“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?”