His Captive Mate Read Online Free Page B

racing. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Nothing like this could happen. The Tranquilities were the most well maintained ships in the entire fleet precisely for this reason. The very foundation of their society was built on the hunt. No mother would agree to send her daughter to a strange planet if she knew there was a risk of something like this happening.
    “When you heard the bang,” Zaer asked, “did you hear anything else? Did you feel anything?”
    Jasmine nodded in response.
    “Yes. Yes. I felt the ship shake. It shook so much it almost knocked me from my seat.”
    Zaer let go of Jasmine’s hand and straightened her back.
    “Was there anything else? Did the pilot, did Ashea say anything?”
    “Yes,” Jasmine nodded, “when she was talking to Daz. Once the ship had been struck, Daz went up to the front. I heard Ashea yelling. She was yelling that the ship had been shot.”
    The color drained from Zaer’s face as she breathed in slowly. It was not impossible what the girl was saying. The council had known that a day like this would come. But no one expected it to come so soon. And not in this way. Zaer forced a tight smile.
    “Tell me about Daz,” she said simply.
    Jasmine nodded.
    “Everyone was screaming. Screaming or crying. I—I was… I couldn’t move. I just stood there staring,” Jasmine’s voice cracked at the memory and Zaer reached over to touch her hand again. After a breath, she went on. “Daz? Daz was a hero. Ashea told her what to do, how to open the target. Then, when the other Tranquility shot a line over, she just started pushing us across. Clipping us on and pushing us out the door.”
    Zaer nodded, trying to ignore the tightness in her throat.
    “Then, I could see from the other ship that she went back to the cockpit. She was there for, I don’t know… it seemed like a long time. When she came back, she clipped up and… clipped up and jumped and then…” Jasmine’s hand shot to her mouth as she cringed and tears began to stream from her eyes. Zaer squeezed her hand and bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep herself from crying with the girl. It wasn’t becoming of a commander.
    It took some time for Jasmine to compose herself. Sobs kept spilling from her each time she tried to resume the story. Zaer held her hand, pushing back her own grief until finally Jasmine managed to calm herself.
    “Right after she jumped,” Jasmine said, her voice quiet, “there was another bang and the engines screamed even louder. I couldn’t see what happened but the Tranquility began to fall. Daz must have felt it. She must have known she would get pulled down. We had to push the button. We had to let the rope go or we would have been pulled down with the other Tranquility…” Jasmine managed the last few words before breaking down into quiet sobs again.
    Zaer held her hand quietly while the young woman composed herself once more.
    “Jasmine,” Zaer asked quietly. “Did she have her crash suit on?”
    Jasmine looked up and nodded instantly, biting her lower lip. A wave of relief flooded through Zaer, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in a long time. There was still a hope that her daughter was alive.

Chapter Four
     
     
    They walked in silence for hours, through thick jungle, through forest, through wide open meadows that turned into rolling hills. The men didn’t speak and Daz didn’t dare say a word. It wasn’t just that she’d never seen a man this close before—far less a group of them—but she had always been taught that all men were barbarians. Savages that were good only for one thing. Even if she had been the chatty type, what would she have said? Nice weather they had here?
    They had crossed rivers on makeshift bridges of rocks and logs. Like the simulators back home that Daz had played in with her friends so many times. But this was much different. This was real.
    When they had come to the bottom of a line of hills, one of the men spoke.
    “Sir, we