It hit him all at once. This wasn't just an offer of marriage. This was survival. This was the future. This was broken lives trying to rebuild.
I need time, he said finally, forcing the words out. This This is more than I ever expected. I just I need to think. Can I have until sunrise? You can have all the time you need, Ayanna replied.
A marriage made under pressure isn't a true one. It has to be chosen freely, or it means nothing. The women slowly stepped back, returning to the celebration. But Cole noticed it, those glances. Quiet looks cast his way as they talked, as they ate.
The young warriors watched him, too. Curiosity, respect, and something else. Maybe envy. Cole slipped away from the firelight, walking toward the edge of the camp where darkness waited. He sat on a lone rock, staring up at the sky.
The stars burned bright, scattered like diamonds across black velvet. His mind churned. He'd come here running from a past that still haunted him. All he wanted was a place to rest for a single night. And now, he'd been handed something else entirely.
A future, a family, a reason to stay in one place after years of drifting with no direction. But was that what he truly wanted? Or was it just the pull of loneliness dressed up as something more? And if he said yes, how would he choose? How could any man choose between 22 women, each with her own story, her own grief, her own hope?
The question circled him over and over with no answers. The night deepened. The fires burned low. And one by one, the voices of the camp faded into silence. Cole didn't sleep.
He couldn't. While the Red Sky people rested beneath the blanket of stars, he wandered between the lodges, thoughts chasing each other like wolves in the dark. It was Tala who found him just before dawn, sitting alone beside the dying embers of a fire. Men who think too much rarely find peace, Tala said, as she lowered herself beside him without asking. But men who don't think at all, they only find ruin.
You're somewhere in between, Cole Maddox, and that's not a bad place to be. I don't know what to do, Cole admitted, his voice rough from a sleepless night. All my life I've been running, from my past, from my mistakes, from anyone who ever tried to get close. He let out a slow breath. And now, when I finally got a reason to stay, I'm scared I'll choose wrong.
Wrong for who? Tala asked quietly. For them, or for you? Cole didn't answer. He couldn't.