Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2)

by A. G. Wilde

  Her spine froze.

  Somehow she knew what that meant.

  He was the winner.

  And her suspicions were only confirmed when the beast’s comrades rose and began filing out of the room, leaving the one with the red card in the middle.

  It didn’t move, it just stared at her, that disgusting smile still on its lips, and for a few moments, she wondered what it was going to do.

  Then it stood, and this time, it did get a reaction from her. Cleo took another involuntary step backward.

  It was huge.

  She knew it was big, but when standing, it was a whole other version of giant toad.

  Fuck!

  She took another step backward as the Tasqal came toward the transparent barrier.

  It couldn’t get through, could it?

  But before that thought could even leave her mind, the barrier in front of her dissolved as if it had never been there.

  Swallowing hard, she took another step backward and felt as the constriction around her neck tightened a little, reminding her it was there.

  It did that, she realized, whenever she had thoughts of resisting…whenever she wanted to flee…and she tried to calm her hammering heart—only, that was difficult to do with something that belonged to a swamp advancing toward her.

  “Pretty…little…thing…”

  The Tasqal talked.

  That only made it so, so much worse.

  “I finally have acquired one of your species,” it said.

  “What do you want?” Her voice sounded alien to her, made of steel even though her insides were turning into water that wanted to run away into the creases of the floor below her and disappear.

  The beast’s throat moved and the sound of bubbles popping filled the little room.

  It was laughing.

  To her horror, the beast lifted a leg onto the platform and stepped into the room, filling the space even without touching her.

  This was worse than claustrophobia. There was nowhere to run.

  Nowhere to hide.

  Squeezing the weapons still gripped and hidden underneath her arms, Cleo took another step backward, and her back bumped into the wall behind her.

  Out. Of. Space.

  Her next move would have to be the one that allowed her to escape this room, this situation, unharmed.

  “What do I want?” The toad-man cocked his head, his one good eye studying her. “You, of course.”

  It didn’t hesitate. In one movement, its white robe fell and it took another step toward her.

  Her vision blurred with the sudden burst of adrenaline that flooded through her.

  She couldn’t see the creature’s disgusting, diseased-looking body. She couldn’t see its hand caressing it’s member as it advanced on her.

  All she could do was feel.

  She could feel the rage flood through her, replacing the blood in her veins.

  Arms unfolding, she aimed for the eyes, sinking the wooden shiv into the good eye and her lucky shrapnel in the other.

  The beast howled and reached for her arms but then something she didn’t understand happened.

  Before he could even touch her, his body was against the other side of the wall.

  Cleo’s eyes widened.

  It was the other toad man. The one who’d been sitting in the corner.

  “Qrakking jekin!” the injured Tasqal howled. His eyes were bleeding a dark fluid and she doubted he could see. “My eye!”

  “Shut the phek up,” the other toad man said, and Cleo took a step back, her eyes darting from one to the other.

  “What is this?” the injured toad-man said, his hands grasping the arms that held him against the wall. “What are you doing? KILL THE JEKIN who dared to harm me!”

  Cleo’s eyes darted to the space where she knew the door was.

  Two disgusting aliens who wanted to rape her were having a spat and she was sure she shouldn’t stay around to see the end of it.

  But as she made to move, the words of the new Tasqal caught her ears, making her freeze in the spot.

  “Don’t you dare run, Cluu. I’m not about to lose you again.”

  Cluu?

  She turned to stare at the beast that had spoken, her mouth falling open, her eyes wide.

  CLUU.

  How did he know that name?!

  Sohut.

  A feeling of dread filled her, she almost lost her balance.

  Sohut had given her that name. The only way the toad would know that name was if he had somehow gotten to Sohut.

  Somehow, her lucky metal dislodged from the other beast’s eye and fell to the floor.

  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 reflected on the guard’s faces as Sohut scaled the wall up to the platform.

  How he did it, she did not know, but it was clear to the guards that something was very wrong because they both raised their weapons ready to fire.

  But they didn’t get the chance to.

  That gray blur moving down the wall leaped into the air, latching itself onto one of the guard’s faces, its razor-sharp teeth sinking in.

  It took her a moment to realize that the terror ripping the guard’s face off was her beloved pet. Wawa screeched, his sound of rage echoing down the corridor.

  Behind him, Sohut was making quick work of the other guard and the guard tumbled off the platform, falling not far to the ground in front of her.

  Its shock rod skated across the ground to the side and the guard groaned, not dead.

  Her feet moved fast, fueled by the adrenaline pumping in her veins, and she grabbed the shock rod.

  There was a narrow depression on the handle and the way she held it, her palm pressed against the area. Just by chance, the rod zinged to life.

  She could almost feel the power traveling up her arm.

  Sohut moved quickly, activating the door just as the guard on the ground raised his hand.

  She saw it at the moment. There was a square that looked like some kind of radio-device in his hand.

