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Dead Stick Salvage worked on all kinds of spaceships, so we saw a lot of variety, but I whistled low, drooling over the sleek, dark curves of this vessel. It looked like polished obsidian with a hint of sparkle.

I’d read the file, even though I’d pretended I hadn’t. When a girl is this single, there are only so many hours alone with her vibrational clit sucker before things go numb and even Tambi’s reports look interesting.

I’d also seen the word large in the species notes. I thought I knew what that meant, having practically lived with a seven-foot Kelvane since Rennick went wherever Cass did.

I didn’t.

The Draethyn male, Valdris, stepped through the airlock of his ship and onto a descending ramp.

“Fuck me!” I whispered.

He was built like something designed to hold ground against an entire tank division. Bronze skin, dark as old pennies, pulled over a frame that suggested he’d been doing hard physical work for longer than I’d been alive. His horns curved forward from his head, dark and smooth, almost black.

He wore simple clothes. Dark, fitted, practical. No ornamentation or rank markers. Everything about him was stripped back, from the way he held his hands at his sides to the way his gaze tracked me the second the door opened.

His eyes came back to mine. Dark green eyes. Steady and unreadable. More droid than giant alien. I’d never been looked at with such attention. It was a kind of focus that said I see the shape of you, and I haven’t decided anything yet.

“Hey. Welcome to Dead Stick Salvage. I’m Monica Delgado.” I held out my hand.

He looked at my hand, then grasped it. His grip was dry, firm, and his palm was rough. Working hands. His fingers engulfed mine.

“Valdris.” His voice was low, with a hint of culture. “Thank you for seeing me on short notice.”

“We like short notice. Keeps things interesting.” I let go of his hand. There’d been a faint vibration when we’d touched. Where the hell had that come from? “Come meet the rest of the crew, and we can discuss what your ship needs.”

I walked ahead, and he followed. His footsteps were nearly silent for someone his size. Big things were supposed to be loud. I was loud. Tits, hips, ass. Everything shook, and I loved being squishy. And the guys went wild for my curves.

Cass came over first, introduced everyone, and we assembled around the war room table. It was a label we only used when high-value clients weren’t in the room, since the word war made a lot of them twitch. Even in space, alpha assholes think fighting and blowing shit up will get them what they want, when all it does is make everyone hate them.

Valdris sat, and the chair creaked. He didn’t seem to notice or care. This guy must break a lot of furniture. Must get through a lot of beds, too, if he fucked like I imagined he did.

Tambi leaned forward. “Your message said you have a ship nobody else will touch. We need more specifics so we can identify her problem.”

“I have a decommissioned Draethyn vessel. Sacred class.” Valdris’s big, scarred hands rested on the table. “The vessel is... disturbed.”

“Not safe to fly? She had a graceful landing.” Tambi jerked her chin toward the smooth, dark, sparkly ship outside.

“Not that. She can fly.” He paused.

“What kind of disturbances?” Cass asked.

“They’re hard to explain. It must be seen to be believed.”

The room was quiet for a beat.

“Why us?” Tambi asked. “Draethyn have their own shipyards across the star system. Why come to a human crew?”

Valdris looked at her calmly. “You have a reputation as the crew that handles haunted ships.”

I choked on nothing but my own surprise. “Haunted, you say?”

“I beg your finest pardon?” Doc’s mug paused halfway to her mouth.

“You cleared a Kelvane bioship of entities.” Valdris’s gaze moved around the table before settling on Rennick. “Word of your success reached the outer trade lanes, and several species are talking about you. The human crew who fixed the unfixable haunting.”

I stared at Cass. Cass stared at Rennick and bit her bottom lip.

Tambi closed her eyes in a way I recognized as her I didn’t plan for this face. She was about to go nuclear if this dude didn’t stop talking about haunted damn ships and us being ghost busting experts.