"Four hundred ninety five... Four hundred ninety six... Four hundred ninety seven... Four hundred ninety eight... No... No, this can't be right." Niall murmured, with a list on his hand, checking it again "I'm gonna count again, I probably missed a number or something."

The blond alpha counted the boxes again, because according to the list he was given there should be five hundred boxes of merchandise, but there were two boxes still missing.

"Uh! This can't be real " he kept thinking on what to do until a brilliant idea came to his mind." Curly! " he called with a loud voice, Harry appeared instantly.

"Is everything alright, Sir?" he asked.

"Yes. Can you count these boxes for me? Please." Asked the blue-eyed.

"I'm sorry to ask but, wasn't that what you were doing?"

"You are right, my dearest Curly, but somehow I am missing some boxes. And we have already spoken about you calling me 'Sir', it makes me feel like an ancient man and I'm barely in my late twenties."

"Sorry." Harry apologised. "I'll count the boxes immediately."

He started counting all the boxes in the basement, thinking about what he could have done to deserve being punished that way, making him count five hundred boxes by himself.

"There are four hundred and ninety eight boxes, Sir. Everything alright with that?" Niall let out a loud sigh, looking with disapproval at the list he held in his hands.

"Can you go and tell Louis that there are two boxes missing? He's probably out of his mind trying to get the maths to add and failing gloriously. Something is happening here."

Harry nodded and left the room fastly, standing in front of mister Tomlinson's office in less than a couple minutes. He tried to regulate his breath, and once he did, he knocked three times the door hearing a 'come in' from the inside.

"Mister Tomlinson." Harry started, but as soon as he saw the man sitting behind the desk, looking like he had lost his mind. He knew that there was something wrong. "Is everything alright?"

"No, Harry. The maths don't add up. I am getting lower numbers than what we should have in the house. I am doing something wrong and I have no idea what that is."

"That is exactly why I am here, Sir." he said, Louis looked at him curiously. "Mister Horan was counting inventory and sent me to tell you that there are two boxes missing. That's probably the reason why the maths aren't adding."

"Interesting." he said as he stood up "Follow me, we are going to Zayn's office, Niall is probably already there."

Harry nodded nervously, waiting for his boss to go out of the room first, he touched his hair, but as soon as Louis walked past him he messed it up again.

"Tie your hair up, please." He said seriously, waiting for Harry to do it.

The curly-haired guy took a hair tie, and tied his hair in a bun, leaving a single strap of hair free. Louis smiled and accommodated the hair behind his ear.

"Perfect." He nodded and started walking, Harry following closely behind.

Once they got to Zayn's office, they walked in without knocking. In there, as Louis predicted, was Zayn sitting on his chair, Niall by his side and Liam behind them.

"Zayn, there is a problem." Louis started, and Niall nodded.

"There are two boxes missing in the basement, they had ten bottles, which added a litter in total. If I'm not wrong, Louis' numbers will confirm what I am saying" The Irish alpha said.

"I told you not to hire so many people, especially if you don't force them enough to prove that they are loyal." Louis called him out, but Zayn raised his hand to stop him.

"Harry." Zayn called, the beta started sweating, he couldn't afford to lose that job.

"Sir, I swear it's not me, I don't even know what the product in those boxes is. I can assure you that my loyalty is totally devoted towards you." Zayn shut him down but Niall took the word.

"Harry is all day with me, and when he's not it is because I sent him to tell Louis something. I can swear that he is a loyal worker who serves his job perfectly." Niall defended him.

"I wasn't going to suggest anything related to that, even though it is useful to know that Styles is actually doing his job. And I already know, Niall, that you make him take you to God knows where at late hours to do whatever you want to do." Zayn started jokingly and Harry visibly relaxed. "I need you to look into the rest of the personnel. Harry, apart from you, Liam is the only one that could trust to do this. But that'll be too obvious as they know that he'll be my first option. On the other hand, you are new and can gain their trust easily, make them speak about what they've got in mind."

"Yes, Sir." Styles answered.

"Good. And Niall, please let Harry rest a little bit." he added with fun.

"Harry loves spending time with me, I think we have become best friends, isn't it true Curly?"

"Of course, Mister Horan."

"Don't call me Sir or Mister" scolded Niall "I am telling you, in here with Zayn in the room, if you call me that again I'll fire you."

