A Whole New Me

by Keya Jay

  ***

  Today was Azalea birthday and she had to admit that it was one of the worst birthdays of her life. She never would have imagined spending her birthday killing and ripping off heads while being heartbroken and lied to in the process. It started off like any other day with a 10 hour training. She went into the kitchen to eat lunch with Mrs. Sarah and a very grouchy Buddy. She asked Mrs. Sarah if she had seen Dylinn and she had looked at the mutt as if she had expected him to have the answer.

  “I haven’t seen him. He hasn’t been acting or looking,” she added in a whisper, “like himself today.” Azalea gave her a questioning look but decided to ignore it. Mrs. Sarah looked a little confused and worried today and it made Azalea wonder if she too should be worried.

  Azalea spent her afternoon with Nay-Nay, Nick and Tosh until Nick and Tosh left for school, leaving her with Nay-Nay until Llorel came to watch her. Azalea had found out that the Caine family accepted Llorel into their home, so Nick, Nay-Nay and Tosh are his “brothers” and “sisters”. It’s weird to think of Llorel as a part of their family. But the Caine’s love him like their own and Azalea wasn’t entirely sure Llorel realized it.

  For the past 3 or 4 weeks since they’ve been there Llorel has been keeping a certain amount of distance between them, and Azalea hated to admit it but it bothered her...a lot. It’s like he doesn’t want to be around her for longer than he has to, but it didn’t just start it’s been like that since they’ve met but she hadn’t paid that much attention to it until now. Sometimes she would purposely go out of her way to spend time with him, you know to test her theory and all, but he’d always find a way out of it not sparing her feelings one bit. Nay-Nay noticed and read into it all wrong which is the only reason why he was with them that evening but she really wished he wasn’t.

  Azalea and Nick practiced riding horses day and night. It was a quick habit for her to pick up. When Tosh told her that their family owned racing horses of course Azalea wanted to ride one so Nick let her pick out of the 3 racing horses that they had and one immediately caught Azalea’s eye. He was a midnight black, very nicely sculpted and his eyes were a gorgeous pale blue which looked really nice on him. When she looked over at him he caught her eye and nudged her with his head, a sure sign that he wanted her to pet him and he immediately won over her heart.

  “That’s Bucky,” Nay-Nay said proudly. “No one dares to ride Bucky, he can be really aggressive,” she said while backing away from the horses stable. “But he really seems to like you Z,” she continued from a safer distance.

  “They’re both aggressive it’s like a match made in hell,” Nick teased.

  “Yea, I’m surprised I got to him before your mother did,” Azalea retaliated. But Nick had a point; Azalea had gotten a bit aggressive over the last couple of weeks. She had a hard time biting her tongue literally and figuratively.

  “Oh she has and he hates her more than anyone,” Nay-Nay informed.

  “Well, well, well, I think we’ll have quite the friend ship Bucky,” Azalea said patting him on the head. Mrs. Caine and Azalea don’t have the greatest relationship. Mrs. Caine has a strong dislike against Hybrids which Azalea just so happened to be, so they’re kind of enemies in a weird kind of way, but Azalea appreciated the fact that her kids (Nay-Nay, Nick and Tosh with the exception of Llorel) liked her no matter what, despite her strong dislike for their mother.

  During the middle of riding Bucky Azalea had gotten a text from Dylinn telling her to meet him in his room in 20. Azalea handed the reins over to Nick and told him that she had to go—the horse wasn’t too happy about that.

  “When will you be back?” he asked as he took Bucky back to the stalls.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well me and Natasha have to be going pretty soon, you know we have school tomorrow?”

  “Of course, I have been going to school for 18 years, I’m pretty sure I’m aware of school days,” she said rolling her eyes.

  “Well for one you haven’t been to a school like mine, and second of all you haven’t been to a school for nearly 2 months I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take a person like you long to forget the obvious.”

  “Kick rocks,” she said pushing him into the stalls.

  “Unlike you I have the education to apply for a real job, so I will not kick your rocks for you,” he teased. Azalea flipped him the bird before turning around and walking toward the house. When she went into Dylinn’s room Dylinn wasn’t there but Grouchy Buddy was.

  “Hey boy,” she said calling the mutt to lay on the bed with her. Buddy laid down on the bed and nuzzled his head into her side. “Why are you so grouchy today?” she asked as she ran her fingers through his fur.

  ‘You only think I’m being grouchy because I won’t shift for you,’ he accused.

  “Well at first, yes, but now I’m pretty sure you’re being grouchy.”

  ‘Well I’ve had a lot on my plate.’

  “More like doggy bowl.”

  ‘I’m not a dog,’ he growled.

  “Well I have no proof of that Buddy, you say you’re a werewolf but you look more like a doggy to me.” she said as she stopped petting him. “Do you not trust me?” she asked after a moment of silence.

  ‘Come on now, you know I trust you, why would you even ask me that?’ he growled out of frustration.

