"Do you have what I asked for?" The alpha asked hoarsely. The other man took a black briefcase out of the car and opened it. In it were two bags of cocaine that equaled approximately one and a half kilos. The alpha smiled and motioned for one of his bodyguards to pass him a briefcase of money and give it to the man.

"That's all, thanks for doing business with Icarus Rose, I hope to see you soon." They both shook hands and the man turned around to go back to the car and head back to the house.

"Hey!" The alpha called him, making him stop. "Can I ask you a question from alpha to alpha?" He questioned and the man approached him again.

"Of course, how can I help you?"

"Well, I'm not sure if the rumours are entirely true, but a rumour is starting to spread that Icarus Rose isn't what it used to be since Tomlinson got an omega." The alpha cocked his head a bit in confusion for his words.

"What do you mean, Mr. Jones? What rumours are you talking about?"

"It is said among mafias that their merchandise is no longer the same, and I hope that is not true, or else I will be forced to look for another dealer." Said that, the alpha turned around and walked away from the place.

The delivery man looked at the guard accompanying him for answers, but he just shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"I have to call Mr. Malik, right?"

"Get ready for the beating of your life, you should have investigated more with Jones." The guard said and they both got in the car.

"Maybe we can investigate if it's true that there are rumours, we still have another delivery to make today."

The guard started the engine and began to drive to the next delivery, it was not very far from that place and it was with a regular client, he always made the same requests for weapons and drugs, but this time he had asked to meet and talk a little with someone mafia representative, and since Louis was not there and Niall was still upset with Zayn, they assigned that employee to go, Bryce Davids, accompanied by the guard, whom they refer to as Anderson, got out of the car and headed to the warehouse where the client had asked to meet.

It seemed to be the operations centre of Malik's partner, many betas and alphas were walking around with boxes and bags of merchandise, while some half-naked omegas were sitting on a dirty armchair, Davids immediately assumed they were part of the company. It deals with omegas, but he did not comment on it, it was not his place to comment on what they carried out in other mafias outside Icarus Rose. A taller alpha approaches both men and shows them the way to a small office at the end of a corridor; a penetrating aroma of alcohol and omega pheromones hit them as soon as they opened the door, in a way they were grateful to work in a mafia like Icarus Rose where things like that didn't happen, all of Zayn's employees had always cheered about how respected they were on the house. It was Mr. Malik for always rejecting the omega trade and being an active member of the organisations against said sale, later of course they realised the reason was that he himself was an omega.

"You must be Davids, they told me I would be the lucky one to get to talk to you today." An elderly alpha exclaimed feigning enthusiasm as he left a room, in the background an omega could be seen lying on a bed, being completely naked.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans," he shook hands with the alpha and he smiled at him, "I'd like to start our meeting with a question, if you don't mind, of course." Evans motioned for him to take a seat in front of his desk and with a nod Bryce continued. "You see, it's not very often that we're told to go to a delivery empty-handed, is there a specific reason you decided to do it this way?"

"Indeed, for many years I have been a member of the Malik's business," he began, "and in all that time I have never received any complaint from any buyer, and of course, that has been mainly because my buyers are usually street, but a while ago I started selling to a businessman who was starting to enter the business, of course always following our agreements, the profits I make with his merchandise always go directly to Icarus Rose and I only keep a minimum percentage." he sighed and leaned against the wood of the desk, looking the alpha straight in the eye. "However, I am sorry to report that a few days ago that streak without complaints ended."

"Did you get any complaints about the merchandise?"

"I'm afraid so, the same man I had started selling to let me know that several of his buyers had called his ordinary, worthless merchandise, crap in a nutshell." He snapped with frustration in his voice. Davids looked at him surprised by his words, but before he could continue, Evans continued speaking. "That is why I have decided that the best option for me and my men is to go in different directions. It was a pleasure working with you as partners, but I have found another supplier and we will not need to continue with deliveries if your product does not sell the same."

Davids looked at the guard with panic in his eyes, he had no idea what to do at the moment and he was definitely not as qualified as Mr. Horan to persuade the alpha to stay, so he stood up and took out his phone. He was going to do the only thing he could think of.

