Born of Fury

CHAPTER 8

Waking with a start, Sumi cocked her head as she heard the most incredible music of her life. Low and haunting. Soulful. At first, she thought it was something the kids had on a player, until she left the tent and found Hauk sitting on the ground, with a beautiful violin tucked under his chin while he played with his eyes closed. He was so large and it so tiny in comparison, that it looked more like a toy than a real instrument. But there was no mistaking the skill he possessed as his fingers flew through an extremely complicated melody.

Now there was the last thing she’d ever expected to find. An Andarion who played a delicate instrument with the expertise of a virtuoso. Unbelievable.

Damn you, Hauk. You need to stop being so unpredictable. So unexpected.

So damn alluring. It was wreaking too much havoc with her convictions and sanity. He made it way too easy to see the beauty that was him, and not the cold-blooded killer she knew him to be.

She took a step. He immediately stopped and rose as if expecting an attack. And she had no doubt he could easily impale or even decapitate someone with the flimsy bow in his hand.

When he saw her, he relaxed into the sexiest, most masculine stance she’d ever beheld. It exuded confidence and lethal grace, yet simultaneously managed to be adorable and hot. “Do you need something?”

Yeah, against all sanity, she needed a taste of that hard, ripped body, but she wasn’t about to say those thoughts out loud… and never to him. “A change of scenery.”

And all that wealth of tawny male was definitely the most interesting thing to look at on this godforsaken rock.

“Ah.” He set his instrument aside then came to help her. Before she could protest, he swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the small fire pit, where he set her down on the air cushion he’d been using. The ease with which he could do that given her height was extremely disconcerting. Standing just over six feet in shoes, she was used to being taller than the average man by quite a few inches. By the time she’d turned five, her own father had refused to pick her up at all, claiming she was too big for him to manage.

Yet Hauk carried her about as if she weighed no more than his boots.

It was very unsettling.

Without a word, he went to return his violin to its case.

“You don’t have to stop.”

He closed the case and set it aside. “I don’t like to play in front of others. It’s something I do alone.”

She could understand that if he played badly. But his skill level said that he’d been playing for a very long time. It also seemed like an odd hobby for an Andarion warrior. Far too peaceful.

And speaking of peace… she suddenly realized it was eerily quiet.

Concerned, she glanced around the darkening camp and saw no trace of Thia or Darice. Only the remnants of Hauk’s dinner. “Did you get so irritated at them that you finally ate the kids?”

At first, he scoffed at the question, then he appeared to seriously consider it. He gestured at the vibrant pink tent that was to the left of his. “Thia’s off, drawing.” He pointed to the black one on the right. “Darice is tied up in his.”

“Tied up with what?”

“Rope,” he said simply. “I considered using the violin strings, but didn’t want to get blood on them. Given the amount of venom flowing in his veins, it might damage the wood.”

Aghast, she stared at him. “You’re serious?”

The innocent, almost childlike expression on his face was comical. “It was that, or kill him. It seemed the lesser evil, if not the better good.”

She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. “How long has he been tied up?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “How long has it been quiet?”

Eyes wide, she covered her mouth with her hand. She was appalled at what he’d done, and by the fact that she actually found it charming. And probably warranted. “You’re so bad… Aren’t you worried about him?”

“I’d be more worried about his continued well-being if he were untied and still running his mouth around me.”

Lowering her hand, she shook her head at him and his cavalier demeanor. “I wish I could be more on Darice’s side, but given his attitude…”

He handed her a bottle of water as he sat down beside her and opened a bag of dried fruit. “He is his father’s son. Stubborn. Hot-tempered. Rash. And he never knows when to shut up for his own good.”

“Why do I have a feeling that someone has rattled that list off for you as well?”

He licked his fingers. “Probably because they have. Many times.”

Grimacing, she tried her best to unscrew the cap from her water. Had someone hermetically sealed it?

Hauk took it from her hands and effortlessly opened it. As he returned the bottle to her, she hesitated. Before she even realized what she was doing, she placed her hand over his, marveling at the strength and size of it. Unlike humans, Andarions had fingernails that were more akin to claws. Another natural weapon they were born with, like their fangs and heightened hearing and eyesight – they were a true predator race. Things that had terrified her sister whenever she thought of birthing such an alien creature with Fain. Omira had even feared that a hybrid fetus would claw its way out of her stomach while she carried it.

Andarions were extremely dangerous to humans.And still, against all rationale, she was attracted to him, while she considered the differences between an Andarion male and a human man. Hauk’s hands were more beautiful than she would have thought, especially given the stories she’d heard about Andarion savagery and battle skill.

“Your hands are massive.”

He stroked her knuckles with his thumb. That single sensation sent chills all over her body and made her hormones sit up and pant. “And yours are incredibly delicate. How is it a woman with hands so soft and tiny has managed to take a man’s life?”

“With great regret.” As soon as the words left her lips, she cringed at the slip. For some reason, her guard evaporated every time they spoke. It was way too easy to forget what she was supposed to be doing.

Hunting him – the predator.

But it wasn’t her fault. He reminded her too much of Fain, and in spite of her hatred for Fain Hauk, the little girl inside her wanted to feel safe again, like she’d done whenever Fain had rocked her to sleep while she’d stayed with her sister at their flat. It was easy to silence that stupid, needy voice when she was alone. Easy to tell herself that this was how life was supposed to be. Brutal and lonely.

Yet now that she was with Hauk, and saw how he protected his niece and nephew…

That whiny little bitch was back with a vengeance.

Appalled by her own train of thought, she glanced away.

Hauk reluctantly let go of her hand. “That bastard beat you, didn’t he?”

She stiffened as his unexpected question jerked her back to the days when Avin had felt threatened by her height and intelligence. Jealous of the job she had that she loved and the one he did that he hated. Back to when she hadn’t been a trained assassin, and had lived her life in stark terror of her boyfriend’s bipolar mood swings. “Excuse me?”

“Your boyfriend. It’s why you killed him.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact.

Sumi wanted to deny it, but how could she? He spoke the truth. And while she’d learned how easy it was to physically kill a man, even one who was a lot larger and stronger than her, it was never easy to live with the guilt that forever remained afterward. “Yes.”

Hauk saw the horror and shame in her hazel green eyes before she glanced away again. It was a mannerism so similar to one Omira had once used that it sent a chill over him.

