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?”