Page 33 of Sohut's Protection

His hands flexed absently at his side and she counted not five but four fingers on each hand. Behind him, his tail swished in the air slowly.

Frowning in his direction, she watched him look around the clearing, his gaze scanning everything.

Maybe the orc aliens had thought sending a model to get into her panties was the best way to recapture her?

Well, the joke was on them.

She wasn’t wearing any panties.

As the alien dipped his face into the rock pool before lifting his head again, Cleo lay mesmerized by the rivulets of water sliding down his skin.

The alien turned his head slightly in her direction and sniffed again.

That movement sent a barrage of thoughts and feelings through her that tugged in two separate directions.

Yea…about what she’d said earlier…she was going to die of thirst.

Creeping as silently as she could away from the water hole, Cleo backtracked to her cave.

8

Three more days passed.

The alien was still by the water hole.

She was out of water and food now, plus Wawa was still missing.

To add, for the past two nights, she’d heard more distant roars echoing through the jungle and she could only hope it didn’t mean the animals making the terrible sounds weren’t migrating to the mountain.

If that was the case, this was surely like the apocalypse.

She didn’t know what to do.

She couldn’t even focus. Her mind was constantly on the intruder who seemed to be making a home in the most inconvenient of places: right by her water source!

He was like a lion walking into meerkat territory only to take a nap. And who was she but not the confused meerkat poking her head up from her hidey-hole wondering just what the fuck is wrong with this lion?

The last time she ventured to spy on him, he’d been resting in a spot where the sun hit the bushes, his eyes closed as if he was sunning himself.

As she’d come close, she’d heard him sniff, and that one reaction had her retreating.

Withdrawing to her cave for the third night in a row, Cleo paced the floor of her cave in the darkness.

She was tired, hungry, thirsty…she was slowly dying.

Fuck.

And what’s worse, she felt alone.

For the entire time she’d been a fugitive, she hadn’t felt more on her own.

With a sigh, she stared up into the darkness above her. Somewhere out there, she hoped Wawa was okay.

She didn’t imagine it would be this way when she finally went.

There was an enemy on her doorstep, she was slowly starving, and dangerous animals were roaming the woods.

Even as she thought about it, she was sure she heard a roar in the distance.

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