Nor did he miss the way her hands trembled as she noticed how much room he took up on the ground beside her.

“It’s why my size unsettles you.”

She nodded as more awful memories surged. “You’ve no idea what it’s like to be trapped and helpless. To be held down with no way to fight back, no matter how hard you try.”

“That’s not true. You’ve seen the scars on my back. I know exactly how it feels to have my life in the hands of someone else, and to hate it with every part of my being.”

She scowled at his angry tone. “What happened?”

Hauk ground his teeth. Her question knotted his gut and took him straight back to that day he would rather forget. A day that had forever changed his life, in more ways than one, and set him on a path he’d never foreseen. While it’d destroyed his destiny and cost him the respect of his parents, it’d compensated him with a battle brother he was grateful for every day of this existence.

Sipping his water, he narrowed his gaze as visions from the past haunted him. He’d been in a training pod at the academy with what he’d stupidly assumed were two Andarion friends. Unfortunately, all of them had been schooled with humans long enough that some of humanity’s finer traits had infected them. When Nykyrian had been sent to their academy, the full-blooded Andarions had declared it open season on the hybrid.

Something that was not in their culture. Fighting an equal or answering a challenge was Andarion. Picking on the weak was human. But Prince Jullien had insisted that they attack the hybrid, and drive him from their school so that they wouldn’t have to look at him.

Unaware at that time that Jullien and Nykyrian were fraternal twins, Hauk had assumed the animosity came from Jullien’s fear that the full-bloods would remember that he was a hybrid himself and turn on him. Jullien appeared mostly Andarion and usually passed without much comment as one of them.

Nykyrian had never been so fortunate. One look, and it was woefully obvious he was born of both species.

Now, Hauk knew Jullien had done it to protect his grandmother, who had abandoned Nykyrian to a human orphanage, hoping that the humans, in their hatred of Andarions, would kill the boy. Jullien had pushed them all hard to attack Nykyrian, and keep him in trouble so that he’d be kicked out of school.

Or die from their hazing.

In those days, Nykyrian hadn’t been the invincible warrior his extensive League training and adoptive family’s brutality had turned him into. He’d been a skinny, skittish boy. Unable to defend himself. All he’d wanted was to be ignored by everyone. Especially since the humans in his past had left him horrifically scarred, defanged, and declawed.

Instead of following the ways of their ancestors and teachings, the Andarions had banded together to traumatize Nykyrian, as if they were afraid he was infectious and would destroy them all.

On that particular day, Jullien had intended to run Nykyrian down with the pod.

Hauk had taken issue with their plans. And they had taken issue with him. While fighting each other over it, they’d caused the pod to malfunction and crash.

Jullien and Chrisen had abandoned Hauk. Left him in the wreckage to burn alive. Even now, he could swear that Chrisen had intentionally shoved him into the panel that had fallen on his leg and trapped him inside the pod. That the bastard’s eyes had gleamed in satisfaction.

While the flames had singed his flesh and the smoke had closed in on his lungs, he’d heard them outside, blaming his “incompetence” for the crash. Along with them and the other students, their teachers had made excuses as to why they couldn’t do anything for Hauk. Why it was acceptable to let a kid burn to death.

Knowing they had no intention of helping him, Hauk had held his breath as best he could, while he tried desperately to free his damaged leg from the searing hot metal. He knew he was completely alone. That no one would ever put their ass on the line for his.

At least that had been his thought until a shadow fell over him.

Nyk, well aware of the fact that they’d been trying to hurt him when they’d crashed, had run inside the craft, oblivious to the danger. For all he knew, Hauk had been as determined to hurt him as the others. But Nyk hadn’t let that stop him. And as he struggled to free Hauk, he’d been burned and wounded to his bones.

Still, Nyk had fought to save his life when no one else could be bothered, and then, wounded himself, he’d lifted Hauk up and carried him to safety right before the craft had exploded and sent debris raining down all over the two of them.

Out of a crowd of people and Andarions, it’d been Nyk who’d jerked his jacket off and used it to put out the flames on Hauk’s back.

To this day, Hauk didn’t understand Nykyrian’s mercy.

And every time he saw one of those scars on Nyk’s body caused by that crash, he knew the debt he owed to a boy who should have let him burn for his part in making Nyk feel unwelcome at their school.

But that was a long time ago. And it was something he’d never spoken of to anyone.

Not even Nykyrian.

Clearing his throat, he picked through the fruit in his bag until he found a friggle. “It was a training exercise when I was a boy. My pod crashed and I was trapped in the burning wreckage.” He offered her the fruit.

She declined it with a shake of her head. “It must have been awful.”

He ate the friggle before he spoke again. “It isn’t one of my happier memories. Sadly, it’s not one of my worst, either.”

“Were you scared?”

He wiped his hand on his pants. “No.”

“Really?” she asked incredulously.

He gave her a pointed stare. “Really.”

Sumi couldn’t fathom what he was telling her. Not given the wealth and brutality of the scars on his back. He’d been burned severely enough that she was sure it’d taken him years of physical therapy to be whole again. And probably a number of skin grafts. “How old were you?”

“Thirteen Andarion years.”

She gaped at his answer. “You were a baby.”

“I was bigger than most.”

Typical Andarion answer, and it was one that brought to her mind that image of him as an adorable child with bright eyes who’d been holding on to his older brothers. She bit her lip as she tried to imagine the nightmare it must have been for him to be so young and so close to death. “How is it possible that at that age, you weren’t scared even a little?”

“I was too pissed.”

“At?”

He cut a feral look in her direction. “Acting like a bunch of scared human schoolgirls, Andarions I thought were friends had run out to save their own asses without trying to help me save mine.”

“Then how did you escape?”

“Thia’s father. Even though he was just a kid, too, he ran in and dragged my bleeding hide out.”

She didn’t miss the fact that he had yet to mention Nykyrian by name. “Is that why you’re so loyal to him?”

“I’m loyal to him for many reasons.” He rose to tower over her. “I should check on Darice now.”

She watched as he made his way to the small, black tent. Dang, that surly male had the most predatorial walk of any creature she’d ever met. Loose limbed and sexier than it ever should be. And she knew the minute he ungagged his nephew. Darice let loose with a string of foul curses for his uncle.

“Stop, or I’ll gag you again.”

“Why? Does my truth offend you?”

