Kyro - A.G. Wilde Page 0,34

end of him...and her.

And he would rather sacrifice himself than make someone else join his hell.

And who would even want to?

The warm water had felt good. It had helped calm her and as she dried herself off and exited the shower room, she padded barefoot into the bedroom.

The sitting area was so quiet, it was almost as if she was the lone occupant of the apartment and she was tempted to walk out there to check if Kyro had changed his mind and left while she’d showered.

She didn’t want to be alone tonight.

Seeing Shive down in the alleyway not once but two times was making her think of things she’d rather forget.

She was sure she probably had some form of post-traumatic stress disorder from being ripped from her life on Earth. The thought that Shive meant her harm was making her anxiety rise.

Once again, an image of a young Evren being lost in the forest flashed into her mind and she shivered.

For years, she hadn’t had any of those images flashing in her head. It had taken countless therapy visits, but she’d thought she’d overcome the fright of that childhood experience.

No doubt being taken from Earth had reignited old wounds.

In that forest, she’d been alone. Scared. Thinking she would never see her parents again.

She’d only been little. So little. And now she felt like she was walking into that same experience again.

She was little, so little, in this huge universe.

She didn’t want the rug to be pulled from under her feet once more.

Shive’s behavior only underlined one thing.

She wasn’t safe—and that realization was chilling.

Pulling on a piece of soft clothing that resembled a large vest—just one of the items Athena had insisted to buy for her—she padded into the sitting area, her eyes falling on Kyro’s back as he sat in the seat, slightly leaning over the datapad as his fingers brushed across the screen.

A soft smile tugged at her lips.

He hadn’t left.

And just seeing him there was already making her relaxed. He always seemed to make her relax, she just hadn’t realized the extent to which till these last few days.

“Would you like a drink, Kyro?”

“No, but you should probably drink something. It will calm you.” He lifted his head to look at her and she saw him pause, his eyes moving over her before he dropped his gaze, frowned, and looked away.

Did she look that bad? Had the vest been the wrong idea? She’d only wanted to be comfortable.

She was just about to return to the bedroom to put on something else when Kyro’s voice reached her. “Would you like me to make you something to drink? I believe I can make something akin to what you have on Earth called chamomile tea. For calming you...” He paused. “...if you have the right ingredients.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that. You’re my guest. I—”

He was standing before she even finished.

“I insist.” He set the datapad down and was walking away from her and toward the kitchen before she could protest, almost as if he wanted to get away from her.

“Okay...” But her words were floating in the air because he’d already left the room.

Moving over to her datapad, she picked it up.

“What’s this?” She spoke loud enough for him to hear.

“Security system,” she heard him call back. “Your quarters are secured from any intruders. It will alert you if anyone tries to break in and alert me and my brothers, too.”

She hadn’t expected that. “Thank you,” she breathed, looking over the data on the screen. “Is it already on or do I have to turn it on?”

“It is already activated.”

Did that mean he was going to leave now then? If she had a security system in place, he didn’t need to stay.

As if reading her mind, he said, “I will stay the night. If you still want me to.” A pause and, as if to clarify— “Just for added protection.”

“I appreciate it.”

Plopping down into the seat, she grabbed and accessed the Restitution’s server from the datapad to begin searching for information about the Intergalactic Hub.

She hadn’t forgotten about it and if life for her on the base was going to become unnecessarily complicated, it was all the more reason for her to leave.

The other women needed to live their lives without her being a burden. They’d all been through a lot. She didn’t need them to have to nanny her.

And she wanted to live too.

That had been the point about going to the Intergalactic Hub in