Violet: Luna of The One-eye Alpha

CHAPTER 2 - Alpha’s Revenge Offer

MERRIN’S POV

The whiskey burned down my throat.

Good.

Pain was honest. Memory wasn’t.

Moonfall Palace throbbed with music and flashing lights, laughter echoing across marble floors, but it all felt distant. I didn’t come for pleasure.

I came to silence ghosts.

They call me the Ruthless One-Eye Alpha.

They say it with fear.

They don’t know fear.

They don’t know what it’s like to wake up every day remembering the girl who carved your weakness into your face.

Violet.

Even thinking her name felt like dragging a blade across old scars.

I stared at my reflection in the steel ice bucket — the eye patch, the rigid jaw, the man rebuilt from violence.

Powerful.

Untouchable.

Empty.

Three wives. Three political alliances. Three women who left my palace childless.

The pack thinks I chose legacy over love.

They don’t know the truth.

Sterile.

The word still echoed like a gunshot.

Jackie stirred beneath my skin.

Restless.

‘She’s here,’ my wolf growled. ‘Our mate.’

I huffed a humorless laugh.

“Mates are myths.”

The Moon Goddess abandoned our kind centuries ago.

We choose partners. We negotiate bonds.

We do not find destiny.

And yet…

The air shifted.

Electric.

Alive.

Wrong.

The dancers came and went. Beautiful. Skilled. Desperate to please.

Nothing.

“Send the next group,” I ordered coldly.

Nolan arched a brow. “You’ve rejected every woman in this city. Maybe your wolf’s right.”

“My wolf is drunk,” I snapped.

Then the manager rushed forward, sweating.

“One more, Alpha. She’s new.”

“I don’t like leftovers.”

“She was in the kitchen. Please. Just one glance.”

Something tightened in my chest.

“Fine.”

The lights dimmed.

And then she walked out.

The world tilted.

No trained seduction. No calculated sway of hips.

She looked… trapped.

Red hair like spilled fire.

Blue eyes, too sharp, too wounded.

And that scent—

Roses and rain after a storm.

Jackie went silent.

Then he roared inside me.

‘MATE.’

My hand crushed the glass.

“No.”

Then she lifted her face fully into the light.

My blood ran cold.

“Violet.”

Ten years disappeared.

She was twelve, shaking, terrified.

I was fifteen, arrogant, cruel, unstoppable.

Until she proved I wasn’t.

The blade.

The blood.

The darkness that followed.

She took my eye.

She took my certainty.

And now fate dared to return her to me?

I stood slowly.

The entire palace fell silent.

She recognized me instantly.

Fear flooded her expression.

Good.

“You’ve grown,” I said softly.

Her breath stuttered.

“I’ve waited a long time for you, Violet.”

A lie.

I had hunted her for years.

She stepped back.

There was nowhere to run.

“Everyone leaves,” I ordered.

The room emptied quickly.

Only Nolan remained behind me.

“What are you planning?” he murmured.

I didn’t answer.

Because even I didn’t fully know.

I only knew one thing.

I couldn’t kill her.

If she was my mate, the bond would destroy me.

But death was mercy.

And I had imagined something far worse.

“Higher heels,” I ordered.

She was already trembling.

The manager hesitated. “Alpha…”

“Higher.”

When they forced the stilettos onto her shaking feet, I watched carefully.

Not because I enjoyed pain.

But because I needed to see if she would break the same way I did.

The music started again.

She danced.

Poorly. Desperately. Fighting tears.

An hour passed.

Then…

She slipped.

Glass shattered.

Her knees hit marble.

Crimson bloomed across pale skin.

For a second, I felt satisfaction.

Then something ugly twisted in my chest.

Jackie snarled.

Not in triumph.

In warning.

I stepped forward.

“Enough.”

Silence swallowed the room.

She knelt there, bleeding, shaking, but not crying.

Still defiant.

Still looking at me like I was a monster.

Maybe I was.

I turned slowly to the manager.

“Bring the contract.”

Violet’s head snapped up, her eyes wide.

“Contract…?”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Sell her to me.”

I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t need to.

I pulled the bag of cash from the table and tossed it at his feet. It hit the marble floor with a heavy thud, the sound echoing through the silent hall.

