••• Damien’s POV •••
Victoria had always been fire. But now she was ice. And worse than the flames I could handle—I could burn with her, scorch the world beside her. But this cold? This silence?
It was killing me.
She avoided me. Perfectly. Deliberately. Like a ghost that refused to haunt me but still left the scent of regret in every room she touched.
How many nights had she not come home? I'd lost count. No, I didn't want to count. It hurt too f*****g much to think of her not even wanting to be close to me. And every night, I paced the suite like a caged beast, each tick of the clock slicing into my nerves.
I knew our contract had started this. But it was the lies I wrapped around it—around her—that dug the knife deeper. I told myself I could wait for her wolf to wake, t
