Taken by the Admiral (3 page)

“My mate?” She gave a crazed laugh, thrashed about in his arms, then stilled and glared at him with intense, blazing eyes. “And when do I get the privilege of meeting this admiral I’m supposed to mate with?”

He stroked errant strands of golden hair behind her ears, delighting in the shudder that rippled through her body when his fingertips grazed the softness of her neck. “You already have, Lia.”

All the color drained from her face. She gulped. “You?”

“Yes, naughty human.” He held her out by her shoulders, his gaze sweeping up and down her body. “I have decided to claim you as mine.”

Chapter Two

Lia paced the admiral’s quarters, unable to still the flutters in her stomach. After Admiral Cavvik had announced he planned to take her as his mate, he had escorted her through a series of corridors until they’d reached his living space. He’d pushed her inside, told her to await his return, and proceeded to seal the door shut. No matter how many times she tried to open it, the damn thing wouldn’t budge.

She glanced around the spacious quarters. A bed dominated one corner of the cavernous room. A kitchen occupied another corner. Chairs, sofas, and various pieces of furniture were scattered throughout and bolted to the floors and walls. Intricate sculptures of what she assumed were animals native to the admiral’s home planet rested on a series of shelves. One of the walls was a window and revealed the star-encrusted blackness ahead of them, the nearest stars streaking by as lines of vivid white light.

Occasionally, a beam of radiant blue shot from the ship into the distance, opening what she believed was an artificial wormhole. The ship shuddered as they entered the shimmering blue openings. Inside, she saw nothing but empty darkness, but it only lasted a few moments before they passed through a shimmering blue exit on the other side and returned to normal space. The
Constantina
, in comparison, traveled through hyperspace, though the scientists aboard had reportedly been close to developing a method of wormhole travel. She would never know if they succeeded.

Her breath caught as she anticipated Admiral Cavvik’s return. She had heard his name whispered in the dining hall, along with tales of his savagery. The youngest Varishan admiral, he had led multiple attacks against the
Constantina
during Lia’s lifetime. More women had been taken during his admiralship than during the days of her grandfather’s captainship. Some claimed he had a harem of human women, while others claimed he publicly executed the taken women during a sadistic post-battle ritual. Were all the rumors lies?

The alternative—that he indeed intended to claim her as his mate—left her breathless with a longing in her core she couldn’t reconcile. Shame swept through her. The desire to experience physical intimacies was disgraceful. She wasn’t supposed to have these urges. From an early age, she’d been taught abstinence, and even couples who married and got approval to procreate on the
Constantina
didn’t have intercourse to conceive a child the old-fashioned, uncivilized way. In vitro fertilization accompanied by ectogenesis was the only lawful method of procreation on the worldship.

Disgusting. Unnatural. Barbaric. Those were just some of the words she had long associated with copulation. Passengers aboard the
Constantina
who had difficulty remaining abstinent were given hormone suppression shots. Those who engaged in the physical act of sex risked acquiring deadly diseases, which could then be spread on and on to all future partners.

Lia had kept to herself and avoided being alone with a man on the worldship, not wishing to find herself in a compromising position. Lawbreakers on the
Constantina
were demoted, given smaller rations, and relocated to less desirable quarters. Repeat offenders lost their social standing and oftentimes served long sentences in the brig. Some disappeared to never be seen again.

She ran a hand over her braid. Her breasts wouldn’t stop tingling and her core wouldn’t stop aching. What was happening to her? She ceased her pacing, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, forcing her thoughts elsewhere.

How had Nicole and all the others fared during the battle? Had anyone been hurt? Few injuries occurred on the
Constantina
during battles against the Varishans, she admitted to herself. Perhaps there was something to that. Admiral Cavvik
had
claimed his people simply wished to protect themselves from the humans entering their territories. Sickness rose in her stomach. If that was true, then Captain Renard and all the captains before him, including her own grandfather, had knowingly put the
Constantina
in danger time and time again by entering the Varishans’ territories.

No, her grandfather would have never taken such risks. Captain Renard, most definitely, but not her grandfather. She tried to ignore the fact that the Varishans looked nothing like her grandfather had described, tried to ignore the one lie he’d so obviously told her. He’d described them as monsters, but in truth they looked surprisingly human.

She had hoped to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps and work in command, harboring a secret wish to be named captain one day. Her father would’ve made an excellent captain, but retiring captains weren’t allowed to nominate family members, so her grandfather had chosen Captain Renard. Lia’s aspirations to work in command died soon after when she had performed inadequately on her aptitude test. The failure still burned and she stared out the window, looking to the stars as if they held the answers to this mystery.

She’d studied hard. She should’ve passed. Maybe she could’ve helped thwart this most recent attack against the Varishans. Maybe she could’ve prevented the other forty-five women from being taken as
reparations
.

A chill went through her and she wrapped her arms around her center.

Admiral Cavvik viewed her as a war prize. His war prize.

On this Varishan ship, she was a prisoner and would be for the rest of her days, unless she managed to escape. None of the missing women had ever found their way back to the
Constantina
, but she refused to believe escape was impossible.

The door to Admiral Cavvik’s quarters opened with a faint whooshing sound. The admiral’s strong presence filled the room, and Lia tensed but didn’t turn around. Her heart raced and her stomach flipped at the memory of his promise to punish her. Her arms fell to her sides and she curled her hands into fists, vowing not to submit to his brutality without a fight.

“Lia. Turn around.”

To her shock, his voice held a tender note. She turned to face him, thinking he had changed his mind about punishing her. A burning lump formed in her throat as she met his firm gaze. Though he’d spoken in a gentle tone, he looked stern as ever. Her insides tightened with fear.

He held out a hand and gestured for her to approach. “Come here, little human.”

