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

Sohut studied her some more and his arms surrounded her, pulling her against his chest.

Cleo settled against him.

“Did you leave family there?”

“No.” She shook her head, tears welling into her eyes. “I’d only had my father. He died a few years ago. I was an only child and my mother…I never met her.”

“Lucky you.”

The way he said it had her raising her head to look up at him to find a myriad of emotions swirling in his eyes, the one at the forefront being anger.

“What do you mean?” she asked softly.

Sohut’s throat moved and it seemed he was contemplating whether he should tell her something really deep or not.

When his mouth finally opened, the pain in his eyes was clear.

“My mor gave me…sold me and Riv when we were chids. She sold us to a Tasqal who owns the talix mines to the north of here.” He stopped and she could sense that there was more. But she wasn’t going to press him about it.

She knew too well how hard it was reliving childhood trauma.

“It’s ok.” She settled her head against him again. “You don’t need to tell me about it. I can tell it…hurt you. Deeply.”

A sigh lifted his frame and when he settled again, she felt his fingers in her hair.

“I should tell you. You need to know the male you just mated with. And if you can accept me, I hope you will want to mate with me again.”

Cleo felt her cheeks burn.

The word “mate” sounded so...carnal, dirty, and hot as hell.

When she didn’t respond, he continued. “I was born weak. Ill. I came too early.” He took a breath. “My daran was a toxic male piece of—” He stopped and took another breath.

“My daran disowned me, leaving my mor to care for not only a weak chid but a young one too—my brother, Riv.” He continued. “Merssi females don’t usually work for economic gain. That is the male’s responsibility. And so, my mor was left with a choice. Work to provide for her chids or the three of us would perish. She tried for a few moons but she soon turned to woogli smoke, lamenting the days when life was easier. And it was my fault.”

Cleo’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to correct him.

“My mor blamed me.” He took another breath, the weight of his mother’s decision still on his shoulders. “The Tasqal’s mine was horrid. Riv never complained. He stuck up for me. He protected me. Yet, he was the one that got dismembered there.” He paused.

“Dismembered?” Shock registered in her voice.

“The Tasqal jekin removed his tail.” He paused again. “Riv is incomplete because of me. A Merssi without a tail is…not wanted.” A breath shuddered through him. “The one person who has always stood beside me will never…no Merssi female will ever want him. And all this because I didn’t die in my mother’s womb when I should have.”

Cleo lifted her head to stare up at him.

“Don’t ever say that. You were not a mistake.” She placed a hand against his cheek, turning his head so he was forced to face her. “You were never a mistake. Your parents were wrong. So, so wrong. A child is a miracle. And you are not weak! You’re the most respectable alien I’ve met and so far, I’ve been thinking the universe was filled with pieces of shit.”

His eyes softened a little at that.

“My mother didn’t want me either,” she confided in him. “She wanted an abortion and only carried me to term because my father said he’d take full responsibility for me.”

She sighed and settled against him again. “I never met her and while I was growing up, I hated her. Now, I don’t hate her at all. She gave me life, even if she didn’t want anything to do with me and at least I had one person on my side.”

Strong arms circled her and pulled her closer to him.

“Clee-yo,” he said and when she lifted her chin to look at him, there was a swirl of emotions in his eyes.

His hand trailed down her cheek down to her neck and over the wound of the bite he’d inflicted earlier.

The cut wasn’t deep but she could still feel sensation that a wound was there even as he touched her now.

His gaze focused on the wound and he brushed his finger over it again.

“I’m not an animal. But when you bared your neck to me in that signal of complete submission…I bit you because…there was an overwhelming urge to…” He trailed off.

“To what?” Her words came out like a whisper.

Sohut hesitated, as if what he was about to say was a bit absurd and he wondered what she would think of it.

“To own you.”

And maybe something was wrong with her because, instead of making her pull away from him, those three words created the opposite reaction.

Between her thighs, her center throbbed.

There must have been a carnal look in her eyes because Sohut’s head dipped suddenly and her lips were against his.

Moaning into his mouth, her tongue met his even as he pulled her harder against him.

“I love this mouth phekking,” he murmured.

“Mouth what?”

“It makes me want to do so many dirty things to you.” His voice lowered so much, she felt the vibration of his words against her lips.

Sohut groaned, slipping one hand under what was left of her dress as he caressed the round curve of her buttocks.

As their kiss deepened, Cleo straddled him, her thighs settling over both of his legs and her ass against his crotch.

She could feel him pulse in his pants underneath her, and it made her moan into his mouth.

He pulsed again, hard like a rod, and Cleo ground her hips against his hardness.

Sohut ripped his mouth from hers to tilt his head back a little.

“Phek, Clee-yo.”

She felt him pulse again and anticipation rose within her.

Memory of how good he felt came back into her mind and before she knew it, she was