Harry grew to become a loving and energetic little boy, and as he was taking his first steps, Ed's fear that his son would present as an omega was growing, as he noticed that the little boy was small and docile. However his father loved him, and for him, his children were his greatest achievement and pride. When Stella turned six and her scent was still very neutral, hinting that she was a beta, the alpha was relieved that no alpha would come to bite her and claim her as their own in the future.

The real nightmare began when Harry turned six and the house was filled with the sweet smell of fruits and cinnamon. Edmund loved his children with all his heart, and even when Harry showed a greater tendency to be omega than anything else, he loved him and accepted him as he was, because he was his little son, but there was a problem. The people he worked with could use the condition of his Harry to have him at their feet.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Styles, Mr. Calder is already waiting for you inside." Said Calder's secretary, an omega with copper-colour hair and beautiful brown eyes.

Edmund agreed and entered his boss's office with his head held high, he was willing to negotiate his final release from all that environment, because his conscience weighed on the fact that children like his son were being trafficked to do unimaginable things with them, and he wanted to protect him from that terrible environment before they dared to touch him.

"Edmund, dear friend, take a seat. What did you want to talk to me about?" Calder asked once the alpha was inside his office, sitting imposingly on the other side of the huge desk.

"I don't think it's necessary, Mr. C. What I want to discuss with you is quick."

"Well, don't scare me like this, is everything okay? Do you need to increase your salary? Anything for my favourite worker, not to mention also the most faithful." Said the alpha, settling himself better in his chair.

"You see, I only have a few thousand left to pay in my account, and it seems fair to me to get out of the business now, get a job and pay you a certain amount each month, as you know, I have a bigger family now and I don't want to involve my little ones in... this." Ed announced nervously. Calder's smiling expression faded to a wry smile.

"I beg your pardon? Did you just say what I think you did? You want to retire?" He laughed and hit the table, Ed was startled. "Oh, dear friend, you are so naive as to think that I am going to let you go so easily, since you already know so many things."

The guards blocked the exit from the office and Calder got up from his desk, walked slowly towards Edmund and stood in front of him to impose his power. Now he was in trouble, great.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't your little Harry present as an omega yesterday?" He took out his weapon and began to play with it, without looking at the alpha in front of him. "And a very beautiful omega for sure, curly hair, green eyes, he is still small and innocent, so easy to handle at anyone's convenience. How much do you think my clients would pay for him? Ten million? Twenty? An omega this small, naive and cute is worth a lot of money, you know?"

"Don't you dare lay a single finger on my little boy." Ed muttered, but a strong punch to his face ended up taking what little courage he had left.

"You're not the one giving the orders here, Styles." He moved away and sat on the edge of the desk. "What I mean, Edmund, is that we know perfectly well what's going on around you. We know that your little Stella has already lost five teeth, what school they go to, what Jane's hours are for her cooking club, she is a beautiful woman, don't you think? Why haven't you bit her yet, Edmund? An omega like her shouldn't be wasted like that. We have eyes on you and your family every single minute of the day, you can't leave unless it's in a black bag, and with no heartbeat."

"Please, I'll do as you ask, but don't touch my family. Please let me go." Edmund implored as he fell to his knees.

"Are you sure you want to go, Ed? Because right now my men are outside Harry's school, oh, it's about time for him to leave, isn't it? Do you think that the little one is so naive as to go off with a stranger who claims to be a friend of his parents?" He picked up a phone and a voice on the other end began to tell him things that Ed did not understand, the alpha looked at him and without taking his ear off the phone, continued with his monologue. "They tell me that he is playing with some girls, does it seem that at the dolls? Uh, down the slide, poor and innocent little boy, he doesn't know what awaits him if his daddy is stupid enough not to pay his debts..."

"I'll do what you ask, but leave Harry, please..." The hormones released by the alphas flooded the entire office, fear mixed with anger and manipulation.

