VIOLET'S POV

“Without a bloodline, you’re nothing. Don’t return to my house until you can prove otherwise.”

Lady Seraphina didn’t shout.

She didn’t need to.

Her words were calm. Polished. Deadly.

The kind of tone used to dismiss servants.

Not daughters.

I stood on the porch, my worn travel bag pressed to my chest like it could stop my heart from breaking out of my ribs.

I was gone for ten years.

When I returned this morning, she smiled brightly for the neighbors.

“You’re welcome any time,” she said, her voice warm and sweet.

But now there was no audience.

No watchful eyes.

No reason to pretend.

She wouldn’t even look at me.

“I understand,” I whispered.

And I did.

What I understood was this: it had never been my home.

The heavy doors closed behind me.

Slow. Final.

And just like that, I was alone, homeless in the very pack territory where my fiancé, Silvan, was meant to become Alpha.

In just twenty-four hours in the Luna-Light Pack, I had already been rejected twelve times… every single place I applied for a job turned me away.

Twelve.

“No birthline registration.”

“No verified lineage.”

“No pack documentation.”

“We don’t employ strays.”

Stray.

That word again.

As if my family hasn’t lived here for the past ten years.

As if I wasn’t dating the future Alpha.

My chest tightened.

I hadn’t answered his messages.

Not since I came back.

I wanted to do this on my own.

I wanted to prove I’m not that weak little girl everyone used to know.

But it already feels like a terrible mistake.

I swallowed the pain.

I can’t afford to give up.

Not today.

The Employment Registration Hall loomed in front of me, its marble pillars carved with pack laws about blood purity and legacy.

I didn’t go inside.

I already knew what they would say.

Without proof of lineage, I was invisible.

Without status, I was disposable.

I stepped back onto the street.

And that’s when I saw it.

Moonfall Palace.

The most expensive strip club in the entire territory.

Gold-lit windows. Velvet ropes. Expensive cars lined outside like trophies.

A place for ranked Alphas.

A place for powerful men to choose.

A place girls like me avoided.

My reflection stared back at me in the glass… faded jeans, old sneakers, red hair refusing to be tamed.

I looked like poverty wrapped in stubborn pride.

But pride didn’t buy food.

Pride didn’t rent rooms.

Pride didn’t keep you from sleeping under bridges.

I inhaled.

Then I walked inside.

The interview was humiliating.

Girls with perfect makeup and designer dresses sat beside me, their perfume suffocating the air.

When I gave my name, one of them snorted.

“Kitchen staff?” she guessed.

I forced a smile. “Anything available.”

The manager looked bored as he scanned my form.

“No dance experience?”

“No.”

“No service training?”

“I learn fast.”

He didn’t look impressed.

They called names.

One by one.

Each girl selected smirked as she passed me.

When only three of us remained, hope flickered in my chest.

Then two.

Then just me.

“Violet Marlow.”

My heart stopped.

“I’m sorry,” the secretary said gently. “You were not selected.”

Something inside me cracked.

I bowed anyway.

“Thank you for the opportunity.”

I walked out the back door before anyone could see the tears blurring my vision.

The second the door shut, my legs gave out.

I slid down the wall, choking on a sob.

This was it.

I had nowhere left to go.

“Hey!”

I jerked up.

The manager jogged toward me, slightly out of breath.

“You’re still here?”

I nodded quickly, wiping my face.

He glanced around like he didn’t want anyone to hear.

“A high-ranking Alpha arrived earlier than expected. He dismissed all the dancers.”

I blinked.

“All?”

“All.”

His eyes scanned me slowly.

“If you want the job, it’s yours. Immediate contract. Staff accommodation included.”

Accommodation.

The word echoed like salvation.

“Yes,” I said instantly. “I’ll take it.”

He shoved papers at me.

I signed without reading.

Right now, survival mattered more than caution.

The kitchen was chaos.

Steam. Shouting. Plates clattering.

But for the first time all day, I felt… useful.

“I’m Violet,” I said quickly, tying my apron.

A cook shoved a tray into my hands. “Run that.”

I ran.

I worked.

I didn’t complain.

And slowly, the crushing weight in my chest eased.

My wolf, Molly, stirred inside me.

Restless.

Alert.

Excited.

Why?

I tried to ignore it.

Until whispers began.

“He’s terrifying.”

“I heard he owns three territories.”

“They say he rejected fifty women last year.”

“If he picks you, your life is made.”

Pick?

My skin prickled.

Another waitress leaned toward me.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said, eyeing my simple appearance. “He chooses perfection.”

“I’m not here to be chosen,” I said quietly.

