Lottie didn't speak to Louis when he woke her up, she didn't speak to him during breakfast either. It was clear that her approach to letting her anger towards Louis show was through ignoring him.

At first Louis didn't mind it, he was just mad at Lottie for not wanting to talk to him, but then the silence in the house made him feel guilty for being the cause of his sister's annoyance.

While she was clearing the dining table of the dirty plates, Louis called her name gently once he was sure that his Mother wasn't in the room. Lottie's indifference made her brother frown.

"Does it bother you that much I'm not going? Lottie, it's genuinely not-"

"Shut up, Louis! I don't care anymore what you do!" Lottie brought in the tower of plates into the kitchen, shooting a glare at Louis. "The point is, you shut me down and yelled at me when I was just trying to make you see what a good opportunity you have. But no, you have to come along like you know everything and make me shut up."

Louis followed after his sister with his arms crossed. "Okay, I know. It wasn't right of me to lash out on you-"

"No. That's the thing, you say you're sorry but we both know you'll do it again," Lottie huffed, "you always do the same thing, coincidentally to those who care about you the most."

"...I'm sorry." Louis straightened out his apron, glancing up at Lottie from the floor.

After a couple beats of silence Lottie sighed, setting the plates in the sink, her gaze softening at the sight of her adorable older brother. "It's okay... I suppose I shouldn't have kept pushing for you to go. I'm sorry too."

Louis smiled softly at that. They constantly fought but somehow always ended up with them putting their prides aside and apologizing.

"Oh," Lottie mumbled, her eyes swimming in guilt, she cleared her throat and took a bottle of pills from her pocket, "And you should take your suppressants before Mom pitches a fit."

"So you were the one who hid them?" Louis smirked and shook his head, "You're crazy."

"And you're annoying." Lottie set the bottle in Louis' hand, smiling. "You should really learn to hide these better."

Louis opened the bottle and swallowed a pill before speaking up, "I wouldn't have to hide them if you didn't steal them every time we got into a fight."

Lottie shrugged and hopped up to sit on the wooden counter. "It's the only object that you actually care about."

"Well yeah, Mom would have a shit attack if I-"

"That doesn't sound like the way an nice little Omega should speak."

Louis and Lottie whipped their heads to the crooked door frame.

"Alphas aren't supposed to be back here you know." Lottie crossed her arms.

"Well excuse me for checking in on my favorite little pups."

"Piss off, Joaquin. If my Mom sees you here while we're supposed to be cleaning, she'll get us all into trouble." Louis sighed at the Alpha's disregard of his words, watching the man walk into the kitchen with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm not scared of Jay, she's the one who let me in, gave me a hug and everything," Joaquin said with a smile, sitting on a stool and brushing his black hair out of his grey eyes.

"Oh really?" Lottie asked sarcastically, putting her black hair into a bun and busying herself with cleaning the dishes in fear of her mother coming into the kitchen.

"Yup really. I just told her I wanted to spend some quality time with my bitches and she told me you guys were here."

Louis and Lottie looked at each other and sighed, actually considering that Joaquin was telling the truth.

Joaquin lived next door to the brothel, and had lived there all his life. He was five years older than Louis, but that never stopped him from sneaking into the house and trying to get the Omega's attention. Eventually Jay grew to tolerate the man and willingly let him into the house. Now Joaquin was the only one allowed into the house without having to pay for spending time with them.

Louis remembered when Joaquin first saw him through the window; Louis was only six at the time, making the Alpha eleven. Joaquin still had the same mischievous attitude and crooked smile as then, only now he was 6'4 and just as annoying.

"Whatever, I'm going to go sweep the floor, I'm not going to risk getting into trouble for your dumb ass," Lottie admitted, drying her hands against her apron and quickly leaving the room before Joaquin could protest.

Joaquin frowned at Lottie's departure before directing his attention to Louis. "Looks like it's just you and me, Kid."

Louis leaned against the counter and looked over at Joaquin. His muscles flexed against his black cotton tee shirt as he moved to face Louis. The shirt didn't need to be tight for Louis to realize that Joaquin was ripped, the man was in the army after all.

Louis looked up at the Alpha's face to see him gazing right back.

"So, Omega. It seems I'm going to have to find a new best friend."

"And why's that?"

Joaquin smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, satisfaction on his face as if he had been waiting all day to say, "because you'll definitely be chosen as a candidate once the prince sees you."

Louis ignored the flush on his cheeks to roll his eyes. "No need, I'm not going."

Louis almost wanted to apologize when he saw the man's smile falter.

"Why not, Kid? Is Jay not letting you?"

"No, it's not that," Louis sighed. "I just don't want to waste a day of cleaning to do something that's going to result in me getting rejected."

Joaquin frowned and scratched at his facial hair, his plump lips opening and closing as he thought of something helpful to say. "Well... I think you should go because it sounds fun."

"It sounds fun?" Louis raised a brow, trying to make Joaquin realize how ridiculous his argument was. "If being objectified and judged based on your looks sounds fun to you then I don't know what to say."

"Hmm. I never thought about it like that. You're pretty smart for an Omega."

Louis sighed and rubbed his face. Joaquin always took a second to catch on, it was almost hopeless to explain how his complement wasn't a complement at all. "Okay, Joaquin. That's- Okay. Thank you for that."

