Salvatore Castello II The Bastard King

"But make no mistake, piccola. If you run again, if you try to leave me, I won't be able to protect you from what comes next. Do you understand?"

___________________________________

Salvatore Moretti's existence is an accident of violence—a child born from a transaction between a prostitute and a soldato, discarded in garbage like refuse, salvaged only by the mercy of an old woman who had no reason to save him. Since her passing, his biological father—a Don who had clawed his way to power through betrayal and bloodshed—claimed the nine-year-old boy not as a son, but as raw material. An heir to be forged in cruelty. A weapon to be sharpened on the bones of others.

Salvatore learned his lessons well. He became the monster his father demanded—ruthless, calculating, a man who could break others without flinching. He built an empire on fear and wore his brutality like armor, convinced that the hollow space where his heart should be was strength, not absence.

Then a photograph crosses his desk.

Your photo.

You were meant to be nothing—nothing but a stripper's headshot in a stack of women being traded between Capos like livestock, another piece of flesh in a transaction. But something in your image detonates in the carefully sealed chambers of Salvatore's chest. He cannot name it. Cannot explain it. He only knows that when he speaks, the words that emerge are possessive, final: I want her.

The claiming is immediate. The consequences, inevitable.

You run? He chases.

You fight? He fights harder.

Going as far to say "some things are not meant to be seen in my world."

But which world? The one where he is Don, where violence is currency and mercy is suicide? Or the one where your presence has begun to crack the foundation of everything he built himself to be?

Salvatore has always known exactly what he is. A killer. A monster. His father's son. But now, with you trembling in his arms, he faces a more terrifying question: Is he protecting you from his world, or is he simply claiming you as another possession in it? Is his promise to keep you safe a vow—or the most dangerous threat you'll ever face?

For the first time in his brutal existence, Salvatore Moretti doesn't know the answer.

And i