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The Alpha Queen Returns – Episode 02
The clinic remained silent after General Sarabeth’s apology. Patients stared at Jessica as if the plain healer’s dress had transformed into royal armor before their eyes. Near the door, the Council Guard stood bloodless and shaking, one hand clamped over the wolfsbane wound she had tried to save him from.
Two soldiers seized his arms. The arrogance drained from him so completely that he seemed to shrink inside his uniform. “Please, Your Majesty,” he babbled as they hauled him into the rain. “I made a mistake. I can explain—please!” His pleas faded beneath the rumble of military vehicles.
Jessica did not spare him a glance. Her attention remained on Sarabeth, who had risen but still held herself with the wary discipline of a soldier awaiting judgment. “Is this how your people behave now?” Jessica asked. “Do Council soldiers bully civilians and use their rank as permission to act like tyrants?”
Shame tightened the general’s mouth. “No excuse would be good enough. He will face a full tribunal, and every unit under my command will be reminded whom they exist to protect.” She bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. It will not happen again.”
Some of the ice left Jessica’s expression, though anger still stirred beneath it. She had not buried friends and enemies alike to replace pack warfare with official cruelty. Peace meant little if ordinary wolves had to fear the uniforms meant to defend them.
Yet one abusive guard could not explain an elite convoy. Jessica dismissed the patients for the afternoon and waited until the last villager hurried into the rain. When the clinic door closed, she folded her arms. “Now tell me why you’re really here.”
Sarabeth’s practiced composure faltered. “Rogue wolves are striking settlements along the northern and eastern borders. The attacks began as isolated raids, but they’re coordinated now. Food stores have been burned, patrols have disappeared, and whole families are abandoning their homes.”
She placed a weather-stained map on the counter. Black marks scarred territory Jessica had once fought to secure. “The peace you created is beginning to crumble. The packs blame one another, and the Council spends its sessions arguing over command while people die.”
Jessica traced one of the border roads with her gaze. She knew every narrow pass and river crossing marked there. Once, she could have named the commander of every garrison. Now the ink smelled like rain and old blood.
“The people are frightened,” Sarabeth continued. “The Council is divided, and our enemies know it. We need someone strong enough to hold the packs together and wise enough not to turn this into another civil war.” She met Jessica’s eyes. “You must return and reclaim the throne.”
The clinic walls seemed to recede. In their place rose battlefields under red dawns: broken shields in the mud, wolves howling over their dead, and young soldiers trying not to cry as she ordered them forward. Jessica had sacrificed sleep, mercy, love—every soft part of herself—to end those wars.
She would not hand her life back to them. “No.”
Sarabeth blinked. “Your Majesty, if you would only hear the full report—”
“I heard enough.” Jessica rolled up the map and pushed it across the counter. Weariness roughened her voice in a way no enemy had ever been allowed to hear. “I fought enough battles for one lifetime. The Council wanted authority after the war. Let them use it.”
“They don’t have your authority.”
“Then they should have thought of that before turning governance into a contest of egos.” Jessica moved toward the window, where rain silvered the herb garden. “I have one responsibility now. I want to live peacefully and watch my daughter grow up.”
Caroline’s name softened the hard line of her shoulders. After years spent protecting a realm, Jessica wanted something small and selfish: breakfasts with her child, scraped knees instead of battlefield wounds, laughter unburdened by titles. “She is the future that matters to me.”
Sarabeth watched her reflection in the glass. “Where is Caroline now? I didn’t see her here.”
“With the Russo Family Pack.” Jessica turned from the window. “They have wealth, a respected school, and children her age. They promised her a normal childhood—no court politics, no wars, no royal duties. She deserves to know who she is before the kingdom tells her what she must become.”
A faint smile touched Jessica’s mouth as she pictured Caroline among classmates, complaining about lessons and racing through sunlit fields. “For the first time, she gets to live like an ordinary girl. I won’t drag her into danger because the Council failed to preserve what I gave them.”
