Taken by the Admiral Read Online Free

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