Yes, another update. ^_^ This story is just stuck in my head and I want to get it out. …Though I don't think you guys really mind too much, do you? Haha. Oh, yeah, and the guys' phasing is in a bit of a different order. Embry's still first, but Jake's not right after him. Well, anyway, enjoy! Oh, yeah. And review!

The Flower Called Azalea

4. Another One?

Azalea POV

"Embry?" I cautiously approached the oversized dog and he watched me warily. "Em?" I tried again. He just curled farther into himself and tried to back up against his bedroom wall.

I sighed. This was just not working. My brother was the one that turned into a giant mutt and he's afraid of me? Or was he just afraid of hurting me? …That seemed plausible enough. He definitely looked like he could kill me with one… paw.

"Em?" I coaxed. "Bro?" I offered, and his large eyes seemed to soften more and more the longer he looked at me. He finally stood up and slowly walked toward me. Geez, he was huge! When he stood at his full height, the tips of his ears almost grazed the ceiling. He noticed my eyes widen and ducked his head so he was eye level with me.

Embry made a whimpering noise and nuzzled his face against me. I took that as a sign and raised my arm to pet him. He hummed in contentment as I petted his head. After a while of that, I finally gave in to my weakness. He knew all about what happened with Jacob, and somehow, even as a dog, he could comfort me. I wrapped my arms around his furry neck and nestled my face there and began to cry.

He just stood there to let me get it all out, like the good brother he was. With his high body temperature, fur, and comforting, my tears dried up within fifteen minutes. I pulled away and he stared at me, pain and sympathy clear in his eyes. He was wishing he could do something to help me, but really, nothing could be done. This was my own mess, and the easiest way to fix it would be to do what Jacob wanted me to do.

To stay away from him.

Of course that would be extremely difficult for me, but if he was always with Bella, then I'm sure I could manage to stay away.

Embry whimpered at me again, and though I couldn't understand what he said, I understood what he meant. So I went to my room, laid down in my bed, and tried my best to fall asleep. It surprisingly didn't take long. I finally succumbed after about five minutes. I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Embry POV

I was going to kill him. I was going to fucking kill him. I knew he loved my sister. He never actually said it out loud, but I could see it in the way he looked at her. I finally got her to build up the courage to tell him, and what does he do? He fucking brings home Bella fucking Swan.

It all made perfect sense now. She was in love-wait, no. Obsessed with a leech, and when he left, she went looking for the next best thing. As far as I was concerned, she was a stupid, motherfucking siren. She found a happy-go-lucky guy with a great life, latched onto him and made him hurt his best friend. My sister.

Her obsession with that bloodsucker would cause her to leave Jacob as soon as any one of them came back and then that would leave my best friend just as broken as my sister because, like her, he is too outgoing, and too trustworthy, and falls too easily. Bella would break Jake like Jake broke Azalea.

Gah! And here I was-in training to learn to control my temper. It wasn't working. The more I thought about Jake, the angrier I became. I phased in a flash, clothes ripping, and patches of denim flying everywhere on the forest floor.

So much for your training, Sam, I thought.

Embry, just think of something happy, he tried.

What is there to be happy about? My sister is heartbroken by her supposed best friend who's in love with a leech-lover. And on top of that, I now turn into an overgrown mutt! I retaliated. I'm going to kill Jake.

Best friend or not, I was going to kill him.

Azalea POV

The next day, I surprisingly woke up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I guess it was just one of those mornings. However, after I ate my breakfast, I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was going to happen. Soon. Though, I couldn't tell if it would be good or bad.

Embry came walking through the front door wearing only a pair of cut-off jean shorts. His new tattoo on his right shoulder stood out against his skin. I glanced at him and then returned my gaze to the television. I didn't even know what was on. It wasn't like I could actually pay attention.

"Training with Sam?" I asked conversationally.

He sighed. "Yup. Man. This wolf stuff is tiring," he said on his way to the kitchen. He opened up a few cupboards and then the fridge and then huffed. "Don't we have any food around here?"

I looked at him from my spot on the couch. "Mom went grocery shopping. She should be back in a couple hours."

"Good," he exhaled and plopped down right next to me on the couch. "What're we watching?"

