Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack (Evelyn and Damon) novel Chapter 225

Ethan pov

I heard about the confrontation before Nadia even reached me, one of the border warriors mentioning something about raised voices near the guest quarters, and by the time I actually found her storming toward the training grounds where I'd been reviewing patrol schedules, fury had already been building sharp and immediate in my chest.

Then she reached me, and every coherent thought I'd been holding onto simply evaporated.

Her eyes carried genuine fire, her jaw set with the kind of fierce, unshakeable anger that made her entire posture radiate danger, and something in my wolf responded immediately, powerfully, to the sight of her genuinely furious rather than carefully guarded.

*She's beautiful when she's angry.*

The thought arrived entirely unbidden, entirely inappropriate given the obvious severity of whatever had just happened to her, and I felt genuine embarrassment at my own wolf's apparently poorly timed appreciation even as I forced myself to actually focus on the situation at hand.

"Three women came to my door," she said, her voice tight with barely controlled fury as she stopped directly in front of me. "Telling me I'm not good enough to be your mate. Bringing up Genevieve, my entire complicated history, weaponizing it specifically to make me question my own worth."

"Who," I demanded, my own anger sharpening immediately at the confirmation of exactly what I'd feared upon hearing the initial, vague reports.

"I don't know their names," she said, frustration evident beneath her continued fury. "Though I imagine you could probably guess, given whatever pack politics apparently exist around your eventual leadership succession."

I felt my jaw tighten, understanding exactly the kind of calculated cruelty she was describing—not simple jealousy over romantic rejection, but deliberate targeting of her most painful, vulnerable history.

"I'm genuinely sorry," I said, meaning it completely. "That's unacceptable, Nadia. Regardless of whatever complicated feelings exist about our situation, nobody should ever weaponize your history that way."

"I know it's not your fault," she said, though her voice remained sharp with residual anger. "But Ethan, this is exactly the kind of pack politics I'm apparently expected to navigate if I ever genuinely consider accepting whatever this mate bond represents. People questioning my worth, my legitimacy, simply because of circumstances I never actually controlled."

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