A month had passed since the most tragic night in the history of Icarus Rose, a month in which everyone was taking it upon themselves to make Zayn the best mafia crown they could, a month in which they didn't rest for a moment, in which the omega stayed up all night reading documents about sales and the partners with who his father was affiliated, but that living hell didn't fall just into the omega's shoulders, Louis stayed up all night trying to understand what his official place in the house could be, what hi had to do. He spent his afternoons thinking about every single conversation he had with Mr. Malik, he remembered every little move the alpha had shown him, how to hide bank transactions from his computer, how he should not trust his notes to anyone and how he should protect his family before anything else. Niall, for his part, had begun to study the profiles of those associated with the mafia, analysing the faces, families and personalities of each person to get a better picture of how he could deal with them. It was hard for everyone, but the business couldn't stop, they had to keep everything as steady as before.

Omegas took care of Zayn day and night, waking him up early in the morning to start his shooting lessons in the backyard, taught by the guards who had survived the attack and a few other alphas who had been sent directly from the academy, then he went to the shower and got dressed in the clothes they gave him to later eat the breakfast that Barbara had prepared for him; he spent the rest of the day cooped up in what he had become his office, bringing lunch and dinner to the place and making sure he memorised every word from every single mafia-related files.

The time of being a happy and innocent childs was over for everyone, the employees had sent three tutors so that the boys finished high school as quickly as possible and began to see which university they would attend. It had been agreed in a meeting with all the members of the mafias that Icarus Rose would continue its operations even if Malik began to attend the university, since he would take care of everything from there, many did not like the idea but it was either they accepted that they would be working for three teenagers, or they were killed, it was safe to say that most of them picked to follow the, now, three crowns of Icarus Rose. .

"We're done training for today," an alpha said after Zayn finished the bullets in his gun, "you can go upstairs to clean yourself up, and you can also have the rest of the afternoon free. Good training."

After those words, the omega just nodded and left the weapon on a table to go to his room, two guards followed him, one with a bottle of water and the other with a towel. That afternoon they had a meeting in the morning so he had to change the training for noon. Zayn had already mastered the use of firearms, as well as combat with a knife, he could assemble and disarm almost any weapon and his aim was almost as perfect as if he had trained for years.

He said goodbye to his guards and entered his room, two omegas were waiting for him inside with his clothes.

"The bath is ready, sir." One announced, and the brown-haired man nodded before walking to the door.

"We've also made sure that your papers are in order, we put them on your desk, and we'll be back with dinner in an hour." The other commented before they both left.

The exercise was not so painful for Zayn anymore, at first it had been quite hard to start working out every morning to gain strength and muscle, everyone expected him to increase in height and his shoulders to broaden, but that was not in the nature of Zayn.He had never been the tallest among his classmates at boarding school and definitely not next to Niall and Louis; they had increased the doses they gave him of alpha essence, now he drank an infusion of tea in the morning and another at night, everyone had noticed that his scent had begun to be more pronounced, but that was a good thing since it imposed power and superiority, typical characteristic of alphas.

Twenty minutes later Zayn was already clean and ready to rest, although that was never entirely true, the boxes of clothes that he had brought to the boarding school over the years had been delayed in arriving because they were not receiving any kind of packaging in the house and there was not enough staff for him to go to the place for the clothes, but that morning his belongings had arrived and he had to put them away since he preferred to do it himself than for some omega to detect the aroma of omega impregnated in the fabric.

Three knocks on the door made the omega's attention go to it, where he saw some beautiful brown eyes peek out, and once they stopped at Zayn, he entered completely and hugged his omega, they had been so busy all the time that spending time together hadn't been an option, though of course Liam had managed to get into the omega's room every night undetected.

It had been a difficult month for Liam, he had tried to distract his mind from the work he had to do in order to become Zayn's bodyguard so he could make sure he protected him as he had promised.

The night when alarms had filled the mansion and gunshots were ringing everywhere, an omega was running to lock the door to Mrs. Malik's office so she could separate some classified papers from some files they kept in storage.

"If it wasn't for Kasper, I assure you I would burn the papers, but he insists that they will be important to us in the future." Katherine Malik commented and the omega laughed.

"Well, your husband has always been a fan of putting away unnecessary things." She teased as she poured a cup of tea and handed it to her.

