Page 126 of Fate, Interrupted

“What do you mean by limited?”

“When’s the last time you saw a wolf accountant?”

He looks at me steadily.

“Or a doctor,” I say. “Or a lawyer.”

“You already know the answer,” he says.

“I’m realizing that,” I say. “I never put it together before.”

He lets out a breath. “There are a few professions wolves are in. My father’s accountant went to Pitt. But he’s of mixed parentage, and he married a human, so his world revolves around his human clients. He keeps dad as a client because his old man and my father were friends. Other than that, people trust wolves in certain roles,” he says. “Physical work. Security. Things where strength is the point. Everything else is less available to us.”

“Why, though?”

“Any system becomes normal if it runs long enough,” he says. “People stop questioning it. They stop seeing it. It becomes how things are.”

I frown. “That’s sad.”

“It’s normal,” he says. “Which is worse.”

“And your family’s business,” I say. “How many people does it employ?”

“Fifty-seven employees,” he says.

My eyes widen before I can stop them. “That’s bigger than I thought.”

“Yeah. Coulter Cleaners supports about a third of the pack families.”

“And that’s still, what? Blue collar. Lower tier.”

“That’s how it’s categorized,” he says.

“By people who have never thought about it for more than thirty seconds,” I say.

“By people for whom it’s never been necessary to think about it,” he says.

I look past him at the room—the bartender, the pool players, the couple in the far corner sharing fries. None of them know they’re sitting inside a system that put fifty-seven people in a box and locked it by deciding the box was all they were capable of.

Silas shakes his head slightly. “You gotta remember, lots of people have blue-collar jobs, regardless of whether they are human or wolf. It’s an honest living, and our pack is proud. We don’t let what humans believe minimize our accomplishments.”

I feel a blush of embarrassment warm my neck.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound elitist. The work itself isn’t the issue. It’s the lack of opportunities. It’s skewed against the packs. That’s not fair. You think Paxton is different?”

“Different in that the tension and bias against wolves is not what it is in Larkin,” he confirms.

“How?”

“They contribute,” he says. “They protect the surrounding land. Patrol the forests during hunting season. They made deals with the town council decades ago, and they’ve held them.”

“And people know they’re wolves.”

“Yes.”

“And nobody…”

“Not anymore,” he says. “There’s a wolf couple who runs a diner. Supposed to be the best breakfast in three counties. Another guy in the pack runs a construction company. Builds half the new houses in town.”