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

Watching her pet the slizz, an unsettling feeling developed at the pit of his stomach.

Sohut blinked and turned away to look out the cave hole.

He wasn’t…jealous, was he? Of a slizz? Impossible.

Yet, when he glanced behind him to look at them once more, the little beast was giving him a look as if it owned the female and that thought…unnerved him a little.

“I smelled his scent marking before I came up the mountain,” he said, still looking out the cave entrance.

“His what?” He could hear her bare feet pad against the grass on the floor as she approached him.

“Your slizz created a warning around this mountain, to warn the spined creatures off.”

There was silence and when he turned to look at her, Clee-yo was looking at the slizz confused.

“He what?”

“He’s been protecting you.” He eyed the creature. “It…likes you.”

He still couldn’t believe it. To his knowledge, slizz only had the propensity to hate and kill.

Clee-yo hugged the animal to her chest and he tried to keep his alarm at bay.

“You did that?” she cooed at it. “You’ve been protecting me?”

The slizz shot him a hateful glance before snuggling against her.

Fine. He didn’t want to be friends with it either.

“We have to go,” he said and that caught her attention.

“Go?” There was panic in her eyes.

“We can’t stay here. We have to go farther into the jungle, head to the Torian camp there, and then from there to the Sanctuary. The Gori will be wondering why I haven’t contacted them to pick you up yet. They will send someone to check.”

He could almost see the alarm travel through Clee-yo’s frame.

“Sanctuary?” she asked.

He nodded. “My home.”

That made her eyes widen. “You’re taking me to your home? Why?”

He found himself smiling. “Where else would I take you?”

Clee-yo’s mouth opened and closed.

“Get ready. Let’s go.”

They had to be quick.

With most of his sluu dough lost when he fell, he’d have to hunt on the way to the Torian camp. If not, they would starve if they didn’t find anything to eat.

Sohut watched as Clee-yo put a few things into a large slemma leaf and strapped it to herself, ready to go. He had everything he needed in his satchel…what was left of his gadgets, that is.

“Ready?” he asked.

Pale eyes met his and Clee-yo smiled a little. “Ready.”

With that, he slipped through the opening and launched himself off the edge, his claws protracting as he grabbed unto the rock at the last moment to swing himself unto the landing under the cave.

He just about heard her gasp of surprise.

“What the fuck?” There was a pause. “Shit, did he fall off again?”

There was worry in her voice and that made him feel a little bit…good. She cared enough about him to worry.

“Uh, Grout?” She called. “Sohut?!”

She used his name. He knew she had it in her.

“I’m fine. Jump,” he called. “I will catch you.”

“You must be fucking out of your mind.” Her response made him chuckle.

She cursed underneath her breath and he heard something along the lines of him almost giving her a heart attack. “Get out of the way, I’m coming down.”

Shortly after, a long twisted thing came falling from above. He’d hardly call it a rope, but it was close enough. It looked like she’d spent quite a long time twining various vines together to make something strong enough to hold her weight.

So she’d made precautions a long time ago in case her vine broke.

Impressive.

Looking up, his next view was that of two long legs shimmying down and he had to look away quickly when she came down farther.

He’d be looking right up under her skirt and he didn’t even have to see anything, the thought alone had him throbbing in his pants so quickly he had to turn away.

He heard when her unpadded feet hit the landing and was sure she was completely off the vine because the scent of slizz was unbearable again.

“Are you ok? You just launched off the cliff like you were on a suicide mission,” she said.

“Killing myself would be too easy.” He gave her a wry smile and he could tell she was trying to decipher his words, understand them.

She never would.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning from her and adjusting his satchel where it wouldn’t rub the new wounds her pet had inflicted on him.

“This way,” she said, stepping off into the brush in a direction he hadn’t thought she’d take. “I need water first.”

Walking behind her was a nice view, except for the ugly slizz glaring at him from her shoulder.

Even in the brambles and vines, she moved with grace and caution.

Her ears were flat against her head, and unlike his, it didn’t seem she could perk them, yet he had the distinct impression that she was doing just that.

She was listening for any unnatural sounds.

She had the strange piece of warped metal clutched in her hand as she made her way through.

He wasn’t even looking where she was headed. Watching her was far more interesting.

There was a soft wind blowing through the trees and if he could delete the smell of the slizz, he would be able to fully enjoy her scent and her scent alone.

The phekking slizz really needed a bath.

As if it could read his thoughts, the slizz protracted its teeth a little and bared them at him.

His fangs responded instinctively.

Ignoring the annoying beast, he turned his attention back to watching Clee-yo’s hips sway underneath her worn attire. He was so mesmerized, he almost tripped over a root on the ground and then Clee-yo turned to glare at him, her strange metal thing pointed in his direction.

Her face softened immediately, as if she’d been so engrossed in walking through the undergrowth that she’d forgotten that he was there.

“You’re so quiet usually, I thought it was something else.” Her eyes darted to the undergrowth again. “I’m hunting some food as we go. I’m hungry. I’m pretty sure you are too.”

Hunting?

He stared at her as she turned and continued walking again.

Everything