Chapter 80

Blood and Death.

It was the only thing Derek saw; the man was no longer smiling; now he was mounting his horse as fast as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Leon released the boy, who charged fiercely at Harab. Derek reached him in a second; the man had already mounted but was violently pulled to the ground.

Harab’s face hit the road. Derek saw and heard nothing else around him; only one scene spun in his mind from every possible angle—a girl.

Just a girl who wanted to be free, who had spent her entire life being sold and abused, who most likely had never known a gentle touch, a warm embrace. Derek would never be able to show her that the opposite sex could be gentle, that he could be... he wanted to be...

He would never see another place; he would never see the Island where she would be protected, taken from this land by the brutality of men. Derek had always believed that after his brother took the woman he thought he had strong feelings for