Page 109 of Sohut's Protection

“Home.”

“To the Sanctuary.”

Cleo blinked back what felt suspiciously like tears from her eyes.

She wasn’t the emotional kind.

“I’ve found you, Clee-yo. I’m not letting you go. Ever.”

25

Sohut grunted as he walked through the brush, swatting away some of the long vines that hung down to brush the ground, careful that they didn’t swing and hit the load on his back.

His gnora.

He’d called her that, but he was sure she didn’t know what it meant.

It’s why he’d said it.

He wasn’t sure he could face her denying what he was sure was the bond in his soul.

The thought made him both nervous and elated.

He’d found the one to make him whole.

It wasn’t a hunch or a presumption. It was intuition and for the past few days at the camp, he’d had to face that fact.

He’d found her.

Of all the Merssi to be blessed, he was.

“I can walk, you know.” Clee-yo, his Clee-yo, murmured against his neck, her breath brushing against his skin to awaken something down below almost instantly.

It was hard focusing on his task when the one thing he wanted to do was stop among some of the soft vegetation and show her repeatedly just how much she made him feel.

“You hurt yourself.” In an effort to protect me.

“My hand. I hurt my hand.” The sound of her laughter was like water crystals sliding down gheuf leaves. It was a sound he was finding he could listen to till the end of time.

Holding her thighs tighter against his sides, he hurried on through the undergrowth back toward the Torian camp.

The Gori had sent a spined creature after him. Why?

He wasn’t sure.

They hadn’t communicated that Clee-yo was worth many credits. But the fact they’d spent an entire orbit and were still looking for her had told him that she was worth a lot to them for some reason.

So much so they were willing to kill him to get to her.

There was more to this than the Gori had communicated and there was no way he was going to let her fall into their hands.

He could no longer take any chances.

He needed to head through the other side of the jungle, through the arid lands, and toward the edge of the plains. It’d be a trek but once he got her to the Sanctuary, she’d be safe.

And she was going to be safe.

He would make sure of it.

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