Stakes Claim On Her

Chapter 1: Working Woman 

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.

I shook my head and looked at the man.

He was older, creases on his face, and hair speckled gray.

He was dressed finely, in a pressed navy suit and a tie that matches.

Given the power that radiated off him, he was clearly of higher status, like the majority of wolves and creatures that came through here.

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

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

She might have been simply mistaken as someone who was just shier then average, if it wasn't for the shiny gold collar wrapped around her neck and the chain that snaked from the collar to the cuffs on her wrists and ended in the right hand of the man standing before me.

She wasn't just any woman.

She was a pet.

And that meant the man standing before me was clearly a vampire.

We don't see many of his kind in the werewolf world, as the supernatural species tend to stay within their respective territories.

And I don't think I have ever seen a vampire as physically old as he is.

He was probably in his late forties, early fifties when he was turned.

Pets were much less common in the werewolf world.

Most wolves felt pets were a step too far.

Alpha Bernard outlawed pets when he took over for his father.

He has always had a more moderate view of how humans should be treated.

However, Alpha Bernard permits those from other packs and from other countries who own pets to bring them here.

I guess no one is perfect.

"Where is conference room four?"

The vampire spits out, clearly angered by my lack of focus.

My attention was now fully on the man, not wanting to upset him further.

"All conference rooms are located on the 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 I always did.

At any moment a visitor could strike me, and no one would do anything, assuming I must have done something to deserve it.

The man roughly let go of my arm.

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

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

My arm was clearly going to bruise, as my skin usually did whenever I had contact with creatures.

They never touched us in a kind way, at least not here.

I brushed it off and continued to greet people and direct them wherever they needed to go.

Fortunately, the incident with the vampire was the only bad experience of the morning.

"Hey beautiful” I hear whispered close to my ear.

I turn around to face the person who spoke the words and come face to face with Adam.He was nice enough, and since friends were hard to come by I brushed off his non-stop flirting.

"Hey, what's up?" I ask.

"It's noon darlin?” he smiles.

"Lunchtime."

Adam usually comes and gets me for lunch, seeing as I tend to get lost in my thoughts and forget the time.

As the creatures would say, it's one of my many flaws as a human.

I follow Adam through the lobby and back into the employees only area.

We walk down the hallway and into the dimly lit and rather dingy little room the human employees were given to eat in.

Along the back wall are paper bags filled with our lunches.

We grab our bags and go to sit at the rounded table.

When I sit down my chair rocks and almost knocks me only the floor.

I can hear Adams laugh loud and clear, he obviously found my almost accident very amusing.

"That was so not funny,'' I grumble as I open my lunch up.

The usual hunk of bread and apple.

"It was too funny.’’ Adam laughing through his words.

"Well, clearly you and I have two different views of what is funny,’’ I mumble, but can't help the chuckle in my voice as I try to keep a small smile of my lips.

Adam reaches out and brushes his hand along the back of mine.

"Don't be mad Gabrielle, you're too beautiful for that."

And there goes the classic Adam flirting.

I give him a small smile and tear off a hunk of bread with my teeth.

My back hit my bed the second I got back to my room.

A small place no bigger then a prison cell, but that's okay.

At least it's my own.

I roll over to face the low lying dresser along the wall.

I can see myself in the mirror on my dresser.

My face is distorted by the crack in it.

I found the mirror in the dumpster behind the pack building, but given the lack of furniture or decorations in my room, I wasn't being picky.

Despite the distortion, I can clearly see the exhaustion in my face.

My hair is falling out of the bun I put it in this morning, and my uniform is beginning to wrinkle.

I stand up and make my way over to my dresser, ready to change into something more comfortable.

I pull out a pair of sweatpants and a plain black tee shirt a size too big.

Since all the clothes we have were provided for us, they don't take much care into making sure anything fits.

In fact, the only clothes that actually fit me as they should is my uniform.

We might just be weak dumb humans, but the wolves can't have us looking sloppy.

I think.I would never dare say something like that out loud.

With all the supernatural hearing in this place, you never know who is listening.

But they can't stop me from thinking about it.

I wiggle my skirt off my hips and unbutton my blouse.

After pulling on what will ultimately be my pajamas for the night, I pull back the blanket of my bed and slide it, the mattress creaking as I do so. Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

I close my eyes and try to fall asleep.

But as I lay in bed.

I find that for whatever reason my mind won't shut off.

This isn't something I usually have a problem with.

My life the last few years has been pretty structured.

I almost always know what my day will look like, given the fact that things don't tend to change around here.

But I can't shake the feeling that things are about to be very, very different.