"I don't know what that means," Derek replied, bluntly. "I don't know how you can think that running away was the right thing to do, for any reason, barring abuse, and I have never...." He swallowed again, frustrated and hurt. "I know that I have hurt you. I know that you hate being a slave and you don't want to be here. And before you ran I thought...I thought so many times that I should just let you go. Give you the map back to the camps and the supplies, since that's what you wanted. But when you left..."
He shook his head, hands curling into fists where they hung by his sides. "All I could think about was getting you back."