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Cooper hasn’t had one in literal centuries when Lucy triggers the heat he didn’t know he could still have. He doesn’t really know what flips it on exactly, only that one minute he’s not aware he’s in heat and the next minute he is, inconveniently in a public bar. He only knows that he watched Lucy walking ahead of him on the way here and for the first time noticed the swing of her hips and not the set of her shoulders. For the first time in forever, he remembers what physical attraction feels like. What he can’t confront is that this physical attraction is following on the heels of an emotional attraction that’s eating away at him.
She’s fiery and brave, so goddamn brave, and tough, a lot tougher than he gave her credit for at first. She’s kind and caring and one of the most stubborn people he’s ever met. She’s everything to him and he shouldn’t be anything to her and yet he wants all the same. But he knows better than to touch her, to even attempt it, because there’s just no way a sweet thing like her wants him back and he’d rather not upset the surprisingly easy camaraderie they’ve fallen into on the road.
The thing is, Cooper can handle himself. Lucy knows this. Anyone that spends five seconds in his company knows this. And yet she doesn’t seem to have any filter when it comes to her alpha brain and his safety. That’s the only explanation for why she and another alpha are circling each other while Cooper stands there and prepares to shoot a man once again.
He’d just wanted an ice cold beer and a quiet moment and instead he’d gotten more than one alpha in his space because, he realized with something that almost tasted like fear, he’s in heat.
“Whoa, whoa, personal space,” Lucy had said, slapping the hand away of one of the alphas reaching for him. She shoved another who stepped closer.
“What is wrong with you people?”
“I’m in heat darlin’, means all these alphas suddenly want a piece of my leathery old hide.”
“Ghouls can get heats?”
“Apparently.”
“So that’s why you smell so good today?”
Cooper ignored the way that made his stomach flip and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know that good is the right word but I guess it’s your nose.”
“Everyone back off!” she snarled and two of the alphas took a step back but the third ignored her.
“He’s not taken,” the alpha said.
“He’s mine.”
“He doesn’t smell taken.”
“He’s still not yours.”
“I’ll fight you for him.”
“You know I’m right here right?” Cooper said, almost curiously, and he casually raised his gun.
“Ghoul, can you please lower your gun?”
She calls him Ghoul in public. He’s never asked for it but he’s grateful for it. The idea of others knowing his real name leaves him ill. But in private it’s Cooper this and Cooper that and hey Cooper did you see that weird bird fly by?
He tried to listen to her but couldn’t bring himself to let go of the trigger. She stepped closer to him and leaned in so only he could hear her.
“Cooper,” she whispered into his ear, “I am asking you for this right now. Please give me this. I barely ask for anything I’ll follow you anywhere you know that please lower your gun and let me handle this pig.”
Cooper lowered his gun slowly and now he’s reluctantly allowing a scrappy little spitfire alpha to fight for his goddamn “honor.”
Lucy rarely uses her alpha strength in fights with humans, unwilling to exert dominance when it’s not necessary. She said she finds it very primitive. Apparently she’s feeling wild today though because she launches the man straight across the bar as soon as he attempts to hit her. Cooper watches as she kicks the guy’s ass handily relying on all her alpha fight training from the vault to do so, biting him, punching him, overall absolutely showcasing herself to be every inch the feral little monster she’s turned into, that Cooper has helped her become.
“Look what you did to my bar!” the bartender exclaims when the fighting finally stops.
“He started it,” she shrugs, pointing at the completely knocked out alpha on the ground.
“Just take your omega and go, you goddamn ghoulfucker.”
“And proud of it!” She snaps, grabbing Cooper’s hand to take him out of the bar. He finds himself following despite his initial balking at both the touch and the audacity she has to touch him so casually now. The part that slaps him in the face is that he wants her touch and it’s definitely not just the heat that’s starting to rage through his body.
“Proud of being a ghoulfucker huh? What ghouls have you been fucking that I don’t know about?”
She glares at him, “Shut up, I just didn’t want anyone to think I’d be ashamed of that. If it were true. That’s all.”
To say that warms his heart would be an understatement.
There are mutterings and wolf whistles and a lot of ghoul hating vitriol that swirls in the crowd she pulls him through until they arrive at a small inn he didn’t even notice before.
