The Choice

Selena, a few days later after trials

With the mess of the trials done I’m glad I can relax now. It felt so good to have that behind me. I take a moment on the balcony but a knock on the door to bring me back to reality.

“Yes?” I ask the door as calmly as I can. The door opens, and it’s Damian. “What can I help you with?” Trying to ask as professionally as I can.

“The council would like to see you in their conference room, Princess.” Surprisingly he was professional, but I could tell it was in a tone that he was mad at me and you don’t want to tell them sorry so you do it haphazardly.

“Thank you, I will head there right away.” I can tell it’s really taken a blow to his ego to be a servant now, but at least someone other than Gwen is keeping him in line. I make my way to the regal conference room to find Liam, Ayla and the others all around the table. Kieran comes in seconds behind me with Gwen in her new role and stands behind Xander.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Kieran whispers to me.

“Not a clue…” I whisper back. I look out to my family still confused. Liam stands up with letters in his hands.

“We’ve been given word about what’s been happening with our punishments. I’ll start with the king and queen of bear country. We had warned them ahead of time that someone from our kingdom was going to be banished there, so to watch out. We just got responses on how they’re doing. Let’s start with bear country and your adopted parents.” Liam opens the official-looking letter and reads it to himself for a moment before telling the rest of us.

“Care to enlighten the rest of us?” I ask him a little annoyed. Liam looks up from the letter with a smirk on his face.

“Well, we both know mother and father don’t like to get their hands dirty. Well, mother doesn’t and father does in different ways. Mother has been demoted to laundry servant and… bear scat cleaner!” I put a hand to my mouth to hide my laughter.

“Oh, gosh I wish I could see that!” Trying to remain professional and not working well.

“OH it gets better, they provided pictures!” I ran up to him to find the proof! Sure enough, in the envelope were pictures of my once prim and proper mother doing laundry, helping in the kitchen, and cleaning scat off the grounds with a look of pure disgust like it was beneath her. Some things don’t change.

“I never thought I’d see the day mother gets her hands dirty!” I look at the pictures in disbelief and I show them to Kieran and Jude. Liam clears his throat to prove there’s more.

“As for father… when the person is in their bear form and they get stuck, he’s the one who gets the prickly plants out of their fur!” I let out an audible gasp and grasp the rest of the pictures. My father was once so high and mighty telling me who to marry for years now getting prickly plants out of bear butts. I couldn’t contain my laughter! Well, at least they’re using their dirty work for something. Once we calm down from laughing so much we go back to the letter.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, go on… what happened to King Lucian?” I ask Liam with anticipation. If this is what happened to my adopted parents I can only imagine what happened to him. He takes out the other letter also looking very official looking with the dragon king and queen wax seal.

“Right as for him… Lucian has been terrible. Apparently trying to run away since they know everything. They were waiting for him. One other servant caught him trying to steal gold, and we all know how dragons love their treasure…” We all nodded slowly and wondered how this was going to go. “So as punishment for attempting to run away and stealing, he was sentenced for scale raking duty. Cleaning up the scales as they shed.” We all burst out laughing again, and the queen kindly provided pictures for us. Even Xander can’t hide his smirk.

“Man, I needed a laugh.” I wiped away my tears from laughing so much! “Ok, ok I’m calm down. Now as for these two…” We all turn to Damian and Gwen.

“I’ll give out the punishment.” Jude stands up and this shocks me. He’s usually the quiet one and also stood up for Gwen in times of need. He helped me sometimes but had to keep it hidden. “You two will be separated until Gwen is of age to consent to having a mate and mating ceremony.” The two looked shocked and looked at each other worriedly.

“But… but that’s three years! Most mates don’t wait until they’re 18 to mate or their ceremony!” Gwen begs Jude.

“And I’m turning 19 soon. How the heck am I supposed to wait till I’m 22 for my mate!?” Damian growled at him.

“Know your place, servant! Remember who you’re talking to!” Jude growls back! Damian bows his head and goes back to behind Jude’s chair… “As I was saying, since you two wanted to separate Selena and Kieran so badly that I thought you should know what that’d be like. Painful, torturous, sadness, and your wolves will feel it too. BUT I’m not going to be completely cruel. You two can write to each other and only write. NO sneaking off, no running away and I will know if you do, no phones, no computers no nothing! Just a pen and paper! AM I CLEAR!?” He growls at the two of them.

“Yes, sire…” they mumble together… and keep their heads down.

“Good. Now I believe this meeting is adjourned, and I’d like to take a walk in the garden before lunch. Damian, you don’t have to accompany me, so wait for me in my room.” We all leave when Ayla wraps an arm around me.

“Lunch sounds like a good idea. How about it?” She smiles at me and I smile back.

“Sure, but soon we’ll have to head back to Moonstone to spill the tea that’s happened here to my in-laws, so do you think I could keep the pictures?” I give a little begging smile, and she snitches them for me.

“Sure why not, I’m not going to need them.” She hands them to me and I run off to my room to put them in my bag so I don’t lose them. The day is just on our own and to be honest I’m ready to go back to Moonstone. I miss my quiet life, but man have I learned a lot here. And gained not one but two alliances. If only mother and father could see me now. I’ve loved spending time with Liam and Ayla but I’m ready to go back to the quiet life that mother and father didn’t want me to have.

The next day we packed up our car and told my in-laws that we were coming home. Since now we don’t have to skirt around Oak and Cedarcrown anymore, it didn’t take us as long to get home. We had a big welcome home party. We spilled all the tea that went on at the Capitol and we all laughed and cried. I passed around the pictures and laughed some more. Georgie eventually found her mate while we were gone and practically got over her feelings for Kieran overnight! Thank goodness! Raven finally found her mate while we were gone and he’s also a warrior, and Kieran’s friend Jake. So happy for them! I’m glad that I patched things up with my biological family since it turns out that they’re really nice and I’m kind of sad that I missed out on the life I could’ve had with them, but oh well. The life I had got me to where I am today… with Kieran… and I wouldn’t change it. We ended up adding another set of twins to the family, another boy/girl. Antony Jude and Harper Skye Stoneshire. I do get updates from Xander and Jude about Gwen and Damian, how they’re handling their separation, and if they’re keeping in line. They’re doing well with only occasional rage outs because of the separation.

It may not have been the nobility life my ‘parents’ wanted, but it’s my life… and I’m happy. Don’t be afraid to do something that wasn’t planned for you. You make the life you want. Not your parents, or your siblings… you and only you.