Stakes Claim On Her

103 years after the war.

The murmur of the lobby, the occasional squeak of freshly polished shoes on linoleum, and the fresh scent of flowers and honey the wall air freshener pumped out greeted me as I walked out of the back room to start my morning shift.

The same eight to eight shift I worked six days a week, but I would never complain; partly in fear of what would happen if I was ever to speak out against a werewolf and partly because I know that I have it better then many in this world.

Many humans in this world know only struggle and hunger and abuse.

The pack territory you lived in almost entirely determined what your life is like.

I hear some packs treat their humans as equals.

What a dream that would be.

Here we fall somewhere in the middle.

Humans have some tights.

They are free to work, educate themselves, and own businesses.

But if you couldn't make a living within the human communities, and they didn't have an open position for pack jobs you were on your own.

Humans aren't seen as equals here and if a wolf asked you to something, as long as it is within pack laws, you had to do it.

If you didn't, you could be beaten.

The punishments for humans are mostly the same for wolves who break the laws, which is sometimes worse for us because the punishments are meant for bodies that can handle a lot more than we can.

Usually, you are given lashes, while tied to a post in front of the pack housing center, where many of the prominent wolves live.

The punishment is extremely humiliating for humans; you are stripped naked before being lashed.

Wolves are much more comfortable with nudity than humans are, so the stripping part is never an issue for them.

I only ever hear stories of what the world was like before werewolves took over.

A place where humans weren't whipped for disobeying silly orders.

The wolves don't allow the history to be taught in schools, probably fearing humans would want to bring the world back to the way it was.

Their thinking is how could we want for something we don't know existed? But they made the mistake of thinking that they could keep the history of our freedom a secret.

Not that it mattered.

Their grip on our lives was too strong.

There would be no rebellion anytime soon, no matter what we know.

A rough arm and sharp shake snapped me from my thoughts.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

A deep voice spoke to me.

my head and

was older, creases on his face, and hair speckled

dressed finely, in a pressed

of higher status, like the majority

a werewolf, but the woman

woman, about my age, stood behind his shoulder with her head bowed towards the ground and her hands clasped in

around her neck and the chain that snaked from the collar to the cuffs on her wrists and ended in the right hand of

just

She was a pet.

that meant the man standing before me was

kind in the werewolf world, as

I have ever seen a vampire

probably in his late forties, early fifties when he was

common in the werewolf

pets were

he took over for

has always had a more moderate view of how

other packs and from other countries who own pets

guess no one is

is conference room

angered by my lack

the man,

and the receptionist will show you to the

and no one would do anything,

let go of

my thoughts I hadn't realized he had kept a hold of

ache in my arm was all that was left of the man after he stormed off, pet in

as my skin usually

us in a kind way, at least

off and continued to greet people and direct them

incident with the vampire was the

beautiful” I hear whispered close

face to face with Adam.He was nice enough, and since friends were hard to come

what's up?" I

noon darlin?” he

"Lunchtime."

seeing as I tend to get lost in my thoughts and forget

one of

through the lobby and back into the employees

down the hallway and into the dimly lit and rather dingy little room

wall are paper bags

bags and go to sit

rocks and

laugh loud and clear, he obviously found my almost accident very

I grumble as I open

of

funny.’’ Adam laughing through