The Billionaire Alpha’s Farming Luna: Too Late to Please the Herbal Queen! Chapter 09

The Billionaire Alpha’s Farming Luna: Too Late to Please the Herbal Queen! Chapter 09

After Bram and I left, all the guests quickly scattered as well.

No one dared stick around after that.

At this moment, the Ashford Pack was like a time bomb, ready to blow anyone nearby into pieces.

Rumor had it that the Ashford Pack’s rivals were practically rubbing their hands with glee, everyone silently waiting to watch the downfall.

Some people in high society expressed regret.

“The Ashford Pack had a golden ticket in their hands—and they threw it away. What a waste.”

“If Alpha Bram had become Alpha Graham’s son-in-law, we might have benefited from it too.”

Inside the study, Graham roared and kicked Calder, who was kneeling on the floor, pointing a finger and cursing at him fiercely.

“You idiot! I told you to look into her background, and what did you find?”

“You didn’t even know her mate was Alpha Bram! What good are you?”

Calder sat on the floor, looking completely dejected.

“How was I supposed to know? Everyone around there said she just spent every day farming and selling her crops, and her mate only came back once in a while.”

“If her mate actually had any pull, would he let her work herself to bone farming?”

Furious, Graham kicked his shoulder.

“You fool, those weren’t regular crops! That was a newly developed wolfsbane antidote strain for cancer, worth thousands of dollars per plant!”

“A country bumpkin might not know any better, but are you blind too?”

Calder slumped on the floor, completely dumbfounded.

He suddenly remembered visiting the farm back then, but Nell had complained about the smell, so they had only glanced at it from a distance.

Calder collapsed in utter regret and despair.

“Dad, it’s my fault… hit me if you want. I let Maren down… I ruined the pack.”

Unfortunately, his remorse came too late.

Bram was fiercely protective, especially when it came to me.

He spent the entire night in his study making phone calls.

By the next day, everything had changed.

Several major packs withdrew their investments from the Ashford Pack, and upcoming agreements for new patents were canceled.

The Ashford Pack’s primary long-term corporate partners decisively severed their contracts and pulled out.

Local government agencies launched a joint investigation into the Ashford Pack’s tax, environmental, and labor practices.

All Ashford Pack industries were forced to suspend operations for restructuring, causing their stock prices to crash to an all-time low.

At the same time, the Alphas of the Four Old Herb Packs finally panicked and rushed to crowd around my cabin.

“Luna, we had nothing to do with any of that! You have to give us the new strain, please!”

“Exactly! Our teams have been waiting anxiously for this improved batch of herbs.”

I slowly raised a finger.

“Ten thousand dollars per plant.”

The Alphas of the Four Packs froze, sweat dripping down their temples.

But in the end, they gritted their teeth and signed the agreement—buying the seedlings at the exorbitant price of ten thousand dollars each.

I turned around and donated every single dollar to the orphanage.

This year, the orphanage’s meals were fully secured, and I wouldn’t have to strain myself farming anymore.

When Graham and Calder came to beg me, I had just finished tending to my herbs.

Calder looked at me with profound shame in his voice.

“Maren, it’s all my fault! Please, for the sake of the times I looked out for you when we were kids, tell Bram to spare the Ashford Pack!”

“Don’t worry! Dad and I already kicked Nell out of the Ashford Pack and took back everything we gave her. No one will hire her now, and she has no choice but to work at low-end bars.”

Graham’s eyes were wet with tears, looking as if he had aged a decade overnight. Exhaustion had replaced every trace of his former sharpness.

“Maren, I was a fool. I lost my head. But if the Ashford Pack falls because of me, I won’t survive it.”

Bram sat regally in his chair, his gaze shifting over to me.

He was waiting for my decision.

I shook my head. The twenty years of longing had ultimately resulted in a back covered in whip scars; pretending I wasn’t hurt would be a lie.

Calder saw me shake my head and dropped to his knees with a thud.

“Maren, I was a bastard. I let Nell’s sweet words blind me. You are my real sister, how could I hurt you?”

Graham fumbled out a share transfer agreement.

“Maren, I failed you. This thirty percent stake in the pack is my way of making it up to you. Please take it.”

I slowly pushed the document back toward him.

“Alpha Graham, I don’t need any shares in the Ashford Pack.”

“I have my own. I’ve never needed anyone to support me.”

I looked out the window at the vast fields of herbs, my tone calm.

“The Ashford Pack is no longer the home I remember. It’s become something I don’t recognize.”

I turned my eyes to Bram.

My true home was with the mate who cherished me and always stood firmly by my side.

It was with my adoptive mother who raised and protected me.

They were my real family.

Now that I had closure, the faint memories I once clung to could finally be laid to rest. I let them go.

I turned and took Bram’s arm.

“Honey, let’s go home. I’m hungry.”

Bram smiled warmly.

“Alright. I’ll make your favorite fish tonight, okay?”

Behind us, Graham and Calder’s desperate cries echoed out.

But on that night when the whip struck me over and over again, my heart had grown entirely cold, leaving behind not a single trace of emotion.

If the Ashford Pack was strong enough to stand on its own, it would survive.

But if arrogance and blindness to right and wrong ran in its very roots, then bankruptcy was only natural.

As for me? I only needed to live my own life.

I was done looking back, done begging for a sliver of family affection that would never come.