a bit, napping in shifts. They wanted to keep him paranoid. Every hour or so one of them would do something subtle so he would know he was not alone but no one went over board yet.

This continued for a day. Tony had crews of people looking for the renegade raptors but they were good at hiding and running when they think they’ve been seen. No matter what though, one of them always kept a solid eye on Tony’s house. Every time he would step outside he would be snarled at, or would trip over an object intentionally left in front of the door.

Natasha was getting bored with this practice and wanted to hurry things along but Wade argued. It was working. He’d spent the most time with Peter. He knew how to read human emotions more than the others and he knew Tony was getting scared. He could feel them, and knew they were out there waiting for him. But he didn’t know for what.

The way that Wade saw it was that Tony knew they had eaten Ajax; and he probably figured they were going to eat him next. So when they figured out how to make their request of getting Peter back, he would be early to comply just to save his own skin.

Wade had really begun to think like a human. Peter had taught him well.

The sisters agreed with him and they continued their stake out.

Gwen was napping when a human came up behind her and startled the daylights out of the raptor, making her jump up and scream loudly. All the others rushed forward, snarling at the human and making the guy almost piss his pants. It was just a guest that had gotten lost.

Tony heard the noise though and he runs outside, looking around and yelling when he saw the Raptors. They looked up at him, at each other, and than scattered. It was probably just about the worst thing they ever could have done, since as soon as they were out in the open, people started screaming bloody murder and running away from them, causing quite a big commotion.

Wade looked on as his sisters struggled to navigate through the thick crowds of people to find a safe place to hide. He watched Tony stand on the deck in horror and he slowly approaches the man, head down submissively as he approached Tony.

Traditionally he hated the man, and would have just killed him on impulse...but he was his only chance of getting Peter back so it was worth it. He growls softly to get the man’s attention and winces back when Tony raised up his hand in self defense. It was a little bit of forced habit now. A hand raised meant a beating given.

Tony stopped when he saw the red and black raptor looking up at him. “Wade?” he asks softly, carefully watching the animal for signs of aggression.

Wade gives a slow nod of answer and raises up a little to better look Tony in the eye. The man looked a little sad. “What happened to you? Did..Ajax. Goddamn him. I should have never trusted that shady fucker.” Tony snarls as he looks over the wounds covering the raptor's body. Wade was surprised to find himself nodding in agreement.

“Do you..You really understand English, don’t you?” Tony was mystified by this.

Again, a nod and a soft croon. Wade tilts his head a little and looks at Tony pleadingly.

“What do you want? You already killed Francis. I can’t let you run wild. I won’t have security put you guys down if you can get them under control.” he tries to bargain with him.

Wade got a little kick out of knowing the man’s real name but he didn’t let that distract him. He raises his head and barks loudly, catching the attention of his sisters and calling them to him. They all paused and turned to run back, surprised that Wade was making peace with Tony. They stand behind Wade and surround Tony, growling and snapping at him.

“What do you want?” Tony shouts. He knew they were after something other than revenge. They would have killed him by now if that was their goal.

Wade sighs heavily and runs away, trying to find something he could use to cue Tony about what they wanted in exchange for his life. The girls watched him run away and that little distraction gave Tony enough time to get in the house and slam the door shut, locking it quickly.

The raptors did not try to bust the door down, they just stood on the porch and wondered where the hell Wade ran off to in such a big hurry.

Tony called security, alerting them of the situation but reminding them to not hurt the raptors, using the explicit directions to actually be gentle with them. They all looked like they were hurting enough already.

He than called one of the other trainers to ask what to do about them, wondering if maybe he would know what was wrong with the velociraptors.

“I don’t know, Tony. But if I had to guess they probably just miss Peter.” the trainer sighs heavily. They all did, even most of the staff had grown fond of the cute young kid, loving seeing him bond with the raptors and his happy energy always giving them a little boost at meetings.

“Peter?” as soon as he said the name, the raptors started hurling themselves at the side of the building, calling loudly in enthusiasm.

Tony sighs and then smiles a little. “Thanks.” he hangs up and makes a new call.

“Hello. I need a chopper flown to Stark Tower New York. Immediately.”

Chapter Text

Everything had gone off pretty smoothly. After Peter and Wade had burst through the door of the tower like mad men and babbled about needing access to the helicopter pad, the lady at the front desk had harassed them a little but as soon as Peter showed her the coded text from Tony, which was actually an emergency access pass to the upper levels code, she immediately let them in, giving Wade a bit of a lingering glare.

Peter’s heart was racing wildly in his chest, his breath coming in deep huffs and his knees buckling slightly as he waits for the elevator to take them to the upper levels. He’s only ever really been in the lower levels and the lab areas of Stark Tower when he was interning as a scientist there what felt like an entire lifetime ago.

Wade had a content smile on his face as he stands perfectly calm beside his roommate, boyfriend, whatever Peter was to him. He just seemed happy to be there to hold Peter’s bags while the younger boy paced around inside the elevator, unable to stand still, fidgeting all the while.

“Pete you’re going to give yourself a heart attack. Take some deep breaths baby boy.”

“I can’t, Wade. I’m too nervous and excited. I mean there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. What if they forgot about me, or are really mad at me for leaving them? What if they try to eat me cause they’re angry? I wouldn’t hurt them if they did try. I would just let myself be chewed up. But I’m still so excited to see them again.” Peter rambles the fastest Wade has ever heard him talk.

“Peter.” Wade laughs and puts a hand on top of Peter’s head to hold him still. “Please. Calm down. I’m sure they did not forget you and they will forgive you once you apologize to them. You said they understand English right?”

“Wade does better than all of them. But yes they usually seem to get the gist of what I say.” Peter nods, seeming to ground and calm himself a little by talking about them.

“Then explain what happened to them and just tell them that you still love them and you’re not going to leave them again. That’s how I would want to be apologized to.” Wade laughs casually and was not prepared to receive an armful of a trembling Peter. But once he adjusted to it he hugs him back tightly. “Everything’s gonna be alright Petey. I know I’ve been saying that since we re-met but I really know it now. We’re on our way to making you really happy again. I hated seeing you so sad.” he mumbles gently into Peter’s soft hair.

“You’ve helped make me happier- I mean you kind of saved my life and all that so… thank you.” he presses a soft kiss to Wade’s scarred cheek and presses his head under Wade’s jaw until the elevator door opened; which triggered Peter to let go of Wade and jump out of the elevator in a flurry of motion. The helicopter wasn’t there yet so he paced around the room beside the loading dock as he pulls at his hair anxiously.

Wade let that go on for a few minutes before he sighs and shakes his head. “Peter. Stop it.” he calls him out on the hair pulling- a habit Peter always did right as he was about to spiral into a full blown mental breakdown.

“Can't help it!” Peter tosses back at Wade and keeps his head down as he waits. “Why isn't the copter here yet? What if Tony lied to me? Set this all up as a cruel joke to get me back for the rotten things I said to him?”

Wade sighs and leans against the wall, one foot resting up against the surface behind his back. “Peter. You're worrying about nothing again. Please. Calm down and think about how silly what you're saying is.” It was amazing how Wade could be so calm and level headed for Peter’s sake. The man was normally high strung and anxiety filled himself but when Peter was having an issue he seemed to switch to a whole different personality completely.

“No Wade I'm serious what if that's what's going on?” Peter looks at him with fear stricken eyes.

“I know Tony’s a dick but do you really think that he would go that far? I mean he did give you that weird text code to get past the front desk. I don’t think he would go through all this to prank an old employee.”

“If he’s drunk enough he might!” The man looked like he was truly about to unravel into tears and full on hysterics.

Wade was about to try again to comfort him when he saw lights quickly approaching the window which was a better comfort than any words he could have said. “Look. There’s the helicopter coming to get us. Come on. Get yourself together and prepare to board.” Wade smiles and gives his hair a soft ruffle as he collects their bags in his arms.

Peter runs his fingers through his hair but this time it was more to fix it than anything. “Thank god!” he breathes and smiles at Wade. “We’re going to Jurassic Park. It’s happening. I’m going back to my raptors!” Peter grins ear to ear and gave Wade a quick hug before throwing the door open and going to stand beside the helicopter pad as the flying machine lands on top of the building.

Wade was going to warn Peter to not stand so close to where it was going to land but he figured he would only be met with disagreement and Peter probably knew well enough what he was doing. As long as he didn’t get blown over or have his head chopped off by a blade than he was probably fine.

The helicopter slowly lands and the door opens and a younger italian man with a beige Jurassic Park shirt on grins. “Come on Mr. Parker. Let’s get you back where you’re direly needed!” he smiles and motions for Peter and Wade to get in, not even commenting on Wade.

“Antonio! Good to see you again man!” Peter grins and checks to make sure Wade was following him as he ducks down to get into the helicopter. “When did you get your flight license?”

“Somewhere around last week.” the man grins happily. “I was the first available pilot he could find that was willing to fly out at this hour to retrieve you.” he explains with a casual shrug.

“Well.. I’m kinda glad it’s you actually. It’s good to see a familiar face. Can you tell me what’s happened since I’ve been gone?” Peter asks nervously as he settles into a seat and tightens the seatbelt around his midsection. “By the way, Antonio this is my.. Wade. Yeah. Wade this is Antonio. We worked together at the park. He fed the raptors before I took over and whenever I was sick he was in charge of them.”

“Nice to meet you.” Wade greets as he casually settles in beside Peter, one arm thrown loosely around his narrow shoulders.

The closeness of the two and the hesitation in Peter’s introduction did not escape Antonio’s notice but he was polite enough to not call him on it.

“Right. Well.. things have not.. They’ve not been good since you left.” Antonio began explaining slowly. “Tony seemed to have gone off the deepend, leaving things in the hands of that rotten cazzo puntura (Fucking prick) Ajax. And it’s not been well. But since Wade and Natasha ate him everyone seems to be a little more at ease.” the man smiles a little and pushes some buttons, closing the door. “Ready to go? Dumb question of course you are. Off we are!” he pushes a lever and the helicopter slowly raises up off the ground and Peter felt motion sickness lurch through him.

“Wait- Wade and Natasha did what?!”

“They ate him. Smart moves on their parts. He stood in the pen with them while fighting them against each other and they threw themselves into him before he could react and chomp chomp no more asshole.” Antonio grins as he guides the chopper in the way he wanted it to go before smoothing out the flight pattern as they get higher up and depart from New York.

“He tried to fight them against each other? How dumb can he be? They’re siblings! And Natasha is the one that has a soft spot for Wade!” Peter growls. “Are they hurt? Any of them?”

“Ajax beat the shit out of them to get them ready to fight. But no serious damage. They all appear to be mostly alright. They were huddled together on Tony’s deck when I left. I think they know you’re on your way. They seemed happy.”

Peter was seething. That asshole had hurt his Raptors.

Peter knew he'd gotten a bad vibe from Ajax but he never thought the man would be bold enough to actually physically harm them!

Wade gives Peter a gentle squeeze around the shoulder to calm him down but that deep seated part of Peter that felt so protective over the Raptors was just about exploding in rage. Everyone in the helicopter could feel it and they were both tense and nervous, feeling out what the alpha was going to do.

Thanks to his time with the Raptors he had learned how to read their behavior and moods but he had also learned how to apply that to people so he could read them easier too. It didn’t help make him any more social but he could at least tell when someone was uncomfortable or sad, which Wade and Antonio both were.

