Ah crap…
Terrified of what she’d inadvertently done, she went to check on Bastien first.
Like Dancer had first attempted, he brushed aside her help. “I’ve had worse from bar fights. Trust me. Beatings I can take.”
“You sure?”
Bastien nodded. “Hand me a cloth and I’m fine.”
She hesitated.
Glancing over to Dancer, he gave her a sardonic grin. “Sumi, I learned a long time ago, you don’t touch or get touched by an Andarion’s female. They get really hostile over it, and I’m not physically able to keep Hauk from killing me right now. So no offense, let’s maintain at least a five-foot no-touch zone. ’Kay?”
She scoffed as she handed him the foil package that held an antiseptic cloth. “He wouldn’t beat you, Bastien.”
“Not gonna chance it. In case it’s escaped your notice, your male is a huge motherfucker. And I’ve had enough ass beating to tide me over for at least a month… Maybe longer.”
Shaking her head at him, she went to check on Thia. She sat on the ground with her legs drawn up tight to her chest, and her head lying on her knees.
Sumi brushed her hair back from her face. “You okay, sweetie?”
She nodded. “I just want to go home.”
“I know.”
Thia lifted her head. “Thank you, by the way.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes, you did. Uncle Hauk would never have taken a shot with me in that smelly bastard’s arms. You saved both our lives today.”
Sumi gave her arm a light squeeze and patted her hand. “I’m just glad you knew what I needed you to do. I think it’s safe to say you saved yourself.”
Thia didn’t respond. Instead, she narrowed her gaze on Sumi’s face. “You’re beautiful wearing the paint of a War Hauk. Not that you’re not beautiful anyway. But Andarion looks good on you.”
Sumi hugged her before she went to the last being she wanted to deal with.
Darice had been eerily quiet as he sat off, away from the group. That could not be a good thing for the normally verbose teen.
“How are you doing, kiddo?”
He glanced at her face, sneered, then quickly looked away. “Fine.”
“You need food or —”
“I’m fine!” he snapped.
“Okay.”
As she started away, his low tone stopped her. “Sumi?”
She paused to look back at him.
Biting his lip in an adorable manner that was identical to the one Dancer used, he glanced to his uncle. “I know what you and Dancer did.”
Her heart sank at his words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do,” he said in an accusing tone. “Everyone will know. You can’t hide it. He’s stralen now.”
“Stralen?”
“His eyes.”
She scowled, wondering how Darice knew something about that when Dancer hadn’t. Or had Dancer known and just not told her? “What about them?”
“It’s a very rare condition that only manifests when an Andarion male has sex with someone he’s possessive over, and then any time he has a strong adrenaline rush after that. If his feelings for the one he’s bonded to are exceedingly strong, it’s permanent and never goes away. My mother told me that the only Andarion she’s ever known to have it was my father. And his was bad, according to her.”
Sumi was aghast at Darice’s knowledge of something he shouldn’t have been told about. “Your mother talked about that with you?”
He nodded. “She wanted me to understand how much my father loved her. How much she meant to him.” He slid his gaze back to Dancer. “By those eyes, I know Dancer broke his pledge to my mother and slept with you.”
“Darice…”
He held his hand up to stop her words. “It’s okay, Sumi,” he said grudgingly. “I might be young, but I understand why he did it. No one, not even Dancer, can fight the stralen when it strikes. It’s the most powerful emotion any Andarion can ever feel, and they have no control over it when it hits them. It overrides everything about their normal personality. But be careful. My mother said that it can be so intense that it used to terrify her whenever my father had it. It produces an extreme form of jealousy that makes them highly possessive, even violent toward the one they love. Controlling and domineering. That’s why she told me about it. It usually runs in families, through the father, and there’s a good chance I could have it, too.” Abashed, he glanced away from her. “It’s why she used to sedate my father. She was trying to find some way to mitigate its effects so that he wouldn’t hurt her.”
Sumi gasped at what he was saying. Especially given some of the past verbal attacks he’d made against Dancer. They had been overly harsh, especially given this revelation. “You knew she drugged him?”
He nodded. “They weren’t illegal drugs. She told me that she got them from a doctor. And my father didn’t give her a choice. She said it was so bad that she couldn’t even speak to her best friend without my father flying into a jealous rage over it. He even put Pera in the hospital just two weeks before he died.” His look pierced her with its sincerity. “Even though she loved him, she was afraid for her life, Sumi. It’s why she didn’t have children with my father until after his death. She didn’t want him to hurt them in a fit of anger.”
Sumi felt ill at what he was describing. It’d been just that kind of nightmare that she’d barely survived with Avin. “Is that why she’s refused your uncle’s pledge all these years?”
“Yes. When she married my father, she didn’t know he had the gene. And stralen is something only felt by the male and has no relation to or bearing on how the female feels toward him. Only how he possessive he feels toward her. She said it’s why she thought Fain’s human wife had left him. That he probably had it, too, and had hurt her because of it.”
Darice swallowed hard. “It must have been the stralen’s rage that allowed Dancer to tear apart everyone in the base today. He was so scary, Sumi. I’ve never seen anyone behave like that. He was like a possessed monster they couldn’t stop. It was terrifying.”
“That wasn’t the stralen, sweetie. Your uncle’s been able to fight like that for a long time.”
“Really?” he asked in disbelief.
She nodded. “I’ve seen him do it.”
Darice fell silent for several heartbeats. When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper. “My mother will never accept him now.”
“Your mother was never going to accept him, Darice.”
“I know.” He sighed heavily then locked gazes with her. “Are you going to run with him like Fain did with his wife?”
“No. Dancer won’t do it.”
“My mother will have him killed if he stays.”
“He knows that.”
There was no missing the sad agony in Darice’s white eyes. It was obvious he was torn between loyalty to his mother and to his uncle. “Can’t you talk sense into him?”
“I’m not sure anyone can talk sense into Dancer. He’s a very stubborn beast. But I will try.”
Darice inclined his head to her. “Thank you, Sumi. They were planning to ransom us back to our parents, and then kill us once they were paid.”
She laughed at the mere thought. “I’d have loved to see how that went when they called Thia’s father.”
“About the same as when Dancer came through the door, I’m thinking.”
“Probably so.” Sumi jerked her chin toward the cuts on Darice’s wrists. “Would you let me tend those?”
He looked down at them before he acquiesced.
She knelt in front of him and carefully cleaned and bandaged his wrists. “You must have fought the restraints like a boss.”