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

U’xol Cal-Pholy…problem was…he couldn’t ignore it.

Something deep within him told him the scent marking wasn’t coincidental.

What were the chances of him tracking an alien creature only to find territory marked with the scent of slizz?

Pausing in the darkness, he lifted his head to look up at the trees before him that were rising up the mountainside.

Whatever he was hunting must have a direct correlation with this “defense” barrier.

He just knew it.

Dropping his satchel, Sohut paused at the edge of this invisible barrier. His ears pricked from the sides of his head as he listened for any sound.

Nothing.

If it was a slizz, he wasn’t going to enter its territory in the dark. That would put him at a disadvantage.

Resting against the root of a huge tree, he knew what he was going to do.

The slizz’s scent would keep the other predators of the jungle at bay, for now.

That meant he could rest for the dark cycle and cross the barrier when the sun rose.

A little sliver of excitement ran through him at the thought.

There was something across that barrier—something worth finding.

He could feel it as well as he could feel the frilli on his nose.

3

It’d been a day since, against his better judgment, he’d crossed the scent barrier.

Since then, the scent had steadily faded, making him believe he’d been right about it being a perimeter marking.

As he walked now, the terrain was rising on an incline. He was climbing the mountain and the farther inland he went, the more that feeling of something huge happening increased.

Walking through the undergrowth, he kept going for a few moments when his steps halted.

Yet, he wasn’t quite sure why.

Turning his nose to the air, Sohut sniffed.

There was a smell in the air…a new scent…different from the territory-marking scent yet still somewhat mingled with it.

The smell was faint; so faint, he almost missed it.

For a few moments, he stood unmoving, processing the scent as it flowed into his nostrils.

It wasn’t a spined creature or a mog.

It wasn’t a tuli or a zidek.

It wasn’t a fruiting or flowering plant…

This was the smell of a creature.

A strange creature.

Something alien.

The scent was a few days old but there was enough of it for him to know he’d never scented anything like it before.

Thank Raxu for the lack of wind under the canopy or the smell might have been too faint for him to notice.

Blinking rapidly, Sohut’s brows furrowed and his ears stood up from the sides of his head as he scanned the bushes around him.

He knew he was alone…at least, as alone as he could be with the animals in the jungle around him.

No creature had crept close enough to him without him realizing it.

He still scanned the bushes anyway, his frown deepening when he finally lined up with the direction in which the scent was strongest.

Inhaling deeply, his ears perked even more as he processed just what he was scenting.

Maybe the Gori had been right.

He couldn’t believe it…but maybe the creature they’d sent him to find still lived.

As he inhaled deeply once more, he took a step forward only to pause again, his eyes widening.

A curse slipped from his lips.

The creature was female.

Somehow, he knew that fact with clarity.

Phek.

Undeniably female.

Taking another breath, a groan rumbled in his chest that had him stiffening for another reason.

Horror couldn’t describe what he was suddenly feeling as his gaze slowly fell.

The phlickin’ phek?

Pressing against his trousers was his…phekking draxx…he was solid and hard.

His lips pulled back in a snarl, his fangs baring.

He was aroused by the scent of an alien creature?

Raxu in the phekking stars.

Growling underneath his breath, he stretched the muscles in his back, more than slightly perturbed by this occurrence.

This was something that never, ever happened before and he sure as phek wasn’t going to acknowledge it.

Pushing the disturbing thoughts from his mind, he focused on his task and the scent that was drawing him farther into the dense growth.

Time to do the job he was hired to do.

It’d been three days.

Three days since she’d seen the blue alien enter the jungle.

Three days since she’s been hiding in her cave.

It was the best place for her to remain out of reach but whenever she peeked through the vines and leaves covering the entrance to the cave, she didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary happening in the jungle below.

But that was little consolation.

Whenever she looked out, she was looking over the tops of trees.

That didn’t tell her what lurked beneath their branches.

Nevertheless, if she hadn’t seen the blue alien enter the jungle with her own two eyes, she wouldn’t have known he was somewhere within the dense growth.

Nothing seemed out of place and the thought made her uneasy.

She could have easily gone hunting for food and encountered the stranger.

Unaware of his presence beforehand, she’d have been at a huge disadvantage.

Cleo paced, her bare feet moving over the thick dried grass she’d laid as flooring on the rock floor.

She could make a run for it.

Fear was telling her to escape but there was just one problem.

Logic said she should stay.

And she was going to listen to logic.

On her shoulder, Wawa bumped his head against her neck as if he could sense her restlessness.

Living by herself for an extended period could have made her paranoid.

Maybe they hadn’t sent the blue alien after her.

Maybe he’d entered the jungle in search of something or someone else?

Maybe she was just overreacting…

But there was that niggling feeling inside her that told her she wasn’t overreacting.

He was there for her.

She was sure of it.

And what was she doing? She was waiting like a sitting duck.

If he somehow found her, she’d be caught without any defenses.

She needed to do something.

Taking a deep breath, she crouched by the small mouth of her cave and looked out.

There was a safe distance in her mind that the alien shouldn’t cross, and that was an invisible line she drew right at her water hole. If he crossed that line, then she was in trouble.

He’d no