Only Human: Monsters and Men

Chapter 37: June Jackson

Back to Original POV

This assignment was the best thing that could have happened to me. Even with the other nannies doing what they called a hazing, I had plenty of time to think and explore. Rusty was always the highlight of my day. His parents dropped him off every single day, and they would give me a quick hello before they left. Because Rusty was so affectionate towards me the other werewolf pups warmed up to me quickly. When we went for walks outside, they would play fight or race to see who would get to walk the closest to me. They eagerly ate anything I fed them, although vegetables were a hard sell at times. They even minded me when I scolded them or told them to stop. I had expected werewolf pups to be more stubborn or aggressive, but they were as sweet as can be.

I think the werewolf pups' blatant favoritism caused the other nannies to start treating me differently. On the first day they were so welcoming and excited to have another human to split duties between. It wasn't long that they started distancing themselves from me. As soon as I asked for help, they would state that I seemed to have everything under control and go off to do something else. The duties which were initially divided evenly were starting to be mostly given to me, and I always got the most difficult assignments. I could somewhat understand. Not only was I a new nanny, but I had only been here at Wistering Heights for a few days. From the stories I heard, the nannies here had spent years studying pup behavior on their own or being tutored by an experienced nanny before they could be marked.

I probably made things look easy, but it was really my experience that helped. I'm the eldest of four and my two youngest siblings were twelve and sixteen years younger than myself. I was also the neighborhood babysitter. I had always had a way with kids, and it just so happened to translate to werewolf pups. What looked easy was just an ingrained understanding of how young children think, what they want, and what they don't want. I realized that being a wild human I was given an opportunity to be around a lot of human children, which is something that humans born here may not have had. For that reason, I swallowed any protest and did what was asked of me.

Being given the hardest tasks meant I had to travel to young werewolves' rooms outside of the nursery quite frequently. To do this I was given a map of the entire estate with room numbers and suggested paths. These paths did not have a lot of werewolf traffic, so I was able to avoid most unwanted attention. Whenever a werewolf did sniff out my accursed virginity, I was able to quickly excuse myself claiming I was a nanny going to a werewolf pup's room. It appeared that werewolves really did love their young, as this would stop all advances. Some werewolves even helped me get to the room, so that I wasn't stopped by any other werewolves on the way.

It was almost as if things were going too well. I was able to explore both outside and inside the estate, which was helping me gain an understanding of the layout. I had plenty of escape ideas, but it would all come back to the ID tag in my ear. Once I figured that trinket out, I'd be out of here. I was also gaining a lot of popularity among the werewolf parents, which were all alphas. This was both to my benefit and my downfall.

One evening, the Timbers came to collect Rusty. Rusty gave me a quick hug goodbye followed by a line of pups whose parents had come to collect them.

"Isn't she amazing with them?" Carol Timber said to the other werewolf parents.

"Absolutely perfect!" a werewolf woman responded.

"Weren't you the one who marked her, Carol?" another werewolf asked.

Carol smiled proudly. "My husband and I, yes. It was a no-brainer really."

"You both are so clever. She may have been a wasted talent if you hadn't stepped in," a werewolf father stated.