“Alaric… Who did this to you?”

I held the bloodied ward of tissue over my nose, feeling pain slowly pulse behind my eyes.

I stayed silent.

I was at the principal’s office for the umpteenth time after being mobbed by a band of boys in the school bathroom.

It was a weekly occurrence for a freak like me: the skinniest, scruffiest-looking kid in the school with zero social skills and zero friends who always single-handedly beat everyone in D.I.E.

And that really bothered a lot of people, namely the bully that was Wes Grimsbane.

If Wes found out I had narked on him, then I knew he would never return the Dark Wolf card that the boys had stolen off me earlier in the day.

“Alaric, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

The silence stretched on uncomfortably, but I kept my mouth shut.

The principal sighed, picked up her pen and crossed something off on her notepad in front of her.

“Alright. I’m going to call your parents. You’re dismissed.”

I stood up, lifting the tissue off my nose. It had stopped bleeding.