6. Sunny
Chapter 6
Sunny
I slept far too well.
It was almost concerning.
Usually the smallest noise woke me, but my body was in a languid state while wrapped up in that sweet, smoky alpha smell that put my entire body at ease. It wasn’t until Luka was awake and smacking my face playfully that I stirred from my slumber.
For a moment, I looked at Luka, confused. I didn’t often share a bed with him. I was too scared I would roll over on him or he would clamber off the bed, so he usually slept in his crib next to my bed. His crib at home was clearly taller than the travel one, because he had somehow clambered out and onto the bed to pester me.
Then it dawned on me that the room I was in smelled much better than our run-down apartment. That place consistently smelled of mildew, no matter how much I scrubbed it. Sitting up, I pulled Luka into my lap, absentmindedly running my hand over his hair as I looked around the room.
Sunlight streamed through the thin curtains, bathing the room in light. I had been too exhausted the night before to fully take it in. The space was well-kept, but minimal. Although it was a functional room, the bed was better quality than anything I owned. There was no clock in the room, so I had no idea what time it was other than daytime, thanks to the bright sunlight.
How long had I slept for? Luka babbled in my arms, waving his fists around and doing his best to hold a conversation with me. “Mama, truck!” he declared happily.
I smiled, my voice cracking slightly from the smoke the previous night. “Yes, baby, you got to see trucks yesterday, didn’t you?” I whispered, kissing the top of his head and grimacing when I smelled just how smoky we both were. It wasn’t the good kind, like the one that saturated the room we were in. It was the acidic burned smell from the apartment complex.
“See trucks!” he shouted excitedly once again.
We were still wearing our nightclothes, and in the harsh light of day, I could see that we both were a little dusty. Eyeing the pile of clothing on the dresser, I slid out from under the covers, taking Luka with me, resting him on my hip.
“Okay, baby, I think the first thing we need to do is get clean.”
I was thankful that Walker had talked me through how to operate the shower when I arrived because it was indeed finicky to turn on. Once it was on, I took a while rigorously scrubbing myself and Luka until all traces of the fire were removed from us.
There were products in the shower already, so I used those. They smelled like Walker. Slightly sweet. I could only imagine they brought out his natural scent even more.
Usually, I would use a baby-specific body wash on Luka, given his young skin, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Even if the body wash was slightly irritating, it was better than having a thick layer of soot on his skin.
Luka splashed around in the water happily. He loved the shower, always had. He would sit under the waterfall for hours if I let him. For him, it was a pretty amazing morning; he had cuddles with his mama and got to splash around in the big shower.
The towels in the bathroom were fresh and clean, even though I doubted I would have minded if they’d been used. Walker's scent was beyond appealing. It made me feel safe and also alive.
I did my best to convince myself that I was only reacting to his scent because he was an alpha, but deep down, I knew that was bullshit. I’d never reacted to Gregory even a little like that. His scent had been… okay. I had convinced myself that was enough.
Maybe if I had smelled the s’mores boys before, I would have thought differently.
Thankfully, the diapers that I had fit Luka; they were slightly snug, but it wasn’t terribly so. Luka would most certainly let me know if it was too tight.
Once dry, I unfolded the clothing Rune had left for me—he had mentioned they belonged to Blaze—and couldn’t help but giggle. They were tiny compared to Rune, but gigantic on me. I was going to be swimming in the sweatpants and gray T-shirt that had California Fire emblazoned on the front.
Still, they were soft, clean, and didn’t reek of my apartment fire, so I pulled them on gratefully. I had to roll the waistband of the sweats several times for them to stay up, and the T-shirt fell to my knees. I looked like a mess as I let my blonde waves air dry. There was no hair dryer, so I didn’t have much choice.
“Okay, sweetie, shall we see if we can get you a snack?” I asked, popping Luka onto my hip.
“Snack!” he parroted. He knew several words but couldn’t quite string them together to form a sentence yet.
If I was alone, I probably would have hidden in Walker’s room all day, with just the cookies from his desk as sustenance. I couldn’t in good conscience let my son survive off junk food, though, so I took a deep breath before unlocking the door and padding out into the firehouse.
I walked through an empty foyer, passing a bay where three fire engines were parked. Although there was no one around.
There had to be a few firefighters I had yet to meet. So far, I had only been introduced to the three who were part of a pack. While I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about how firehouses were run, I knew that there were more than three firefighters per firehouse.
“Truck!” Luka cooed when he saw the engines as we passed.
“Yes, trucks,” I agreed, looking around.
“Cher!” a deep voice called from somewhere above me.
Turning, I glanced up and saw Rune standing on a lofted balcony. “Hi,” I said with a smile.
Instead of answering, he pushed back off the balcony and jogged down the stairs to join me. “Did you guys sleep well?” he asked as he approached. Up close, I was reminded just how much bigger than me he was. He towered over me, but that soft smile on his face put me at ease.
“I did. I only woke up when this one did.” I spoke quietly, jerking my head at Luka, who was cuddling into me, his eyes still firmly on the fire engines. He had always been a very affectionate baby, I was waiting for him to get wild and wriggly, but he was a sweet, snuggly boy for now.
“The clothes are cute on you.” He beamed down at me. “You hungry?”
“A-a little.”
My stomach chose that exact moment to grumble loudly. My face heated as I looked at the ground in embarrassment, but Rune didn’t seem phased.
