Chapter Two

I’d never really… fit in quite right with everyone else. 

I’d never had a lot of friends and certainly never held a man’s interest long enough to make something serious with him. It kind of felt like I was always the odd one out, like my mere presence made people uncomfortable even.

This fact had never been more clear to me as when I stepped through the archway into the main living room of the place I’d be spending the next six months in.

All the furniture and decorations I’d come across so far were expensive and classy looking, and the living room was no expectation. Giant, fluffy black couches, a huge flat screen TV, a couple of the newest gaming consoles resting on the TV stand.

And on the couch all already chatting, laughing, and smiling, were seven pure blooded snobs all turning to look my way.

Most of them just flat out ignore me as I enter the room and the ones who do look at me don’t look all too impressed by me.  Their judgy eyes scanned me up and down as I made my way to the farthest end of the couch to sit. 

“Hello everyone!” Seconds after my butt hits the couch a woman enters the room. Everyone turns and looks at her right away, zipping their lips and ceasing their conversations. It was easy to tell they all knew who she was and respected her. 

I had no idea who this blonde woman with blood red lips was, but I followed everyone else’s lead and turned to face her. 

“I’m so excited to see all of your smiling faces!” She exclaims, her manicured hands clasped tightly as she grinned at all of us. ”We had definitely got a good group this year.” She nods confidently, her eyes focused on a couple of people in particular. “So, first day, I know we’re all so excited. Let’s go ahead and go around the room and introduce ourselves, yeah?” She chirps as she looks to the closest man on her left. 

He shifts a little, clearing his throat before standing up. “Hey everyone. I’m Chase, happy to be here.” He waves a little, glancing at everyone before sitting down again. He was very traditionally handsome; blonde hair, sculpted jaw and light blue eyes any woman would be happy to get lost in. 

We continue down the couch, everyone standing and telling the group their name. After Chase was Jason, Peter, Victor, and Quinton for the guys. Quinton was the other low ranking contestant. He seemed to be fitting in much better than me I will say. He smiled warmly at everyone, spoke with confidence, and even had the eyes of the two girls on him as he introduced himself. 

The two other girls were Violet and Emily. Violet was a gorgeous brunette with a body like a real woman, all curves and dips. Her smile was glossy and seductive, and she definitely had the attention of the men. Emily was a ginger, still drop dead gorgeous with a giant chest she clearly liked to show off. 

Finally, it was my turn.

I clasp my hands in front of me tightly as I stand, mostly to keep them from shaking. Everyone’s eyes were on me, taking me in, judging me. 

“Uh. Hi. I’m Angel. I’m excited to be here.” I say, bowing my head a little before sitting back down. I could feel my cheeks burning with a blush as I did everything in my power not to meet the eyes I could feel watching me. Just as I had formed my opinions of them as they introduced themselves, I knew they were doing the same. Could they tell how nervous I was? Were they judging me for not being from alpha blood?

“Awesome! So glad to meet everyone! My name is Laura,  I’ll be your host during your time here. So. Today we’re going to do a little tour, everyone will see where they’re sleeping, and then we’ll do dinner on the patio. You’ll be pulled aside one by one today to do your instroduction videos for the audience, and the cameras will be following you around during our tour, so make sure we all have smiles on!” She looks at each one of us. “ I’m going to go check on the camera crew, you lot hang out here for a minute, kay?” She says and clicks away in her beige heels.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding once she’s gone. She was… a lot. Very bubbly, chatty. I guess she was the host of a TV show. No one would want a shy, timid person leading this thing. I wonder if that nice personality she’s displaying is real or totally fabricated for the cameras.

“Hey.” I froze, turning with what I’m sure amounted to a deer in the headlights expression as I felt the couch sinking with the weight of someone sitting next to me.

I met the carmel eyes of Victor, the “bad boy” of this whole thing. At least that’s what it seemed like to me. He had on a black long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, showing off full sleeves of tattoos. His hair was dark and styled back, his features sharp and even. 

“Hello.” I manage to squeak out, completely out of my element under his gaze. He just sort of looks at me, which makes me even more squeamish. 

“So you’re Angel then.” He says, looking me over like he’d been waiting to meet me. I raise an eyebrow, a bit confused by his words. 

“That’s me.” I say, nodding a little. 

He gives me a half grin, one I’m sure had brought more than one woman to their knees. “Relax. I just wanted to meet you, we’re allegedly already a fan favorite.”

I furrow my brow. “We are? How? We haven’t even started filming yet.” 

He laughs, leaning forward and looking up at me. “Have you ever actually watched this show?” He asks. My face heats up in embarrassment as I shake my head. No, I had never seen a second of the show I was currently taking part in. Reality shows, especially ones of the dating variety, had never interested me all that much.

“Here, lemme show you.” He says, scooting a bit closer to me as he pulls his phone out. My voice caught in my throat as his leg touched mine just the smallest amount as he pulled up a social media app. “Okay, so you remember when you had your first interview, and they took a bunch of pictures of you?” He asks, and I nod. They had come to my house with cameras and microphones and lights, and taken tons of pictures of me while asking me questions that they’d scribble down. “This is what they did with it.” He hands me his phone, his fingers brushing mine slightly as I take it from him. 

On the show's public page, the one that promotes the thing and allows fan engagement, were pictures of the whole cast this season. Under each picture was a brief description, what pack they were from, their names, things like that.

“The show likes to egg the fans on, force ships and rivalries, things like that.” He explains as he reaches over to click on the comments under my picture. “Right now it looks like the trope we’re going for is bad boy and good girl.” I glance at him, swallowing nervously when I meet his very close gaze. 

Just as I’m about to say something, argue that I wasn’t that good of a girl, Laura comes back into the room, this time with a line of crew members and cameras behind her.

She grins at us once we’re looking back at her, clapping her hands. “Alright guys, who’s ready to film Luna’s choice?!”