Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack (Evelyn and Damon) novel Chapter 124

Chapter 124

Evelyn arrived a while later, Willow secured against her chest despite the late hour, her expression carrying the same terrified urgency I imagined mirrored my own. She moved immediately to my side, and I pulled her close, needing the physical reassurance despite the chaos surrounding us.

“Any word yet,” she asked, her voice tight with fear.

“He’s still in surgery,” I said, my voice rough. “They’re trying to stabilize him after the cardiac event triggered by the attack.”

She held me close, and I felt myself trembling slightly, adrenaline and terror both still coursing through me despite my efforts to maintain some semblance of control.

We waited together through the agonizing hours that followed, the same terrible uncertainty I remembered from the previous surgery now compounded by fresh guilt, by the sick understanding that this attack had happened directly because I’d left him alone, however necessary that departure had seemed at the time.

“This isn’t your fault,” Evelyn said quietly, some time later, apparently reading the guilt visible in my expression despite my attempts to hide it. “You couldn’t have known she’d actually attempt something this violent, this directly.”

“I should have anticipated it,” I said, my voice tight with self-recrimination. “She’s been escalating steadily for weeks. I should have insisted on considerably more security, should have never left him with just a single guard posted outside.”

“You were managing an impossible number of urgent priorities simultaneously,” Evelyn said firmly. “Protecting me, protecting our baby, coordinating security across multiple locations. You can’t be everywhere at once, catching every possible vulnerability before it’s exploited.”

I appreciated her attempt at reassurance, though guilt remained heavy regardless, understanding I needed to somehow hold both truths simultaneously-that I genuinely couldn’t have anticipated every possible danger, and that my father had still nearly died tonight because of gaps in protection I should have insisted on closing more thoroughly.

The surgeon finally emerged sometime near dawn, her expression carrying the same careful, professional neutrality I remembered from the previous crisis, though something in her posture suggested this update might carry more complicated news than simple confirmation of successful surgery.

“Family of Alpha Cross,” she said, and I stood immediately, Evelyn rising beside me, both of us moving toward her with desperate, urgent attention.

“Briefly,” she confirmed. “He’s still under sedation, likely won’t wake for several more hours, but you’re welcome to sit with him.”

I made my way into his room, finding him pale and still, wired to considerably more monitoring equipment than before, and felt fresh guilt and fury both crash through me at the sight of him, so fragile now, so genuinely close to having actually died tonight because of gaps in protection I should have anticipated and closed.

Evelyn settled into the chair beside me, Willow finally asleep again against her shoulder, and we sat together in the quiet, exhausted aftermath of the entire terrifying night.

“This ends now,” I said quietly, my voice carrying absolute, resolved determination. “Whatever it takes, however long the search continues, Genevieve doesn’t get another opportunity to endanger my family again.”

Evelyn nodded, understanding evident in her tired expression, and I turned my attention back toward my father, watching the steady, reassuring rhythm of the monitoring equipment, holding onto the fierce, protective resolve now driving every decision I intended to make going forward.

Whatever it required-expanded search efforts, formal council authorization for whatever measures proved necessary, complete and total commitment to ensuring this genuine, violent threat was finally, permanently neutralized I understood, sitting there in the quiet aftermath of my father’s second surgery in as many weeks, that tonight marked the absolute limit of what I was willing to allow Genevieve’s escalating instability to cost my family.