Ichika was standing in the middle of a forest on a bright sunny day. There was a soft breeze of warm air weaving between the trees, brightly colored leaves. A few crisp leaves of red and orange hue fell to ground softly. It was autumn, but just barely. There was still some green clinging to the surrounding flora and the air was a bit damp with lingering summer humidity. He took in the serine scene around him. It seemed comforting, but at the same time unnervingly familiar. He tried to remember when he had been here before a voice broke his thoughts.

Someone was singing.

He walked towards the voice, hoping to see its owner. After maybe five minutes of walking he came across a boulder with a woman in a white dress sitting atop it. Her back was facing him, so he couldn't tell who she was. He looked at the ominaeshi flower crown resting on brown waves that turned blonde at the tips.

'Oh no.' Ichika thought. He tried to run but his legs felt as if they were lead bolted down by steel. And the singing stopped.

"Why didn't you save me?" the woman asked in unnaturally calm voice, back still facing him.

Ichika wanted to respond but couldn't, It was as if someone had shoved a stone down his throat to prevent him from uttering a single syllable.

"Why didn't you save me?" She repeated her voice now distorted and angry. The vibrant forest surrounding them shed it's color as if it were old cracked paint, leaving only cold lifeless white forms.

He wanted to yell, to scream out that he had tried. But he couldn't even open his mouth. His teeth felt as if they had melded together and his throat was still unable to make a sound no matter how hard he tried.

"I thought you loved me…" The woman said, voice even more distorted and enraged. Her golden flower crown shriveled and died on her head. Blackness started creeping into the edges of his vision, clawing its way onto white as if it were alive. No. It was alive. Barely a second later the woman was in front of him, leaning over the boulder her face only inches from his.

Her eyes were missing but the area around them was red and puffy from crying. Her previously pristine white dress was now ripped and dirty. A large gash mared her neck accompanied by another on her stomach. Dried blood caked her hands, neck and dress. Her hair was a gnarled mess with a few leaves jutting out from one side.

He could feel the blackness latching onto him. Everywhere it touched felt as if he had been stabbed by hundreds of tiny barbed needles again and again, injecting liquid fire each time. It didn't take long for it to reach his head but the pain was so excruciating that it didn't matter.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE ME?!"

Lightning streaked the sky, followed by thunder that boomed so loud it sounded like it wanted to shake the earth. Though it may not have succeeded in shaking the earth, it did succeed in waking a certain Frenchwoman. And usually she would have thought nothing of it and just gone back to sleep, but the noises coming from the bed beside her's stopped her.

The man that she almost always saw to be so happy and calm, with a smile plastered on his face at all times, was now practically screaming and violently throwing himself side to side. It looked like he was being attacked in his sleep. Charlotte tried to wake him up by nearly any means possible, but nothing she did seemed to help. Eventually she just embraced him, pressing against him as much as she could and repeating the phrase "It's okay, Ichika. It's okay…"

He quickly started to relax, and after a while he stopped making noises and hs panicked movements were reduced to twitches. She didn't know what happened but at least it had died down a bit. After a few minutes she felt his arms lightly embrace her. It was odd to think that he did this in his sleep, but given all that had happened tonight, she brushed it off. In this position she couldn't really get off of him without waking him, and she doubted he had gotten much rest, so she decided to fall asleep in his arms.

Needless to say Ichika was surprised to find Charlotte in his arms when he woke up. But then he remembered his nightmare and figured she had tried to wake him up. 'Well it's time for us to get up anyway.' He shook her gently.

"Hey Charl...Charl...you need to get up…" He said softly. Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of her crush's voice.

"Hrm?"

'That was adorable….but we still need to get up.' "You need to get up." Ichika said, slowly sitting up. Charlotte pouted a little, but got off of him so he could at least get off the bed.

Sunlight haloed his shirtless body as he stretched, giving quite a view for Charlotte before she had to get out of bed. After all, no one wanted to be late when Chifuyu was teaching. Once they finished their morning routines they hurried to class.

The rest of the day went on as usual. When lunch came Ichika got a text from Houki, asking him to meet her and Charlotte at the place the Hellhounds attacked them. He thought it was odd how she didn't just ask him person, until he felt Cecilia latch onto him.

Ah, yes. His other friends. If they had heard her ask, they would have insisted that they come along as well. They didn't want to be one-upped. He was aware of how all of them had a crush on him, though he had no idea why.

