Page 1 of Sohut's Protection

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.

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