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

his fist connecting with the male’s cheek. Dark-green blood spewed on the ground and even more shoppers screamed and ran away.

“I’m going to ask you again,” Sohut growled as he brought his fangs close to the male’s face. “Last chance.” He barely was able to say the words as he grit his teeth, trying to pull back the rage pulsing through his veins. “Where. Did. They. Take. Her?”

No answer.

Pulling his fist back, he punched the male again and the Gori’s head lolled a bit.

The Gori spat, some of his teeth flying. “To Sector 89. It’s an underground private auction. There’s no way you can get in.”

That one word made his blood run cold.

Auction.

“When is this auction?” In his peripheral vision, the male he’d knocked out was rising.

Wawa growled and hopped off his shoulder to stand in front of the male, his fur bristled making him appear larger than he was and his teeth were bared.

The Gori took one look at the slizz and stopped moving.

“Two moon cycles from now,” said the Gori in front of him.

Phek.

Two moon cycles to find a stronghold guarded by the secrets of the entire planet.

It wasn’t nearly enough time.

Cleo sat under the sakura-like tree, her eyes darting to look through the pink blossoms every now and then.

The other females were still huddled in the same spot they huddled in every day.

Between moving to get the food the guards placed in the enclosure and moving to the pool at the back to clean themselves, they always sat in the same spot, seemingly unconcerned.

It’d been days, too many days to count and the longer time passed, the more anxious she became.

Every time the guards entered the terrarium, she was sure it was time to get sold and her heart would lurch, but so far it seemed time was on her side.

She was still working on a way to escape her god-forsaken situation.

Eyeing the alien females now, Cleo pursed her lips.

They were mumbling to each other but she couldn’t join them in conversation.

They all seemed to have accepted their fate.

She did not.

She would not.

Reaching underneath her dress, she took out her lucky piece of metal.

It was always tied there, in that spot by a ripped piece of fabric, just in case she lost it.

Turning the thing over in her hand, she glanced through the pink blossoms again.

She needed a plan and, if she was going to escape, she needed more weapons.

Today just happened to be the day luck might be on her side.

On the ground beside her, there were hardly any fallen branches, but she’d managed to find two thin ones…twigs almost—they would just have to do.

With another glance through the blossoms, Cleo got to work, filing down the twigs so they had sharp ends.

She was working for maybe thirty minutes, refining the edges when a sound caught her ear and she looked up. Lee-yunna stood there.

“Hey,” Lee-yunna said.

Cleo glanced at her, before continuing to work. “Hey.”

“What are you doing?” She could hear the surprise in the female’s voice and it made her shoulders stiffen.

What if the woman gave her non-plan away?

But when Lee-yunna walked over, she saw that it wasn’t surprise in her eyes.

It was excitement.

“Can I have one?” she lowered her voice to a whisper.

Cleo glanced at the female and back to the weapons.

She’d only have two wooden shivs and her metal blade. Not nearly enough if she was going to stab her way out of there but having an ally was probably even better.

A glance at the other females still huddled together made her press her lips into a thin line.

If they stood a chance, they’d all have to fight their way out. Each and every one of them.

“Why do you want one? I thought you were all doing this for your people.”

Lee-yunna’s eyes fell. “We are.”

Cleo studied the female and watched her shoulders slump.

“We are, but I don’t want to.” Lee-yunna met her gaze. “You said you were free before…what was that like?”

It was an unexpected question and Cleo studied the female some more.

“I was living in the wilderness doing my own thing. I got up when I wanted to, hunted when I wanted to, ate when I wanted to. I had fresh air. Fresh food. A nice place to lay my head. And someone…” Her voice broke and she took a moment before going back to sharpening the shivs once more.

“Someone what?” Lee-yunna pressed.

Cleo took a moment before answering. Meeting Lee-yunna’s gaze, she spoke. “Someone who loved me.”

Someone who loved her, and she wasn’t ready to let him go.

He was alive. She wouldn’t believe that he’d died that night and as long as she breathed, she was going to fight to be with him.

She wasn’t ready to let him go.

Not yet.

Not ever.

“I don’t know what that feels like,” Lee-yunna finally said.

“What?” Cleo blinked, bringing her thoughts back to the present.

“Love.”

The alien female looked genuinely saddened by this and it tugged at something within her.

“Look,” Cleo said, thrusting one of the wooden shivs toward Lee-yunna. “Take this. I don’t know how or if you’ll use it, but it’s better to have it than not to.”

Lee-yunna blinked at the shiv before she threw herself at Cleo, placing her hand against Cleo’s forehead firmly.

Cleo blinked, wide-eyed and not sure what to make of the gesture.

“Thank you,” Lee-yunna breathed. “Thank you so much.”

As the female released her, Cleo nodded, looking away.

“We have to get ready soon,” Lee-yunna murmured. “For the auction.”

“How do you know?”

“I heard the guards murmuring when they came in to feed us. They will return today to…make us beautiful for the masters.”

The words made Cleo’s stomach turn and, like a bad omen, there was a sound in the terrarium and exclamations from the other women.

Hurriedly stuffing the shiv and blade behind the tree, Cleo stepped from beneath the blossoms.

It was the gator-guards.

She didn’t need Lee-yunna to tell her. She knew it herself.

It was time.

30

Phek.

He was an idiot for doing what he was doing.

It could get him killed.

Sector 89