All the color left Sabrina's face.
"What —" She looked from the Alpha to Nina, her mouth still open, the smile completely gone. "Alpha..." Her eyes dropped to the crown on Nina's head, the dread spreading slow across her face.
Nina's mouth hung open as she stared at him.
He held her gaze once, then turned to the guards.
"Escort that woman out of the hall," he said, his voice carrying clean through the shrine.
Two guards were already moving.
"No —" Sabrina's voice cracked as hands closed around her arms, pulling her back down the aisle. "No, you can't — What are you doing? I am the real —" Her voice rose into something cracked and breaking. "She is the liar. She is a servant child. She is not —"
The doors shut behind her and the hall went still.
