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.

and looked

his face, and hair

dressed finely, in a pressed navy suit

was clearly of higher status, like the majority of

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

age, stood behind his shoulder with her

for the shiny gold collar wrapped around her neck and the chain that snaked

just any

She was a pet.

meant the man standing

world, as the supernatural

seen a vampire as physically old as

in his late forties, early fifties

much less common in the

felt pets were a step too

Bernard outlawed pets when he took over

has always had a more moderate view of how humans

Alpha Bernard permits those from other packs and from

guess no one is

conference room

spits out, clearly angered by

was now fully on the

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 I always

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

roughly let go of

had been so caught up in my thoughts I hadn't realized he had kept a hold of

was left

bruise, as my skin usually

never touched us in a kind

it off and continued to greet people and

with the vampire was the only bad

beautiful” I hear whispered close to

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

up?"

darlin?”

"Lunchtime."

comes and gets me for lunch, seeing as I tend to get lost in my

would say, it's one

and

rather dingy little room the human employees

wall are paper bags filled with our

and go to sit at the rounded

my chair rocks and

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

funny,'' I grumble as I

hunk of bread

Adam laughing