“No,” Hauk snarled. “Your tongue offends me. Now bite it or lose it.”

“I vote he cuts it out for all our sanities. What do you think?”

Sumi started to smile at Thia’s words until she saw the huge black cat by the girl’s side. Gasping, she scooted away from it.

“Don’t panic,” Thia said quickly, stroking the cat’s head. “It’s just Illyse. She only attacks when I tell her to, or whenever someone attacks me.”

Her heart still pounding, Sumi returned to her seat. “You are a scary woman, Thia.”

A slow grin spread across her face. “You should meet my father sometime.”

“Only if I’m heavily armed.”

Thia laughed. “Trust me. It won’t matter if you are. In fact, you’re more likely to survive if you’re not. Then, he might take pity on you and show mercy. Armed, you’re on your own, and that’s a very terrifying place to be with him on your tail.”

“I think you enjoy scaring people.”

Thia shrugged. “We all need a hobby.”

“I hear crochet is the most therapeutic and calming.”

Sitting down by her side, Thia wrinkled her nose. “I strangely like you.”

Sumi opened her mouth to respond in kind then froze as she saw Hauk coming out of the tent, holding Darice by the belt of his pants while his nephew squirmed and insulted him more. “What the…?”

“Oh Lord,” Thia breathed before she ran to head Hauk off. She held her arms out to block his path. “Don’t do it.”

A tic beat a furious rhythm in Hauk’s jaw. “Thia, get out of my way. I’m going to drown him. I mean it this time.”

“Please, Uncle. Don’t. Let me do it, I’ve earned the right after this last week with him.”

Trying not to laugh, Sumi rubbed at her brow as Hauk and Thia argued over who had more reasons to kill Darice while Darice continued to shout obscenities at them both. Confused, the fierce lorina circled around their small group like it was trying to figure out which one it should bite.

Since it’d been just her and her sister at home, and there had been a large age gap between them, they’d never really fought.

Not like this.

Sumi blew a loud whistle to get their attention. “Guys?”

They paused to stare at her as if she was the crazy one.

“Is this normal? Do all families fight this way?”

Thia sighed. “I don’t know about all families, but it’s the norm for my little brothers. I’m pretty sure they’re all going to grow up to be terrorists.”

Without warning, Hauk dropped Darice. He hit the ground with an audible groan. Stepping over his nephew, the huge Andarion approached Sumi. “Are you sure you don’t have a ship?”

“Quite positive. Sorry. I did have a rifle, but you confiscated it.”

That ferocious tic returned to Hauk’s jaw.

Glaring at his uncle, Darice pushed himself up from the ground. “When we get back, I’m telling Yaya how you have shamed us all with your human behavior!”

Hauk turned toward him with a fierce grimace that would make anyone with a brain back down. “Like I give a minsid fuck. Trust me, boy, my mother did a lot worse to discipline us than tie us in a tent. She’d only be appalled that I have yet to put you in a ring.”

Darice lifted his chin defiantly. “You’re not Andarion enough to face me there!”

Hauk gaped at Darice as if the boy was shy a few charges on his blaster. Snapping his jaw shut, he went to grab a bottle of water before he paused next to Thia. “I’m going hunting. Keep your blaster close and your eyes and ears open.”

As Hauk left, Darice threw dirt in his direction. “That’s it, you coward! Keep walking. That’s all —” His words ended in a grunt of pain as Thia shot him.

Sumi gasped at her cold-blooded actions.

“Relax. I set it to stun first.” She holstered her blaster, and passed an unrepentant smirk to Sumi. “Though I shouldn’t have. It would serve him right to have a giant scar in the center of his chest, or better yet, on his arrogant, entitled ass.” She sat down next to Sumi and called the lorina over to her so that she could calm the beast.

Biting her lip, Sumi was confused by everything that had happened in the last few minutes. “Shouldn’t we take Darice back to his tent?”

Thia gave her a dry stare. “Ever tried to pick up an Andarion male? Even a small one?”

“No.”

“Don’t.” She jutted her chin out for the lorina to nibble on it. “Trust me, that prick’s not worth the hernia. I say we leave him out in the open and hope something foul eats him. Slowly… and with relish.”

Unsure of what to think, Sumi glanced after Hauk, who had vanished into the night. He hadn’t even looked back as Thia had blasted Darice. That degree of callousness for his family seemed out of character for him, and said a lot about their relationship. “So what’s the deal with them, anyway? Why does Darice hate him?”

Thia paused as she took a minute to consider her words. “Most of the sniping is just being Andarion. We’re a snarky, warring bunch.”

“But…”

“As you have heard, repeatedly. They blame Hauk for the death of Darice’s father.”

“Was he?”

Thia shook her head. “From the snatches of conversations I’ve heard over the years between my father and Fain – Keris, Darice’s father, in spite of being an Andarion war hero, had some serious problems with drugs and alcohol.”

Sumi sucked her breath in sharply at that. While those weren’t good things for humans, Andarions had a very harsh penalty system for it, especially for those who wore a military uniform. Some drinking was allowed.

Excess was not.

As for the other, drugs could be a death sentence if used by a civilian who was caught, and was always such for those in uniform. “Why would he risk drug use?”

“Again, I’m speculating, but as you’ve heard Uncle Hauk say, their mother isn’t exactly a beacon of maternal instinct. Even though she’s a brilliant negotiator, she has little patience for her sons’ misbehavior.”

“Negotiator?” There was something his dossier hadn’t revealed. “I didn’t know Andarions had such in their world. I thought they just slugged out all their problems until someone gave up or died.”

“Not always.” Thia ran her hand over Illyse’s ears. “And his mother is one of the best ever trained. Like Hauk’s father, his mother is a military veteran who expected a lot from her three blood sons.” She paused to pour water for the lorina to drink. “Darice’s mother is also a veteran and was Keris’s wingman. I’ve heard that when Uncle Hauk told her what had happened to Keris on his Endurance, she buried a knife in Hauk’s stomach and gave him a gut wound so deep they had to remove part of his stomach to save his life.”

Sumi sucked her breath in sharply at that. What an awful thing to do, but it went along with the stories she’d been told about Andarion savagery. “You’re serious?”

Thia nodded.

“How old was he?”

“Fifteen.”

And she’d stabbed him? How could anyone do such a thing? Sumi understood grief, but that… She looked over at his nephew. “Darice’s age.”