Joaquin just smiled and nodded, oblivious to the offense taken at his words. "No problem."

"Don't you have training to be at?" Louis asked, squinting at the man.

"Nah, I have it at 12 today," Joaquin said, leaning back against the chair to balance carefully on the two back legs.

"Joaquin?"

"Mhm?"

"It's 12."

"Oh shit." With a glance at the clock on the wall, Joaquin jumped out of his chair and ran out of the kitchen, yelling, "bye, Kid. I'll see you later." Of course the Alpha couldn't manage to do that without ramming his shoulder into the door frame, denting the frame further.

Louis sighed at the sound of the front door slamming shut. "Idiot."

He enjoyed the company the Alpha provided in the otherwise boring house, he could just be a lot sometimes. That paired with the fact that Jay loved to insinuate forming an arranged marriage between the two, provided for Louis to only enjoy hanging out with Joaquin for short periods of time.

"Is he gone yet?"

Louis looked over to see Lottie and Felicite poking their heads into the kitchen.

"Yup, he had to go to training."

"Well," Fizzy sighed and walked into the kitchen, sitting on the stool that the Alpha once rested in. "Lets hope that it lasts longer than usual, Mother wants us to clean up more. She thinks that some of the Royal Guards might pass by after realizing there's nothing else to do in this fucking town."

"Great. When are we opening today?" Louis asked, picking up a bottle of disinfectant from under the sink and a rag.

"12:30"

"Even greater."

---

Louis and his sisters spent their time viciously cleaning and organizing the house, making sure they left nothing looking anything less than perfect. If anyone saw them from outside, they would've thought that there was some sort of life and death situation. Which there was. Basically.

Jay was a perfectionist. Making the sibling's jobs much harder. If there was only one speck of dust they would have to clean every single item in the house all over again. Louis learned that the hard way.

Jay was also okay with withholding food from her children if they did not earn it through their work. So it was more of a life and hunger situation. But Louis wasn't one to take hunger in a good way, so he treated the situation like it was life and death.

It was exactly 12:25 on the dot when Jay came down the stair case, her heels clicking against the mahogany steps, creating a steady beat of warning.

Louis quickly finished wiping down a little bunny figurine, making sure there was no streak marks before carefully setting it down onto the glass shelf. Before his Mother could make it on the last step, Louis looked around the house, making sure nothing was out of place.

The peach paint of the walls was perfectly framed by the crown molding, and the paintings that were hung were no exception. Floral couches surrounded the petite coffee table, which was free of dust and held a perfectly assembled tray holding cookies and tea. The fire place was lit and cleaned of ash, and the front desk supported perfectly straightened stacks of paper and a little vanilla scented candle. Louis glanced outside of the window at the sign with a printed cursive font "The Doll House".

It did look like a doll house, like a perfect little housing for perfect little people. But Louis knew better than to consider it that, although the house looked like the part, none of those residing were perfect.

"Line up."

Louis shook himself out of his thoughts and moved quickly to stand next to his two sisters, nervously following his Mother's judgmental eyes.

"The betas are getting ready."

Louis chose to look at his Mother's shoes when she looked over at him, her eyes sweeping over the faces of her children.

"Felicite, you will be helping the betas ready themselves."

Jay slowly stepped forward to stand in front of each of her children.

"Louis, you will be at the front desk."

She stopped in front of Lottie, her gaze testing yet calm. Jay's blue eyes were the calmness before the storm she knew was to come at her next words. The tension in the air was thick.

The pause felt like an eternity. Louis was glad when his Mother finally spoke, but when he heard what she had said he wished she didn't say anything at all.

"Charlotte. You've been maturing." Jay paused, only continuing when Lottie nodded cautiously. "You will be on duty today."

"Wait what? Mother please no!" Louis put his arm in front of Lottie to shield her from their Mother. "She's only 15."

"Move out of the way you stupid little cunt, before I move you myself," Jay growled, the anger in her eyes enough to convince her son.

Louis flinched at the Alpha's tone and looked down at his shoes before hesitantly putting his arm down. He was ashamed at himself for being so incapable of protecting his own sister.

"Now." Jay straightened out the skirt of her dress. "Charlotte go upstairs. I expect for you to behave and cooperate. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother," Lottie mumbled, her tear-stained gaze stuck on the ground as she climbed up the stairs.

"Felicite go assist her."

"Yes, Mother."

Louis heard Felicite's foot steps race after Lottie's, but still didn't dare to look up.

"Have you taken your suppressants, Boy?"

Louis willed the tears that pooled in his eyes not to fall. "Yes, Mother."

"I hope you're being truthful, if any of the soldiers were to smell you and find you to be an Omega they would take you for themselves."

Louis' shoulders tensed. His Mother wasn't effected at him being uncomfortable though.

"Go to the front desk... and don't worry about your sister, she'll be just fine."

The distant sounds of clicking heels assured Louis that his Mother was out of sight, making him comfortable enough to lift his head and mechanically walk over to the front desk.

His heart was hurting deeply for his sister, but he needed to do his job, he had no choice.

Louis glanced at the clock and frowned once the time turned to 12:30. He sighed and mumbled to himself, "let's get this over with."