Page 70 of Sohut's Protection

The way he said it, she’d have laughed if he didn’t have an animal intent on ripping him apart fastened to his back.

Cooing, she stepped to the side so she could make eye contact with Wawa.

“Wawa,” she cooed, and the animal looked at her.

Cleo’s hand flew to cover her mouth in shock.

Wawa’s big brown eyes were completely and utterly black.

“Wawa?” The animal blinked at her and his eyes turned to brown.

“It’s a slizz, not a pet, I doubt—”

At the sound of the alien’s voice, Wawa screeched again, his eyes bleeding to black in an instant as he twisted his neck in Sohut’s hand, trying to sink his teeth into the alien’s flesh.

“Wawa!” It took her a moment to realize the authoritative voice was her own. “Stop this instant!”

Wawa’s eyes turned to brown again and he blinked at her…but his teeth, wherever they’d come from, didn’t retract.

“This man is my…” Friend? He wasn’t her friend. But he didn’t seem like her enemy either. Enemies didn’t give you their sharp blade and turn their backs to you while you pulled thorns from their flesh, knowing very well you could slit their throat if you wanted to.

Wawa had stopped screeching, but he wasn’t letting go and Sohut was looking at her with a mix of horror and disbelief—the same look you’d probably give someone who could burp the alphabet and the Star Wars theme without effort.

“Let. Him. Go.”

Wawa and the alien blinked at her before Wawa’s teeth…disappeared.

Where they went in his head, she didn’t know. But his mouth closed, and he retracted his claws from Sohut’s back.

Before she could tell the animal “good job”, Wawa was a blur as Sohut threw him across the room. Her body jerked as he pushed her behind him and she got a view of his bleeding back again.

“Stay behind me,” he said, his muscles tensed.

A chuckle rose in her throat.

“I’m the one that just rescued you. I don’t need protection from Wawa.”

As she looked around him though, the sight of Wawa made the hairs on her neck rise a little.

He didn’t look like the normal cute little animal she was used to.

He looked terrifying.

He was kind of like an otter.

Cute, but deadly.

Just like the alien guarding her, Wawa was tense. His teeth were out again, and he was ready to pounce should Sohut make a wrong move.

Wawa’s eyes darted from the alien to her and back but he stood still.

“Wawa,” Cleo stepped from behind Sohut and he made a noise of disapproval as she reached out to Wawa. “Come, bubba. He’s ok. He won’t hurt you.”

She shot a look behind her at the bewildered alien.

Wawa came forward slowly and crawled up her hand to sit on her shoulder at his usual spot, his tail swishing lazily on her back.

He was giving the alien the stink eye and it was strange to recognize that on an alien creature’s face. So strange, she had to hold back a laugh.

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