☺☻☺☻

Zayn and Niall were walking through the storeroom of the house, they had talked a bit about the situation with Shawn and they both agreed to leave everything in the past once the brown-haired man apologised to the omega. That day the merchandise stored in the warehouse seemed to be in order, the only thing they could both get was that there was a slight increase in merchandise, which meant that Louis had to get an estimated percentage of the decrease in sales, but since he was not in the house at the moment, they should try to manage.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, noticing that Zayn looked tired. The omega's phone began to ring and an unknown number appeared on the screen.

"Malik." He said as he answered, putting the call on loudspeaker so Niall could hear as well.

"Mr. Malik, Bryce Davids here, I'm at my scheduled delivery and Mr. Evans just told me that he wishes to disassociate himself from Icarus Rose because he received a merchandise complaint." He explained in a flat voice. The omega's brown eyes widened in surprise and he looked at the alpha.

"What do you mean, Davids? I don't think I heard you clearly."

"Mr. Evans doesn't want us to make any more deliveries to him, he said the merchandise was ordinary and crap." The air began to fill with fury. In eighty years of Icarus Rose's existence, his merchandise had never been described as crap.

"Shoot him." The omega whispered with annoyance at his words.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Shoot that son of a bitch!" He yelled and within seconds gunshots began to ring from the other end of the line, until finally the call was ended. The alpha looked at Zayn with a serious expression. "Start finding out everything that is being said about this on the streets." He ordered Niall, who stood there looking at him. "NOW, NIALL!" He yelled and the alpha almost flew out of the place.

Zayn started digging through his contacts until he found Louis's number and hit call.

"You're not going to save yourself from this, you damn idiot." He said before he answered.

☺☻☺☻

The soft sheets covered the naked bodies of the now engaged couple, the clock said five in the morning and their bodies struggled to get used to the time change, but after spending most of the night awake it was impossible for them to do so. The omega's curls rested on the alpha's chest, they both rested calmly when the alpha's phone began to ring, a growl came out of the blue-eyed throat as he stretched out his arm until he reached the nightstand, he didn't bother to look at the name on the screen before answering.

"What?" He said thickly, still sleepy.

"IF YOU DON'T COME RIGHT NOW I SWEAR I'M GOING TO GO THERE FOR YOU AND KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" The omega yelled from the other end of the line, Louis lifted the phone from his ear and looked at the time on the screen.

"Zayn, it's five in the morning, what did I do now?" He asked, brushing off his words. Harry began to stir in his place and the alpha brought his hand to his back to caress and reassure him.

"Louis William Tomlinson, you better get on a plane right now because I need you here!" Saying that, the omega ended the call leaving Louis confused.

Zayn never got like this for nothing, something happened and, judging by the omega's reaction, it was his fault.

He tried to lift his omega in so many ways, but he always ended up covering his entire body with the covers, until he finally ended up on the ground.

"Love, forgive me, I didn't mean to throw you, but I'm still a little sleepy." Said the omega in a hurry, Louis smiled at him from the ground.

"Bear, we have to go back to the house immediately." The alpha muttered getting up from the ground, Harry raised an eyebrow with confusion. "There's a problem in the house, Zayn just called me and he sounded a little angry."

"Oh." Harry got up and started looking for his clothes on the floor, once they were all together they began to pack the few things they managed to unpack.

A bodyguard was already waiting for them, leaning on a car, surely Zayn from London made sure to make things easy for Harry and Louis, they got in and left the property, directly to the airport. They were waiting for another 19 hours sitting on a plane.

☺☻☺☻

At home things were no better, they had sent orders to the street vendors to immediately investigate the rumours, Niall was already in his office contacting the other partners and talking about what was being said, assuring them that the merchandise was exactly the same as always, only one of the partners decided to disassociate himself, he believed that all this disaster was because the omegas don't know how to run a business like that, and Niall wasn't going to let them continue associating with someone with that thought.

He sighed and rested his head in his hands, tugging at his hair a bit, he wasn't going to lie, he was frustrated, he was trying to leave Zayn with a lighter workload than usual due to his condition, being pregnant he knew he couldn't stress so much. The door opened and he looked up, meeting those brown eyes and that short curly hair, he smiled at the omega and invited him in.

"Do you need any help?" Shawn asked shyly "I just called my father, he says that as soon as he can, he will contact you to help, and uhm, if you let me, of course, I can help you talk to clients, I have some experience in that and I want to be of help."

"Oh, Shawn, you don't have to do all that, we'll fix this, don't worry." He smiled at the omega and he shook his head.

