DIFFERENT DINNER

AZALEA'S POV

Weeks Later

I stand in front of my mirror, a deep scowl etched to my face, taking off my hat. I wouldn’t generally say I hate myself, but I'm so different and its not even the cute kind.

I dyed my hair yesterday but somehow, overnight, the ends had grown an inch and a half longer. I used to be pretty bald as a kid, my hair was so short that I could only put them in little pig tails, but age 13 or 14, my hair started growing like some sort of lab freak.

Mom had been excited, she said it only meant I would have a pretty wolf, my hair was supposed to be the color of my wolf. I didn’t believe her, not more than do I now. It has been years and said pretty wolf is yet to show up.

It wouldn’t be that big a deal if the inch I grew over night wasn’t bright silver in color. 

I drop my face into my palm, biting my lip for a minute to mute out the scream of curses I was going to let out, I didn’t want to call any attention to myself. 

Unlike Kai, all pressure has been on my older sister Eloise ever since she shifted, she is a beauty, the precious apple of Beta Hemshworth's eye, and so it's a huge concern for the entire family that after 3 years of shifting, she's still un mated. Being the first daughter of a beta was hard, I can’t help but pity her.

Eloise attended a local 2 year college in cosmetology and fashion design, so she has her own clothing store in the mall in town - very fitting.

But even with all the chaos and differences, life is good, I love my family and they love me, in their own very way. So while Eloise had her own problems, I was faced with my own. With my new silver ends, my brown roots are disappearing. I used to have all brown hair when I was much younger, I have pictures to prove, it wasn’t as dark as the rest of my family but it was brown.

The hair change thing also began when I was 13, it started at the very tip, like I highlighted it, then it slowly turned a hue of grey, then silver and it worked its way up. I’ve been dyeing my hair ever since. It's hard keeping up with dying it every other day when everyone in my family constantly had a job for me.

“Azalea!!.” Lexa screams from across the hall.

“Ugh!.” I groan loudly, sitting in front of my vanity table staring back at a pair of hazel eyes in the mirror.

“Azalea!!.” This time, its Justin’s voice I hear.

“They're definitely fighting over the TV remote again.” I sigh and take out a towel to wrap it around my head like I just came out of the shower, barely a second later, my door burst open to reveal my siblings.

“I took it first!.” Justin yells, trying to push his way into my room completely ignoring my head.

“I called dibs!.” Lexa yells back, shoving him.

“Azalea!,” They yell out simultaneously and I walk over.

“What seems to be the problem?.” I ask, bored out of my mind, I have seen this scene too many time to be surprised. Standing with my arms akimbo, I look down at them, and as predicted, they were both pulling on the TV remote. 

“He started it!.”

“She started it!.”

Both of them shout simultaneously again, pointing their free hands at each other, while the other hands stayed firm, pulling the remote to each side. I look at the remote and let out a sigh.

“Dad better not see that you’re fighting over TV when mid terms are a week away.” I tell them and just like magic, Justin releases the remote.

“Nothing good was on anyway!.” He shoves it at her. Justin is always the one to want to act like an adult, as expected of the sons of a beta; superiority is genetic, I guess, or some crap.

Kai is next in line as Beta, Justin would need to step up his game, to be 'The brother of a Beta'. Lexa gapes at him and then shoves it back.

“Well, I was going to stream N*****x on my laptop!.” She says eyeing him, I cover my mouth to stop my giggle.

“Whatever.” He glares at her and walks away, a big bang followed as the door of his room was slams shut. She run after him. I retreat to my room, dusting my hands as I resume attending to my own dilemma.

As much as I want a mate like my father, I'm very sure that with all the weird things about me I’d never find one, for all I knew I am a human of a weird race in another continent.

And from what I have seen, human don’t have mates, they get to choose who they spend the rest of their lives with. Even if the choice was up to me, I’ll still die single.  No one would readily fall in love and agree to marry me.

So in every situation I was a sore loser. Call it what you may, low self confidence, bad esteem, whatever, but the reality is that while Eloise has men flocking around her, wishing she was theirs, I only receive their glares and squirms.

Talking to my mom always makes me feel better, she's already busy as the Beta's wife and the Luna's right hand, I don't want to be a burden, but like the super mom that she is, as if she new I needed her, mom walks in.

“Hey baby.” She calls, I spring out of bed earning a chuckle from her.

“Is dinner over?.” I ask and she nods, motioning for me to sit back down.

"Camren?.” She calls to one of our maids in with a food tray.

“Sorry, I got carried away.” I tell her. 

“Thank you Camren, you can go.” She waves the maid who leaves without a word. I’m pretty sure that maid in particular didn’t like me, she's like the hand maid of Eloise, even though such things don’t exist anymore, she's just always ready to help Eloise with anything, having particularly grown up with her, before I arrived into the family.

Mom waits with me till I finish eating, making small talk and recapping every thing that happened over dinner. Justin brought home another ‘girlfriend’ that Lexa doesn’t like, she wasted no time in letting out her displeasure. I laugh out loud many times with food in my mouth.

“I know you think we leave you kids to yourselves and the maids most of the time,” She starts with a small smile. I frown a little, confused at her words.

“But I know each of you more than you think, and goddess, you’re all so different.” 

“Ugh, I don’t think Eloise and Kai are very different form each other save for the fact that they are different genders.” I scuff out, not meaning for the words to leave my mind. 

Mom laughs, not taking offense.

“And its no secret that you are the most different.” She says pinching my cheek like a toddler.  “And you know I love you all equally right?.” I frown even more.

‘What is going on?.’ I ask myself, but I know better than to rush mom when she was trying to say something, the woman always takes her time.

“Yeah, and I wished you were more unequal with your love some times.” I let out. She gives me a surprised look and I roll my eyes.

“I remember getting really mad when Eloise used to be mean and you’d just be so chill about it,” She tries to interrupt me, but I shake my head, telling her I'm not done. “But when I saw you did the same for me with Lexa and the same for Lexa with Justin, I understood.” 

“I’m glad you did.” She says. “And you know I also got mad at both of you?….”

My turn to be surprised. “What do you mean?.” 

“I wanted my daughters to be so close, best of friends, I wanted all of you to be, but that didn’t happen, still hasn’t.” She gives a sigh, like she had had those words on her mind for a long time.

“You and I both know that Eloise doesn’t like me mom.” I draw out. This isn't how our conversations usually go.

With the Kai situation, I barely get any time alone to myself, or to even to get my homework done.

Mom doesn't leave my side for a minute, always checking up on me. No one mentions what happened that night again, so I also decide not to say anything too, not that I can bring myself to say that my own brother tried to rape me, my family would fall apart. The guilt of that alone was very heavy.

Eloise would support Kai, no matter what, I just know it, she will most probably tell her friends, who will also continue to spread the news twisting it to what favored their image, then dad would get mad at her too.