One more day in Icarus Rose, a week had already passed since Harry's birthday, and Shawn felt that the hours were passing faster and faster. He kept sleeping with Niall, and let's not misunderstand the situation, the alpha was very good at what he did, and Shawn could only describe those encounters as the best orgasms of his life, but there was something else starting there, and he didn't like it.

The courtship should continue as normal, and something in his chest would grow a little more every time he saw a new bouquet of flowers in his room with a note from the alpha, and he would get more and more nervous when he spent time with the blonde, even after from their encounters Niall had decided to start sleeping with him, even though they had agreed it was just sex, and he definitely didn't like these new feelings in his chest.

Like that night, after having received a knot for the third time in less than twenty-four hours, Niall settled under the covers, while Shawn stared at the ceiling, thoughtful.

"What is it that you are thinking so much about, pretty boy?" And there it was, that new nickname that the alpha had adopted and that might have made the omega's heart pump harder, but he would never admit it, Shawn rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Nothing that concerns you." He replied curtly and Niall looked at him confused.

"You know that if you don't feel good about something you can tell me, right? This isn't about getting married and never talking to each other, Shawn, we have to communicate if we want to make this work."

"Why don't you mind your own business, Niall? We're just sleeping together, we're not a couple, god." He said a little tired.

"Well, sorry, I was just a little worried, but if you don't want to talk about it right now, it's fine, good night." The alpha murmured and settled on the bed, putting his arm around the omega's waist, who immediately took off.

"Dammit, Niall, I don't want you to hug me! I don't want us to sleep together after having sex! You do not understand? We're not a real couple that hugs and cuddles, that's enough." Shawn claimed, but he immediately regretted it thanks to that sad look that the alpha gave him, even so he wasn't going to retract it. "Get out of my room, I want to be alone."

"But..."

"Go away, Niall, don't you understand?" He got up and began to pick up the alpha's clothes one by one, to finally throw them in his face. "GO!"

The alpha looked at him sadly, waiting for some sign from the omega so that he wouldn't leave and talk about things, but not seeing any, he quickly dressed and left the room, his expression had hardened, if the omega didn't want to live with him, why insist? He liked him and it was no secret, yes, but he wasn't going to insist on staying where they didn't want him either.

He left the room slamming the door, and instead of going to his own room, he decided to walk to his office, he had work to do and his dream was completely gone.

Meanwhile, Shawn threw himself on his bed and began to sob softly, what was happening to him? Why was it so difficult for him to push the alpha away? He needed a breath, he was feeling overwhelmed, and having those blue eyes and that smile around him didn't help clear his mind. He dressed in his pyjamas and left the room, he needed to talk to Harry, he could help clear his thoughts even a little.

Once he arrived at the curly man's room, he knocked three times, and a sleepy omega opened the door with a frown, but when he saw the boy with teary eyes standing in front of the door, he softened his features and went out carefully not to make a sound. He didn't want to wake up his alpha.

"Shawn, what are you doing here? It's two in the morning, you should be asleep by now, were you crying?" Harry muttered, looking closely at the younger omega.

"Sorry, it was stupid to come, I didn't want to bother you, I just..."

"No no, com'on, let's go get some tea from the kitchen, what do you say? And then you'll tell me what happened." Shawn nodded and they began to walk next to each other.

About two minutes later they reached the kitchen, slowly but surely, Harry poured two cups of tea and sat down next to the omega, waiting for him to start talking.

"I kicked Niall out of my room." Those green eyes stared at him, waiting for him to continue, Shawn sighed and did. "You know I've been sleeping with him, and it's okay, you know? We have to relax from time to time, he helps me, I help him, perfect, but these last few days I can't even think straight about all this."

"What are you talking about? Do you like Niall?"

"No... I don't know, it's just that this wasn't planned, I've never felt this and the fact that a clown alpha and something of a snob shows up overnight to mess with my head, I'm not ready, Hazz."

"And what did Niall say when you told him? Because you did, right?" Harry looked at him intently with a raised eyebrow, and when he saw that the younger looked down, he sighed. "Shawn, you can't just kick him out of your room and expect him to know exactly what's going on with you, you know? It's Niall, a little slow to understand things, and despite that he has never given you reasons to distrust him, right?"