"Thanks Kristen, I don't know what she would do without you." The omega smiled and sat down on the other side of the desk. Both omegas were quite close, Kristen Payne had joined the Icarus Rose family next to her husband, they had had several financial problems and the Maliks welcomed them into their home, helped them pay off their debts in exchange for working with them, but over time they began to become closer and a friendship emerged beyond just work, the Paynes had become the right hand of the Maliks, they knew most of their secrets and the Maliks trusted them. They trusted each other their their lives.

"You'd most likely forget that little, and let me say, kind of strange fact that you like to drink your tea at night more than in the afternoon, that is the normal tea-drinking time." They both laughed.

"Probably, but I'm sure you help me with much more than just serving me tea, so why don't you pass me some of the folders that are on the shelf over there." The omega nodded and stood up again to go to the shelf that was in the corner of the office.

She moved some of the books and took the folders that her boss had mentioned, but a strange sound stopped her, she got a little closer to it to see if it was just her imagination or if there were people talking on the other side from that wall. Katherine's gaze flicked to her, and the sounds grew louder by the second.

"Kristen," the omega called, "what's wrong?"

"I don't..." Before she could finish the shelf next to the blonde she began to push away from the wall. Katherine's look showed fear, there was something Kristen didn't know.

"Get away from there, now." The woman commanded, and Kristen did as told. A hand could be seen pushing that shelf from the back of it, and as it moved further away from the wall, a door began to become visible.

"But just look at who we have here." Said a male voice.

An alpha walked into the office followed by two others, Katherine recognized that face of his as soon as her eyes met his. Killian Calder.

"One of the most desired omegas, how are you, honey?" A lopsided smile appeared on his face as he looked into the woman's eyes. His gaze was empty, no emotion could be seen on them, it was almost as if he did not have a soul inside him,at least not one that could manage to make him think clearly..

"You shouldn't be here, Calder," she said without fear, "you know perfectly well that my husband is going to kill you as soon as he sees you."

"Please, Malik always pretends to be the most powerful man when we all know he ism't capable of kill a fucking fly, that's why this house has such security everywhere, he could have killed me when he had the chance all those years ago, and he didn't," he began to say, walking through the office with his hands behind his back, he watched Kristen for a few seconds without knowing who she was or if she knew anything, "but, anyway, I'm not here to talk about your husband's fragile masculinity, much less I'm here to conquer you." He approached until he was in front of Katherine, only a few centimetres separated them. "I am here for something you know I want, where is he?"

"What are you talking about?" Calder snorted at that answer, but the omega was smart and she knew perfectly well why he was there, careful not to be seen, she reached her hand to the inside of the desk and pressed the panic button. The one that would send an alarm throughout the whole property, warning everyone about the situation.

"Very smart, you're very smart, but let's see if you'll be as intelligent when I hold you in my arms, you stupid omega." With that said, he took the woman by force and held her in his arms, hugging her from behind and immobilising her arms with his own, and with the hand that he had available he took his gun from his belt and pointed it at the omega directly in the head. "This kind of hugs were better years ago, weren't they, honey? Before you decided to dump me because of Kasper's asshole."

"Let go of me!" She exclaimed as she struggled. The two alphas accompanying Calder came out of the office and the shooting began. More men poured out of that secret door while others ran through the hidden tunnels that ran the length of the house.

"I am definitely not doing that, honey." He said with annoyance in her ear. Kristen remained motionless in her place, she did not know how to act in that situation, she feared for her life and for her friend's life, but the shock she was in did not allow her to think clearly, and that's when Calder pointed her gun at her and pulled the trigger without a single strand of hesitation.

"NOT!" The omega screamed in pain and tears began to pour out of her eyes as she watched the body of her friend bleed on the ground. Calder started to walk out of the office forcing the omega to walk with him.

On the way they found her husband leaving his office, in his eyes she could see the fear and in all the altercation the only thing she could think about was her little Zayn, what would be of him being in charge of all that business, he was just a teenager learning how to live. Suddenly a man appeared behind her and pushed Jonathan Payne down the stairs, leaving her husband unprotected in that situation.

Once in her alpha's office, Katherine prayed that things would turn in her favour, she begged in her mind for them not to do anything to her little Zayn, because despite not having carried him in her womb, she loved him with her soul. As soon as he was born, and she saw his beautiful features, she knew that she would give anything for the happiness of that baby, from then on, together with Barbara, they took charge of caring for Zayn with their souls, and even when he presented himself as an omega, he knew that one day he would take care of all the business and he would be better than any other alpha from the past, even better than them, and even though Mr. and Mrs.Payne were gone and they probably wouldn't survive, he still had Niall and Louis and Liam, she hoped Barbara was alive too.

