Page 32 of Packed in the Fire house

It was sweet of him to think of that. I would have to thank him when I had a chance. The alarm probably would have freaked Luka out—and myself, to be fair.

“I don’t know how you can get up and go like that… I need at least twenty minutes to join the land of the living,” I said, scrunching my nose.

Rune chuckled. “Not a morning person?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like mornings. Especially with a nice cup of herbal tea, a good book, and some baby snuggles. I’m just not a fan of sudden, jarring wake-up calls.”

Rune glanced pointedly at Luka. “I’m sure the little man gave you a few sudden wake ups in his time.”

“Too many,” I grumbled. “But I simply had to grab him from his bassinet and feed him, so it wasn’t much effort.”

“Making bottles takes math,” Rune said, cocking his head to the side.

I burst into laughter. “No need to make bottles when I was a walking all-you-could-eat buffet!” I said, gesturing vaguely to my chest.

Rune’s eyes widened, and the tips of his ears turned pink. “Well, that’s darn useful, isn’t it?” he said, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “We are all going to watch a movie in the den tonight if you want to join?”

I bit my lip. “Who is we?”

“Me, Walker, and Blaze. The others are out on a call, and seeing as we aren’t on shift, we can just relax. So, it’s just our little pack.”

His use of the wordourmade my heart stutter. That sounded good, too good. I knew he meant his pack, notours, but for a brief second, I wanted to let myself dream.

I glanced down at my snoozing baby. “I don’t want to disturb him…”

Even though the idea of a movie night was really,reallyappealing.

Rune’s face broke into a smile, and he held up a finger. “One moment!” he said, before turning and walking out of the room.

I was left staring at the door frame, confused.

After a moment, I shrugged to myself and returned to folding the clothing.

“I picked this up when I got the milk for Luka.” He handed me a box, which I took gingerly.

“A baby monitor?” I asked. It looked fancier than any baby monitor I had seen before. “Rune, this is top of the line, it had to cost?—”

“Worth it,” Rune interrupted me happily. “This one comes with a little screen you can carry around with you, or it can be connected to a phone. I wanted you to have a screen option because I knew your phone might not work after the fire, but if you want to connect it to a phone to get motion alerts, you’re welcome to use mine until we replace yours.”

He had thought it through so well. I swallowed down the rising tears and turned to him with a watery smile. “Thank you.”

His smile widened. “We can set it up so the camera is on the little man while we watch the movie. He’ll never be out of sight.”

We took a few minutes to set up the camera, whispering quietly among ourselves so we didn’t disturb Luka. After a little trial and error, we discovered that the best place to put the camera was on a small stack of books on the bedside table, angled down to watch him.

Once we ensured Luka was secure in the bed, I dimmed the light, and with the little monitor in hand, I followed Rune through the firehouse.

Walker and Blaze were already in a small, den-like room that had three couches surrounding a TV.

Both of them smiled warmly at me when I followed Rune in.

“Hey, sunshine!” Blaze said loudly, sitting up and removing his feet from the coffee table to greet me. “Joining us for movie night?”

“I am. Rune set up a baby monitor so I could keep an eye on Luka.” I beamed.

Walker gave his pack mate an appreciative nod. “Good idea, man,” he complimented.

“You going to sit with me, sunshine? Rune takes up a whole couch because he’s bigger than the hulk, and I have the popcorn.” Blaze gave me a cheeky, playful smile, shaking the popcorn bowl.

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