They all burst out laughing at the sight of Harry's red face, who only nodded at his boss's orders. That was the last thing he thought he'd be asked to do on a job. Harry returned with Niall to his office and walked him through the rest of the afternoon on his duties, listening to his stories and complaints about the household staff and smiling at some of the anecdotes that he happily talked about. They were both walking to the alpha's room, and once in front of the door, Niall opened it and motioned for Harry to come in with him, the curly-haired man accepted and closed the door.

"Harry, you have no idea on what they make me do in this house." He complained as he started to take some clothes out of his closet "Like today, they made me count five hundred boxes. Do you think that's my job?" Harry shook his head "Exactly, my job is business and sales. I didn't study anything to do with numbers for them to make me do that." He grunted, and Harry showed a tiny smile as he tried not to laugh at what the blond alpha was saying. "Nobody appreciates my work." he said as he took out his shoes and sweater.

"I am sure they appreciate your job, Si-" Niall looked at him, raising an eyebrow "Niall, I am sure they do appreciate your work." He corrected his words, gaining a satisfactory smile from his boss.

"And that's all," he said, "you can go. I need eight hours of sleep to keep being handsome and useful." Harry nodded and left the room.

He looked at the watch he had on his wrist and realised that it was still early, so he decided to go to the kitchen and ask one of the workers for something to eat, after they gave him a small silver tray with his order, he walked to the second floor where was Louis's room, knocked on the door three times and a tired alpha greeted him.

"Styles, what a surprise." He said, a little confused, then he looked at the tray Harry had on his hands and let him in.

"Mister Horan went to sleep because, quoting his words, nobody appreciates his work and he needs his eight hours of sleep to keep being handsome and useful." Louis laughed and shook his head slightly. "So I decided to go to the kitchen and ask the cooks to prepare your favourite tea and a croasan" Louis narrowed his eyes at him and laughed. The curly man set the tray on the desk.

"It's not croasan, Harry" receiving a confused look from the omega "It's croissant." he said with a French accent.

"Croissant" Harry repeated and Louis nodded. "Thanks. Have a good night mister Tomlinson." Louis looked at the food and grabbed Harry by the arm.

"Why don't you stay?" He said with a soft voice and a side smile. "We can have dinner together, it's still early."

"Umm... Okay." Harry smiled and they both walked towards the desk. "I feel like we started with the wrong foot." He started once he was sitting in front of his boss.

"What do you mean? Is this about you asking me if we've met somewhere else?" Harry denied with his head.

"No, it's about... You know, about Mister Malik hiring me without your consent and..."

"I wasn't talking about you, Harry." He interrupted him. "It's just that Zayn makes decisions without consulting with us first. And yeah, he is the boss and all that shit, but I am the second crown and Niall comes after me. But that's something he hasn't thought about in his mind." He explained and Harry nodded. "I apologise if I was ever rude to you, that wasn't my intention."

"Don't worry, there are no hard feelings."

"Perfect. What do you think about the house?" He asked before drinking some of his tea.

"The house is amazing, and the people in here are nicer than I thought they would be, especially that woman in the kitchen... What was her name?"

"Barbara."

"Yes, her. Barbara is lovely." Louis smiled at that.

"She was the one who raised Zayn when he was a child, and later she did the same when Naill and I arrived at the house. She is a lovely person, and she also taught us most of the things we know." he said with joy in his voice.

They both talked until the clock struck midnight and sleep began to take over their bodies. Harry walked Louis to his room and said goodbye to him before walking to his own.

It was almost past the time to take his pills and was thankful that he arrived in time to do so. He didn't know what he would do if someone found out he was actually an omega and not a beta.

He took his pills, and once he changed into his pyjamas. He went to sleep, thinking about the ocean-blue colour of Louis' eyes.

☺☻☺☻

Finding him was not difficult at all, after all he only had to type the name 'Harry Edward Styles' and the photo of a boy with curly hazel-hair appeared in the database of an educational institution only for omegas, it was not difficult for him to enter the system pretending to be a teacher. At the academy they had given him several courses on how to hack different kinds of systems and he had always been one of the best at it. He went into Harry's profile and started looking at his history.