He was flattered, but to be honest he really wasn't ready for a relationship at the moment. And with how high their tensions were with each other when it came to him, he was sure that even if he was ready for a relationship and chose one of them, he'd lose at least one of them forever while the others would strongly dislike him for a while. He didn't want that. He trusted and cared for them. He wanted to see them happy and have them be apart of his life, not upset and detached from him. He never had many friends so each one he made was precious to him.

He shook those thoughts out of his head and told Cecelia that he had other things to attend to and couldn't join her or any of his friends for lunch. As he made his way to his friend's meeting place he opted to take the long way around, in case someone was following him. Once he was there they all sat in a circle, using the bushes as cover from any unwanted guests, and ate as Houki and Charlotte asked him questions.

"Ask away." Ichika said before eating a piece of pork.

"Okay," Houki said, "When did you know?"

"Know about what?"

"That you were…" It still felt weird to say. She had been told all her life that werewolves and other monster didn't exist, and now there was one sitting in front of her. And to top it off, he was her childhood friend and crush too.

"A werewolf?" He said. She nodded. "Let's see. I think I was about two or three at the time. It's actually one of my first memories."

"Really?"

"Well it's hard to forget the first time you turn. Your body isn't used to that kind of transformation yet and so the process is extremely painful and can take somewhere between ten to fifteen minutes before it's done. Once you finally do fully turn, the heightened senses are often overwhelming." He replied.

"Then why didn't you just turn when you were older?" Charlotte asked.

"Well first off, my parents abandoned me and my sister before I was even two, so I didn't even know I was a werewolf until then. Secondly I didn't really have a choice. Baby werewolves don't turn until they smell a certain pheromone that only monsters have, but don't smell any human nearby. It's a sort of defense mechanism. But as I said the process is very painful and can take a while when you first start doing it, so in an effort to make the body used to it, our bodies often turn on their own the first time we are exposed to that kind of environment."

"So do you have a pack?"

"Depends on what you mean by a pack. Up until a few years ago there was a large kingdom of sorts and a couple tribes. They feuded with each other from years of misunderstandings. Once someone realized this they helped clear up those misunderstandings and the tribes became part of the kingdom with the highest members of each tribe become part of the royal council. And though there is still some tension, things have for the most part smoothed out."

"Really? What was his name?" Charlotte asked.

"It was...no not that...hrmm...darn I just forgot it. Sorry."

"So do werewolves have ranks like normal wolves?" Houki asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You know. Omegas, betas, alphas…"

"Oh. Actually yes we do. But there aren't many alphas, even less good ones, so our race is made up mainly of betas and omegas. Which is probably for the best. If you keep t many alphas in a room, things can go south real fast."

"What do you mean?" Houki asked.

"Well while maybe two or three can work well with each other, if you were to put ten in a room and told them to work together, they would start competing for dominance. In all honesty we're not all that different from you guys in that way."

"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked. Humans weren't divided into alphas and betas and such...right?

"You've never heard of the term 'alpha male' before have you?" He stated more than asked. She nodded. "Alpha males for your kind are the guys that tend, and/or do whatever they can, to become the leader in groups from anything to friend circles to companies. They often tend to groom themselves regularly and try to make themselves appear more than presentable at all times."

"Oh. So then what are you?"

"What?"

"What rank are you?" Charlotte reiterated.

"That matters as little as my breed."

"Wait. If werewolves have normal wolf traits, then do you have a 'heat'?" Houki asked. A light blush dusted Ichika's cheeks at the question. He looked away before awkwardly responding.

"...yes…" He muttered quietly. But it was still loud enough for the girls to hear. At least that's what their red cheeks told him.

"Erm...so is it bad to have sex outside of that time?"

"No. We can have sex whenever we want, heat just makes it better or worse depending on your situation."

"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked.

"Well during heat, we become extremely sensitive to touch To the point wearing even wearing clothes feels like torture. That and our bodies become extremely prepared for sex of any kind. Guys get erections so hard that it makes rocks seem soft, which by the way, is extremely painful. And girls get so wet that they can't even walk straight. So although that can make sex great, or so I've been told, it can also turn itself into a week of pure hell if you don't have a partner during heat."

"But couldn't you just rub one out?" Houki asked somewhat sheepishly

"Yeah, but that doesn't really help. We get relief for a few hours, but then it all rushes back ten fold later."

"Ooh…" The girls responded.

"So then, when is your heat?" Charlotte asked, only for Ichika to blush again but with bright red replacing light pink.

"Um… in about two weeks."

And just then the lunch bell rang.