"Right." Shawn answered in a sigh. "But it's just that all this jumble of feelings is new to me, and I don't want to ruin this... whatever thing I have with him."

"You're not going to ruin it, Shawn, you have to communicate with Niall if you want things to work out, because with what you two are doing right now, you won't be able to solve anything, much less if you have to get married in a few months, do you not want to get along with your fiancé or do you prefer to clear things up, with yourself and with him so that you can have a healthy marriage?"

"The second, without a doubt."

"Well, that's why you need to talk, okay? Now let's go to sleep, I have an alpha waiting for me, and if he notices that he's hugging a pillow and not me, he's going to start a whole search operation before dawn. Both omegas laughed and began to walk towards the floor of the rooms, once they were there, Harry left Shawn in his and went to sleep.

Shawn thought that he was confused, that in a couple of days he would get over it, Niall would be the same again and they would forget about this matter.

In the morning, Harry entered the blond's office, without knocking as usual, Niall never got angry about that, but of course after the incident with Shawn, something in the alpha was different.

"Dammit, Hazz, you have to knock on the door, can't you see I'm busy?" Niall scolded with a frown, Harry sat across from him and didn't say a word, then the alpha looked at him with a pained expression. "I'm sorry, Curly, I just left a lot of unfinished business and I've been here all night."

When the alpha's blue eyes looked at him, he could see the huge dark circles under them, and how red they were. He probably had cried, but of course he would never admit it.

"That courtship takes up a lot of your time, right? How are things going with Shawn?" Harry asked and received a sigh from Niall in response, putting things aside and motioning to the omega to sit in the office chair.

"He doesn't want me near him," he whispered and let his head fall on the green-eyed man's shoulder, "last night he kicked me out of his room, he didn't let me sleep with him and..." He sighed and raised his head to look at the omega. "I'm stupid, right?"

"You're not stupid, Ni, you fell in love." Harry muttered with a small smile. "Have you talked to him about it?"

"I tried, but he doesn't want to talk about it, and I'm not going to insist that he talk to me either, if he doesn't want to, that's fine, but I'm not going to be stupid trying to get him to pay attention to me."

"Niall, I'm sorry to tell you, but you're not a teenager anymore, you're an adult, one who's going to get married soon, and you can't not talk to your husband, much less if you ever think about having puppies, do you want your children to grow up seeing that their parents don't speak to each other? Are you going to let my puppies see that their Uncle Niall is mad at his omega all the time?"

"Shawn is not my omega." The alpha cut in.

"No, but you treat him as if he were, and in the eyes of the partners, he is, you have to grow up and speak things up front. "He scolded him and Niall nodded, embarrassed.

"Still, if he wants to talk to me, he has to do it first, I'm not begging him for a little attention, I'm giving my all on this relationship, and he's not." Niall insisted and Harry sighed.

"Seriously, Niall, I adore you, but sometimes you can be a bit stupid." They both laughed and Niall got up from the chair.

"Okay, Curly, can you help me with this or will your alpha call you out?" Harry shook his head, laughing and got up to help Niall with his work, the alpha needed that to clear his mind for a while.

But five days passed, and things definitely hadn't improved. The alpha spent entire days locked in his office, and when they ran into each other at dinner or in the corridors, he didn't even look at him, he turned around and walked the other away, and definitely that attitude confused the Canadian.

Niall had a new delivery that day, he had finally finished all his errands and even caught up a bit with his missing work, Zayn was a little surprised, but he wasn't going to complain either, Icarus Rose was gradually returning to their usual rhythm and he was going to pester him with questions.

By the time the Irish man and Canadian bumped into each other, Niall was already in a bit of a hurry, but Shawn managed to get close, it was now or never.

"Niall! Wait, are you busy? Can we talk for a second?" The alpha looked at him with a neutral expression on his face, Shawn felt more and more intimidated.

"I have to go to a delivery, I can't talk right now." He answered curtly and tried to continue, but Shawn's hand on his wrist prevented him.

"Can I come with you?" Please. "He asked in a whisper that only the two of them could hear.

"For what? I thought you didn't want to spend any more time with me." He said and wanted to continue, but Shawn followed close behind.