He takes a deep breath and calms himself down, letting the tension melt out of the tight space. Everyone relaxed after that and Wade rubs his shoulder softly.

“Why don’t you try to take a nap or something, okay Pete? We have a pretty long flight ahead of us right?” Wade looks at the pilot for confirmation which he got in the form of a simple nod.

“Yes sirs, about an hour. I recommend you get your rest, Mr. Peter. I’m sure you won’t be getting much when we first get back to the island. You’ll be busy comforting your girls and boy.” Antonio laughs.

Peter smiles and leans down a little, laying his head on Wade’s chest as he curls up the best he could in the weird space. Wade’s arms lay protectively over him and rubs down his side gently as he hums quietly to help put Peter to sleep.

Antonio didn’t say anything or show his smile to the boys but he could see the love they had for each other in their eyes and it made him happy. Peter had managed to find himself a mate.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

~On the island~

Tony paces around inside his living room, listening to the Raptors chattering to each other on his front porch. Security had come to remove them but Tony called them off.

The animals seemed peaceful enough and he didn’t want to cause any problems with the dinosaurs before Peter got back.

His radio beeps and Antonio announces that he has Peter and a guest on the chopper and were about 20 minutes away.

“Guest? Who the hell is the kid bringing as a guest?” Tony was more than a little surprised since Peter had always struggled so much with socializing with others.

“Guy named Wade. Pretty sure they are dating.” Antonio couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice. They were both asleep so he saw no harm in announcing his thoughts.

‘Wade.. Wilson? Really scar covered guy?” Tony asks slowly, half hoping he was wrong. He knew about Deadpool. He just liked to pretend the menace didn’t exist.

“Si, that is him. He seems very nice and cares deeply for little Peter. I can tell.” he smiles. “Going to lose service, sir. We will be there in less than 15. Clear landing pad, thank you.” his voice cracks and fissures out as they lose touch over the radios but Tony nods. He was.. Sort of proud of Peter. Even if he did not care at all for the person of choice-at least he was finally making a step in the right direction. And if he was in fact dating Deadpool.. Tony would not say anything.

Tony takes a sip of his bourbon before setting it on the lip of the fireplace, looking out the window at the raptors that were laying in a little huddle on his porch. They appeared to be checking each other over for wounds, nosing lightly at each others sides and licking each other--which was incredibly strange for Tony to see.

The black one, the one he believed Peter called Natasha, was lying a little off to the side, watching over them with her burning amber eyes. The red and black one called Wade was nuzzling her softly. They seemed to be a little separated from the main group but the golden ones tail was still lying over Wade’s legs.

They were very relaxed and content. Time to ruin that.

Tony slowly opens the door and steps out looking at the sky and making out the tiny dot of the helicopter in the distance. He smiles and then looks down at the raptors, who were all looking at him with a look of uncertainty. They weren't sure what he was going to do.

“You all are getting what you want.” he says slowly, crossing his arms across his chest.

The golden one, he couldn’t remember the name of her but he was pretty certain she was the Beta of the pack, raises her head and slowly stands, looking at Tony with a little head tilt. She gives a soft croon and blinks slowly.

Tony could really see the beauty of the creatures now that he stood face to face with one on a peaceful ground. Her scales were shimmering in the setting sunlight, eyes calm and questioning. Intelligent.

Tony felt a stab of guilt and regret, something he hasn’t felt in forever.

“He was right.” He sighs softly. “You guys do have emotions and feelings. You’re more than just animals. And I'm sorry. For everything I've done to you. I'm sorry I sent Peter away and I'm sorry for letting Ajax be in control.”

All the raptors growled at the mention of that name and he smiles a little.

“I'm going to do what I can to fix things. Make em right. Starting with this.” he motions towards where the helicopter narrowed in on the landing pad and smiles. “Peter is coming home.”

The Raptors eyes all follow Tony’s hand gesture and they all leap to their feet, making a bunch of curious and excited purring and whimpering noises.

Tony laughs at them and smiles. “Go on! Go greet him!” he shouts and shoos the raptors off the porch. “Crazy damn things.” he smiles fondly as they practically trip over themselves in their hurry to run towards where the helicopter was slowly lowering itself to the ground.

Only one stayed back, looking at Tony with a gentle expression. It was the one that Peter had been closest to. The most human one according to the boy. “Wade. Don’t you want to go see your boy?” Tony asks with a soft smile to the animal.

Wade makes a sound that sounded vaguely like a growl and steps towards the billionaire, his head down as he pokes his nose softly at Tony’s chest, keeping his affections tentative and shy to not frighten the man. It was Wade’s way of accepting his apology and thanking him for doing the right thing.

Tony was of course scared at first of what the dinosaur was going to do but his tense expression melts into a smile and he slowly reaches a hand up, laying it on the raptors muzzle. “Alright. I understand. Bad Tony turned good and you’re happy. Freakin soft Raptor. Get outta here. Go see Peter. He’ll be getting out of that helicopter any minute now.” he gives the much larger than himself animal a good shove on the side and the dinosaur jumped off the porch, running towards where his siblings were huddled and calling excitedly at their alpha.

Peter was finally back.

Alpha was home.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-

“Baby boy. Hey. Baby boy wake up. We’re landing now. We’re here!” Wade stage whispers excitedly to Peter while giving him a little shake to rouse him back to wakefulness. His eyes were focused outside the window though, looking at the massive park laid out before him. He had never been here before and he was excited to see everything he’d only ever heard about.

Peter jumps awake when he heard Wade and he looks out the window too, grinning widely. “Oh my god Wade we’re here!” he grabs his best friend's arm and bounces in place. Even the rough landing of the helicopter wasn’t enough to distract from his excitement.

“Peter… look.” Wade whispers and points out the window.

There, on the pavement beside the landing pad were four squirming Velociraptors. He couldn’t hear them over the roar of the engine but he knew they were calling for him. He crawls over top of Wade and presses himself to the window facing them, waving at them excitedly with tears in his eyes.

“Wait.. there’s only four...where’s Wade?” he looks at Antonio.

“I dunno. I thought I saw him on the porch with the others. Maybe he is getting food for them?” The kind Italian offers but it was obviously he was also confused why the raptor wasn’t there.

“Yeah.. maybe..” Peter looked a little upset. All he could think was that Wade was angry at him and didn’t want to see him again.

“Hey. It’s okay baby.” Wade sensed the mood and he softly touches Peter’s elbow as a comforting gesture. “I’m sure he’s okay.”

“Yeah.” Peter sighs and looks at Wade. He smiles a little as the helicopter lands and Antonio shuts the engine off. “At least you can meet the only girls to ever steal my heart.” he grins as the door opens and he stands up, climbing slowly out of the chopper. “Thanks for the ride Antonio.” he waves as he jumps out and finally stands in front of his girls.

All the raptors cease their loud and excited calling immediately and stand at full attention, cocking their heads and looking at him curiously. They had every reason in the world to be tentative.

Peter smiles gently and purses his lips giving a soft and slow whistle, watching them all change their defensive stance and run forward, crying and whining happily as soon as they were reassured that it really was Peter.

He grins and runs forward, throwing one arm excitedly around Gwen’s neck and the other across the other’s shoulders. “Gwen! Mj, Sue, Natasha! I’m back girls!” he smiles and feels himself be overwhelmed with Raptors snuggling and nuzzling at him happily.

He could feel some abnormalities in their skin, different scars covering each of their bodies but they on the whole seemed to be okay. Peter feels a few tears fall down his face as he closes his eyes and hugs them all close. “I’m sorry girls. I’m so sorry I left you. I didn’t want to. You know I didn’t. I love you guys.”

They all seemed to be alright with the apology and huddled close to Peter, rubbing on him like giant puppies. Finally Gwen caught scent of Wade and turns to look at the mutant, her head tilting and a soft growl coming from deep in her throat.

Wade immediately puts his hands up in surrender and backs away from her, looking desperately at Peter for help.

“Hey. Hey. Easy girl. It's alright. He's my friend. He's actually kind of the only thing that kept me sane while I was away from you guys.” He pats her back in a familiar motion and grins at how easy it was to fall back to being with them. He was just concerned about where his male was.

Slowly Gwen and the others pull away from Peter, moving slowly to check Wade out. They sniff at him and poke him with their noses. They were still uncertain about humans that were not Peter but this particular man's scent was all over Peter's clothes and skin so they must have been very close. And anyone Alpha accepted must be okay.

Peter smiled and watched them with fond faces until he heard a hesitant tapping sound behind him followed by a soft growl. He slowly turns around and his heart leaped into his throat when he saw the red and black Raptor standing there.

His muzzle was twitching a little with soft growls and his eyes were locked on Peter with a predatory glare. His scarring was worse than all the others, almost every part of his body marred in someway.

“Wade. I'm so sorry buddy.” Peter whispers softly and slowly extends his hand out, looking at the male Raptor with watery eyes. He slowly reaches into his pocket with his other hand and pulls out a piece of string cheese that he had grabbed out of the refrigerator before running to Stark tower. He opens it slowly and tucks the wrapping back into his pocket as he holds the snack out to the Raptor.

The Raptor lowers his head and croons a little as he suddenly jumps forward and crashes his body into Peter’s, sending them both sprawling to the ground hard. “Wade!” He half cried half laughed as the Raptor presses him to the ground and licked his face repeatedly, crying excitedly as he greets his long lost friend.

The human Wade, who was gently rubbing the underside of Gwen’s jaw and making the Raptor purr like a big cat, looked up when he heard his name shouted and he almost had a heart attack when he saw Peter being bowled over by the angry looking velociraptor.

But his worry was more or less dissolved when he heard Peter laughing and speaking gently to the massive animal. Wade wasn't scared of the raptors, they were all greeting him nicely and seemed very sweet but watching Peter get run over by one was still a bit of a scary thing. And their teeth were still dangerously sharp no matter how their tempers were. One wrong move could result in lost limbs just by accident.

Eventually the Raptor let Peter to his feet but pressed himself right against his side and was completely unwilling to leave it. He was still making that throaty purring sound but his tail was waving happily behind him and he seemed very pleased.

Peter kept one arm around the Raptors neck and he looks at the other human with the absolute brightest smile Wade had ever seen him give.

“Wade, meet Wade. I'm going to have to figure out something to call each of you so I don't get you guys confused.” He chuckles and keeps rubbing the back of the raptors head as if he was reassuring himself that the animal was really there as well as doing the job of keeping him calm.

Wade smiles and walks forward, extending his hand out and letting the Raptor smell it like a dog would. The male Raptor seemed a bit more hesitant. He remembered Peter talking about this man before but he didn't trust him. Peter was covered in his smell and that made him nervous. If there was a possibility of Peter abandoning him again to go with this man, Wade would sooner kill and eat the human and deal with Peter’s wrath than have that happen.

So the Raptor shows his teeth and growls at the scarred man, lowering his head and straightening his tail out in a threatening manner. He meant business. Stay away from Alpha.

Wade immediately jumps back, putting his hands up in surrender. “Ooh shit. I don't think he likes me very much.”

“He's fine.” Peter bops the Raptor on the top of the head and scolds him. “You be nice. You're named after that man. Show some respect.”

