Chapter Twenty

Dark Carnival: Broken

Dakota POV

"No."

"She saved ma life-"

"No!"

"Ya ain't being reasonable, darlin'-"

"Don't you fucking dare call me 'darlin' after bringing that whore into my territory, Ellis!" I had never been so pissed off in my life, nothing could compare to this. Ellis had brought Delilah back to my nest, my family, my pack, MY TERRITORY! After all that had happened, after all that she had done and said and after I kicked her ass, he brought her back here. I felt another blood vessel in one of my eyes bust, but I was seeing red anyway.

"Come on, Ellis. She has a point. After everything she said, you brought her back? And it took her that long to kill a Smoker?" Cas shook her head.

"Nope, I had to shoot it."

"Female can't fight. Weak link. Weak links get left behind," Gamma rumbled from my side, holding my arm so I didn't full out throttle Ellis to get to Delilah. The way he was so careful in bandaging her made me sick. She even had boils on her skin. She'd been infected for a while and still couldn't take care of herself

"They have a point, youngin. We can't keep her around. She's just gonna mess with the group," Coach said, trying to be the voice of reason. Nick nodded and Rochelle even got in on it.

"She's way to weak, Ellis. Dakota's only been a Hunter for a while, but she can take down a Tank almost single handedly. What can Delilah do? Punch a Smoker."

"Ya'll, I ain't lettin' her go out there alone. Ah still love 'er, even if she is a bad person."

That's it, the last thread of sanity for this situation had snapped. I snarled at Ellis and pushed him against the wall as I grabbed my hoodie, leaving the bag and food for everyone. Beta and Gamma got the hint and started getting ready to leave as well. Cas and Ro glared at Ellis, who looked confused, as I zipped up my hoodie a bit and pulled my hood up.

"Red, come on. Don't go again-" I held my hand up to stop Nick from talking and shook my head as Gamma and I opened the door and started walking away. I nodded to Beta, who whined when we started to leave, and he stayed with Cas. I wasn't going to stay and watch something like this happen again. I lost to many boyfriends to their old loves. Fuck watching it happen again.

I wiped a tear from my eye and stared as it came off my skin as a deep red. Wonderful, I cry blood now.

Beta POV

I watched as my pack walked away. I knew they wouldn't be far off, always within sight if anyone looked hard enough. Or if you could smell cherry blossoms. That was her favorite smell to get for the baths she made Gamma and I take. I turned to everyone and fidgeted a bit.

"Alpha done watching mates be stupid. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." Cas and the others looked surprised I could say that all in perfect English. I remembered how to speak perfectly, I just had problems getting it from my brain to my mouth.

"What?" Ellis looked so stupid with that boiled bitch next to him, Alpha looked better.

"Only one female per male. She isn't going to watch you let her hurt you again. Dumbass." There's a word I haven't used in a while.

"You watch yer mouth-"

"No, you watch your's, Ellis! You just ran off someone that cares about you because of someone that hurt you! In multiple ways! Are you stupid?" Rochelle was riled up, that's for sure. I could see her cornrows getting frizzy from stress.

Poor mama bear's gonna bust a gasket. Ro was mama bear. She's scarier than one, in my opinion, when she's pissed off. I stepped behind Cas to watch this all unfold. I didn't expect for Nick to take off his suit jacket and then punch Ellis in the face. And the fight for Alpha male was starting.

Took longer than I thought. Nick is like Alpha's dad and Ellis is like her mate. "Bloodletting time," I said with a growl. "Ellis going to learn place."

"Now, boys. Ya'll don't haveta fight over."

Why did she have to wake up now? I should throttle her, make Alpha happy.

Dakota POV

Gamma followed me as I destroyed stand after stand. I was having a rare Hunter Mood Swing where I acted like the monster I was supposed to be. After about an hour of just ripping things apart, I curled up next to Gamma on a rooftop where we could still see the safe room.

I could hear Rochelle bitching at Delilah, Ellis trying to defend her and Nick calling Ellis all kind of names that he didn't deserve. He had a good heart, but he didn't know when to let go. Or when to hold a grudge.