I am here to survive.

The phone rang again.

Order after order.

But something was wrong.

The female staff were disappearing.

One by one.

Dismissed.

Rejected.

Sent home.

My stomach twisted.

“Why is he rejecting everyone?” I asked.

The waiter whispered back, “He says none of them are the one.”

The one.

Molly froze.

Then began pacing wildly inside me.

Before I could think further, the kitchen doors burst open.

“Violet!” the manager barked.

I was startled. “Yes?”

“Change into performance attire.”

“I… I’m kitchen staff….”

“You’re the only female left he hasn’t seen.”

Cold flooded my veins.

“I don’t know how to dance.”

“You don’t have to. Just go out there.”

My wolf was frantic now.

Heart racing.

Blood humming.

Something was happening.

Something bigger than a job.

The dress they handed me was barely fabric.

Deep red.

Clinging.

Exposing more than I was comfortable with.

When I stepped out, the manager stared.

His expression shifted from irritation to shock.

“Perfect,” he muttered.

Not relief.

Recognition.

My pulse thundered as he led me down the corridor.

The music grew louder.

Heavy.

Slow.

Like a heartbeat.

The doors opened.

And the second I stepped onto the floor…

Molly screamed.

MATE.

The word exploded inside my head.

My knees almost gave way.

Mate?

What is Molly saying?

No wolf has ever found a mate.

So how could I possibly have one?

The room was dim, bathed in amber lights and shadow.

Guards lined the walls.

A banquet table of untouched food stretched across the room.

And at the center…

Him.

Tall.

Broad.

Power radiating off him like heat.

Dark hair brushed back from a hard, merciless face.

One steel-black eye.

The other hidden beneath a black patch.

A scar carved beneath it.

My breath stopped.

Alpha Merrin.

The Butcher of Wolves-Heaven.

The man who slaughtered rogues without blinking.

The Alpha who…

My heart seized.

The Alpha who killed my father.

The music stopped instantly.

He had lifted one finger.

That was all it took.

Silence swallowed the room.

He rose from his seat slowly.

Deliberately.

Each step toward me felt like judgment day.

My wolf submitted instantly.

Bowed.

Trembling.

Traitor.

I wanted to run.

But my body wouldn’t move.

He stopped inches away.

Close enough for me to feel the heat of him.

The scent of dark woods and danger wrapped around me.

He lifted a finger beneath my chin.

Forced my face upward.

Examined me like a rare object he had finally reclaimed.

“You’ve grown,” he said softly.

His voice was deeper than I remembered.

Colder.

“But those eyes…” his thumb brushed my cheek. “I’d recognize them anywhere.”

My heart pounded violently.

He leaned closer.

And whispered my name.

Slow.

Possessive.

“Marlow Violet.”

The world tilted.

I’m not mistaken. It’s him.

Only one person has ever said my name like that.

Only one monster looked at me with that same cold, hungry stare ten years ago.

Merrin.

I stumbled back.

“Please… please let me go,” I whispered.

A slow smile spread across his lips.

“No,” Alpha Merrin said softly.

His steel-gray eyes darkened as they moved over me, slowly, carefully.

“I’ve been waiting.”

His hand wrapped around my wrist.

Firm.

Unbreakable.

“You ran from me once,” he said quietly.

The mate bond flared violently between us, scorching through my veins like wildfire.

My wolf whimpered.

But she didn’t resist.

She recognized him.

Claimed him.

Even when my heart screamed no.

Merrin leaned closer, his breath warm against my ear.

“This time,” he whispered, his voice low and deadly soft, “you’re not escaping.”

The ground seemed to crack beneath me.

Because the monster who ruined my childhood…

The Alpha I had spent ten years hiding from…

The one I feared would one day take my life…

Wasn’t just my enemy.

He was my mate.

And this time.

There would be no running.

No hiding.

No escape.

And if I wanted to survive… I would have to face him.

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.

VIOLET’S POV

The sound of my own name being sold echoed louder than the music.

“Sell her to me.”

The words didn’t just ring through the hall.

They wrapped around my throat and squeezed.

I was still on the marble floor, palms slick with spilled wine and my own blood, staring up at him like prey beneath a hunter.

Merrin.

The boy who once ruled my nightmares now stood before me as Alpha, taller, broader, colder. His shadow swallowed the light around him.

Ten years ago, I thought blinding him was the worst thing I would ever do.

I was wrong.

The worst thing was surviving long enough to see him again.

The manager’s greedy voice cut through my panic.

“Of course, Alpha. She’s yours.”

Yours.

The word snapped something inside me.

