Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack (Evelyn and Damon) novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

+15 Bohus

Chapter 33

Damon pov

I’d barely settled back into the chair beside Evelyn’s bed, Willow finally drifting into a deeper sleep against my shoulder, when my phone rang again.

I almost let it go to voicemail, bracing myself for another round with my father, but the screen showed a different name entirely.

*Mom.*

I answered immediately, some old instinct still wired to worry about her even after everything. “Mom?”

“Damon.” Her voice came through thick, unsteady, and it took me a moment to realize she was crying. I couldn’ remember the last time I’d heard my mother cry-not during any of the years of quietly enduring my father’s companions, not through any of the slights I’d watched her absorb without complaint at every pack function. She’d always been so carefully composed, so practiced at keeping whatever she felt locked down beneath a calm surface. Hearing it crack now sent a fresh spike of alarm through me.

“What happened,” I asked, standing carefully so I wouldn’t jostle Willow, moving toward the window again. “Are you safe? Is Marissa with you?”

“She’s here. We’re both safe, physically.” Her breath hitched audibly on the other end. “Your father won’t stop calling. Six times today already. He’s-” She stopped, gathering herself. “He’s ordering me home, Damon. Says if I’m not back within the week, he’ll have me formally declared unfit and stripped of my standing in the pack. Says the same thing about Marissa, that she needs to return and answer for the pregnancy publicly.”

Something cold settled into my stomach. “He can’t do that. Not without cause, and definitely not just because you finally left.”

“He seems to believe he can do quite a lot right now.” Her voice steadied slightly, some of her old composure returning even through the residual tears. “He told me something else too. Said you were bringing Evelyn and the baby home soon. Said it like it was already decided, like some kind of proof that everything’s returning to normal, that this is all just a temporary disruption he’s already solved.”

I felt anger flare hot and sudden in my chest. “That’s not true. I told him directly, in front of two enforcers, that I wasn’t forcing Evelyn anywhere. He knows that.”

“Then why would he say it?”

I turned the question over, staring out the window at the grey parking lot below, understanding slowly, uncomfortably, exactly what my father might be doing. “I think he’s trying to pressure you and Marissa into coming back by making it sound like resistance is pointless. If he convinces you Evelyn’s already agreed to return, maybe he thinks you’ll feel like there’s no point holding out either. Like the tide’s already turned back in his favor.

“That sounds exactly like something he’d do,” my mother said quietly, some old, tired bitterness threading through her voice. “Thirty years, Damon, and I don’t think I ever fully understood how much of what he does is simply managing perception. Making the outcome he wants feel inevitable before anyone’s actually agreed to it.”

I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead briefly against the cool glass of the window, feeling the weight of decades I’d never fully examined settling over me. “I’m sorry. I should have seen that in myself sooner too. I did the same thing to Evelyn, in a way. Told myself certain things were just how it worked, without ever really questioning whether they should be.”

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