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.

shook my head and looked at

was older, creases on his face, and hair speckled

dressed finely, in a pressed

higher status,

he was a werewolf, but the woman standing behind him told me

age, stood behind his shoulder with her head

gold collar wrapped around her neck and the chain that snaked from the collar to the cuffs on her

wasn't just any

She was a pet.

standing before me was clearly a

kind in the werewolf world, as

don't think I have ever seen a vampire as physically

forties, early fifties

common in

pets were a

Bernard outlawed pets when he took over

has always had a more moderate view of how

from other countries who own pets

guess no one is

is conference

angered by

attention was now fully on the

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,

would do

roughly let go

in my thoughts I hadn't realized he had

in my arm was all that was left of the

as my

never touched us in a kind way,

people

vampire was the only bad experience of

beautiful” I hear whispered close

face to face with Adam.He was nice

up?" I

noon darlin?”

"Lunchtime."

I tend to

creatures would say, it's one of my many flaws

and back into the employees only

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

are paper bags filled with

bags and go to sit at the

rocks

and clear,

not funny,'' I grumble as I

hunk of

too funny.’’ Adam