Page 51 of Packed in the Fire house

Chapter 19

Rune

Sunny was skittish.

It was understandable. Bonding usually grounded an omega, but Sunny’s entrance to the pack had been so chaotic and rushed.

She was flitting around the kitchen, baking once again. Her cookies had become a big hit with all the firefighters at the station.

Was I a little jealous that so many alphas got to enjoy her delicious cookies? Yes. Was I going to let her know that? No way in hell. I was going to grin and bear it and be themostsupportive alpha ever. That’s what Sunny needed.

“Did you get some rest, Cher?” Her eyes had dark bags under them, and her face was paler than usual.

Sunny nodded, biting her lip as she mixed a bowl of dough. “Some. It was difficult, given Luka being fussy and how unsettled I feel at the moment.”

We all knew why she was feeling unsettled. She had insisted on sleeping alone with Luka and didn’t let Walker stay. Being away from her bond mate so soon after bonding was bound to make her a little itchy.

I wasn’t bonded to her, but I was a member of her pack. Hopefully after I courted her properly, a bond would come, but I was getting ahead of myself. Walker, Blaze, and I agreed that one of us needed to be with her at all times. Walker was obviously the best choice to be with her, but there were times he needed to be in the field, so Blaze and I were the second-best thing.

If we had done this the right way, Walker would have applied for bonding leave and taken a few weeks off to spend time with Sunny, solidifying that bond. Only, everything happened so fast. There was no time to find firefighters to take over our shifts. There was no way in hell Walker was going to allow the fire station to be short-staffed because of him.

When the time came for me and Sunny to bond, I was going to make damn sure that we had plenty of time to bask in the afterglow without having to rush off to an active fire.

I hated being patient.

“Why don’t you rest a bit, Cher?” I asked softly.

Sunny huffed. “All I’ve been doing is resting, I need to do something, or I’m going to lose my mind! I’m not used to being so still.”

“What would you usually be doing?”

“I would usually study while Luka naps,” she admitted, scooping cookie dough onto trays.

I nodded, that made sense. “Do you need space to study here? We can set something up for you…” I trailed off, already thinking about what room we could turn into a little office for her to study in. We could get her a comfy armchair and a little desk, as well as an office chair. We could even add a bouncer for Luka, so he could be near if she wanted him to be. There were several rooms in the firehouse that would work. It was an incredibly large building for a relatively normal-sized crew. The result was we had a lot of spare rooms that could be used.

Sunny grimaced. “No, it’s not that. My laptop got ruined in the fire. Don't get me wrong—it was old and decrepit and probably wasn't going to last much longer, anyway, but it's all I had to study with. Luckily, most of my classes are online, so I can access them as soon as I get a new laptop. Which I can do once I get a job and figure out where the hell I'm going.”

I frowned. She wasn’t going anywhere other than with us—I was tempted to say something but didn’t want to push. If she needed anything, all she had to do was tell us. We were her pack. I made a mental note to get a credit card for her under the pack name. Maybe if she had her own card, she would feel more inclined to use it?

If I had thought there was the slightest chance in hell of her taking a brand-new laptop off me, I would have bought her one in a heartbeat. I would have told the others that I needed to take a twenty-minute break and drive to the nearest big box store and buy her the newest model I could find.

“Would any laptop work?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll get a cheap one soon. I'm probably going to have to retake this semester, but there's not much I can do, when all my possessions were burned to a crisp.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Well, not all your things were burned to a crisp. Some of them were drowned with water. But hold that thought—I'll be right back.” Turning out of the kitchen, I bounded down to the bunk room. Kneeling next to my bed, I pulled out the box that I kept my personal effects in. There, sitting on top, was my laptop.

Picking it up, I grabbed the charger and scrambled out of the bunk, back toward the kitchen.

“You can use this,” I said, holding up the laptop as I returned to her while she was pulling a tray of cookies out of the oven.

Sunny frowned. “Where did you get that?”

“It's mine, but I never use it.”

“Rune. That's an expensive laptop. I can tell from here.”

I shrugged. “I got it as a gift from a family member a while ago, and I've only ever used it to check my emails. I don't think I've even turned it on for the last month, so it's really just gathering dust. You'll be doing me a favor by using it.”

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