by A. G. Wilde
She opened her mouth to ask about that but Geblit was already speaking.
“And where did you find a human? To my knowledge, only the Tas—” His eyes widened again, this time in more shock than horror. “No. Tell me you didn’t.”
“I had no choice. You know what the Tasqals do to their slaves.”
Geblit took a step back, his wide eyes on her.
“If they catch you—”
“But they won’t catch us now will they. Not with your help.” Sohut paused. “I’ll owe you a favor.”
The way he said the word like it was the ultimate bargaining chip made her eyes dart back to the green alien beside them.
Geblit’s eyes darted from Sohut to her to Sohut then back again.
“Don’t tell me you have feelings for this ugly thing.”
Was…was he calling her ugly?
She’d have been hurt if she didn’t really care. She’d gotten used to the jungle Torians insulting her looks and she just wanted to get as far away from those Tasqals and gator-guards as possible. If Sohut thought this was the way, then so be it.
“A favor,” Sohut said again.
Geblit closed his eyes for a second, his shoulders slumping as he crossed his arms.
“Raxu, phekking qrakking Sohut,” Geblit muttered. “This is the last time I help you and your brother.”
Sohut smiled.
Geblit’s eyes darted to her again. “Follow me.”
33
Geblit led them through the back streets and as he did so, she had to glance at Sohut.
Laughter bubbled in her belly despite the fact they were running for their lives.
In front of them, Geblit was leading the way and he was literally creeping on tiptoes like he was up to no good.
Anyone looking at them would no doubt see that they were doing something illegal.
Now and then, he’d pause, his body going still and his eyes widening a little at whatever danger he saw, then he’d usher them forward.
It wasn’t long before they were in a tunnel and Geblit stopped in front of a wall.
Knocking the wall with a series of raps that sounded like a code, Geblit waited, his legs shaking.
Soon, the wall moved…or rather, the secret door in the wall moved and a tall alien dressed in armor stood on the other side.
Gripping Sohut’s hand, Cleo squeezed it a little and Sohut gave her a reassuring squeeze back.
“Ambassador,” the soldier said and for a moment she wondered who he was talking to before Geblit spoke up.
“Y-yes,” Geblit held his head high.
Oh.
She wouldn’t have guessed.
“I am here on official business with—” his eyes darted to her and Sohut “—friends. Official legal business.”
Goodness gracious.
It was so obviously a lie she felt like slapping her face into her palm.
The soldier wouldn’t buy it.
But with a creak of his armor, the soldier stepped to the side and Geblit almost jumped for joy.
As a matter of fact, it was obvious he tried to hide his glee and relief because all he did was flash them a smile before rushing through the door.
He led them through a series of corridors to a small, empty office and got to work, tapping his fingers on a metal desk. In front of him, the hologram of a data screen came to life in the space.
“You want to register her, right? For protection?”
Sohut nodded.
“Register me?”
Sohut glanced down at her. “So you’ll be protected by the Union.” He paused. “So you’ll be free.”
Free.
She never thought she’d feel so much hope in just one word.
“So you will be her sponsor?” Geblit asked, his finger still tapping the desk with amazing speed.
“Sponsor? I need a sponsor?”
Sohut nodded. “Yes, I’ll be her sponsor.”
Geblit glanced at him momentarily, his forehead skin moving as if he was thinking “you idiot” and didn’t care to hide it.
“Wait,” she pulled on Sohut’s arm. “What does being a sponsor mean?”
“It means he’s relinquishing half of his assets to the Union in good faith that you will be an upstanding citizen.” It was Geblit that answered.
Cleo’s heart skipped a beat.
“What?” Her gaze searched Sohut’s but he didn’t respond. “Is he speaking the truth?”
“Why would I lie?” Geblit’s head rose, his brow furrowed and the expression on his face was as if he was taken aback by her unsaid accusation.
“Geblit—” Sohut raised a hand, his gaze never leaving hers. “Yes, he’s right.”
Cleo gulped.
But why?
She didn’t realize she’d asked the question until Sohut began answering.
“Because you’re my gnora…” he said.
In the background, she was vaguely aware that Geblit was choking on air at that proclamation and Wawa took that moment to growl at him, halting the choking immediately.
Her entire focus was on Sohut.
He’d used that word again.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
Sohut didn’t miss a beat. “After all this is over, I promise I’ll show you.”
Geblit choked again and, this time, it was Sohut that glared his way.
Clearing his throat, Geblit reached in his desk and took out a flat, clear disk.
“Deposit your fluids here.”
Cleo frowned. “My what?”
“Spit on it.”
Oh.
“Why?”
“The union will need your biosignature as part of the registration process,” Sohut answered.
Oh.
She guessed it was a little like having her fingerprints taken.
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 that fits with us like a puzzle.”
“A…a soulmate?”
His color became even darker. “Yes.”
