9

With a darkened expression, Declan pointed to the section on pack asset division in the mate rejection contract. “I don’t remember ever discussing the division of territory and pack assets with you.”

Zara froze. She had never expected Declan to say something like that.

The Alpha Jordan family had never lacked wealth. All this time, even though Declan’s attitude toward her had always been cold and cruel, when it came to pack resources and money, he had never been stingy.

Even back then, when Declan repeatedly pressured her to sever the mate bond, the compensation he offered had been far greater than what Zara had written into this contract.

But Zara didn’t want to dwell on the past. Calmly, she explained her reasoning, including the calculations of contributions and Luna compensation prepared by her legal advisor based on the standards applied to Lunas of other packs who had lost their position and bond.

“So to you, being my mate was a huge loss?” Declan sneered coldly after reading it. His Alpha aura pulsed sharply.

“Zara, with your abilities, even ten million is already too high a contribution. Who gave you the nerve to write forty million a month as compensation?”

“And besides,” he continued with a condescending tone, “there’s Susan managing everything in this pack house. As Luna, you lived comfortably. Where do you get the audacity to demand payment for domestic work and pack management?” One by one, Declan rejected every figure written there. “And one more thing…”

Zara’s face instantly went pale.

Not because she feared losing the compensation, but because she finally realized something painfully clear, the future she had once given up, the career she had abandoned, years of sacrifice and loyalty as Luna, apparently held no value at all in her Alpha’s eyes.

Zara bit her lip. Her breathing grew heavy, her chest tight. True, she had no written proof of all the behind-the-scenes work she had done, but she didn’t want to give up just like that.

“About the pack house all this time, it was actually me who…”

“You managed it?” Declan cut in sharply, then laughed mockingly.

Without giving Zara a chance to react, Declan seized her arm. His Alpha aura pressed down on her body until her knees nearly buckled. He dragged her out of the room and shoved her against the railing on the upper floor.

One hand forced Zara’s head down, making her look below.

In the main hall of the pack house, Susan was bent over, scrubbing the floor.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. I’ll finish cleaning right away.” The moment she saw Declan, Susan hurriedly bowed, her posture filled with the obedient submissiveness typical of an omega.

Seeing that, the sneer on Declan’s face deepened. “Zara, this is the pack house you said you manage? Then what is Susan doing right now?”

Zara had just opened her mouth to defend herself, but Declan had already turned to Susan. “Susan, say it. Zara just claimed she’s the one who’s been managing the pack house. You’ve been here for years. You must know better than I do. So tell me what exactly she do?”

Susan’s hand gripping the broom stiffened for a moment. Then, without warning, she dropped to the floor, slapping her thighs as she burst into loud sobs.

“Luna, what do you mean by this?” she wailed. “If Luna isn’t satisfied with me, Luna could have told me directly. I would have changed. How can Luna take all the credit for my hard work all these years?”

“I still have a family to support!” Susan cried out. “My parents, my child everything depends on my job in this pack. I can’t lose this job!”

If Zara hadn’t known her for years, she might have believed that performance herself.

For a fleeting moment, Zara even thought that with acting skills like that, Susan should have lived in the human entertainment world, not in a pack house. Staying here was truly a waste of her talent.

“Zara,” Declan said coldly, looking at her with a mocking smile, “what else do you want to say?”

What else could she say?

Zara laughed bitterly at herself in her heart. She could see it clearly now Declan had never trusted her. He chose to believe an omega servant over Luna who had been bound to him for five years.

“There’s nothing else,” Zara said softly, her smile bitter. “Then what do you think is a fair division?”

She looked at Declan’s face. The face that had once made her fall in love now felt foreign. Those black Alpha eyes were like a frozen pool in the middle of the night cold, dark, and bottomless.

“Leave this pack without taking anything with you,” Declan said coldly.

Zara went rigid.

Leave without taking anything.

Those words meant that all her sacrifices as Luna, all her loyalty as a mate, had never been acknowledged in the slightest.

She knew Declan looked down on her, but she had never imagined that in his eyes, her worth was truly zero.

Her chest tightened painfully. “Why that much?”

Declan clearly knew that such a condition would never be accepted by any Luna. Hadn’t he always wanted to sever the mate bond so he could be with Marina? Now Marina had returned to the pack so why was Declan setting terms this harsh?

Unless Deep down, did Declan actually not want the mate rejection to happen at all?