“Whenever a hero dies, there are three years of mourning for the spouse, to ensure the sanctity of both bloodlines and pay tribute to his life and service. After that, the widow has nine years to accept the pledge of her husband’s brother, provided there are no children. When children are involved, the two are pledged until the youngest goes through Endurance. If they haven’t unified by then, he’s released from his pledge.” He sighed in quiet resignation. “When I picked up Darice to do this, Dariana swore to me that on our return she would finally honor her pledge and accept me as her husband.”

Sumi sat back as she digested that vicious little nugget.

Surely the bitch hadn’t done what Thia had said. “Are you telling me that the whole reason Dariana had Darice was to keep you tied to her longer, without marriage?”

To continue denying and punishing him for as long as she legally could? Meanwhile, she got to keep the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk as her moniker, and maintain a place in their world that she couldn’t have without Hauk’s family?

Hauk shook his head. “She loved my brother. I’m sure she only had Darice to carry Keris’s line forward and to honor him and his memory.”

Then why not conceive him sooner? Why wait until the year she’d have been forced to either free Hauk or birth a child?

No. Sumi didn’t believe it was a coincidence for a minute.

Thia was right. Dariana was a conniving Queen Bitch. But she bit her tongue. Let Hauk have his delusion about the honor Dariana obviously lacked.

Wishing she could save him from the whore’s clutches, she leaned forward and brushed her lips against those marks of selfish cruelty.

He tensed. “What are you doing?”

She laid her cheek against the assassin’s tattoo on his shoulder that had another vicious scar bisecting it from an old blast wound. “I’m giving you something I don’t think you’ve ever had.”

“And that is?”

The fact he had to ask said it all. “Tender affection.”

Hauk swallowed as he felt a hot tear slide from her eye and onto his skin. She was right. No one had ever touched him like she did.

Inside or out.

For the first time since that pod had crashed, he felt visible to the world.

Desirable.

Sumi brushed her hand through his hair, raising even more chills over him. “I’m done, sweetie.”

That single endearment meant more to him than it should have. And it made him wonder what kind of bastard could have ever struck a woman so decent. How could anyone harm the mother of his child? It made no sense to him. But one thing became crystal clear in his mind.

“I will get your daughter back for you, Sumi.”