Knot Quite A Fairytale

  A CONTEMPORARY ROYAL OMEGAVERSE ROMANCE

  OMEGA ROYALS

  BOOK ONE

  IRIS ASTER

  Copyright © 2026 Iris Aster

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Contents

  Royals Anonymous

  1. Emery

  2. Ranier

  3. Emery

  4. Bastion

  5. Emery

  6. Wyatt

  7. Emery

  8. Ranier

  9. Emery

  10. Wyatt

  11. Emery

  12. Ranier

  13. Bastion

  14. Emery

  15. Ranier

  16. Bastion

  17. Emery

  18. Ranier

  19. Wyatt

  20. Emery

  21. Bastion

  22. Wyatt

  23. Bastion

  24. Emery

  25. Ranier

  26. Emery

  27. Emery

  28. Wyatt

  29. Emery

  30. Ranier

  31. Wyatt

  32. Bastion

  33. Emery

  34. Bastion

  35. Emery

  36. Ranier

  37. Emery

  Confined Omega

  Knot Just A Fan

  About the Author

  Royals Anonymous

  It’s that time again! Nobility and commoners from around the world descend on Ravencroft Hall to witness the Selection of Omegas and the pairing off of omegas with royal and noble alphas and alpha packs!

  We know how it goes, but there seems to be more than a few surprises in store this year.

  Will this be the year Everhart Pack finally picks an omega? What will happen to the few rags to riches stories we’ve got coming out of the Omega Finishing School? And, most importantly, what if Councilor Evans finally, finally, learns what humor is?

  Guess we’ll find out.

  Be there, or be sane. Personally, I think the madness is worth it ;)

  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.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ranier

  “Could you at least try to look a bit more put together?” my sister Helena hisses from near the door to our ready-room at Ravencroft Hall. She stands there in a navy-blue dress cut just below the knee, her arms crossed, and her blue eyes narrowed and locked on Bastion as he stumbles into the room.

  Bastion’s brown eyes crinkle as he cringes. He scrubs the side of his head, messing his short-cut blond hair, and turns from her. “No need to be so loud, Helena. For fuck’s sake.”

  “No?” my sister presses. She gestures wildly at an antique grandfather clock in the corner where our youngest sister, Dorthea, sits reading children’s books on her tablet. “You are all expected out in the hall in thirty minutes and you look like you’ve come straight from a bar.”

  Bastion groans at the high-pitched screech in Helena’s exasperated voice. There’s a shadow of facial hair that needs to be shaved to be ready, but honestly, today, I don’t even care. Let Bastion be his full hot mess self for everyone to see.

  “Oh, my god,” Helena continues. “You did come straight from a bar, didn’t you?” Then she turns her wrath on me. “Are you even trying anymore? Father is going to cut you off if you don’t pick an omega this year. Or did you forget that part?”

  “Not at all,” I reply as evenly as possible so as not to stir her further. How could I forget our parents cornering me like the child I no longer am and demanding our pack does not reject an omega this year? How could I dismiss the threat of cutting me off and disowning me? Yet I still can’t find the drive.

  I open my mouth to say as much but Helena swipes a hand through the air.

  “Don’t, Ranier.” Her eyes are stormy blue pools. “I understand better than anyone the weight they’re putting on you, but Mom and Dad know best. You need to accept whoever the Council assigns you all this year.”

  Wyatt, who has been lounging on a chaise this entire time without saying anything, finally snorts. “Why don’t you just take lead in the family, Helena? You’re always ordering us around as it is.”

  I shoot a weighted look at Wyatt that makes him raise his hands in defense. “How about you put the phone down and get ready yourself?”

  Wyatt’s phone might as well be surgically attached to his palm. It was the one thing that truly differentiated him from Christopher. But if Chris could see his brother now, phone-addicted and blogging constantly, I think he’d be pissed, too.

  But Chris won’t see it. He’s been gone for five years. So it’s up to Bastion and I to break Wyatt’s penchant for blogging everyone’s business for the world to see.

