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

  Sohut’s Protection

  A.G. Wilde

  Sohut’s Protection

  Sohut’s Protection © A. G. Wilde 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

  This book is dedicated to my mother, who, bless her heart, missed my eyebrows waggling when I said I write books about humans being “taken” by aliens.

  I love you, Mom!

  Everything I know about surviving, I learned from you.

  Contents

  Disclaimer

  Sohut’s Protection

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  A note from A.G

  Next in the Series

  Other books by A.G.

  Acknowledgments

  Keep In Touch

  If you enjoyed this book…

  About the Author

  Disclaimer

  This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only.

  All sexually active characters portrayed in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

  Sohut’s Protection

  You have to be really unlucky to be captured by aliens twice...

  Well, here I am.

  The Queen of Unlucky.

  When I’m taken from Earth, my life takes a sharp turn. The alien ship crashes on a strange planet and before I know it, I’m taken again. These new “owners” are just as bad as the last ones and it doesn’t take me long to realize my chances of survival are dim.

  I only have one chance to escape—so I take it.

  I’m doing a good job of surviving too. That is…until the aliens send a hunter to track me down.

  As soon as I lay eyes on him, I know he’s there to find me.

  I can’t run; I can only hide—but I can’t hide forever.

  It’s a fight for my freedom…

  …but it’s my heart that’s in trouble of falling into the hunter’s trap.

  Sohut’s Protection is a full-length standalone sci-fi romance featuring a heroine with the will to survive and a hot, charming, and possessive hero who would do anything to protect the one who steals his heart.

  If you like sexy aliens, adventure, and steamy romance, check out Sohut’s Protection.

  This standalone book contains:

  - Steamy scenes

  - HEA

  - No cheating

  - No cliffhangers

  Prologue

  Hudo III

  A little over, a year ago

  What’s worse than one greedy alien?

  Two greedy aliens.

  “They will be most pleased with what we’ve retrieved.”

  The aliens’ conversation drifted toward the back of the rattling cart, and Cleo resisted the urge to growl at the two green beings.

  They were some version of an alien species of orc: big and green with the tusks to boot.

  For the entire journey, they had been discussing just how many credits they would get from their wares and…wait for it…she was pretty sure she was one of the wares.

  Heck, if she wanted to sell herself, she could have easily done so on Earth. She didn’t need to be kicked straight across the universe to end up in some cage.

  …Earth.

  She’d give anything to go back there. Anything so she didn’t have to be here…wherever this was.

  Above her, the pink sky looked surreal, but it was a definite indication that she wasn’t home anymore—unless she was on the set of some weed smoker’s music video.

  Another jolt of the cart she was traveling in and her forehead almost banged against the metal bars of the cage she was holding on to for stability.

  “The slizz alone will get us a teruva coin,” one of the aliens continued.

  “What about the human?” the other asked.

  Mention of her made Cleo’s spine stiffen a little and she gripped the bars even tighter.

  Till then, they hadn’t discussed the beings they were transporting in any specific way. It’d just been talk about credits.

  She hadn’t even known they were aware she was human.

  “Not much. It looks too frail for labor…”

  There was a pause.

  “Who said we had to sell it for labor? Blurgens are frail but good for pleasure.”

  There was another pause.

  If her lungs didn’t start burning, she wouldn’t have realized she was holding her breath, waiting for the alien’s response.

  “A pleasure creature.” The alien let out a disturbing laugh. “Good point.”

  No.

  Not a good point.

  Not a good point AT ALL.

  The cart rattled again, and it threw her upper body against the bars. Off to her side in one of the other cages, something cried out as it collided with the metal of its own cage.

  Big ole Tweedle-orc-dee and Tweedle-orc-dum didn’t even glance behind them at the sound. But she didn’t need their obvious nonchalance to know they didn’t care.

  For the entire journey, they’d sat with their huge green leathery backs turned to the many cages behind them.

  They didn’t seem to care that she and the other creatures in the cages were on a huge moving vibrator—only, she wasn’t getting any pleasure from this ride.

  The rocky road the cart traveled over shook the cart bed so much that her teeth rattled in her head.

  Gripping the bars tight, Cleo squeezed her eyes shut to stop her mounting headache.