"I can consider telling my people to stop watching your family, but I have one condition." He dropped the phone to the floor, leaving it hanging by the cable, and approached the miserable alpha who was on his knees crying in his office. So pathetic. He lifted his chin up and looked into his eyes. "I like you Edmund, I really do, which is why I have a deal for you, one that you literally can't turn down." He made a pause. "Leave your family and fully join the business, you will not only make small deliveries, you can become my right hand, you will have many privileges, including your debt will be totally forgiven and your family will be safe from my people. On the other hand, if you abandon us, we will have no choice but to kill you, your wife and your daughter, and we will collect the debt by selling your little son to a powerful alpha. What option seems more tempting to you?"

"I can't abandon my family." He answered with a trembling voice, just thinking about it made his chest sink.

"Then I guess I'll have to ask my men to get Harry out of the school." He stood up violently and grabbed the phone from the flat again.

"NO!" He yelled, and Calder stopped with a grin. "Okay, okay. I'm staying, but please leave them alone."

"Good choice, Styles, I knew you wouldn't let me down." The alpha's smile was bigger and Edmund wanted to vomit.

He walked out of the building smelling of pure helplessness, how was he going to support his family if he had to disappear from their lives entirely? With that thought he hurried home, where Jane already had dinner ready and little Hazzie was already playing with Stella in the living room.

"Daddy!" The little omega yelled as soon as the alpha entered the door, he ran towards him to give him a hug, but Ed walked directly to his room without even giving the little boy a glance, who stood in the middle of the room with a sad look, he began to put his belongings in a suitcase.

"Ed, honey?" Jane entered the room with a worried expression. "Is everything alright? You're acting weird, you didn't even say hi to the kids, Hazzie's sad you didn't hug him."

"I'm fed up, Jane." He began, tossing the shirts into the suitcase. "This is not the life I want, especially not with... that. Leave."

"What do you mean? I don't understand you." The omega tried to get closer, but Ed backed down.

"He is an omega, a male omega. How can one of my children be a damn male omega? That's not normal, Jane, it's an abomination." He spat with all the hatred he had accumulated towards Calder, the omega's eyes began to fill with tears and he regretted it more and more.

"Are you seriously going to express yourself like that about Hazzie? Of your own son?" She shook her head as she looked at her husband sadly. "You weren't like that, Edmund, and the fact that Harry is an omega is not a bad thing, it's his nature and we shouldn't even be arguing about it, this is nonsense."

The alpha closed his suitcase and began to walk towards the exit, with his wife behind him. The desire to throw the deal away and run away with his family was getting bigger, but he couldn't put them at risk, much less if they were watching them. He knew that Jane would never accept and that's why he gave her the false alternative of staying if he kicked her little boy out of the house, after making it clear to him that of course his little one would stay, he left slamming the door.

Tears clouded his vision and fell non-stop down his cheeks, and just when he thought his heart couldn't break anymore, he heard his little boy's sweet voice coming from behind the door.

"Mommy?" His heart squeezed even more if that was possible, but he decided to stay quiet where he was and listen to his baby. He wanted to remember that sweet little voice forever.

"Yes, honey?" Jane's voice was broken, and that hurt Ed too.

"Where did daddy go?" Ed had never cried so much in his life until he heard his son, his Hazzie, so innocent and naive as to know that if his father left it was for his own good.

☺☻☺☻

The sound of the shots did not stop filling the corridor of that hotel, bodies lay everywhere on the floor and that dark red liquid kept staining the carpets of the place. Ed remained lying among the corpses, he tried to keep his eyes closed with each shot that went out, the pain in his chest grew worse just thinking about the terrible things that were happening. What if his son, his whole life, had been shot? Harry's blood would be on his hands and it broke his heart, if he hadn't left in the first place none of this would be happening, and most likely Killian wouldn't have shot his son.

"We need to get out of here, okay? Don't let go of me at any time, Niall and Liam are downstairs and as soon as they see us leaving this damn place they will be right behind us." A voice spoke calmly and almost in a whisper, that was definitely not Killian.