“No, he’s fourteen. Uncle Hauk had to delay his Endurance because of an accident at school. He was still having skin grafts when he should have gone originally.”

Sumi’s jaw went slack. So she’d been right about his injuries from the pod. What the hell had he been doing out here after all that? “Was he fit for Endurance?”

“According to my father, not really. It should have been delayed longer, at least another year, but their mother insisted Uncle Hauk go and that Keris not take mercy on him.”

Shocked, Sumi tried to grasp how any mother could be like that. But then, her own mother had abandoned her and Omira to an angry alcoholic who hated them, so she was well versed with women who had no business birthing children. “Why would she do that?”

Thia ran her hand down the lorina’s spine, ruffling its fur as it arched its back against her touch. “She was furious that Uncle Hauk had allowed himself to be scarred during the accident. Apparently, he was already pledged at the time it happened, and when his betrothed’s family saw the damage to his body, they withdrew their daughter from the Hauk lineage, and embarrassed his mother greatly and publicly. My father thinks his mother sent him so that Uncle Hauk wouldn’t return. In her mind, his death during Endurance would have restored their family honor.”

That was so cold and cruel. “Is that also why he’s never married?”

She shook her head. “That’s all Dariana’s fault.”

“Dariana?”

“Darice’s mother.”

Sumi scowled as she tried to follow this nonsensical logic. “How is it her fault that he never married? Is it because she stabbed him and gave him a scar?”

“No. Andarion law and custom stipulates that if a female is widowed and there’s an unpledged male in the lineage, he is to marry her and provide for her in the absence of his fallen brother.”

Sumi remembered hearing Darice yell at him for that. “Then why hasn’t he married her already?” Keris had been dead for quite some time. The gods knew, Sumi wouldn’t have waited five minutes to drag that lush piece of malehood into her bed and ride him until he begged her for mercy.

What an idiot.

Thia ground her teeth before she answered. “Dariana hates his guts and refuses to accept him as her mate.”

Sumi’s scowl deepened. “Then why are they still pledged?”

“You’re thinking like a human,” Thia chided. “It doesn’t work that way on Andaria. Pledges are negotiated and drafted by the females. The male cannot back out of one. Ever. He is honor bound to see it through.”

“The woman, too?”

“They’re not women, they’re females. And a female’s primary duty to her family is to protect her lineage and ancestry, and to build the best possible alliance for her children. They do this by picking the best male lineage they can legally tie into. As the undisputed holders of the blood lineage, females are sacred. They can be thrown out of their homes, but they will never lose their lineage. However, if a male does something unworthy, he can be thrown out of his family’s lineage. Forever. And the last thing any male wants is to be thrown out of his family.”

“Why?”

“Andarions have a very stringent and rigid caste system. When you lose lineage, you are totally outcast from your blood family, and it cannot be undone. No Andarion is ever supposed to speak to such a being again. They are considered worse than dead. And if found in Andarion territory, the Outcast can be imprisoned or killed, without trial. It’s why all their paperwork requires a dual lineage to be listed. And why they methodically check it.”

That was so harsh. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the universe hated and feared Andarions, passionately. Even in times of peace, Andarions weren’t welcomed into the populations of other worlds. In some worlds, they were killed on sight or instantly enslaved.

The prejudice against them was extremely severe, and since they stood out, there was no way for them to hide or blend among the other known races.

“So how does an Andarion know if another has been disinherited without the paperwork?”

Thia rubbed noses with her lorina. When she met Sumi’s gaze, rage burned bright in those green eyes. “Their fathers hold them while their mothers slash them across both their left and right biceps and pectorals in a specific pattern so that everyone who sees it will know they’ve been disinherited and are Outcast. When they say ‘present arms’ they’re not talking about weaponry. They mean for their males to literally bare their arms for public inspection and scrutiny.”

Sumi vaguely recalled seeing those scars on Fain’s arms and chest when she’d been a girl, but she’d had no idea that was what had caused them. She’d assumed it was from some kind of accident. Never would she have dreamed his own parents had injured him so. “Is that why so many of the Andarion male fashions and formal military uniforms show their upper arms and pecs?”

Thia nodded. “It’s done to prove they’re legitimate sons. Fully lineaged. And those who have tattoos are either paying homage to their noble or heroic bloodlines, or to those they married into… it’s considered bragging when it’s their blood lineage. Noble when it’s the wife’s.”

Sumi sat back as she remembered all the scars that bisected Hauk’s flesh. He’d had something similar to what Thia described on the left side of his body. “What about the claw marks on Hauk’s arm? Is that —”

“No. The single claw marks, like he has, are a public chastisement from his mother for Keris’s death… One set of claw marks just means he’s displeased his matriarch. And it was done to eternally embarrass him in front of other Andarions whenever he has to make a formal public appearance, or go to temple on holy days. Should he displease his mother again, the next marks will be those of lost lineage, and he will be cast from his family.” Thia sighed. “The worst part though, is that those scars kept him from his obligatory military service that’s required of all non royal Andarion males and females after graduation. His mother should have just killed him. It would have been far kinder than marking him like that and leaving him for the rest of his breed to sneer at.”

Sumi didn’t know why, but that made her ache for him. Whether he’d been responsible or not, he must have been traumatized by his brother’s death. What kind of mother would further injure him, especially given how young he’d been at the time it’d happened?

“How did Keris die?”

“He fell during their climb. Uncle Hauk tried to save him, and ended up falling himself. He survived his own fall by crashing into a ledge and broke about a dozen bones. Even so, he managed to climb down and make it back to the pickup spot.”

Sumi gaped. “How in the Nine Worlds can they blame him for that?”

Thia rolled her eyes. “I know, right? They claim Uncle Hauk slipped first and slammed into Keris. My father says that had Uncle Hauk not been recovering from his last surgery, he would have probably been able to hold them both. As it was…” She sighed heavily.

None of this made sense. “It was an accident. Why blame him for it?”

“Because Keris’s rope had been cut with a knife. Deliberately.”

“What?” Sumi breathed.