  Her cage was right at the back of the cart and she could see every rock and bump the wheels rolled over. Gripping on to the bars was the only way she was avoiding getting a concussion.

  “What about the fuhol?” The aliens’ conversation continued.

  His companion grunted. “If it survives the journey, we sell it to the dragars and buy woogli smoke.”

  “You should give it some of that life fluid.”

  The alien took a swig of what she assumed was the “life fluid” they were talking about and swallowed eagerly, gulping so hard she could hear the sound even above the noise of the cart.

  The one drinking grunted again. “Waste life fluid on that ugly beast’s scales? I see you’re still suffering from our last time sniffing woogli smoke.”

  At that, they both chuckled—a horrible wheezing sound that made Cleo’s blood boil.

  They’d mentioned scales.

  As far as she could see, there was only on
e creature in the cart that had scales, and it was lying in the cage across from hers.

  Blue iridescent scales fanned down to fishlike fins.

  It was a mermaid—or at least, an alien that looked a lot like one.

  Red hair much like her own obscured the alien’s face. It was a real Ariel, if she were ever going to meet one.

  The mermaid’s skin glittered in the sunlight, the blue moving over the scales as if the color itself was alive.

  But that was the only natural-seeming movement.

  Apart from the mermaid’s body jerking because of its own cage rattling, it didn’t move otherwise, and Cleo shuddered to think that the creature was dead.

  Its four arms hung limp at its sides, and its body was set haphazardly in its cage.

  The aliens’ conversation took on new meaning.

  The mermaid needed water, and they didn’t care enough to let her have any.

  The cart rattled again, jerking Cleo against the bars, and she accidentally bit down hard on her tongue.

  God-fucking-dammit!

  Tears sprung into her eyes and she tasted blood.

  With that last bump of the cart, her cage shifted even closer to the edge of the cart bed and she eyed the ground below through the blur of her tears.

  There was no safety barrier between her cage and the ground.

  For the greater part of the journey, she’d been worried about her cage falling off the back of the cart.

  All it would take was one huge jerk and off she would go.

  And with every jerk, the bolts that held her cage together rattled as if they would pop right out.

  Maybe they would.

  She was kind of hoping on it, but she didn’t want her cage to fall apart just yet.

  There was nothing but rocks and dirt as far as she could see.

  This would be the worst place for her to try an escape attempt.

  Squeezing the tears from her eyes, Cleo’s gaze moved to the other cages as she checked to see if any other creature was as alert as she was.

  Farther up, closer to the front of the cart, one cage had a pile of black fur.

  Earlier in the journey, she’d thought that was exactly what it was—a pile of fur like a huge rug. That was, until she saw six black eyes looking back at her.

  The fur animal had its eyes closed now, but a shudder still made her skin prickle just looking at it.

  Monster tarantula, maybe?

  She didn’t see any legs, but she didn’t want to find out.

  Directly to her right, another cage had a little gray animal that looked like a Chihuahua with tarsier-like eyes and a tail like a howler monkey.

  Its big brown eyes blinked at her as it too gripped the bars of its cage for dear life.

  The animal looked so small and innocent; it made her angry that they were keeping such a thing in a cage.

  “I hope you find a nice home, little one,” she murmured to the thing and she didn’t know if it understood her or not, but it kept its large brown eyes on her.

  There were about six other cages, all with different species—some she couldn’t see because of how they were lying—but there were no other humans.

  She was the only one.

  The sole lucky human.

  Now, if only someone could tell her which raffle she’d accidentally won for this once-in-a-lifetime trip?

  She’d like to return the ticket.

  Her last memory of Earth was her finishing her shift at the bar she worked at in Cali. It’d been late and she’d just hopped out of her little Toyota, ready to hurry inside her apartment when she’d felt a strange pain at the back of her neck.

  Next, she’d woken up to see a slug on a blue orb and a walking alligator.

  Her first thought was that she’d been drugged—what she was seeing was impossible.

  Only, the drugs hadn’t worn off. She was still in the nightmare.

  What’s worse, the alien ship they’d had her on crashed.

  What happened next was a blur.

  She remembered the pain and the confusion, then she remembered the reinforced room she’d been locked in being opened.

  The next image in her mind was that of Tweedle-orc-dum and Tweedle-orc-dee.

