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

They were used as machines, their only purpose to dig the rare talix metal from the rock.

They’d been beaten, starved, punished…abused…

Treated as animals.

His anger surged.

That’s what the Gori saw this delicate being in front of him as.

No.

Correction.

They didn’t see her.

When they looked at her they saw nothing and that was the problem.

He didn’t need to get to know her to see the flaw in their reasoning.

Eyeing her now, the glow of the light disc highlighting her features, Sohut stopped pacing to study her.

For the entire time, she’d sat still, her body curled into a ball. Now and then, her gaze searched the bushes.

In some moments, she’d worry her bottom lip, her face becoming distressed but whenever she realized he was watching her, she would go emotionless.

She was small.

Bigger than Larn but still small compared to him.

She didn’t have much weight on her either and he wasn’t sure if that was because she’d been living in the wild on her own for over an entire orbit or if that was just what she’d been like before.

An alien creature lost in the Koznia Jungle.

It was amazing she’d survived.

“Just how did you survive this long?” There was annoyance in his tone, lingering from his thoughts, and he tried to keep it at bay. “This world is…new to you. Dangerous.”

She didn’t respond but her eyes darted to his.

She wasn’t smiling, wasn’t snarling…nothing. She seemed alert, guarded, as if she was waiting on him to make some mistake so she could escape.

“Tell me,” he took a step forward and crossed his arms. “How did you survive?”

“Yoo cahnt uhn-der-stahnd mee enny-way.” She met his gaze. “Ai dohnt noh wat yoo wahnt.”

There was strength in her eyes.

Despite her circumstances, she was looking at him as if she wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

He respected that.

“Iht dohzn maht-er wat ai tehl yoo.”

Her language was enticing. So many soft syllables. It made it difficult to determine if she was saying she wanted to cut his gonads off or if she wanted to give him an embrace.

Moving to his satchel, he took out the language up loader he’d bought so he could understand Larn.

He’d gotten the three most popular languages mined from data retrieved from Larn’s planet. He’d have to install each separately and hope that the female in his midst spoke at least one of them.

Popping out the device, Sohut eyed the female as he selected the first language file.

It was the most popular language on her planet. Something called Shai-neez.

She was looking at the device as if it was some weapon to use against her.

Pointing the device at the back of his ear, he depressed the button and what felt like an electric shock passed through his brain. He had to squeeze his eyes shut for a few moments.

“—Dah hell iz he doowin…” he heard the female whisper.

Nope, not her language.

Sighing, he selected the second most popular language.

Spah-neesh.

The second upload made him feel like he was going to pass out.

It wasn’t usual to upload so much data in such short intervals. It was like smoking a whole carton of woogli smoke in one hour—completely unhealthy.

But he didn’t have time to wait the recommended intervals.

It took him a little longer to recover from the second upload and when he opened his eyes to look at the female, her widened gray pools were staring at him with a mixture of confusion and wariness.

“Yoor doowin sum-thin reely freeki uhnd ai dohnt laik freeki raiht nohw.”

Phek.

Not her language.

He closed his eyes again.

Looking at the language uploader, he grit his teeth.

This third language better be it.

Een-gleesh.

As the language uploaded, his consciousness waned in and out and he was vaguely aware that he’d fallen to his knees as the brain fog overtook him.

“Fucking hell, dohnt tell mee you’re doing dhrugs ohr something.”

He understood most of that. Triumph made him smile a little.

“Please don’t tell me the alien that captured me is taking drugs. Like…” She trailed off and huffed out a breath. “I can’t believe I let a druggy psychopathic hunter capture me.”

What?

He wasn’t a—

He opened his mouth to answer her and then stopped.

She obviously didn’t know he could understand her yet.

Maybe he’d keep it that way for a bit.

Resting into a sitting position, he blinked at her as his vision cleared.

“Should have stayed hidden in my cave. Might have probably starved to death but at least I’d have died free,” she murmured, her voice so low he was glad he had her language upload so he could understand what she was saying.

And being able to understand her brought a whole new level to their current predicament.

She was an intelligent being—a being whose language he now understood as well as he understood his own.

She wasn’t something belonging behind a barrier in a zoo—or worse yet, as a prisoner in some mine.

Surely, the Goris knew this. Why had they sent him to capture a being that should have a life of freedom just as he and they deserved?

He couldn’t take her back to them. That was clear.

Not after what he’d had to endure as a chid. Not after the life he’d have to live in captivity.

“There must be a way to get out of this.” He heard her murmur again and the illumination from the light disk caught a glassy sheen in her pale eyes.

He didn’t realize he’d been moving closer to her till she winced, her wide eyes turning on him, as she tried to shuffle away.

Her reaction wounded him a little.

He wasn’t the monster she obviously thought he was.

Outstretching his arms, palms down, he tried to communicate to her that he wasn’t going to harm her.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

She was looking at him as if she expected him to continue…as if she was waiting for the word “yet” and that alone strengthened his resolve to prove her wrong.

He was nothing like the monsters that roamed this galaxy.

Nothing like them.

“We’re on the same side.”

An expression he didn’t understand passed over the female’s face.

“Sure looks like we’re