Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165 Money Talks, So Pay Up

Natalie’s POV

I leaned back, the leather of my coat creaking softly as I adjusted my weight.

My lips curved into a smile.

“Oh?” I tilted my head.

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“So you have been protecting me all along? Every moment I spent hidden in that apartment was all for my benefit?”

“Of course!” Jensen rushed to affirm it, his voice thick with relief.

He leaned over the table, his eyes searching mine for even a glimmer of the old Natalie.

“I had to keep you safe from the politics, Natalie. The Nightfang is a den of wolves in every sense of the word. I couldn’t let them target you to get to me.

My smile only grew brighter, sharpening into something lethal.

“Then if you cared about me so much, Alpha Jensen… if your devotion to me was truly so deep… tell me: why haven’t I received a single cent from all the profits my work brought in over the past five years?”

The question hung in the air like a silver wire.

The Accord behind me went dead silent as if they were waiting for a confession at a trial.

Jensen blinked, his expression faltering into one of genuine confusion, as if the concept of paying for labor was a foreign dialect.

“You lived in the apartment I bought for you,” he said, his voice carrying a defensive edge. “I covered all the household expenses, didn’t I? I even hired cleaners to come on schedule so you wouldn’t have to lift a finger. You didn’t need money, Natalie. Everything you could have wanted was provided for.”

That one statement was enough to make the air in the cafe turn cold.

I didn’t need to look back to know the elders were widening their eyes in disbelief.

“Whether I need money or not is irrelevant, Alpha. I put in the labor… I created the transcription that became the backbone of the pack… You profited off my work for five years

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while I lived like a kept ghost. Shouldn’t I have gotten something in return or even recognition?”

Jensen’s face flushed.

He bit his lip, his gaze dropping to the table.

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“It’s not that I wouldn’t give you anything,” he muttered, his voice losing its Alpha authority.

“You were going to be my Luna eventually, Natalie. What’s mine would have been yours.”

“So, according to your logic, Alpha Jensen,” I said, my voice dripping with mock fascination, “since you would eventually mate me, the profits or title would have been mine?”

“Of course,” he said, looking up with a spark of desperate hope. “That was always the plan.”

“Then why did you mate with Sharon?”

Jensen’s voice faltered.

He suddenly understood what truly mattered.

It wasn’t about the money… though I was going to take every cent of that, too.

It was about the fundamental, staggering betrayal of my existence.

He had used my designs to build his throne, then used the power from that throne to marry the woman who had tried to murder me and then made her claim my work.

Uneasy, he tugged at his collar, the fabric suddenly seeming too tight.

He fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, unfastening two more as if he were suffocating.

He looked like a man drowning on dry land.

“Natalie, that was my mistake. I shouldn’t have married Sharon on our fifth anniversary. I know ho

that looks. But I had my reasons. Professional reasons. Pack reasons… I already explained it all to you.”

*Oh?”

As I looked at him, I realized that the illusion had finally shattered.

I can now see him as a coward that he is… a coward who hid behind excuses of duty and responsibility.

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Chapter 165 Money Talks, So Pay Up

Seeing no trace of emotion on my face, Jensen’s face fell.

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“Natalie, believe me… the only woman I’ve ever loved is you. I only married Sharon because she has moon sickness. She’s dying, Natalie. She doesn’t have much time left. Her final wish was to leave this world as my mate… to have the Nightfang name on her headstone. I couldn’t let her leave with that kind of regret. It was a mercy.”

I stared at him.

The audacity of this man to tell me about the same girl who nearly killed me… TWICE.

“You could have told me,” I said, my voice firm as before.

“If it was truly a mercy, you could have told me. We could have ended things cleanly. I would have walked away but you never thought to tell me, did you?”

“But Nat –”

“You left me in that apartment for my sister who nearly killed me… but wait, what was your plan? A mate in your arms for the public, while keeping me in the shadows as your mistress? Did you think I was so broken that I’d be grateful for the crumbs of your time?”

“No, no–that wasn’t it!” He reached across the table, his fingers trembling, with a frantic energy.

eyes bloodshot

“I only thought that once Sharon passed, we’d get together immediately. I wouldn’t touch her, I swear! She’s just a title, Natalie. You’re the life!”

As he reached for my hand, his fingers nearly brushing my skin, a wave of revulsion surged through me.

I picked up my coffee cup – the cappuccino he had pushed toward me as a peace offering and threw the liquid directly into his face.

“Jensen.” I said, my voice cutting through the stunned silence of the cafe. “You’re disgusting.”

The brown liquid splashed across his forehead, dripping down his cheeks and seeping into the collar of his shirt.

A few drops even caught him in his open mouth as he gasped in shock.

He sat there, frozen, the “Alpha” of the Nightfang reduced to a stained, dripping mess in front of fifty cameras.

1 rose to my feet and looked down at him, my gaze devoid of any expression.

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Chapter 165 Money Talks, So Pay Up

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From the moment you stood at that altar and claimed Sharon, everything between us ended. Stop claiming we are in a relationship. To me, you are nothing more than a thief and a stranger.”

I stepped back, signaling to Chris, who moved forward.

“Secondly.” I continued, my voice cold and professional for the microphones.

“The profits from my designs over the past five years as the pack’s Scribe… calculate it and return it to the Stone pack’s financial department within seven business days. Otherwise, will take this matter to the Accord and will make sure to wreck your pack.”

With that, I turned and walked away.

“Natalie! Natalie, don’t treat me like this!”

the floor. “I know I

I heard him scramble to his feet, the sound of his chair crashing a was wrong! Just give me another chance! I’ll reject her! I’ll do whatever you want!”

I didn’t stop.

I didn’t even look back.

I heard Jensen reach instinctively for my arm, but Chris blocked him with a single shove to the chest.

“Alpha Jensen,” Chris said, his

to the Accord. I believe the low and cold. “You’d better focus on explaining yourself

to the Accord. I believe they have quite a few questions about your labor practices.”

As if on cue, they surged forward.

“Alpha Jensen, is what she said true? Did you really withhold five years of pay?”

“Alpha Jensen, did you marry Sharon behind the Keeper’s back?”

“How do you explain the lies you told to the pack, Alpha?”

“Why did you claim that your mate is the Keeper, Alpha?”

The barrage of questions surrounded him, a sea of elders and Betas trapping him in the center of the cafe.