Knot My Fairytale Ending, Part 1 (FatedVerse #6)
Episode 1 Once Upon a Reality Show
I’m gonna miss the season premiere of Only Murders.
That probably shouldn’t have been my first thought upon finding out that I’d been picked as a contestant on the newest season Alpha Love Getaway.
I blink at my computer, not fully comprehending what I’m seeing.
I click out of the email, and double check that I am in fact logged into my account and then click on it again.
The words are the same:
From: [email protected]
To: Florence Karlin
Dear Miss Karlin,
We are delighted to inform you that you have been selected as one of twenty contestants for the upcoming special edition of the internationally acclaimed dating series Alpha Love Getaway — the exclusive season where the Bravonnian Royal Ashbourne Pack will seek their destined omega match.
As a contestant, you’ll be joining us for four unforgettable weeks at the Port Azure Resort in Liros, where romance, adventure, and a once-in-a-lifetime chance at love await. This special edition will air globally on the ALG Network and its affiliates.
Please find attached your Welcome Packet, which includes:
Travel itinerary and flight information
Filming schedule and confidentiality agreement
Preliminary wardrobe and grooming guideline
Medical and scent-suppression requirements
A member of our production team will contact you within 48 hours to confirm your availability and answer any questions you may have. We ask that you do not share this information publicly until the official cast announcement.
Once again, congratulations on being chosen to join the world of RoyaLove Getaway. We look forward to seeing you at the villa and watching your story unfold!
Warm regards,
Tabitha Sanders
Senior Casting Coordinator
RoyaLove Getaway| ALG Network
What in the world?
My phone vibrates and I glare down at the name scrolling across the screen. “Of course.” I jab the answer button and then snap out, “Haven Calloway, I am going to kill you.”
My best friend’s laugh greets me. “Nice to talk to you too.”
She sounds so sweet, so fucking happy, but it’s not enough to distract me. “You applied to Alpha Love Getaway for me? How? Why? Why would you do that?”
I can see her shrug in my mind's eye as she says, “it sounded like fun. If I wasn’t blissfully bonded with a pack of bastards I would’ve applied too. Oh, that would have been fun, the two of us going together.”
“Never would have happened,” I hear her alpha, Hale, grumble.
Haven murmurs something to him that I can’t make out, but then she’s back. “You’re going to go, aren’t you? It’ll be so fun. And you deserve it.”
I frown at the screen in front of me, scanning over the words.
It’s so out there, so not me. I used to want to have everyone’s eyes on me, used to love the spotlight.
I was hoping to be given a principal position at The Meridian Ballet Company.
Before Frederick Bell, Haven’s father, took that from me.
But now it just… doesn’t feel right to have all that attention on me.
Especially the attention of an unknown pack.
I shake my head even though Haven can’t see it. “I’m not sure. You know the types of people they put on that show.” People more focused on exposure than finding love. People too pretty for their own good.
“Yes, but this is going to be the best of the best, Ren! The Ashbourne Pack! You know all the omegas are going to be posh as fuck.”
“Yet another reason why I shouldn’t go. It won’t actually amount to anything!” I am anything but posh.
“So what if it doesn’t,” Jude says, making it clear that I’m on speaker phone. “At the very least you get a few days’ vacation on a private island resort. You need the sunshine, Ren.”
I wince at that.
Haven used to call me her sunshine girl. I used to be bright and bubbly and happy. Determined and optimistic.
I’m not anymore.
My fingers idly rub my knee, feeling the raised scarred flesh there, trying to come up with a response. I take too long.
“I’m coming over,” Haven announces.
“What?”
But it's too late. She's already hung up. Not three minutes later, as I’m scrolling through the list of things the show suggests I bring, not the least of which is a whole slew of evening gowns in an array of colors and tiny bikinis, she strolls through the door pregnant belly first with Hale hovering behind her like a helicopter.
I suppose this is the benefit of living in your best friend’s pool house. And the detriment.
I love having her so close and we’re generally very good at keeping our spaces separate, and it was agreed that we would have to announce ourselves at least fifteen minutes before we invade each other’s space.
