Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) Read Free

towards the girl?”
    “Special?”  Tyber’s
eyes narrowed.  “What?”
    “What the doctor needs
to know is if you are feeling the urge to mate with the lady?”
    “Mate?  What the hell
are you talking about?”
    Lore reached over and
grabbed the trim ankle that was just now sliding out of the long tube.  “Does
knowing I am touching her bother you?”
    “Why the hell . . .”  The
captain stopped in mid-sentence.  “She’s Bruha?”
    “Yes,” Lore said even
while the doctor was nodding his head.
    “Claimed?”
    “Hopefully, but doubtful,”
Lore said, as the doctor continued his humming through the data.
    “Why hopefully? Why doubtful?”
    “Because I don’t think
we want to be responsible for the only living unclaimed untouched Bruha
left in the solar system.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yes, every mercenary
in the galaxy will be after her.”  Lore looked at the captain, “At least every
mercenary who doesn’t loathe and despise slavery.”
    “We’re in luck,” the doctor
said, though the look on his face indicated it was anything but good.
    “Well, spit it out,
Doc, what?”
    “She’s claimed.”
    “How is that possible
if she’s untouched?”
    “That would be the bad
news.”
    “The bad news?  When
did we get the good news?”
    By now, the tube had
exited all the way, and the girl lay before them, covered only in a thin silver
shield.  Her eyes closed, she was compellingly beautiful, even without those
green eyes open to pull you in.  She was clearly built to be a man’s fantasy; as
a Bruha, she would be more.  All but Lore shifted uncomfortably at the thought.
    “Doctor?” he said
pulling his eyes away from the unconscious girl, “what’s the bad news?”
    The doctor’s hands were
busy across the controls, but he looked up at that.  “It’s a genetic imprint.”
    Lore caught the captain’s
brow raise and responded without prompting.
    “Someone genetically
hardwired her to respond only to one man.”
    The doctor hummed a bit
more, “But she hasn’t been turned on as it were.  My guess is she was placed in
that pod and was somehow lost before the final imprinting could occur.”
    “Now what does that
mean?”
    “It means that her ‘master,’
for want of a better word, never got around to meeting her after the genetic
manipulation occurred.  She may be able to go on and live a normal life, well,
except for the other things.”
    The captain rubbed his
head, wondering if he even wanted to know.
    “Of course, anyone with
the DNA of her original owner could cause her to have some very serious . . . lust. 
It would only be when he is actually touching her; otherwise she is not driven
to search him out as a regular Bruha would be.”
    “What other things?”  The
captain finally couldn’t stop himself from asking.
    “She is psychically
gifted.”
    “How?”
    “I have no idea.  But
she’s also very, very smart.”
    “We knew that when she
bit Mac,” Sera said leaning against the door, catching the tail end of the
conversation.
    “No grease in my
laboratory,” Doc said.
    Sera rolled her eyes.  “Yeah,
yeah.  I know.  I’m not coming any closer.”
    “You’re different than
the others.”  The voice had them all turning to look at the bed.  The clear
green eyes were open and on Lore.
    Lore bowed.  “Lore
Trugarian.  I am honored to meet you, Bruha.”
    “That is not my name,”
she said, after thinking a moment.  She sat up, “And that is not your name.” 
The sheet fell forward exposing her breasts.  Everyone took in the sight of her
full pert breasts with the soft pink nipples over golden skin.  Her brow
crinkled, her hand going to her head, she did not seem to notice her partial
nudity while everyone else just stood there staring.
    Sera harrumphed from
the doorway, then stomped forward despite her grubby boots, whisked the girl’s robes
off the chair and back over her body.  She glared at the men, sent a heated
glare to the doctor and stomped out