Dangerous Territory

Thirteen

As expected, the whole room was full of shifters.

She had been given the day off from the penitentiary however instead of being able to relax, she had been at the university all day, catching up on the last of the work. After being in the library for too many hours to be healthy, and going to class in between, she was almost tempted to go straight back to the house when late morning rolled into mid-afternoon.

The only thing that stopped her from racing back as fast as she could, was the fact that she remembered about the shifter club that was supposed to be on. She had missed the Wednesday session, much to her annoyance, and she still was incredibly curious about what they spoke about during the meetings.

Not wanting to seem too keen, she waited an extra five minutes before rolling up to the club, pushing open the door to find around ten shifters silently sitting in a circle. They squinted up when she entered, looking her over with caution but relaxing when they noticed her dynamic and pulled out a spare chair for her so that she could join.

A large, heavily tattooed male with a spiked leather jacket and worn jeans, who introduced himself as Mitchel, directed the opening introduction to her. She quickly gathered that she was the only new addition to the group.

She discreetly looked over the members as the club meeting began, noticing that they were an odd bunch of people, not fitting into one single mould or clique. While Mitchel looked like he would be right at home in a biker gang, next to him sat a girl with platinum hair and bright pink lipstick, and next to her a lanky male with a top hat and bow tie, and next to him a dark skinned girl with long, purple braids. The only thing that tied them together was their common goal.

"We're rallying for lupine justice."

"Why is your group so small?" Mala asked when the spotlight turned to her, "I've seen lots of shifters around here."

Mitchel snorted, "the school doesn't agree with our group existing. I give it another week before they notice we put the flyer back up, and they remove it."

"Why are you here?" The girl with the purple braids asked.

Mala gave a small smile. "I used to be a police officer but now I'm going into criminal journalism." She replied, common sense telling her that she couldn't tell the group she was working at Irongate, not to mention the contract she signed, "recently, I've become interested in researching about unfair treatment shifters often face with the law."

The group broke out in murmurs.

"It's an epidemic." Someone said, loudly.

Mala spoke up again, "shifters are often put in jail for way too long compared to humans. How do we stop that sort of thing from happening?"

"You can only change it from a place of influence." Pink lipstick said. "That's why we need to be the police and the governors and the presidents rather than those corrupt human men."

Mitchel spoke up his agreement. "Knowledge is our greatest strength and our greatest enemy, guys. Do your research because fighting with your fists will only get you put in jail with the rest of them."

"Exactly." Purple braids said, slamming a hand on her knee. "Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of dirt on the right person to get the upper hand."

"Blackmail?" Mala questioned, not at all worried by the direction of the conversation.

Purple braids shrugged. "Hey, you police should know about it better than anyone."

---

She stalled the car no less than twenty times before her father called it a day and dropped her back at Tanya's apartment. He seemed to be in a terrible mood for most of the lesson anyway, so she wasn't complaining that their time together was cut a little short.