AZARIAH THE UGLY QUEEN OF THE PACK

Azariah's pov

Do you know what the best part of having long black, curly, frizzy, out-of-control hair is? Nothing, that's what.

I swear I would make it to school on time if I could figure out the magical formula on how to tame this mess.

Don't get me wrong, some things work, shampoo then condition then defrizzer then blow dry, iron then add a sleeking serum. But since I don't have 3 hours every day to do that, ponytail it is.

Again.

Now that my hairstyle's been decided, time to get dressed. In high school, we had these awful uniforms we had to wear, grey pants, grey tops, and just for fun matching grey shoes. Thank fuck those days are over. I'm currently enrolled in an advanced medical class here in our pack along with one of my best friends, Micah. And lucky me I get to wear whatever the hell I want.

After high school, Micah and I decided to go into medical training along with our other obligations so we could become better leaders when the time comes.

As I stand in my closet, slowly turning in circles, it dawns on me I need to clean this shit show up. There are enough clothes in here for six grown women and there thrown haphazardly everywhere.

Oh don't get me wrong, some are on hangers but even more are on the floor, currently hiding my second obsession, shoes. And boots and whatever else may be hidden under there.

I suddenly get a flashback to when my other best friend, Jace, unknowingly offered to help me clean my closet.

About a year ago,

" Jace, will you please listen to the words coming out of my mouth, I have to clean my closet or my dad says my car is gone for a month." i huff out in annoyance.

" There's no way it's gonna take all day Azari, my match starts at 8pm and its 1pm now. Even if it took you 5 hours to do, you would still have 2 hours to get ready." He says while pinching the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed, as if he's explaining this to a 3 year old.

I just stood there starring back at him. He seriously has no clue.

" Fine, how about i help you, then you agree to come to my match" he pleads.

He really doesn't need to beg me, i almost never miss one of his matches. I take every opportunity i get to watch him fight.

You see, it's been Jace's goal for a long time to become a pack warrior. He enrolled in a sort of "boot camp" last year for all wolves who want to prove their the best of the best.

During the off time camp, the packs take turns holding a "friendly" tournament of sorts . Although anyone who has attended one of these fights, would tell you they're anything but friendly.

The way Jace moves in the fighting ring, you can tell he's a natural born fighter. The boy was magnificent to watch. The way his body moves, it looks effortless.

He's only ever lost 2 matches out of the dozens he's been in, and since i was there to witness both, i call bullshit. However Jace wasn't willing to cheat or use a low blow, unlike others, so he had to swallow those losses and move on.

I couldn't even stop the evil chesshire cat grin that spread across my face. "deal"

There are moments in every person's life that they will never forget. Your first date, first kiss, first broken heart, drivers licence and so on. For me that moment will forever be the look on poor Jace's face when i opened my closet door. His beautiful moss green eye's held a look of terror that ive never seen matched. His mouth hung open so wide i bet i could have shoved an entire sandwich into it, if i had one handy at the moment that is.

The sound of a car horn blaring pulls me out of my thoughts. Shit, that was Micah here to pick me up and I'm still standing here in nothing but my bra and undies, and the famous ponytail.

I quickly grab some faded jeans and a green sweater, I pull them on faster than my heart is racing, and fly out the front door.

I was so not in the mood for another one of Micah's early morning lectures on tardiness.

Although I suppose it was kind of his job. Micah's going to be the next Alpha of the Moonwalker pack sometime in the next couple of years and he takes this seriously. He also takes lecturing me just as seriously, as I'll be his Beta when the time comes. The first female Beta of our pack, or any pack that we know of.

Micah wants us to be prepared for the foreseen bullshit that's bound to come my way. My father is the pack's current Beta and has also been preparing me for years, although it's starting to feel like overkill already.

I jump in his truck, with a big smile on my face to try and hide the fact that I'm struggling to breathe from my mad dash.

"Hey Micah, I was wondering when you were gonna get here, I've been waiting forever," I say cheekily.

The sound of Micah's snorting/laughing fills the truck as he pulls out of the driveway. He then holds out his hand to me and says " Hi I'm Micah, and you are?"

I ignore his outstretched hand and turn my head to look out the window. I can see he woke up and decided to be a comedian today.

Micah snorts again and in his best "innocent" voice says "Obviously you think this is my first time meeting you, so I was doing the polite thing and introducing myself."

