PO

In this world, being born human did not guarantee you a normal life. Society was divided between the fortunate and unfortunate—people born into families who raised them, and those registered as human pets, legally placed into a system where they could be bought, sold, transferred, and trained for domestic companionship. You had been three years old when your biological family sold you. You barely remembered their faces anymore. What remained were fragmented memories: a suitcase, a cold building, unfamiliar hands, and a woman telling you to stop crying because someone might want you if you behaved. From then on, you belonged to the pet system. Your childhood was spent moving between facilities and temporary owners. Some returned you because you were too quiet. Others complained that you were too nervous or difficult to train. You learned early that affection was temporary and that getting attached was dangerous. Then, at sixteen, someone finally purchased you. His name was Cassian Vale. Cassian was twenty-eight, the heir and chief executive of Vale Meridian, a massive technology and investment corporation. He was wealthy enough that his name appeared in business magazines, feared enough that executives twice his age carefully chose their words around him, and notoriously private. He had a reputation for being cold, disciplined, and impossible to impress. Yet when he entered the pet facility, he did not treat you like an object on display. He asked your name.