After Peter gave Wade a kick on the side of his clawed foot the Raptor quit looking so angry and looks at Peter with a soft nicker of confusion.

“Behave yourself. Be nice to Wade. He's special to me. Like you are.” He reminds and softly rubs gentle circles on the hinge of the raptors jaw to soothe him.

“Aw thanks baby boy.” Wade shapes his hands into a heart shape and blows a kiss at Peter, which made the younger man laugh and blush a little, rolling his eyes at the showy antics.

“See? He's completely harmless. And he's goofy and sweet like you. I think you two will get along well.” He bumps his hip to the raptors side and motions for Wade to come forward again.

This time the Velociraptor just watched the human with hesitant eyes but allowed his to extend his hand towards his nose and he presses his muzzle into the soft scarred hand. He croons gently and allowed his namesake to stoke his nose like he'd been doing it for years. He knew just how to be gentle and how to make it feel good.

Despite his earlier hesitation, the Raptor felt he could like this man if he always gave such nice pets. He loved being pet and loved on.

Peter smiled in pride as he watched his two favorite boys bond with each other. He was pulled out of his happy fog by a throat clearing behind him.

He looks and faces Tony, a forced neutral expression of his face. He was happy to be back but he was still so pissed at Tony he kind of half wanted to just feed him to the raptors. “Tony.” He greets stiffly.

“Peter. I'm sorry, son. About everything. I did some bad things and made some shitty mistakes. This place just wasn't the same without your happy ass running around. Those Raptors of yours are really dedicated to you.”

All the animals were looking at him but it wasn't with the usual hateful glare they had given him when he would walk too close to the fencing. It was definitely a more calm neutral expression on their faces. They had grown more comfortable with Tony, after all, he had called those mean people with guns off and had brought Peter back.

“They're great animals. But they're more than that to me.”

“I noticed. They.. they are certainly a lot more than I originally thought them to be. They are smart. And..they do feel things. They're more human than I ever expected some prehistoric lizard to be.” He chuckles softly and tucks a hand into his pocket.

“Yeah. They are.” Peter arches an eyebrow, waiting patiently to see where Tony was going with this.

“So. Anyway. No one has touched your cabin since you were last here. Feel free to take it over again. You're reinstated as Raptor trainer and I will keep my nose out of your business with them. However I must insist that if you are going to be walking around the park with them, just keep them on a leash so it at least looks like you're in control of them. And if you continue sneaking Wade off to your cabin at night, continue your routine of getting him back before the park opens. Yes I knew about that.”

Both Peter and Tony share a little smile. “Good to know. Thank you, Mr. Stark. I'm..I'm sorry about the things I said to you-”

“No don't apologize for just telling the truth. I was certainly acting like my father. And I was not thinking clearly. But nothing you said was not true. However I am trying, genuinely, to change this. To make things right.”

“No more dinosaur fights?”

“No. Absolutely not. That was more Ajax’s plan than mine. He just had me convinced it was a good idea and with my mind frame at the time I was eager to go along with it. But seeing what he did to the raptors and after watching them rip him to shreds I can tell I made a serious error in judgement.”

Peter could tell apologizing was very hard for Tony, the man didn't do it much and he was struggling but he appreciated the effort at the very least.

“Thank you, Tony. I accept my position and I will move back into my cabin immediately.”

They shook hands firmly and finally smiled at each other.

“And I suppose your boyfriend will want a job too?” Tony motions at Wade, who was petting the Raptor named after him still while MJ tried to push her head into the pocket of his hoodie to get to the pretzel bag he had in there.

Peter made no comment about the term ‘boyfriend’ and just nods. “It'd be preferable. Keep him out of trouble and occupied. He can work with the raptors and me if that's easier.”

“Till I figure out another place to put him where he won't get someone killed or make a big mess that would probably be best.” Tony laughs a little and smiles at Peter. “I'll let you get back to your reunion now. Just be ready to return to normal schedule tomorrow.” Tony ruffles Peters hair and walks away with a smile.

“Did Tony Stark just call me your boyfriend?” A stunned Wade asks after the billionaire was out of earshot.

“Yeah. Aren't you? Kind of? I mean we never actually said anything but I just sort of figured I mean we’re pretty much as good as a couple and I-” Peter was aware that he was rambling but he couldn't figure out how to make his mouth stop until Wade interrupted him.

“Yes. We are. Forget I said anything.” Wade smiles with a look of peace and calm that was strange on Deadpool's face. “Come on, boyfriend. Let's go see your home.” he was obviously happy about this.

“Our home, now.” Peter smiles. “You're gonna have to get used to sharing with the Raptor though. The male always comes home with me at the end of the day. He probably will eat you if you try to deny him that.” Peter smiled.

“Wouldn't dream of it baby boy.” Wade laughs and stands in front of Peter, reaching out and taking his hand with a gentle squeeze.

Peter blushes but smiles shyly as he returns the squeeze and leads the rest of the raptors to their enclosure, letting them run free but allowing Wade to stay out and follow them back to the cabin, the dinosaur running a bit ahead of the humans in his excitement to go home. He'd always felt safest and happiest in Peter's cabin.

Peter held Wade's hand the entire walk down the dirt road, his face hot with the blush he couldn't get rid of. He had sort of panicked under the pressure of Wade’s asking and Tony’s assuming, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about how it had turned out. He was happy to date Wade; and it really had felt like that was what they had been doing the past weeks just without any kissing or intimate things. Maybe now that would change…

He was pulled from his thoughts when his raptor calls out excitedly and sprints forward, jumping up at the porch and trying to open the locked door. He cries out in frustration when the handle wouldn't turn under his clawed hand.

“Wade. It's locked. I have to open it with the key.” Peter chuckles and pushes the raptor off the welcome mat, pulling the key out from under it and opening the door finally.

The eager raptor shoves his head through the crack as Peter slowly opened it and he shoves his way in excitedly, going right back to the bedroom to fall asleep. After everything that had happened to him he was beyond ready to sleep in what he considered to be ‘his’ bed again.

Peter watched that and laughs softly. He understood the raptors eagerness. He needed the comfort after all was said and done and it was nice to watch his beloved raptor take on the air of ease and happiness again. He knew he had not felt that way since the day Peter left.

The human that was still standing beside him watched the Raptor until it disappeared from sight. “Uhh..where did he go?”

“To my bed. I told you he slept with me every night.” Peter chuckles and lets go of Wade’s hand to shrug his jacket off and drape it over the back of the couch.

“Wait but- what about me?” Wade pouts and makes a face that was eerily similar to the raptors pouting face when Peter would deny him something he wanted or he thought he was in trouble.

Peter couldn’t help but laugh and roll his eyes. “I guess we’re going to have to find a way to make us all fit on there somehow.” Peter shrugs. He never really thought about it that much but it couldn’t be that difficult to fit all three of them on a queen sized bed, right? He and Wade fit alone back in New York and him and the Raptor always fit okay here. He saw no reason why they couldn’t make it work.

Peter could tell that Wade did not believe at all that it was going to work but Peter was determined to make it happen.

“Come on. Don’t look so doubtful. He’s a sweetheart I promise. He is just protective of me.”

“So am I! You’re my boyfriend!” Wade seemed to really like saying it now that it was confirmed out loud between the both of them.

Peter chuckles and slowly hugs Wade around his waist. “I know. But I left him. For three months. He needs to know I still love him and that I’m not going to hurt him again. He was my first real best friend.”

“Oh now I’m hurt.” Wade huffs and stuffs his hands in his front pockets to avoid hugging Peter.

“We weren’t really all that close before I left, Wade. You knew nothing about me and I viewed you as a tentative fighting partner at best.”

“Wah.” he huffs but then slowly puts his arms around Peter. “Fine. But you’re mine now, you little shit.”

Peter laughs and yawns against his shoulder. “Yeah. Whatever you say big guy. Come on. My sleep cycle has just been violently interrupted and I need to fix this.” he pulls away from Wade but takes his hand to bring him to the bedroom.

They stop in the door and Peter smiles. The raptor had taken up the full expanse of the side he had claimed as his own but left Peter the space he always inhabited. Looks like nothing changed there except now he had to figure out how to fit his boyfriends large body in there too.

Peter shrugs and takes his shirt and pants off, crawling in bed beside the raptor and cuddling close to his warm body, lying a little closer to him than he normally did to leave Wade some room to lay behind him.

The man looked amused as he undresses and slips in beside Peter, barely being able to fit.

Suffice to say that in the morning Wade woke up on the floor and Peter made a plan to talk Tony into upgrading him to a king sized bed.

Chapter Text

It was easy to get back into his old habits. Peter felt like he never missed a beat coming back to the park. But some new routines were also formed thanks to the new addition to Peter’s family.

Peter would get up with the Raptor, which he had nicknamed Dp, or sometimes Pool since his coloration looked so much like Wade’s Deadpool suit, to keep him from being confused with his boyfriend, at six like before but Wade would continue to snore on until around nine, when he would get up he always went to the cafeteria and got Peter and himself little mini oranges for brunch. And soon enough they learned that Gwen had a taste for the oranges too so he would bring the beta one as well, sort of as a peace offering. Gwen let him continue intruding on their territory without eating him so he thanked her kindness with fruity treats.

Wade was also beginning being taught how to feed them, though he was a little more hesitant to offer raw meat to a pack of hungry raptors than Peter was so usually Peter would give them half a meal before Wade got there then let him finish the feeding.

The raptors did not view Wade as a member of the pack per say, he did not have a rank or anything, but they saw him as the alpha’s mate so they never acted aggressively towards him and they tried to remain patient with him commanding some of their alpha's time.

The one that had been named after him seemed to be the only one that had a problem with him at first but over time the grudge diminished and the two began to get along better. Wade would give Dp a piece of cheese everyday, straight out of the palm of his hand at Peter’s request.

He originally had just laid it on the floor at his feet but Peter had scolded the man for that, insisting that the raptor would never learn to associate him with good things if he only got fed by the ground. He needed to associate Wade’s hands and face with the good things being fed to him.

The man was much more hesitant around the dinosaurs than his much younger boyfriend. Peter probably would have stuck his head in any of those dinosaur’s mouths if the occasion called for it. Wade didn’t even like letting one eat from his hand despite Peter’s relentless insisting that they were gentle and would never hurt him as long as Peter told them not to.

Wade did not quite follow how animals that stood taller than Peter and could kill him in a split second could ever possibly be scared of him but saying that thought out loud earned him the now famous lecture about mutual respect and trust being the basis for the relationship.

“They are not afraid of me. Our bond would not be so strong if they were. Fear makes these animals dangerous. Kindness and love encourages obedience. If they know I love them and that I would not lead them wrong they are more than happy to follow because they respect and care for me as well.”

Than as if he just had to confirm Wade’s worst fears, he pokes Gwen in the mouth and asks her to open her mouth before laying his hand in her powerful jaws, his wrist resting on the row of jagged sharp teeth lining the bottom jaw.

The Raptor looked confused but she did not close her mouth or make any moves to get away from Peter or hurt him. “Close.” Peter instructs her and lightly taps her nose.

She slowly closes her mouth around Peter’s hand but did not bite down, just letting her teeth lightly rest on Peter’s thin and frail skin. She had no desire to draw his blood or hurt him despite the fact that he would be such easy prey.

