→ Gabriel:

The CEO of ALPHA Magazine grinned as he lowered the director’s cone. “I’m glad that got everyone’s undivided attention,” Charles shouted after a mere second of recovery for his models. “Now as you all know, I’ve gathered all you lovely models here today for one of our monthly meetings and whatnot.”

“But Charles,” Helio, a third year model from the royal division, spoke up. “We just had a meeting last week about March.”

Charles set down the director’s cone and raised his eyebrows at the model. “Well that was last month, and I have some new things to go over. Understood?”

The alpha nodded and Charles smiled again. “Excellent! Glad we’re on the same page, Helium!”

“It’s Helio…”

“Now then,” Charles continued, blatantly ignoring Helio’s vain attempt to correct him. “I know you all are busy with photo shoots for the next month, and especially preparation for our anniversary issue, so I’ll try to make this quick.”

Fernando, who Gabriel happened to sit next to, suddenly poked him in the side, so he jabbed him right back. Gabriel shook his head when Fernando giggled like a little girl.

“I know where your hot spots are if you do that again,” Gabriel whispered with a smile. Fernando wrapped his arms around his sides and Gabriel had to hold back a laugh.

“As you all know,” Charles continued after shutting the door, “Sienna hasn’t been employing any of you for her magazines for some time now. We haven’t had a fight in a while, so I’m not sure what sprung this on, but it has been quite troublesome.”

A flash of green caught Gabriel’s attention, so he glanced back and saw a couple of the royals exchange bills. Of course they placed bets on Charles centering his announcement around his estranged wife…

“She likes to focus on just her girls sometimes, yes, but this has been going on for months now. In fact,” Charles paused, sighed and raised up his arms. “Some of the latest issues have featured Delta alphas, but none of you OG’s here.”

He real-deal just called us “OGs” right now. Gabriel shifted in his seat and crossed his arms.

“What infuriates me the most isn’t the Delta models, but the audacity Sienna has to feature Josephine Livingston in her most recent issue,” Charles seethed and threw a magazine across the room. It landed just in front of Fernando and the rest of Pablo’s crew. Gabriel was able to make out Josephine’s beaming visage before Fernando reached down and snatched it up.

Like a typical alpha male, Fernando flipped open the magazine to look for the hottest omega model outfit combination, Gabriel presumed. He rolled his eyes and focused his attention back on Charles, hoping this was all the boss had to go on about.

“What I’m trying to say is that we need to watch out for whatever Sienna is planning, because I’m certain there’s going to be something big soon,” Charles said and pointed to the models around the room at random. “Watch your backs, ‘cause I smell a big one coming for this twenty-fifth anniversary—and she hasn’t given me any hints.”

Gabriel was poked in his side again, but this time it was with the magazine. He raised his eyebrow at Fernando, who mouthed “Sophia as a spring fairy.” As much as Gabriel loved fairy themes, he couldn’t care less about seeing Sophia as one when he didn’t even want to see her in general anymore. The woman just wouldn’t leave him alone, and it was driving him nuts!

“That’s nice, Fernando, but I’ll look later, ‘kay?” Gabriel whispered and pushed the magazine back toward his Hispanic brother in a gentle manner.

“Ahem,” Charles coughed. Gabriel sat back upright in his seat and uncrossed his legs, pretending not to notice the stern look the CEO sent in their direction.

“As I was saying,” Charles continued, “Sienna has given me the cold shoulder plenty of times before, but not like this one. As much as I love focusing solely on male fashion and my wonderful alphas here, I would also like some lady guests again to rev up the male sales we’re starting to show a little dive in lately.”

Charles emphasized by bringing his arm down from up-high into a loud clap with his other hand. “That being said, I need you guys to be on your best behavior, which includes not having any OMEGA models over your places.”

A chorus of groans came from the guys who were paying attention, and Charles waved off their complaints right away. “I know, I know! It ‘sucks major balls.’ Of course it’s going to suck! But you have to be strong and trust the system. I promise the women will be crawling right back once they realize what they’re missing out on.”

“They’ll probably complain to their ‘mama’ about it,” Chester, a second year royal-hopeful, piped in.

“Ex-actly!” Charles said with a finger pointed at the bold model. “Only then will Sienna start to request ALPHA appearances again, but I’m hoping she starts to send some models here well before that because I had some nice plans for the April issue that this ‘cold war’ has been shitting on.”

Some of the guys giggled at Charles’ verbiage, but the man himself paid them no mind. “That’s the plan for now, and hopefully they’ll come down again soon, lest we start having to feature Delta omegas as well…”

Only a few of the guys visibly shuddered at the thought, but most didn’t seem to mind the prospect. They were new faces to see and work with, after all.

“Any questions?” Charles placed his hands on his hips and stared down the horseshoe of alpha models.