“That should be enough,” I said calmly. “She’s mine now.”

My gaze shifted to her.

“My personal dancer.”

The manager hesitated for only a second. His eyes dropped to the money. His throat moved as he swallowed.

Greed won.

“Of course, Alpha,” he said quickly, forcing a smile. “She’s yours.”

Nolan stepped closer. “Merrin. Think.”

“I am.”

If the Moon Goddess bound me to my enemy, I would rewrite the rules.

I crouched in front of her.

Close enough to feel her breath.

“You took my eye,” I whispered. “Do you remember?”

Her jaw clenched.

Good. She remembered.

I tapped the contract.

“Sign.”

Her hand shook violently.

For one second our eyes locked.

And something shifted.

Not fear.

Not hatred.

Recognition.

The pen slipped from her fingers and clattered between us.

The sound echoed like a challenge.

Jackie went completely still.

Not victorious.

Not vengeful.

Protective.

And that terrified me more than anything.

I leaned closer, lowering my voice so only she could hear.

“You’re mine now, Violet.”

A pause.

“But the question is…”

I brushed the pen back toward her.

“Will you break first… or will I?”

She didn’t answer.

Her chest rose and fell too fast. Blood trickled down her shin, staining the marble like a silent accusation.

Jackie shifted again.

I hated that.

“Pick it up,” I said quietly.

Her fingers moved slowly.

Not like someone afraid.

Like someone gathering strength.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said at last.

Her voice was weak, but steady.

I tilted my head. “Don’t I?”

“You already won.”

A dry, humourless smile touched my lips.

Won?

Ten years of hunting shadows had not felt like victory.

I leaned closer until she had no choice but to feel my breath against her cheek.

“You think this is about winning?” I murmured. “You carved your name into my face and I have lived with the darkness ever since.”

Her eyes flickered to my eye patch.

Guilt.

There it was.

Or was it something else?

Her lips parted slightly. “You were hurting my sister,” she said quietly. “I only wanted to stop you.”

The words fell between us like a stone dropped into deep water.

I remembered the stone.

The pain.

The darkness that followed.

Silence spread slowly through the hall.

Nolan shifted behind me.

“Please, Alpha… let this go,” he pleaded quietly.

Never.

This was not the time to forgive the past.

This was the time to control the present.

I straightened slowly and held out the pen again.

“Sign,” I repeated.

This time, my voice carried an Alpha command.

“And if I refuse?” she asked.

My gaze hardened.

“You can’t.”

She swallowed.

“You don’t know that.”

A low, dark chuckle escaped my throat.

“You already signed,” I said. “That alone gave you away. Your boss sold the contract to me. You are alone now. Just sign.”

I crouched again until we were eye level.

“Refusal requires power, Violet,” I said quietly. “Tell me… where is yours?”

She looked down, unable to answer.

Good.

Now she was beginning to understand where she stood.

Slowly, deliberately, she bent down and picked up the pen.

Our fingers brushed.

Heat shot up my arm like lightning.

I pulled my hand back as if burned.

Her breath caught.

So she felt it too.

The bond.

She lowered her gaze to the contract.

Her hand trembled as she signed.

Then she stopped.

Her blue eyes lifted to meet mine again.

Not broken.

Not begging.

Burning with quiet defiance.

This was not how it was supposed to feel.

She was supposed to tremble.

To beg.

To collapse.

Instead, she stared at me like she was the one studying my weakness.

“I won’t belong to you,” she whispered. “You can buy my body, but you will never own my will.”

The words cut deeper than any blade she had ever used against me.

For a split second, something inside my chest cracked.

Then I sealed it shut.

“We’ll see.”

I took the contract from her slowly.

Our names were now on the same page.

Alpha.

And slave.

Enemy.

And possession.

This was not the end of the war.

It was only the beginning.

I rose to my full height and held out my hand.

“Get up.”

She ignored my hand and stood on her own.

Then I grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her closer.

So close that only she could hear me.

“Welcome to your cage, Violet,” I whispered.

Her heart beat fast against fear.

She looked into my eyes.

Perfect.

Because the real revenge…

Had just begun.