Page 35 of Packed in the Fire house

Walker shook his head. “Nope, the other guys are already on their way out. Not on shift, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.”

She slumped back into her seat, her eyes already half closed.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Walker muttered as she quickly slipped back into a deep slumber.

I loved having Sunny near as I made food. Something about it soothed that almost primal itch to care for the omega.

It was the next morning, and the pretty omega had joined me while I made lunch for everyone. We were officially back on shift, but all our gear was in order and we didn’t have any more checks to complete, so we were all doing our own thing.

We had managed to find an old high chair for Luka, so he was sitting at the table, currently eating a few cut-up strawberries and making a mess. Every time he caught my eye, he would grin widely at me, showing off his few baby teeth like he was proud of his mess.

It was amazing.

Sunny was sitting next to him on one of the dining chairs, her legs tucked underneath her as she tapped away on her new phone.

Well, as far as she was concerned, it was an old phone of Walker’s that he didn’t like. Truthfully, it was a brand-new phone we had ordered for her and taken out of the box in a pathetic attempt to make it look at least a little used.

“How’s it going?” I asked as I stirred the gumbo.

“Really well. This thing is state of the art… are you sure Walker doesn’t want some money for it?” she asked, looking up at me and biting that plump bottom lip.

She did that a lot, biting her lip. I both loved and hated it, because it gave me an excuse to look at her mouth, but at the same time, I should be the one biting that tempting lip, not her.

I had accepted that I was obsessed with her. Now that my pack was in agreement that we all liked her, it was like an emotional floodgate had opened. Before, I had been obsessed with figuring out if she was okay, how she was feeling, what I could do to help her. Now that feeling was stronger and more intense.

We were going to behave but enjoy spoiling the hell out of her in the meantime.

Picking up the phone, she snapped a quick photo of Luka as he ate his food. “The camera is amazing!” she said, checking the picture.

“Good. You should get as many photos of him as you can while he's small, because I have a feeling that boy is going to shoot up like a weed.”

Sunny snorted. “I'm sure, one day, he's going to be taller than me, and I'm not sure how I’ll cope with that.”

Sunny was a fairly short woman, anyway, so the chances were, even if her son was a beta, he was going to be taller than her.

“Was his father an alpha?” I asked.

Sunny nodded. “Yep. I’ve probably got a little alpha on my hands,” she said with a sigh. “God help me when he hits puberty and doesn’t want to listen to me.”

I hid my wince by looking away. Alphas could be complete assholes during puberty. The changing hormones and the rapid change in their physical size made for a cocktail of crankiness. Usually, alphas had a family member who was an alpha keeping them in line while they were going through those troubling years.

My gut soured as I thought of Sunny going through that alone. Even though that was never going to happen, because we weren't going to allow it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell her that. She would probably think I was a psychopath.

She needed to get used to me before she understood the true level of my obsession with her. Considering we had only known her a few days, I knew I sounded like I was losing my mind.

Strange thing was, I couldn't find it in me to care. Sunny Sanderson was worth being a little cuckoo over.

“I'm sure it'll be easy for you because you raised such a sweet boy. Just send him to martial arts classes if he starts becoming a bit of a brat in his teen years. It's what my momma did.”

Sunny cocked her head to the side, padding over to me. “Is it? Do you want me to chop some of those for you?” she asked, nodding at the pile of celery, bell pepper, and onion in front of me.

My first reaction was to say no because she shouldn't have to lift a finger when I was around, but I also liked the idea of having her working next to me.

“Sure, I've got to chop up plenty of the holy trinity for the gumbo.”

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