  “Because it seems as though you don’t trust me enough to show me what you truly look like,” she said being totally serious now.

  ‘You know I’d trust you with my life Zellie,’ he said being just as serious as she was trying to be.

  “How many lives does a dog have anyway?” she asked but all she got in response was a growl. “Oh I’m sorry how about I rephrase that. How many lives does a dingy mutt have any way?” This time she got a full teeth growl. “Pick your poison fool! Do you want to be called a doggy or a dingy mutt? Because I refuse to call you anything close to a shape shifter until I see some shape shifting,” she stated.

  ‘Let me ask you this, if you do see my human side would it change anything?’

  “I don’t know it depends, you said that you’re someone that I know. If I see the human form of the dingy mutt that I’ve confided in for nearly 2 months it might make a heck of a difference.”

  ‘And why’s that?’

  “Because I wanna know everything there is to know about this dingy mutt that I’ve be-friended. Besides wouldn’t you wanna know the true identity of a masked figure that you feel like you can trust?”

  ‘But Zellie there are a lot of things that you don’t know about me.’

  “Obviously, like your identity for starters, and the reason why it’s so hard for you to tell me, but if you’d let me in for one burger flippin second then maybe this wouldn’t be so hard for you.”

  ‘It’s more than that Azalea; it’s not about whether I let you in.’

  “Then what is it?”

  ‘We, as in werewolves, don’t go looking around for potential friends or pet owners; we live to mate plain and simple. I don’t wanna feel like I’m putting any kind of pressure on someone to trust me farther than they can throw me, because Azalea there’s not a day that goes by when I’m not thinking about mating with that special someone,’ he explained.

  “Well, I see you have your reasons why not but I still have my reasons why. You’re a dingy mutt who constantly thinks about mating, ok I get that but I just hope that when you find that special someone you be up-front with her. If you meet her in your human form and yall seem to really click but you forgot to mention that you’re a dog and she had forgot to mention that she doesn’t like dogs because she didn’t think it would be of importance well then what? Or if in your case, you show her your human side and your dog side and she seems to like them both but she was led to falsely believe that they were two different people, well what do you think she’ll do once she finds out? She’s going to be hurt and she’s going to feel betrayed and I know you don’t want that.” Azalea
looked down at her watch and about 45 minutes had passed. “Look I came looking for Dylinn but he’s obviously not here and I have to see a little girl about a horse. When you see him let me know or just tell him to call me, we really need to talk.”

  ‘Sure,’ he said as she made her way to the door. When she went back out to the stables Nick and Tosh were already gone and Nay-Nay was looking really disappointed as she stood next to Llorel (Go figure).

  Azalea walked over to where Nay-Nay and Llorel stood and once Nay-Nay saw her Nay’s face instantly lit up.

  “Hey Z! You wanna finish riding?”

  “Did you wait for me?” she asked a bit shocked and a little confused. Why didn’t she just ride with Llorel?

  “Of course Z, why would I not? Are you ready to go? I thought that since you were doing so well we could race.”

  “Sure, I’m up for a race,” she agreed.

  “Ok, first let me get Prince and Bucky all set up and ready to go, then we’ll race,” she said running off. She came back with Prince and she looked a little horrified.

  “What’s the matter Nay-Nay?” Llorel asked before Azalea could get the words out.

  “There’s something wrong with Bucky.” They all followed the little girl back to the stables and sure enough Bucky was shaking and he snapped out when Llorel walked toward him and attempted to touch him. “He looks scared,” Nay-Nay stated.

  “Scared my ass, he looks like he’s ready to kill someone,” Llorel said angrily.

  “Z you have to do something,” Nay-Nay pleaded. Azalea began to walk toward the horse in order to attempt to calm it.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Llorel shouted. When Azalea reached the horses stall Buckey moved toward the gate and stuck his head through so that Azalea could pet it, just like he did the first time she saw him. Azalea placed her hand on his head and he seemed to be calm now. She scrubbed him behind his ear and he nudged her in the side with his head obviously relishing in the feeling. He now looked as good as new.

  “Aww Z he must have really missed you,” Nay-Nay stated. Azalea looked over at Nay-Nay’s proud expression and then Llorel’s expression of disbelief.

  “I think he’s ready to ride now,” she said to Nay-Nay as she opened the stall and mounted on top of the horse. Azalea waited for Nay-Nay to climb on her horse and they took off together through the valley.

  Mrs. Caine called Nay-Nay in for dinner cutting their third race a bit short.

  “Congratulations, I’m pretty sure If we had finished that race you would have won that one too, I’m shocked no one’s been able to beat Prince in a race,” Nay-Nay said before going off with her mom.

  “She’s right no one’s ever beat Prince…” Llorel started but Azalea walked away before he could finish. He’s been treating her as if she didn’t even exist for no apparent reason, she didn’t have time for his bipolar moods. If he wanted to treat her like some kind of stranger well then she’ll be proud to say that they’ve never met. But there’s just one thing standing in her way, this dang imprint.