A true Luna princess

Once upon a time, not so very long ago there was a Young she-wolf who was destined to be a princess. Though to be absolutely precise, there was no prince in the offing. But she was betrothed to an Alpha’s heir, and from the point of view of a family with no actual titles, that was as good as a crown. This story begins with that Young she-wolf, and continues through a stormy night, and a series of tests, and if there’s no pea in the tale, all I can say is that if you read on, you will encounter a surprise in that bed: a key, a flea… or perhaps a man, for that matter. In fairy tales, the ability to perceive an obtrusion as tiny as a pea under the mattress is enough to prove that a strange she-wolf who arrives on a stormy night is indeed a princess. In the real world, of course, it’s a bit more complicated. In order to prepare for the rank of Luna, Miss Isolde Mayfield Darkwood had learned something from virtually every branch of knowledge. She was prepared to dine with a king, or a fool, or Socrates himself, conversing on subjects as far-flung as Italian comic opera and the new spinning machines. But, just as a single dried pea was all that was needed to determine the authenticity of the princess, one crucial fact determined Isolde’s eligibility for the rank of Luna: she was betrothed to the heir to the Howlstone pack. Less important were the facts that when this tale begins Isolde was twenty-three and still unmarried, that her father had no title, and that she had never been given a compliment such as a diamond of the first water. Quite the opposite, in fact. None of that mattered.