Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Evelyn’s hand tightened slightly against the edge of Willow’s bassinet, and I watched some old fear flicker behind her eyes, the same fear I imagined had driven her to run in the first place eight months ago, except sharper now, more immediate, with an actual infant to protect instead of just herself.

“I won’t let anything happen to either of you,” I said, before she could ask, before the fear could fully take hold.”- Whatever this turns into, whatever he decides to do next, I’m not letting it touch you or Willow. I mean that.”

“You said that before the enforcers showed up too,” she said, not unkindly, just honestly, some old exhaustion threading through the words. “I believe you’re trying, Damon. I do. But I don’t think either of us actually knows what he’s capable of yet. Not really.”

I sat with that, unable to argue with it, because she was right. I’d spent my entire life watching my father operate from a position of near-total control, had never actually witnessed what happened when that control genuinely started slipping. I didn’t know what he’d do next any more than she did.

“I think this is going to blow up,” I admitted quietly. “Badly, probably, before it gets resolved. I don’t think my father backs down easily, and I don’t think I’m willing to let him win, not this time. That’s probably a collision that doesn’t end quietly.”

“And Willow,” Evelyn said, glancing toward the bassinet, her voice tightening with real fear now. “What happens to her in the middle of that collision?”

I looked at our daughter, still sleeping soundly, entirely unaware of the storm building somewhere beyond these hospital walls, and felt the full weight of the promise I was about to make settle heavily into my chest.

“I’ll make sure she’s protected before anything else,” I said. “Before pack politics, before my father’s ultimatums, before any of it. I know I don’t have much credibility with you yet, Evelyn, and I understand why. But that’s the one thing I’m not going to compromise on, no matter how this plays out. Willow doesn’t pay for any of this. Neither do you.”

Evelyn studied me for a long moment, something complicated behind her tired eyes-not full trust, not yet, but something that looked like she wanted to believe me, even if she wasn’t sure she could afford to yet.

“I need to think about what comes next,” she said finally. “Not just for me. For her. If your father’s really willing to escalate like you think he might, I need to know we have somewhere safe to go, regardless of whatever happens between you and him.”

“You do,” I said immediately. “I’ll make sure of it, whatever it takes. Even if that means finding somewhere separate from the pack entirely, somewhere he has no reach at all.”

She nodded slowly, some tension easing slightly from her shoulders, though the wariness didn’t fully leave her expression.

I sat back in the chair, watching her settle back against the pillows, watching Willow’s small chest rise and fall steadily in the bassinet beside her, and felt the full, heavy weight of everything still ahead of us-my father’s ultimatum ticking down, my mother and Marissa isolated and afraid in some cabin miles away, Evelyn’s careful, hard-won trust still balanced on a knife’s edge that one wrong move could shatter entirely.

I didn’t know exactly how it was going to end. But I understood, with a clarity that settled cold and certain in my chest, that whatever collision was coming with my father, I needed to be ready for it before it arrived.

Because I had a feeling, watching Evelyn’s guarded, exhausted face in the dim hospital light, that we wouldn’t get much warning before it did.

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Chapter 38

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