Hauk swallowed. “Yeah.”
“All right. I’ll be back in just a second.” She took Kalea into the bathroom to dress her.
Syn cupped Hauk’s face and forced him to meet his gaze. “I know how pissed off you are. You have every right to be. There’s not a one of us who wouldn’t be out for blood after this. But I fixed Eleron while you were gone. Kyr cut through the system. I’m pretty sure he’s locked out, but I’m better at hacking than securing. That’s your job.”
“Trust me, he’ll never my break my system again.”
Syn released him. “We’ll get him, Hauk.”
“I know. Just not soon enough to please me.” He glanced past Syn as Desideria returned with a still-sleeping Kalea.
“She’s all ready for bed.”
His emotions overwhelmed him as he saw her in the white linen gown that was filled with pink ruffles. Desideria had even washed her hair and put matching booties on her feet. “Thank you, Des.”
Desideria grimaced and put her hand over her stomach.
“You all right?”
Breathing in short gasps, she nodded. “Kicks like his father. He’s been rolling around for hours.” She patted his arm. “Goodnight, sweetie.”
Syn paused by the bed. “She should sleep through the night. If she wakes up, let me know. I’m going to check on Shahara.”
“Goodnight, Syn. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank us, brother. You know that.”
Nodding, Hauk did the one thing he’d been dying to do since Sumi first told him about Kalea. He pulled the covers back from her and put Kalea in the bed by her side. Instinctively, Kalea snuggled in tight. Likewise, Sumi draped an arm around her and sighed as if she knew it was her baby with her.
Smiling as he blinked back tears, he pulled his office chair closer to the bed and propped his feet on the nightstand. “Don’t worry, mia. I’m not letting you out of my sight again. And no one’s ever going to hurt either of you during my watch.”
Sumi sucked her breath in sharply as she came awake to a strange, stinging pain in her arm. It was asleep, she realized, and something was lying on it.
Yawning, she expected to find Dancer there.
Instead, it was a tiny little girl in a white, frilly gown. She frowned at the dark hair. “Lillya?”
The little girl opened her eyes and looked up at her.
It wasn’t Desideria’s daughter.
“Are you my mommy?”
Stunned, she couldn’t breathe as her brain tried to make sense of this.
“Yes, Lee-lee,” Dancer said from beside the bed. “That’s your mommy.”
Kalea threw herself against her. “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”
Sumi couldn’t breathe as tears flowed and she sobbed in happiness and gratitude. Her baby was home! This was her daughter!
Closing her eyes, she savored the sensation of finally holding her baby against her.
Hauk caught Kalea and pulled her away. “Careful, baby. Mommy’s been hurt.” He turned on the intercom. “Syn! Run!”
Sumi looked down at the blood that had spread over her bandage. But honestly, she didn’t care. She reached for her daughter. “Please, Dancer…”
He carefully returned Kalea to Sumi’s uninjured side. “Don’t jump on Mommy.”
Kalea touched Sumi’s stomach. “I’m sorry, Mommy. Kalea didn’t mean to.”
Completely unperturbed by it, Sumi wrapped her arms around her again and held her close as she finally rocked her. Never in her life had she been happier than she was right now. “I don’t mind, at all.” She looked up at Dancer and saw the warm tenderness in his eyes as he watched them. In that moment, she wanted to pull him into her arms and never let him go. He had no idea just how much this meant to her. How much he meant to her. “I love you so much! Were you injured?”
He shrugged with that Andarion nonchalance that would never allow him to admit to pain. “Blast to my thigh, but it’s just a flesh wound.”
“And you didn’t bother to tell me last night?” Syn growled as he came in.
“I knew you wanted to see Shahara.”
Syn rolled his eyes. “You haven’t slept either, have you?”
“I’ll sleep later.”
Syn broke out into a round of Ritadarion that Sumi was glad she couldn’t understand.
Kalea gasped as Syn lifted her shirt and she saw the sutures on her side. “Mommy! You’re really hurt!”
“I’m okay, Kalea.”
“That looks bad, Mommy.”
Tears continued to flow down her face as she savored the little girl with her. “Right now, nothing can hurt me.”
Kalea frowned at her. “Why?”
“’Cause I have you and your daddy with me. Everything’s wonderful.”
Kalea put her hands on Sumi’s face and smiled a smile that made her weep even harder. “I have a very pretty mommy. And a pretty daddy.”
Sumi laughed then groaned as Syn touched her wound. “Yes, you do, sweetie. He’s the best ever.”
“I wanted hair like Daddy… but… but Daddy said no.”
Sumi frowned. “We can braid your hair like that, baby.”
“That’s not the hair she wanted.” Dancer tapped his chin.
She laughed and moaned again. “Oh. Daddy’s right. You can’t have facial hair. We hope, anyway.”
Kalea scratched her head. “But Aunt Mari has face hair. Why does she have it?”
Hauk laughed as he watched the two of them. His girls.
No, his family. It seemed so surreal to have them here in his home. He’d been alone for so long that it was hard to believe this was real.
Nothing would ever be the same and for that he was so grateful. While he’d been content and happy before, this was so much better.
And scarier.
Sumi brushed the hair back from Kalea’s face. “Aunt Mari’s a boy.”
“But Aunt Mari’s an aunt.”
“You’re not going to win this,” Syn said with a laugh. “Trust me. I get my ass handed to me by Devyn every day. They wear you down with persistence and kid logic.”
“Yeah,” Hauk agreed. “I learned that the hard way, yesterday. In three hours of nonstop questions, she wore me out.”
Kalea looked down at her clothes and frowned. She tugged at her nightgown. “Who dressed me like a princess?”
Hauk smiled at her. “Your Aunt Des.”
“Is Aunt Des an aunt or is she a boy, too?”
“She’s a girl,” Sumi said, touching her nose, “and she has a daughter your age.”
“Really!”
Hauk nodded. “You’re wearing her daughter’s clothes and she has another dress for you after you bathe.”
Pulling away from Sumi, she opened her mouth wide and jumped on the bed. “Is it pretty, too?”
Hauk wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Okay, sure.”
Sumi laughed. “Daddies don’t know about pretty dresses. But Aunt Des always has pretty things on her little girl, so I’m sure it’s beautiful.”
“When I meet them?”
Hauk reached for Kalea to pull her off the bed. “How about while Uncle Syn —”
“No!” Sumi growled the word out so ferociously that he released Kalea instantly and took a quick step back in fear of her. She’d never made that sound before.
She swallowed hard. “Sorry, Dancer. I’ve waited too long to have her with me. I’m not going to let her go. Not for anything.”
He met her gaze and nodded. “I know the feeling, and I wasn’t going to take her far. But I think I’ll just leave her here with her mother before I lose a body part we both might miss.”
Sumi held her hand out to him. He took it and she led it to her cheek. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”
Syn shook his head. “Da —” He looked at Kalea and caught himself. “Dang, Hauk, here I thought I had the scariest wife. Now you done gone and upped me with one even more ferocious.”