"Of course I want to spend time with you, Niall, only..."He sighed and the alpha looked at him confused. "Just, let me go with you, then we can go to that Thai restaurant that you like so much and we can talk better, okay? I will pay, please."

Niall's sea gaze was glued on him, studying him from head to toe, and that made him even more nervous, he knew they had to talk, but he didn't think that the look of that funny alpha would be glued on him like that. He finally nodded.

"Fine, but only because you are paying, Ok? Don't think you're going to earn my forgiveness so easily."

"Of course!" He yelled excitedly and took the alpha's arm, starting to walk outside, where as usual, a car was already waiting for Niall.

"Get in the car, I need to talk to Zayn for a moment, apparently this delivery is important." Shawn nodded and Niall approached his brother, who was looking at him with a frown.

Zayn handed the briefcase to Niall and studied it for a moment, then looked at the truck and saw Shawn sitting in the backseat, looking at his phone.

"No, we already talked about this," he released, giving her a small blow. "I don't want you to involve him too much, especially in deliveries. What don't you understand?"

"Zee, I'm going to marry him, I can't keep him away forever and you know it." The omega sighed and held the bridge of his nose with two fingers of his right hand.

"I know that, I'm not stupid, but could you think with reason and not with your pants for a second? He's a stranger, Niall, he's still not a part of us until he wears the fucking ring with his blood on his finger and marriage makes brings you two together, in the meantime he's staying out of all this."

Shawn listened carefully to every word from the truck, but he pretended that some game on his phone was more important. Did they really distrust him that much? Was Harry also suspicious or was he his friend? Doubts suddenly assailed him, now he wanted to go to his house, with his parents and his sister, where they would not see him as a spy. A lump formed in his throat and suddenly all the security in his body left him completely.

"I have to settle my issues with him, Zayn, you know that. I'll be back later, okay? Don't worry, I have everything under control, I know he's good." He finished and lovingly kissed Zayn's forehead. "I love you brother, see you later."

He got into the truck and looked at Shawn with a small smile, motioned for the driver to move forward and he did. Barely half an hour on the road and they were already on a large esplanade in front of a multi-story building, a man was already waiting for them.

"Stay here, okay?" I'll be right back." Shawn nodded and Niall got out of the car.

He felt small in that seat, what was he doing there in the first place? Why had he accepted that deal? He shook his head and quietly got out of the car, he was starting to suffocate there and he needed some fresh air, he moved away from where Niall was talking to that man and began to look around, a little further away was a parking lot with only a few many cars, and several surveillance booths, he didn't realise that an alpha was following him until he took his hand.

"But look at what we have here, a beautiful omega, why are you so lonely, huh? Where is your alpha?"

"I'm going to ask you to please let me go." He demanded with the firmest voice he could get, the alpha laughed and tightened his grip on him.

"The omegas these days don't know how to respect alphas, huh? I'm going to teach you to be a good omega and to follow orders." He pulled him hard and Shawn hit the man's chest, began to hyperventilate and hit the alpha as he could.

"LET GO!" He yelled, and the fear that had already gripped him began to come out in his scent.

He moved in the arms of the man, who kept trying to get him into a guardhouse. Shawn already felt that his legs were beginning to give way, he was paralyzed with fear.

"The chief is going to be very happy when he sees the beauty that I am going to give him for his collection, but I can't give him a disobedient one, right? I'm going to teach you to be a good omega." The man whispered and Shawn hit him in the chest. "Stay still, insolent omega!"

He had used his voice and now Shawn was truly paralyzed, in his twenty years of life, they had never used the alpha voice on him, his eyes filled with tears and he regretted getting out of the car, he had to wait a little longer, ask Niall to stop for a moment, he would understand.

Niall, what would he say when he saw that he's not in the car? Has he heard him already? He felt stupid waiting for him to save him from that situation, probably seeing that he was no longer in the car he would think that Zayn was right, everyone in the house would think that he was nothing more than a traitor. A loud voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"I think that the omega you have there is mine." Niall said in a firm voice, his eyes darkening and he smelled of anger.

"I don't see any marks on him, you can't come claiming an omega when we're clearly already having fun, right honey?"