I continue ignoring him, still looking out the window, even though internally I'm fighting not to laugh. His sense of humor is one of the things I love the best about him. Not that I'm gonna let him know that at the moment.

He gives my shoulder a shove and when I side-eye him he looks at the console where two coffees are sitting. Oh, that sly bastard. He knows my weakness and uses it every chance he gets.

"Thanks, Micah''I stretch out my hand towards him, " I'm Azariah." I say with as much sarcasm as I can while trying not to laugh.

"I figured you wouldn't get up early enough to make one, again, and I don't particularly enjoy your company unless you've had one. At least one."

He finally gets the reaction he's looking for as I laugh, trying to keep it to a minimum so he doesn't think he's funnier than he is.

The drive to school is only a few minutes so I start drinking my coffee quickly, trying to wake up before class.

This is our second year of medical training, and since it's an advanced class, I need to be alert. We're currently learning how to treat wounds that are too large to heal on their own. Or ones that are caused by silver, which wolves have a real bitch of a time to heal from.

Wolves naturally heal faster than humans, however, we can't heal all wounds. For example, if we get cut with a silver blade, the outer edges of the wound turns black and the skin cannot mend itself back together.

That's where this class comes in. We're learning how to cut away the blackened area and stitch the good tissue back together.

Yes, it's as gross as it sounds, but I secretly find it fascinating and I'm apparently a quick study, meaning I'm good at it.

As future Alpha and Beta, Micah says we need to learn more than just politics and fighting. I'm glad he pushed us into this. This is an area I excel at. Politics, not so much. I'm also pretty damn good at fighting, better than good if I'm being honest, so I guess it's only fair I learn to heal wounds, not just inflict them.

Micah's annoyingly good at all of it. Prick.

We pull up to the school with a few minutes to spare. We get out and start walking into the large tan colored building, it more resembles an old run-down factory than a medical training facility. But I guess that's probably what it used to be. Or so we figured.

Our pack is located close to the Selkirk mountains on the west arm of Kootenay lake in British Columbia. Back in the mid-1800's there was a boom in gold in the area. Once the settlers got what they came for they left as fast as they came, leaving a bunch of little towns all deserted.

Our ancestors, found these hidden gems and took up residence. Eventually separating into 5 packs spread out. We've occupied this area for over 125yrs now, so what this building used to be, we have no clue. We simply fixed up some of the old buildings and turned them into what we needed for the pack.

We made it into class just as the teacher was starting her lesson for the day. Any other student would be getting the stink eye from her, however, being who we are we didn't even get a second glance. Well, not from her anyways.

We did however get some dirty looks from the other students. Whatever. I only ever had two friends throughout high school, so I'm not expecting to make any new ones now.

The dirty looks I'm completely used to, however. Mostly from the female population. Almost every she-wolf at some point shamelessly flirted with my two male best friends, and once it started dawning on them they weren't getting anywhere, the evil eyes were turned in my direction. Along with enough rumors to last me two lifetimes. I'm sure you can guess the nature of these rumors, but I learned a long time ago to master the perfect resting bitch face. One that said, " fuck you and the horse you rode in on".

That's the look I was currently sporting on my pale, make-up-free face.

Micah however, is all smiles. I swear this guy never lets anything bother him. I wonder what it would take to get him all riled up. Besides me being late every day that is.

It only takes half an hour before I'm fighting to stay awake. The bookwork part of this class sucks. I'm more of a hands-on kinda student. That's probably why I excel at the physical training we undergo. Micah notices my eyes drooping and gives me a nudge under the table with his foot.

I give him a look that pleads for him to put me out of my misery. Of course, he does no such thing, he keeps his annoying, stupid-looking smile on his face.

Thankfully we only have a couple more months, then schooling is over for good. I could always take the final year, and get the medical degree that would allow me to work as a surgeon in our pack. But really, what was the point? With the certificate I'll get just from this part, I could work as an assistant in an operating room.

My future job has already been decided though. I was only going to use this skill I was learning if the need arose. My days would be filled working alongside of Micah, running the pack.

I was going to be the Beta of the Moonwalker pack. With or without a medical degree. I'm tempted to remind Micah of this, so he'll let me sleep. Of course, I'd just be wasting my breath, for every argument I have, he has an even better one. I swear it's part of his Alpha training.

I've heard there are people out there who can sleep with their eyes wide open. I wonder if it just comes naturally, or if it's a learned skill. I'm definitely gonna look it up later, cause that's a skill I'd kill to have right about now.