We listened to the arguments or a few hours before everyone went to sleep. We followed suit as the sun began to rise. I kept everyone on a strict nocturnal schedule. The Witches didn't move and the Tanks had worse eyesight at night.

I was prodded awake by a worried Gamma, who I pulled back down, mumbling something about five more minutes. He picked me up and shoved some beef jerky in my face.

"Mer... Teriyaki..." I took a huge bite and chewed it as we started walking along the rooftops.

The sun had just set and the group was just leaving the safe room, Delilah clinging to Ellis as if she couldn't protect herself. I took a deep breath and could smell infection, like a wound was becoming septic. It was the wounds I had given her, she must have washed them in that sewer water at the base of the hill.

Good, she'll die soon. I was thinking of all the ways she would die, and I hope a Witch got her. I'd let the Witch get to her.

Nick was carrying the gnome they had brought back last night. I hope he doesn't think they're gonna bring that in the helicopter or however we're getting out of here. I looked over to Gamma and saw him watching Nick intently, albeit with a far off look on his face.

No fucking way... This is awesome... I smirked at Gamma who shook his head as I cleared my throat. He blushed and looked down. His one fault, Gamma had a horrible poker face and he liked the Gamblin' Man.

"D..don't tell..." He said looking at me. Poor baby looked so embarrassed. I pat him on the shoulder and started following the group.

I heard Ellis scream, "Holy shit, guys! KIDDIE LAND!" I had to face palm, and then snarl with Delilah blatantly told him to "shut the fuck up."

"How did he chose that one?" Gamma asked, motioning at her with his thumb from our place on top of the mini-train tracks. I shrugged and waved at everyone as they passed. Delilah tried to look tough and hissed at us, but one rib-cage rumbling growl from Gamma made her cling to the closest person to her, which was Nick.

I had gotten goosebumps from that growl and slowly turned to look at Gamma as he did it again, but much louder this time. I now had full body goosebumps and was just staring at him with wide eyes. That was an amazing sound. I had to learn to do that.

Delilah went to run ahead, trying to kill some commons, but Kiddie Land was already cleared by Gamma and myself. I fist bumped with Gamma as we just jumped from ride to ride to keep with them, climbing up to the top of the slide to kill any commons there.

I almost missed my landing though when the smell of a Tank hit me like a brick. I looked at Gamma who nodded and went to tell the others as I cleared the top of the slide.

Of course, Delilah started throwing a tantrum when she saw me kill the last common, nary a drop of blood on me aside from my hands.

"Look, bitch. I don't know who you think you are, but you can stop showing off."

"I ain't showing off, Delilah. I'm doing my job.," I deadpanned as everyone else made it to us. "Now, shut the fuck up. There's a Tank at the bottom of the slide-"

"A what? Probably a lie to get Ellis away from me! Stupid hoe!" she screamed so loud the ground started to shake. She had alerted the Tank.

Good job, dumbass. She stood there like nothing was wrong while Ellis tried to pull her away from the slides. When she finally saw the Tank, she pushed Ellis towards it and ran towards the next safe room, making him fall on his knees totally defenseless.

Without thinking about it, I ran to him and threw him down the slide, the Tank backhanding me right after I had. I flew through the air and watches the concrete get closer. I couldn't even do anything to slow myself down or land correctly. I was going to fast.

I closed my eyes right before I hit the ground, and a loud crack erupted from my hip as it slammed into the ground. I skidded about ten feet. I laid completely still and still as I heard the others take the Tank down, though I screamed loud enough to make my throat bleed as I heard it die.

I had seriously fucked up my left hip, the one I landed on. I think it was fractured (if you know anything, fractures hurt more than breaks, for the simple fact that you can feel the bone grinding on itself). I knew that if I had been alone and fully turned, this would be a fatal injury.

I heard everyone coming to me as I continued to scream and sob in pain. I'm not proud of my moment, but it fucking hurt! I must have blacked out from the pain because I only remember Cas, Nick and Ellis crowding around me to pick me up and take me to the safe room.

I vaguely remember muttering "I'm broken" while being carried.

Short Chapter, I know, but this one was hard to write. I didn't want Dakota to sound like a total bitch, but she still had to be an asshole.