Running in Circles

Ellie knew that Dina wanted to asked why she was going through all of the effort of hunting down the WLF gang. In all honesty, Ellie just… Needed a distraction.

That night - when Joel was beaten, bloodied, and bruised; an inch of life left in his pummelled form – Ellie came to a realisation.

She was living for Joel.

Despite all of their previous history, despite the lies and betrayal and hurt that had strained their relationship recently, Joel was Ellie’s reason to keep living, to keep fighting. The fact that Ellie almost lost her purpose…

No, Ellie wouldn’t let that happen and she needed to protect Joel, needed to eliminate any and all threats. She couldn’t live without him…

“You have no idea what loss is,” Joel said, a slight quiver in his voice. Nutmeg eyes harsh and cold, as if the man was speaking fact.

Ellie realised that Joel was right. That she had no idea what loss was. But she had come pretty fucking close to experiencing it; and if it meant having to risk her own life to keep herself alive as well as Joel? Well, that was just killing two birds with one stone.

“I’ll stay up for the first watch and then I’ll wake you up in a few hours, okay?” You repeated for the umpteenth time.

Joel, for some bizarre reason, didn’t want you to stay up and take the first watch whilst he slept. Perhaps he suspected that you wouldn’t wake him up and just let the man rest. Which, yes, was your plan.

“Why…you-do-n- Why?” Joel huffed grouchily. You just sighed.

“I’m up first. End of story,” You snapped exasperatedly. Joel must’ve sensed that he’d lost the – already losing – argument and just crossed his arms over his chest petulantly.

It was a few hours later that the tossing started.

You had managed to coerce Joel to fucking sleep, and have been awake ever since. Your body was begging you for some shuteye, but you knew that Joel needed it more.

It was rather annoying how soft your body had gotten after spending over a month basically lazing around Jackson. You even had a little fat on you.

Now, however, Joel was tossing and turning in all sorts of directions – making you wonder how the alpha was comfortable on the couch, his body half on the ground, and half on the couch.

Sighing, you padded over to the man and went to help him back onto the couch. But, as it turns out, Joel doesn’t do too well with physical contact in his sleep.

The alpha bolted awake, a sharp inhale of breath was your only warning before the man flailed and jumped to his feet, taking on a defensive fighting position.

Joel had, however, obviously, forgotten that he only had one knee joint because as he tried to ‘bend’ his left leg - to help his stance and balance his weight evenly - the man ended up tripping over himself and landing flat on his ass.

“You okay there?” You asked, half-amused half-concerned.

Some sort of gargled response left Joel as he tried to heft himself up off the ground.

“You’re gonna need to work on crouching if you don’t wanna die,” You quipped, offering a hand to the other and helping to pull him off the ground.

“Fack off,” Joel grumbled. You barked out a laugh.

Joel stumbled back to the couch and you felt concern start to take over your features.

Striding up to the alpha, you lay your hand against his forehead, ignoring his hands that tried to swat you away. Frowning, you pulled away.

“You have a fever,” You stated.

“Great… deduction Sher-detective,” Joel said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. You huffed a laugh.

“I’ll be back,” You chirped before going off to hunt the house for any blankets you could use to keep Joel warm.

In all honesty, it wasn’t exactly a surprise that Joel had a fever. His body was obviously overworking itself after the beating he took and was now probably trying to kill any bacteria in his body. But, still, it was concerning. Especially since the two of you hadn’t even been on the road for a day.

Either way, the storm sounded like it would last a day or two, so you guessed that Joel should recover some more in that time.

Trudging back into the living room with an armful of blankets, you quickly wrapped a protesting Joel into a cocoon, before basically shoving him to lie down.

“Hot,” Joel griped.

“Good,” You snapped. “That’s the point of a fever, dumbass.”

Joel just growled softly at you. Obviously, the alpha didn’t want to talk biology right now.

Sighing, you let your hands card through the man’s thick hair. Joel tensed before relaxing into the contact. It was as you were combing through the knots at the nape of his neck that you felt something thick and warm. Frowning, you pulled your hand back and realised that Joel was bleeding.

“Fuck,” You cursed. “Joel, you gotta sit up. You can’t go to sleep yet.”

Joel just mumbled incoherently and you gave up and decided to push the alpha into a sitting position.

“Joel?” You asked, gently slapping his face to get him to wake up. “C’mon Joel.”

Sighing in frustration, you quickly set to work. Jumping over the back of the couch to get a better view of Joel’s injuries, you tried to navigate through the thick locks of hair.

“I’m gonna give you a haircut, Mister,” You warned as you grabbed your dagger and started to cut away. It looked like Joel’s skull had decided to open up again… Wonderful (note the heavy sarcasm).

Fumbling around for your backpack, you quickly pulled out some first-aid equipment and got to work on bandaging Joel’s head.

The journey had barely started and yet fate seemed to be urging you to stay behind…

It was nearing the middle of winter when everything fell apart. Ironically, it happened on the night of the new year.

