Episode 16

She could feel the wind blow her crimson hair from behind up over her shoulders. It wrapped up around her face and then was carried away in front of her. She stood at the edge of a cliff. The land that lay before her was barren and stretched to the horizon. The sun hung low in the sky. The air was dry but had a freshness she'd never smelled before.

She could feel something beyond the horizon beckoning her, pulling her into the wasteland. What lay beyond that far horizon and why did it want her there? She could not answer. She could do nothing but stand there staring at the setting sun.

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Scarlet took in a quick breath as she awoke. The stale air seemed offensive to her senses given her dream was still so fresh. Her eyes fluttered open and quickly adjusted to the darkened room. She pushed herself into a sitting position, but not without giving a grunt of pain.

Her abdomen was sore from the knife wound she had endured. She cradled her wound as she looked about the room. It was small and had a homely feel, which she felt was quite a feat given that she could tell they were still in the inner workings of Lygredd. She could hear footfalls approaching before the man came into sight.

"So, sun-walker, you're finally awake," he greeted.

"Yup."

"Hungry?" he asked.

"No thanks," she quickly answered.

"Oh really. Then I suppose I'll just eat all of these myself," he said as he pulled out a pouch full of some sort of berries.

This instantly made her perk up. It never occurred to her that he might be eating such a thing. Seeing her reaction, he gave a smile.

"Thought you might change your mind." He walked over to her and gave her the pouch. She didn't realize how hungry she was until she started eating.

"Where did you find these?" she asked without thinking.

"From a grove not too far from here," he answered as he looked away.

"So, you actually do go outside?" Scarlet remarked between berries.

"At night."

She could understand that. The daylight would probably be too much for them to handle. They literally spend their entire lives in the dark. The man rose and walked to the other side of the small room.

"Why did you help me?" Scarlet finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Because I wanted to," he answered without looking at her.

"So, just being a friendly, upstanding person; no ulterior motives?" There was a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"From a man who helped capture me and then tried to claim breeding rights to me, yes," she answered harshly.

He turned to look at her. "I was doing you a favor."

"How so?"

His lips pressed together, forming a thin line as he cocked his head and squinted his eyes. "Your options were death by one means or another or being my mate. And unlike some men, I don't share my mate with anyone else."

'How admirable,' she scoffed to herself. "And how many mates do you have?"

"Currently, none… you would have been the second that I've ever had." She could hear anger overtaking his voice.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, it is. Believe it or not, I'm a picky man." He paused. "You're an incredibly hostile woman, you know that?"

A moment of silence settled over the two as she reflected on his last statement. She supposed she had been overly harsh toward the man. After all, he had saved her and taken care of her.

"So, what happened to your first mate?" she then asked.

"She died… trying to give birth to our child." His voice had changed from anger to sadness.

"...And the child?" she dared to ask.

He gave a sigh. "It didn't survive."

"I'm sorry."

"She was delicate and gentle, everything we're not. Her kindness was her strength." She could hear the pain in his voice, and in that moment, she could see that he had loved this woman, really loved her.

"Did she grow up in here?"

He shook his head no. "She was from Lygredd's Belly. She'd come into here to get to a grove that grew wild berries."

Scarlet looked down at the pouch which now only contained three berries.

"I knew instantly when I saw her that she didn't belong in here with us. If it had just been me, I would have let her go. But the others saw her too, and they weren't about to let her go back to Lygredd's Belly. She was absolutely beautiful… they would have ruined her, taken what they wanted, and left her broken. So, I won breeding rights to her, made sure no one else could touch her. I never forced myself onto her. I waited for her and kept her safe."

As Scarlet sat there listening to the man, she forgot all about him being a cannibal, about him being a feared Bwbach. In that moment, he was just another man, a man who had done something selfless and beautiful for another person, a man who had loved and lost, someone of flesh and blood with a beating heart.

'Can someone be what he is and do the things he's done and still be a good man?'

It was a question that disturbed her greatly. She was afraid of what the answer would truly mean.