Shawn was going to vomit, his legs were weak and he couldn't even think straight, he looked at Niall, begging with his eyes that he would please get him out of that situation. The blond alpha took out his gun and pointed it at the one who had his omega in his arms.

"I'm not going to repeat it, leave my omega right now, or I'll be forced to send a bouquet of white roses to your family to show that Icarus Rose is sorry for their loss." The scent of the man who was holding Shawn changed drastically, he released the omega and before he fell to the floor, Niall caught him in his arms.

It was not a secret that Icarus Rose was known for carrying out its threats, that is why they were such a feared mafia, they were not in power because they had pretty faces or were nice to others, there were many stories of people who witnessed how they collected debts, sometimes so cynical as to send bouquets of white roses to the debtors' funerals.

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't know that..."

"Shut up." He settled the omega better on his chest and let him hide his face there, breathing in the smell of old books and Niall's chocolate, mixed with his cologne, his omega instantly calmed down. "Back off before I regret not putting a bullet in your head."

The alpha nodded and ran away from the place, for his part Niall picked up Shawn and took him back to the truck, he sighed and ordered them to be taken to the house, with the omega still in his lap and with his breath attached to his neck. Shawn's mind was in chaos, but the one thing if he could agree with his omega; they wanted that alpha fool and his scent by his side from that day on, part of the deal or not.

When they got to the house, Harry was already waiting for them at the entrance, with a very worried face. Shawn had already recovered a bit and at least he could support himself, but Niall's hand was still firm on his hip.

"As soon as Niall called me, I ordered them to make you some tea, are you okay? Did they do something to you?" The green-eyed asked, Shawn could barely shake his head.

"He didn't manage to do anything to me, Ni arrived in time to save me." The alpha's heart skipped a beat upon hearing the diminutive and he smiled.

"You need something? Tea, food? I'm going to ask for something to be brought up to your room." Shawn smiled and shook his head again.

"I'm fine, Hazz, I just need to lie down for a while." The green-eyed nodded not very convinced and gave him a hug, forcing Niall to let go of the brown-eyed one.

"If you change your mind or anything, I'll be with Zayn in his office, okay? You can go and knock on the door whenever you need to." The Canadian nodded and Harry walked away.

Niall left him in his room almost carrying him, he wasn't going to complain, feeling the alpha's arms and smell around him made him feel safer than ever, then he left a kiss on his forehead and he had to go to report to Zayn about what happened, promising that he would come back later to talk about what happened.

There the omega's mind began to turn more and more, now he accepted that he was probably starting to feel things for Niall, despite wanting to deny that, he was beginning to feel comfortable around him and those annoying butterflies in his stomach, that so much he had insisted not to feel, they had already appeared. But there was a problem, and it was that they didn't trust him, Harry probably did, he had grown very fond of that boy, but he didn't want to feel that they were talking about him behind his back, that they saw him as an intruder, that they thought he only brought problems with him.

He looked at the ring around his neck, a silver rose set with tiny diamonds, exactly the same as Niall's, Harry's, Louis's, Zayn's and Liam's, and though it was supposed to represent Icarus Rose membership, there was a difference between his ring and that of others. There was no blood on his, and that made him look like a potential traitor to them. Then he looked at the ring on his finger, the one that Niall had given him, and although at the time it meant nothing to him other than a treaty between two big mafias, at that moment it was beginning to do so, it was beginning to symbolise what he had started feeling those days in his heart for that blonde alpha, and there he decided.

At seven in the evening he left his room, running into Niall, who was about to knock on the door, he smiled shyly at him as soon as his brown eyes met the sea of his.

"Shawn, where are you going? I...uhm...thought we could have dinner here, you know? For you to rest, how do you feel?" Shawn smiled tenderly and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"I need you five to meet me in the living room, I want to tell you something..."

"And it can't wait for tomorrow?" You need to rest, pretty boy, you went through very strong emotions today and..."

"No, I need to tell you this now, or tomorrow I may regret it." Niall nodded and they both went to the living room, where Shawn waited patiently in the largest chair while Niall went to get the others.

Zayn almost choked him when he opened the door, as he was deep into a kissing session with Liam, but they still followed the blonde, despite everything, Zayn was on the lookout for the Canadian, Harry, being worried about Shawn, did not hesitate two seconds to drag Louis along with him into the living room. And there he was, in front of three alphas and two omegas waiting for him to start talking, Niall sat next to him and put his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm his nerves.