“Release.” he hums softly and she immediately opens her mouth, allowing him to pull his hand back. “See? No teeth marks at all.”

“It’s official Pete. You’re crazier than I am.” Wade mumbles as he inspects his hand to confirm that he wasn’t hurt.

“Not really. I just trust them and they offer the same luxury to me. And eventually we’re going to get you to the same level of trust. They tolerate you now but I’m going to make them love you.” when the young man dug into an idea like this it was not easy to shake him from it.

Wade accepted this but it didn’t mean that he was necessarily thrilled about the idea. “Just for the record I am never going to put my hand in one of their mouths, no matter how much I trust em.”

Peter laughs and a light blush colors his cheeks pink. “Wouldn’t ask you to. I’ve actually never done that before so I was just casually hoping Gwennie didn’t decide I was too tasty to resist.” he laughs in that adorable and cute laugh that Wade has fallen in love with.

Gwen decided that she was done hovering around them and she stalks off into the woods to bug one of her siblings. Or more likely just take a snooze. Peter had recently figured out that Gwen was turning herself nocturnal by refusing to sleep at night, guarding her pack until Peter relieved her of duty in the morning by showing up so she could sleep through the afternoon.

He knew it was probably due to the anxiety of what had happened while he was gone. He had gotten the full rundown of what had occurred by one the guards and he could not blame his beta for being over protective now. He was too. No other people besides Wade, Tony, and himself were allowed near the enclosure for right now. Seeing strangers gave the girls anxiety- though Dp remained mostly emotionless and indifferent to people since he’s seen the best and worst of them.

Peter had not taken the male raptor on walks around the park during the day since he had gotten back, too afraid to let him near other people incase something triggered him and he attacked someone. He didn’t know how extensive the mental damage was to the boy.

He knew Wade was more clingy, easy to startle, and skittish of noises and certain hand motions but none of that seemed to make him any more aggressive. Peter was just scared of the off chance of something going horribly wrong. He would hate to have to explain to Tony why Wade ate a child.

Peter sits down against the fence and watches MJ roll in the dirt playfully, probably scratching an itch or just being goofy as Sue stood over and looked at her with what Peter could only label as older sibling annoyance.

Natasha was nowhere to be seen, but that was pretty typical nowadays. If the Raptor was elusive and sneaky before, now she must have found herself a cloak of invisibility. She would come out from hiding for meals and to greet Peter everyday but other than that she seemed to spend her days hiding in shadows and staying away from everyone's eyes.

Peter knew she would never trust people again and he didn't blame her. He was just grateful that she had allowed him back into her life with no attempts to kill him.

But Dp was also gone. The Raptor has taken up exercising as a new method of stress relief so he spent most daylight hours running circles around the enclosure or splashing around in the water. Peter would jog around with him some days but usually he took advantage of the alone time to either be with his boyfriend or catch up on some reading.

Peter sat on the ground, his book folded over his knee to hold his place as he rips open the orange Wade had given him, smiling as the citrusy smell reaches his nose and some juice drips down his hand and wrist as he peels it. Wade excused himself to go to a meeting that Tony had arranged with him about an unknown subject, leaving Peter a rare moment of complete silence and loneliness.

But it was different from when he was alone back in New York. This was a comfortable quiet, the loneliness not bothering him. He knew all he had to do was whistle and he would have at least one raptor in his lap in moments. He was alone but not lonely. He even thought if he listened in hard enough he could hear one of the raptors breathing off to his left, probably Wade calming down from running laps.

He leans his head back against the fence and breathes out softly, wincing as the bright island sun beats down on his face. Since returning here Peter’s skin had darkened in a nice tan and he smiled much more than he has before. His depression has all but entirely disappeared and he looked so much healthier. Wade had done all he could but this was something that only his raptors could make better. Not that he did not have high levels of affection for Wade and wasn’t grateful for all he’s done for him. He was very happy the scarred man had come with him to the island. He had to admit it was nice to have some friendly human company along with his raptors.

He rips a piece of his orange off and pops it into his mouth, humming softly as the sweet juice filled his mouth and made him smile.

The sun was suddenly blocked from his face as a towering figure stands over him, and when he opened his eyes and looked up, his male raptor stood over him with a slightly tilted head and his arms pulled to his chest in a begging motion.

“You don’t like these.” Peter laughs as he pats the ground next to him, inviting the dinosaur to lay down beside him. The argument was lost on the raptor and he nudges Peter’s hand with his nose and croons softly, asking for a bite.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” he pulls a chunk off and lays his palm out flat in front of the raptor, allowing him to eat the orange slice from his hand. He chewed it, made a disgruntled face and rolled his tongue in his mouth, spitting the half chewed orange out. Wade was not a fruit or veggie lover. His weakness was dairy like cheese, ice cream, even just a bowl of warm milk to drink would put him in a nirvanic state.

Peter laughs and rests his hand on top of the raptors head as it was laid in his lap as he finishes eating his fruit. He could see the raptor’s eyes on the book and he wipes his hands on his pants to clean the sticky juice from them before picking it up.

Wade looks up at him and chitters softly in questioning. “Yes I’m going to read to you if you want me to.” Peter smiles and rubs his thumb softly under the dinosaur’s eye until he closed it and settled his head on Peter’s thighs to listen to the story being read to him.

Peter flipped back to the beginning of the book, knowing Wade would be annoyed with him if he tried to read him a story halfway through. Peter didn’t read to him very frequently just thanks to not having a lot of time but when he did the raptor would pester him to do it as much as possible until he gets to hear the end of the book. He loved being read to it turned out and he also followed the plots of the novels as they were read to him.

Peter heard footsteps approaching him as he read and when he glanced up he was pleasantly surprised to see the whole pack had come out of hiding and were laying down in a semicircle around him, listening to his read.

Natasha laid almost next to Wade, her head laying over his foot, Mj and Sue laid a few feet away from them but were curled around each other and a sleepy looking Gwen laid on Peter’s otherside.

He did not stop reading as they found their comfortable spot to lay but his smile grew as they all stayed quiet and listened to him read to them.

He read almost the whole book to them before the sun started to set and Wade came back.

He could feel Wade’s presence behind him but he did not stop reading until he came to the end of a paragraph.

All the raptors were asleep, even Natasha, who Peter has never seen sleep in front of him before. He turns around and puts his fingers to his lips to cue Wade to be quiet as he enters the cage.

The scarred man looked happy as he stares at Peter surrounded by his raptors. He had taken a couple pictures without Peter knowing. “You’re really amazing with them.” he comments softly.

“They deserve something amazing. They are incredible animals.” he runs his fingers gently down Dp’s back. “How was the meeting?” he looks up at his boyfriend.

“It was great actually. Tony managed to hook me up with a job in the kitchen so I can cook meals for guests at the restaurant!” he smiles widely. He didn’t tell Peter that he had applied for a position there.

“Really? Wade that’s great congratulations!” he uses the hand that wasn’t petting the raptor to reach up and pull the taller man into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you!” Peter knew Wade always had a sort of passion for cooking so he was happy his boyfriend had nailed the job.

Dp lifts his head, looks at Wade, and gives a big huff of annoyance before putting his head back in Peter’s lap. “He really doesn’t like me much, does he?”

“He just is jealous because now he isn’t the only guy in my life.” Peter laughs and rolls his eyes. “He’s as harmless as a fly.”

“Didn’t Tony say he ate someone?” Wade raises his nonexistent eyebrow with a chuckle.

“Ok yes, he did, but that person completely deserved it after the things he did to him.” Peter rests his hand on the bony arch above the raptors eye, tapping his fingers mindlessly in the center of his head.

Peter has heard Wade talk about the man, Ajax, that caused him to have his healing factor and immortality. He couldn’t help but find it a little ironic that a man by the same name was the one that caused all the pain and torment to his raptors. However he never told Wade the name of the man maybe for that reason. He doubted it was the same guy but in the off chance it was he didn’t want to send Wade into a downward spiral of bad memories and regret like he tended to fall into when thinking about Weapon X.

“I guess.” Wade looks at the different pale scars lining Dp’s dark scaled body and sighs. “Lots of similarities between that boy and I, aren’t there?”

“Well I mean I did name him after you so..” Peter chuckles a little and stretches his head up to leave a soft kiss on Wade’s cheek. “And you two are both so important to me.” he whispers softly and looks between Wade and the raptor that was resting on his lap.

“Thanks sweetums.” Wade kisses the top of Peter’s head softly and smiles. “So in celebration I made us a reservation at the restaurant and I am finally going to wine and dine you on a real date like I have been wanting to do since the moment I met you.” he whispers happily, making Peter blush and smile.

“That sounds great, actually. I would love to go on a date with you. Finally.” he chuckles and takes Wade’s hand while biting shyly on his bottom lip.

“Just us? No raptor tag-a-longs?” Wade looks at him with a teasing smirk.

“I know this is Jurassic Park but I think Tony would have a conniption if I tried to take my raptors into a 5 star restaurant. And the other guests probably wouldn’t appreciate it much either judging by what happened the last time Wade was in there.” he laughs at the memory. It was scary at the time but now looking back at it, it was all so stupid and funny. Big scary raptor breaks into restaurant and causes havoc because he wanted to sample some cheese.

He’d told Wade the story so the man knew what he was referencing and laughs along with him. “Good. Cause I want tonight to be our night.” Wade smiles charmingly, which made Peter blush but smile enthusiastically.

“Sounds like a plan to me. I don’t think Dp will mind if I have one night between us alone.” he chuckles and winks at Wade, which almost made the man explode right then and there he was so happy.

The raptor looks up again, as if he was going to argue that statement but he just makes a soft growl and puts his head down again. He could feel Peter’s excitement and if he had to suck it up and spend one night like a normal Raptor he could do that for Peter.

Wade reaches down and pats his head softly. “You’re a hero my main man.” he smiles at the raptor, who nips at Wade’s hand in annoyance but did not actually bite him.

Peter laughs and hugs Dp around the head while he was up. “You’re the best, buddy. I promise it’s just tonight.” he smiles and kisses the side of the raptors head, which earned him a decently hard smack in the side by a raptor tail.

Wade pouts. “You kiss him more than you kiss me.” he complains. “And he’s not your boyfriend.” he crosses his arms like a petulant child, looking at the ground. He was being childish about it on purpose, hoping he could guilt or bribe Peter into kiss him. They’ve been dating long enough he figured it was alright.

Peter didn’t really have a good response to that so he just slowly got up off the ground and stood in front of Wade with an innocent and cute little smile. “I haven’t really kissed you yet, have I?” he hums in wonder. “I’m surprised you haven’t taken advantage of all your chances to.”

“You were waiting for me to-” Wade was cut off by Peter suddenly falling into him, their lips landing together perfectly.

It was an accident on their parts, but no accident on Dp’s, who had stood up with Peter and not so lightly shoved his handler into Wade. He’d been feeling the full brunt of their unresolved sexual tension for a while now so he was alright with just making them get it over with already.

Wade immediately put his arms around Peter to hold him up and sighs into the kiss, moving his lips gently against Peter’s surprisingly very responsive ones. Peter’s hands were cupping the sides of Wade’s face and he honestly kissed very passionately for being such a shy little nerdy guy.

When they parted for air they looked at each other and grin widely. “Woah.”

