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

about her made him curious. She walked through the undergrowth as if she’d been born on this planet.

The way she’d adjusted was…extraordinary, and he felt a level of respect growing within him.

“What are you hunting?”

“Jungle penguins,” she whispered.

Sohut blinked. “I do not comprehend. Jungle what?”

“They’re getting smarter and learning to hide from me now, the fat little things.”

Fat little things?

She had to be referring to the senseless mogs.

“Stop,” he said. “If it’s mogs you want, I’ll call them for you.”

Clee-yo stopped to look back at him, ducking under a hanging vine as she did.

Putting both hands to his mouth he whistled. It was a high sound the mogs were attracted to and he was sure they would come waddling through the bushes directly to where they were standing.

The fact he could do this, help her, made a feeling of unexpected pride surge through him.

No doubt, she’d find it impressive. It wasn’t a whistle many beings could do.

But when he glanced back at the female, she was looking at him weirdly, her nose scrunched up, her upper lip curled as she stared at him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Sohut blinked, glancing away for just a second. “Whistling.”

“With no sound?”

Now it was his turn to look at her strangely. “You can’t hear it?”

It was high, but even his ears could pick it up.

“You mean you’re actually making a sound?” Her eyes bugged out a little.

Moving closer to her, he whistled again but she only blinked at him. That prompted him to lean down to look at her ears.

So different from his. Hers did not rise to a point and her pinna seemed much less pronounced than his.

He was about to reach out and touch her skin when his hand was swatted away—and not by the female, no less.

It took him a second to realize that the darn slizz had leaned across her back to attack him.

Opening his mouth to curse the thing, he stopped, his breath catching in his throat as Clee-yo’s laughter reached his ears.

“I guess he’s a bit protective of me,” he assumed she said, for he couldn’t hear her words, all he could see was her lips move and all he could remember was the fact those same lips had been on his not long ago.

A sort of mouth phekking.

They’d mouth phekked.

And it had been glorious.

Cleo cleared her throat and movement behind him caused him to glance that way.

A family of six mogs waddled from the bushes to stop in front of them. The mogs’ expectant eyes moved to their party of two—fine, three, if he was going to count the unlikable animal on Clee-yo’s shoulder.

“How did you do that?” Cleo moved to stand beside him. “They hide from me.”

“And that has nothing to do with you munching on them.”

A slap on his arm made him wince out of pure surprise and Clee-yo’s eyes grew large. “Oh my god, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

Not enough, he wanted to say.

“Of course, not.”

Crouching, he beckoned to one of the little animals and whistled as he did.

The mogs obliged, moving closer. Close enough for him to grab two of the fattest ones.

“And that’s how you catch a mog,” he said, standing with two hardly-struggling mogs in his hands. Raxu knows, they should be extinct for their stupidity.

But Clee-yo didn’t move. She didn’t even say anything. She just stood looking at the four remaining mogs, bewilderment on her face.

“What is it?” he had to ask. He’d never seen anyone look at their food with such pity before.

“It’s different when you catch them. Seems more…heartless. They trust you.”

“Which is why they’re going to be eaten. Just because something is nice to you that doesn’t mean it’s your ally.”

For a second, she didn’t reply, then a look came over her face that made him instantly regret what he said.

Clee-yo’s shoulders stiffened and she adjusted her gaze toward the bushes.

He could almost see his words repeating in her head and realization came too late.

He hadn’t been referring to himself but that’s obviously where her mind was going.

“You’re absolutely right,” she finally said.

18

Cleo struggled with her spindle and fire board. Across from her, Sohut sat cross-legged beside the two mogs waiting to be prepared.

He’d attempted to eat them raw, much to her horror.

Now he sat watching her with interest.

His presence was…soothing and as she worked to get a fire going, she thought about that.

But his words from earlier kept repeating in her mind.

Just because something is nice to you that doesn’t mean it’s your ally.

He was right.

It was something she needed to remember.

A sigh made her shoulders rise and fall as her fire caught and she fed it slowly.

Here, underneath the canopy, the smoke wouldn’t rise too high.

Her gaze was focused on the fire, but her mind was on other things.

She’d kissed him and that kiss meant nothing.

She didn’t know what she’d been doing or why she’d done it in the first place and that was a shock.

Sohut had no stakes in this. Her survival depended on her.

The fire caught and she cooked the meat with motions that were more ingrained than conscious.

As they ate in silence, she could feel Sohut’s eyes on her, but she kept her gaze averted as she considered things.

How did she even know he was taking her somewhere safe?

She didn’t. She was just blindly following him along.

Her instincts told her she could trust him, but logic told her to be cautious.

As they finished the meal, stood, and headed to the water hole, she led the way.

She couldn’t hear him behind her.

She was sure he was still there though; he just walked through the jungle as if he was a black panther.

He was silent.

Gorgeous.

Deadly.

And that’s why she should get her mind centered and control herself.

He wasn’t human.

He wasn’t her friend.

She had no friends.

She only had Cleo.

Pushing the thoughts back, she sighed as she reached the clearing for the water hole.

“I’ll leave you here,” Sohut suddenly spoke behind her.

“Leave?” Why did that make her panicky?

“I’m going to scout the