Page 129 of Sohut's Protection

She wasn’t ready to let him go.

Not yet.

Not ever.

“I don’t know what that feels like,” Lee-yunna finally said.

“What?” Cleo blinked, bringing her thoughts back to the present.

“Love.”

The alien female looked genuinely saddened by this and it tugged at something within her.

“Look,” Cleo said, thrusting one of the wooden shivs toward Lee-yunna. “Take this. I don’t know how or if you’ll use it, but it’s better to have it than not to.”

Lee-yunna blinked at the shiv before she threw herself at Cleo, placing her hand against Cleo’s forehead firmly.

Cleo blinked, wide-eyed and not sure what to make of the gesture.

“Thank you,” Lee-yunna breathed. “Thank you so much.”

As the female released her, Cleo nodded, looking away.

“We have to get ready soon,” Lee-yunna murmured. “For the auction.”

“How do you know?”

“I heard the guards murmuring when they came in to feed us. They will return today to…make us beautiful for the masters.”

The words made Cleo’s stomach turn and, like a bad omen, there was a sound in the terrarium and exclamations from the other women.

Hurriedly stuffing the shiv and blade behind the tree, Cleo stepped from beneath the blossoms.

It was the gator-guards.

She didn’t need Lee-yunna to tell her. She knew it herself.

It was time.

30

Phek.

He was an idiot for doing what he was doing.

It could get him killed.

Sector 89 was reserved only for high-ranking beings on the top class of Hudo III’s society.

The Tasqals.

Taking Wawa off his shoulder, he looked into the slizz’s eyes.

They were in an alley, just before the entrance to the sector.

It had taken him what felt like forever to find intel on the stronghold and he had almost run out of days to do so.

Luckily, with Wawa by his side, threatening disreputable beings was a lot easier than if he was doing so on his own.

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