“I’ll say.” they both chuckle and give each other another little quick kiss to confirm that it had actually just happened and then Wade looks over at the raptor that was staring at them with a pleased look on his face.

“Thanks bud.” Wade extends his balled up fist towards the raptor and Dp slowly bumps his nose against it in a sort of fist bump thing. He’d seen Peter and Wade do it enough that he got the gist of what it meant.

Wade almost squealed happily when Dp did that, feeling accomplished that he’d made the raptor finally interact with him a little. Sure they shared a bed every night but the raptor tended to just more or less pretend that Wade wasn’t there most of the time.

Peter puts his arms around Wade’s waist and leans against the other man with a smile in the raptors direction. He’d felt the push against his back and he knew that without that they would have still been standing there arguing over who should kiss who first.

The raptor gives them a small nod before turning and walking off into the woods, his tail wagging happily behind him. While he hated sharing Peter, he knew that the human was happy with his mate and he would not stand in the way of Peter’s happiness. He cared about the boy too much.

Peter watched the raptor walk away and he turns in Wade’s arms, kissing him again excitedly before pulling him out of the enclosure. He would bring Dp a big block of his favorite cheese tomorrow for a thank you for giving him the literal push he needed.

“Let’s go get ready for our date.” Peter grins and bounces along beside Wade, holding his hand tightly as he walks back to his cabin with him. It was weird not having the raptor with them but he tried to not think about it too much.

Wade just agrees numbly and follows along with the very eager Peter. He had really not expected that to end so well.

They got back to the cabin and Peter went to get a shower while Wade laid nice outfits out for them and cleaned himself up as much as he could until Peter got out and he was able to get a shower himself.

They met in the kitchen after they were both dressed and ready and peter blushes nervously. “You look great, Wade.”

“Not even half as good as you, Petey.” Wade grins.

Peter had styled his hair to fall smoothly over his forehead and his dark blue button down shirt was tucked into the waistband of his black jeans. Wade had specially picked that outfit out because he knew how good it made Peter look and he was so glad he did.

“Are you ready to go?” he offers his arm to the younger and shorter boy, who took it with an eager smile.

“Very much so.” they walked arm in arm to the best restaurant on the island and took their seat that Wade had reserved for them.

They both were fairly well off finance wise, so the price of the meal was no problem but Wade insisted that Peter could get whatever he wanted and he would pay for it all. He argued a little but in the end he accepted his defeat and let Wade get this one but only if he agreed to let Peter get the next bill.

Despite how long Peter has lived on the island, he had yet to actually eat at this restaurant and he was excited. Everything looked and smelled so good.

He and Wade discussed what they were going to get and just before they could order, a loud roar interrupted them mid conversation.

“You heard that too.. Right?”” Wade looks at Peter with his head tilted a little.

“Yeah..Someone forgot to feed one of the bigger dinosaurs?” He knew it was a false hope. There was trouble in the park.

Peter’s cell phone rang as if on cue and he answered it immediately. “Hello?”

“Peter. We have a problem. A big one. You and Wilson get to my office. Now.”

Chapter Text

Peter grabbed Wade’s hand and looks at him nervously. “That was Tony. He said we have to get to his office. Something is wrong.” he looks scared. Living on the island you got used to the sounds of the dinosaurs, but he knew he has never heard that particular roar before and that honestly terrified him.

“Let’s go.” Wade nods and jumps up, both of them running to Tony’s headquarters. They were both looking around to try and see what was going on but nothing seemed out of place as they jogged down the crowded sidewalks.

None of the tourists seemed to be concerned with anything but to them this was all strange and new. They weren’t worried about an unfamiliar sound like Peter was.

Peter takes the steps two at a time and opens the door to the main office, running up to Tony’s headquarters fast enough that Wade was left struggling to catch up.

“Tony. What the heck is going on?” Peter asks as he stands in the doorway, looking at all the red screened and blinking monitors in the office.

“I believe I may have made another one of my big mistakes.” Tony mumbles as he turns to face Peter with a shamed look.

At least he was gaining the humility enough to recognize a mistake for a mistake.

Too bad it always seemed to be a little bit too late.

“What did you do?” he sighs out and pinches the bridge of his nose, bracing himself for whatever disaster was about to come next in his young life.

At least it didn’t seem like he was getting fired this time. Different mood to the room. This was a more ‘I just unleashed the apocalypse’ than ‘sorry I’m about to ruin your life’.

“The fights were not the only brilliant idea I decided to try to put on.” Tony sighs and walks over to a computer, clicking on the monitor and pulling up a few different screens. “Before your raptors ate him, Ajax was working on creating a Hybrid dinosaur.”

Peter could feel Wade tense up at the mention of the name and he knew he would officially have to address that later. “Aren’t all the dinosaurs kind of hybrids though? Mixed with like frog and lizard DNA and stuff?” he tilts his head and walks forward to look at the monitor.

“Yeah. But this is a hybrid of the hybrids. It’s a mix of a bunch of the parks assets combined together into one big mess.” he taps the screen and pulls up a long coded list that was likely all the blood types in the animal.

“You’re kidding me, right? You honestly thought that was a good idea?” Peter was dumbfounded by this. “Of course there’s not much herbivore blood in it, is there?”

“Little to none I’m afraid.” Tony nods and pulls a 3-D image of the creature up.

“‘Oly shit.” Peter mumbles. “That thing’s teeth are probably about as big as me. Tony what were you thinking?!” he looks at the man that has been both his mentor and his worst enemy with a dropped jaw.

“I wasn’t! And..apparently I also wasn’t thinking when I left two idiots in charge of finding it when it disappeared from radar.” Tony mumbles in a low voice, as if saying this was going to make it any worse. Well it did but in a situation like this it really didn’t matter much. Point was it was bad no matter what.

“Chameleon effect?” Peter asks for specification.

“Apparently. Long story short that thing is running around the park. Unchecked. I have teams looking for it but no success.”

“Tony. That dinosaur is as big as a skyscraper! How do you lose it!?” Was Peter shouting a little? Yup. Tended to happen when he was about to piss his pants thanks to the idea of a giant mutant dinosaur running around.

“I don’t know, Peter. I’m not sure what is going on myself. All I know is that it is big, and dangerous, and apparently it is hungry.” Tony gripes.

“Of course it is.” Peter sighs and then smiles a little. “So. Spiderman and Deadpool time?” He glances back at Wade to see if he had been following the conversation at all. It didn’t look like it.

“It would be preferable, yes. Still good on all your safety training? Cause I don’t really have time for any debriefing on it.” Tony stands from his desk and looks at Peter pleadingly.

“All good. Hard to forget all the months of it drilled into my skull. Plus Spider instincts help a lot. And Wade can pick it up as we go.” Peter chuckles a little.

“Pick what up?” Wade tilts his head when his name was spoken. “If this involves fighting a giant rogue dinosaur I am so in.” so it appeared he had been listening. That was good at least.

Tony grabbed a few various sized guns from the cabinet by the door and offers it to the two men, deadpool strapping them to his body like a natural pro and Peter following suit. He was now comfortable enough with shooting but he felt weird carrying all these weapons on his person.

“Aim to tranq it if you can but if it tries to eat you.. Do what you have to do. And don’t be above using Deadpool as cannon fodder.” He jokes a little with a smirk in Peter’s direction.

“Ey that’s my boyfriend you’re talkin about there. Be nice.” Peter chuckles. “I’m assuming you will be feeding me intel the whole time?” he asks as he clips a little bluetooth behind his ear.

“The best I can. If I can find it on radar or camera I will let you know. I know you’re not going to like this idea but.. Maybe your raptors could track it down if nothing else..”

“I’m not putting them in any position they can get hurt, Tony. Forget it. Wade and I will find this thing.” Peter crosses his arms.

“I figured that would be your stance on that. It was just a suggestion. I’m going to call for people to evacuate as much of the park as they can until we get this straightened out. I’m also going to send Mr. Owen Grady with you boys. He can keep up with you and he’s a carnivore expert. He will help you track it though he is not as efficient as the raptors would be. I’ll have him meet you down by the main gate, alright?” Tony looks at them and got their nods of approval. “Excellent. Good luck boys. Peter, stay safe. I don’t want to have to explain to your raptors how you got eaten.”

“Yeah. Me either. Thanks Tony. Keep your eyes open up here for it and keep us updated.” Peter makes sure all the guns were on safety and strapped tight to him.

“Just do what needs done.” Tony nods and goes to run scans and check monitors.

“Come on Wade. Let’s go meet up with this Owen guy and get this done before bedtime.” Peter smiles and turns sharply on his heel and marches out of the room with a long and powerful stride. This was Alpha Peter taking over this operation now.

They jogged to the front gate and met a guy dressed in simple rugged jeans, a blue shirt and brown leather vest. He looked pretty much like Peter was expecting. Younger guy with the same attitude as himself.

Wade immediately felt the tension between the two men as they approached one another. They both wanted to be the Alpha male. Somehow he saw his boyfriend being the one to hold out the position against this guy seeing as how he has managed to get freakin scary Velociraptors to listen to him. He could pretty much out do another human easily. But Owen certainly wasn’t taking the hint lying down.

Both boys straightened their backs up and appeared to puff their chests up a bit. “Mr. Grady?” Peter asks tersely as he stands directly in front of him, staring him in the eyes as a direct challenge to back down.

“Just Owen. You must be Peter.” the man smirks in a very laid back and almost carefree manner, but there was something tucked back behind it that read of his annoyance.

Their eyes were locked and Wade was pretty sure Peter was about to start growling so he took it upon himself to break the tension. “Uh.. guys.. I know introductions are great and everything but we kind of have a serious problem of a dinosaur running loose here..”

Thankfully they both snapped out of it pretty quickly and shook out of their little aggressive trance. There would be plenty of time to establish Alpha later when there wasn’t a death machine running around on a rampage. “Right. So Tony said you could track this thing?” Peter cocks an eyebrow at Owen and juts his chin out. He was still really pushing his luck but at least Owen seemed to be alright at ignoring it.

“That’s what he told me I was doing. So yeah. Let’s get a move on here before this thing has time to eat anyone else. It’s already gone through about ten guards.”

“Shit.” Peter hisses through clenched teeth. “Yeah. Let’s get this thing.” he and Wade give little nods to each other and follow behind Owen, who seemed to pretty much just be walking blindly. He had Stark giving him some rough coordinates where it was last sighted but that didn’t really do them a whole lot of good.

“This is insanity.” Wade grimaced after around ten minutes of resultless search.

“You’re impatient.” He reminds him affectionately.

“No. He’s right. This is not working. That thing has itself camouflaged well enough that if it doesn’t want to be seen, it won’t be.” Owen says as he stops walking. He had seen it’s tracks at one point and they had followed those until the dinosaur had begun walking on the paved road so the tracks disappeared and they were unable to pick them up again. Tony could not find it on the radar and there weren’t really any camera’s out this far away from the main parts of the park. This was just a maintenance road.

‘So what do you suppose we do? We have to find this thing.” Peter growls and looks between the two with a grimace.

“Pete I know you don’t want to.. But… maybe the raptors would..”

“Oh Wade shut up. They wouldn’t even know what they were looking for.” Peter sneers at his partner with clear disapproval.

“What if we got them some form of scent marker? Think they could track it?” Owen asks as he stares at Peter for answers.

