The Enemy Alpha Chooses Me
Dacre Vale did not look at the bleeding woman wearing my face.
He looked at me.
Then he stepped between me and the pack that had made me kneel.
One minute ago, this hall had watched guards force me down on Moonridge stone while my mate held the impostor in my wedding gown.
Now the enemy Alpha was the only body between me and the people who had raised me.
The motion was small. One black-clad shoulder shifting in front of my torn cloak, one hand keeping mine, one blade still sheathed because he did not need steel yet.
Moonridge felt it anyway.
So did Kael.
"Move," Kael snarled.
Dacre smiled without warmth. "No."
The false Liora pressed both hands to the stolen mark at her throat. Blood slipped between her fingers.
"Kael," she whispered.
Naturally, she used my voice like that.
Small.
Afraid.
The voice I used only when I was too tired to pretend I was fine.
Kael's body turned toward her.
Not toward me.
Something in me stopped waiting.
Dacre's thumb brushed once over my knuckles. Not comfort. Reminder.
I was standing.
"Seal the doors," Kael ordered.
Bolts slammed into place. Steel rang as Moonridge guards drew blades they should have drawn three nights ago when masked wolves cut me open.
Dacre did not release my hand.
"Interesting," he said.
Kael's eyes flashed silver. "You will not leave my hall with her."
"Her?" Dacre asked. "You will need to be clearer. There are two women wearing the same face, and you have already chosen wrong once."
The words hit the hall like a thrown cup.
Nobles shifted. Servants stared. One guard looked from me to the dais and back again, doubt finally reaching his eyes.
Let it reach.
Let it hurt.
Kael's jaw tightened. "She attacked my Luna."
"Your Luna is bleeding from a mark that does not belong to her."
The false Liora gave a sharp little cry.
Every man near her looked guilty for seeing blood.
No one had looked guilty when mine was soaking through my cloak.
I hated them all so much I stood straighter.
An elder stepped forward. "Alpha Vale, Moonridge law gives you no right to interfere."
Dacre did not glance at him. "Moonridge law failed to notice its real Luna on the floor."
Real Luna.
The words went through me like heat.
No one in Moonridge had said real.
No one had said mine.
No one had said anything except remove her.
Kael heard it too.
His face changed, and for one second I saw the bond between us move under the ice.
"Liora?" he said.
My heart betrayed me.
It jumped.
The false Liora cried out again.
Blood ran faster from her stolen mark.
Kael turned away from me.
Again.
He caught her before she fell, one arm around her waist, the other hand pressed to her bleeding throat.
The bond went cold.
Dacre leaned close. "Do you still want to wait for him?"
The question was cruel.
It was also fair.
I looked at Kael holding her.
At my ring on her hand.
At my pearl combs in her hair.
At my pack watching me like I was a dirty problem someone else should remove.
"No," I said.
The word came out rough.
But it came out mine.
Dacre nodded once.
Then he turned toward the locked doors.
His Ironwood wolves moved with him. They did not draw first. They simply took positions that made every Moonridge guard realize drawing second might be the last decision of his life.
One guard pointed a spear at Dacre's chest.
"By order of Alpha Thorne, no one leaves."
Dacre looked almost pleased.
"Finally."
He did not lift his blade.
He lifted his voice.
"Your Alpha called this woman false. I call her stolen. If you block her path, every wolf in this hall admits Moonridge is afraid to let the truth breathe."
The guard's spear trembled.
That was all it took.
Not courage.
Not justice.
Just one trembling hand in a room that had pretended certainty.
Dacre looked at the guard. "Ask your wolf which woman smells like a wound and which one smells like perfume over theft."
The guard's nostrils flared before he could stop himself.
His eyes went to me.
Then to her.
Then away.
"Open the doors," Dacre said.
Kael roared, "I gave an order."
No one moved.
For the first time in my life, Moonridge hesitated between its Alpha and me.
It should have been victory.
It felt like arriving too late at my own rescue.
The bolts slid open.
Rain waited outside like a slap.
Dacre guided me through the doors.
No one stopped him.
At the threshold, I made the mistake of looking back.
Kael stood with one hand still stained by the impostor's blood.
He looked afraid.
Not enough to follow.
Never enough.
The false Liora watched me over his shoulder.
For half a breath, her fear slipped.
Under it was rage.
Mine had never looked like that.
Dacre saw it too.
"Remember that face," he murmured.
"It is mine."
"No," he said. "That one is hers."
Outside, cold rain hit my skin. The air tasted of mud and iron and freedom too sharp to trust.
Black Ironwood carriages waited beyond the moon gate.
I stumbled halfway down the steps.
One Ironwood wolf reached for me.
Dacre growled.
The wolf stopped.
"No one touches her without asking," Dacre said.
I looked at him through wet hair. "But you can?"
His eyes met mine. "I offered."
It was not tenderness.
It was better than being dragged.
He opened the carriage door.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere Moonridge cannot call you imaginary and lock the door."
My hand went to the bandage under my ribs.
Something beneath it burned.
Not the wound.
Deeper.
Dacre noticed.
His face changed.
"What?" I asked.
He stepped close enough that the rain could not hide his answer.
"The mark is bleeding on her," he said. "But the root is still in you."
The burn sharpened until I gripped the carriage door.
"Meaning?"
Dacre looked back at Moonridge Hall.
His voice dropped.
"Meaning if she completes the rite, she does not only take your place."
His eyes returned to mine.
"She becomes you."
The carriage waited behind me.
Moonridge waited in front of me.
I thought of my pack staring through me. Kael protecting her. My own face smiling from another woman's bones.
"And me?" I asked.
Dacre's expression did not soften.
That was how I knew he would tell the truth.
"Whatever is left of Liora Venn dies."
For the first time all night, the enemy was the safer door.
