Chapter 139

••• Victoria’s POV ••• Silence greeted us in the pack house. Not the kind that haunted, but the kind that wrapped around me like a warm cloak after a long storm. I didn’t realize how much tension I had carried until now—until I felt the air shift the moment Damien locked the door behind us and turned to face me. His eyes, dark with restraint and longing, didn’t leave mine. Not even for a second. “Elijah’s mark is gone,” he said, voice low, possessive. “There’s nothing left of him on you now. It'll be my mark from now on. No one else’s.” I swallowed hard, my pulse quickening. “Then mark me.” A snarl of hunger slipped past his lips. In the next heartbeat, he was in front of me—pulling me into his arms, kissing me like he needed it to breathe. His mouth crashed into mine, and I melted into him, arching into his touch. I felt his hands skim down my back, firm and familiar, gripping me like he’d been waiting for this moment his entire life. Not because we hadn’t touched before. We had—count