My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 107: The Children Are Locked Out

Violet

The small courtyard was beautiful.

Paved stones created pathways through lush greenery that had been carefully maintained. Flowering bushes lined the walkways, and small trees provided shade over small seating areas. The main house sat at the center of it all, large and lovely with carved wooden details and large windows.

I was stunned.

This boy was from a wealthy home.

My confusion deepened as Aster didn’t head toward the main house. Instead, he walked toward the back of it, where a smaller structure sat partially hidden behind the greenery.

My heart started to sink.

The structure was decent enough. The same quality as the large house with a proper roof. But it was far smaller and clearly separate from the main house.

Maybe a converted storage building?

Aster opened the door and stepped inside. I followed, ducking slightly as I went in.

The interior was a single wide room, cluttered but not filthy. A wide bed was on the floor in the corner of the room. Shelves held what looked like spare clothes and a few personal items aside from the clusters of items on the floor.

And on the bed, lying down with a thin blanket pulled up to her shoulders, was a little girl.

She looked up as we entered, and I saw her stiffen. Fear flashed across her small face, and she shrank back against the wall.

Another Omega.

"It’s okay, Ari!" Aster rushed to her side immediately, his voice gentle and reassuring. "She is nice. Here is food!"

He held out the small white cloth pouch the kind vendor had given him, and the girl’s eyes locked onto it with an intensity that made my chest constrict.

She reached for it with trembling hands, and Aster carefully opened it, revealing steaming white mounds of dough inside.

Ari started eating immediately. Not with the careful manners of someone raised in a house like this, but with the desperate hunger of someone who wasn’t sure when their next meal would come. She no longer even acknowledge my presence, too focused on the food in her hands.

The plump dough had become a mushy mess in her fisted hands shoved to her mouth.

I was trying very hard to hold myself together.

"Why are you here?" The words came out before I could stop them, even though I already knew the answer. I could see it in the separate building, in the way they moved, in the hunger in that little girl’s eyes.

In the state of this room. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Can’t you go into the house?"

Aster’s expression flickered, something complicated passing across his features before he schooled them into neutrality. As if he was trying to compose himself.

"This is our room," he said simply, gesturing around the surrounding mess. "The house is locked. We can’t go in, and everyone isn’t at home at the moment."

He tried to make it sound normal. Tried to keep his voice steady, but I could hear the hurt underneath it, the resignation of someone who had convinced themselves that this was just how things were.

It was painful.

"Do you have other siblings?" I asked, my voice coming out rougher than intended.

"An older brother... He went out with our parents. They should be back tomorrow morning."

An older brother who wasn’t an omega, I would bet. A sibling who got to live in the main house, who got to eat at the family table, who didn’t have to go look food or squeeze through drainage tunnels to escape wolves who wanted to hurt him.

What if they had stolen it from him if I wasn’t there?

"Thank you again for helping me," he said formally with a small bow. Then he stood at attention, suddenly looking guilty as his eyes ran over me. He bowed again. "I am so, so sorry. Please, we have a washroom in there." He pointed to the only other door in the room aside from the entrance. "I promise, it is clean. You can wash yourself properly. I will prepare a clean pair of clothes. I hope they fit. They will be on the bed." He immediately shook his head. "And I’ll wait outside and give you privacy. Let me know when you are done."

Offering me a small smile, he turned around and headed towards the shelf with folded clothes.

I wanted to say something. Wanted to tell him this wasn’t right. That he and his sister shouldn’t have to live like this.

But what could I say? What could I do?

I didn’t even have my own place yet. If I could, I would have gladly taken them with me. And I was dependent on Kael, barely more secure than these children in my own way.

I just nodded mutely and moved toward the washroom.

It was small but clean, just as Aster had promised. A basin with a pump for water. A mirror that had been carefully maintained despite its age. Towels folded neatly on a small shelf.

I stripped off my torn, dirty clothes and set them aside, then opened the tap. Cold water flowed into the bath tub and I washed the blood, dirt, and lingering smell of the drainage system off my body.

My wounds were nearly healed now. The punctures on my leg and arm had sealed completely, leaving only tender pink skin and faint scarring. It still hurt to move, but at least it was improving.

I wished I could heal the hurt in myself and them just as easily.

I used as little water as I could, tidied my hair and the put my clothes back on despite their ruined state. I just couldn’t walk back into the room naked whether he was there or not.

I refused to look into the mirror. I could already feel the pressure building behind my eyes, along with the tightness in my throat that warned me of tears trying to escape.

Not here. Not now.

I forced it down, bottled it up, and walked back into the room.

Sera was eating more slowly now. Her breathing had a hoarse quality to it that worried me. A rattle in her chest that shouldn’t be there.