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The Alpha Queen Returns – Episode 03
Cold seeped through the stone floor and into Caroline’s knees. A bucket of filthy water stood beside her in the Russo mansion’s main hall, its sour smell mixing with furniture polish and the perfume of passing guests. Servants stepped around her without looking down. No one offered help. In this house, refusing to see her pain was another form of obedience.
Caroline dragged a rag across the floor with both hands. Her knuckles were cracked from laundry soap, and hunger cramped her stomach, but she worked carefully. A missed spot would give Reva another excuse, and Reva never needed much of one.
Laughter drifted from behind her. Reva Russo lounged on the bottom step of the grand staircase, immaculate in a cream dress, while two pack girls admired the ribbons in her hair. The contrast between them was so sharp that Caroline felt ashamed of her patched sleeves, though she knew she had done nothing wrong.
She lowered the rag. The question had lived inside her for years, growing heavier with every insult. “What did I do to you?” she asked, her voice unsteady. “Why are you always so mean to me?”
Reva stared, then burst into delighted laughter. “Because I can.” She rose and descended the last step with the lazy confidence of someone who had never been denied anything. “I’m Alpha Russo’s daughter. I don’t need another reason.”
Her friends giggled as she circled Caroline. “And you’re the bastard daughter of some worthless peasant healer in the woods. My family took you in out of charity, but you still walk around as if you belong here.”
Caroline fixed her gaze on the wet stone. She had heard the lie so many times that sometimes it crept into her dreams. Her mother was not worthless. Jessica healed anyone who came to her door, even when they could pay only with bread or thanks. That goodness mattered more than all the Russo family’s gold.
“You don’t even have a wolf,” Reva went on, sensing the tenderest place to press. Most young shifters Caroline’s age had begun to feel an inner presence beneath their skin—a second heartbeat, a voice, a flash of heightened instinct. Caroline had felt nothing. “You’re a useless omega pretending you might become something more.”
The pack girls whispered and laughed. Caroline bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. Her mother always said every wolf awakened in her own time, but confidence was difficult to hold when an entire household treated her silence as proof of failure.
Reva bent down and twisted a fist into Caroline’s hair. Pain arced across her scalp. “Remember your place. You sleep beneath our roof because we allow it. You eat because we permit it. You are nothing but a slave in this pack.”
Caroline’s eyes watered, but she would not give Reva the satisfaction of a cry. Then the older girl leaned close enough that her breath warmed Caroline’s ear. “If you want your mother to stay safe, you’ll keep obeying us.”
Every other fear vanished beneath that one. Caroline pictured Jessica alone in her little clinic, unaware that dangerous wolves spoke about killing her. She did not know how powerful her mother had once been; she knew only the gentle healer who kissed her forehead and smelled of herbs.
Reva released her with a shove. “Keep cleaning.” Caroline reached for the mop leaning against the bucket, but Reva kicked it across the hall. Wood clattered against stone, drawing another burst of laughter. “Not with that. Get on your knees and use your hands.”
Humiliation burned Caroline’s face. She wanted to refuse, yet the threat against Jessica echoed louder than her pride. Slowly, she dipped the rag into the gray water and returned to work. Tears blurred the gleaming floor until she could no longer tell which places she had cleaned.
Reva noticed and clicked her tongue. “Stop trying to look pitiful. You’re a shameless little slut, just like your mommy.”
Caroline’s hand went still. Insults aimed at her were familiar bruises; she knew how to carry them. Hearing that word attached to her mother cut through every defense she had built.
Reva smiled at the reaction. “Didn’t anyone tell you? Your mother seduced Ambassador Ansel and slept with him. That’s the only reason he convinced my family to take in a worthless brat like you.”
One of the girls nodded eagerly. “Ambassador Ansel said caring for you would be an honor for the Russos. Everyone knows what that means.” Their laughter turned the lie into something filthy and public.
Caroline rose before she realized she had moved. Her legs trembled, but she looked directly into Reva’s eyes. “No. My mother would never do that.”
The laughter died. Servants slowed along the edges of the hall, astonished that the quiet girl had found a voice. Caroline’s tears spilled freely now, yet her chin remained lifted. “You can say whatever you want about me. Don’t talk about my mom like that.”