Tears welled in Thia’s eyes. “I’ve heard different things, but from what I understand, the belay and anchors weren’t set properly, and weren’t capable of holding their combined weight. Even so, Uncle Hauk continued to hold on to Keris and was trying to pull or swing him to safety before the anchors gave way. Since it was obvious they would both die if something wasn’t done fast, Keris cut the rope, hoping to save Uncle Hauk. But neither Dariana nor his mother believes it. They think Hauk cut the line to save himself, and let his brother die, then lied about the events to save face.”

Her stomach constricted to the point she feared she’d be ill. The horror Hauk must feel over that day. She couldn’t imagine watching her sister die so horribly. Right in front of her…

And then to be blamed for it?

No wonder people called the Andarions barbarians.

In that moment, she wanted to go over there and kick Darice for his cruel words against Hauk. How could he be so mean? So unfeeling?

Gods, it was so hard to live with the death of a loved one. Especially when they died young. It was something she struggled with every single day of her life. She missed Omira so much that it still burned like a fire in her gut. She could only imagine how much worse that had to be for Hauk, who probably blamed himself even more than they did for it.

How many times had he relived that event and had no one to turn to for comfort?

Deep inside, she needed to soothe him, and she didn’t know why. Other than she understood the lonely pain of coping with the fear that maybe you could have done something to save your sibling. That you were to blame for it, even though you weren’t.

Bastards!

And unlike his family, she believed Thia’s version of Keris’s death. Hauk’s loyalty to his family and friends went too deep for him to have killed his brother to save himself. That wasn’t the warrior who’d thrown himself into the thick of League fire to cover his friends in the prison raid.

Hauk did not value his own life. Anyone who’d ever seen him fight would know that beyond a doubt. Fearless, he battled like he had a death wish. Not to mention the photos she’d seen.

No, he hadn’t hurt Keris. He would have fought to save his brother with the same ferocity and determination she’d seen him use against her League brethren.

“Have you ever talked to him about it?”

Thia shook her head. “My father told me that I should never mention it to him. That it’s too painful for Uncle Hauk. And I would never do anything to bring him hurt. He’s been too good to me.”

Sumi remembered the pictures of Thia playing and sparring with her uncle. He did love and adore her like a proud father.

But that also made her wonder about Thia’s Andarion family lineage. “So your father… was he disinherited for being with your mother?”

Thia snorted at the question. “My dad is only half Andarion, through his mother’s blood. Again, females are the keepers of the lineage, so in theory, they can bolster it with the blood of other species they deem worthy, either through marriage or adoption. The males cannot.”

“That’s not right.”

“No, it isn’t. And while my father has the predatory nature and lethal skills of an Andarion warrior, he wasn’t raised in their culture, so his beliefs and customs are more human than Andarion. And what he knows of their culture, he learned later in life. Mostly from Uncle Hauk and Fain.”

Sumi wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Given the horrors her sister had been subjected to, she couldn’t imagine what life must be like for Thia and her father. “Do you ever take flack for being Andarion?”

“Nah. Until eight years ago, no one, except my mother, knew I had any Andarion blood at all. I just thought I had some unique quirks.” An odd half smile toyed at the edges of Thia’s lips. “Since I moved in with my father, no one, Andarion or human, has dared to say a word to me over it. He’d spill their entrails if they did. But he wasn’t so fortunate, especially when he was a kid. Since he has some very obvious Andarion and human features, people tend to give him a wide berth, and they’re not always polite or pleasant about it. Even now.”

“Yeah. My sister was with an Andarion male for a while, and it was extremely harsh for her after they broke up. Once a guy found out about her ex, he hit the door running.”

Thia inclined her head to Sumi. “And that’s why my mother never told my father she was pregnant with me from their affair… Humans are brutal.”

Sumi glanced over to Darice, who had yet to stir. “Andarions have their moments, too.”

Thia stretched her legs out so that her cat could lay her head in her lap. “Yes, they do. Every time Darice snarls to Uncle Hauk that he’s not his father, I want to cut his treacherous throat.”

“Why?”

“To you, it sounds like he’s being a snotty brat. Which he is. But what he’s really saying to Uncle Hauk is that his mother finds Uncle Hauk unworthy of adding his DNA to her bloodline. It’s the worst sort of insult an Andarion youth can say to an elder.”

“Then why’s he allowed to say it?”

“Dariana taught him to use it against Uncle Hauk to hurt him.”

Okay…

“But why?”

“I told you, she’s a bitch.” Thia kept saying that like it explained everything.

Sumi scratched at her cheek. “Could you elaborate on the concept of bitch as you see it? It’s a vague, insulting noun that covers a lot of territory.”

“Yes, and the head queen of all bitchery’s only child lies over there.” Thia cut her gaze toward Darice before she looked back at Sumi. “While normally a female can withdraw from an unwanted pledge with no drama, Dariana’s is a special case. There are only two original and completely pristine Andarion bloodlines that females and their families will sell their souls to tie into. One is the direct royal bloodline of the ruling house.”

“The Most Sovereign Blood Clan of eton Anatole.”

Thia smiled at Sumi’s knowledge of their world. “Very good. The other bloodline belongs to the family of the first thirteen Andarion heroes. The Warring Blood Clan of… Hauk.”

Legendary warriors who’d been regaled since the beginning of interplanetary travel. Before there had been a single noble bloodline established on Andaria, the Hauks had stood united as a family to defend their race from the offworlders who’d come to conquer, kill, and enslave them.

It was a story of raw grit, patriotism, and exceptional sacrifice that everyone learned in school, no matter what species they belonged to. Seven Andarion males and five Andarion females. Brothers and sisters, along with their father, who was a retired veteran and shaman. When the first offworlders had come to Andaria to conquer them, their father had led their family out to stall the enemy’s advance, while their mother ran to spread word of the invaders and warn their people.

Single-handedly for three days, the Hauks had battled the tech-superior army, and held the invaders back from their capital city walls, until the Andarion chief could mount a counterattack. But the cost to their family had been a high one.

When that battle ended, only two Hauks remained. Father and son. The father died just days later of his injuries, leaving his son to found what was considered the first true blood lineage of Andaria. A hero who would later refuse to be the chieftain of his homeworld when they’d offered him the first united crown of Andaria.

“A Hauk is not a politician. There is no room in our hearts to sit in peace with those who would do any Andarion harm. We are, and will forever be, protectors of our brethren, family, and homeworld. So long as a single War Hauk lives, no nation will defeat us. No race will dare to invade our air, lands, or sea. We will stand and we will defend.

