Page 55 of Sohut's Protection

As they got into the cover of the bushes, the warmth of the undergrowth was welcoming. In front of him, the female bat away stray vines that hung in their path, and now and again, she’d glance behind her as if she was checking whether he was still there.

“I don’t know how you manage to walk so quietly in a place like this,” he heard her murmur as she swat at an insect that decided to land on her shoulder.

The question was, how did she manage to walk so noisily in a place like this?

Gaze falling to her feet, he recognized why.

Her feet were flat like his but unlike his four-toed feet, she had five bony toes and it didn’t look like she had any footpads.

Again, he wondered how she’d survived this long in the jungle all alone.

His gaze rose slowly, moving up her naked legs to stop at the piece of fabric covering her buttocks.

It was ripped and torn in many places but it still covered enough that she was modest. He couldn’t see anything and he realized belatedly that he was staring as if mesmerized at the sway of her hips as she walked.

As if she could read his thoughts, she turned and looked back at him, her gaze lingering on his chest a little too long before she suddenly stopped walking.

Where she’d stopped was at the edge of a cliff.

Frowning, Sohut walked close to the edge and looked over.

It was a sharp drop. All he could see were the tops of trees below.

When he turned his confused stare to the female, the mischief in her eyes was unsettling.

Hatching a plan, she was.

He’d told her to bring him to her hideout.

This definitely was not it.

“Your camp? Where is it?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as a smirk appeared on her face.

Beautiful little trickster.

In the light of Hudo III’s star as it rose, she was even more striking than he’d thought before. The female was standing before him, her palms clenching and unclenching and her shoulders were set in the way he’d seen the long-legged grazing animals of the north stand before they would spring into action and dart off into the high fields.

Everything about her stance, from the way she was standing to the look in her eyes spelled that she was about to do something…something to him.

Yet, for the life of him, he couldn’t find the propensity to care. All he could feel was intrigue.

Instead of trying to stop her scheme, he was curious to find out what she was planning.

He must have inhaled an atri insect that’d made him go stupid.

Glancing over the edge of the cliff once more, Sohut narrowed his eyes.

Was she planning on trying to push him off?

He doubted she could but, just in case, he planted his feet firmly on the ground.

If that was her plan, he’d like to see her try.

“This isn’t your camp.” He cast his gaze to hers, still reading the deception simmering underneath her skin.

Her eyes twinkled as she raised an eyebrow and pointed upward.

Sohut’s frown deepened.

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