The Alpha Imposter Wife

Chapter 26: Nora and Dana

NORA POV

“They’re gone?” Dana said.

“Twenty minutes ago.”

She let out a slow breath and sat back against the headboard. Her hands went to her stomach the way they did when she was trying to settle herself. Just resting there. Both palms flat.

I pulled the chair from the corner and sat down across from her.

“We’re finishing the conversation” I said.

She looked at me. “I know.”

“Not angry. I’m not coming in here angry.” I put my hands on my knees. “I just need the full picture. Everything Warren showed you. Everything he said.”

Dana looked at the window for a second. Then back at me. She nodded.

“He had documents” she said. “Actual printed pages. He put them on the table in that coffee shop like it was nothing. Pack records, old ones, the language was translated but the original script was on the side of each page like he wanted me to know it was real.”

“What did the records say?”

“The twin born between two faces.” She said it flat. Like she had been saying it to herself for five years. “That’s the language he showed me. One twin carries what the pack needs and one twin doesn’t. And the pack always knows eventually. They might not understand what they’re feeling but they feel the absence of it.”

“He told you it wouldn’t activate for you.”

“He said it clearly. He said if I walked in as Luna the wolf would never wake for me. The pack would stabilise around me for a while because packs settle around authority, but eventually something would feel wrong to them. Like a weight that should be there just isn’t.” She pressed her lips together. “And when they started looking for the source they would find it.”

“And find you out.”

“Yes.”

“And then what?” I said. “What did he say would happen to you?”

Dana was quiet.

“Dana.”

“He said I wouldn’t survive it” she said. Very quiet. “Not expelled. Not disgraced. Destroyed. He said a pack that feels deceived at that level, in their bones, in the thing they trusted most, doesn’t just remove the source.” She looked at her hands. “He said they remove it completely.”

The room was very still.

I sat with that word. Destroyed.

A twenty-three year old woman sitting across from a man she didn’t know in a coffee shop, looking at documents she had never seen before, being told that the life she was about to walk into would eventually kill her.

I breathed in. Out.

“Did you believe him?” I asked.

“I was twenty-three and I was terrified and he had actual documents, Nora.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

She looked at me. Her jaw worked slightly. “Yes” she said. “I believed him. I believed every word of it.”

“And now?” I said. “Five years later. Do you still think it was true? That part specifically, that you wouldn’t survive it?”

She was quiet for a long time. Long enough that I let it sit and didn’t push.

“I don’t know” she said finally. “I’ve thought about it so many times. Whether he was right or whether he made it sound worse than it was to make sure I actually ran.” She shifted on the bed. “Some nights I think he was telling the truth. Pack instinct is real. I’ve seen what happens when a pack turns on someone.” She looked at me steadily. “Other nights I think he played it perfectly. Said exactly the right thing to make me do exactly what he needed me to do.”

I felt something tighten in my chest.

“Say that again” I said.

“Which part?”

“Exactly what he needed you to do.”

Dana looked at me. Really looked. Like she was seeing where my head was going and was deciding whether to follow.

“Did Warren want you to run?” I said.

Her mouth opened slightly.

“Think about it” I said. “He found you two weeks before the wedding. He didn’t go to Rhett. He didn’t go to the pack elders. He didn’t go to Mum. He came to you. Specifically you.” I kept my voice even. “He showed you exactly enough to terrify you. He told you that you specifically would not survive it and that the only logical thing was to not be there. And then he let you sit with it for two weeks.”

“Nora…”

“And you ran.” I stood up. Started moving because I needed to move. “And I walked in. And five years passed. And the wolf started waking up in me. And now Warren shows up here with documentation and a scout in the trees and a delegation that overstays on purpose.” I stopped. Turned back to her. “He built this, Dana. He didn’t warn you. He set you up. He needed you out of that pack so the wrong twin would go in and the wolf would wake up in a woman who had no idea what she was carrying.”

Dana stared at me.

“Why?” she said. Her voice had gone different. “Why would he want that?”

“Because a waking wolf with no control is a destabilised pack” I said. “And a destabilised pack is one that can be challenged.” I looked at her. “He’s been building to a leadership challenge this whole time. He just needed the conditions to be right first.”

The room was quiet.

Dana’s hand was on her stomach again. Not for comfort this time. She was gripping slightly. Tight.

“You think he planned all of this” she said.

“I think he saw the prophecy and thought five moves ahead and played the first one the moment he found you in that coffee shop.” I sat back down in the chair. “The question is whether he got what he needed from the visit or whether we still have time.”

“That message on your phone” Dana said. “He confirmed enough.”

“Yes.”

“That came from the same number that sent the photo.”

“Yes.”

Dana was quiet. Her eyes went to the window. The grounds outside were settling back into their normal shape. No delegation cars. No guests. Just Blackwood Pack going about its morning.

“Someone is warning you” she said. “Someone who knows Warren’s movements from close up.”

I looked at her.

“Someone who knows what Warren confirmed and when he confirmed it and felt you needed to know fast.” She looked back at me. “Who has that access, Nora?”

I didn’t answer.

Because the answer was sitting in both our heads already and neither of us was ready to say it out loud.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​