One by one, they slapped me across the face, hard enough to leave my cheeks burning and bruised. The sting of their cruelty blurred my vision. When they finally grew bored, they shoved me into a corner, and I fell to the floor, completely helpless.

"Toodles," One of them said with a mocking wave as they sauntered out, leaving me behind like I was nothing.

I'm tough.

I had to be.

But sometimes, like now, it is too much. Tears welled in my eyes. No one deserves this. No one should be treated like this.

I slowly got up, the pain throbbing in my cheeks as I steadied myself. With my uniform drenched, I had no other choice but to head back to my apartment to change and dry off. Thanks to them, I missed my first class—on the very first day of school.

I had hoped their bullying was over for today. But as I neared my apartment, I realized they're not done yet. One of them had followed me.

"Monster! Stop!" A voice called out from behind. I turned, my heart sinking as I recognized her—my main bully. The one who masterminded everything, the one who influenced the others to do the dirty work too. And the worst part? She wasn't just any other student.

She is Krista Huston, and she is my half-sister.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral, even though I could already see the fury burning in her eyes.

Krista didn't waste a second. "I told you last year not to come back to Calle University! I told you to transfer somewhere else—anywhere but here! And yet here you are, ruining my first day! Why are you even still enrolled at this university, Gaile?!"

"Why not?" I replied, keeping my voice steady. "They're giving me a full scholarship. I don't see any reason to transfer—"

"Right," She interrupted, her voice rising. "And you chose to stay so you could steal every achievement and every ounce of attention from me!"

I couldn't help but shake my head, a bitter smile tugging at my lips. The way she saw things this way was so funny to me. This confrontation only confirmed what I'd suspected all along; Krista was academically threatened by me. I couldn't blame her, though.

We were in the same program, but the differences between us were huge. My name regularly appeared on the list of top achievers, while she struggled just to pass her exams. I was in Class A, leading seminars and hosting university programs. She, on the other hand, was stuck in Class D, barely able to recite without stumbling. And as much as I hated to brag about it, I knew I looked better too. All of this—the grades, the recognition, even my appearance—fed her jealousy, pushing her to dedicate so much time and energy just to make my life miserable.

"Rather than wasting your time bullying me, I'd advise you to study, Krista," I said, turning my back on her, hoping to end the confrontation.

But Krista, being Krista, wouldn't let it go. In a flash, she grabbed the collar of my uniform and yanked me down with such force that I hit the ground, face-first. Before I could react, she pressed my head against the rough pavement, dragging my skin painfully against the surface.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?!" She screamed, her voice shaking with rage. "I hate you, Gaile! I'll do everything in my power to make you suffer until you leave this university for good!" Her words were filled with rage, as if I had committed some unforgivable crime against her. But I knew the truth. I hadn't done anything to her. Krista's hatred came from her frustration—her inability to shine while my existence, in her eyes, cast a shadow over hers.

For what felt like an eternity, she scraped my face against the pavement. Afterwards, she let me go, delivering a final, brutal kick to my thigh.

As I lay there, catching my breath, her voice cut through the pain. "I'll tell everyone your dirty secret," She spat, her eyes glinting with malice. "I'll make sure no one ever comes near you again." With that, she turned and walked away, leaving me battered and alone. The weight of her threat hung in the air, even as her footsteps faded.

I watched her storm away as I touched my aching face, feeling the rough scrape of the pavement embedded in my skin and the warm trickle of blood running down. Another day, another set of bruises. But this time, it wasn't the physical pain that alarmed me. It was her threat. Krista could actually expose my secret to everyone.

But this wasn't just any secret. It was the kind of secret that could send people running in terror. The kind of secret that could turn my life upside down.

I'm not like everyone else.

My secret is that I carry werewolf blood in my veins. Inside me, there's a wolf, and with every full moon, I can shift into it. Yes, Krista is my sister by blood, but for reasons unknown, her wolf genes disappeared.

I know I don't belong in the human world. I'm not supposed to be here. As a wolf, I should be living among a pack—among others like me. But destiny had a different plan for me, one that led me to this life.

According to my late mother, it all started a week after I was born. Our pack was at war, and things had been out of control. It had become a massacre, targeting the most vulnerable; the babies and the elderly. Desperate to protect me, my mother searched for the portal that connected our world to the human realm. When she found it, she didn't hesitate. She crossed over, carrying me with her, despite knowing the risk. If we cross the portal, we could lose our wolves.

And for her, it did. She lost her wolf when she got sexually abused. That horror left her pregnant with Krista, my half-sister. I never knew the full details of what happened to them afterward, but somehow, Krista ended up living with her father.

My mom used to tell me how she'd tried so hard to find a way back to our pack after the pack war ended. But the portal had vanished, and despite her desperate search, she could never find it again. With no other choice, she raised me here, in the human world, determined to give me a normal life. Unfortunately, when I was ten, she passed away, leaving me alone. Before she died, she managed to place me in a foster home, but tragically, the family that adopted me was Krista's. However, her step-mother never saw me as one of her children. To her, I was just a maid.

That's when I met Krista. At first, neither of us knew we were half-sisters. She even treated me kindly back then, and I foolishly trusted her enough to reveal my secret—that I was a werewolf. But everything changed once she found out we were related. It was like a switch flipped. She started seeing me as a threat, convinced that I was there to take everything that was meant for her.

That's when the bullying began.

By the time I turned fifteen, I couldn't take it anymore. I left to live on my own, applying for scholarships and finding a job to afford a small apartment.

Up until this day, Krista was the only one who knew my secret, and ever since, I've lived in fear that she'd use it against me.

And now, it seems like she's finally decided to make good on her threat…

The next morning, I woke up to a flood of notifications on my phone. My stomach twisted as I opened the university's social media page. There, on full display, was an anonymous post warning everyone to be cautious around me.

The post claimed I was a dangerous creature—a werewolf—capable of attacking and killing them at any moment.