Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Damon pov

I’d barely lowered the phone from my ear, still holding onto the warmth of Evelyn’s voice telling me to come home, when I felt the shift in the air behind me.

My father was moving toward me fast, his usual careful, measured stride abandoned entirely in favor of something sharper, more urgent, his face flushed with a fury I’d rarely seen him allow himself to display so openly. Council members and staff still lingering in the hallway scattered out of his path, exchanging uneasy glances, clearly recognizing the same shift I did.

“You will pay for this.” His voice came out low and vicious, all pretense of composed authority stripped away entirely. “Do you understand what you just did in there?”

“I understand exactly what I did,” I said, pocketing my phone, keeping my voice level despite the adrenaline stil coursing through me from the ruling. “I told the truth. The council decided that was enough.”

“You humiliated me.” He stopped a few feet away, close enough that I could see the vein pulsing at his temple, close enough to smell the sharp, furious edge of his scent. “Thirty years of building respect in that chamber, and you dismantled it in a single afternoon because you’ve decided sentiment matters more than legacy.”

“I dismantled it because you tried to force a woman and infant back here through threats and enforcers,” I said. ” That’s not my doing, Dad. That’s yours. I just refused to help you cover it up.”

“You and your weak mate will pay for making me look unhinged in front of this entire council.” He spat the words out, something genuinely unhinged flickering behind his own eyes now, the contradiction apparently lost on him entirely. “Do you have any idea what you’ve cost this pack’s standing? What you’ve cost me?”

I sighed, feeling the exhaustion of the last several days settle heavily into my bones, some old, worn-down piece of me almost too tired to summon the anger this conversation was clearly trying to provoke.

“Evelyn isn’t weak,” I said quietly. “She survived eight months completely alone, built an entire business from nothing, gave birth without a single member of her own pack beside her, and still had the strength to stand up to enforcers you sent to intimidate her in a hospital bed. If you think that’s weak, you’ve never actually understood strength at all.”

“Don’t lecture me about strength.” His voice rose sharply, echoing down the hallway, drawing more uneasy glances from the wolves still lingering nearby. “I built this pack’s stability from nothing. I held this position for thirty years through sheer force of will, and you’re going to hand it all away because some woman decided her feelings mattered more than her responsibilities.”

│”I’m not handing anything away.” I held his gaze steadily, refusing to let his fury rattle the composure I’d fought so hard to hold onto throughout the entire hearing. “I’m still the heir, according to the council’s ruling. What I’m not doing is inheriting your specific version of leadership. The kind built on fear and control instead of anything actually earned.”

“You think you can do this without fear?” He laughed, sharp and humorless. “You think loyalty and respect simply materialize because you’re kind, because you’re understanding? This pack survives on strength, Damon. On wolves knowing exactly where they stand and what happens if they step out of line. That’s not cruelty. That’s leadership.”

“That’s exactly the kind of thinking that drove Mom out the door in the middle of the night after thirty years,” I said quietly, watching something flicker behind his eyes at the mention of her. “That’s what drove Marissa into hiding, terrified of what you’d do to her and her child. That’s what nearly cost me everything that actually

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Chapter 47

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matters, because I spent my whole life believing your version of strength was the only version that existed.”

“Your mother left because she’s weak,” he snapped, though something in his voice cracked slightly on the words, some genuine hurt bleeding through the fury for just a moment before he buried it again. “She couldn’t handle the responsibilities of her position, same as your mate apparently can’t.”

“She left because she finally understood she didn’t have to keep enduring you,” I said, my own voice hardening now, some old protective instinct rising up sharp and immediate on my mother’s behalf. “That’s not weakness, Dad. That’s finally having the strength to walk away from something that was killing her slowly for decades. I’d think you’d recognize the pattern, considering it’s exactly what Evelyn did to me eight months ago.”

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