“And you think I’m that…for you?” There was a note of hope in her voice that even she heard and when Sohut nodded she couldn’t help but pull him down against her as she settled back on the seat of the hover vehicle.
“I want you to be mine,” Sohut said. “I don’t want to be without you.”
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere,” Cleo whispered. “I don’t want to be without you either.”
Sohut’s head rose over hers, his green eyes piercing hers.
“You will have me?” he asked.
“Every day. Forever.”
A look of complete elation passed over his features before it was promptly replaced with something more animalistic, something more carnal.
“Wawa,” Sohut growled. “Leave us.”
To her surprise, Wawa listened, hopping from the hover car to dart into the long grass.
“What are you doing?!” Cleo giggled as Sohut lifted the robe up over her hips, pulling it higher till she had to stretch her arms to get out of it.
“Something I’m going to do every day, forever,” he said.
Cleo’s lips felt like little sweet buds that he wanted to devour.
As he took them between his own, he tried to slow down, tried to control the urge to pin her beneath him and bury himself deep inside her hard.
This was his gnora.
And no one was going to take her from him.
Protracting his claws, he used a finger to rip away the flimsy garment the Tasqals had dressed her in. He tore it away from her body, every thread of it, and threw it over the side of the vehicle.
He didn’t want to see her in it, to be reminded of what had almost happened, right before his eyes.
He’d almost lost his gnora. But he had her now and she was safe.
She was safe, and she was beneath him, whispering his name as her body called out to him.
Her teats brushed against his face as he ran his fangs over them and her breath hitched in her throat.
Sohut groaned.
He loved the way she responded to him.
He wanted to hear her cry his name while she was beneath him now, needed to hear her pant as he took her, branded her…claimed her.
Clee-yo’s neck arched as his tongue flicked over the tight little bud on her chest before he took the entire thing into his mouth.
Her small hands found his hair as she strung her fingers through the dark strands, pulling him harder into her and he indulged her.
His tongue flicked over her teat some more as his hand delved between her, seeking that warm spot between her legs.
His forefinger found the other tight little pleasure bud, the one between her thighs and she arched into him even more, her pale eyes rolling back into her head as she whispered his name.
“Sohut…”
The sound of his name on her lips made him groan.
He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her she said his name beautifully.
He wanted his name on her lips always, continually, forever. The way she said it was like a sweet caress that gave him images of pleasing her…giving her his all.
Just like he was doing now.
Licking her teat, he moved lower, his lips traveling over her pale skin down to the knot of nerves that gave her so much pleasure.
Burying his face between her legs, he inhaled deeply.
“Clee-yo,” he groaned.
It was the scent that had driven him crazy when he’d entered the Koznia Jungle. The same scent that had made his body react even before he’d encountered her.
Clee-yo smelled like heaven.
Opening his lips, he took her into his mouth and she cried out against him, her hips pressing upward and into him.
He licked and suckled on her, enjoying the noises she made as her arousal dampen
ed her sex and her scent filled his nose.
His chin was wet with her juices but he wanted more, more of his Clee-yo. He wasn’t ever going to get enough.
As his tongue darted deep inside her, Clee-yo’s fingers dug into his scalp.
With a scream of his name that flew away on the wind, she reached her peak.
“Sohut,” she whimpered as he spun her around so she lay on her belly.
His cock was so hard, he was pretty sure it was the pure need to be buried inside his female that prevented him from coming already.
As he released his shaft, it sprung up eagerly, pressing into the delicious rump offered up to him.
Clee-yo whimpered again at the feel of his cock against her and the sound almost pushed him over the edge.
Holding her hips steady, he grit his teeth as he surged forward.
Her tightness welcomed him. It squeezed him tight as her juices coated his shaft.
His thrusts were hard, deep, as he moved in and out of her.
“You’re mine, Clee-yo,” he grunted.
A moan ripped from her that pushed him right over the edge.
Gripping her hips as he buried himself deep and released his spend, Sohut’s entire body jerked with the force of his orgasm.
“And you’re mine,” he heard her whisper.
34
As the hover car lifted and began speeding across the alien savanna once more, Cleo smiled as she rested her head against Sohut’s arm.
This was real.
Of all the ways she’d expected her life to turn out, she had never once imagined this. But here she was and it was real.
Back when she’d been taken from Earth, abducted and thrown into a world that was not her own, she’d thought her life had gone to shit.
But it had all been leading up to this.
Snuggling against Sohut, despite that it wasn’t cold, a smile spread her lips.
He was hers and she wouldn’t change all those horrible experiences now for the world.
In what felt like about half-an-hour, a spec in the distance began to form into something else—a residence of some sort.
The sight made her sit upright far too quickly and Wawa swayed on her shoulder.
“Is that…”
“The Sanctuary,” Sohut answered, his voice holding a note of pride and trepidation, the latter of which pulled her gaze from the huge farm they were approaching to the man beside her.