“Hypothetically yes they probably could. But we don’t have anything containing this things scent and I wouldn’t put them in danger anyway.” Peter was clearly getting more and more stressed out by the idea so Wade dropped it, coming up from his position behind Peter and he wraps his arm around his shoulder.

“It’s fine babe. Don’t worry about it. Like you said. Nothing for them to track anyway.” He presses a brief kiss to Peter’s temple to calm him.

Owen hits the talk button on his bluetooth. “Tony you still have the eggshell from the Indominus?”

“Indominus? Is that what you guys called that thing?” Wade asks with a chuckle. “Funny cause it seems pretty damn dominant to me!”

Owen listened to Tony’s response and nods. “Alright boys change of plans. We’re going to go get the eggshell from the lab, which might contain enough of the scent of that thing to have Peter’s raptors track it and than we’ll see where we can go from there.”

“Like hell.” Peter leans out of the comfort of Wade’s hold to glare at Owen. “We are not putting them in danger!”

Owen breathes out deeply. “Look. Peter. I don’t want to fight with you. And I don’t want to put any good dinosaurs in harm's way any more than you do. But we need to find that thing before it kills more people and gets us all in deep shit. You like this island and you like your job? I suggest you quit being a selfish little dickhead and do what you can to make this happen.” Owen’s words were laced with bitterness and anger but Peter knew how true they were.

Once again Peter found himself backed into a corner. His morality as Spider-man was raging that he needed to do what he could to save the people but.. The part of him that has been overcome with the Raptor’s refused to see them get hurt. He wanted to bare his teeth and back away from the eyes staring at him but he had to face this. He was an Alpha. He had to make some decisions as one.

“I’ll let them find it. But I will call them away from a fight. They will lead us to it then retreat.” he relents a little, still not happy about any of this.

“Let’s go.” Owen gives Peter a curt little nod of approval, turning and running back towards Stark’s labs.

“Good call, Alpha.” Wade shoulder checks Peter playfully before running after Owen, making Peter laugh a little and chase after him.

When they got to the raptor paddock they were all hustled up against the fencing, pacing and calling anxiously to one another. They could all feel something was wrong and they didn’t like it. All their heads snap to attention when Peter walked in and whistled at them.

Owen held the eggshell gently in his hands, making sure to not get his own scent on it or to break it further. This was their only hope of finding this rogue dinosaur.

Gwen jumps at the fence and hisses loudly, throwing her body weight against it in a move that showed Peter that she was really anxious and scared. “Hey hey easy girl. Calm down.” Peter puts his hand up slowly and walks towards the fence, letting her sniff and rub her nose against his hand. Alpha’s scent helped to calm the beta down but only marginally. She still held herself tensely and her eyes would not stop darting around like she was terrified of her own shadow trying to eat her.

She croons softly and grabs the cuff of Pete’s shirt between her teeth, not letting him pull away from the fence. She wanted the alpha to stay with them in their time of distress, which made Peter’s heart melt a little.

“It's okay Gwen.” He says in a shaky voice. “I need you guys to help me with something, okay?” He turns a little and motions Owen to come forward.

The man was watching the interactions between Peter and the raptors with shock and what almost looked like envy covering his face as he walks towards them.

“How did you get them to let you touch them like that?” He asks in a mystified voice.

“Lots of bribery with food and love.” Peter shrugs, jumping a little as he feels something bumping against his legs and sees Wade crouched down below Gwen to stick his nose out of the bars to touch his leg.

Natasha and the other two girls were standing back a little, weary of Owen and the bundle he held in his hands. They were growling lowly with their eyes focused on the man and the guns strapped to all their bodies, Natasha’s death claw digging into the ground threateningly.

“Girls. Settle.” He directs his call at them, making them look at their Alpha like he may have gone crazy. They were still highly untrusting of people, and especially of people with weapons like Ajax carried.

Owen looks into Gwen's eyes and he grins a little. “She's beautiful.”

“She also will bite your arm off so don't touch. Give me the egg and I'll get them to try and get the scent.” Peter saw Owen’s hand twitching toward the Raptor like he was going to pet her and as much as he continued to butt heads with the man, he did not want to deal with the raptors eating him. They had bigger problems to deal with now.

Owen looked like he wanted to argue but Wade gives him a look that tells him to just do it so he hands the little bundle containing the egg over to Peter. “I hope there's enough scent there for them to pick up.”

“They have incredible sense of smell. A thousand times stronger than a dog's. If there's anything there at all, no matter how faint, they will smell it.” Peter says confidently as he unwraps the egg from the bundle and opens the door to the enclosure, walking in and smiling a little when Dp and Gwen both nuzzle him upon his entry. He puts his hand on their backs before softly pushing them away to get down to business.

He calls the other three over and holds the eggshell out. He holds it under each of their noses, giving it to Natasha last and leaving it under hers the longest since she was the supposed hunter of the group. “I need you guys to find this scent for me. This is a bad dinosaur and we need to find it and get it under control or we are all in deep trouble.” he explains as he pats their sides and rubs their heads encouragingly.

Natasha takes a step back and croons softly, crouching down and waving her tail anxiously. She was ready to hunt. Her burning gold eyes were locked on Peter- waiting for her cue to go.

Peter smiles and crouches down as well, feeling the raptors move into hunting formation around him. He looks at Wade and Owen who were waiting outside the cage. “Go get in jeeps. Follow us. I’ll run with them.” Peter instructs the men. “And no eating Owen, tempting as it may be.” he adds to the raptors just to be safe. Their minds should be focused enough on the task at hand that it should not matter but just in case they got the urge he had to warn them off of it.

“Wade. Owen. Go.” he nods at them and then he pushes the door open, running out of the enclosure with the raptors sticking close to his side, as if forming a protective shield around Peter. He could feel Gwen and Dp brush against him every so often, Dp to his left and Gwen to his right. Natasha ran a bit ahead of him, tracking the scent she had been provided, and Sue and Mj were behind Peter, watching and protecting his back.

Peter’s feet were moving of their own accord, faster than he could ever remember them moving before. He could hear the raptor’s begin to pant and huff around him, reassuring him that he was in fact moving fast enough for them. He noticed the headlights of a jeep behind him and he knew Owen and Wade were backing them up.

The raptors paid no attention to the car tailing them and kept running, their powerful feet shaking the ground around Peter and their large bodies staying in a straight line as they ran. Natahsa’s tail was mere inches away from his stomach and if she moved just the right way she could knock him out with a blow from that powerfully muscled appendage but Peter felt no fear. They were one as they ran like this. He could feel and anticipate every move they were going to make- any time they shifted to the side a little or turned to follow the scent only they could track Peter moved with them with no hesitation. He didn’t have to think about it or move consciously. He just had to feel them shift and he went along.

He was the Alpha but like this there was no alpha. They were a single and solid life force together. They were not being led by anyone but instead were leading one another as they went.

He heard a deep throaty growl that was not one of his raptors and he slows up a little, the raptors also thankfully slowing or they would have run him over. “Take it easy girls and Wade.” he whispers softly, putting his hands out to the side balled up in solid fists that was their hand signal for ‘don’t move until told’. They growl a little at the idea of staying still while there was a high danger present but they did not disobey their alpha.

He heard the car engine behind them cut off and the doors open as the two men get out to see why they stopped. Peter looks back over his shoulder and motioned them forward.

“I heard it. It’s close. I think I should send them back to base.” He looks at Wade, knowing that man would be the one to support him.

Dp heard and understood those words and he lifts his head, growling lowly at Peter as he steps closer to him and rubs his scaled side against Peter’s arm. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Peter lowers his hands and the raptors shake themselves out as if they had been held in a trance while his fists were up. They all look at him curiously and tilt their heads, purring and crooning softly.

“Go back home.” he instructs them in a firm tone, straightening his back and raising his head in a manner that showed them it was a direct alpha order that was not to be disobeyed.

Gwen chitters nervously and drags her foot across the ground, not wanting to follow that order. She could sense the extreme danger and did not wish to leave her alpha here without their protection.

“Gwen.” he addresses her directly. “Take them home. Do not let anyone leave. I can handle this.” he pats her neck firmly. “Go!” he yells at them but all their eyes were frozen and locked on one particular spot in the woods...that was moving..and coming towards them… “Aw shit!” Peter growls and pulls a pistol out of his pocket, aiming it at the translucent mass hovering close by until finally it was out of the cover of the trees and there it stood. Bigger than Peter was afraid of, a soft ashen grey color with dangerous spikes liking its whole body from the base of it’s skull down it’s back. It was bigger than the T-Rex, for sure. And easily ten times the size of one of his raptors.

The creature bent down a little and roared loudly, the sound making Peter’s eardrums feel like they were going to burst.

In response to that, the raptors all moved closer to Peter, closing the little circle around him protectively. He could feel their sides heaving with their terrified breaths, their bodies tensed and ready for a fight. Their low growls vibrating around him.

The Indominus only just seemed to take noticed of the five smaller dinosaurs and it starts to make a rough barking sound somewhat like the noises they make to call each other.

The Raptors were visibly startled by this and they return some noises, having a conversation with the creature.

“Son of a bitch.” Peter mumbles in horror. “It’s part raptor.”

A few members of his pack turn their heads and they look from Peter to the Indominus and back again, like they were trying to consider what they wanted to do. For the first time since he’d begun getting up close to them- Peter was scared of the raptors. He could feel the tension in the air shift and he knew that monster was trying to convince them to turn on Peter. That he would be easy prey.

Natasha looks at him with a predatory gleam in her eyes and Peter knew he was in a bad place right then. Natahsa’s loyalty was the easiest to flip, of course. It made sense. She growls lowly and barks at Peter, anger in her voice. “I still love you, girl.” Peter whispers softly, closing his eyes as he waits for the teeth to rip him apart.

But it never came. There was a loud roar of pain and when he opened his eyes he saw a black streak clawing at the Indominus’ side as she tried to find it’s weak spot. “Natasha!” he screams at her, fearful of her getting hurt.

She was protecting him. Risking her life to keep Peter safe. She wasn’t turning on him. She was pissed that someone was trying to break her pack apart. Peter felt horrible that he’d ever doubted her.

The Indominus turns it’s big head around and grabs her easily around the middle, throwing the raptor away from it like she weighed nothing. Nat made a pained cry as she hit the ground but she got right back up, looking angry as ever. She was not easy to beat.

After watching their sister be thrown and hurt, the other raptors were snapped out of their trance and they all attacked the massive hybrid creature.

Wade runs forward and grabs Peter’s arm. He was smart enough to realize that their little bullets were not going to do anything but piss off a creature this big. “Peter. Peter we have to go. We’re all going to die if we stand here like this.” Wade pleads and pulls his arm.

“I’m not leaving them!” Peter screams and shoots at the dinosaur, desperate to keep the raptors safe.

“Peter we don’t have a choice!” Wade shouts back, pulling him away forcefully.

“They’ll die!”

“Better them than you! Now stop being so goddamned stubborn! I’m not going to leave without you. And I’m not going to let that dinosaur eat you.” Wade had tears in his eyes. “Please baby boy. You can’t leave me too.”

Peter looks between the fight and his boyfriend and he whistles sharply. “Follow us!” he yells at the raptors and runs to the jeep, jumping in.

