Divided Territory

Chapter One

Working as a receptionist was a hell of a lot more work than people often thought it to be.

According to the movies, all receptionists did all day was sit around at a front desk looking pretty, answering the occasional phone call and pointing the occasional customer in the direction of the bathroom.

Vicky Moran didn't think that was an accurate depiction at all.

For the last year, she had been working full time as a receptionist for E-gate industries and already felt at least two decades older than her modest twenty one years.

Administration was tough business: adjusting schedules, sending various emails, printing, organising documents, doing customer damage control- she definitely felt like she was running around after people like a headless chicken most days.

It would be nice if she was paid a little better for her work.

On the other hand, her older brother was working for E-gate's partnership company and being paid almost double the amount for doing simple manual labour.

Vicky guessed that she couldn't complain too much. At least she had a job- one that was low risk and out of the general spotlight. She could deal with sending emails and answering phone calls as long as it kept her little secret hidden.

Up until the current time, she thankfully hadn't done anything of detriment to expose herself to her coworkers.

Of course, certain things were habit or happened involuntarily, such as forcing her fingernails into a partial shift to make opening the mail and getting things out of tight spots easier, or over relying on her sense of smell and sight to distinguish ages and moods.

Things such as her height and size could be pushed off as simple genetics; strange habits were harder to shake off. The whole thing with the nails would be a dead give away.

Ten years ago, things were different.

She hadn't needed to hide back then.

These days, due to the shifting epidemic that had gripped the nation, openly being a shifter would do nothing more than land you in the back of a truck being shipped away to the nearest pack.

Joining a pack was the only option- to be a lone wolf or a rogue was to defy the law.

The latter wasn't quite illegal yet, but Vicky knew that it was rapidly getting to that point. People from the government, both human and shifter, were going around looking for people to join packs. The humans were much more threatening about it so Vicky and Sebastian made it their aim to seem as human as possible to avoid suspicion.

It was the humans who had the power to force people into packs.

The shifters were much less pushy, however it was made plain and clear that if shifters didn't choose a pack willingly, the humans in authority would assign them into one.

Vicky hoped it wouldn't come to that for her.

It wasn't the life she had imagined for herself, but she would live undetected in human society for the rest of her life if she had to.

Hell, she'd work as a receptionist in the stupid firm for the rest of her life if that was what it took.

She wasn't going to be bullied by the government.

Resisting the change was her little way of joining a rebellion of sorts, even if she wasn't actually brave enough to do it more outright.

She didn't want to join a pack.