Kyro - A.G. Wilde Page 0,41

at her.

“Hey there, buddy,” she whispered, stretching her hand in the animal’s direction. Maybe she had a death wish...she had no idea if the animal would lick her hand or bite it off clean...but something, she didn’t quite know what, made her trust the little thing.

The animal’s eyes focused on her hand before meeting her gaze once more. She was close enough to touch it now and still, it remained frozen.

“You’re not going to bite me, are you? You’re going to be a good little cat-skunk thing, aren’t you?” Evren whispered.

The animal did nothing. It made no sound. It just looked at her frozen in place, its tail unmoving in the air, its legs stiff.

As her palm rested on its back, she felt the animal stiffen even more underneath her touch, but it did nothing else and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

“Don’t know if I should be touching you...” She stroked her hand down the animal’s back and it made a soft sound, almost like a purr but more like a rumble.

It was looking at her warily but as she stroked it some more, its tail began to move again.

It was enjoying her touch.

Evren grinned. “You like that don’t you?”

Another rumble left the animal, its gray eyes softening a little.

Maybe it was that she missed her cat, Nigel, but this was oddly comforting.

“You’re one strange little thing,” she murmured, taking in the animal’s skunk-like tail, the single lane of dark fur that ran along its back, and the tuft of fur behind its ears.

As if the animal agreed with her, another rumble left its chest and it sat on its haunches, surveying her with what she could now see were strangely human-like eyes.

“You know,” she murmured. “You remind me of someone. Your eyes...”

The animal blinked and she swore it stiffened underneath her hand again as its tail stopped moving in that lazy pleasure-movement it was doing.

It was notable that she couldn’t stop thinking about Kyro to the point she was seeing his likeness in animals. Next, she would be thinking she saw him in other random people walking down the street.

Still, the thought of him brought a smile to her lips.

He was constantly on her thoughts and she didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing at all.

With a sigh, Evren glanced at her datapad. She should head home. It was getting late and she was exhausted.

“Gotta go now, little guy.” Her eyes focused on the animal again and she noticed it was watching her intently. “You have a home to go to?”

The animal purr-rumbled and stood, causing her hand to fall off its back. With graceful strides, it walked along the roof of the shuttle and away from her.

As it reached the edge, it gave her a backward glance, and hopped off the shuttle, disappearing around the other side.

Well, she guessed that meant it had a home to go to.

With one glance at the shelter where the pig-man rested, Evren sighed once more and headed towards home.

She’d rest and prepare for tomorrow.

All things going well, this was just the start of something good.

19

Kyro stretched lazily, his eyes on Evren as she cleaned yet another one of those filthy vessels.

Why she insisted on doing this, he didn’t know.

He’d already offered her credits to do whatever she wanted the credits to do, but she’d refused. He would offer her again except, he needed to keep his distance from her.

Well, that was going just perfectly—keeping his distance.

She’d been working for several days now, rising early and leaving late, and he had followed her every single day and spent the entire day watching over her only to trail her back home again.

You’d think he’d get tired after the first seven days but no.

Self-torture. It was a new trait he never knew he had. He’d just add it to the list of things he had to hide.

Somehow, he managed to stay out of her range of vision, but close enough for him to see her from his hiding spot in one of the waiting shuttles. This distance thing was proving hard, but at least it was good for her. She had no idea of his presence, so in her mind, she was alone.

That was how it had to be. She couldn’t know he was so invested.

She couldn’t suspect it, for nothing could come of anything that grew between them.

That’s what he had to tell himself each and every day.

It was getting tiring.

At this point, it was