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Ingram stepped back from her to put space between them.

Something is wrong with me.He’d never had these desires to touch or look at a human before. Their hair had never dazzled him like a shiny rock, nor had their eyes.

So why now? Why her?

Yet, he couldn’t deny that he wasn’t completely opposed to it. It was a new thing forming within him.

“I will be more careful.”

His gaze drifted around until he found what he wanted. Then, to demonstrate that he would do better, he dragged his claws down a large boulder.

He did internally wince when he gouged into it and created ten deep grooves. He did it a second time, just to make sure, before assessing his claws.

He came over hesitantly and presented them to her.

“Is this better?”

Emerie’s full pink lips pulled to the side as she held the back of one of his hands in her left palm and tapped his index finger claw with her right. Her lips curled upward, and she turned a smile to him.

“That is much safer, thank you.” She closed his hand for him, and the softness of her flesh brushed over the backs of his knuckles. “But still be gentle. Okay? No more sudden grabbing.”

Her smile and touch, as well as the acceptance of his idea, made his tail swish back and forth across the ground.I am smart. That was a smart idea.His tail swished faster when she didn’t immediately pull away from him, instead patting the hand she was holding.She is pleased with me.

However, Ingram didn’t promise that he wouldn’t grab her again, unsure if he could stick to it.

His resolve weakened further when he looked down to their touching hands and remembered, vividly, hers stroking him into bliss. His scales and small amount of fur lifted at the memory, as a strange stirring sensation tingled his groin.

He wanted her to do it again, already obsessed with the idea.

Especially since he’d never experienced anything like it in his life, and he was growing more curious about it the longer it was since he’d experienced it. He wanted to know what it was, and why the strange thing had sprung from him.

Emerie stared at the raven-skulled Duskwalker before her, unsure of what to do with him.

Already her short amount of time with him was... odd.

His sniffing of her had not gone unnoticed, although she’d chosen to ignore it. If he wanted to be curious for his own sense of security, she would accept it.

She wasn’t the one who had been captured, tortured, and afraid as she ran away. He wasn’t the one who had purposefully put her in harm’s way or betrayed her without knowing what that would mean later.

It was hard to deny that he might have a sweet side, which, considering what he was, was hard to accept. She’d always heard of Duskwalkers being monsters. Cruel and frightening. A nightmare that could walk in the day and night, and sometimes a child’s worst fear, even in the bright sun.

An omen of death.

So, to have one pet her hair, or even try to brush her face was hard to take in. He’d also steadied her once on their walk when a loose rock had slipped underfoot, forcing his shoulder up to catch her from falling flat on her face.

All this, from a creature she was supposed to hate, only twisted the knife of guilt in her gut. Deeper and deeper it cut, until she thought it would make a permanent hole.

Even more so when she took in his bright-yellow orbs, and they came across as warm, and almost... joyful in response to her touch and reassurance.

I don’t know how to make up for how much I’ve wronged him.Was freeing him from the confines she herself had put on him enough?

It couldn’t be, not with everything he endured afterwards.

She tried to smile for him but knew it didn’t go past her lips. Emerie let him go and turned so she could continue to lead the way – and, more importantly, give him her back to hide her pained expression.

She hadn’t offered to travel with him just to make it up to him, although that had been a big factor in her decision. Her reasons for being here were self-serving.

I joined the guild with a purpose...She rubbed her nape as uncertainty laced with her determined resolve.But his cause seems even more important.