And she ended up as she always knew she would, next to her alpha and with a bullet embedded in her head, right between her eyebrows, devoting her last thought to her little ones.

By the time the death of the Maliks and Calder ended with the code red in the house, two guards took it upon themselves to go and give the news to little Liam, who was in his usual training, but as soon as he saw both men, he knew that the things were definitely not right.

"Young Payne, you're going to have to come with us, we just had a code red in the house." One of them said, Liam recognized him because his father used to talk to him a lot.

"What happened?" He couldn't help but ask, even though he knew he shouldn't, he also knew that the news won't be good.

"Calder has infiltrated the house and managed to kill the Maliks," he explained and Liam's heart skipped a beat, he knew it would hurt Zayn a lot, "and I'm sorry to inform you that your parents didn't survive the altercation either."

Liam stopped dead, his soul falling to his feet, and he stopped thinking just then. His parents, besides Zayn, were the most valuable thing he had, and now someone had arrived and he had decided to take them away without even warning before, tears fell non-stop from his eyes and his body began to shake violently. One of the guards held him by the shoulders and tried to bring him back to reality, but it was almost impossible.

Without realising it, they had already arrived at the house, just in time to see Zayn entering his father's office. He knew that he was going to take the news as badly as he did, especially because he had to take everything, every piece of the business into his hands, but as soon as his eyes connected with his and he entered the office, he knew that nothing else mattered.

He had to bury the pain he was feeling, don't let the pain for his parents take care of that precious little omega who seemed so defenceless before the loss of his family, because seeing Zayn calm was enough for him to be fine.

So he did, he buried the pain to focus on his omega, especially because he was scared, he didn't want to pass on his worries as well, which seemed so insignificant compared to everything Zayn had to do. He softly kissed his lips and hugged his partner, making the omega hide his face in the alpha's chest.

They separated a few minutes later and Zayn prepared to keep putting his things away, Liam sat on the edge of the bed and watched him carefully, always with that sparkle in his eyes.

"Don't you want me to help you, love?" Asked the alpha barely in a whisper, the omega smiled and shook his head.

"No, I'm going to finish this, and after doing this I'm going to hug you until dawn, or until you get tired of me," He declared and Liam chuckled, he loved that behind that bad alpha cover he had, Zayn was still the same, a very strong, independent and delicate omega.

The omega organised his already folded clothes into piles and began to put them away into the drawers, and everything was going well until at the bottom of these he found an envelope with the logo of the British army, and that would have been insignificant if it hadn't had the name of Liam right away, and much more insignificant if he hadn't been open.

"Honey, have you thought about what you're going to study in college yet?" Zayn asked, trying to ignore that paper, turning to look at his alpha.

"Hmm, I was thinking of logistics, to help you out a bit with work." Liam replied from the bed, now he was helping sort out Zayn's clothes.

"You're lovely," he replied with a smile, "maybe we should talk to your parents about this, by the way, where have they been? I haven't seen them since we got home."

Liam stood still in his place, his eyes began to water and his hands trembled, he didn't want to think about it, not at that moment, but he had to tell Zayn.

"There's something I haven't told you, yet." He hesitated a bit, looking at the ground, the omega raised an eyebrow, waiting for his answer. "My parents...they died with yours, Zee."

Zayn expected any answer but that, he rushed towards Liam and hugged him tightly, the alpha hid his face in the omega's neck and stuck his nose in the place where Zayn's scent came from, in an attempt to calm down.

"But why didn't you tell me? We could have arranged a funeral for them, Liam, oh God, they're your parents."

"I didn't want to burden you with that, I know you have many more responsibilities and I'd rather help you than anguish you more with my things." Zayn frowned.

"What are you talking about, my fool alpha? You have to tell me things, we're a couple, Li, I don't want you to ever hide anything from me, we're supposed to help each other with these things, I don't need you to have secrets even if it's to protect me, I don't need a babysitter."

"I know, I know that you are a strong omega and that you can handle everything, but you have more important things to do than listen to my problems, I'd rather help you solve this than overwhelm you with my things." The omega suddenly separated from the alpha, feeling the anger and disappointment in his whole body.

He felt that Liam didn't trust him, he had even been avoiding sending his emotions through the bond and he definitely didn't like that situation. He walked to the drawer he left open and took out the envelope, Liam looked at him with wide eyes and Zayn threw it at him with all his might.

