Before Renée locked Red into the cell, behind the steel wire mesh, she cupped his cheek tenderly.
"This will make you stronger, mon coeur. Have courage."
Then she closed it with a heavy padlock and gestured for Robin to back up against the opposite wall, where there was not only a cell, but also shackles anchored to the wall.
Even in his haze, Red didn't like to see his little brother behind that sturdy metal netting.
"I'll stay here," he gritted out, refusing to sit or lie down yet, even though he was starting to feel faint.
"But let Robin out. He's uncomfortable."
Renée's mouth pressed into a thin line. "He needs to learn to control himself as much as you do - "
"No."
They both turned to stare at Robin. The alpha had spoken quietly, without looking up. His voice was firm.
"I want to stay with Red."
Striding over to the wall behind them, opposite Red's cell, he held out his arms to each side so that she could fasten the restraints. With them on, he could sit on the floor, but not lie down or reach the door.
Looking grimly pleased, Renée closed them.
"Pain brings you back to yourself," she told them as she locked the irons around her youngest son's wrists.
The manacles looked big around his slim, fourteen-year-old arms, made for a full-grown adult.
"You can use the physical pain of the irons to ground you, Robin. To snap you out of the rage and tunnel vision many alphas experience when faced with pheromones and a resisting or unattainable omega.
"Pain is your friend."
She checked the chains over, tugging on where they were anchored to the wall, secure. Then she gripped Robin's chin, forcing him to meet her eyes.
"It's pleasure you ought to be wary of, both of you."
Stepping back, she released him. He flattened himself back into the wall, away from her.
"Suffering at least is honest. It won't deceive you. Bliss on the other hand...will blind you, mislead you, ensnare you. Remember, if you give in - this is what's truly under it. This is the pain you are hiding from, the truth you ignore."
She cast one last look at them, immobilised, locked in together at opposite sides of the cramped room.
"Chemical suppressants are a crutch for the weak. Unless you can master yourselves and this pain, you will never truly be independent, only rules by your bodies.
"And until you can take your honest suffering and not let it cripple you - until then, you will never be free of the constraints of your biology. And our society.
"I'm doing this because I love you."
Their mother left the basement, closing the door behind her and casting the room in a dusky gloom.
And then they were alone.
His father's small gathering turned out to be a huge ball.
There's got to be hundreds of people here, Red thought, as he emerged into the far-reaching ballroom, with a high ceiling and polished floors, gilded walls and filled with milling crowds in mixed finery.
YOU ARE READING
Robin Red (BxB) - Alpha x Omega Stepbrothers
Romance(MATURE) (Alpha x Omega) Red Rivelle may be an omega in an alpha's world, but he has no intention of playing by their rules. At twenty, he's busy running an underground shelter with his mother by day and defending vulnerable omegas in the streets b...
