The slaver handed him the bracelet. “Trust me, you’re going to need it. If you want to activate her sex drive, it’s the red button. The blue stalls her. Green makes her obey whatever your last command was. Yellow releases her to her own power… Yeah, that’s not really something you want to do. She’s a lot stronger than she looks. The black button will knock her unconscious. You might want to keep a finger near that one until you break her in. She’s a handful even with the collar on.”

Maris passed a haughty look at the slaver to let him know he’d been summarily dismissed. It was the type of smug insolence that made Zarya despise the ruling class.

The slaver smirked at her before he left the room. “Enjoy her, my lord. You certainly paid more for her than anyone else would have.”

As soon as they were alone, Maris placed the bracelet on his wrist, then pressed the yellow button.

Zarya was grateful that she had control of herself again, but…“I’m not about to be your sex slave, buddy. You can forget it.”

Maris laughed at her angry indignation. “My bracelet says otherwise.”

She glared at him. “If you think—”

“Stop with the threats and relax,” he said with a purely feminine wave of his hand. “Trust me, hon, you fully lack the anatomy I need to be attracted to you.”

“How so?”

He arched that regal brow again. “What are you? Blind? I’m as gay as they come, sweetie. Your body holds no appeal for me whatsoever. At least not sexually.”

“Then why did you buy me?”

His gaze burned into her with a malice that actually scared her. “You’re the one who was sleeping with Kere, correct?”

Zarya didn’t dare answer. Even now, after everything she’d suffered because of him, she refused to betray his trust. Why? She had no idea.

Actually that wasn’t true. She knew why. If nothing else in her life, she was loyal. Even when it was stupid.

Maris tsked at her. “Oh, that look says it all. You are definitely the one I need.” He took her arm and started forward. “Come with me.”

Zarya refused to blindly follow him or anyone else until she had more information. She stopped dead in her tracks. “Where are you taking me?”

“To save my best friend’s life.”

She felt as if they were speaking two entirely different languages. So much for having learned Universal. “I don’t understand.”

He pinned her with a warning glower as he let go of her arm. “You and your little rebel friends have destroyed the best man I have ever known. You took a noble, kind hero and turned him into a self-serving beast who is bent on total annihilation of everyone around him, including himself. So it only stands to reason that ye who broke him, might be the one to fix him.”

Those words made her see red. “If you mean Darling, he’s the one who sold me. I don’t ever want to see him again. I’m done. You hear me? No one treats me the way he has. No one.” What she wanted to do was beat him until he hurt as much as she did.