Knot Quite A Fairytale (Omega Royals #1)
Chapter 1
Emery
“Breathe, Emery,” Eloise intones with a little giggle as she looks at me in the mirror. “It’s going to be okay.” She’s standing behind me, her hands on my shoulders, and looking down at me with an amused smile on her face. “Seriously, Em.”
She’s right. I breathe in deep and hold for a five-count. Today shouldn’t be as anxiety-inducing as I’m letting it become, but it also is that important.
Omega Selection Day. Ravencroft Hall. A hall filled with royals from all over the world, many of them eligible alphas and alpha packs.
Today is—hopefully—the day my fairytale gets its happy ending.
I let out the held breath slowly and smile brightly at my best friend in the mirror. “Thank you, Eloise. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Eloise snickers. “Likely worry your way into an early grave. But you’ve got this. You’ve been preparing for today for years. The Designation Council will select you to an alpha pack, I just know it.”
I just know it. Famous words from Eloise that did often end up being true, to be fair. Today it’s harder to believe but I know that’s just pressure talking.
That and the fact that, for the first time ever, I can be sure my name will end up on Royals Anonymous one way or another. Something I’ve always dreaded. But when you’re up for omega selection to a noble or royal pack, your name will end up in all tabloids, press, and gossip blogs.
I’ve trained for today. Maybe not for the Royals Anonymous part, but I’ve studied hard for four years at finishing school on how to be the perfect omega, and today I will be someone’s.
And in two months all of my other hard work will pay off too.
Luckily, my portfolio for my graduate art exhibition is nearly finished so I can focus on making the perfect nest after today and settling into my royal omega duties.
I am ready. I hope the alphas are, too.
My smile grows larger as I come to this conclusion. “You’re right, Eloise. I’m ready, it’s just last-minute nerves.”
She pats my shoulder gently and adds a final decorative butterfly hairpin into my blue and pink cotton candy colored hair. The Council at the finishing school wasn’t very excited about my abnormal hair color, but my advisor, Violet Brentwood, championed it.
Alphas will immediately notice you. They’ll enjoy the boldness even if their royal families may shy away. We could use some change if you ask me!
She said things like that often. I already miss Violet. But this is my story to make now, and I’m going to write an ending worthy of a fairytale.
There’s a knock on my bedroom door. The door opens and my parents enter dressed for the occasion with Mom in a light blue dress, a little make-up, and her hair done up into a cute bun with loose blonde ringlets hanging from either side of her temples.
Dad is wearing a simple suit, the same he’s worn to all suit-requiring occasions since I can remember.
Our family isn’t well-off. Mom and Dad had to save every penny for years to send me to finishing school the second I was given an omega designation at sixteen. Finishing school was all I ever asked for and they made sure it happened.
It’s not smiles they greet me with today, though, but wrinkles of concern around their eyes and across Dad’s forehead just beneath his slightly receding red-head hairline.
“Hi, honey.” Mom comes over to hug me. I stand and meet her halfway. “You look beautiful.”
Dad watches from afar. The crease in his forehead has not gone away.
“Emery picked out the outfit.” Eloise beams. I’m wearing a short pink dress, small pink heels, and a pearl necklace Eloise let me borrow. “What do you think?”
Mom’s smile falters just so. “I think they’ll fall at your feet, Emery.”
Dad makes a disapproving sound, although I’m not sure what in particular he’s upset about.
Eloise’s gaze meets mine and I shrug. It’s Mom’s clearing of her throat that solidifies it for me.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” I ask even though I have a sneaking suspicion I know the answer, and it makes my heart sink.
“Nothing, honey,” he says entirely too dismissively.
Mom holds my shoulders and looks at me like a proud mother would.
But the tightness in her eyes betrays everything she’s trying to keep hidden.
“Everything is fine, Emery. Your father and I are very proud of all the work you’ve put in at finishing school, and especially the passion you’ve put into your art.
We just…” She glances at Dad and then back at me.
“We just want more for you than to be someone’s omega. ”
My face scrunches together as my confusion sets in. “Being an alpha’s omega doesn’t mean I cease to exist as I am. It’ll mean I have a home and family and children. I’ll be happy and loved, and as a royal omega, I’ll have a chance to do some real good in the world.”
Dad’s expression softens. “We know that, Emery. But you could be so much more.”
A flash of anger rips through me, an emotion that has no place for a day like today, so filled with royals and the proper etiquette that’s required.
“I don’t want to be more. I want this. If you didn’t think this was the right path in life, why send me to finishing school when we didn’t have the means? ”
Mom pulls in a deep breath. “One day, when you have children, Emery, you will understand.” She kisses the top of my head and smiles down at me with tears in her eyes.
“You can have this, Emery, and you will be a wonderful omega to any alpha. But please don’t lose sight of the art exhibition and everything you can gain from that going well. ”
Ah, I see her concern. That being an omega is all I want.
Mom thinks—and probably Dad, too—that I want my life to become fully about supporting an alpha or a whole pack of alphas.
That all I will be is one who raises their pups and serves them dinner and cleans a house that I turn into the perfect nest.
And yes. I cannot argue that that’s not what I want. To love so unconditionally and be loved in return, to create a tight-knit family so full of warmth and love… it’s everything.
So is art, my first love.
“I’m not going to give up on art.” I look at both of my parents. I have Dad’s blue irises and the round shape of Mom’s innocent eyes. Today my parents look both excited for me, but also so very tired. Worried. “And an omega can have a job outside of the manor.”
“Not a royal omega,” Dad counters. “When you become part of the royal family—any royal family—you become theirs to mold however they wish.”
My eyebrows rise. “And as a royal omega, I can affect actual change in the world. I can do good. Combine that with my love for art and I see a lot of possibilities before me.” I pause, considering if I should say the next words.
Time to be brave. Today calls for it. “I love you both, and I wish you could both see the vision I have. I wish you could trust me.”
Mom pulls me in for a hug that I return lightly. “We see you, and that’s enough. We hope they will, too.”
They. The ever-present, ever-vague “they” that’s haunted my finishing school years. Mom means the royals at large. Alphas and their packs. It’s a world we could have never touched without the Omega Finishing School.
I’ll show my parents it was worth it. I’ll become the best royal omega Ravencroft Hall has ever seen, and then I’ll ace my art exhibition. Everything will fall into place. They’ll see that soon.
I hug Mom tighter and then move to hug Dad, too. “Today will go perfectly, just you watch. I love you both. Thank you both for everything.” I turn to Eloise. “And you, too. Thank you for being my best friend.”
Eloise nearly launches herself into a hug as well.
And then Mom and Dad leave again and make their way to Ravencroft Hall for the Selection process.
Eloise stays by my side as I finish getting ready, but there’s nothing really more to do but touch up make-up and try to remember everything the Omega Finishing School taught me.
Show wisdom. Be nice.
Be interesting, but not too off-beat.
Curtsey and use correct titles.
And, most importantly, be the perfect omega.
I can do this. I know I can. And I’ll prove it by walking out of Selection today with a whole pack of alphas to call my own.
I hold my chin high as Eloise pulls her car around and we make our way toward Ravencroft Hall.