“I am not property!” I shouted, pushing myself up.

Pain exploded through my ankle. The forced heels. The fall. I crumpled again, biting back a scream as laughter rippled faintly from the edges of the room.

Humiliation burned hotter than the injury.

Merrin crouched slowly in front of me.

Not to help.

To loom.

His gloved fingers lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. One eye sharp as winter steel. The patch over the other… a permanent reminder of what I’d done.

“Welcome back,” he murmured softly. “We’re just getting started.”

I swallowed hard.

“You already ruined my life once,” I whispered. “Isn’t that enough?”

His expression didn’t change.

But something flickered behind that eye.

“I haven’t even begun.”

The manager hurried back with papers and a pen, hands shaking as if he were presenting tribute to a king.

“She signed earlier,” he stammered. “Full contract consent.”

My stomach dropped.

I remembered signing it. I’d been desperate for work. I hadn’t read the fine print.

I hadn’t known I was signing away my freedom.

Merrin took the pen and held it out to me again.

“Sign.”

The command wrapped around my spine like chains.

I let the pen slip deliberately from my fingers.

It clattered against marble.

A small rebellion.

A pathetic one.

“Please,” I whispered, forcing myself to look at him. “Don’t do this.”

His lips brushed my ear, breath warm and terrifyingly steady.

“You took everything from me, Violet. Now I’ll take everything from you.”

My hands curled into fists.

“I was protecting my sister,” I shot back, unable to stop myself. “You were hurting her.”

For the first time, he froze.

Just for a second.

Then his jaw hardened.

“Careful,” he said quietly. “You don’t want to bring family into this.”

A cold slid down my spine.

He straightened.

“You remember your stepmother’s house?” he continued casually, as though discussing the weather. “The one near the pack border?”

My pulse stumbled.

“I know exactly where they live.”

My blood turned to ice.

“They’re not who I want,” he added calmly. “Unless you give me a reason.”

There it was.

The real cage.

Not the contract.

Not the palace.

My family.

“You’re a monster,” I breathed.

His eyes darkened.

“Sign.”

This time his voice carried weight. Authority. Power that pressed down on my lungs.

My hand trembled as I picked up the pen.

When our fingers brushed, heat surged through me like lightning striking bone.

I gasped.

So did he.

The air thickened.

His eye flashed… not with cruelty.

With something else.

Recognition.

The mate bond.

No.

No, no, no.

Fate couldn’t be this cruel.

He felt it too. I saw it in the tension of his shoulders, the way his breath hitched before he masked it.

But instead of stepping back, he leaned closer.

“If the Moon Goddess thinks she can bind me to my enemy,” he whispered, voice low and dangerous, “I will make her regret it.”

I signed.

The moment ink touched paper, something shifted.

Invisible threads snapped tight between us.

His hand twitched.

Mine burned.

But his face remained carved from stone.

“Welcome to your cage, Violet,” he said.

And just like that, I belonged to him.

He left me on the floor.

Left me bleeding.

Left me shaking.

But he didn’t look back.

Not once.

The dancers whispered as I limped to the locker room.

“Did you see the way he looked at her?”

“She’s dead.”

“She must’ve done something terrible.”

I ignored them.

Fear was contagious. I wouldn’t let it infect me.

I packed my things with stiff fingers.

If I was walking into a cage tomorrow, I would walk in standing.

Outside, night wrapped around me like damp cloth.

I’d taken barely three steps when I heard it.

“VIOLET!”

I froze.

A familiar voice came barreling toward me.

“Zoella,” I breathed as she skidded to a stop in front of me.

She’d cut her hair again. Dyed it electric blue this time. Always rebellious. Always fearless.

“Don’t call me that,” she grinned. “It’s Zoey now.”

Before I could stop her, she threw her arms around me.

I winced as pain shot up my leg.

She pulled back instantly. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” I lied.

Her eyes narrowed.

“You’re limping.”

“Twisted it.”

“Who did it?”

“No one.”

She stared at me.

Then her expression changed.

“You’re lying.”

I grabbed her shoulders.

“You need to go home.”

“Not until I meet your boss and thank him for hiring my lazy sister.”

Ice filled my veins.

“There’s no need,” I said quickly.

“Why?”

“Because the manager sold me to a one-eyed Alpha monster.”

The joke died on her lips.

“Repeat that,” she said quietly.

“Forget it.”

Her jaw clenched.

“Say it again, Violet.”

I looked away.

“That Alpha bought my contract.”

Zoey’s hands curled into fists.

“I’ll kill him.”

“You’ll do nothing,” I snapped. “He’s Alpha.”

