Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack novel Chapter 40

Chapter 40

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Chapter 40

“Two days,” I said quietly, mostly to myself.

“Two days,” Callum confirmed. “I’d suggest you have some kind of plan before you walk in there, Alpha. Whatever you’re going to argue, he’s going to come at this well-prepared. He’s been building toward this longer than I think either of us realized.”

I ended the call slowly, standing in the small kitchen for a long moment, feeling the weight of everything settling heavily into my chest, before I finally turned back to face Evelyn.

“Tell me,” she said simply, her voice steady despite the obvious tension in her shoulders.

“My father’s called an emergency council session,” I said, sitting back down across from her, keeping my voice as/ level as I could manage despite the storm building inside me. “Two days from now. He’s petitioning to have me declared unfit for succession unless you and Willow return before then. Worst case scenario, he could potentially get authorization to try enforcing custody of Willow regardless of what either of us wants.”

Evelyn’s face went pale, her arms tightening protectively around Willow, some old fear from the hospital room flooding back into her expression full force.

“He can do that?” Her voice was tight, controlled panic evident beneath the surface. “Actually take her from me?”

“I don’t think it’ll go that far,” I said, though even to my own ears the reassurance sounded thin. “Callum doesn’t think most of the council would actually support something that extreme. But I’m not going to lie to you and pretend there’s zero risk. My father’s built a real case, apparently. Formal, procedural, enough legitimacy behind it that people are actually taking it seriously.”

“Then what do we do.” Evelyn’s voice had gone sharp now, some of the softness from earlier in the evening replaced entirely by fierce, protective urgency. “I’m not taking her anywhere near that pack, Damon. Not with any risk attached to it.”

“I know.” I leaned forward, meeting her eyes directly, needing her to understand I meant every word. “I’m not asking you to. I’m going to that council session myself, and I’m going to make the case directly-that forcing you back under threat isn’t stability, it’s exactly the kind of control that drove you away in the first place. That the actual instability here isn’t you being somewhere else. It’s my father trying to weaponize pack law to force compliance instead of earning it.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

I held her gaze steadily, feeling the full weight of the promise I was about to make. “Then I step back from succession entirely, if that’s what it takes. I’m not handing my father a version of Willow’s future built on threats and forced custody. If protecting both of you means giving up any claim to that pack, I’ll do it without hesitation.”

Evelyn stared at me for a long moment, something shifting behind her tired, wary eyes-not full trust, still not that, but something that looked, for the first time, like she might actually be starting to believe I meant it.

“You’d really give it up,” she said quietly. “Everything you’ve spent your whole life being trained for.”

“In a heartbeat,” I said, no hesitation behind the words at all. “I already lost eight months I can’t get back, Evelyn. I’m not losing anything else that actually matters, especially not to prove some point about legacy that never should have mattered as much as it did.”

She looked down at Willow, sleeping peacefully in her arms, entirely unaware of the two days now ticking down toward whatever collision was waiting on the other side of them, and I watched something settle in Evelyn’s expression-still afraid, still guarded, but resolved now too, in a way that mirrored exactly what I felt sitting

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Chapter 40

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across from her.

“Two days,” she said quietly, echoing my own words back at me.

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