“For we are not bred of mercy and we are not bred for peace.

“We are born of fury.

“Forever Andaria!

“And forever fear the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk.”

Sumi had learned to recite that speech as a class project to honor Fain’s Andarion heritage. He’d never once said a word about it being his direct ancestor who’d originally given it.

She looked at Thia. “I didn’t realize that was his lineage.” Because of the legend of the Thirteen War Hauks, Hauk was the most common surname on Andaria – taken to honor the family that had given so much to protect their freedom and planet, and to remind their people that it only took a handful of brave Andarions willing to fight and die for their brethren to hold back a superior army.

Thia nodded. “Dancer is the name of that first War Hauk who founded their lineage. His brother Fain is named for the War Hauks’ father and the eldest brother, who was the first to die in action while protecting his father’s back. Uncle Hauk and Darice are the last two members of that most prestigious bloodline, and are the only two in all of Andaria who can legally be styled as the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk. If Dariana releases Uncle Hauk from his pledge —”

“Another female could tie into his lineage.”

Thia nodded. “One with a higher-caste bloodline than hers. Should Uncle Hauk do that, Darice would no longer be styled as Darice of the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk – only the children of the two strongest unified lineages can use that title. Darice would be downgraded to Darice of the War Hauk Blood Clan. And Dariana would fall back a level in the Andarion caste system. Forever.”

But there was one thing that still didn’t make sense to Sumi. “Then why not marry Hauk and breed children with him herself? Would that not ensure her lineage and theirs?”

The darkness returned to Thia’s gaze at that question. “To begin with, that would still downgrade Darice’s title. Unless she’s willing to allow Uncle Hauk to be listed as his father and remove Keris from Darice’s lineage – something she has said repeatedly that she would never do… as I said, she hates Uncle Hauk and really doesn’t believe he’s worthy of her bloodline. So much so, that to preserve her right to keep Keris’s lineage as her own and to block Uncle Hauk from his, she had Darice more than a decade after his father’s death.”

Sumi gaped at something she should have figured out by their ages. But honestly, it hadn’t dawned on her. “How did she do that?”

Had she exhumed his body for DNA?

Ew!

Thia raked her hand through Illyse’s coat. “Whenever the males of prestigious bloodlines enter their obligatory military service, their sperm is taken and frozen so that if they die before they procreate, a female who has a legitimate claim to that bloodline, such as a pledged or married female, can be artificially inseminated with it.”

To carry on their lineage and DNA. Man, Andarions were weird.

Sumi was still aghast at their customs. “Pardon the pun, but that is so cold.”

“No, the coldest part is keeping Uncle Hauk tied to her and not going through with unification. It’s selfish and wrong on every level.” There was a lot of hatred and venom in those words.

“How so?”

Thia cursed Dariana under her breath before she spoke. “How much do you know about Andarion male anatomy?”

“They’re huge compared to humans.”

She snorted at that statement of the obvious. “Anything else?”

“No. Not really. Other than the fangs, claws, and eyes. Why?”

Thia lowered her tone before she spoke again. “They are creatures with very strong passions and urges.”

“Yeah, the whole I-would-rather-kill-you-than-look-at-you kind of gives that away.”

“Yes, but that’s not the only thing they’re aggressive about. Unlike humans, Andarion males have to…” Thia’s face turned absolutely red in the darkness.

“You okay?”

Fanning her face, Thia glanced to Sumi. “No idea why I’m telling you this, other than to illustrate what a bitch Dariana is, but… the males have to be… drained, for lack of a better word. Kind of like a lactating woman. If they don’t get regular release, it’s extremely painful for them and causes all kinds of problems and even severe illnesses for them. It’s why they mate early and tend to have extremely,” she dragged out the word, “large families.”

“Oh.” Now her face was as red as Thia’s. “So why’s that a problem? I’m sure any female would be more than willing to…” she cleared her throat, “drain Hauk.”

Including her.

Thia snorted. “He can’t. Ever. That’s why she’s a whoring, conniving Queen Bitchtress.”

Sumi arched a brow. Why not? Was there something physically wrong with Hauk? “You’ve lost me again.”

Thia released an irritated breath. “Long ago, to protect the purity of the lineages, the Andarions set down stringent laws. Adultery, which covers both married and pledged males, is punished severely and publicly. And…” Thia held her index finger up for emphasis. “Adultery by their laws means an Andarion male can’t touch any female, except his wife or pledged, without being removed from his lineage.”

Whoa. Wait a minute. Was Thia implying…

“Are you telling me Hauk’s a virgin?”

Thia visibly cringed. “Well… this is really awkward suddenly. Given that he’s my beloved uncle, my thoughts never went to that particular conclusion. I was speaking of celibacy, generic Andarion customs, and total bitches. But… now that you’ve mentioned it… considering his age when he was first pledged, and that the only time he wasn’t pledged, he was undergoing surgeries and physical therapy…” She bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. That would be a safe bet. One that makes me want to hurt Dariana even more now that I know. What a minsid whore!”

Wow. Sumi sat back in total stupor. So no one had ever climbed aboard that giant piece of sexy male and taken him for a ride.

Unbelievable. Who in their right mind would bypass that opportunity? She didn’t know who this Dariana was, but the female had to be the dumbest cow ever bred.

It explained a lot about Darice. So much for superior genetic material. Brains were a nice component to have with all that brawn.

Not to mention, her opinion of her own sister bottomed if Omira had been told any of this. And surely she’d known what her marriage to Fain would do to him. That it would cost him his extremely prestigious family name. Forever.

Why would Fain have given up all of that for Omira? Surely not even love would be worth that degree of stupid.

“What about his brother Fain? What happened to him?”

Thia curled her lip in distaste. “Fain made the mistake of marrying a human who decided too late that the last thing she wanted was to be tied to an Andarion male who had no lineage.”

Not exactly, but Sumi couldn’t argue that with her… not without outing herself. “I notice you’re not insulting her. Not like you do Dariana.”

Thia turned toward Sumi with an expression that was riddled with seething hatred. “Believe me, it’s hard not to, given what he’s been through because of what she did. But I love Uncle Fain and I would never dishonor the woman he gave his heart to. He’d beat my butt if I did. No one’s allowed to say a word against her. Ever. Being Andarion, his philosophy is that had he been worthy of her, she wouldn’t have left him. He takes all responsibility for his failed marriage, and still holds her on a pedestal. For that matter, he wears her wedding ring, she threw in his face, on his pinkie and has never removed it.”