“So what?”

“So he can wipe us out without blinking!”

She hesitated.

Just for a moment.

That was enough.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

She didn’t argue this time.

She just crouched down.

“You’re not walking home on that leg. I’ll carry you.”

“Zoella… don’t you dare… I can walk.”

Too late. She crouched down and threw me over her back like a sack of potatoes.

“ZOELLA!”

She just laughed, sprinting down the dark street.

“Hang on, princess! Taxi Zoey is on duty!”

Despite everything…

I almost laughed.

***

Home was small. Old. Fading.

But it was ours.

Mother was already waiting outside.

The moment she saw me, her face drained of color.

“Violet, what are you doing back here? I told you…”

Zoella cut her off.

“Mum, can you at least let me put her down before you scold her to death?”

Mother’s voice cracked.

“You shouldn’t have come back, Violet. You know what this means.”

“I’m not running anymore,” I told her.

“Do you hate us that much?” she asked softly. “Don’t you understand? If Merrin finds you here…”

“He already did.”

Silence dropped between us like a blade.

“I work for him now,” I said quietly. “That’s the deal.”

Mother swayed slightly.

“What deal?”

“He leaves you and Zoey alone.”

Zoey stiffened behind me.

“What?” she snapped.

“It’s fine,” I insisted.

“It’s not fine!”

Before the argument could explode, my phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

My heart knew before my mind did.

I answered.

“You have fifteen minutes.”

His voice was calm.

Cold.

Commanding.

“Merrin?”

“Wolves-Heaven Palace. Now.”

My stomach dropped.

“Wolves-Heaven?” I whispered.

Even saying the name felt forbidden.

It was royal territory. No common wolf stepped foot there without invitation.

“It’s late,” I said carefully. “I can come in the morning.”

Silence.

Then….

“If you waste one more second,” he said softly, “consider your family dead.”

The line went dead.

The world tilted.

Zoey grabbed my arm. “Who was that?”

I couldn’t breathe.

Mother’s voice trembled. “Violet… what’s happening?”

I looked at them.

Really looked at them.

The only two people I had left in this world.

“I have to go,” I said.

Zoey shook her head violently. “No. Absolutely not.”

“If I don’t…”

“He won’t…”

“He will,” I snapped.

They didn’t understand.

Merrin didn’t bluff.

Ten years ago, I’d seen what he was capable of.

And now he had power.

Pack power.

Alpha power.

Mate power.

I swallowed the rising panic.

“Lock the doors,” I told them. “Don’t answer anyone. Not even if they claim to be pack guards.”

Zoey grabbed my wrist.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No.”

“You’re not walking into a death trap alone!”

I cupped her face.

“You’re the reason I survived the first time,” I whispered. “Don’t make that survival meaningless.”

Her eyes filled with fury.

And fear.

I pulled away before she could stop me.

The road to Wolves-Heaven Palace felt longer than it ever had.

Storm clouds gathered overhead.

Wind howled through the trees.

Every step sent agony through my ankle, but I didn’t slow down.

Fifteen minutes.

If I was late…

No.

I refused to imagine it.

The palace gates loomed ahead, tall, black, iron, guarded by wolves in uniform.

They opened before I could knock.

Of course they did.

He had been watching.

I crossed the courtyard alone.

Thunder cracked overhead.

The massive doors opened slowly.

Merrin stood at the top of the staircase inside.

Waiting.

He hadn’t changed clothes.

He hadn’t relaxed.

He looked exactly as he had when he bought me.

Possessive.

Controlled.

Dangerous.

“You’re late,” he said.

“I ran.”

His gaze dropped to my ankle.

For one second…

Concern flickered.

Then it vanished.

“Come here, Slave.”

It wasn’t a request.

It was a command.

I climbed the steps anyway.

Each step felt heavier than the last.

With every inch closer, the bond between us pulled tighter, sharp, burning, impossible to ignore.

I stopped in front of him.

He didn’t move at first. He just watched me.

Then he leaned down slightly, his voice low enough that only I could hear.

“You should have stayed gone ten years ago.”

The words sliced clean.

I lifted my chin. “You should have stayed away from my sister.”

His jaw tightened.

Lightning tore across the sky, flooding the room with white light for a split second. Thunder followed, loud, violent.

The doors behind me slammed shut.

The sound echoed.

Sealing me in.

Alone.

With him.

The air changed. Heavy. Dangerous.

This wasn’t an argument.

This was war.

And I had just walked straight onto enemy territory.

Alone.

He took one slow step toward me.

Then another.

“You have no idea what you’ve done, Violet…”