Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack (Evelyn and Damon) novel Chapter 181

Damon pov

Once I'd settled my father comfortably for the night, confirming with the healer one final time that his vitals had genuinely stabilized, I made my way toward the kitchen, exhaustion from the entire overwhelming day finally catching up with me completely.

I found Evelyn there, cleaning up from the children's dinner, Willow's high chair still needing to be wiped down, Ethan's bottles drying on the counter, the ordinary, domestic evidence of our actual life continuing despite everything else that had happened throughout this exhausting day.

She looked up as I entered, and something in my expression must have conveyed the full weight of everything I was carrying, because she immediately set down the cloth she'd been using and crossed the kitchen toward me without a word.

I gathered her close, needing this—needing her, needing the physical reassurance of her presence after everything terrifying and emotionally exhausting the day had encompassed. I buried my face against her neck, breathing in the familiar, comforting scent of her, feeling some of the day's accumulated tension finally begin easing simply from the contact.

"Tell me what you need," she said softly, her voice carrying gentle, patient understanding, one hand moving to rest against the back of my neck, fingers threading gently through my hair.

"I need you," I sighed against her neck, the words carrying more raw honesty than I'd intended, exhaustion stripping away whatever careful composure I might have otherwise maintained.

She shivered slightly at the words, or perhaps at the desperate, genuine weight behind them, and pulled back just enough to look at me properly, her eyes searching my face with careful, loving attention.

I nodded, appreciating her understanding, and continued, needing to actually voice everything still weighing heavy on my chest. "And then there's Nadia, and Marcus, everything about that reunion—genuinely hopeful, genuinely important, but also so emotionally exhausting to actually witness. Watching her panic like that, watching decades of manipulation and lies finally start unraveling in real time. It's a lot, Evelyn. All of it, happening simultaneously."

"You've been carrying so much," Evelyn said gently, pulling back slightly to meet my eyes directly. "For months now, genuinely. Genevieve's threats, your father's health crises, now this entire complicated situation with Nadia and Marcus. You deserve space to actually process all of it, rather than simply continuing to push forward without acknowledging the genuine weight of everything you're navigating."

I felt something in my chest ease at her words, at the genuine permission she was offering to simply feel overwhelmed rather than continuing to maintain careful, protective composure for everyone else's benefit.

"I don't know how to actually stop moving forward," I admitted quietly. "Every time I think we've reached some kind of resolution, something else emerges requiring immediate attention. I'm exhausted, Evelyn. Genuinely, thoroughly exhausted, in ways I don't think I've properly acknowledged even to myself."