Edmund opened his eyes, careful not to move, and observed the figure of his son entering the elevator with that blue-eyed alpha, his son was holding the hand of the famous Mr. Tomlinson, the reason for that all the operation that he now knew had been in vain; he watched as the metal doors closed and Harry hugged the alpha tight, clinging to him as if he was the only thing he needed.

But it couldn't be, Harry had told him that he wasn't his omega, and the lack of a bite mark on his neck proved it, but it was certain that those two had something going on, after all, that must be the reason for why Tomlinson had done all that circus just to save his bodyguard.

When he felt that there was no one else in the place, he got up and cleaned his clothes, he had been lucky not to have been one of those who got in the way of that furious alpha, he looked around and analysed each of the people whose bodies laid cold, they were his companions since he joined the mafia, he had even called one or another a friend, but that no longer mattered.

He walked up the stairs, he wasn't going to risk facing someone from Icarus Rose and being taken away, plus he knew perfectly well that the police wouldn't take too long to arrive at the place and he couldn't risk being arrested either. He left the hotel and ran to one of the cars in which they had arrived at the hotel and drove as fast as he could until he managed to get far enough away from the place, he saw how the patrols passed by him with the sirens resounding everywhere as well as red and blue lights illuminated the premises and buildings.

He stopped the car in an alley and got out, he couldn't risk them identifying the licence plates or anything like that, his mind was trying to process everything that had happened and he was struggling to find a way to fix things, Killian Calder was dead as well as most of his mafia, he doubted that his wife would take the necessary measures for the heir to obtain his position, just as he knew that Icarus Rose would not stand idly by and take everything under their power. But what was spinning in his head was Harry, after so many years of being away from his son, after so many sleepless nights wondering if he had made the right decision, if there wasn't some other way to solve his problem, he had found it, and now he knew he was safe and sound, even if it was in the arms of that mafia with which he had fought all his life.

If it hadn't been for him, Harry would be in Holmes Chapel living a normal life with his mother and sister, if it hadn't been for his stupid greed, but that didn't matter anymore, he had to fix things, he wouldn't allow his son to be in the hands of that mafia, in the hands of that alpha who thought he had everything in the world, he was the only one who knew Calder's secrets, he knew Tomlinson, Horan and Malik's weaknesses, now he just had to...

"Sorry, I wasn't looking where he was going." He said to the man he had just collided with. He looked up and met a pair of grey eyes that were hidden behind rectangular glasses. The man had a face that was familiar to him but he couldn't remember where he knew the man from specifically. He crouched to the ground and picked up a paper that the alpha had dropped and looked at it.

"No problem... just watch where you're going." He took the sheet from his hands and tried to walk, but Ed grabbed his arm.

"Pardon me for my curiosity, but do I know you from somewhere?" He asked, making sure that alpha was looking at the ring on his hand.

"It's not a good place to talk," the alpha looked around, noticing the people passing around him, "I've just been informed about what happened, and I think you shouldn't talk to me, for the safety of both of us."

And that's when the memory hit him, that alpha in front of Ed's eyes was one of Calder's mafia associates, one of the many who preferred to keep their identity hidden so as not to damage their last names, however his face was impossible to read, he use to hide in all those meetings they attended to assess the next steps they would take.

"I'm Styles, I was Calder's right hand, so with me he's someone you'd like to talk to." Ed stretched out his hand to shake it with the alpha who looked at him analysing the situation, not entirely sure if he should do it, but there were deals and debts that he knew were impossible to escape, so he took her hand and introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Tomlinson." Ed's gaze fixed on that alpha's eyes, a wave of emotions invaded his chest but he tried to hide it in the best way he could.

"Tomlinson?" he questioned without believing it.

"That's right, is there a problem with that?"

"You have no idea."

They both started walking towards the man's car, which was just a few steps away, once inside Ed felt it was time to drop the bomb.

"Then I suppose you'll be interested in hearing from Louis Tomlinson, because he's messing with my son and that's something I don't like at all." Tomlinson's eyes widened and he began to drive.

That bastard had survived after all, and he couldn't let him keep trashing his last name.