Page 1 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

ONE

NOX

Nox Thyren tapped away at his laptop on a crisp Sunday morning, the way he often did, even on the weekends. He hadn’t become a billionaire from slacking off too often. He was already on his third cup of coffee. To Nox, sleeping was for the dead, so he was going to keep busy living and staying awake to keep his business running smoothly.

He looked up when the doorbell rang. It was too early for his maid or the chef to arrive. He grunted as he rose from the desk, making his way down the spiral steps of his mansion.

He frowned as he saw the outline of Joyce, the caregiver of his brother’s child. He opened the door, bewildered by the sight of the woman cradling Violet in her arms.

The little girl was only a toddler, so she was constantly moving and squirming in Joyce’s arms as the woman tried in vain to hold the child still.

“Can I help you?” he nearly growled.

She scoffed at him. “Nevel and Elise haven’t come back from their run,” she said, still balancing Violet. “I have my full-time job to get to. I can’t wait around for them.”

Before Nox could say another word, Joyce handed the complaining and wiggling-around-like-a-snake child to him. Nox held her out in front of himself, two strong hands under the toddler’s armpits as she struggled to be set free.

“Wait a minute,” Nox snarled at Joyce. “I’ve got shit to do.”

He grimaced as the little girl shoved two fingers into her mouth, drool running down the sides of her cheeks like rivers. Nox had never been the nurturing, parental-figure type, and it was comically apparent as he held the little child in his hands like she was a fresh catch he’d just hooked.

“She’s just a child,” Joyce yelled back, chuckling at him. “Put her in front of the TV, and you’ll do fine.”

Joyce disappeared quickly into her car, driving away like her ass was on fire.

“Great,” Nox muttered to himself.

The little girl looked an awful lot like him and, in turn, looked an awful lot like his brother. They were wolf shifters, with Nox taking the responsibility of the powerful alpha while Brother Nevel went off and married to produce the pup he continued to hold in the air.

“Hiiiiii.” The little girl grinned.

He placed her down and watched her trot down the hall and into the kitchen with an oblivious giggle. Without a single father-like bone in his body, Nox chased after her, realizing the kitchen was full of knives and dangerous edges.

“Fucking Nevel,” he grunted to himself.

Nox tried doing what Joyce suggested, placing Violet in front of the TV. But either the woman made it sound easier than it was, or he couldn’t find the right program. Nothing held her attention long enough.

After a few hours, Nox became concerned. It wasn’t like his brother or Elise to go for such a long run, and neither would ever place their daughter in jeopardy.

Nox was the last resort as a babysitter, and the fact that he was the sole person responsible for a child’s life was enough to make him dial up his pack.

Nox, as the alpha, was a natural at giving orders and making sure they were followed. He enjoyed leading his pack through missions and couldn’t be merely an observer. He believed wholeheartedly in the statement, “if you want something done right, do it yourself.”

But he had Violet, who was constantly pleading for attention, entertainment, and food. So, he settled for listening on speakerphone as his enforcers investigated the usual trail his brother and sister-in-law ran.

He had given Violet chocolate chip cookies and quickly realized how much of a mistake that had been. Her fingers, stained brown from the chocolate chips, rubbed along the surface of the big screen TV he had in his office while he listened in on the search.

“We got something, Nox,” his headman Roland called out.

“No, Violet! Not okay!” he bellowed at the child as she continued to smear chocolate all over his glass coffee table and leather sofa.

“Sorry?” Roland replied.

“Nothing, nothing, tell me,” Nox said, irritated. “What did you find? Spit it out.”

“We’ve found evidence of them jogging in their human forms,” Roland continued, unaffected. “Then it’s clear that they shifted and then suddenly stopped.”

“Stopped?”

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