Sumi headed to the tent that Hauk was quickly stowing in his pack. "Are the kids chipped?"
He shook his head. "Their parents know better. They wouldn't risk an enemy tapping the signal and using it to trace them."
"Do you know who the assassins were targeting?"
He glanced over to make sure the kids weren't in hearing range before he spoke to her in a low, hushed tone. "They were after me. It was my tent they beelined to, and I heard them talking about it."
"But they gave no clue as to who sent them?"
He shook his head. "My enemies are many, and it's really not unusual for me to be attacked." He ran his tongue over his right fang as he glanced back toward the bodies. "I just don't know how they found me here. That's what's bugging the shit out of me."
And not the fact they tried to kill him while he slept.
Okay...
She checked the charge levels on her weapons then hesitated as she realized exactly how skilled Hauk really was at his brutal craft. "Did none of them get a shot off before they died?"
"No," he said simply.
Her heartbeat picked up its pace. If Thia's father was a better assassin than Hauk, she hoped to the gods that she never faced him as an enemy. "Captain, huh? How old were you when you earned that rank?"
"Eighteen."
She let out a low, appreciative breath. Still, it was hard to believe him. "You killed over one hundred targets, half of them trained soldiers, by age eighteen?"
"I'm a War Hauk," he said simply, as if that explained it all. He started for the blankets.
Sumi pulled him to a stop as she tried to digest what he was telling her. "That's more than five kills a month, during training. How did you manage that?"
A tic started in his jaw as a dark anger engulfed him. "I was younger than most of my class. Because of that, I had a lot of challengers."
She winced at what he was really saying. His classmates and instructors had chosen him for the ring more often than the others because he'd been so young and was scarred from the fire. "They thought they could kill you easily and advance."
He gave her a brief nod.
"I'm sorry, Hauk."
"For what?"
"You should have been at home with your mother being a kid, and not forced to fight for every breath you took." Every meal he ate. Every minute he was allowed to sleep... Her heart aching, she pulled him into her arms and hugged him close.
He went absolutely rigid. "What are you doing?"
Suddenly, she became aware of just how ripped and hard his body was. Damn, he couldn't have more than two percent body fat. If that. It was like leaning against a stone wall. "Hugging you."
Her answer appeared to baffle him. "Why?"
She clapped him on the back before she reluctantly stepped away. "It's what people do to comfort each other."
He didn't respond.
She looked up to see his attention focused behind her. Turning, she caught the angry glare Darice had pinned on them.
Hauk mumbled something under his breath that had to be Andarion.
With long, angry strides, Darice closed the distance between them. "Have you dishonored my mother?"
For a moment, she thought Hauk might actually strike the boy for his impudence. "No." It was a low, guttural sound in the back of his throat.
"You better not."
Thia pulled Darice away from Hauk. "Son, we need to talk about your inability to sense near-death experiences."
"What are you talking about?"
Thia glanced back to Hauk, who still hadn't moved. He hadn't even blinked. "Can you not see how pissed off he is?"
"So?"
Rolling her eyes, Thia sighed. "You're an idiot, Darice. I seriously hope you have no intention of entering any kind of military service."
He lifted his chin defiantly. "Of course, I am. I'm Andarion. I'm going to be a fighter pilot like my parents."
"No, punkin'." She patted him on the cheek. "With those well-honed survival instincts, you're going to be a bright stain on someone's blast shield."
Darice curled his lip at Thia's warning. "What do you know?"
"Stop arguing and pack," Hauk growled at them. "We need to move like your lives depend on it."
It was only then that Sumi realized he was already packed up completely.
And within minutes, he had the kids packed, too. When he handed the haul bag to Darice, his nephew balked. Loudly.
Darice jerked his chin toward Thia and Sumi. "Why can't they carry more?"
"They're females."
"So?"
Hauk mumbled in Andarion again. Sumi was beginning to suspect those were foul curses he was spewing. "Thia's right. You're just a walking stain. Stop bitching and soldier up. Take my minsid pack and march. You need to build the muscle mass." He grabbed the huge haul bag and slung it over the sword strapped across his back before he led the way. Illyse trotted after him.
Holding on to the straps of her pink floral rucksack, Thia rolled her eyes at Darice, who continued to pout at all of them. "In a fight, as a rule, women are quicker and more nimble than men, moron. We're also much smaller targets."
"So?"
Hauk glanced back over his shoulder to check their pace. "Should we come under fire, they don't need their muscles fatigued from carrying heavy packs and ammunition. It leaves them sharp with the freedom of movement to keep an eye out while we travel. If we're attacked, we need someone to take point and lay down cover fire for us while we scramble."
Thia nodded. "So standard protocol is, one soldier, usually the larger of the pair, plays pack mule so that the other can take that point and defend. It's why Andarions assign male-to-female strike teams. Everyone does their part and everyone goes home."
