Alien Intent (Captured by Aliens Book 3) Read Free Page B

of thin light slivered through a
center door at the back, just over her head.  She glanced around, searching for
Samara in the rubble of females and panicked when she didn’t see her or Cyndy.
    At the
front of the vehicle she could see tinted glass and the shape of what looked
like two men sitting in the front. Human men, at least from what she could see
in her position.  She couldn’t be sure since she didn’t want to sit up, take a
gander, and give herself away. What the hell were humans doing with them? Maybe
they hadn’t been abducted by aliens? The thought that she’d believed something
so ridiculous almost made her want to laugh. This they could handle.
    Some of
the other women began to awaken, and with unspoken agreement, everyone kept
still, silent and watchful. Maybe it was fear of the unknown holding them
enthralled, but she liked to think in spite of the panic on the ship—or
whatever they’d been on before—they weren’t mindless morons incapable of
controlling themselves orweighing out the pros
and cons of waiting to see just how deep in shit they actually were.
    The
vehicle pulled to a gentle stop. Jasmine listened as the two figures in the front
exited and shut the doors. Masculine voices laughed and talked, muffled beyond
the walls of the vehicle, but she could trace their path as they moved to the
back. Her ears strained, listening for their movement outside as her pulse thundered
behind her eardrums. A lock disengaged loudly at the back door, inches from
her. She tensed and closed her eyes, feigning sleep as the brilliance of
daylight flooded the dark interior and fresh air swept through in a rush. The
moment a hand locked around her arm to pull her out, her fight-flight adrenaline
kicked into overdrive. Eyes flying open, she looked up into a male face that
looked every inch human.
    Jasmine shrieked
and rolled out of his startled grip, hitting the ground before he could react. 
Her legs wobbled unsteadily as she jumped to her feet.  Air currents caught the
flimsy gown like a billowing sail. She ran for her life, trying her best not to
trip over her own bare feet.  Before she’d made it more than twenty feet from
her start point, a whooshing noise sounded above her.  Something blocked out
the sun, casting a shadow around her on the ground. Daring a look up, she
gasped as an enormous feathery lizard swooped straight for her.  She fell
backwards, hitting the ground and expelling the breath from her lungs as her
rump connected with unforgiving earth.
    On top
of what looked for all the world like a dragon sat a man in a black uniform
with a high, strange collar and startling blue eyes.  He yanked the reins,
commanding the dragon low over her, so close she could feel and smell its citrusy
breath. Her eyes watered. She choked back a scream, frozen in place. The beast
dropped to the ground, flapping its wings and stirring puffs of dust into the
air to sting her eyes.  Jasmine surreptitiously dug one hand in the dirt,
palming a handful of sand.
    The
rider dropped to the ground to stand over her, shading her from the sun. “Are
you done fighting?” he asked in a gruff voice that rumbled in his chest.
    Jasmine’s
ears vibrated with the sound of his voice, detecting a finite second of garbled
sound before her brain comprehended what he was saying.  She shook her head as
if a fly buzzed around in her ears. He offered her his hand, watching her like
a cat on a mouse. “Do you understand?  Are you going to run?”
    Again,
something behind her ears translated a garbled sound a split second before she
understood him.  The more he spoke, the less she noticed it. She cast a quick
glance around, noting that other enormous men in military-style uniforms similar
to his were there, taking the women as they awakened and herding them through a
door that pierced a building with sky-high spires.  She still didn’t see Samara
or Cyndy in the crowded lines.
    Gingerly
she took his hand, girding her nerves.  As