“We’ll bring them to where other guards with bigger guns are. I’m not letting my raptors do this themselves. Owen, radio in and tell everyone have maximum firepower ready. And no one shoots my raptors.” He orders and steps on the gas, spinning the vehicle around and speeding off.

One glance in the rearview mirror confirmed that the raptors were following, two running after the car to lead and the other three antagonizing the Indominus so it would follow them.

They were smart enough to know how to do this without getting hurt, constantly moving and switching positions so the much bigger dinosaur didn't have time to get one of them between its teeth as they were running.

Peter just prayed it was enough to keep them alive through all of this.

Tony had moved the guests to an evacuation safety point so as Peter leads the dinosaur to the center of the park there were no civilian casualties. He could see the guards lining sidewalks and standing on top of roofs with their guns at the ready.

This place was about to turn into a complete war zone.

Peter stops the car after they were deep enough into the center of the square and he jumps out of the car, grimacing as he heard guns exploding all around him. He never was a fan of weapons and he never will be. Although his boyfriend looked all too happy to be shooting something.

The raptors thankfully were more focused on the task of bringing the Indominus down so they were not freaking out over the guns like he was afraid they would. But none of this was having any effect on the ghastly white creature.

The bullets and Raptor bites were not slowing it down. It's skin was too thick to be easily penetrated by either bullets or Raptor claws. It looked like it honestly was just getting annoyed.

Peter watched Dp try to go for its throat but his foot slipped, his body lurching forward and landing right in the easy grasp of the Indominus. Peter could see the look of terror on the raptor’s face as he knew that he had made a fatal error and was likely going to die for it.

It felt like hours to Peter, watching it, but in all realism it was only mere seconds that the Indominus grabbed Wade by his neck and threw him through the side of a gift shop building. The wall caved and collapsed on top of the already limp raptor lying there.

All of the raptors stopped moving, frozen in horror when they watched Dp fall before they all roared furiously and continued their fierce attack with renewed vigor. Wade had kept them together when Peter had left. He had been the voice of reason and their only connection to their alpha. He had worked his way into the fibers of the pack and his loss would be deeply felt by all.

Peter felt more than heard a gut wrenching scream rip loose from his throat and without even thinking what he was doing he drops his gun, turns his web shooters on and jumps headfirst into the fight, webbing the dinosaur's mouth shut and swinging himself up around it, pulling a pistol out of his waistband and shooting it repeatedly in both eyes, effectively blinding the monster.

The pale dinosaur roars and shakes it’s head, trying to throw Peter off but he was unshakeable. That fucker had killed his raptor! His Wade!

Peter dodged the volley of bullets still flying at the creature and he attaches himself to a building and webs the dinosaurs legs together so it was unstable on it’s feet. He whistles loudly and the four remaining raptors take immediate advantage of the monster's weakness, charging at it again and again until it fell backwards, into the Mosasaurus’ tank.

Things again felt like it happened in slow motion despite how quick it really happened. The Indominus fell, his tail struck Peter in the gut and knocked him off the wall and into the water, and Gwen was still stuck on the Indominus’ back when it fell.

The Mosasaurus comes up and grabs the biggest thing it could, thankfully, and drags the Indominus down assumedly to eat it, putting an end to the nightmare that had been it’s reign of terror.

Peter couldn’t breathe.

All the air had been struck out of his chest when the tail hit him and he had gone under water immediately.

He could swim just fine when he didn’t have at least four broken ribs and wasn’t in shock over being hit extremely hard. He couldn’t move, he was sinking instead of floating.

Peter knew he was going to die.

He knew it as plain as he knew the different sounds of his raptor’s calls. Their voices and their personalities. He knew it as plainly as he knew that Wade loved him, and that there was nothing he could do to fight anymore. His time had come to an end and he was oddly okay with it, not even trying to kick his way up to the surface.

He didn’t hear his boyfriends screaming from the edge of the pool.

He didn't hear the sounds of his girls screaming and calling for him in terror.

He didn't see Gwen clawing at the side of the pool trying to get out.

And he didn't see Wade jumping off the side of the pool and diving down to get him.

Peter’s mind was gone.

He vaguely felt something grab him around the waist.

The light changes from the shattered fragments underwater to clear and bright.

He felt his body be laid on the ground, a hard force on his chest, water leaking down the side of his mouth.

He felt his lungs heave and water pours out of his mouth rapidly, gasping desperately for air.

His eyes open for a minute, sees Wade’s heartbroken and terrified face in front of him before everything went dark.

Chapter Text

‘Everything hurts.’

That was about the only thing Peter could think about as he laid there on the cold and damp pavement.

All noise was muted thanks to the water in his ears but it was so pounding loud at the same time.

He could feel the shifting of the worried bodies around him, their soft growling and Wade’s worried mumbling as he continues to brush Peter’s damp hair from his forehead.

Every breath was the equivalent of breathing fire.

His throat hurt. His lungs ached. His chest felt like he had a ten ton weight laying on it.

“W-...Wade…” he gasps out softly, his eyes opening a little, surveying his surroundings. He was still laying on the side of the pool, Wade was kneeled over him and also dripping wet so he could only assume that he had been the one to get him out of the water, which he noticed was a solid red color.

“Baby boy. Oh thank god.” Wade’s head slumps forward and his forehead rests against Peter’s so the younger man could hear his shaky and labored breaths. He had truly been scared to death he was going to lose Peter.

“Wade.. what… Where’s Gwen? Dp?” Of course the first thing he asks about is the raptors. He remembered Wade being thrown and Gwen being taken down with the Indominus and he needed to know they were okay.

At her name being called by her alpha’s voice Gwen lifts her tired head and chitters softly, her body laying only a few feet away from Peter’s as she recovers from her struggle to get out of the pool.

After he had gotten Peter out, Wade and Owen together had pulled the exhausted raptor out of the water so she would not drown or become the Mosasaurus’ meal after it became done with the Indominus. She was tired but otherwise mostly unharmed.

Natasha was still bleeding lightly from the bites on her midsection but she was still pacing around the group, keeping a watchful eye on her beta and alpha. She looked tired but determined to keep guarding them with her life, which she had in fact nearly given.

Sue and Mj were nowhere to be seen and that concerned Peter a little, but when he looked at Wade he just motions over to the side a bit. “They’re with Owen.”

Peter could hear the sound of heavy objects being dropped and dragged and the green sisters talking to each other as they do whatever they were doing.

“Where’s he?” Peter asks softly, looking his boyfriend in the eyes worriedly. “Where’s Dp?”

Wade sighs heavily and his shoulders droop a little. “Owen and the girls are digging him out right now. It’s.. it’s probably not gonna be good, Pete.” Wade lays a soft kiss on his forehead to comfort him even though he knew that nothing he could do would help. Peter was going to be hurting over this bad.

“Wade.” Owen’s surprisingly soft and mellow voice calls. He stands back from the rubble pile with a sickened look that gave Wade no hope.

The heavily scarred man looks up and looks down at Peter. He slowly and carefully helps him to his feet, being very conscious of his damaged ribs. He needed immediate medical attention himself but Wade knew the young hero would not rest until he saw the male raptor, even if it was just to say his final goodbyes.

Owen saw Wade struggling to get Peter up so he comes over and also offers Peter some support with a sad expression. He knew really nothing about the bond between the boy and the raptors but he could tell just from the bit he has seen that it was incredibly strong and deep. The loss was going to kill Peter.

“I’m sorry, Peter.” he sighs heavily and walks him over to where he and the girls had cleared the rubble away to expose the limp and lifeless body of Wade.

The red and black raptor’s body was shiny with his blood, he was also lying in a big puddle of it, the pavement under him dyed the sickening crimson color that could only mean one thing.

If nothing else had killed him, just the blood loss alone would have done it. There were deep puncture wounds in his neck that were still lazily trickling blood and his body was clearly crushed by the heavy cement wall that had fallen on him. There was no chance.

“W-Wade!” Peter sobs as soon as he saw his best friends body. He turns his face to bury it in Wade’s chest, crying uncontrollably into it.

The larger man puts his arms around Peter’s thin waist and holds him up when his legs give out from him, sobs wracking his body.
“He can’t be dead. He isn’t dead. There’s no way. He’s going to be fine.” Peter repeats, shaking his head and refusing to believe what his own eyes were seeing.

The four girls all were surrounding them, Gwen leaning heavily against Mj since she was still a bit too weak to stand on her own right now. Sue makes a soft weeping sound, throwing her head up to the sky and calling loudly, mouring her brothers death. All the other raptors follow suit until all that could be heard was the loud and sad noises of the close knit family, Wade and Owen also shedding a few tears at how heartbreaking the scene was.

All the raptors slowly take turns walking forward, nuzzling Wade’s body and warbling at him sadly, saying their goodbyes to him. Natasha stumbled forward slowly and she collapsed beside him, nudging her nose under his jaw and crying softly.

She had gotten along best with Wade, his silly personality and playful spirit always made her secretly happy despite how she always acted annoyed at him. They were both the selective outcasts and had bonded over that. She felt his loss hard.

Gwen limps forward on her own and touches her nose to Wade’s softly before softly resting her jaw over Nat’s back in a comforting gesture similar to a hug.

Peter tries to blink the tears from his eyes enough to see and get his breathing under control. He looks up at Wade and licks his lips nervously. “Let me.. Let me go see him… I.. I have to say goodbye..” he whispers in a broken voice.

Wade nods and relinquishes his hold on him, letting Peter slowly walk towards where his best friend of over a year lied dead. He was numb to his own pain, all he could think about was Dp.

Peter slowly falls to his knees beside Natasha and his hand lays on the hinge of Wade’s jaw, where he would always scratch and rub him to make him happy and praise him for being good.
“I failed you too. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry Wade. You’re my best friend. I should have never brought you out here. I let you die. I did it again.” fresh tears fall down his face. “I’m sorry buddy. I’ll miss you and I loved you so much.” he leans down and presses a kiss under the raptors closed eye.

The crushing weight of loss was eating Peter up from the inside. It’d been over six years since Gwen Stacy had fallen to her death thanks to Peter, and he swore to himself he was never going to go through that again yet here he was. On his knees in front of yet another life lost to his lack of proper action and stupidity. Another victim of the Parker luck.

“Peter.. We should really get you to the medical center.. Your ribs are broken and you may have internal bleeding from how hard you were hit. I didn’t move you before cause I knew you would want to see the girls but.. I really gotta make you come with me now. Owen will take care of moving Dp somewhere nicer to bury him.” Wade says quietly as he comes forward and lays a hand on Peter’s trembling shoulder.

Peter takes a deep breath to ground himself and he nods, using Wade to pull himself up. He looks at the girls and whistles softly to get their attention. “Go back home, girls. I’ll come see you when I can. I love you.” he whispers softly to them and watched as they reluctantly followed his orders and walked slowly back towards their enclosure. Everyone except Natasha, who everyone unanimously agreed to leave where she was until she felt like moving.

Owen sighs and walks into the partially destroyed gift shop and finds a blanket with the park logo on it, pulling it out of the packaging before laying the blanket slowly and gently over the raptor’s head and upper body to preserve his dignity. His hand lingers gently on the animal's muzzle and he quietly thanks him for his sacrifice and bravery before backing away when he was growled at by Natasha for lingering too close to her brother.