“Do you think she’ll turn down our vacation invites?” Cameron, the previous head of the royals before Aeddon stole his shine, said after a long stretch of incoherent muttering between groupies. Charles looked surprised to hear such a suggestion, but opened his mouth to answer it regardless.

“Definitely not,” Charles said with thinly-pressed lips. “She’s never been that cold.” The CEO scanned the room for anyone else wanting to speak up. He glanced at his watch when no one else made a move, then sighed at whatever he saw.

“Well, if there’s nothing else, then let’s get on with the day. Get back to work!”

“Yes, dad,” the models chorused, Gabriel and Aeddon included, and Charles threw everyone a look. He was never a fan of the parental title, but most of the guys used it anyway to rile him up.

The idle chatter started to pick up again as Charles left the room, and Gabriel took it as his cue to follow after. He smoothed out his peacoat again and strolled forward, eager to escape the testosterone-filled room before he got a headache.

Aeddon was behind him in no time, and had sidled on up next to him. “Don’t forget to order me a vanilla latte,” the Irishman said with a toothy grin. Gabriel rolled his eyes but bumped his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Gabriel said with a wave of his hand. “How could I ever forget about my beloved brother?”

“Ch, dun say it like ya dun mean it!” Aeddon clicked his tongue and bumped Gabriel’s shoulder back. Gabriel laughed and nudged his step brother again until they were pushing at each other like little kids down the hallway.

“Yer such a sot!” Aeddon laughed when Gabriel gave him a big shove and slipped into his star room. “I’ll get ya when ya come out!”

“Uh-huh, suuuuure you will,” Gabriel shouted through the door and shrugged off his peacoat. He hung it up on the black coat hanger beside the door.

Gabriel walked to the back wall where the majority of his outfits were. The future photo shoots were kept closer to the right of the large rack, while the older sets were filed to the left and pushed back in no particular order.

While he wasn’t a huge fan of the Easter color arrangements the April issues always featured, Gabriel at the very least enjoyed being able to wear purple. He preferred indigo or dark purple, but Charles was dead-set on the classic Easter pastels, so he was stuck with a lavish lavender suit for the group shot.

Gabriel made quick work of changing into the suit and then flopped down onto his comfy swivel chair in front of the vanity station. He whipped out his phone and sent Sabrina the designated, “cutesy” text he should’ve sent earlier. Hopefully she wasn’t too far out. Either way, his bougie brother seriously needed that latte before he bit heads off.

Now that the morning chores were officially taken care of, Gabriel was able to “catch up” on all his notifications—ergo, all the ones that mattered, at least. A couple of the ALPHA guys had sent him some memes and Tiktoks but otherwise, there was nothing else noteworthy (save for his daily dose of “thirsty dms” he liked to indulge in reading to inflate his ego).

He followed the majority of the top OMEGA models since it was basically a requirement of ALPHA models to support their “sisters,” so of course a Charlotte Chen post was the first thing that popped up on his Instagram feed when he left the messages to scroll for a minute.

The first image featured Charlotte striking a “cool business gal” pose in a plastic chair up against a long table. OMEGA-themed stationary, business cards, and info documents were set up in neat piles across the pink tablecloth that covered the table (because everything involving OMEGA Magazine just had to be pink every time).

The caption below the image said, “#OMEGA25th anni is going to top ALPHA’s anni so hard with what our goddess Sienna has planned. Stay tuned, Spiders!” Gabriel still couldn’t get over the fact Charlotte called her followers “spiders,” but he supposed it made sense considering her namesake was Charlotte’s Web.

Gabriel didn’t bother to waste time looking at the other pics and just scrolled down to the comments. The top one, from a user named bluejay1920, read, “is that a HS career fair?! WHERE & WHEN’S the nxt one?!” And the comment under that one was from a guy with a duck floatie for a profile picture. It read: “#TEENOMEGA FINALLLYYYYY! 🥵”

Prime example of why one should never be made, Gabriel thought with a shake of his head. He was going to scroll on to the next post, but a text notification popped up above and grabbed his attention. So, he tapped on the bubble to open the message.

MUA Mistress: What am I, ur personal secretary? Go 🖕 urself!

The message was very clear: have Aeddon’s makeup artist get the coffees instead. Gabriel could offer Sabrina a tip, but he was certain the answer would remain the same regardless. Sabrina was lucky Gabriel liked her work (and gothic aesthetic) because she should’ve been fired long ago with that attitude.

“Looks like your mua has to get our orders. U know what i like,” Gabriel messaged Aeddon and propped his feet up onto the vanity station.

✨Brutha✨: Fabulous. I’m sure she’ll love that.

✨Brutha✨: [rolling eyes bitmoji]

Aeddon responded immediately and Gabriel laughed. By the sound of it, the both of them were going to have a very long day if this was how it was going to continue to pan out…