The omega breathed out trembling, he was nervous but he knew what he had to do. He wasn't going to allow himself to move on with Niall if he didn't fix the trust issue first, after all every mafia motto had something to do with family.

"You must be wondering why I called you," he began, "and the truth is that I'm not too sure how to do this but..." He looked at the blond alpha for a few seconds and he smiled at him. "But I need you to know that I'm not just any omega, I'm not like my father or like any of you." Everyone's confused looks were watching him carefully without knowing what he was talking about.

"Are you okay Shawn?" Liam asked, surprising the omega a bit, he hadn't had the opportunity to start a conversation with him yet. Shawn nodded and took his gaze to the ring that he was wearing around his neck, everyone was looking at him attentively but they didn't dare to speak.

"I've been avoiding thinking about this since I arrived." He brought his hand to the ring and pulled it so that the chain opened. "I forced myself to believe that it was only part of a deal between mafias to solve a problem, that I had been used in a certain way, although I am aware that those were never my father's intentions, he just wanted to show you that he was a trustworthy man and still you distrust me."

Niall's eyes went to Zayn with annoyance, Shawn had heard them, the omega knew that they didn't trust him and that broke his soul; the angry scent began to fill the air, but it was impossible to tell if it came from the blond or from Liam, who didn't like it at all when they looked at his omega the way Niall was doing. Harry looked at Louis remembering his promise, had Louis tried to convince Zayn that Shawn was a good person? Had she bothered to even strike up a conversation with him? Had Louis kept his promise?

"Shawn..." Zayn spoke, but the omega shook his head letting him know that it wasn't necessary for him to speak.

"I heard the conversation between Zayn and Niall when I was waiting in the car." Niall felt like he was going to explode, he wanted to hit Zayn, he wanted to let him know in some way that he was wrong and that he shouldn't have hurt his omega's... Shawn's feelings. He got to his feet but the omega grabbed his wrist to keep him from causing any more trouble than necessary.

Shawn took his gaze back to the ring that remained in the palm of his hand and remembered a night that he had spent next to Niall, while he was removing his pants a beautiful small dagger had fallen to the ground, and although that night he did not pay much attention to it, he knew that the blonde took it with him everywhere. In a quick movement he stood up, took that silver knife from the alpha's belt and brought it to his hand, everyone got up quickly not knowing what Shawn would do, but when they saw how the drops of blood began to stain the carpet they stopped and looked at him.

The sharp metal crossed the omega's hand from one end to the other, staining that ring with his blood. Niall tried to stop him seeing that the cut was deeper than necessary but the omega stopped him.

"I want to earn your trust, not only because of this deal," he looked up and met those blue eyes that looked at him with anguish, "... but because the truth is that in all this time that I've been here... I fell in love," his heart was beating. He swallowed hard and continued, "I fell in love with you Niall, that's what I wanted to tell you today."

Silence filled the room, no one knew exactly what to say. The blood kept falling drop by drop to the ground but Shawn didn't seem to care; he took the ring and put it on the ring finger of his right hand, thus sealing the deal. He finally became a member of Icarus Rose.

The alpha couldn't help but approach Shawn, he took the small piece of fabric that he always kept in the bag of his coat and took his hand, carefully began to bandage the wound to stop the bleeding. He was happy, he knew Shawn wasn't like all the omegas he had been with, he knew it since the day he met him.

"Just a small poke in your finger would have been enough." He said and smiled.

"You know I like to do things my way." Shawn replied with a smile as well. The alpha didn't let go of his hands and leaned down to place a kiss on his cheek and then looked at his brothers.

"Are you two happy now?" He was still mad at them, but they wouldn't take the moment away from him. He began to walk to his room next to Shawn without looking at the others, and on the way he told an omega to bring up a first aid kit to treat the wound on Shawn's hand and some towels to clean the blood

"Me too." He said quietly once they were sitting on the bed, then swabbed with alcohol to disinfect the cut and Shawn frowned in pain.

"What do you mean 'me too'" The blond looked up and smiled.

"I am in love with you too."