Chapter 36

Italy was incredible. After we were done with all of our deep dark confessions, we did some sightseeing, took a ton of photos and had an amazing time.

Only we weren't the only ones who were taking photos. It seems like now that the world knows about me and the guys, there"s always eyes on us. New photos of us are always popping up all over the internet.

I'm not used to having so many eyes on me. I know this is a part of their lives and they're used to it, but to me this is new and kind of stressful. Although I'll learn to deal if it means being with the guys.

The crap going around online mostly paints me in a not-so-nice light, and I just hope it doesn't start affecting the guys. It's just petty shit like suspecting that I'm after them for their money or how the super fans still hate me for simply existing.

We made it to Greece a few days ago and knowing that the guys don't have a concert until the end of next week has allowed us to relax a lot more. We're staying at a resort, this time with a private beach. Being able to just go outside and tan in the sun has been amazing.

Every time I look out at the water, I can't help but smile. It's so damn pretty here, and I can"t believe this is really happening.

However, the guys have to work today. Only for a few hours, but the label has set them up with a photo shoot they really didn't want to turn down.

"Rolling Stone." I grin at the camera crew and their equipment along the beach. "This is amazing!"

"Right." Everett chuckles, wrapping his arm around me. "We've had articles about us in a few issues before, but we've never been on the cover."

The magazine wanted to do the photos here on the beach, and the guys agreed. It's a stunning place and with these sexy tattooed men showing off their bodies in the sun, it gets a hundred times better, thank you very much.

The guys are all dressed in name brand board shorts, while I'm dressed in a white bikini and shorts.

"Hey guys!" A voice I thought I'd never have to hear again has the hair on the back of my neck standing up.

Turning around, I find none other than Gianna. She's got nothing on except this massive smile and a hardly there string bikini.

"What are you doing here?" Zane asks, the look on his face showing he's not happy to see her.

Her face drops. "I thought I'd come by and get some photos for Instagram. TikTok is blowing up, maybe we could do a few silly videos too." Her smile is back and bright. Is she for real?

"And why would you think any of that is something we want you to do? We fired you, Gianna."

"Zane," she mumbles, her voice thick with hurt, tears filling her eyes. "How could you be so cruel? After everything we've been through, after all the things I've done for you and the guys, and you just toss me to the side like I mean nothing."

Part of me feels bad. Just a small part, because the rest of me hasn"t forgotten how she's treated me, then her carelessness with the safety of the guys' fans and how she so cruelly talked about the woman and her child from the concert who could have gotten severely injured.

"Gianna." Everett sits up. "We're not denying everything you've done for us. You've been an amazing manager, and we truly wouldn't be where we are without you. We owe you a lot. But the fact is, there's been things that have happened that has shown us you are no longer a good fit for this band. With all the new changes, Calvin is the best choice. Even if it wasn"t for those incidents, with Jade coming back into our lives, we would have asked Calvin to find us someone new. It's not that we don't value you—and Jade didn't ask this of us—but we also don't want another female around. We never want her to feel threatened."

Swallow down your smile, Jade. Do not make yourself look like a smug ass omega.

But the omega in me is fucking preening at how amazing my alphas are. They really do love and care for me. It's not that I can't be around women, or that I don't want them around my men. But Gianna's shown on more than one occasion that she doesn't approve of me, but it's not really her place, and her opinion doesn't matter to them, not when it comes to me.

"Oh." Her face drops. "So, you mean you were going to replace me anyways? That no matter what I did, I was gone?"

"It's really not you," Griffin repeats, blinking a few times. "Okay, it's kind of you. I mean, you've been a bitch to our omega, and well... that doesn't fly with us. And, you haven't even apologized for any of that."

Gianna's face turns stone cold. "Sorry that I was thinking about what was best for you guys. You worked so hard for so long to get to where you are at. It only made sense that I was cautious. I wanted to make sure you weren"t being used or taken advantage of."

That has me snorting. "From what the guys have said, you've known that they've been looking for me for a long fucking time. Do you really think that after all these years I'd be crawling back to them for their money? If I wanted that, I'd have made myself known a hell of a lot sooner. But I didn't because someone worked really hard to make sure we weren't in each other"s lives. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Gianna?"

Her eyes widen, and her lips part. "Me?" she scoffs. "Of course not."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get this moving." A woman from the crew steps up next to Zane.

"I'll handle this," Calvin says, walking over toward us from where he was talking to one of the camera crew. "Gianna, take the photos, do what you have to do for their social media but stay out of the way. Then, when you"re done, you can head back to your hotel."

"Calvin," she whines. "Why are all of you being like this!"

My brows raise at her actions. She's acting like a spoiled child.

"Come on, Trouble, she's giving me a headache," Zane grunts, wrapping his arm around my waist and guiding me toward where everything is set up.

For a while, I laugh and smile as the photographers do their thing. They get some shots of the guys playing beach volleyball, some with instruments, and a few of them just standing there looking extremely sexy.

But the shot that had me slicking myself is the one that just flashed across the editing screen.

They asked the guys to walk out into the water; they're instructed to get fully submerged underneath and then walk back onto the beach, dripping wet.

My mouth waters as they walk toward the camera, looking like three sexy Greek Gods.

I don't miss the fact that Gianna is still here, snapping away on her phone.

