Happy #SlaveMeThursday! This is a tough one so I will need all of #TMZ to be strong. It is what it is.

COMMENTS AND VOTES! MWAH!! Xoxo

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"Where is he?" Zayn was still frantically scanning the crowd. Not only was Liam nowhere in sight, but he didn't see any slaves at all. For formal events, slaves often accompanied their Masters as human accessories. But this didn't look like any soirée Zayn had ever attended.

"The bidding is nearly closed. All the slaves are in private rooms by now." Marcus sent Zayn a dark smirk over his shoulder. "But if you hurry, I'm sure you can scrounge up enough to make it into the top three bidders."

"Bidders? On what? What the hell is..." Zayn did another look around. Underground party, podium, chains on the walls. It hit him suddenly. "Oh my God, you're selling slaves." Zayn's entire body shuddered at the realization. That meant Liam was on tonight's docket. He was being sold right now. "You can't do this!"

"I'll kindly ask you not to yell." Marcus turned a hard eye on Zayn. "It disturbs my guests."

"Your buyers you mean."

Marcus considered that for a brief moment. "Well, yes." He smiled that slimy smile that told Zayn he was feeling zero remorse.

"Where is he?"

"You'll need to be in the top three bidders to be able to see him now." Marcus kept walking and Zayn followed closely behind. "Lucky for you, after our top bidder got ahold of him, the bids dropped off. Most know when to quit, but you can see him for..." he pulled out his phone and scrolled, "A bid of ten thousand."

"Done," Zayn answered immediately. It was just a bid after all.

"Now, don't forget," like Zayn knew the rules in the first place, "entry fee is two thousand flat."

Zayn nodded quickly. "Fine. Whatever. Take me to him."

Marcus licked over his top lip. "Right this way."

Zayn tried not to make eye contact with anyone he might know as Marcus led him across the room and through a door in the back corner. There was a hallway with a line of closed doors. Marcus opened the second one and Zayn followed him through.

The lights were dim and there were no windows, but Zayn could see, clear as day, his Liam stood in the middle of the room, bound and naked, while two other men and a woman looked him over. His head was hung heavy in shame, his shoulders hunched over as he tried to make himself physically disappear.

"Get away from him!" Zayn marched across the room and shoved the Masters away. Liam's eyes lit up with recognition and he tried to reach for him, but his bound wrists limited him. He whined behind the gag as Zayn circled his arms around the thicker boy. "I'm here, baby. You're okay."

"Excuse me? We're in the middle of a sale here," one man complained.

Zayn didn't let go of Liam, but he turned so he could face the others, shielding Liam's bare body with his. "The sale is over. This is my slave."

"You can't just do that," the woman interjected.

"No, he can't," a graying, imposing, well-suited man said calmly. "Especially considering this slave is actually mine."

"And mine," Marcus piped up. Marcus put a hand on the two other Master's shoulders. "And that's three bidders that have far more money than you, so..." Marcus nodded to a guard by the door and the other two were led away with a few discontented shouts.

Once the door was closed the unknown man stepped up to Zayn. "If you'll kindly move out of the way, I was in the middle of inspecting him."

"No," Zayn said firmly. "He's not for sale."

"I don't believe that's up to you."

"Don't make this hard, Zayn," Marcus warned. "We've got a few things to discuss, but you will not interrupt my business."

Zayn felt a firm hold on his arm and saw the guard from a few minutes ago glaring down at him. He wasn't a slave if he had so little respect for Masters' dominance. He must be a Human that Marcus kept around for these things.

Zayn shook the man off, but stepped only a few inches away from Liam and turned to look at him. He was shaking and his eyes were red, meaning he'd been crying earlier. "I'm right here, baby. I'll get us out."

The older man just gave Zayn a look before placing a hand on the slave's back and bending him over. Zayn seethed and moved to stop him, but he felt two sets of hands this time, and when he looked there were more guards.

"Stop, you can't do this. He's not even sold yet. You can't touch him!"

"Actually that's exactly what these rooms are for. To examine the product and decide if it's worth the massive amounts of money you're going to pay," Marcus informed him.

"You can't do this. If you have sex with him and decide you don't want him, he'll be ruined."

"Please, Mr. Malik," the graying man stopped him. "We are not barbarians. I won't be having sex with him until he is mine. Again." The man rolled his eyes.

"Again?"

The man ignored Zayn's question. "You know I shouldn't be having to buy back a slave that's already mine," he explained to Marcus.

"It's not my fault you can't keep up with your possessions," Marcus waved him off. "You're lucky I have him in the first place or you'd never get him back."

"Get him back? What the hell is going on?!"

The unknown Master sighed, tired of Zayn's ignorance apparently. "Liam is my slave. I own him."

"You don't. He's my-Marcus'...he doesn't belong to you."

"Actually, it's mostly his word against Liam's. Which wouldn't say much, but with me on Liam's side, his word becomes much more valuable. Which is why he's being sold and not merely given away," Marcus explained.

Zayn lowered his gaze to where Liam was looking up at him from his bent position. The third Master was still roaming Liam's hips and back with his hands, and Liam was shaking, the fear in his eyes too much for Zayn. "My turn," he said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Marcus wondered.