Darice rubbed at his nose. "I didn't know that's why we do that."
Thia scoffed at him. "Has your mother taught you nothing?"
He cast a sullen sneer at Thia. "Who taught you?"
"My father. Uncle Syn. Aunt Shahara. Uncle Hauk. Uncle Darling. Aunt Mari. Uncle Fain. Uncle Caillen. Aunt Desi. Uncle Nero. Aunt Jayne... Constantly." She sighed. "Everything is a life lesson that invariably ends with... and then you can die," she said in a mock masculine tone. "It's rather ridiculous."
"No, it's not." Sumi swallowed as the pain of her past hit her hard. "You should be grateful that your father loves you so, Thia. My father taught me nothing, except how to take an insult without flinching. He sent me out into the world with a blindfold that was brutally ripped from my eyes. I would have given anything to know the things you do at your age. And it would have saved me a universe of hurt."
Hauk paused to frown at her. In his eyes, she saw a kindred spirit, and knew he understood exactly what she was talking about. It brought a tenderness to her heart that was as startling as it was unexpected. And as they walked, she found her gaze continually straying to him.
He cut an incredible sight as his muscles bulged from the load he carried effortlessly. She envied him that ability. Most of all, she envied those pants that cupped an ass so sweet she ached to take a bite out of it.
Sumi!
Her face heated up instantly, making her grateful for the darkness. It wasn't like her to have those kinds of thoughts. After what had happened with Darnell and Avin, and the ordeal of League training, she'd never thought to find a man attractive again.
Hauk's not a man.
True, but as an Andarion, he was even more dangerous to her. Stronger. Scarier.
Faster.
And yet, she felt safe with him. You're insane. If he ever learned what you're here to do, he'd cut your throat quicker than he took out the assassins tonight.
That was definitely true.
"You know what really chaps me?" Thia asked suddenly.
Sumi gave a light laugh as she considered the answer. "Well, from all the drama and death threats of the last two days, dare I say, Darice?"
Thia snickered while Darice glared at her in the darkness. "Well yeah, okay. I'll give you that. But no. If
I were at home, my dad would have known the instant my heart rate went up. Three guards and two drones would have magically appeared and laid a bead on whatever was annoying me."
Hauk laughed.
Thia tried to shove him, but it didn't alter his stride at all. "It's not funny."
Hauk tsked at her. "It could be worse, little sister."
"How?"
"Your father has five other children and your mother he also loses sleep over. Imagine poor Devyn. Both his parents are overprotective psychos, and he's got their combined undivided attention on him all the time. Not to mention Vik, who never sleeps."
Thia made a face of utter pain. "Oooo. You're right. No one hooks me up to a monitor and draws blood from me every time I sneeze."
Sumi arched a brow.
"His dad's a doctor," Thia explained. "If Dev so much as hiccups, his father runs every known test to make sure he hasn't contracted some incurable rare disease. And don't get me started on his mother. Aunt Shahara makes Uncle Syn look like the negligent, uncaring parent."
Hauk passed an amused smirk to Sumi. "She's not kidding. I was playing with Devyn when he was a baby, and I pretended to drop him. His dad snatched him from me, and his mother shot me for it."
Sumi gasped. "No, they didn't!"
He placed his right hand over his heart. "On my honor, they did. I have the scar to prove it."
Thia nodded to back him up. "Saddest part? Uncle Hauk's their designated TAM."
Sumi cocked her head at the unfamiliar term. "TAM?"
"Tactical assault monkey," Hauk answered.
"And that is?"
Thia grinned. "The raw, insane brute force they sic on things that annoy them, and who pulls anchor on missions. I told you. Uncle Hauk's an attack dog... And they shot him." She playfully slapped a hand on Hauk's arm. "No one should ever blast the TAM they depend on."
Sumi glanced to Hauk to gauge what he thought of her description of him. Oddly, he seemed to take it in stride. "Doesn't that offend you?"
"No. It's true."
Thia's smile widened. "Uncle Darling refers to calling Uncle Hauk as summoning the beast."
Hauk scoffed. "I thought he just called me Grandma."
"Well, that too. But only when you sit on him like a hatchling."
Sumi fell silent as she listened to their family stories. They had the tight-knit relationships that she'd craved all her life. And while they took jabs and complained about each other, there was an undeniable loyalty and love between them all.
"What about you, Sumi?" Thia asked, intruding on her thoughts.
"What about me, what?"
"Your family? Where are they like?"
She glanced to Hauk before she answered. "I don't have any."
Thia stopped so suddenly that Sumi almost collided with her. "No one?"
She shook her head. "My parents and sister are long gone."
"Grandparents?"
"Died before I was born."
Thia gaped at her. "How long have you been alone?"
"Since I was nineteen."
The look in Thia's eyes said that she realized her fate could have easily been the same. She hooked her arm through Sumi's and started forward again. "Then welcome to our family."
