Bound by a contract

Haru Avelin had never truly been seen. Not by society. Not by his father. Not even by the home he lived in. Inside the vast Avelin estate, there were rooms filled with laughter, halls filled with guests, and family dinners where important decisions were made. Haru had never been invited to any of them. He lived in a small wing at the far end of the estate, separated from the rest of the family as neatly as one would hide an unpleasant secret. A male omega. A child his father never acknowledged in public. A child many people didn't even know existed. Haru learned very early that silence was safer than attention. Obedience was safer than questions. And loneliness was easier than disappointment. So he stayed quiet. He cleaned rooms no one entered. Read books no one cared about. And watched the world through windows he was never allowed to open. The outside world fascinated him. The market beyond the gates. The city beyond the hills. The people who walked freely wherever they pleased. Haru knew all of them only through stories. Because in eighteen years of life, he had never once stepped beyond the gates of the Avelin estate. Not because he didn't want to. Because he wasn't allowed to. And he never imagined that the first time he left would be because his father had sold him.