CHAPTER 12: BIG BROTHER EDDIE

Rhea let the whip slip from her hand. It clattered to the floor, the sound cutting sharply through the suffocating quiet. She exhaled hard, a satisfied smile curving across her lips as the tension drained from her shoulders.

On the ground, Eberhard groaned, clutching at the angry welts striping his chest and arms. Seraphine wasn’t much better, doubled over with shallow breaths, red marks raw across her ribs. Their clothes clung awkwardly to their damp skin, and every inhale sounded ragged.

Nikki, however, was the picture of terror. She had pressed herself tight into the corner, as if she could disappear into the wall. Her arms wrapped around her body, curling her small frame further, trembling so violently her hair stuck to her damp cheeks. Each time Rhea so much as shifted, Nikki flinched as if expecting the next strike to land on her.

Rhea turned her head and froze. There, perched on a ridiculous pink bedside table, sat a jug. Glass, painted faintly rose, condensation sliding down its sides in glistening beads. Her parched throat constricted at the sight.

A gasp tore from her chest. Finally. She had been dying of thirst since the moment she awoke in this cursed world.

She crossed the room without hesitation and lowered herself onto the bed. With a regal poise she crossed one leg over the other, seized the jug, and lifted it to her lips. Tilting it high, she drank greedily. Water spilled down her chin, but she did not care. The relief was too sweet, too necessary.

The door burst open with a slam.

Ellie was the first to step in, his usual lazy composure stripped away as his eyes swept the room. Eberhard groaning on the floor. Seraphine writhing nearby. Nikki crumpled against the wall, trembling. The whip abandoned on the rug. And in the center of it all, Rhea, seated on Nikki’s bed with her leg crossed, gulping water straight from a pastel-pink jug as if she owned the place.

"What the he..." he began, only to stop short. The words caught in his throat as he blinked at the absurd picture.

Ares followed close behind, Lena and Lyra trailing nervously at his heels, all three breathless and wide-eyed. "What the hell happened here?" Ares demanded, his gaze snapping from Eberhard to Seraphine, both battered and broken on the floor.

Nikki perked up instantly at the sound of his voice. She scrambled to her feet, rushing toward him and clutching desperately at his arm like it was her lifeline. Her sobs poured out unchecked as she pressed her bruised face against him. "Alpha... Alpha, you must give me and my father justice! Look at what that bitch did to us. You have to punish her!"

Meanwhile, the so-called bitch was still drinking. Still gulping from the jug as though she had crawled back from a desert and stumbled upon her first oasis.

Ellie’s eyes never left her. His trademark smirk had vanished, replaced by a look of sheer confusion. He could not stop staring. Her posture. Her aura. The way she sat calm and untouchable amid the wreckage she had caused. This was not the timid, spineless omega he had grown used to watching get kicked around. No. This was something else. Something dangerous.

She has changed, Ellie thought, unsettled by how true it felt. That is not the same girl. What happened to her? When did she become like this? And why, in the middle of all this chaos, does she look... intoxicating?

Rhea tilted the jug higher, draining the last drops, then dropped it carelessly onto the rug. The hollow thud echoed in the silence. She exhaled with satisfaction, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and muttered, "Wow... I needed that," still not sparing the stunned audience in the doorway a single glance.

"What the hell happened here, Rhea?" Ares’ voice cracked through the air like a whip, fury lacing every word.

"Oh hush, I heard you the first time," Rhea muttered, picking at her ear as if flicking away his fury. She stretched her arms overhead, her back arching with languid ease. Her joints popped softly, and she sighed, thinking only of how much she needed some sleep after the little workout she’d given herself earlier.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Every pair of eyes in the room widened.

Nikki, clutching Ares’ arm, lit up with sudden glee. A vicious smirk curved her swollen lips, as though Rhea had just signed her own death warrant.

Ellie, on the other hand, blinked once, twice, then leaned back against the doorframe, his expression a mix of shock and wicked amusement. Wow, he thought, a slow grin creeping across his face. Never thought I’d live to see the day Rhea talked back to the Alpha.

Eberhard, groaning as he forced himself upright, barked out, "How dare you talk to the Alpha like that!" He winced immediately, clutching his side where the whip marks screamed against his movement.

"You better save some of that strength," Ellie muttered under his breath, his smirk widening.

Seraphine managed to pull herself to her feet beside Eberhard, her lips curled, her body trembling with fury and humiliation.

Ares stood rigid, staring at the girl who kept stretching like she hadn’t just reduced half his pack’s leadership to rubble. Something was definitely wrong with her. He should have known it when she dared call him a fool, now this? Treating him like he was some unimportant person, not her Alpha. Even now, she hadn’t so much as looked at him since he walked in.

That small detail twisted the knife deeper, stoking the fire in his chest. His anger boiled higher.

Ares’ eyes blazed. "Are you talking to me like that?" His voice cut sharp, heavy with disbelief and fury.

Rhea dropped her arms from her stretch and finally pushed herself to her feet. She tilted her chin, her gaze unwavering. "Yes, I am talking to you like that. Do you have a problem with..."

Her words faltered the instant her eyes landed on Ellie. She froze, her lips parting.

Her brow knit, confusion flashing across her face.

"Big brother... Eddie?" she whispered, her voice breaking.