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

Bending her head a little, she aimed for the disk Geblit had outstretched but his hands were shaking so much it was clear that she would surely miss.

“For phek’s sake.” Sohut snatched the disk from the green alien and Geblit rolled his eyes in relief.

“Thank Raxu. I did not want to risk this one’s juices touching me.” He wiped his hands anyway.

Ignoring him, Cleo deposited a drop of saliva on the disk and Sohut slipped it back across the table to Geblit.

A ray of green light passed over the fluid as Geblit resumed typing on his holo-computer. “Sohut U’xol Cal-Pholy…” he muttered as he typed. “Sponsor of human…” He glanced her way. “What name do you go by?”

“Cleo,” she said, glancing at Sohut as she did. “Cleo Barlow.”

Geblit made a sound in his throat then continued typing.

In the next few seconds, he uttered, “Done.”

Before she could even breathe, she was being pressed against Sohut’s chest so tightly all she could inhale was him, and he smelled like home.

His shoulders slumped as he hugged her and she could hear Geblit groan in the background, muttering something about her lack of limbs.

Sohut inhaled deeply, his head in her hair.

“Phekking, Wawa,” he muttered, “I can’t even have the luxury of smelling my female without your scent interfering.”

His female?

A warm feeling bloomed inside her at those words.

He’d said it before but hearing him say it again after all this time they’d spent apart felt like a new proclamation.

She wanted to be his woman, now and forever.

At the sound of his name, Wawa popped his head out from under the hood and this close to Sohut, she was sure he was going to try and bite him. She was beginning to pull away to avoid that but Sohut held her closer and surprisingly, Wawa only rubbed his head against Sohut’s chest.

They must have been embracing for a while because Geblit’s voice broke the calmness in her mind.

“Don’t mind me or the fact I just helped two beings wanted by the phekking TASQALS,” he said, “but you still need to get out of here.”

Sohut groaned a little as he inhaled again. “Give me the key code for your cruiser.”

In her peripheral vision, a big balloon-head was shaking vehemently.

“Nope. No way. My hover car is the finest in this district. There is no way—”

As they sped across a plain filled with tall yellow-orange grass in a hover car that gave her the impression it was like a luxury vehicle in these parts, Cleo let the hood of the robe fall from her head.

“This is…beautiful,” she breathed. Off in the distance, large animals that reminded her of cows were grazing and by the side of her face, Wawa rubbed his head appreciatively, liking the cool breeze.

“Very beautiful…”

Sohut murmured and when her gaze cut to his, he was looking at her with such heavy emotions in his eyes, it made her breath catch in her throat.

He’d come to save her. He’d freed her.

It was hard imagining that her life wasn’t going to be living as a fugitive in an alien jungle anymore. Or that she’d narrowly escaped being raped by a giant toad.

“You came for me.” A smile came over her lips as she looked at him. “You could have left me.”

The hover car slowed down as Sohut decelerated.

“Of course, I came for you. After they took you, I—”

She launched herself against his side, wrapping her arms around him as something wet ran down her cheek.

“Sohut. They almost killed you.”

It felt like they were no longer moving and she realized the hover car stopped, and was slowly descending to the ground below, nestling within the tall yellow-orange grass.

“And I would have died if it meant protecting you. I couldn’t—” he stopped talking, the emotions on his face receding.

“You couldn’t what?” Her voice sounded thick and she knew the wetness on her face was coming from her eyes.

The events of the past few weeks were all being processed at once and even though her eyes were betraying her with tears, she was slowly acknowledging that it had been a lot.

It had been a helluva lot to go through.

“I couldn’t let someone else get hurt because of my failure. I—”

His gaze fell and she touched his chin lightly.

A breath shuddered through his body and she realized that he too was processing all that had happened between them recently.

“If I know anything about you, Sohut, it’s that you’re one of the strongest people I know.”

For a moment, he didn’t raise his gaze and when he finally looked at her, the glimmer of hope in his eyes almost broke her heart, right before a look of horror covered his features.

“You’re leaking. From your eyes.” He touched a tear. “Have I—” he eased off her, his gaze flicking over her body. “Have I hurt you?” He gulped hard. “I’m going to take you to the Sanctuary. You’ll be safe there. But now that you’re free…you don’t have to come with me. You can go anywhere on Hudo III.” He swallowed hard. “I can take you there.”

The suggestion in his words cut her deep and she gripped him tighter.

Why would he say such a thing?

Didn’t he know that all that time away while she’d waited in that terrarium, he’d been the only thing on her mind?

That she couldn’t see herself living without him.

That she wanted to be by his side forever.

No, she realized. He didn’t know because she’d never actually admitted it to him.

Still clinging to him, she opened her mouth and said it.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay with you.”

Sohut stilled at her words before his finger moved to wipe away another tear.

“What are you saying, gnora?”

Cleo sniffled. “What does that word mean?”

She could swear his color changed to a darker shade.

For a few moments, he just looked at her and she thought he wasn’t about to answer, when he did.

“My people, the Merssi, we believe there is one being out there that completes us…a being