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?”

Thia tightened her grip. “My aunt Mari always says that family isn’t about the blood you share. It’s about the people willing to bleed for you.”

Those words brought a lump to her throat and she wasn’t sure what to make of them. This wasn’t the kind of attitude she was used to. In her world, family was the first to bleed you, and strangers bled you out totally. Honestly, she couldn’t imagine the world Thia and the Hauks described.

“Mari sounds like a very wise woman.”

Laughing, Thia patted her arm. “He is very wise. And our extremely large family is always willing to grow even bigger. So welcome to it.”

Thia’s naive sweetness confused her. “That’s not very Andarion, is it? I thought blood was the only thing that mattered.”

Hauk grunted. “It is and it’s not.”

Sumi sighed at his evasive answer. “I think you two like messing with my head.”