I shrugged. "Beats me."

"…Is this the Spanish channel?" he asked, trying to hold in a chuckle.

I actually tuned in enough to listen to what the characters on the show were saying and then nodded. "Yup. Sounds like it."

"I didn't know you could speak Spanish."

"I can't."

"Then why are you watching this?"

"I don't know."

He stared at me.

"What?" I asked, getting fidgety.

He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut before pulling me into a strong-very warm-embrace. "I'm going to kill him. I swear, I'm going to kill him," he kept muttering.

"No! Just… leave him alone. That's what he wants. We'll just leave him to be with the 'love of his life'," I stated. "Let's go hang out with Quil," I suggested hopefully.

Embry sighed and then shrugged. "Okay."

"I'm sorry, but Quil's not feeling very well right now, Azalea. I'll have him call you when he's better," Old Quil tried telling me. Yeah, right. It was obvious in his eyes that he was lying and that he felt bad about it.

"Embry?" I called, and he stepped out from the side of the house to stand in front of Old Quil with me. Once Old Quil caught sight of my brother-shirtless with his new muscles, tattoo, and cropped hair-he sighed.

"Alright, go ahead," he said, resigned.

"Thank you," Embry and I said together and then walked into the house straight into Quil's room.

He was in the same condition that Embry was after he phased back. Sweating, laying on his bed with and ice pack on his forehead. And he was completely awake. He watched us as we walked into his room and as we stopped right next to his bed.

"You, too?" he rasped to Embry and Embry nodded.

Quil winced as he tried to move on his bed to get to a position where he could see us better. "Agh. Man, does the pain ever go away?"

Embry sighed and kneeled next to the bed. "Yeah. It's going to be a little while, but it will definitely go away."

"Good," Quil smiled and then winced again as he tried to move again. He finally looked at me and dread filled his eyes. "Don't tell me you phased, too."

"No," I said. "I just saw Embry as a wolf the first time he phased. It was weird. I heard a ripping sound coming from his room and I ran over there. When I got there, there was a giant wolf laying on the floor."

"So you're one of the lucky ones. You know, but you're not one of us," he told me.

"…Yet," I said, my true fear started coming through. "With my brother and now you phasing, I'm scared that I might, too."

"Relax, Z," Embry came in. "I was worried about it, too, so I asked Sam and he said that girls don't phase. It's always only been guys."

I let out a breath of air I didn't even realize I'd been holding. "Okay, good. Thanks, Em," I smiled and hugged my brother. "You're always looking out for me."

He grinned. "Well, you are my baby sister. I can't let anything happen to you."

I smacked his bare chest. "You're older by two minutes! I hardly think that gives you a right to call me your baby sister!"

He shrugged. "I'm still older than you, so that gives me the right."

Whatever, I thought. There was no winning this argument with Embry.

"Come on, man," Embry said to Quil. "We get to go train, now, and you get to meet the rest of the pack!"

"Ugh," Quil groaned. "Fine." And with that, he dragged himself out of bed to follow Embry.

Quil looked at me. "Z, you look sad. What's wrong?"

Embry didn't give me a chance to answer. "Jake's a fucking prick, that's what."

"What?" Quil asked, confused.

"He broke her heart. You know that girl he's been talking about? The one he's been in love with for the past ten years?"

"Yeah…" Quil said.

"And how we were always so sure it was Azalea?"

"Yeah…"

Embry shook his head. "Bella Swan."

"What?" Quil roared.

"She went over to his house yesterday. She was going to tell him how she felt, finally, and he had Bella over, and he told her that she was the girl he was talking about." Embry started to shake. Gee, thanks so much, Em, for just blabbing about my personal problems.

Quil began to quake in anger as well and growled, "I'm going to kill him."

"No. We'll both kill him," Embry snarled.

Em then turned to me, trying to control his anger. "Z, why don't you go home? I'll be there as soon as I can."

I nodded solemnly. "Alright. See you when you're done training. Again," I muttered and headed back home.

My mom was gone, of course, so I decided to make some popcorn and put in a good action movie. I was feeling in the mood for Iron Man, so I popped that in and lost myself in the world of James Stark.

