Rejected By My Mate, Reborn As The Alpha Commander

Citlali POV：

The morning sun barely crested the eastern ramparts of the capital when I slammed the black ledger onto the desk with a sharp crack.

Bessie and Nellie, my most trusted inner-circle operative, stood at attention. Nellie’s eyes sparkled with mischievous excitement as she caught sight of the open page.

"Thirty thousand pure imperial gold coins," I said, leaning back into my leather chair. "Signed by Dolphus for 'military academy tuition, purebred war steeds, and imported elixirs,' and signed by Martha for 'court gowns and social maintenance.' Every single copper was drawn from my private vault under the guarantee of our future union."

Nellie let out a low whistle. "They stripped your accounts bare while parading around the Upper Quarter as the next great noble lineage."

"They believed I was a meek, terrified invalid who would die of embarrassment in my room after being dumped," I said, a dark smile playing on my lips. "They forgot that debts outlive broken hearts. Nellie, gather ten of our strongest dockhands from the Gilded Vault. Give them the heavy war drums from the northern armory."

Bessie gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "War drums, my Lady? Outside their private residence? That will cause a riot!"

"A riot is precisely what I want," I replied calmly. "I want every Alpha, Beta, and Omega in this city to hear the exact price of Dolphus’s manufactured glory. Go."

Thirty minutes later, cloaked in a hooded midnight-black velvet cape, I watched from the shadowed terrace of a nearby tea pavilion as my vanguard arrived at the Patterson family estate.

The Patterson manor was a newly purchased property in the prestigious Silverleaf District—bought, of course, with an advance on my dowry.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ten muscular men in matching black tunics slammed heavy wooden mallets into towering ox-hide war drums simultaneously. The rhythmic, thunderous vibrations rattled the stained-glass windows of the entire neighborhood, shattering the peaceful morning silence like a thunderclap.

Dogs barked across the district. Servants and sleepy aristocrats threw open their shutters, poking their heads out in bewilderment.

A second-story window of the Patterson manor burst open. Dolphus, wearing a half-buttoned silk nightshirt with his dark hair disheveled, leaned out and roared, "What is the meaning of this treason?! Cease this infernal noise at once!"

Nellie stepped forward into the center of the cobbled courtyard, raising a brass speaking horn to her lips.

"Calling upon the honorable household of Scholar Dolphus and Lady Martha!" Nellie’s voice echoed across three city blocks. "As the betrothal between Dolphus and Lady Citlali has been unilaterally severed by the Patterson family, all loans, advances, and promissory notes extended under the condition of said marriage are now due in full!"

BOOM! BOOM!

Nellie flipped open an oversized duplicate scroll, reading with crisp, merciless diction: "Item one! Year 412: Five thousand gold coins for the purchase of three Pureblood Frost Chargers! Item two! Year 413: Eight thousand gold coins for Dolphus’s private tuition and enchanted armor! Item three..."

"Shut up! Shut your filthy mouth!" Dolphus screamed from the window, his face turning an alarming shade of purple. He grabbed a heavy porcelain planter from the sill and hurled it down at the crowd.

The planter smashed harmlessly on the cobblestones, splattering dirt over Nellie's boots. Nellie didn't flinch; she merely elevated her voice, reading through the humiliating ledger line by line.

A massive crowd had already gathered. Commoners, merchants, and low-ranking pack guards were whispering, pointing, and snickering.

"By the Moon, thirty thousand gold?!" an old merchant gasped. "The boy didn't earn his rank through valor—he bought it with his discarded fiancée’s money!"

"And he dumped her at her coming-of-age ritual yesterday? What a shameless parasite!" a noblewoman scoffed loudly.

The front doors of the Patterson manor remained dead-bolted. Martha was too cowardly to show her face, and Dolphus violently slammed his shutters closed, retreating like a beaten cur while the drums continued to pound his reputation into dust.

I pulled my hood lower, turning away from the spectacle.

"Phase one complete," I murmured to Bessie. "Now, let’s go give them a target they can't resist chasing."

Ten minutes later, we entered the Grand Market—the throbbing heart of the capital’s commerce. I walked straight into Madame Vane’s Celestial Silks, the most outrageously expensive boutique in the district, and dropped a heavy velvet pouch onto the glass counter.

Clinking gold rang out like music.

"Bring me your fifteen most expensive bolts of Starlight Silk and every piece of uncut moonstone jewelry in your vault," I said loudly, letting my voice ring out to the packed street. "I have plenty of gold to burn."