You were curled up by the foot of the fireplace, the fire itself long burnt-out, leaving you shivering in the cold it left behind in its wake. You never heard his footsteps, you never felt his hands pulling at your body so you were lying on your back. The only thing that you remembered was the searing, white-hot pain that suddenly burst through your shoulder, and the blood-curdling scream that tore itself from your throat as your eyes snapped open.

At first, you merely saw the silhouetted figure of a man. But, as your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you could make out the features of Elijah.

The redhead's hand wormed itself under your neck, so his fingers could pinch each side, right above where a bond mark would lay, forcing you to go completely lax.

Panic started to coarse through your body. No one was supposed to be at the base. They had all gone out and left you to watch over it for the night. No one was coming for you. No one knew what was currently going on, in front of the fireplace, where you lay, deathly silent.

“This is all your good for,” Elijah sneered, the beta’s spittle landing on your face. “A toy for others to use is what you were born to be.”

You felt the knife twist and you couldn’t scream, couldn’t move. Not with his fingers digging into the back of your neck, forcing you into obedience.

That night was hazy, to say the least. Isaac had later said that you had ‘dissociated’, a term where you basically become detached from reality… You weren’t too sure, but Isaac was the ever-loving psychology nerd so you just went along with it.

It was at some point during that night that you vividly remember, when the dark sky started to brighten, that Riyana had come barging into the room.

There was screaming and yelling, her arms viciously encircling around Elijah’s waist before bodily hauling him off and discarding the man to the side. Then there was more shouting.

Soon enough, Cherry stumbled into the scene, taking in your hazed form and your blood coating Elijah’s hands, and promptly flipped her shit.

“What the fuck has happened?” Cherry hissed, her quiet voice cutting through the screaming match the other two were partaking in and left behind a horridly tense silence.

“Nothing,” Elijah shrugged nonchalantly, his earlier anger and aggression fading away into some sickening façade of innocence. “I just treat her like any omega should be.”

It was in that moment, that both Riyana and Cherry realised, that the beta truly believed what he was saying.

“You’re fucking insane,” Riyana spat.

“And you’re an omega, born to serve others,” Elijah shot back. No one missed the flash of hurt that crossed over the other’s face.

Everyone knew Riyana’s past.

The woman had been kicked out from her conservative household the moment she presented. Her parents not even having the courtesy to let her ride out her first heat before handing her a back-pack and shoving her onto the street. Riyana was only 16 then and was forced to drop out of high school.

With her omega status, there were no jobs that were willing to take her in. So, Riyana was forced to use her omega status for other means of income.

She never talked much about the following years of her… job. But it was clearly traumatizing, if any of the scars you had seen were to go by.

So, for Elijah to tell her that she was merely a tool for others to use, well, that was a low blow, even for the red-head.

Again, everything blurred from there. You were pretty sure you had passed out.

When you had come-to, however, you found yourself in the make-shift infirmary with Cherry tending to your wounds. You noticed the beta’s hands were shaking.

“What’s wrong?” Was the first thing that came out of your mouth once you also registered the haunted look that pulled at other’s features.

“You’re always so worried about others and never yourself,” Cherry huffed out a laugh. “Was something was both endeared Mai and irritated her to no end.”

You smiled. “I can tell you and Milo are on the same page as her then.”

“Yup.”

“You gonna answer my question now?” You questioned, raising a brow. You knew Cherry was either stalling or just trying to distract you, but the pain you felt was still vividly etched into your memory and you needed to know…

“I’m… Fine,” Cherry conceded.

You didn’t believe her, but you also didn’t push either.

“When I found you… Riyana was already dealing with Elijah, sort of,” Cherry sighed, running a hand through her dark hair. “But… Everyone was starting to come back from that raid and so when Milo and Isaac got there, well, it goes without saying that they were out for blood. But when Milo went to approach Elijah… He, he grabbed Ri…”

You felt your eyes flutter around the infirmary, but there was no sign of another person. You desperately hoped that didn’t mean what you thought it did.

“She… I’m so sorry, (y/n),” Cherry’s breathing became shaky and you had never seen the other woman cry, despite knowing her even before the outbreak. It was an odd sight to see the usually composed beta lose her level-headedness.

“What happened to Elijah…?” You asked cautiously. Because, you weren’t sure you could stand seeing the man… Not after what he did with you, not after he killed-

“Milo banished him from the pack… But, uh, a few others left too. They said that, um, that Elijah was right and that if we couldn’t see that then we deserve to suffer…”

Silence overlapped the room as the two of you sat that, quietly brooding.

“Who?”

“Vanessa, Robert and Jordan…” Cherry trailed off.

You felt your eyes widen in surprise. You weren’t too shocked about Vanessa and Robert… but Jordan.

Jordan always kept to themselves, but you had thought that they had gotten along quite well with Riyana and even Isaac. To say that you were more than a little stunned was an understatement.

“Yeah, I had the same reaction,” Cherry snorted, obviously catching onto your train of thought.

“So… There’s six of us now?”

“Yeah…”

Milo, Cherry, Harley, Isaac, Peter and you…

Fate has never been particularly kind to you, but you wished Fate could’ve let Riyana live…