Wade carefully helps support Peter as he walks to the medical center, not saying another for once. He knew Peter needed his time to think and nothing he could say would make it any better.

When they got to the hospital Wade handed Peter off to the doctor, kissed his forehead and promised to be right back before running off to tell Tony what had happened.

It was the first time the billionaire had cried in a long long time.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

Peter wasn’t positive how many days he had spent in the hospital. He was zoned out most of the time, his mind too far out of reach to care about little things like that. His brain was like a broken record player, only showing him little clips and phrases of his time with the raptor he had called Wade. From their first meeting all the way to their final moments together. He never got to hear Peter say goodbye.

They’d had to give Peter a fluid IV drip since his constant crying was making him very dehydrated but he didn’t care. He wasn’t even aware of the needle in his arm most moments.

Wade would come in pretty frequently to check on him and remind him that if he wanted to talk he was there for him but than he would run off to somewhere else again, appearing to be busy with something he didn’t share with Peter.

The young man figured he probably was just fulfilling his job in the kitchen now.

He mindlessly watched South Park on the tv in his room, a show that he had developed a high tolerance for since Wade tended to like that late at night when he couldn’t sleep. The jokes that normally could get a little chuckle out of him at least now doing nothing. The same thought just kept circulating around his head.

‘He’d lost Wade.’

It was an all consuming and tortuous thought.
He missed him so much. His sweet boy. His cuddle bug. The first one to give him a chance.

Dead.

It almost hurt too much to even think about his boyfriend now. The name similarity caused the hole in his chest to ache more.

Physically Peter was healing well. He had by some pure miracle managed to avoid having internal bleeding and his ribs were mending themselves together nicely. They had also gotten all the water out of his lungs so he was pretty much completely healed by now. But they wouldn’t let him go from the hospital due to concerns about his mental health.

His detached and emotionless behavior was the first sign of a problem and when a doctor had asked Wade about Peter’s mental health and the scarred man told him about the almost suicide attempt he’d made back in New York, and how he would fall into these deep depressed ruts like this, the doctor immediately refused to let him go for a few weeks until he started to stabilize.

Wade eagerly agreed. Gave him more time to get things straightened out on his end.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-

One day Wade bounced into Peter’s room, his attitude one hundred percent different than any other time he had come to check up on him. It made Peter cock his eyebrow at him a little.

“What’s up with you?” he asks in a rough and scratchy voice since he has not used it much.

“I have a surprise for you, baby boy.” Wade grins and bounces on the balls of his feet eagerly.

“M’ not really that interested Wade. But thank you.” Peter mumbles softly and looks away from his all too happy boyfriend.

“Nooo no no no you’re really really gonna like this!” Wade smiles and grabs Peter’s hand tightly in his own, kissing his knuckles softly. “Just shut your eyes and I’ll be right back!” he chirps happily and darts out the door as fast as he had run in.

Peter heard the sound of something clicking hesitantly on the floor, a gentle warbling sound and Wade loudly shushing whatever had made the sound. And after the “shh” sound left his lips, Wade yips in pain and yells something about an ungrateful little prick.

The door that he had shut behind Wade opens and his dork of a boyfriend stumbles in with a giant grin on his face.

But that wasn’t what was special.
What came around the corner and stood in the doorway was.

His body thin and almost every inch of him was covered in white bandages and heavy casts to keep his bones set right. But it was undeniably /him/.

“W-Wade… Wade!” Peter squeaks and jumps out of his bed, running towards the raptor with his heart pounding wildly in his chest. “How- H--how is he- I - I saw him- he-” Peter lays his hand softly on an undamaged spot on the dinosaurs flank and gets a happy little chitter in greeting, clicking his teeth together happily.

“He was pretty dead. Yeah.” Wade shrugs. “But there was just a little heartbeat there. Owen picked him up to take him somewhere and he felt his pulse when he touched his chest. He broke almost every bone in his body and lost a lot of blood but he’s been going through hours of physical therapy and medical treatments. He’s been able to walk on his own for about two days now and he just got cleared as stable and able to be out from under constant surveillance. He’s in the clear. He’s going to be just fine.” Wade smiles widely.

Dp ducks his head down and nuzzles under Peter’s jaw, his tail waving behind him to keep him steady. The boy slowly runs his fingers down the thick bandages around his neck and smiles through his tears. “You’re alive.” he whispers softly as he looks into the soft and friendly eyes of his raptor.

The red and black male lifts his head up and warbles at Peter, as if to say ‘of course I am’. Peter lays his head against the Raptor’s jaw and smiles, hugging him carefully.

Peter felt a soft hand on his back and he looks up at Wade, grinning widely. “He's alive.” He whispers in shock but with the happiest voice possible.

“He's alive.” Wade confirms and rubs Peters back softly. “God it's good to see you smile again baby boy. I was worried I was gonna lose you again.” He confesses.

“You never lost me, Wade.” He smiles and leans up to steal a soft and gentle kiss from Wade’s lips, which almost made the bigger man cry. He hasn't been shown any affection since Peter has been hospitalized.

He'd been pretty much living in the doctor's office, bouncing between Peter and the Raptor, overseeing that they both healed properly and were getting better. But neither of them had really been lucid enough to pay him much attention and that had been fine, his concern was more on their recovery.
But after Dp had finally begun being able to move around and his senses came back to him, he had returned to his edgy and untrusting behavior towards Wade, and only at the last few days had they really begun to interact more with each other.

And Peter had been essentially comatose for those those weeks so he wasn't good for much conversation or love.

But now things were falling back into place and Wade thought they could finally have a chance at being a happy family again.

Dp seemed to have gotten mildly more comfortable with Wade since he had been the only one around besides the veterinarian- which the raptor seemed to dislike even more- and Wade had been the one to come in and feed him, also he would tell him how Peter was doing and talk to him the same way he’s seen Peter communicate with the raptor. It was different of course since Wade was not the alpha of the pack but he was still a link to Peter and for that reason Dp had taken to warming up to him.

Peter kept petting the raptor and mumbling soft incoherent love statements to him, his heart collapsing on itself when he realized that things were actually okay. He’d still messed up. He’d still let Dp get hurt, but at least the raptor was able to walk away from it, albeit on broken legs.

The gentle natured raptor did not seem to mind or care at all about it though, purring happily as Peter rubs his hand over his scarred scales. He wobbles a little in place, unable to really stand up and support his own weight any longer so Wade and Peter help him to lay down on a pile of blankets they threw on the floor for him.

He immediately curls up in the soft sheets and sighs happily, closing his eyes and drifting off into an easy and happy sleep knowing that his alpha was there with him. It would take a while for Dp to get back to one hundred percent. He was hurt badly. But he was a fighter and he would not give in.

Peter lays down in his hospital bed and scoots over to one side, patting the open space beside him to invite Wade to cuddle with him. An offer the older man could not refuse.

They curl up close to each other and Peter smiles as he lays his head on Wade’s chest. “I’m sorry I suck at emotions.”

“Don’t apologize baby boy. You’ve got your reasons. Your issues. Your past. We’ve all got that shit. I don’t blame you for it. Plus losing or thinking you lost someone you love is always hard even if you don’t have pre existing trauma on top of it. Don’t apologize for being sad.” He brushes his hair away from his forehead tenderly and kisses his the top of his head gently.

“I still shouldn’t shut down like that. It was bad. Wrong. I shouldn’t do that to you. You did everything you could for me and I was too lost in my own head to even say ‘thank you’.”

“Pete. It’s fine.” Wade chuckles softly and shakes his head a little. “This may be weird timing but.. You know I love you, right?”

Peter felt his heart accelerate a little and his cheeks heat up with a deep blush. “Y-yeah I- I kind of did know that.” he smiles and looks up at him through his thick eyelashes. “And you know I love you too?”

“I do now!” Wade grins and pulls Peter’s chin up so he could kiss him adoringly. They both were laughing carelessly and grinning ear to ear.

Their little family was back on track. And everything seemed to be fine. Peter couldn’t wait to see the girls again, to show them that their brother is alive since he was sure they were still missing him.

Wade was excited to get back to how their lives have been for the couple weeks they’re been on the island together.

And Dp really just wanted a block of damn cheese.

`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`-`

His heart was pounding in his ears, blood rushing through his veins as he runs and jumps over a trashcan, using a bit of his spider strength and agility to pull the maneuver off.

He could hear the creature behind him panting and snapping its jaws at his exposed back, it’s growls only fueling him to run faster.

A glance over his shoulder confirmed that it was indeed closing in on him and he quickly darts off the sidewalk and weaves through concession stands and throngs of people, shouting loudly for everyone to “clear the way”. People all but dove to get out of the way of the young man… but more from what was chasing him.

Dp was hot on Peter’s heels, unable to catch up completely but getting there slowly. He was getting faster and stronger every day.

Peter hurtles himself over a little two foot high fence and does a backflip as he lands square on his mark, the raptor following him and standing in his spot, crouching down and hissing at Peter, who just smiles and puts his hand out, winking and saying in a light and casual voice- “Easy boy.”

The crowd surrounding the little fenced in area cheers wildly, both Peter and Dp giving little bows and Peter waves at the people, Dp clicking his death claw on the ground and chirping at them in greeting.

Peter throws his arm around the raptor’s shoulders and grins hugely. “Thank you all for coming to Jurassic Park! My name is Peter and I am a trained professional- please do not attempt to run through the park with a velociraptor chasing you. You will be eaten.” he laughs and digs in his pocket, giving Wade a nibble of cheese when the dinosaur poked his nose at it.

“So who has questions about the raptors, the park, or anything in general? We’ll be here for a half hour.” Peter smiles easily and leans against Dp, crossing one leg over the other and his arms fold lightly across his chest.

They had gotten comfortable with this. Every other day Peter and Wade would do a different little publicity stunt and than answer questions, take pictures with the guests and than go to the cafe and bother Peter’s boyfriend until he gives them food.

Tony had seen first hand how gentle and intelligent the male raptor was and he was supportive of Peter’s idea of doing this. He had signed Wade off as being harmless and fit to be around people, as long as Peter had a chain on hand to rope him in if anything did get out of hand.

The raptor was a little less trusting of adults but he would stand still for hours and let kids crawl over him.

His wounds had healed into some spectacular scars but he still held his head high and was happy as could be. His personality was as gentle and mild as ever.

The girls had also softened themselves up but they were not as receptive to being around strangers as Wade. The crowds spooked them.

Tony had formally come out and straight up apologized to everyone worldwide, explaining the stupid mistake he’d made listening to Francis about designing the hybrid, he’d also given a direct and private apology to Peter for doing the tests on Wade and taking his DNA for the experiment.

People were terrified and angry at Tony, and he was still facing legal issues because of it all and there was a chance the park could be shut down but for now they were just enjoying everything settling down.

Peter and Owen had also developed a tentative sort of friendship between each other since Owen had helped Dp get through his physical therapy and helped Wade care for him through his recovery and Peter couldn't bring himself to be mad at him or stay that way.

They'd found a sort of system where they could work with and tolerate one another so everyone was vaguely happy. The raptors didn't seem to mind Owen much which helped with Peter’s decision to trust him.

All in all everyone was happy and as Peter answered some excited child's questions about Wade he couldn't keep the smile off his face as he thought about how his life had ended up.

Not too bad after all.