Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) A.G. Wilde (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📖

weight, Sohut eased up a little but that only renewed the female’s efforts to kick him in the gonads and he wasn’t ready to relive that pain.

“Stop. Don’t fight,” he growled, his voice a little more hostile than he’d intended as he pressed down against her again.

Could she understand him?

He didn’t know.

“Leht mee goh!” she screamed, struggling against him still.

He had no idea what she just said but it sounded like a language he’d heard before.

Where? He couldn’t be quite sure.

Her struggling continued as she let out a pained sound—one of mental anguish.

She wasn’t going to calm down. She was too frightened. Panicky.

She was livid and out of her mind.

He didn’t want to restrain her but did he have a choice? He doubted she’d listen to him if he tried to calm her down.

Adrenaline was pumping within her, coursing through her veins, telling her to do whatever she could to survive.

He knew this too well— the feeling of complete madness that can overwhelm the body when it felt like all was lost.

He’d experienced it before.

Sighing, he reached for the roll of cord in his pocket.

He had to restrain her and he had to be quick about it.

He’d heard noises in the jungle over the past few days and he didn’t want to be caught without his blade in the middle of the undergrowth.

Stupidly, he’d run after her without retrieving it from his satchel.

Pinning the female’s arms above her head with one hand caused her efforts to double.

She had skinny arms and even though she was putting up a fight, it wasn’t nearly enough to cause him to release her.

That fact was evident. Still, she struggled.

There was something sharp in her hand too, and he couldn’t wrestle it away from her, so he wrapped both of her hands entirely, rendering her weapon useless.

Even as he held her legs down so he could tie her ankles together, she grunted and resisted.

It took a few minutes but, finally succeeding, he eased up from over the female, taking a deep breath as he did.

Her eyes were not luminescent in the dark but he could feel that she was glaring at him, and she had a right to be upset.

This whole situation just got a lot more complicated than he’d expected.

Crouching, he swooped the female’s body into his arms and threw her over his shoulder with ease.

A series of sharp words left her mouth as she yelped and proceeded to hammer his back with her bound wrists.

This continued for most of the trek back to the water hole, till she hung limp against him. Only her chest moving against his shoulder and back told him she was still alive.

Light from his light-disk greeted him as he neared the water hole.

Stepping into the small clearing, he set the female down into a nest of vines.

Livid pale eyes stared up into his and Sohut froze in shock, his gaze running over the female’s face.

With the light now illuminating her features, he could see her clearly.

The Goris had said the creature had long red fur on its head and down its back.

The female in front of him had no red hair whatsoever; there was a dark, stiff-looking crown on her head instead.

The Goris had also said the creature was pale all over but the female in front of him had a dark coat.

They’d also said it had long spindly legs, translucent eyes, and a flat face.

The female had a delicate nose set in the middle of a face with soft angles.

The more he stared, the more speechless he became.

This was definitely no animal.

And that dark coat…it wasn’t a coat at all.

It was mud.

Realization dawned.

He’d been right about hearing her language before, because he had!

Back at the Sanctuary, before he left, there’d been a female there called Larn. She’d been a refugee of sorts who’d been cast in the care of his brother.

He wasn’t positive, but the female in front of him looked a helluva lot like she was the same species.

The more he stared at her, the more he was convinced.

This female in front of him a dirty—no, a filthy—Larn!

As he eased up from over the female to stand, Sohut took a step back.

There was that sharp pain in his arm again and it took a few moments before his gaze moved to the area.

Deep in his flesh was a gash and Sohut blinked as he watched his blood spill and run down his arm.

He didn’t remember getting injured by anything sharp as he ran.

When he glanced back at the female, she was staring at his arm too and memory of the weapon she was clutching in her hand came back to him.

She’d…she’d wounded him.

“You stabbed me.” Even to himself, his voice sounded disbelieving.

There was a pause and he was surprised when she answered.

“Phuk wit mee anhd ai-will doo iht ah-gen.” Her voice was strong, not betraying the fear in her eyes.

It sounded like she’d understood what he’d said.

Larn back at the Sanctuary had been able to understand him too, though he hadn’t been able to understand her.

Whoever had taken Larn from her home planet had also installed a language chip in her brain. That’s why, before coming on this mission, he’d gone to the exchange to get the language files for Larn’s planet—just in case Riv didn’t get rid of her before he returned.

Always interested in new worlds, he’d wanted to learn more about where she came from and the best bet had been to ask her the questions directly.

Staring at the female in front of him, he was nonplussed.

How did she survive out here all alone?

The female bared her teeth again, snarling at him, and he didn’t spot any fangs.

Maybe she was feral.

That partly explained why she’d managed to survive so long on her own.

It also explained why she looked like she hadn’t taken a bath the entire time she’d been in the jungle.

“Leht. Mee. Goh.” She was speaking through her flat, clenched teeth and it definitely sounded like the same language as Larn’s.