A loud knocking on the door woke me up. When I had fallen asleep, I didn't know, but it was sometime during the movie, seeing as the end credits were rolling now.

I picked myself up from the couch and headed over to the front door where the knocking was not letting up. As soon as I opened the door, I slammed it shut again.

"Z, come on! Please?" Jake begged.

I opened the door and stood in the way so he couldn't get past me. "What do you want?"

"I thought we could hang out today," he tried, a somewhat hopeful look appearing on his face. Something in his eyes told me that he was put up to asking me.

"Why? Aren't you hanging out with Bella?" I asked coldly.

"Well… yeah. But she asked me to ask you if you wanted to hang out with us, too." He seemed to replay what he said in his mind and was about to interject, but I didn't give him the chance.

"She asked you to ask me? She had to ask you to ask me? God! Jake! What ha-you know what? Forget it. No. I don't want to 'hang out' with you and Bella," I sneered her name. "It's obvious you don't want me to, anyway, so just go. Have fun with her. 'Cause I won't be here the next time you come around because she asked or told you to."

"Why are you so mad at me?" he asked.

"Why am I mad? I'm mad because the Jake I knew would come over and wake me up at six in the fucking morning just to see if I would slap him. Then he would pull me out of bed, force me to eat, and drag me to his garage to work on the Rabbit, just to spend some time with me. It's been two fucking days and you're already so completely and totally different. And I want nothing to do with this Jake." I was about to close the door again, but his hand stopped it.

"Well it's not like you'll never see me around here. Embry's still my bro," he smirked.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, really? Is he? When was the last time you hung out with him, huh? He's mad at you, too. And so is Quil. So all you have now is Bella. Though I doubt you really mind that.." I muttered.

He looked at me. "You're lying. There is no way Embry and Quil are mad at me."

"See for yourself. They're at the beach."

"Fine, I will," he said and left.

This was ridiculous. He really had to be asked to see if I wanted to hang out? This was not the Jake I knew. Not the one I loved. Bella changed him, whether he knew it or not. And he was always one person that I could count on to be a rock in my life. Always there. Never changing.

I guess not.

I went outside to my backyard and as soon as I set foot on the ground, I didn't feel like myself. I looked around and then down.

No. This could not be happening to me. Not me.

Jake POV

Azalea couldn't have been more wrong. I hadn't changed. Just because I had other friends than her, she got jealous. It's not like we were a couple or anything. We were just best friends. Nothing more. Though, now, it was probably less.

I understood that I let some things slip that I probably shouldn't have said, but I was still the same person. I was just a person who was able to spend more time with Bella than I used to be able to. And I loved that. I could see that I made her start to feel better, just in the two days we'd actually been hanging out. And I knew that, in time, she would finally see that I'd be a great choice for her. I would never hurt her.

I'd always said the same thing about Azalea. And yet… I had hurt her. No! Stop thinking about that! She's fine! She's angry, but she's fine. You're better off without her, I tried to tell myself on my way back home. How can I be better off without her when we've been best friends since birth?

I had to get home to send Bella home so I could talk to Embry and Quil without leaving her at my house all alone.

I got back to the garage and Bella looked up at me expectantly.

"She didn't come?" she asked.

"No. She's mad at me for some reason," I replied. "But she'll get over it. She always does."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Look, I'm really sorry about this, but I need to talk to Quil and Embry, so it would probably be a good idea for you to go home…" I said apologetically.

Her eyes widened. "Why? I could just stay here while you talk to them." She seemed to really want to stay.

"You could, but I don't know how long it'll take. I think this is a pretty serious talk that we need to have…. I mean, you can stay if you really want to, but you'd most likely get bored."

"I'd be more bored at my own house, and at least here, I'll know you're coming back," she said.

"Bells," I sighed. "I will always come back to you. You don't have to worry about that with me." I finished speaking and enveloped her in a tight hug. "I'll always be here."

She hugged me back and after a few more seconds, I pulled away, not really wanting to. "So are you going to stay here, then?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I feel better when I'm here."

"Okay," I said. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Please let me know what you think! Reviews are always welcome! ^_^ Until next time!