"And when were you going to explain this to me?" He said, feeling his blood boil. "What is that, Liam?"

"Zayn... I can explain it."

"Explain what to me, Liam? That you are going to leave me? We have a bond and you were going to leave, you were going to leave me alone!"

"I'm not leaving, I..."

"But you thought about it, you thought about leaving me here despite the bite on my neck." There was pain in his words, and Liam could feel through the bond everything his omega felt.

"I marked you because you asked me to," he replied without knowing what to say, Zayn looked at him totally hurt and he immediately regretted his choice of words, "no, Zee, wait, I..."

"So you did it because I asked you to?" He asked bitterly. "Was it an order for you, Liam? Did you do it as my alpha or as my employee? Huh? What was it?"

"I didn't mean that, Zee, you know I..."

"SHUT UP!" He yelled and tears began to overflow from his eyes, and Liam felt worse and worse.

The omega ran out of the room, adjusting his scarf tightly to cover the mark that seemed to only mean the world to him. He ran without even noticing the scent he was emanating, his emotions had overcome the effect of the alpha essence, and when he was about to enter the kitchen, he bumped into his brothers.

"Zayn, wait!"Louis took his arm to prevent him from leaving. "You smell like omega, anyone can smell you..." When he noticed the tears in his eyes, his expression hardened. "What the hell happened to you?"

Niall pulled them into a small utility room and closed the door behind them, both alphas waited for Zayn to calm down, and once he did he grabbed them both in a hug.

"Liam...he said he...marked me only because I asked him to." He sobbed and Louis moved to free himself from the hug.

"That idiot." He came out of the utility room reeking of fury, and when they least expected it, he was already lost in the corridors, Niall and Zayn looked at each other.

Their eyes wondered if they should go after him, and they both agreed that they had to stop him from doing something stupid. They ran after the brunette and by the time they found him, he was already on Liam, hitting him with a hatred they had never seen from Louis, and the worst thing was that Liam didn't even fight back.

"Harm my brother like that again and I swear I'll kill you, Payne." He yelled angrily before Niall separated them.

Liam began to sob and shake hard, his emotions were so strong that he lost control of what he was sending through the bite. He realised that he would never see his parents again, his mother would never again hug him and encourage him to ask Kasper for permission to court Zayn, his father would never again give him advice to be a good alpha. His family was completely broken, because he had probably already ruined things definitively with his omega, the one he swore so much to protect and help so that his emotional burden was not so heavy, to end up hurting him with his own idiocy.

He felt like a terrible alpha, the worst of all, because while he was crying on the floor, weaker and helpless than he had ever been before, his omega was also crying, totally hurt and unprotected in the middle of a hallway, when he should have been wrapping his arms around him to calm him down, instead he was looking at the useless and stupid alpha he had gotten, he felt that he had failed in everything he set out to do since they were just little children.

For his part, Zayn could feel everything that Liam felt in those moments, and his soul was destroyed, he not only felt all the love that his alpha had for him, but also all the sadness he had kept for himself, and he couldn't help but feel bad for neglecting him. him too, they were a couple, they were supposed to take care of each other and they both had failed at that.

"I had no idea you felt that way." Zayn barely murmured in the middle of his sobs, Liam shook his head and knelt in front of his omega, clung to his shirt and sobbed heartbreakingly.

"I'm so sorry," he implored and Zayn's heart broke a little more, "I'm a terrible alpha, the worst alpha, I should take care of you but instead I'm fucking with your emotions more."

Zayn fell to his knees and clung to Liam, his omega suffocating from feeling his alpha so badly, he had to help him calm down immediately.

"Li, my love, you're the best alpha I could have gotten," he managed to whisper still between sobs, Liam shook his head and Zayn hugged him tighter. "Don't say that, don't even think about it, forgive me for having reacted that way."

"I would never have marked you without feeling that I wanted to, Zee, I swear I love you even more than my own life." Zayn nodded and began to kiss Liam's lips repeatedly, the only way they could calm down.

"I know, my alpha, but when I saw that open envelope I thought that..." He couldn't even finish formulating his sentence when Liam was already holding him to his chest.

"Don't even say it, I will never leave you, Zee, I'm going to stay by your side until life allows me, first I'll die before leaving you." They both nodded and there was no need to add any more words, because the bond helped them communicate.