"I know I don't have to, but I want to help, I didn't bleed on the ring just to see how problems arise and sit idly by, I have a bit of experience thanks to my father and if I can be useful, I'll try to help." He said determined.

Niall invited him to sit on his lap and Shawn gladly accepted, grabbed some papers and they set off. Niall had to admit that he felt a little more relaxed having that lovely smell of honey and cookies in the air, plus the omega felt warm against his chest.

A couple of hours later they announced that Louis and Harry were already at the house, everyone went to greet them, both looked tired, and Niall even noticed that their lips were swollen and Harry's curls were a bit tousled, but this was not the time to ask them, noticing their obvious state that screamed 'we just had sex', they had more important matters to take care of.

"Let's go to my office." Zayn said and they all walked into the house.

The atmosphere was tense, nobody really spoke, you could feel the aroma of anger and discomfort in the environment. They arrived at Zayn's office and he sat at his desk, everyone was silent until the omega, owner of that office spoke.

"There have been rumours, there is someone saying that our merchandise is ordinary, more expensive than it should be." He said, looking directly at Louis. "This is the empire my family built, and this is what we are going to leave to our descendants, do you understand? And what we have now, we have worked too hard for an idiot to appear out of nowhere and think that they can discredit our work."

"Zayn..." Niall said and the mentioned looked at him angrily.

"Shut up!" He yelled and the room went silent again, everything reeked of anger. "We've been too laid back, we've been neglecting business, we're getting soft and people are taking advantage of it, but I'm not going to have that anymore. Now go to work and let me work, you incompetent alphas."

Louis and Niall nodded and walked out of the office, leaving the omegas alone.

"Zayn, if there's anything I can help you with... I don't want to feel useless in this situation, okay? Plus you have to watch your stress levels, it's not good for the puppies." Harry said and Zayn nodded.

"Thanks Hazza, can you help me review some contracts? Although we obviously don't stick to the law, I think your knowledge will help us review them, I would really appreciate it" Zayn asked and Harry nodded with a smile. "Okay, there's a free office upstairs, two doors away from Louis's, or you can go to his, as you prefer, but please, work."

"Sure." The curly man took the contracts that Zayn handed him and smiled at him again.

"Zayn... I uhm, I talked to my father and he's willing to help with anything, and I'm in the same position as him, I don't know if you still don't trust us, but..."

"Shawn, it's fine, you bled on the ring and as Niall's future omega you're already part of the family, forgive me for the comments I made in the past, okay?" Zayn said with a small smile, Shawn nodded.

"I can call some of my father's contacts so they can investigate a little with the most powerful partners. I know that the dealers are already working on it, but a rumour in the streets is not the same as among people in power, right?" The omega nodded.

"You're right, thanks Shawn, I'll get in touch with your father later." The Canadian nodded and walked out with Harry, leaving Zayn alone.

A few moments later, Liam crept into the office, some papers in his hands. Zayn was going through other papers on his desk and reading some emails, but when he smelled his alpha, he looked up.

"Did you find anything, honey?" The alpha asked with a small smile, Zayn sighed and instinctively brought his hands to his belly, Liam kissed his temple and sat next to his omega.

"No one knows who this new partner who started the rumour is, he has managed to keep his identity a secret, those cowardly bastards." He spat angrily, his hands caressing his belly and hiding his face in Liam's neck. "I sent Harry to check some contracts, I need to have a more precise control of who can easily leave us and who we have trapped, the Mendes and their contacts are going to be in charge of investigating more in depth between partners, for that reason I am grateful to have more omegas to help me, if it were not for them, this would fall apart." he teased and a raspy laugh came out of Liam.

"I'm sure we'll figure this out, okay? It's time to rest, you can't force yourself to be working so hard on your state, shall we?"

Zayn nodded and got up from his chair, taking Liam's hand, even though they were already going to his room, he couldn't stop thinking about the earrings they had, he had to order an office for Harry, probably also for Shawn, if he had planned to help in the business, it would not be very efficient for them to share an office with Niall and Louis, he knew his brothers far too well to make that mistake.

He laid back on his bed with Liam by his side, he snuggled into the alpha's chest and let him pull up his shirt to caress his belly, he started kissing his face and whispering sweet words in his ear, his alpha was the only one keeping him sane in the midst of all that mess, and he was infinitely grateful to him for that.