  But she was alive.

  She wasn’t on Earth anymore, the pink sky alone was proof enough of that, but she was alive.

  Her father’s voice rang in her head.

  Cleo, you have to learn.

  You have to adapt.

  Then you will survive.

  Cleo cast her eyes in the direction of the orcs driving the cart.

  They were still nattering about something, but their voices were so low, she couldn’t hear what they were saying.

  The fact they weren’t concerned about the cargo they were transporting was probably a good thing.

  With their lack of care, she could plan an escape.

  Because she was escaping.

  There was no way she was going to be sold like a box of stew…

  Stew? … She’d fix her analogies later.

  Glancing down at the road, Cleo gulped.

  The plan that was hatching in her mind was going to hurt like a bitch. But, if this was how the orcs treated their “wares” before they got to their destination, she didn’t have high hopes about things getting better when they actually arrived.

  What’s worse, she wasn’t becoming anyone’s pleasure pet.

  So, pain it was.

  She could deal with pain.

  She couldn’t deal with death.

  As awkward as it was to move in the cage, she tried to see over the aliens’ shoulders.

  She couldn’t see very far ahead, but she could tell the air was getting more humid.

  Possibly, they were approaching a change in the terrain.

  …somewhere with vegetation, maybe.

  Somewhere heavily wooded, hopefully?

  She could only hope they didn’t turn off the road before they got there.

  Glancing down to her bare feet, she swallowed hard and moved her toes a little, feeling for the item she’d found and hidden.

  When her toes moved over the piece of metal, she released a breath of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

  She’d found the sharp piece of shrapnel behind the cage not long after the orcs had loaded her into the cart.

  She’d acted quickly, taking the metal and hiding it underneath her foot, not daring to move her leg should her captors notice what she was hiding. It’s not like the simple brown dress she was wearing had any pockets she could hide the weapon in.

  It was almost the length of her foot, but thin. She didn’t know how she was going to use it yet, but having it was better than having nothing.

  As the conversation of the two aliens kept droning on in the background of her mind, she focused on the mermaid in front of her once more.

  She hadn’t realized it before, but the scales of the creature looked considerably lighter in color than they’d done earlier.

  It was almost as if the blue within the scales was fading. What’s worse, the thing still hadn’t moved.

  It was dead.

  She was sure of it.

  A spike of sadness for the creature turned into iron that strengthened her resolve.

  Right.

  She wasn’t going to let that happen to her.

  She was going to get out of this…somehow…one way or the other.

  A little whimper to her right had her glancing at the Chihuahua-monkey and it blinked at her with sad eyes as if it was having the same thoughts.

  “I know little guy,” she whispered as the animal’s big brown eyes locked on hers. “Be strong.”

  She’d been right about them heading toward lots of vegetation.

  First, it was just a few small orange shrubs and one and two trees, but now, on both sides, there was a fully fledged jungle filled with yellow-orange flora.

  It looked like she’d been dropped into a strange magical world, and if she was
n’t in her current situation, she might have stopped to appreciate the strangeness of the view.

  Instead, there was only one thing on her mind—getting off the damned cart.

  The road only seemed to get bumpier the deeper into the jungle they went, and they’d been traveling for so long, she could tell the sun was starting to go down.

  Cleo grabbed the bars of her cage, pressing her lips together as she did.

  She’d probably have one chance to do this and only one.

  From the dusty road to where they were now, her cage had drifted increasingly closer to the edge of the cart. If she put her weight on it, with the next big jolt, it would topple and she’d go tumbling into the jungle beyond.

  At least, that’s what she was hoping would happen.

  She wasn’t exactly Stephen Hawking.

  Her gaze moved to the dead mermaid before her, and she swallowed hard.

  The alien’s scales were now almost completely white—a sickly white—and the more she looked at it, the more her resolve hardened.

  She needed to get off the cart.

  If she did manage to get out, she’d make a run for it and hope no alien jaguars were waiting for her in the bushes beyond.

  It was her only hope.

  Her father had been a man of the wild, able to survive anywhere and in the harshest of situations.

  To her, he’d been like The Crocodile Hunter.

  Fearless.

  Everything Thomas Barlow knew, he’d taught her.