Chayden tsked. “Damn, bud. Your nephew just callously threw you to the lorina he pissed off.”
Hauk glanced at Darice over his shoulder. “I noticed that.” Clicking his tongue, he called the vicious predator over to him. “Hey, Illyse.” He patted the huge cat on her head and allowed her to lick his chin, then stepped aside and pointed to Darice. “Eat my nephew!”
Darice glared at him as the cat moved to lick Hauk’s fingers and nuzzle his hand, instead of attacking on command. “You’re not funny. Why is that thing here, anyway?”
Thia sighed heavily. “Because my father’s overprotective, and lacks any semblance of a sense of humor. It was either bring his cat or half his army. I personally told him I wanted the army, so long as they were young, cute, male, and virile… which is why the cat was sent.”
Chayden draped his arm over Hauk’s shoulders. “Brother, I don’t envy you the next six weeks.”
“Brother, I don’t envy me the next six minutes.”
Chayden laughed. “You sure you want me to leave you alone with them?”
“Don’t tempt me.” Hauk went to grab his survival pack and gear. When he picked up Thia’s too, Darice hissed. He glared at his nephew.
“How is this an Endurance test when she doesn’t even carry her own pack? Huh?”
Hauk leveled a cool stare at Darice. “Trust me, son. This is definitely a test of my endurance.”
Chayden and Thia burst out laughing while Darice stormed off the shuttle, cursing them all and their ancestors under his breath.
When Hauk started for the large haul bag, Thia rushed in to grab her rucksack from his shoulders. “I’m not really helpless, Uncle Hauk. I’m only going along with this to watch the smoke come out of Darice’s ears.” She slung the large bag over her shoulders and buckled it, then called for Illyse to follow her off the shuttle.
Hauk met Chayden’s amused look and whimpered. “Please don’t leave me here… alone… with them.”
Chayden grinned without sympathy. “You’ll have communications for three more days. After that…”
“We’re on our own for the next month,” he finished for him.
He inclined his head to Hauk. “If you have to eat one of the young to survive, or to salvage your sanity, I would suggest Darice. He’ll give you more indigestion going down, but the ensuing torture that comes afterward will be a lot less painful, I think.”
“Again, don’t tempt me.” Hauk took a deep breath for mental strength. “You know, I would rather walk naked, with my hands cuffed behind my back, into League headquarters and tell Kyr that I was one of the raiders on his prison than do this.”
Chayden sucked his breath in between his teeth. “That says it all.”
“Yes, it does… See you in six weeks.”
Chayden inclined his head to him and offered him an arm. “Walk with peace, drey.”
Hauk shook Chayden’s arm before he disembarked on his voyage to hell. And as bad as it was, the moment he stepped onto the stark, barren landscape, it worsened as old memories assailed him.
In the back of his mind, he could see himself as a boy, filled with excitement, jumping onto the surface near this very spot. Then, it’d been his father’s best friend who had dropped them off. Hauk had run ahead to start exploring while the sound of Keris’s laughter had filled his ears.
“Don’t get lost on day one, Dancer!”
“Yeah, yeah! You’re getting old, Kerry. Otherwise you could keep up with me!”
“I’ll show you who’s old…”
Dropping his pack, Keris had effortlessly closed the distance and tackled him to the ground. They’d wrestled for dominance, until his much older and better-trained brother had pinned him then tickled him until he’d pissed his pants. Angry, Keris had beaten him for peeing on him, and left Hauk sore for days afterward.
A sad smile curved his lips as bitter tears choked him. He’d give anything if he could go back and forego his test. Go back and exchange his life for Keris’s. He should have died that day. Not his war-hero brother who could do no wrong where their parents and Dariana were concerned.
Unlike him.
Since the hour of his birth, Hauk had been nothing but a disappointment to them.
Why did I live?
Honestly, he shouldn’t have, and he still couldn’t remember anything about those three weeks after he’d been injured, other than the intensity of that feral instinct not to die.
Broken and bleeding, he’d somehow crawled his way to their rendezvous point.
In the back of his mind and in every nightmare since, Hauk saw Keris’s wry grin as his brother had relegated himself to death. “Take care of Dari for me. Tell her I’ll always love her.”
Hauk involuntarily flinched as he saw Keris’s death flash through his mind. Heard the sound of his brother’s body falling and slamming as it made its way to the jagged, unforgiving ground.
There had been nothing he could do to stop it. No way to save Keris. His brother had given him his life at the expense of his own.
Now the best he could do was safeguard his brother’s child. No matter what, even with Darice’s attitude and mouth, he’d keep him safe. And the same for Thia. But for Nykyrian, he’d have died a dozen times over. Nyk had believed in him when no one else had. And he had seen Hauk through the grief of losing both Fain and Keris from his life.
As soon as Chayden was gone and the sounds of the engines had faded, he heard Thia and Darice fighting again.
Looking up at the sky, Hauk shook his head and let out an aggravated sigh. He’d keep them safe from others, all right, but before this was over, he might end up killing one of them himself.
CHAPTER 4
Hauk checked his calendar and cursed before he tossed it aside. Cruel effing bastard thing. It’d only been a week since Chayden had abandoned him here.
With them.
It was the longest week of his life, and made him grateful as hell that he would never have any kids of his own.
“Dancer!”
He winced at Darice’s high-pitched shout. Gods, give me strength not to kill one of them… He’d sent them out after breakfast to wash and dress for the day, and look for something they could use for lunch before he strung them up by their intestines.
“Dancer!”
What had Thia done now? Dunked his head?
Again.
I swear, if the two of them don’t stop trying to murder each other…
“Uncle Hauk!”
Now they were calling him in unison, only it wasn’t the same tone they used whenever they were fighting.
This one was more…
Scared.
He ducked out of his tent to find them running toward camp like they were being chased by something other than Illyse, who was hard on their heels.
His heartbeat quickened. Hand on his blaster, he ran at them as fast as he could to cover their flight.
Thia was the first to reach him. She grabbed his arm to tug him in the direction they’d just run from, while Illyse circled all three of them protectively. “Come quick! We found someone.”
He pulled her to a stop, and kept her at his side until he had more information. “Who?”
“A woman. She’s hurt. Bad.”
Still, he hesitated. This northernmost part of Oksana hadn’t been legitimately inhabited in well over three hundred years. Not since The League had punished the citizens of this world for a revolt, and had bombed their entire civilization back to a stone age. What little part of it that held a human population was under a dome on the other side of the planet. Three continents and two huge oceans away.