Page 60 of Packed in the Fire house

Walker stayed behind, since someone had to watch the station. He wasn’t lounging around eating candy, though. He was helping coordinate the wildfire efforts. Ensuring we had enough firefighters at the scene and back home was a delicatebalancing act. I doubted he had much time with his newly bonded omega.

Her relationship with Walker was developing into something almost domestic. If she was around when he got a phone call—which was a lot—he would give her a quick kiss before leaving the room to take it, which she accepted happily. There was always food in the kitchen, usually on warming plates so we could grab it whenever. I had missed spending time with her in the kitchen, but we were all extremely thankful she had taken over the cooking, because usually when our schedules went haywire like this, we lived off take-out pizza and microwave Hot Pockets. Given that our jobs were physical in nature, having some good food to fuel us was a godsend.

The baked goods were the real winner, though. Every day, there was a new kind of cookie in the kitchen. Sometimes there were cupcakes. It was a little surprise I looked forward to every day. Sunny really was perfect. The firehouse felt so much warmer with her there, dancing around the kitchen, singing with Luka, his little giggles echoing throughout the place.

“Do you think Sunshine has cooked?” Blaze asked as we headed back to the station. We were exhausted. We were supposed to be helping one of the crews at the fire change over their equipment, which is why Walker had joined us. There had been a few ember fires, and we had been roped into helping put them out.

“I wouldn't get your hopes up. We've been gone for nearly twelve hours,” Walker said with a grimace. “I really shouldn't have said we wouldn’t be doing equipment turnover for long.”

“You jinxed it,” I said, leaning back and closing my eyes. It had barely been afternoon when we left the fire station, and now it was almost midnight. A deep bone-weary tiredness was taking over my body.

Walker nodded with a grimace. It was a well-known superstition in the emergency services to never say it was going to be a short call or a quiet shift. That was a surefire way to guarantee you were in for one hell of a night.

We all trudged into the firehouse quietly. It was quite the contrast to the way we used to go barreling in, laughing and joking at the top of our lungs. Now we were more concerned with making sure we didn't disturb Sunny or Luka.

When we finally sorted out a pack house, I had no idea how I was going to cope with not having them around all the time. It would be much nicer for her to have her own space, though.

Gil looked in the direction of the kitchen. “I smell food.”

I took a deep inhale. It was hard to smell anything through the thick odor of smoke that clung to us, but sure enough, something delicious was emanating from the kitchen.

Blaze clapped his hands happily. “In that case, I'm going to go get grub before I shower because if I don't eat soon, I'm going to waste away.”

I chuckled as he scampered toward the kitchen. “Drama queen,” I muttered.

“He's your pack mate.” Gil chuckled as we followed him.

“Sunshine!” Blaze’s voice gleefully boomed from the kitchen.

As I rounded the corner, I noticed Sunny sitting at the kitchen table, feet tucked under her. She had a book and her laptop in front of her.

“Hey, Cher,” I greeted warmly. “Studying?”

Sunny huffed, putting the book down. “I'm trying to. I'm falling so far behind.”

“It's late, you should be sleeping,” I said, striding over to her and kissing the top of her head. I wanted to pull her in for a hug or kiss her properly, but since I had just come from a large fire, I didn't want to get this smell all over her.

“Luka has been waking up every few hours. I think he's starting to cut a new tooth. Every time I try to go to sleep, he wakes up, so I thought I may as well do something productive with my time.”

Given the dark circles under her eyes and the sheer exhaustion clear as day on her features, was she really able to do anything productive with her time? I knew that, when I was exhausted, I was completely useless, but I wasn’t going to say that to her.

“Why didn't you tell us Luka isn’t sleeping well? One of us could have stayed behind and helped,” Walker said as he entered the kitchen, going to the counter and grabbing a bowl of what smelled like stew.

“There's no point. I would be getting up with him, anyway—he’s my baby. It's not that bad. He used to be a lot worse when he first started teething at six months old. I think I slept three hours in a week.” She laughed like it was a fond memory, but the stark reminder of how much she had to do alone made me frown.

“I can stay here tomorrow, if you want?” I offered, glancing at Walker. Technically, that wasn't an offer I could make until our captain signed off on it, but I knew he was also concerned about Sunny's well-being. My thoughts were confirmed a second later when he nodded appreciatively at me.

“Honestly, he's coming out of it now, and I will be able to get more rest soon, I promise. Don't put yourselves out for me. And go get yourself some food! When did you last eat?” she asked, her hands on her hips as she stood, glowering at me.

“Trust me, I am going to demolish a plate of food in a moment. I just wanted to see you first.” I grinned at her, enjoying the way her cheeks turned pink at my words.

“Sunshine, this is amazing!” Blaze shouted from his spot next to the counter, where he was shoveling stew into his mouth at a breakneck speed.

Her eyebrows rose. “Judging by how quickly he is consuming that food, I don't think I made enough.”

“I’m sure there’s plenty. Blaze is just being Blaze,” I assured her.

“Blaze, if you finish that food before all of your teammates have gotten some, then you won't get any of the cookies I'm making tomorrow,” she threatened, pointing at him with a glare.

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