to be ours *Disconnected

Riku Sāto has never known kindness that didn't come with a cost.
After years of abuse, hunger, and silence, the nineteen-year-old has learned how to disappear-how to make himself small enough to survive. But one night, when a group of strangers finds him half-dead behind a city dumpster, his life changes forever.

Damon Volkov isn't the kind of man who stumbles across lost boys.
A powerful CEO and the hidden head of a criminal empire, Damon believes everything in his world should be controlled-including people. When he finds Riku broken and bleeding, he doesn't understand the urge that keeps him from walking away. Saving Riku becomes an obsession. Protecting him becomes possession.

Ivan Müller is used to following Damon's orders, not questioning them. But as Riku's quiet presence begins to shift the balance in the house, even Ivan starts to see the cracks forming beneath Damon's calm.

Dante Alexandro wants nothing to do with the boy. His anger burns too easily, and he hates the way Riku's fragility forces him to feel anything at all. But hate has always been easier than guilt.

And Osian Lewis-the only one in the house who still believes in gentleness-feels a connection he can't ignore. To him, Riku isn't a responsibility or a weakness; he's someone worth saving. Someone who makes him remember the parts of himself he buried long ago.

Five lives collide under one roof-each one scarred, each one grasping for control, love, or redemption.
But in a world where affection blurs with obsession, and comfort turns into captivity, Riku must decide what survival truly means: freedom... or belonging.

Because sometimes, what saves you isn't mercy.
It's the darkness that refuses to let you go.
It's the whisper that says you were never meant to leave.
It's the choice-terrible and tender-to be ours.

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