Something I was happy to commit to, seeing as Haven and her pack tend to fuck everywhere and anywhere in their house.
But since I’m not currently fucking anyone, Haven has the habit to just forget that little clause in our rental agreement. Which we absolutely have. Because as much as I love Haven, I still need something to keep this professional.
She comes right over to where I’m sitting at the small kitchen island and wraps her arms around me hugging tight as she reads the email over my shoulder. I take a deep inhale of her familiar pineapple and chili scent, as Hale drops onto my sofa and picks up my most recent read.
I stopped being embarrassed about most things all of a month after I moved in and realized that living here means having very little privacy from, well, everyone else.
The Calloway pack is very nosy, but also very protective in a gruff caring way.
I’ve started to view them all as big brothers, just like I’ve always thought of Haven as my second sister.
“That one has tentacles in it,” I say to the alpha, who has just cracked the book open to the first page. Hale drops the book like it's hot.
Haven giggles. “Ooo, that’s a good one. You should read it. There are some things in there I wouldn’t mind trying.”
“I hate to break it to you, mouse, but none of us have tentacles.” He picks the book back up again though. “So alas some of your fantasies will not be able to come true.”
“There are dildos shaped like tentacles.” I tell him, clicking away from the email and spinning to wrap my arms around my friend. “As much as I hate to think about your sex life, you could buy one of those.”
Haven nods. “Oh, yeah, We should absolutely do that.” I feel her give a little shiver and her scent spikes.
Hale pins her with a look. “Finish talking to your friend, mouse, so I can take care of you.”
I release Haven and push off my stool, heading into the kitchen to make tea, more to have something to do than anything else. “Please, stop getting horny when you come to my house. It’s really weird.”
Haven makes a disgruntled noise and tries to boost herself onto the stool I just vacated, but she is a little short and her stomach is already very big, even though she’s only about five months along.
So it's a struggle. Hale sighs and moves to help her, lifting her carefully setting her down gently.
I love it. Love how much they love her and care for her, but sometimes I think moving here was a mistake.
Witnessing their happily bonded bliss, just makes it so painfully clear that I don’t have that. I chose a career in dance over a pack, and now I don’t have either.
“Tea?” I ask, already reaching for two extra mugs.
“Tell me why you’re considering not going on the show.”
“I don’t think it's the kind of place where I would actually find love. And the Royal pack of Bravonne? Really? Me? I don’t even know what they were thinking of putting me on that season. I’m so far below a princess it's not even funny.”
“Not true,” Haven says, fiercely. I slide a plate of cookies in her direction and she picks one up, munching it angrily.
“You are not below anyone, Ren. You are the absolute tops. The bees knees.” Hale and I exchange a look.
Haven has recently got into a TV drama based in the 1920s, and she’s been talking like a caricature of a booze runner ever since.
“Also, I’ve always said you look like a cartoon princess!
” She motions at me with her half eaten cookie. “Don’t you think so, Hale?”
“Ren is very pretty,” he agrees.
What he means is, ‘Ren is pretty enough but no one compares to you my lovely, beautiful omega.’ I’ve gotten really good at reading between the lines of alpha speak. Particularly in the Calloway pack.
Haven beams at him, like he just paid me the biggest compliment, and then looks back at me. “Come on, bitch, you know you’re gorgeous. All that blond hair. Those freckles, the kaleidoscope eyes! Anyone who is into females will agree with that. And your body is banging. Don’t you think so, Hale?”
Hale and I both wince. “No, Haven,” I say gently, shaking my head. “Don’t say things like that. Please… it’s just so wrong.”
She bristles. “What? Why? It’s true. You have such a hot bod.”
“I’m not denying it.” I used to be in better shape than I am now, hours of dancing every day made me lithe and lean.
Since my knee shattered, I’ve been teaching yoga to omegas three times a week and have recently started trying to dance again.
Not professionally, just for myself. But its…
hard. Two years of not doing it, makes it difficult to pick up again.
But the result is that I’m no longer all lean muscle. I’ve put on weight, mostly in my boobs and butt—omega genetics—but also in my stomach and thighs. The result is that I’m now curvy as hell, which is something that most alphas look for in an omega.