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Her eyes widened.

“That’s a long time. Do you like it?”

Brax shrugged again.

“Don’t have a choice, do I ? I like it well enough, I guess. Not as much as working for my first Mistress , but what can you do?”

“You had a Mistress before? You worked for a woman?”

Her large, dark eyes were filled with interest and Brax sensed that she might not be quite as frightened of him now.

“Oh yes. Mistress Leelah . She bought me after I was first captured by slavers. I was only nineteen cycles at the time,” he added. “ She only kept me for a year before selling me to the Blood Circuit , but I’ll never forget her.”

“Why did she sell you?” the girl probed.

Brax frowned. This was something he would rather not talk about. Even years later, it was still a painful subject.

“I’d rather not say,” he said carefully. “ But it wasn’t because I hurt her or threatened her in any way,” he added. “ It was…due to circumstances beyond my control. But of course, most circumstances are beyond your control when you’re a slave. Don’t you think?”

“I suppose so.”

The girl shrugged her creamy shoulders. Gods , her skin looked so soft .

Brax could feel his shaft rising under the thin fabric of the towel he had wrapped around his waist. He shifted on his cot. It had been a long time since his Master had brought him a woman to taste and Maximus had never gotten him one as lovely as this little female.

“So are you here for me?” he asked her directly. “ Here to look me over and decide what you think?”

She looked surprised.

“Oh, well… I suppose I am.”

“I know my size is frightening, but I can be gentle, little one,” he assured her. “ I would never hurt you— I’d never hurt any female. I’m half Kindred , you know, so if you chose to part your thighs for me and let me taste you?—”

“Ah, there you are! Already here!” A new voice interrupted him and Brax saw a Yonnite Mistress coming around the corner with his Master .

“I see your niece is already admiring the merchandise,” Maximus said heartily.

“For the price you’re charging, she can look as long as she likes,” the Yonnite Mistress snapped back tartly.

She was short but made up for it with her bright blue hair, which had been teased into a towering mass above her head. Her makeup was so garish it seemed she might have come from the Interstellar Circus . Altogether , an extremely unappealing sight, Brax thought.

But what was she talking about when she said how much his Master was charging? Shouldn’t it be his Master paying her for the privilege of tasting the little female?

“Yes, well, he’s served me long and well and I dare say I could get twice as much for him over the next ten years. But since you’re offering to pay it in a lump sum, I’ll take it,” Maximus said. “ And it seems your niece has already taken a liking to him.”

At last the words registered. So the little female with the creamy brown skin wasn’t a slave like him—she was somehow related to the clownish-looking Yonnite Mistress . Brax wanted to kick himself. He’d just offered to taste her, too! What the fuck was she going to think?

“We’ll pay at once and take him with us,” the Yonnite Mistress said briskly. She turned to the girl. “ The price is over a million credits, but considering what your mother left you, you can well afford it.”

“But I never said—” the girl began, and then broke off, staring at Brax . Or no—she was staring at Cheeky who had run up his arm to perch on his shoulder. “ All right,” she said at last. “ But can he bring his pet with him?”

“That’s for you to say. I didn’t even know he was taming that little rat.

” Master Maximus made a face. He had no interest in any kind of animal except his enormous guard canines, which he liked to bring with him to events where they might scare people.

He was a puny little male who surrounded himself with huge, intimidating beasts in order to feel bigger.

Which was probably one reason he liked owning Brax .

“He’s not a rat— Cheeky’s a chirler,” Brax said, speaking to the girl rather than his Master . Ex - Master , if this deal went through, he supposed. Maybe his half-hearted prayer to the Goddess had been answered.

“A chirler?” She came closer to the bars but Brax held out a hand to stop her.

“Be careful, little Mistress —the bars are electrified,” he told her. “ I’ll bring Cheeky with me if you buy me—if you want me to, that is,” he added.

Best to get on her good side now. Maybe after all these years he would finally get a chance to escape if she bought him. Or if not, at least protecting her would be better than fighting and killing three times a day on the Blood Circuit .

“Yes, you can bring him. If you want to,” she said shyly. “ I’ve never seen a chirler before. But I haven’t been on Yonnie Six for very long, so I’m not really familiar with the wildlife here.”

“Wildlife!” Master Maximus said and laughed as though she’d said something funny. “ The only ‘wildlife’ around here are the cast off bodyslaves wandering the streets, poor bastards.”

“Well most of them displeased their Mistresses in some way,” the Yonnie Mistress with the tall hair and clownish makeup said tersely. “ So they deserved to be cast off!”

“Yes, of course, Mistress Nibblegrim .” Maximus nodded his head gravely. “ Now then, how shall we do the credit transfer?” he asked, rubbing his hands together, all business again.

“My niece will come with us and help with that,” Mistress Nibblegrim remarked, nodding at the girl. She made a sour face. “ For some reason she insists on doing all her banking on her own, though I have offered many times to take over that onerous chore for her.”

“Yes, well—this way, ladies.” Maximus gestured to them and then pointed at Brax . “ And you, get ready to go. The young lady is buying you as her bodyslave and I expect you to behave for her.”

“Yes, Master ,” Brax rumbled. It wasn’t like he had much to pack—he literally didn’t own anything except a few ragged pieces of clothing his Master gave him to wear so he wouldn’t be indecent.

The leather and chain outfit he fought in while in the ring belonged to Maximus and he would no doubt keep it for the next fighter he bought to wear.

As for Cheeky , Brax decided he would pack the protein crunchies, since they seemed to be the little chirler’s favorite food. That ought to keep him happy in their new home—wherever it was.

As the girl and her aunt—the overly made-up Yonnite Mistress —left with his ex- Master , Brax couldn’t help staring at her. Her full bottom twitched becomingly under the pale-yellow gown she wore and he could feel his shaft getting hard all over again.

On one hand, he was glad to be leaving the Blood Circuit . On the other hand, it seemed he wasn’t going to get to taste the sweet little female, as he had hoped. His Thirst , which was exacerbated by his Ryther half, was growing but, at least for now, there was no way to slake it.

Well, he would deal with that later, he told himself. For now, he was in the Goddess’s hands and he didn’t believe she would play him wrong.

And who knows—maybe my new Mistress will want to ‘train’ me the way Mistress Leelah did, he thought and felt his shaft straining against his towel once more. Those “training sessions” were still the stuff of his dreams—the fantasies he pictured when he took himself in hand.

If his new Mistress wanted that kind of relationship with him, well, he would be more than happy to serve her on his knees every fucking night.

He would just have to wait and see if that was the case.