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.

head and looked

creases on his face,

pressed navy suit and

he was clearly of higher status, like the majority of wolves and creatures that

he was a werewolf, but the woman

with her head bowed towards the ground

neck and the chain that snaked from the collar to the cuffs on

wasn't just any

She was a pet.

the man standing before me was clearly

kind in the werewolf world, as the supernatural species tend to stay within their respective

I have ever seen a vampire as physically

his late forties, early fifties when

were much less common

were a

outlawed pets when he took over

more moderate view of how humans should

and from other countries who own pets to bring them

guess no one is

is conference

angered by my lack of

was now fully on the man, not wanting to

third floor, take the elevators to the left of the lobby, and the receptionist will show you to the room,’’ I spoke as softly and as kindly as I could, as

and no one would do anything, assuming I must have

man roughly let go of my

so caught up in my thoughts I hadn't

left of the man after he stormed

arm was clearly going to bruise, as my skin usually did whenever I had

in a kind way,

it off and continued to greet people

the vampire was the only bad experience of

hear whispered

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

up?"

noon darlin?” he

"Lunchtime."

usually comes and gets me for lunch, seeing as I tend to get

it's one of my many flaws as

through the lobby and back into the employees only

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

paper bags filled with our

bags and go

chair rocks

laugh loud and clear,

grumble

of

too funny.’’ Adam