Tears filled her eyes at the last thing she’d expected to hear. All this time, she’d assumed, from what Omira had said, that Fain hated her sister. That he’d been the one who’d left their marriage first.

“I should never have married an Andarion, Sumi. What was I thinking? They’re not human. They don’t act human. They’re terrifying creatures who will tear you apart. I know Fain’s going to come for me one day, and rip out my heart and eat it. I know it.”

Omira had lived in absolute fear of him finding her. But she’d never really said why she was so scared of him. Other than he was an Andarion barbarian.

“How do you know he didn’t leave her first?”

“Because I know Uncle Fain. Why would he still have her ring on his hand? Not to mention, all he’ll ever say about it is that he wasn’t what she really wanted.” Thia shook her head. “No, he feels too much grief to have left her.”

Sumi’s throat tightened as she remembered how heartbroken and terrified Omira had been when she came home after Fain had supposedly left. For three days, she’d locked herself in the bathroom, and had refused to come out. Barely nine, Sumi had been scared that Omira would kill herself.

“Father… we have to do something to help her.”

“Let the tainted whore die. Better for all of us if she’s gone.”

She still didn’t know how their own father could be so callous and unfeeling. When Omira had finally emerged, he’d refused to even look at her. While he hadn’t thrown her out of their house, he’d treated her like a ghost. Never would speak to her or acknowledge her presence.

Omira had accepted it as best she could. But it was the reactions from other people who’d learned about her husband and her ongoing terror that Fain would hunt her down that had finally done her in.

Sumi had just turned eighteen when Omira had decided she couldn’t handle it anymore – that life, and the condemnation of others, wasn’t worth the struggle to get through it.

All Omira’s suicide had done was worsen their father’s alcoholism and his hatred of the only family he had left. He’d turned on Sumi like some bastard stepchild he wanted out of his sight.

“You’re a whore, just like your worthless mother and sister. You’ll find some cock to suck and then leave me, too. Just wait and see. You bitches are all the same.”

As he’d predicted in his drunken stupors, she’d moved in with the first man to invite her, during her first year in college. She’d have done anything to get away from her father’s insults.

Little had she known, it wouldn’t be long before she’d wish herself back to her father’s hell over that of her first boyfriend’s. And even that disaster hadn’t been nearly as bad as the one that would arrive with Avin.

Old enough to have known better, she’d somehow allowed that bastard to deceive her completely. And she still wasn’t sure how she’d missed the warning signs of his insanity before she’d allowed Avin to move in with her.

At least with her father, she’d been able to gauge what would send him off into a rage and avoid most. Avin’s triggers could be as simple as asking if it was raining outside. They were so arbitrary and capricious…

She’d make a stew and it would be too salty. Then she’d make it again and it wasn’t salty enough. Don’t wear heels and tower over me! Why aren’t you wearing heels? Huh? You’ve wasted money on a closet full of them, and yet you never wear them!

“Closet full” by his definition was three pair. But that was another argument.

Gods, he’d been such a bastard. How had she ever allowed herself to think for one minute that she loved him? Who could ever love such a selfish prick?

A tear slid down her cheek as the pain of her past sank its claws into her heart. Sumi wiped it away before Thia saw it. There was no need in thinking about the life she’d had before. She was an assassin now. Her marriage was to The League alone. And at least it wouldn’t be too many more years of torture. She was already over the average life expectancy of an assassin. Sooner more likely than later, someone, probably Hauk, would kill her before she got them.

That was her life. The best she could hope for was to save her daughter from the same fate.

Clearing her throat, she brought the topic back to Fain. “Where’s Hauk’s brother now?”

Thia stroked the lorina’s head as it napped on her leg. “He lives as an Outcast and nomad. Sometimes in human zones. Sometimes Andarion, even though it’s dangerous. He never stays in one place too long.”

“So he’s healthy?”

Pausing her hand midstroke, Thia pinned her with a gimlet stare. “You’re showing a lot of interest in Fain. Should I ask why?”

There was no missing the underlying threat in those words. She better assuage the girl’s suspicions or she’d be meeting with a bad accident soon. “Curious is all. Sorry. I ask questions when I’m nervous. I rather stumbled into all of your lives. I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

Thia seemed to accept that. “I know the feeling. It took me awhile to acclimate to all of them myself. Especially Uncle Hauk.” A nostalgic smile tugged at her lips. “The first time I met him, I thought he was going to cut my heart out and eat it, and I ran screaming down the hallway.”

“Why would you think that?”

She raked a less-than-flattering look over Sumi’s body. “You do that now and you’re a trained assassin who’s a lot closer to his height than I was or am. Not to mention that whole wide-as-a-house thing he has going for him… It’s extremely off-putting, especially when you’re a kid. That male can palm a twenty-pound bowling ball. Seriously. I’ve seen him do it.”

Illyse rose suddenly and hissed.

Before either of them could move, the lorina launched herself into the darkness. Thia shot to her feet and pulled her blaster out.

“Relax, Thee, it’s just me.” With Illyse by his side, Hauk slowly made his way into the circle of firelight, carrying a giant beast over his shoulder.

Sumi’s eyes widened at the size of the creature while Thia holstered her weapon. “When you hunt, you don’t play around, do you?”

“Not really.” He scowled as he dropped the beast and then noticed Darice, facedown on the ground. Arching a brow, he turned toward Thia. “You kill him?”

“No. Just a good stunning.”

A slow, boyish grin curved his lips. He rubbed at his goatee with his thumb. “Would it be wrong if I left him there until morning?”

Thia shrugged. “It’s an Endurance. You tell me, oh great uncle.”

“Maybe I’ll just throw a blanket over him and leave him there for a while.”

Thia scoffed. “It’s more than he deserves.”

As Hauk prepped his prey, Sumi noticed that he was much more relaxed than he’d been when he left. He was almost peaceful now.

“So killing things is how you unwind?”

He looked up with a wicked smile that flashed a bit of his fangs. “Indeed. Want to help me skin it?”

She screwed her face up as he pulled out a huge knife from the sheath on his thigh that also holstered his blaster. “I’d really rather not.”

Pausing, he arched a brow. “A squeamish assassin? Really?”