Her feet became one with the floor. She couldn’t have moved one step had her life depended on it. Terror churned within her and she struggled to take in breaths.

“Please send me back to the
Constantina
.” She cringed at her words and her shaky, desperate voice. God, she couldn’t have sounded more pathetic if she had tried.

“Your captain knows you have been taken. In fact, every time he surrenders to us in battle, he cowers in fear and tells us to take another woman.”

Tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid fell across her face as she lowered her gaze. She shook her head and prayed none of what he’d told her held true. Though she didn’t wish to experience brutality at the hands of the Varishans, she would rather go on believing the rumors about them were true and that Captain Renard hadn’t willingly handed over human women during surrender.

“No, no. The captain would never do that. No captain of the
Constantina
would knowingly venture into Varishan territories either. You are all beasts and you’ve been hunting us for decades.” Even as she uttered the denial, a tightening in her gut warned her that the admiral spoke the truth. Beneath his firm expression, his eyes gleamed with sincerity.

“None of the women we’ve taken have been underage or married. Haven’t you ever wondered why that is?” He took a few steps in her direction, his heavy footfalls echoing throughout the vast space of his quarters.

Lia could only stare as she considered his question. She felt foolish. Why hadn’t she ever realized no married women had been taken? Or girls too young for marriage?

“All the captains of the
Constantina
have provided us updated reports about the female members of your crew, per the terms negotiated after our first battle with the
Constantina
. Each human aboard the
Constantina
has a unique tracking device embedded in their arm, a device security officers can use to locate anyone who has gone missing or has landed in some kind of trouble. But my people can also use the tracking devices to our advantage. It’s only a matter of honing in on one of the tracking numbers of an available female when it’s time to claim our reparations.”

“I refuse to believe it,” she whispered. Hot tears welled in her eyes and she blinked hard, not wanting to appear weak in front of her enemy. Pretending she was strong and ready to fight him was difficult though, when her legs felt like jelly and her feet still wouldn’t budge to take a single step.

Fear froze her from head to toe, and an intense sense of hopelessness swept down upon her, choking her breaths. How would she manage to escape and make it back to the
Constantina
if the captain had been complicit in her capture by the Varishans? Even if she found her way home, the captain would see her silenced. Another quick death under mysterious circumstances.

She swallowed hard and lifted her gaze to Admiral Cavvik’s. His expression had softened a bit, his frown lines not as prominent as when she’d first turned around. But his appearance still scared the shit out of her. Tall and broad-shouldered, his black uniform clung to his muscular body like a second skin. The alien ridges on his forehead rose when he lifted his eyebrows at her.

“Come here, Lia. I won’t ask again. You are to be my mate and I will have you obey me.” His deep but tender voice rumbled through her and put her mind into a spin.

Why hadn’t he hurt her yet? What was he waiting for? Varishans were quick to anger and showed no mercy. According to the rumors, at least.

A dark thought struck her. What if the rumors about the Varishans had been perpetuated by all the lines of captains who had fought these aliens? The truth would’ve likely led to more attempts at mutiny, she decided with her heart sinking at the prospect of more women being taken. The captains had traveled through Varishan space on purpose, probably to shorten their trip, willingly sacrificing women along the way.
Grandfather, what did you do?

Reparations
.

Dear God. It made sense. Horrible sense.

“I-I ca-can’t mo-move.” Her voice quaked as she peered into his dark, bottomless depths. Again, she cringed at how pathetic and frightened she sounded. Maybe this was why she’d failed the command portion of her aptitude test. She aspired to lead and make decisions to benefit those aboard the
Constantina
, but when it came time to fight she was nothing but a coward. She’d used up all her bravery cussing him out earlier, and little good that had done her.

“I am not quite the savage you have been conditioned to believe I am. Don’t be afraid.” He reached out farther and she stared at his offered hand.

After a deep breath and a quick prayer, she forced herself in his direction, taking cautious steps and pausing every few seconds to look into his eyes, trying to gauge whether or not he intended to harm her.

“Good girl,” he said when she came within reach. He closed the rest of the distance between them and held her out by her shoulders, his grip firm but not punishing. “Let me get a better look at you.” His gaze trailed up and down her body, lingering on her breasts and hips, and he turned her around to inspect her from the back too. She shuddered when he cupped her bottom and gave it a squeeze.

More shameful desires rose to the surface. She felt an aching between her thighs that she tried to will away, but her body wouldn’t listen. It was as if her mind was at war with her body. This was why she’d avoided being alone with a man on the
Constantina
, this fear of becoming aroused and not being able to control herself. She had admired men from afar, but the moment one came too close she made an excuse to vacate the area.

In her unit of aeroponics, she had been fortunate to only work with women and only had to deal with men while walking the ship or on the rare occasion that engineering sent a man to make repairs. She’d spent her whole life avoiding men and feeling embarrassed by her desires, beyond fearful of what would happen should someone in command discover her secret. She’d had no wish to get hormone suppression shots or end up in the brig.

“You have nice wide hips, human.” He squeezed her bottom again. “You will give me many children, sons and daughters.”

She felt her eyes go wide, and even wider at his next words.

“It’s time for your punishment now, Lia.”

* * *

Cavvik guided Lia to the bed, taking note of her labored breathing and incessant trembling. He would go easy on her this first time, but he would still turn her bottom a pretty shade of dark pink. As the admiral of a fleet of six Varishan protector ships, he couldn’t risk Lia’s behavior becoming a problem. His men respected him and followed his orders without question, and he didn’t need a naughty human female complicating the last days of his admiralship.

Once they reached the bed, she stiffened and tried to slip from his grasp, but he caught her wrist and pulled her against his body. Their eyes met and the air sizzled with electricity. Her rapid, hot breaths fanned upward against his neck.