  Wyatt glances down at his tailored, dark-navy suit and, yeah, actually fairly put-together image. “I’m ready to go, just waiting on you assholes to finish cleaning up.” He looks to Bastion. “Seriously, man. The bar?”

  Bastion curses under his breath and heads to a dressing room off the main space. It’s really only cordoned off by a curtain so I know he’ll hear every word of the conversation.

  I straighten my own suit jacket and crack my neck. “What I mean is get off the phone, Wyatt.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Helena adds with more softness than I’ll ever receive from her. Good. Wyatt could use a warm older sister, and she’s much closer to his age than Bastion or I.

  Sometimes I feel like I don’t know how to get through to Wyatt at all. We’re only eight years apart in age, but twenty-five and thirty-three are two completely different life stages.

  But we owe it to Chris. I owe a lot to Chris.

  Wyatt holds up the device. “Don’t you want to know what I’ve learned? There’s so much information out there, and the Omega Finishing School’s database isn’t really hard to break into at all. It’s⁠—”

  The door to our ready-room at Ravencroft Hall opens and my father steps through. He’s dressed to the nines in a perfectly tailored black suit, a black tie, and shiny black shoes like he’s going to a funeral.

  Yeah, mine if our pack doesn’t accept an omega today.

  “Good morning, Everhart Pack,” my father says.

  Bastion nods a hello. Wyatt waves.

  “Good morning, father,” I reply with about as much enthusiasm as Helena got from me.

  “Ready to finally select your omega?” he asks but then stops. His eyes narrow on Bastion’s hungover state and he clicks his tongue.

  Bastion catches it and waves him off. “Don’t bother. My parents already wrung me out. I’m fine—and I’ll be even more fine by Selection time.”

  Thirty-three and the man still drinks like he’s in college, and gambles as if he isn’t aware that money is real and actually useful. But then, who am I to judge? At least Bastion has a life outside the royal manor given to us years ago.

  Wyatt sits up and goes back to focusing on his phone. “There are a few lovely options. Alice Hawthorne—a cutie with high finishing school grades.”

  “The Hawthorne Family would never,” Helena suggests. “Not with Bastion’s… hobbies.”

  Bastion rolls his eyes.

  Father nods his agreement. “It is an unfortunate fact that omegas with police ties do not want to deal with your addictions, Bastion. Please get them under control.”

  Bastion has no reply to that, which is probably for the best.

  Wyatt flicks his finger across the screen. “Aurelia Seymour. She’s a singer from Denmark.”

  Father smiles, although it’s thin and not even remotely genuine. “She sounds lovely. Perhaps we can nudge the Council in her direction.”

  Wyatt then loudly snort-laughs. “There’s always this rags-to-riches case. Emery Grey. She’s a commoner, but her parents worked like hell to pay for Omega Finishing School.”

  Wyatt flashes us all the phone so we see the school profile photo of a beautiful woman with cotton-candy colored hair, a beaming bright smile, and intelligent and kind eyes. She’s mesmerizing, actually.

  Bastion perks up a little. “She’s gorgeous.”

  “And a painter,” Wyatt adds as he flips the phone back to himself so he can keep scrolling. “Her art is pretty mid, though.”

  Father raises a hand. “She’s a commoner, so it’s a no.”

  “Unfortunately,” Bastion adds.

  My eyes narrow. “How can you demand we accept an omega but say no to these women?”

  Father gestures toward Bastion. “One of your pack requires a royal match, thus rendering Emery Grey ineligible.”

  Bastion holds his ground. “She’s eligible thanks to the Omega Finishing School.”

  Helena raises an eyebrow and smiles a little, but she says nothing. She doesn’t have to. This is the first omega Bastion’s put any attention toward and we haven’t even met her yet.

  Father shakes his head and grumbles something I can’t hear. Finally, he turns for the door with frustration tensing his entire posture in a way that’d drive Mother mad. “The Council decides who your match is to be, not some sleuthing on the internet. And you will accept whomever they choose today, although I do hope the omega chosen is not a commoner. Your futures and reputations rely on it.”