That offer stunned her. "Pardon?"
Thia tightened her grip. "My aunt Mari always says that family isn't about the blood you share. It's about the people willing to bleed for you."
Those words brought a lump to her throat and she wasn't sure what to make of them. This wasn't the kind of attitude she was used to. In her world, family was the first to bleed you, and strangers bled you out totally. Honestly, she couldn't imagine the world Thia and the Hauks described.
"Mari sounds like a very wise woman."
Laughing, Thia patted her arm. "He is very wise. And our extremely large family is always willing to grow even bigger. So welcome to it."
Thia's naive sweetness confused her. "That's not very Andarion, is it? I thought blood was the only thing that mattered."
Hauk grunted. "It is and it's not."
Sumi sighed at his evasive answer. "I think you two like messing with my head."
Thia wrinkled her nose. "It is fun toying with new people. But back to your question, while it is rare for Andarions to adopt, it's not unheard of. Again, it has to be initiated by a female who is willing to bring the child into her lineage... it's why I'm still allowed to be princess even though I'm a bastard."
"Thia!" Hauk snapped. "You would make Kiara cry with that statement, and rile your father."
She rolled her eyes. "It's true and we all know it. While my grandmother has been extremely loving and accepting of me, I see how she looks at Zarina."
"Zarina is an infant," Hauk growled.
"And she looks Andarion. Fully."
Hauk paused. "Is that what's been bothering you?"
Sumi saw the tears in Thia's eyes before she blinked them away.
"Forget I said anything."
Hauk started for her, but Sumi held her hand up to stop him.
"Why don't you two go on ahead and let us catch up in a few?"
Hauk considered it for several minutes before he nodded. "Illyse, stay with Thia." Then he motioned for Darice to follow him.
Sumi gave them a decent head start before they resumed their trek. "Zarina is your sister?"
She nodded. "I love her. But she's so strange-looking with her Andarion eyes and thick black hair and claws. None of my brothers were born like that. They all look human."
"Does it bother you that she's Andarion in appearance?"
"No." She brushed at a tear that fell down her cheek.
"Thia? What is it?"
More tears fell as her lips quivered. "Since she was born, I get so jealous sometimes that I want to lash out and hurt her, and I hate myself for it. She doesn't deserve that from me. Like Hauk said, she's just a baby."
Sumi couldn't follow the girl's logic. "Jealous of what?"
"Everything." Sobbing, Thia held her hands up to her eyes as if she were physically trying to stop her tears. "It was bad watching my father and stepmother with my brothers. Seeing what life was supposed to be like. You know?" She ground her teeth. "It just rams home how wrong my childhood was, and makes me so mad at my mother for her part in it, that I want to go back and confront her for it. Why did she have to sleep with my father and then, knowing she's pregnant with me, marry his stepbrother, who hated him? Really! Why would she do that? Aksel was such a sick, demented bastard. I don't understand why she didn't gut him the first year they were married and save us both years of misery."
"Oh, Thia. Pray that you never understand that fear."
"How do you mean?"
Sumi cupped the girl's face in her hands. Gods how she wished she didn't know how easy it was to get sucked into an inescapable nightmare. To feel trapped and lost, and to have no one to help, and no way out. To be so desperate for love that you'd accept insults and blows for any semblance of it.
She still couldn't believe she'd done it, not once.
Twice.
"Thia, you are headed down a bad path. One I walked before you, and I'm here to tell you that it sucks in ways you can't imagine. So long as you keep this anger inside, it will infect you. You have to let it go and move on. Life isn't fair. It's not supposed to be. It's just better than being dead."
"You don't know."
"Girl, I do. I know exactly what it's like to be angry at the gods who put you here. Furious at the ones who were supposed to protect and love you, but instead were focused on their own selfishness and consumed by their own pain to the point they didn't care what happened to you." Sumi swallowed. "From what I've heard, your father and stepmother sound wonderful. They love you."
Her lips trembled. "I know. Kiara has always treated me like a blood daughter. But I just want what they have."
"You do have it, sweetie."
"No. I have the same demons inside me that my father has, and I know it. I've seen humanity for wha
t it is, and I know how tenuous safety can be. How fleeting." She knelt down and buried her face in Illyse's fur. "I always feel like an outsider in my own family. And I know it's not really true, but I can't stop it. It just hurts to know that I could have been their real daughter, instead of the one they were forced to raise. Sometimes I just want to run for the door and not look back. Ever."
"Thia --"
"Sumi, it's not what you're thinking. I was a teenager when my mother died... brutally. I'd only met my father one time, just hours before it happened. I didn't know him. At all. He didn't know me. And he died that night, too, protecting Kiara from my stepfather - who my father killed while rescuing her. In the blink of an eye, everything I knew was gone. Violently ripped away. And suddenly, everyone around me was a complete stranger."