by
In a near-future United States where slavery is alive and controlled by an organization known as the Circle, Avery Tulano is up for sale yet again—and it might very well be his last time on the auction block. As a young man, he signed his life away in a contract willingly, driven by the desire to escape his life. Now, eight years later, he's broken, battered, and sick from a life of unspeakable horrors. When the bidding starts as low as $200, it may as well be a death warrant.
Enter Conrad Fisher, a corrupt ex-cop discharged from the force who runs a failing private detective business. His wife died chasing one final high and he's been in a state of isolated depression ever since. He's only at the auction to help his journalist daughter Christina get a scoop on the Circle. When he sees Avery up for bid at such a low price, however, it's an offer he can't refuse and before he knows it, he's walking out of the auction house as Avery's new owner.
It's a mistake. Slavery is wrong. Conrad can't afford to keep him anyway, no matter what strange connection they find in each other. But even if a real relationship was possible, a life of drugs, alcohol, and bad decisions is rapidly catching up with both of them—if the Circle doesn't kill them first.
- 2 To Be Read lists
Editors:
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 5
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Bisexual
Protagonist 1 Age: 26-35
Protagonist 2 Age: 36-45
Tropes: Age Difference, Hurt / Comfort, Moral Failure
Word Count: 56000
Languages Available: English
Avery sat on the floor of his cage, piss pooling around him. The noise of the slave auction was deafening; he could barely hear the auctioneer rattling off prices or the shaking of bars from the cage next to his.
Once upon a time he'd been one of the cage rattlers, when he'd resisted the life he'd sold himself into. He laughed but choked on a sob. He could hardly remember the cocky young man he'd been: fresh out of college and believing he knew everything there was to know about the world. He'd been bored with politics, bored with luxury, bored with life. One shady online listing later, and he found himself signing a contract for life with the Circle.
"We can't promise your life will be pleasant," the suited man in shades had said, "but we can assure you it will be unusual." From there, Avery had been shipped to a slave auction naked and in chains.
READ MOREHe recalled the eager, wide eyes he'd had back then, scanning the crowd, wondering with relish who his new owner would be. Would he become an agent for the CIA, a ghost traveling the world and engaging in black ops? Would he be chosen as a sex slave, a pet for a politician domestic or foreign? An assassin? A porn star?
A glob of spit jerked him back to reality, and he looked up from his dirty knees to see a fat politician eyeing him with lust.
"Don't spit on the merchandise," a bouncer warned him, and the politician backed off with a sneer, the flag pin on his lapel gleaming as it caught the low fluorescent lights in the warehouse. Avery might have felt relief at one point, but there was only weariness in his soul now.
His fingers absently traced a scar on his lower back from the time he'd been bought by an Indian hospital as an organ donor. A part of his liver and one kidney had been taken before they'd sold him on at a profit. The missing limbs he often saw among other slaves told him it could have been much worse—that it could still become worse. He was no longer young and pretty, unbroken by the world. His blue eyes had lost their spark, and his body was raked with scars and wounds from various owners with a proclivity for violence. His current owner hadn't even bothered to wash him before sending him to the auction, and his cum still seeped from Avery's hole.
He wanted to die. Worse, he wanted to go back in time and strangle the child he'd been to think the world he'd lived in was boring. He would kill to go back to that life, but it was too late. Once the Circle had your signature, you were doomed to Eternity in their Hell.
COLLAPSE
