Mated To The Crippled Alpha

Chapter 478: WHEN HEARTS BREAK

I lay on the bed with barely enough strength to lift my arms. When Vito walked back into the room, I curled into myself like a small, tired animal , just barely managing to blink up at him through heavy eyelids."Vito," I said softly, "I feel horrible. I miss my mom. When can I go home?"

He went still for just a moment. Something crossed his face , not cruelty, but a kind of weight, like a man carrying something too heavy to put down. He looked at me, and I could tell there was an answer he wasn’t ready to give.

"Once you’re better," he said gently, "you can go home."

"Really?" I felt something warm stir in my chest.

"Yes. Now sit up and eat something."

"I’m too tired. Can you feed me? At home, Ethan always feeds me when I’m sick." I knew it was a lot to ask, but the words came out before I could stop them.

He hesitated , I could almost feel him calculating the weight of what was ahead for me , and then he gave in. "Alright."

He fed me one spoonful at a time, quiet and patient. When I finished, I yawned and started drifting. He caught me before I could fully sink under. "Medicine first."

"Okay," I mumbled. But the moment it hit my tongue, I snapped awake. "Ugh , that’s disgusting!"

"Bitter medicine works best. Drink it and you’ll feel better."

"No! It’s too bitter , I won’t drink it!" I yanked the covers over my head and wriggled deeper into the sheets, tucking myself in protest.

Yael appeared at Vito’s elbow. "Vito , hungry. Want milk."

Vito patted his head without looking away from my cocoon. "Not yet, little one. Go eat some food first."

"Vito feed," Yael insisted.

"I’m busy right now."

Yael’s lip pushed out into a full pout. "You feed her , feed me too."

Vito exhaled slowly. Between the sick girl hiding under the covers and his little brother demanding attention, something in his expression flickered , like he’d woken up in charge of a household he hadn’t signed up for.

"Yael, be good. I’ll feed you in a minute. She needs her medicine first so she can get better."

I poked my head out from under the blanket. "Vito , do you eat bitter things all the time?"

He didn’t answer, which was its own kind of answer.

"Fine," I said. "If you want me to take it, I need candy. My siblings always give me candy."

"What kind?" he asked, and I lit up immediately.

"Chocolate. Fruit gummies. Marshmallows. Chips. Popcorn,"

"Wait." He frowned. "That’s not food, that’s a sugar crisis."

I blinked at him. "You can’t be that much older than me."

Beside us, Yael perked up with wide eyes. "I’ll eat them."

I flopped back against the pillows. "I don’t care. If I don’t get candy, I won’t take the medicine. I’ll just die from this illness on my own."

Vito stared at me for a long moment, then exhaled through his nose. "Fine. What else do you want?"

I thought carefully. "Pajamas. A new dress , with a pink bow. And..." I paused, then pulled up the oversized shirt I was wearing to show him the waistband of his boxers slipping past my hips. "New underwear. Yours are too big."

He turned away fast. His ears went red. He cleared his throat. "Girls shouldn’t just , show their underwear."

"I was only showing you how big it is."

"I... understood that," he said, very carefully. "Anything else?"

I listed everything I could think of , snacks, clothes, toys, a few other things. I wasn’t thinking about where I was or what it meant. It didn’t feel like captivity. It felt a little like visiting relatives who had more rules than I was used to.

When I’d said everything, I burrowed back under the covers and fell asleep immediately. Vito stood there for a moment, looking at the lump I made in the blankets, and then he let it go.

He glanced at his brother. "Alright. Let’s go eat."

He didn’t leave the floor , something kept him close, a low and protective alertness that lived just under his skin. He warmed up food in the small kitchen nearby and fed Yael himself, watching the door the whole time.

When I woke up, the room had changed.

Snacks were stacked on the table. Toys sat in a pile on the floor. A tablet. A game console. Everything I’d asked for. Yael sat in the middle of it all, grinning at me like he’d won something.

Vito unwrapped a candy. "Now will you take your medicine?"

"I said strawberry-flavored."

He held up a strawberry candy without a word.

"Fine." I took the medicine, screwing up my face the entire time. He popped the candy into my mouth the moment I finished.

"Better?"

"Much better." I smiled at him. "Thank you, Vito. You’ve been really kind."

He looked at me , really looked , and something shifted in his face. Not the careful, measured calm he’d kept all afternoon. Something quieter and sadder underneath it.

"How old are you?" he asked.

I held up my fingers. "Five. Almost six." I thought for a second. "This year, Elena said she’d take me to the beach for my birthday. And Ethan promised to take me boating. They said the water is so clear you can see the fish at the bottom. Vito , will you come to my birthday party?"

His smile didn’t move, but it stopped reaching his eyes. "Sure."

He looked down at his hands. He had seen enough of the world to know how fast a light could go out, and the thought of this one , bright and oblivious and full of birthday plans , sat heavy in his chest.

I reached over and put a candy in his mouth.

"Are you sad?" I asked. "Candy helps. It always helps."

The sweet and sour spread slowly over his tongue. He looked at me , really looked , and something in him that had been calculating odds and outcomes and worst-case futures went quiet for a moment.

"I’ll protect you," he said. "No matter what."