His Nanny Mate By Eve Above Story

Chapter 11: Tooth & Nail
Moana

“Follow me,” the director of the orphanage, Sophia, said. Her sad expression when I mentioned my identity gave me cause for concern, and as I followed her blonde head of hair up the narrow wooden stairs to her office, I felt my heart start to beat faster than it had been before.

Sophia led me into her office and gestured for me to sit as she closed the door behind us. I sat on the edge of the straight-backed wooden chair across from her desk, clutching my purse nervously in my lap.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your heritage sooner,” Sophia said as she walked over to one of the tall metal filing cabinets at the back of the room that contained records of current and past children at the orphanage. “It’s our policy to not bring it up, for the sake of the children’s m*ntal health. I hope you understand.”

“Of course,” I replied. I watched as Sophia pulled open one of the drawers and began thumbing through the rows of manila folders. Sophia had been here since I was a child; at the time, she was a spry young woman, around the same age as I was now. Now, as I watched her search for my file, I noticed the slight hunch developing in her aging back, the tufts of gray hair that hadn’t been dyed yet at the nape of her neck, and the subtle wrinkles starting to form on her hands and forearms.

“Let’s see…” she whispered to herself, rifling through the folders until she found one with my name on it. “Here we go.” She pulled it out and walked over to the desk, setting it down in front of me.

I glanced up at her nervously for a moment, waiting for her nod of approval before opening the folder.

Inside of the folder, aside from my basic intake files and other basic information, there was only one thing: a single, sharp canine tooth.

over in my hand. There was a distinct cr*ck down the center, but no

this?” I asked, looking

said, leaning back and clasping her hands together across her stomach. “But what

asked, feeling the resentment toward

of producing wolfless children,” Sophia replied with a sad expression on her face. “But not always. You see, children without wolves would also often be subject to an entire host of discrimination for their entire lives.

didn’t make me feel any less resentful.

me because

not sure, but that is my best guess.” Sophia

was for your own good. Perhaps they had no choice, even.” Sophia paused to take a breath, her lips spreading into a gentle smile as she began to reminisce. “I can still picture your chubby little fingers wrapped around that tooth. You wouldn’t let go of it, you

at the tooth again; I had

tooth so I could find them?” I asked, my voice

the table and took my hand,

felt Mina’s presence again and asked her in my mind, “Why didn’t you

I knew that she was just as confused by her late appearance

and decided to stop by to say goodbye, and to thank Ethan for his invitation. As I poked my head into the recreation room and saw Ethan sitting on the floor and helping the children with their papier mache, I couldn’t help but smile. Even though what I had learned from Sophia made my resentment toward werewolves rise up inside of me, seeing an Alpha werewolf being so kind as to teach orphan children restored my faith once more. Maybe werewolves really weren’t

saw me looking and shot me a bright smile before jumping

he said. “I’d love to see your work. The children talk so fondly of

go a bit red at the Alpha’s kind words.

sticking his hands into the pocket of his apron and c*****g his head as he leaned

of werewolf parents abandoning wolfless children? And if so,

silent for a moment, then nodded with a pained look on his face. “I’ve heard of that,” he replied in a hushed tone so that the children couldn’t hear. “But I’ve never heard of the children trying to find their parents. I don’t think most of them would even want to find them once they find out, and besides…