1 PICTURE PERFECT

Pain. Excruciating pain...

It racked through her trembling body, her eyes shut tight, hands clenching cotton sheets. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming out loud. Her hair and clothes stuck to her sweat covered skin as she fought to endure her heat.

Yes, Dianne was in heat.

It was something all female werewolves who hadn't mated with their fated pair experienced once they found their mates. And Dianne had found her mate a year ago, so this wasn't the first time she was going through heat. You would think the pain would reduce the more she went through it, but no. It still left her reeling and wishing she were dead just to escape the torture.

She was orphaned at the age of five, losing both her parents to war. Without any other relatives, she was taken to live in the packhouse by the Alpha. She had lived in the packhouse for fourteen years now, yet Dianne couldn't say she had even one friend there. She was just an orphan child who was living in the packhouse because of the Alpha's charity. She was often bullied and ostracized.

Another onslaught of pain came, pulling all thoughts out of her head, forcing her to only focus on enduring the pain. The pain slowly subsided leaving a collapsed Dianne on her bed. She rested awhile before dragging herself off of the bed and into the bathroom. She filled the bathtub with water, before slowly lowering herself into the warm water. Her strained muscles slowly relaxed, eyes closing of their own accord.

The water was frigid by the time she awakened. Dianne got out of the tub and towelled herself dry. Standing in front of the mirror, she dropped the towel to examine the bruises on her skin. There were purplish bluish marks all over her stomach from when she'd clutched it hard, she sighed.

After she'd had her breakfast, Dianne returned to her room, and proceeded to pack and clean her room. She was going back to college today. Dianne was in her second year of college, she had only come back for the summer vacation, but she normally stayed in the dormitories. The Alpha's daughter also studied there, so they usually went back together. She was one of the few people who were nice to Dianne, unfortunately she didn't live in the packhouse. the Alpha treasured his privacy so he decided not to live in the packhouse, and instead built a house not too far away from the packhouse, where he lived with his family.

The sun's rays stole through the window, highlighting her tawny blonde hair as her eyes scanned the small room to see if she'd forgotten anything. Satisfied with her search, Dianne laid down on her bed to get some shut-eye as she didn't get much sleep last night.

The sound of her ringtone awakened the sleeping Dianne. It was Riley, the Alpha's daughter, she was here to pick her up. Carrying her small suitcase, she went downstairs and was out of the house. She didn't meet anyone on the way. Dianne shrugged, they wouldn't even notice or care if she was gone or not, there was no use informing anyone.

Leaning on a black sedan was Riley, dressed in black denims and a beige windbreaker. Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun, lips drawn up into a smile, her whole being exuding a youthful charm.

"Hey!" Dianne greeted.

Riley helped Dianne to put away her suitcase before they both got in the car. Once in car, Riley dropped something on her lap. Looking down Dianne saw a paper bag, there were sandwiches inside.

"I'm sure you haven't eaten anything so I brought these."

An indescribable warmth filled Dianne, as Riley's words floated past her ears.

"Thank you," Dianne said quietly.

The ride to school was a silent yet comfortable one. Not long after they arrived and went seperate ways, with the promise to meet up after settling in. Dianne trudged her way to her dorm room, it was on the third floor.

It was a typical dorm room with two beds, but the other half of the room was empty, and it had been empty for most of the year. Dianne had had a roommate at first, but her roommate had transfered colleges and she'd never gotten another one after that. She knew it wouldn't last long now that it was the beggining of the school year, she was sure to get a new roommate.

Dianne started to tidy up the room and put everything in order whilst listening to music. When she finished, she washed up and went over to Riley's dorm room.

It was already dark by the time she came back to her dorm. She showered and changed into ash cotton pyjamas. She lay in bed for a long time, unable to fall asleep. Perhaps it was because she had slept in the afternoon. She decided to go for a walk instead.

It was a full moon, Dianne realized as she walked towards the direction of the woods, and it was especially bright today. The moon's beams illuminated the tall silhouette of Dianne, ponytail swaying with the breeze, her whole person brimming with beauty. There was just this innate charm she possessed, unknown to even Dianne herself, which enthralled an unlooker. This charm only discernable today because she was being her natural self, unafraid of being looked at.

It was this exact scene that was witnessed by Tristan, causing him to follow, drawn to the beguiling scene by his instincts as a photographer. Camera in hand, he trailed after her, waiting for the perfect moment to capture the beautiful picture she presented.

She finally stopped and turned. Just as Tristan was about to capture her in a photograph, something shocking happened. The camera fell from Tristan's hands as he stared wide-eyed at the wolf, where the girl had been just moments ago. The noise alerted the wolf, causing it to turn in his direction. He remained frozen, unable to move his limbs, his mind blank and reeling from the realization that he'd just witnessed a girl transform into a wolf. He tried to make sense of what happened, tried to convince himself that his mind was playing tricks on him, but in his heart he knew what he saw was real.

The wolf stared at Tristan for a long while before it just dissappeared. Tristan was in a daze the whole way back, tightly clutching his camera. Strangely enough he wasn't feeling as scared as he was supposed to be. Perhaps he would feel terrified once everything settled in his head, or perhaps he would wake up tomorrow and discover it was all a dream.

Yes, it would all be a dream.

He slept like a log that night and awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. He labelled whatever happened yesterday as a dream and proceeded with his normal daily routine. it was during the early afternoon, when he was scrolling through the pictures he had taken the previous day that he stumbled upon a picture of the wolf girl. He regretted not leaving his camera behind yesterday, because now he could not claim what he saw was a figment of his imagination, because there was hard substantial proof staring at him right in the face.

It was a picture of her right before she transformed. Her aura had completely changed from that of an innocent beauty, to a seductive enchantress, although he could only see half of her face. There was a second blurry picture of her mid-transformation. Tristan felt as though he'd seen her before, she looked very familiar.

His mind was still trying to process this was real, and he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do with this new information.

He sighed.

Meanwhile things weren't going so well on Dianne's end.