  No.

  He wasn’t about to send a message and fuck everything up.

  “You!” she screamed as she spun and hit the guard in the chest with the glowing end of his weapon.

  The guard’s body shuddered as if he was having a seizure and only the smell of burnt flesh filling the air made her stop her attack.

  When she lifted the rod, the guard wasn’t moving and she stared at him, her body trembling even though she felt numb.

  Strong arms surrounded her waist, and she realized Sohut had swooped her up in one motion and was rushing toward the opening door.

  Vaguely, she realized he grabbed the robe as he ran and that Wawa jumped from the platform, landing smoothly on his shoulder.

  “They’re going to know something happened. We have to get out of here.”

  As if she was going to resist that.

  The next few moments were a dash to freedom as her heart beat in her throat.

  The door didn’t open fully. It paused with a gap just big enough for them to squeeze through as a shrill alarm echoed down the long corridor.

  Then they were on the run.

  Outside, the air was clearer and as they ran up the incline she wondered how Sohut was able to run with such speed without pausing for a breath.

  He only stopped once to set her down and briskly slip the robe over her shoulders, pulling the hood over her head in the process.

  At the same time, he deactivated whatever gadget he was using for his disguise.

  Seeing him again, Cleo’s heart skipped a beat.

  Wawa made a low sound and crawled over to her, transferring himself from Sohut’s shoulders to sit on her neck, under the cover of her hood.

  There, he rubbed his head against the side of her face and she had just enough time to pet him before they were off again, weaving through streets she didn’t know the name of, alleys she’d never remember, until they were in the middle of a throng of shopping aliens.

  All the while, she felt as if there were eyes on her back, but she kept her head down, trusting the one person she could trust at that moment.

  Her love.

  Sohut.

  Glancing up from under the hood of the robe, she caught a glimpse of Sohut’s face.

  If he was nervous, he didn’t show it. His face was composed, unreadable, as he led them through the streets.

  She had no idea where she was, but it seemed like it was a market of some sort.

  There were so many aliens…so, so many and at another time, she’d have taken the opportunity to look at the many different lifeforms the rest of the human race had no idea existed.

  But for now, she kept her head low.

  Reaching forward, she slipped her palm against Sohut’s, and the only indication he felt her touch was the slight squeeze he gave her.

  They were moving for a while, weaving through the throng, and now and then, he’d glance behind them, checking if they were being followed.

  Then he muttered something underneath his breath.

  “Geblit,” he said.

  She wasn’t sure if it was a curse of some kind because she didn’t understand the words, but then he walked up to an unsuspecting alien that was innocently buying wares.

  It looked like a Torian and she didn’t know how she knew it, because they mostly looked alike to her, but this Torian wasn’t one she’d met before.

  Sohut released her hand to pull the Torian into a choke-hold before dragging him
to the alley beside the stall.

  Cleo didn’t know what to think.

  “Let me go you ruffian!” The Torian was irate, his big balloon, octopi-like head pulsing with veins. When Sohut let the alien go so he could turn around, the alien’s eyes grew into four wide bowls. “Oh no, not you.”

  Glancing from one to the other, she had no idea what was happening.

  “Yes, me. Fancy seeing you here. I need your help,” Sohut stated.

  The balloon-head alien frowned, his glare directed at Sohut as he seemed to not notice her presence yet.

  “Nope. Not helping,” he said. “Whatever problem you have, I am not interested. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my darling mate, Cargga, is waiting for her anti-mold crystals.”

  The alien began to walk away on limbs that looked so thin, she wondered how he was managing to lift his body weight.

  The Torians in the jungle were skinny but not that skinny.

  “Geblit.” Sohut held on to the alien’s arm and she realized then that “Geblit” was his name. Funny, because he looked exactly like a Geblit.

  “We need to get out of here. Hide somewhere. You can help us with that, can’t you?”

  “We?” It was then that Geblit finally looked in her direction. Stooping a little, he moved so he could see her face underneath the large, white hood.

  “Oh no, no, no, no,” he began to say and at that moment, Wawa decided to pop his head out.

  The green alien jumped back so fast, his limbs splayed against the alley wall. His mouth and eyes were as wide as planets in their own solar system as the color seemed to drain from his skin.

  He looked petrified.

  “A-A slizz!”

  “Quiet!” Sohut plastered a palm over the alien’s mouth but even then she could hear him screaming behind Sohut’s hand.

  Wawa seemed unperturbed as she pat his head and he went back into the depths of the hood.

  “Listen, forget about the slizz. He’s a pet. We need your help.”

  It felt like ages before Geblit was calm enough to speak.

  When his eyes finally regained their usual size, Sohut removed his hand and a slew of words spilled from the alien’s mouth immediately.

  “Nope. Can’t help. I am done with helping these humans and I am definitely not helping a slizz!”

  Humans?

  He’d helped other humans?