She Chose Herself This Time Novels & Stories

And for the first time in her life, Aurora believed she could have it. Everything she'd ever wanted. Everything she deserved. All because she'd finally chosen herself. And found someone who chose her back.

“And yet everything did.” She turned to face him. “This place is where I decided to leave.” His brow furrowed. “What?” “I came here the night before I left. Sat right there.” She pointed at the flat rock near the edge. “And I told myself if I didn’t go, I’d never become anyone else. I didn’t want to be just someone’s girlfriend.” His voice was quiet. “You didn’t have to choose between being mine and being you.” “I didn’t know that then.”

And she knew why; Leah always said, “How you feel about them doesn't matter as much as how they treat you. Choose you—always.” She knew what she wanted—maybe it was time she summoned the courage to ask. Maybe it was time she chose herself.

Something inside her awakened. Silver light exploded from her body. The first ones holding her were thrown across the room. She landed on her feet. Her eyes were no longer empty. They were alive. She looked at me. “I'm choosing.” I nodded. “Good.” She turned toward the First Ones. “I choose myself.” The sanctuary went silent. The First Ones stared at her. “You are nothing without us.” She smiled. “Maybe.” She raised her hand. “But I don't need to be something for you.”

“You started pulling away after he appeared.” “I never chose Mike!” “You always choose him!” “I never chose him!” Laya finally screamed. Her tears were falling freely now. “I never chose Mike!” Tiar fell silent. “I chose you every single day. Even when you made me cry, I still chose you. Even when you made me feel like I wasn’t enough, I kept convincing myself that you were only scared. Even when everyone else might have told me to leave, I stayed.” Her voice trembled. “But now I’m choosing myself.”

This is what I choose, and I won’t let go. And for the first time since she was a kid, she believed herself capable of it.

"About time someone in this pack started using their brain. And he'll inform his brothers, I'm sure." "From now on," I said quietly, to myself as much as to her, "they don't get to decide who I am." I didn't move towards them. I didn't move away. I just stood there—in the cold, in the silence, in the space between what they'd been and what they were asking to become—and for the first time in thirteen years, the choice was entirely mine. ****

The response came immediately, warm and certain in her mind. I did not choose you. You chose yourself. You survived. You endured. You became what you were meant to be. I simply gave you the tools. She stared at the words. She had never thought of it that way. She had always believed she was chosen—marked by fate, destined for greatness. But that wasn't true. She had made herself what she was. She had survived five years of abuse. She had walked three miles naked through a blizzard. She had killed Derrick with her bare hands. She had faced Lysandra's general and won. She had done all of that before the First Wolf ever spoke to her.

Betty stood in the center of the raised platform with her spine straight and her chin level and her hands loose at her sides, because she had learned recently, painfully, at considerable personal cost that the moment you let them see your hands shake, you have already lost half the room. She had not chosen Arthur. She had not chosen Evander. She had looked at both of them. Arthur bleeding from the cut above his brow, chest heaving, grey eyes burning with something that was equal parts fury and devastation; Evander standing ten feet away, calmer, darker, watching her with those storm-cloud eyes that gave away nothing and somehow said everything and she had opened her mouth and said the words

she admitted as she frowned at me. “It will take time but soon you will be able to easily make those choices,” I assured her. “It is not just about clothes. It is about everything. I have not had to make a decision for myself in my entire life. Somebody always made the choices. It is time for me to do so on my own,” she replied quietly.