"This guy had his time inspecting Liam, it's my turn."

The man seemed to think that was fair and let his hands drop from Liam's broad back. Zayn immediately stood him up and brought his face close enough to kiss both cheeks and then his forehead. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he begged.

Liam just whined through his gag and nuzzled into Zayn's cheek. He felt the wet of fresh tears and wrapped his arms around Liam's neck and shoulders.

"Christ, Liam. You surely get around," the older man scoffed.

"You wouldn't believe his disobedience, Magee. No wonder you had to train him so harshly."

Liam made a wrecked sound at that and moved impossibly closer to Zayn. Zayn couldn't, wouldn't, understand what was happening. Another man that claimed Liam, that trained him. God, it seemed like a lifetime ago that Liam wasn't in his life, but he remembered the night he found him. The dark alleyway, the bruises and cuts. Zayn turned his head to face this Magee and snarled.

"You're the Master that abandoned him." Magee actually laughed. Laughed at Zayn.

"Liam hasn't told you much about his past, has he?" Marcus asked.

Zayn shielded Liam's body again, his back pressed against Liam's chest, with a hand on his waist, but he faced the two men. "He doesn't have to. It's not important." Liam whined again and tucked his face into Zayn's neck from behind, leaving it there to rest. Zayn squeezed his slave in reassurance.

"It is today," Marcus gleamed. "You don't know anything about the man you tried to steal from me."

"Is that why you're doing this?" Zayn asked. "You're selling Liam because I want him."

"If I can't have him, then you can't either, Mr. Malik. I will not be embarrassed by people that I own," he practically spat. "I'm sure you got up to plenty of stuff while Liam was living with you, but I was kind enough to overlook it. Then the open flirting the night you introduced him to me. I brushed it off. The late night calls, the time you decided it was okay to disregard my discipline and have Liam take off his cage and get off to the sound of your voice." Marcus was red in the face now, but he took a long, calming breath. "I decided all Liam needed was some strict guidance. I could break him, make him mine." Magee scoffed and Marcus sent him a glare before turning back to Zayn. "But then you two started planning your ceremony on my dime!" he shouted. "Liam brings home these...ridiculous plans of barbecue and beaches, and I knew. I knew what you two were doing. And I'll be damned if I lose my slave to you."

"Liam here needs more than tough guidance. I'm the only one that can truly handle him," Magee boasted. Liam sobbed and Zayn pulled his slave harder against him.

"Is that why he ran?" Marcus noted with a raised brow.

"Liam...wait. Liam ran?" Zayn turned his head and looked into Liam's sad eyes and saw the truth. "You weren't abandoned. You ran." Slaves never left their Masters once that were paired. Being abandoned was bad enough, but running. Running was unforgivable. Liam begged him with his eyes to understand. Zayn did, instantly. "He hurt you."

Zayn turned around and put gentle hands on Liam's body. He trailed over the scars he'd seen before but mostly overlooked, thinking they'd all come from the night he found him. But now he could see some were faded and old, but noticeable still. "The night I found you. It wasn't the first time you'd been beaten."

"And it wasn't meant to be the last," Magee snarled. "But after I sent my men out to find him, teach him his lesson, and tell him to make his way home by sun up, he never came back."

"Because I found him," he said mostly to Liam, voice barely above a whisper.

"You stole him. From me," Magee concluded.

Zayn was suddenly so angry, his blood boiling under his skin. He turned on the older man and leveled him with a glare. "You beat him! You left him half dead in the street! You don't deserve him!" Zayn's fist connected with Magee's face before he even knew it was lifted.

Magee stumbled back, a hand to his lip and heat in his eyes. He was breathing heavily through his nose and glaring at Zayn. "I was thinking of making a deal we could both benefit from, but you've just lost yourself a slave, Mr. Malik."

Liam cried out for Zayn and Zayn rushed to him in an instant. "No," he said firmly. "Liam is leaving with me." He carded shaking fingers through Liam's hair. "He's mine," he said softly, lips just inches from Liam's, separated by his gag.

"No, Zayn," Marcus decided. "He never was."

"I'll pay my bid," Magee announced. "Liam is mine."

Then there were multiple sets of hands on Zayn and on Liam and the two were fighting against their holds, towards each other. "No! Liam! Don't worry," Zayn shouted and tried to comfort him at the same time. "No!" He broke their hold for moment and ran to Liam, hands coming up to his face. "I love you. I won't let you go," he whispered just for them.

Then Zayn was being dragged again, kicking and screaming, Liam looking on while putting up a useless fight, as Zayn was pulled from the room and down the hall. "Liam!" He shouted his love's name until his throat was sore while he was shoved and dragged through the hall, upstairs, and around another hall. Then he was pushed out a door, into the night.

Marcus was there, walking between the guards that had just shoved Zayn out on the street. "I hope you've learned your lesson, Zayn."

Zayn rubbed where there were bruises forming on his arms. "I'll get him back," he assured, but his voice was cracking and weak.

"We shall see, Mr. Malik."

Marcus and the guards turned and walked back into the building, leaving Zayn alone and crying in the cold, dark air of a broken, empty downtown street.