Thankfully, we had a car seat that worked for Luka, so he had come with us to get food. Sunny had popped him in the cart and started pushing him around, and the boy was having the time of his life. Now that he was more rested, he was getting far more adventurous.

Sunny had managed to find a pair of women's leggings in the donation pile and was wearing them with a large firehouse hoodie that belonged to one of us. In my opinion, she looked downright adorable. I wanted her to wear my clothing regularly. She’d thrown her long blonde hair up in a messy bun on top of her head, with several tendrils falling loose.

I had been thrilled at the prospect of a little one-on-one time with her while shopping. She had kept to herself most of the day before, which I totally understood, given the stress of her situation. She needed to sleep, but now I wanted to get to know the beautiful omega staying with us. Within minutes of getting into the store, though, I realized that Sunny was being very minimal when it came to her purchases.

“Those are expensive.” She frowned, her nose wrinkling at the cereal I held up.

I wasn't an idiot, despite what my pack mates often thought. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Sunny was hard up for cash. If only she realized she didn't have to worry about that anymore.

“But does he like this kind?” I asked pointedly.

“Yeah, but?—”

I cut her off by throwing the box of cereal into the cart. “It’s for the firehouse, so it’s on me,” I said simply. I also grabbed a box of the wheat cereal that Gil loved, even though I thought it tasted like cardboard.

Usually, Rune gave me a strict list before grocery shopping, seeing as he was the cook of the house, but he had been sodistracted lately that I was being left to cause some chaos with Sunshine.

“I can't let you buy food for him!” she whispered indignantly.

Yes, she could. It was simple, really. Her son liked the food. I was going to get the food for him. Figuring out what foods made her happy was clearly going to be a challenge, but I welcomed it. She wasn't going anywhere for a few days, and I could find out a lot in that time.

“Look, no one is going to care about a few boxes of cereal, especially for a cutie like this,” I said, grinning down and blowing a raspberry at Luka, who giggled wildly. The little guy turned to the cereal lined up on the shelf. The cart was close, so he was able to reach over and easily grab one of the boxes.

“Well, he’s claimed that one now!” I grinned, happy it was a semi-healthy cereal.

I liked kids. I loved it when we took the fire engines to schools and the little kids wanted us to blare the sirens or sit in the driver’s seat. That joy and enthusiasm was infectious. I always imagined I would have some kids of my own in the future. We’d discussed it as a pack once or twice, but we were waiting for the right omega to come around.

In all my time imagining, I had never thought that an omega would come along who already had a child, but I didn’t hate that idea. I wasn't one of those alphas who was so possessive that I needed my omega to only know my touch. Sure, no other alpha will touch my omega once we're bonded, other than my pack mates, and I could be possessive when the occasion called for it. But any omega we met would have had a life before us, and I would be a jackass to ignore that.

“Only if you’re sure…” she said, trailing after me as I pushed the cart toward the dessert section.

“I’m completely sure, sunshine. Now, are either of you allergic to anything?”

“Not that we know of. I haven’t given Luka anything with peanuts in it yet. I wanted to wait until he’s a bit older.”

“That makes sense, we can avoid the peanut butter cookies,” I said, snatching several sleeves of chocolate chip cookies. Those fuckers disappeared so damn fast at the station that, if I didn’t grab loads, I wouldn’t get any at all.

Sunny grimaced when she saw all the cookies, her nose scrunching up adorably.

I pouted. “I'm a growing boy, I need my cookies.”

Well, if she didn’t like cookies, then I guessed that was more for me. Maybe she wasn’t completely perfect, but I was okay with that.

She burst into laughter. “I'm not judging you—cookies are glorious—but those cookies taste more like preservatives than actual cookies. They don’t even have real chocolate in them!”

“They’re the only kind I can find around here. When I’m out of town, I always go to the fancy bakeries and get them.”

“Can any of you guys bake?” she asked.

“Nope, only Rune can do the cooking, and none of us bake. Walker can heat up boxed mac and cheese every now and again if he's feeling up to it.”

Sunny’s eyes widened. “When was the last time any of you guys had proper mac and cheese or freshly baked cookies?”

I shrugged. “Probably not since we were children.”

Sunny looked at me, dumbstruck. “Do you want them?” she asked quietly, almost nervously.

I stopped in my tracks, slowly turning to her. She stumbled into me, her soft body pressing against mine and her lemon scent intensifying around me in a way that made it extremely difficult to keep my cock under control. Backing up, she started to apologize, but I simply stared at her for a moment.