Choosing Her Lycan Mate

Izzy’s POV Prologue: Once upon a time in the Emerald Kingdom, there lived a young and beautiful Lycan Princess named Isabelle. She had wavy dark blonde hair like spun honey, and beautiful bright green eyes. Everyone thought she was so lovely, and sweet, and perfect! And she lived a perfect life with her perfect parents, Lycan King Alexander Worthing and his Queen Luna Juliette. That princess was me, actually. And my life actually was perfect back then! Until one day it wasn’t perfect anymore. My parents died suddenly in a tragic accident, so my younger sister Princess Janette and I now had to live with our much older sister Amelia and her mate Leonard, who became the new Lycan King and Queen Luna. They already had a really large family, too. Which kept getting even bigger as time went on. But this story is about me! Not them. My sister Janette and I used to have large bed chambers in the royal residence within the palace all to ourselves, filled with lots of lovely things! But now we not only had to share one room, but our niece Lucy had to move in with us as well. And we were really sad because of the deaths of our parents, and that we were now orphans. And our lives would be forever altered. As the years went on and we grew out of our beautiful princess clothes, we were no longer allowed to buy beautiful princess clothes anymore. Everything had to be ‘sensible’, ‘sturdy’, and ‘within our budget’ so that they could be passed down to Amelia’s many pups after we no longer fit in them. Our wonderful toys and our fabulous doll house that we had spent hours playing with were also given to Amelia’s many pups to play with and to ruin, since we became ‘too old’ to play with it any longer. Many sad years passed before things began to improve. Lucy moved to The Netherlands to be with her mate, after a rocky start. So finally I was down to just one roommate. And then when I was 19 years old, some of the family was invited to a huge event at the palace of a relative in Belgium, and I was really excited to go! But in retrospect, I almost wish I had stayed home. Things got a little bit crazy! We flew into Bruges Belgium in my brother-in-law Leo’s private plane. I had never been to Bruges before, but I had heard good things about it from Lucy, who had been several times. I stared out of the window of the plane as we came in for a landing. It was December and rainy, just the same as it was back home. I was a little disheartened, but I’m trying to stay positive. After all, there is to be a ball this evening, and I had a brand new beautiful ball gown to wear! I was going to finally feel like a perfect princess again. Hey honey, maybe we will meet our mate tonight at the ball? How exciting that would be! I heard someone speaking to me. I look around at the wolves nearest me, but no one on the plane is even looking in my direction. “Who said that?” I ask. Now a few of the wolves nearby are looking at me, but no one is willing to admit to anything. “I clearly heard someone saying they were excited for tonight’s ball!” “It wasn’t me!” My nephew Alex says and shakes his head. Then it looks as if a strange thought just occurred to him. “Are you sure you didn’t just get your Lycan?” I gasp at that idea! Are you my Lycan? Our nephew Alex is pretty wise and will become a great Lycan king, the voice in my head replies. I am Laurel, and I am indeed your Lycan! Oh, wow! As soon as the pilot announces we’ve landed and can exit the plane, I’ve got my seatbelt off and I’m dancing around the cabin in happiness as best as I can within the cramped space! “I have my Lycan!” I practically sing out loud while everyone congratulates me. “Her name is Laurel! And we both love to dance, and dance, and dance the night away! Oh, yeah!” That’s the right attitude, honey! You’re going to be the party princess tonight! Everyone is going to love you! Hours later I would find those words were far more prophetic than I realized at this time. But I shouldn’t jump ahead of myself. I was excited to get to know my Lycan, and I was excited to be in Belgium, and I was excited for the international summit thingy that we were all attending, starting with the ball tonight! There was supposed to be music, dancing, food, and high ranking Lycans and Alpha werewolves from all over! It sounded like great fun! And even better, Leo and Amy weren’t bringing any of the little pups! No one under the age of 18, so not even my sister Jan was allowed to attend! I knew she was super jealous about that, too. She had begged and pleaded, and even said she would stow away on the plane somehow, to no avail. So besides their officers, the only attendees from the Emerald Kingdom pack are myself, cousin Gavin, cousin Patricia, nephew Alex who is next in line to be Lycan King, and nephew Lance who is Alpha of Bull Run. The palace in Bruges was really fancy, with an old world kind of aesthetic, apparently. This IS the old world, honey! Laurel says, interrupting my thoughts. How long is it going to take for me to get used to hearing you in my head? I don’t know, honey! But we’ll be spending the rest of this life together. Let me know when you finally get used to it! I roll my eyes, and then try to remember to be polite to our host and hostess, my cousins alpha Devon of Crescent Lake and his mate Queen Luna Tara of Belgium, who are welcoming us warmly to their home and the international summit thingy. Standing next to Devon and Tara is my former roommate and niece, Queen Luna Lucy along with her mate and consort Prince David of the Dutch Kingdom of the Netherlands. It’s a bit irritating that Lucy, while only a couple of weeks younger than I, has already been mated and has a 4 month old pup. I feel a slight stirring of jealousy, although I had never really been jealous of Lucy before. Ahem, Really? Laurel scoffs in my head. I’ve heard your thoughts for a couple of years now, so don’t be trying to lie to me! But It’ll be our turn soon, honey. Don’t you worry! Getting your Lycan is the first step in order to be able to scent out your mate! Do I really want a mate, though? I’m so young! I should be able to just enjoy myself for a couple of years before I settle down and have a family. As soon as I’m shown to my guest room, which I blissfully get all to myself, I begin to plan my grand debut. I had already engaged my cousin Gavin for the first dance this evening. That way everyone could see that I’ve got some pretty sick moves, and know that I’m an excellent dance partner. I’ll be dancing non stop from dusk until dawn with all the good looking single Lycans, if I have anything to say about it! That’s the spirit! Laurel says, apparently agreeing with my plans. Maybe one of those handsome single Lycans will be your mate! I have no idea what to say to that.