Page 50 of Packed in the Fire house

“Mama, bun!” Luka said, looking between me and Sooty.

Smiling back, I moved from the bed and sank down onto the floor next to him. “Yes, it’s a bunny,” I said softly.

“Here,” Rune said, handing me a few sprigs of green. “It’s mint, she loves the stuff. Feed it to her.”

Gingerly, I took the mint and held it out. Sooty wasn’t hard to convince. The bunny immediately turned to me and started munching on the herb I held.

“This is why you have an herb garden in the kitchen?” I asked.

I could have sworn Rune’s face blushed before he nodded. “I used to get her herbs and lettuce from the grocery store, but they put things like pesticides on them, and I don't know where it's been grown, so after a month or two, I decided to grow my own.”

How caring he was, to painstakingly grow the herbs for the animal he had adopted. This gentle giant was very quickly stealing my heart.

I had never actually dated a pack before—I had only dated a single alpha—so I found it bizarre that I was getting the warm fuzzies over Rune, even after Walker had just knotted and bonded me on his desk… but it felt right.

As soon as the coast was clear, I crawled into bed. Luka was fast asleep next to me in his travel crib, so after brushing my teeth and throwing my hair into a haphazard bun, I crawled into bed and wrapped myself up in the blanket.

Even though the bed was comfortable, I wanted to cry because it wasn’t a nest. I wanted more pillows, blankets, sheets. I wanted everything. As an omega, I had a natural instinct to nest, and that was heightened now.

I prayed to god it was only heightened because I was now bonded.

Not for any other reason.

The only other time in my life I had experienced seriously heightened nesting instincts was when I was pregnant with Luka.

Thankfully, that hadn’t kicked in until I had been pregnant a few weeks. There was no way Walker had knocked me up, and I was already getting antsy.

I was also on the birth control shot.

Tossing and turning, I pummeled the thin pillow in an attempt to make it comfortable.

Deep down, I knew what I wanted.

Walker.

My omegahatedbeing away from him.

I wanted to be snuggled up in his arms, taken care of and cherished.

Logically, though, I wanted to maintain some semblance of control over the situation.

Sighing, I sat up and looked at the door.

Thelockeddoor.

A small voice in the back of my head begged to unlock it.

I knew exactly what would happen if I did.

Walker would join me. We could snuggle all night. Maybe we could do more than snuggle. Either way, my omega loved that idea.

That would just make us closer—even though we were pretty damn close now that we’d bonded.

I needed a little more time to get to know him.

The pull of the bond wasn’t that bad—at least, that’s what I tried to convince myself as I turned over once again, unable to get comfortable.

I just needed a little time.

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