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

Snatching it quickly, she only had one second to stand before the body of the toad-man that had bought her slumped to the floor.

His throat leaked green ooze.

It’s been slit.

Eyes rising slowly to her new captor, Cleo gripped her piece of metal. The end still dripped the ooze from the other Tasqal’s eye.

“Clee-yo…” the toad-man said before taking a step forward but when she raised her metal, pointing it toward him, he paused, his eyes darting to the metal then back.

“It’s me…” he whispered.

Her eyes narrowed some more. Somewhere inside her, hope bloomed but it must be some hope for the impossible.

This wasn’t her savior. She didn’t know this being.

And he was her enemy.

“Me who?” She took a step back, eyes darting to the door once more.

“It’s me, Cleo. Touch me.”

Her nose scrunched up.

What sort of request was that?

His voice was low as he spoke.

“Touch me and you will see. I’m using a distorter. It was the only way I could get to you and we need to hurry. Wawa has gone missing outside and I just know the little rhag is up to no good. I don’t think he trusts me to get you out of this.”

“Wawa?”

How did he know about Wawa? Did she dare believe him?

A beat passed before she reached out tentatively to touch the outstretched hand of the toad-man.

It felt strange. Smooth. Velvety.

Not at all like the coarse, bubbly-filled skin she was looking at.

She stifled a yelp as she was suddenly pulled forward and against the toad-man’s chest.

But it didn’t feel like she was embracing a Tasqal.

This body she was pressed against felt familiar.

It felt like…Sohut.

Her mind could not comprehend.

“Raxu, Cleo. I thought I lost you.”

A sob caught in her throat.

“Sohut? How?”

“No time,” he said, even as he patted her head gently. “We have to go.”

Swallowing hard, she nodded as he allowed her to ease off him.

It was like a grater to her senses, looking into the huge black eyes and knowing that behind those eyes, the man she loved was looking back at her.

Sohut was moving, his hand grasping hers as he pulled her behind him gently but with urgency.

“Walk behind me, closely. Keep your head down.”

Nodding, she did as she was told.

“How do you suppose we’re going to get out of here?” she whispered as they headed toward the door.

“I don’t phekking know, to be honest. Luck.”

“Luck?” Not that she’d expected more. Luck meant there was a chance.

Sohut turned and the strange face she was seeing split into a smile.

“Don’t do that,” Cleo groaned.

Sohut chuckled.

“I am one lucky phekker,” he said before they reached the door, where he paused.

“Let’s do this,” he breathed, glancing behind him to ensure she was ready before they stepped out.

32

She didn’t know what she expected but it wasn’t this.

There were beings, so many beings, all mixed in with the Tasqals.

And they were…

Cleo swallowed the bile that rose in her throat, keeping her head down as she hoped no one could see the horror on her face.

They were raping them.

And the females she’d been put in the terrarium with, she could only hope Lee-yunna had found a way to escape too. She couldn’t see her, although, she couldn’t lift her head to search the room.

She was too terrified of blowing their cover.

If they were stopped, it wasn’t just she that’d be in the shit. Sohut would be too and he’d almost been killed once already because of her.

As they reached the far side of the room and entered a corridor, Sohut picked up his pace and she all but trotted behind him like an obedient puppy.

“How do you know where you’re going?” she whispered into his back.

Sohut inhaled deeply. “I can smell the fresh air outside.”

Of course, his answer wouldn’t be a normal one and the thought made her smile into his back.

They moved through doors that opened and closed, passed guards that stopped to salute but said nothing otherwise.

Her heart almost fell out of her chest on each occasion they had to pass one of the gator-guards but they never once questioned why one of their masters was taking one of the slaves outside of the building.

She guessed that’s why Sohut had gotten the disguise of one of the bosses.

Soon, they reached a set of huge doors that looked like slate. They rose so high that she had to crane her neck to see the top.

“Master?” the voice of a gator-guard caught her ear and she realized there was a set of guards posted on a platform above them.

Beside them was a set of controls that she assumed controlled the massive doors.

Sohut stiffened as he came to a stop, his eyes on the door.

She could feel it too…freedom was beyond those doors.

“Master? You have ventured so far…alone?” The gator-guard glanced at his comrade, his yellow eye suspicious and she could tell they were wondering that the hell was going on.

“You dare to question me?” Sohut asked, turning his dark eyes on them and she could see them cower.

“N-no, Your Excellency,” one of them sputtered.

“Open the doors,” Sohut ordered and the guards glanced at each other again.

As one moved an arm toward the controls, he paused.

The two guards exchanged glances again before turning their yellow gazes on her and Sohut and when their eyes settled on her, she could feel something fall inside her.

“Phek…” she heard Sohut mutter low before sniffing the air. “I should’ve known this wouldn’t be easy.”

His eyes scanned the wall and she raised her head, trying to see what he was looking at.

It took her a while but then she saw it. A little speck of gray high up. It was moving down the wall so fast, it looked like a blur.

“Your Excellency,” one of the guards continued…

Cricking the bones in his neck, Sohut ignored the guard and began undressing to her wide-eyed horror.

Thrusting the white robe he was wearing toward her, he met her eyes. “Put this on.”

And then he was gone.

Her confusion was