Chapter 103

••• Victoria’s POV ••• The morning after should have felt like any other. It didn’t. I dressed myself in muted steel-gray slacks, a cream blouse, and a tailored blazer that sat on my shoulders like armor. My hair was pulled back in a smooth knot, not a strand out of place. There was no tremble in my hands as I applied liner, no shake in my voice when I asked Oli for the schedule. No crack in the mask I wore. But it was a mask... The kind you forge when you have no choice but to keep walking while bleeding inside. And I hated it. I hated how I now had to always feel like I needed armor to go through each day. I hadn't returned to the pack house ever since I fled like the pathetic coward I was. I'd like to think I was strong now, but I knew I wasn't. Thus, the mask. The armor. I stepped into the world like I hadn’t nearly shattered for the last few days. Because I had to. That was the job of an Alpha. The scent of sandalwood clung to the hallway as I stepped into the main floor of the bu