Thia’s tenderness was as startling as it was unexpected.

“W-water?”

Thia patted her hand. “Be right back.” She passed a glower to Hauk. “Try not to scare her to death until I return, okay?”

How could she be so brazen with him? Did she lack all sense? That tone she used with him was tantamount to popping a ravenous, rabid beast on the nose and telling it to shush.

To Sumi’s shock, he actually appeared charmingly sweet as he smiled at the girl and spoke to her in a calm, gentle tone. “Thee? Can you give us a few?”

That seemed to unsettle the girl a bit. “Sure.” Biting her lip, Thia glanced to Sumi as if she realized there was more to Sumi’s appearance in their camp than mere happenstance.

As soon as she was gone, Hauk set his plate aside, and stood to tower over Sumi’s pallet.

She fought the urge to run. While he’d been huge before, up close and in her space, he was gargantuan. And there was no missing the bloodlust in his white-and-red eyes. Something made even more ominous when he opened his lips and ran his tongue down his long canines as if savoring the taste of her blood and bones. “What’s your name and rank?”

“M-m-my what?”

“I saw your League markings, assassin… Name. Rank. Now!” That had to be the fiercest, deadliest bark she’d ever heard.

“Agent Sumi —” She answered immediately, barely catching herself before she spoke a surname that would guarantee her a slow painful death at his humongous hands.

“Sumi, what?”

“Just Sumi.”

Crouching in front of her, he grabbed her arm and pushed her sleeve back to expose the branded words that mocked her every day of her miserable life. “I know you were conscripted into League service. What felony did you commit?”

Sumi stared into the intensity of his cold glare as old memories returned to torment her. Like Hauk, the bastard she’d killed had been merciless and cold. Unyielding. Unforgiving. And his attack on her had been completely unwarranted.

“Murder.”

“Premeditated?”

Without thinking, she shook her head. Then she cursed her stupidity. It was never a good thing to admit to your enemy that you were anything other than ruthless. But then, as now, she’d acted out of fear.

“Who did you kill?”

Trying her best not to return to that horrid night with her thoughts, she snarled the answer. “My boyfriend.”

He arched a brow at that. “For?”

“Breathing.”

One corner of his mouth twitched as if her sarcasm amused him. Then he sobered into a terrifying countenance. “I can well understand the urge to kill someone for breathing. Been known to succumb to it myself from time to time.” He glanced to the opening of the tent. When he looked back at her, she had no doubt that she was only one wrong answer from death. “I also know you’re a mother.”

Stunned at what she thought was a well-kept secret, she sucked her breath in sharply. “How?”