"Perfect grades... Good behaviour awards... " He said as he read. " I don't think Louis is his type, he barely gets into his classes because they teach us at home, but... he can be good for business, he can convince anyone with that angel face. "He laughed at his words and continued investigating. "Personal data, let's see."

Harry lived in Holmes Chapel with his mother, Jane Selley, and his older sister, Stella Styles, there was a note that said that the child could not be given to his father, Edmund Styles, under any circumstances, which caused curiosity in the omega .

"Why can't your father pick you up, Harry?" He said to himself and kept looking at the personal data, but the school didn't say much. So he chose to visit his mother's social networks, he was surely going to find something there.

He printed out some photos he found of Harry with his family and kept them in a folder, and did so for years. Every so often he looked up the name of that boy and wrote down information that seemed interesting to him, he still didn't know if it would be appropriate to tell Louis about what he was doing, everyone was very focused on continuing with the business and giving Louis a reason to leave everything and chasing after his omega wasn't in his plans, plus he didn't really know the boy, he could be a showoff who doesn't care about anything.

At least once a week he entered the system of the different institutions in which the omega was, reviewed his medical records and apparently he had been in contact with his true alpha at a young age which influenced his scent in a way, making it stronger as if it was trying to call look his alpha. Zayn wondered if that alpha was Louis.

"Sir, did you need me?" One of the omegas that worked in the kitchen asked, Zayn nodded and motioned for her to sit in front of him.

"I believe that you have a daughter, am I right?" He asked and the omega nodded. "How old is she?"

"She is sixteen, Sir."

"So she's about to enter college." He said.

"That's right, Mr. Malik. What are all these questions about?"

"I need to talk to her. Do you think I can meet your daughter? as soon as possible." It sounded like a question, but in reality it was an order, the omega nodded and left the room.

Just a few hours went by before the young omega was in front of him, trembling with nervousness, thinking she might have done something wrong. Zayn gave her a smile to comfort her.

"What is your name, darling?" he asked, and the girl finally looked at him.

"Amelia, Mr. Malik"

"Amelia." He repeated and nodded. "Tell me darling. If I said that I could send you to Cambridge with all costs covered. Would you accept?" The girl thought about it for a few seconds, Zayn tapped his fingertips on the desk in anticipation of an answer.

"It depends on what I have to do." She answered and Zayn nodded with a smile.

"You just have to keep an eye on someone, an omega to be more specific, keep him near you all time, inform me about who he spends his time with, everything that involves him. In exchange for that, Icarus Rose would pay for all of your studies, enrollment, materials, all of it. You can even skip the first exam if you want."

Amelia thought of it a little bit more, she could study to have the degree she had dreamt of, and in one of the best universities of the world. All of that for free, that would help her in the future. She finally nodded.

"What is his name?"

The next step, for Zayn, was to put Harry in Cambridge, it wouldn't be difficult, the boy is a total nerd, he just needed to make him notice, put him in the sights of those who were looking to give scholarships to intelligent young people like him. The Kings seemed to be the most appropriate for the job.

He took it upon himself to write a brilliant letter of recommendation to send to the Kings, a few weeks later the boy already had a forty percent scholarship to law school, although as he said, it was not difficult, the scholarship program of the King already had it in his sights, he just gave them the little push they needed to accept him. Of course he wouldn't stay until then, Zayn was in charge of paying what the scholarship didn't cover, so Harry would have one hundred percent covered expenses.

Their college life had started and Amelia was handing in weekly reports on Harry, everything was going great until she handed him one that said something about a new partner and a picture of him with a guy who looked like your typical alpha with money. He was the son of the Kings, and he could ruin all his plans.

Zayn was sitting in his office, there wasn't much work to do that afternoon, when he received a call from Amelia saying that Harry and that rich boy had ended their relationship, and apparently in the worst conditions, he couldn't say he was happy, but at less he had one less worry on him, now he just needed to find a way to get him together with Louis, just as his father had planned.

And the opportunity presented itself on a golden tray, on the day of Harry's graduation, Amelia led them to a small bar in Holmes Chapel, managing to sell some of their merchandise with some people who were looking to get something strong to forget their sad lives, Harry showed fighting skills, sadly acquired to fend off the disgusting and disrespectful alphas that were always around, and that's where it all started.

Little did he know all that would come next.