"Hey, everyone! It's me, Gianna, the guys' manager. We're here in Greece doing a photo shoot for Rolling Stone! Isn't that amazing. I'm so proud of my guys! Here's a little sneak peek!" She holds up the phone toward the guys for a second before speaking again. "That"s all I can show you." She winks at the phone. "But trust me, you"re going to want to pick this copy up!"

Possessiveness in me starts to boil. Is this bitch for real? Telling the fans she's still their manager, calling them ‘her' guys, and acting as if she's a part of this in any way.

My fists tighten, and my heart pounds. I want to bitch her out, tell her to get fucked. And I'm about to when Zane calls me over. "Hey, Trouble!" My head snaps over to him, and he has this smug look on his face. "Get your sexy ass over here! We want some pack photos."

A smile takes over my face, and I can't help but cast a glance over to Gianna. Her face is scrunched up like she just popped out a mean shit. Making my smile extra smug, I can't help the wink I give her.

Pulling off my shorts, I run over to Zane. A laugh of pure joy spills from my lips as he scoops me up and spins me around. "Hey, baby," he murmurs. "Wanna get wet with us?"

"Oh, we're getting all corny now, are we?" I laugh as he kisses me. I can hear the camera go off, but I pay it no mind.

For the next little while we do some planned poses, but for the most part we're just having fun, messing around. Now this is the kind of thing I could get used to.

They even manage to pull Calvin in to get a few of him and me with my mate mark and a few with just Zane and Calvin. Seeing them laugh and smile together, finally getting along, it makes my heart swell with so much happiness.

By the time we're done, I'm tired and hungry. We end up spending the night by a fire on the beach, and I forget all about Gianna and her bullshit as I fall asleep in Griffin's lap.

She can try all she wants to stay in the guys' life, but she's only going to make it worse for herself.

And if she keeps it up, maybe I'll ask Calvin to... deal with her. I don't think I've ever hated someone this much. Lie. Karen and Charles are at the top of my list, but she's an easy third.

Okay, I won't go that far but I'm tempted. Really fucking tempted.

"WHERE IS IT?" I MUTTERto myself as I dig around Jade's bag that holds her makeup and other girly things.

It's the day after the photo shoot, and I can't get the dream that I had last night out of my head. Jade was big and round, pregnant with my baby. I woke up wanting that to be true more than anything.

After the conversation we had about kids, I couldn't let it go. She wants babies as soon as we do. And well, I wouldn't be mad to find out she was pregnant now.

The only thing about that is she'd need to have a heat in order to get pregnant, and she won"t have that unless she's out of her birth control suppressant.

"What are you doing?" Calvin's voice has me standing up straight.

"Nothing," I mutter, standing in front of her bag.

He looks from me to behind me and then to me again. "What are you doing with her bag?"

"Nothing," I repeat.

He gives me this smug smirk as he chuckles. "I think we had the same idea."

My brows furrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Looking for this?" He holds up the pack of pills.

"Why do you have that?" I snap, stepping toward him and snatching it out of his hand.

"Like I said, we had the same idea. I saw how you looked at me when she said she wanted lots of little ones running around. And I've been thinking about putting a baby inside her ever since then."

"If anyone is going to get her pregnant first, it's going to be me," I growl.

"Oh, yeah?" He chuckles. "How"s that gonna work? You going to keep all of us away from her? I don't think that"s going to go well."

We might be on better terms, but he's still a fucking smug dick.

"What was your plan anyways?" he asks me. "Take her suppressants and toss them out?"

"Yeah?" I tell him. "No suppressants means she goes into heat." My cock twitches at the thought. I've been dreaming about helping her through her heat for so long, even before we knew she was an omega.

He shakes his head as he leans against the door frame, crossing his arms. "She's going to notice if they're missing, and she'll just get them replaced."

"So then, how do we do this?"

"With these," he explains, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out that looks almost exactly like her pills.

"What is it?"

"Placebo pills." He grins and pops out a few pills to make it look like her current pack of pills. "She will take these instead. From the research I did, it should take her about a good two or three weeks before it leaves her system."

"Fuck," I grumble. "Hate to admit it, but that"s smart."

"Thanks, little brother." He winks. He takes the placebo pills and puts them in Jade's bag before taking the real pills from me and slipping them into his back pocket. "I'll get rid of these."

We head out of the bathroom and over to the window. Jade is out there laughing and messing around with Griffin and Everett. My heart feels so full. She's mine. She's here. They're mine too. I almost have everything I've ever wanted. I'm only missing two things. My mate mark on her neck and her round with my baby.

"This is fucked up, you know that, right?" I tell him, not looking away from my lovers.

"She said she wanted babies as soon as we did. I want them, you do too. And I don't think the others would care, would they?"

"No."

"Then we're just... helping the situation along. She looked past me killing people, you think she's going to be pissed we fucked with her birth control?"

"No," I snort. "Knowing our dirty little omega, she would probably slick her panties knowing how fucking crazy we are about her and how desperate we are to knock her sexy-ass up."

"Exactly." He chuckles. "We're not forcing her into something she doesn't want."

My eyes fall to Jade's flat belly, and my cock stiffens. I want to pump her full of my cum, to breed her, to put my baby inside her so damn bad.

Looking up at my brother, I hold out a hand. "May the best man win?"

He grins and shakes his head, but takes my hand. "May the best man win."