Page 3 of Bully Wolf's Nanny
Daisy sucked in a breath. “It’s a nanny agency for shifters?”
She ignored the hesitancy in Amelia’s voice. Being a shifter wasn’t a part of her life that Daisy often, if ever, talked about. Greenmill sat in between pack territories, and as such shifter politics didn’t have much sway over the town’s residents. The town council had even signed one of the charters that meant shifters couldn’t claim the land. It meant that a lot of the humans could conveniently forget that shifters even existed.
And so could Daisy.
“Shifter guys, yeah.”
“Shifter guys? As in males?”
Amelia’s wince was audible in her voice. “Yeah…males. Men.”
“Alphas?”
“Look, I don’t know the specifics, okay? All I know is that it’s a nanny agency that caters to shifter dads. I think you’d be really good at it. I mean, you’re an incredible mom to Thea. You’re kind, you’re organized, you’re an excellent cook—"
“But I’d be working for an alpha?”
“Are all shifter dudes alphas?”
“Most of them are.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be a good fit? I mean, you’re a shifter, so you’d like…get what they’re all about. I think the agency prefers shifter nannies because they know how to handle shifter kids better.”
“That’s not how it works, kids don’t shift until they’re like fifteen.”
“But they’re still probably quite, you know—animal-y.”
“Amelia,” Daisy said, feeling herself getting tired, “all kids are animals. And I don’t want to work for an alpha. I don’t want to work with a shifter. It would mean living in a pack territory and that’s just—it’s a whole thing.”
“I’m sorry,”Amelia said. “I didn’t mean to be insulting or anything. I don’t know that much about shifters. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to save up some money.”
“It’s okay,” said Daisy, “it’s fine. I mean, I never really talk about it. How are you to know? And it’s a good idea, really, thank you so much for telling me about it. But I don’t think it would work out very well.”
“So you don’t want the agency’s number? Even not just in case?”
“No. I’ll figure something else out.”
***
“Mommy! Mommy, look what I painted!”
Daisy accepted the messy painting of what she suspected was a dog, ruffling her daughter’s dark blonde curls. “It’s beautiful darling, really well done!”
Thea huffed in pride before returning to her notebook, scribbling happily away in bright red marker.
Daisy looked at her daughter, took in the messy hair, the rosy cheeks, the fraying clothes. Her heart stuttered in her chest, and she fought the urge to crush her daughter against her chest.
Lying on the table, visible in the corner of her eye, was a pile of letters with big bold words on them like ‘final reminder’ and ‘warning.’ Unpaid bills, overdrawn bank accounts, credit card payment reminders, the whole lot.
She swallowed a lump in the back of her throat, and turned back to Thea.
She would do anything for her daughter. Anything at all.
But her daughter had been the reason she had left in the first place. Her daughter and…and her daughter’s father.
That was not something she wanted to think about at all.
She’d promised herself she would never go back. She knew what it was like to grow up in a pack, within pack territory, to be at the constant whim of whatever stupid new rule the packalpha decided to enforce. Most shifters wouldn’t have it any other way, but she…