“Conscripted,” she reminded him. The last thing she needed was for a trained killer, holding a knife, to see her as the threat she knew she could be. “Before that, I was a botanist.”

He sharpened his knife against the bracer on his forearm that contained a whetstone. Sumi wasn’t sure what part of that disturbed her more. The fact he was so nonchalant about it, or the fact he felt compelled to wear a whetstone for such occasions.

Hauk tested the edge of the blade with the pad of his thumb. “So slaughtering innocent plants doesn’t bother you?”

“I never slaughtered any plants. I only studied and catalogued them.” She turned away and grimaced as he…

Shivering, she couldn’t even think about it. It brought back too many awful memories for her.

Suddenly, she felt his warmth at her back. He was close enough to touch her, yet he didn’t breach that little distance between them. “How did The League train you?”

She trembled even more. “Death matches and hunts.”

He turned her to face him. In spite of the darkness, she saw the sympathy in his eyes as he stared at her. “Botanist, huh?”

Sumi nodded.

Hauk watched as she nervously bit her bottom lip. That single act sent a ferocious wave of desire through him and set his heart pounding again. Because he wasn’t allowed to touch a female, he’d never spent much time around any who weren’t bound to a male. Not that it mattered. Andarion females considered him disgusting and hideous. One look at his scarred flesh, and they curled their lips and insulted him before they scurried away to their mothers.

None of them would ever accept him in her bed.

The one and only time he’d tried to kiss Dariana, she’d stabbed him and warned him that if he ever offended her like that again, her next attack would be against his groin.

As for human women, they’d never appealed to him, especially since their reactions to his presence made the Andarion females seem kind. Not until this one. He couldn’t explain it or understand it, especially given how much she reminded him of Fain’s wife.

A woman he’d vowed to kill should their paths ever cross again.

And yet there was no denying what he felt anytime he caught the sweet floral scent of Sumi’s hair. All he wanted was to bury his face in those pale strands and breathe her in.

To feel her body pressed against his. Skin to skin.

Damn it. He was even harder now than he’d been when he left to take care of… things and hunt. He wanted her so badly that he wasn’t sure how he remained apart from her.

Touch her and Dariana will gut you with glee.

No, his own mother would gut him. Ever since Keris’s death, she’d been lying in wait for a chance to honorably end his life and he knew it. And all because of a blood feud that had nothing to do with him.

Rather his mother, desperate to tie her blood to his father’s lineage, had seduced his father the day before he was to have been pledged to Nykyrian’s mother. The moment the Andarion princess had learned that her champion had sampled another female’s body, she’d refused his pledge and sent his father home in disgrace.

But at least Cairistiona hadn’t demanded his father’s head or his cock, which any other female would have.

His paternal grandmother had never forgiven his mother for that act that had risked his father’s life and denied them a royal lineage. Her life’s dream had been to live long enough to see the War Hauks tied to the eton Anatoles. Because Keris had been conceived during that night when his mother seduced his father, his grandmother had been forced to allow them to join bloodlines to keep the Hauk lineage pure. But she’d never liked it.

In spite of that, his grandmother had held on to the hope that her great-grandchildren might merge. It was why she’d paid to send Hauk and Fain to school with Prince Jullien, as companions and guardians for him. But that would never happen now. Childless, Prince Jullien had been removed from the royal succession and only Nykyrian remained.

Even if one discounted the age difference, Thia hated Darice and viewed him as a pesky little brother. She would never accept his pledge. And Nyk’s youngest daughter was barely three months old. There was no chance in hell that Nyk would allow her to marry someone that much older – provided he ever allowed Zarina or Thia to marry at all. And even if by some miracle Nyk did accept Darice, Hauk’s grandmother wouldn’t live long enough to see Zarina to adulthood. She was already almost two hundred years old.

And so his mother, a former negotiator for the Andarion royal house, had found in his grandmother the one being she couldn’t win over with her guile.

No matter what she tried.

To this day, he and Fain were caught between their ongoing war as his mother tried to prove to his grandmother that she was the better mate for his father than the queen would have been. That his mother had conceived the better sons.

Because Hauk loved his mother, he had done everything possible to please her, and show his grandmother that he could be a grandson she could take pride in.

Never once had he asked for anything of his own. Duty. Honor. Family. Obligation. Loyalty. Those were the oaths of an Andarion male. No matter what others or life had thrown at him, he’d done his best to rise above it and adhere to their customs.

Until now.

For the first time ever, he craved the one thing he knew he could never have.

The gentle touch of a woman’s hand on his bare skin. It would mean his life to taste those lips that lured him toward suicide. But what truly scared him was the part of himself that really didn’t give a shit. The part of him that was willing to die painfully for one night in the arms of a female who didn’t loathe him.

Clearing his throat, he stepped back from her before he gave into his supreme stupidity. “You should probably rest in the tent while I do this.”

Sumi hesitated. She didn’t want to leave him. Strangely, she wanted to walk into his arms and have him hold her. To kiss his lips until she was drunk from passion. That urge was worsened by the knowledge that he’d never taken a lover.

That she would be the first woman to have him inside her body.

If what Thia had said was true, he’d never even been kissed before. How was that possible that no one had sampled such an incredibly sexy beast?

But then she’d seen his photos. He’d spent most of his life around male humans. Probably to avoid temptation.

Which meant he wouldn’t be interested in her.

At all.

He’s your target, moron! Not your boyfriend.

Oh yeah. There was that.

Yet as she walked away from him, and he returned to skinning his kill, she didn’t see a target there. She saw a beautiful Andarion male whose intelligent eyes were tinged with the deepest sadness and pain.

As Sumi neared the tents, Thia arched a brow at her. “What?” she asked the girl.

“I shouldn’t have told you any of that.”

“What do you mean?”

Thia jerked her chin toward her uncle. “First, Uncle Hauk would kill me if he knew I’d said anything to you about it. Second… I’ve stoked a fire with you that I shouldn’t have.”

Sumi scoffed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, you do. You know he’s forbidden, and it’s irresistible now. But just remember this… I’m not the only one who loves him and who considers him family. If any harm comes to him because of your actions, we will hunt you down to the outer edges of the universe, and take turns making you wish you’d never been whelped.”

The scariest part of that wasn’t the fact that she knew Thia and the others would do it.

It was the fact that she knew how much they’d relish her torture.