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

older, creases on his face,

dressed finely, in a pressed

of higher status, like the majority of wolves

was a werewolf, but the woman standing

with her head bowed towards the ground and

collar wrapped around her neck and

just any

She was a pet.

man standing

the werewolf world, as the supernatural species

think I have ever seen a vampire as

in his late forties, early fifties when

less common in the werewolf

were a

Bernard outlawed pets when he

a more moderate view of how

permits those from other packs and from

guess no

is conference room

spits out, clearly angered by my

was now fully on the

and the receptionist will show you to

visitor could strike me, and no one would do anything, assuming I must have

roughly let go of

I hadn't realized

that was left of the man

bruise, as my skin usually did whenever I

us in a kind way, at least not

to greet people and direct them

vampire was the

hear whispered close to my

person who spoke the words and come face to face with Adam.He was nice enough, and

up?"

darlin?” he

"Lunchtime."

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

would say, it's one of

follow Adam through the lobby and back into

rather dingy little room the human

wall are paper bags

go to sit at

chair rocks and almost

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

not funny,'' I grumble as I open

of bread

Adam laughing through