“I’ve got some bacon cooking, and there are plenty of breakfast options, come on.” He placed his hand behind my back and guided me up the stairs and into an upper area that consisted of a large kitchen and a table that could have easily sat twelve.
My eyes lingered on the large range oven for a moment. What I would do to have an oven like that at home. I could bake bread from scratch! I had always wanted to experiment with baking bread, but the run-down kitchen in my apartment was so unreliable that it was never feasible.
My steps faltered at the stark reminder that I didn’t even have that junky old oven anymore, because everything I had was gone.
“This place is lovely,” I commented as he led me to the seats nearest the kitchen counters, where a frying pan full of delicious-smelling bacon was bubbling away.
Rune shot me a prideful grin. “We refurbished it all ourselves. We had a week with an abnormally small workload because there was a trainee team taking our calls, and we weren’t supervising them—the guys at Station Six did that. So, we started making bets about how much we could get done around the firehouse… next thing you know, I’m ripping out the kitchen with Blaze.”
“That’s impressive.” What would it be like to simply be able to redo my entire kitchen on a whim?
“It was actually a lot of fun, but we probably should have warned Walker that we were going to do it. He came back from a meeting with the commissioner to find the kitchen torn to shreds. Let's just say, he was cranky that day.” Rune winced. “Take a seat, Cher. So you want some tea? Is your throat sore?”
Whenever he used that nickname, his accent became that little bit thicker, sweet like honey in a way that made my knees shake.
“No thank you. I’m not feeling that bad, considering.”
“Good, well if you change your mind just let me know or you can help yourself.”
I had never been that impressed by accents, but there was something about the way he said those words that made my body tingle. Nothing would make me happier than hearing more.
“My word, it looks like you’re feeding an army,” I said as I took in the mountains of food.
Rune chuckled, scooping up some bacon. “Not an army, just several hungry alphas, a beautiful omega, and a cute-as-a-button baby.”
My stomach fluttered as he called me beautiful .
“What does the little man like to eat?” he asked, walking over to the burner and picking up a pair of tongs to flip the bacon with.
“He usually has milk, and he loves oatmeal, waffles, or pancakes—though he likes to play with those more than eat them.”
“We’ve got oatmeal,” Rune said. “There’s a little of everything here, honestly. Firefighters with big appetites mean that we accumulate quite a bit of food.”
“Oatmeal would be perfect, as long as they’re not too big—he struggles with the larger ones,” I said with a smile.
“We’ve got like three kinds of oats and all kinds of fruit you can add to it. Also…” Rune checked the bacon once more before moving to the cabinet and pulling out a blue plastic cup. I frowned at the cup as he held it aloft, until it dawned on me that he was holding a sippy cup. “This morning, I got one of the guys to run to the store and grab a few things. A quick Google search told me that Luka was probably drinking whole milk and using these.”
I bit my lip, desperately trying to squash the rush of tears. He had done that for me. He had thought about my son with such care, Googling his needs. His internet search was right as well. Luka was drinking whole milk out of a sippy cup just like that.
“T-that’s perfect, actually,” I stammered.
Luka was paying more attention than me, because he had immediately clocked the sippy cup and was holding his hands out expectantly. “Baba!” he declared, making little grabbing hand gestures.
“Don’t worry, little man. Give me two shakes, and you’ll have baba,” he assured, twisting off the lid and pulling a jug of milk out of the fridge.
With skilled speed, he poured the milk, sealed the cup, and was walking over to us. I expected him to hand me the sippy cup, but instead, he knelt in front of me, looking Luka directly in the eye as he held out the cup for him. “Sorry for making you wait, little man.” He gave him a warm smile as Luka took the cup, laughing when Luka shoved it into his mouth immediately.
“This cup is almost identical to the one he has at home,” I said.
Rune’s smile widened. “Good. He was clearly missing his milk, and I'm glad I could help. Now, oatmeal? With whole milk and maybe some finely diced strawberries? Are they okay for him? We get most of our produce from a farmers market across the road so they’re fresh.”
“That's perfect,” I said. I had been trying to add more fruits and vegetables into Luka's diet, but given our financial situation, sometimes it wasn't feasible.
“Good! And for the pretty mama?” he asked, slowly standing up. As he did, his eyes raked over me like I was wearing the sexiest dress on the planet instead of his pack mate’s clothes. “Bacon and eggs?” he asked after a moment of more looking.
“Please,” I said, unable to form a full sentence. For probably the hundredth time, I wondered if the smoke had gotten to me. I was in a coma and dreaming about stupidly hot and caring firefighters who treated my son so sweetly.
“Coming right up. Oh, and we will sort out a high chair for him as well today, so you don’t have to hold him while he eats,” he said as he cracked a few eggs into a bowl.
He had really thought of everything. In such a short space of time he was completely on top of the situation. I was still struggling to figure out what day it was, and this man had bulldozed in and provided everything I could need.
Tears threatened to well up again. I had always thought I would find an alpha who took charge like that controlling or irritating. But when Rune did it, I just had the overwhelming sense of being cared for. That was something I hadn't felt in a long time, and it made my insides go mushy and my eyes go watery.
“Rune…” I said, my voice full of shocked wonder.
Somehow, his grin widened. “You know, I could get used to the way you say my name, Cher,” he said.
“How do I say your name?” I asked with a frown.
He grinned. “Perfectly.”