Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack novel Chapter 70

Chapter 70

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Chapter 70

He ended the call slowly, setting the phone down, and sat for a moment in heavy, exhausted silence before finally looking up at both of us.

“Marissa tried to run,” he said quietly. “Left the clinic sometime overnight, apparently convinced everyone there was working against her. Security found her a few blocks away, disoriented, talking about people watching her, following her. They’ve moved her to a psychiatric facility now, somewhere with more secure, specialized care for whatever’s actually-happening with her.”

“Oh no,” I said, genuine sympathy moving through me despite everything that had happened between Marissa and me. “Is she okay? Physically, I mean?”

“Physically, yes. Mentally-” Damon dragged a hand down his face, exhaustion and worry both evident in the gesture. “The doctors are being more careful now, apparently. Longer-term evaluation, more secure supervision, until they understand exactly what’s actually happening and how to treat it properly.”

“And Hazel?” I asked, thinking of the newborn I’d never met but somehow still felt protective toward, given everything.

“With my mother,” Damon said. “She’s been the one caring for her mostly anyway, especially with Marissa unstable.” He paused, something heavier settling into his expression. “My mother wants to come home.”

“Home meaning here,” Callum said carefully. “To the pack lands?”

“Yes.” Damon nodded slowly. “She says she can’t keep managing everything from that small apartment alone- Marissa’s care, Hazel, all of it, especially now that things have escalated this much. She wants to bring Hazel back here, closer to actual support, closer to family, while Marissa gets the longer-term treatment she needs.”

I sat with that for a long moment, turning over everything it implied-Damon’s mother returning to pack lands after finally leaving, Hazel arriving into the same complicated, tension-filled environment Willow and I were still carefully navigating, everything about this fragile, uncertain peace shifting yet again under the weight of fresh complications.

“What about your father,” I asked carefully. “If she comes back, if Hazel comes back, how does that work, given everything between them?”

“I don’t know yet,” Damon admitted honestly. “She didn’t say she was reconciling with him, just that she needs actual support raising Hazel while Marissa recovers, and this is the most practical place to get it. I think that’s a separate question from whatever’s actually happening between her and my father.”

“Do you think he’ll try to use it,” I asked, some old wariness still humming beneath the surface despite everything he’d apparently done tonight. “Having Hazel here, having your mother back, even temporarily. Could he try to leverage that somehow?”

Damon was quiet for a moment, considering the question seriously rather than dismissing it. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I want to believe tonight actually meant something real, that whatever he’s doing lately reflects genuine change rather than just another angle. But I’m not going to stop being careful just because of one dangerous night, however much it mattered.”

“That’s fair,” I said, some relief settling into me at his continued caution despite the obvious gratitude he still carried for his father’s help earlier that evening.

“I should call her back,” Damon said, glancing at his phone again. “Let her know we’ll help her get settled here, figure out the logistics.”

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Chapter 70

+15 Bgnus

“Of course,” I said. “Whatever she needs.”

He made the call, and I listened quietly as he worked through the practical details with his mother-timing, transportation, where she and Hazel would actually stay once they arrived. Callum excused himself partway through, promising to help arrange whatever logistics Damon needed once the call ended, leaving us alone again in the quiet, lamplit room.

Once Damon finally hung up, he sat back against the couch cushions, exhaustion fully evident now in every line of

his face.

“She’s coming in two days,” he said. “Bringing Hazel with her.”

“How do you feel about that,” I asked gently.

“Complicated,” he admitted. “Relieved she’ll have real support instead of managing everything alone. Worried about what it means having my father and my mother back under the same roof, however temporarily. Worried about Marissa, honestly, despite everything.” He looked over at me, something vulnerable in his tired expression. “And worried about how it affects you and Willow, having all of this additional complexity arriving right when things here already feel so uncertain.”

I reached over, taking his hand gently, feeling the weight of everything still unresolved-his father’s fragile change, Charlotte’s careful offer from Ashford, Marissa’s spiraling crisis, his mother’s uncertain return.

“We’ll figure it out,” I said, meaning it despite the genuine uncertainty still sitting heavy in my own chest. “One complicated thing at a time, the way we’ve been managing everything else.”

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