“Is that a ghoul in heat?” the lady at the front desk asks in shock.
“Yes, we need a heat room if you have one,” Lucy says, looking around her in paranoia that someone else is going to jump out and try and fuck with Cooper again.
“I have a basement room with a chain lock and that’s about the best I can do.”
“We’ll take it,” she says, slamming down a handful of caps that Cooper knows is way too much.
“No, the fuck we will not,” Cooper protests, but Lucy is already using her alpha strength to drag him down the stairs and in his current state he’s a little helpless but to follow after her honey spiced blood coated scent he can taste on his tongue.
He’s been wickedly hard since she spilled blood for him, stumbling along behind her in a weakened state he barely remembers from before the bombs. Heat is the first thing that’s scared him in a long time, feeling so desperate it hurts. So willing to ask for the very things he has been denying himself. He’s actively trying not to ask for her but she did just defend him, actually begged to defend him when he could have handily solved it himself, and she called him mine and now she’s dragging him to the wasteland’s terrible equivalent of a heat room.
“I will throw you over my shoulder if I have to,” she says, continuing to drag him even as he legitimately digs his feet in just to see how much she can actually pull.
“No windows and in the basement? No escape there.”
“I don’t care. I want you safe.”
“Did you not hear what I just said, we won’t be safe down here,” he says trying not to stumble down the dark stairs in her hurry.
“I will keep you safe while you’re in heat, I promise. Hey, seriously I promise, Cooper.”
She says the last couple of words in her alpha voice and of course she’s been taught to use it as a comfort device and not a control tactic. Of course she’s been taught to be gentle with an omega, something the wasteland and people like Cooper have no use for anymore. Doesn’t stop him from moving towards her like a moth to the flame, doesn’t stop him from collapsing like a house of cards.
“Fucking hell,” he breathes, and finally stops resisting, letting her pull him into the room.
“Are you in pain?”
“Yes,” he admits, seeing no point in hiding what she can surely scent already.
“How can I help?”
She says it so earnestly he almost laughs but instead he shakes his head, weighs his options, and decides the worst that could happen is she says no and that he can more than deal with. He doesn’t think this will be what breaks them apart.
“I think you know how you can help, darlin’, but I don’t know that you’ve got the stomach for it.”
“An omega in heat cannot consent,” she says as if reciting it from a book which she most likely was.
A simple no would have sufficed if she wasn’t interested but instead she looks genuinely sad about it.
“Your books ain’t never seen an omega like me, honey. Look if you don’t want a piece of this I don’t blame ya but-”
“No that’s not what it is, you smell so good right now and I like you a lot Cooper but what if you regret it? I can’t live with that.”
“What exactly is there to regret?”
“Are you- I don’t know- even attracted to me?”
Cooper laughs, a big, deep belly laugh that makes Lucy smile in return despite her anxiety.
“I know you probably haven’t looked in a mirror in a while but you are still the prettiest damn thing I’ve ever seen out here and you’ve got an alpha scent that could get a man drunk off it.”
“Really? I thought you couldn’t smell.”
“I can taste it in the air that’s how strong you’re scenting right now. Look you don’t have to take me through my heat but if you did…I’d be mighty grateful. Otherwise I might just go back out there and find one of them strapping alphas to take me to bed.”
“Absolutely not!” she snaps, practically gnashing her teeth.
“Why not? I can handle myself.”
“Did you not hear what I said out there? You’re mine!” she exclaims, throwing her hands out, “You are mine, Cooper, not anyone else’s.”
“Well if I’m yours why don’t you soothe some of this pain of mine, sweetheart?”
She sighs through her nose and finally says, “You promise? You promise me you really want this and it’s not just your heat talking?”
“I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, that I want this, Lucy.”
She watches him carefully, waiting for him to say just kidding, to say he changed his mind, but Cooper says nothing and simply waits. She finally steps closer to him and hesitantly reaches out to take his gloved hand between both of her smaller ones before sliding the glove off gently, doing the same to the other one. She starts to work on his vest and he quickly stops her.
“Don’t think you need to see all that, sweetheart.”
“I want to.”
“You may think you do but…”
“But nothing. It’s my business who I find attractive, not for you to decide. I want to touch all of you and skin to skin is the fastest way to reduce some of that pain so just let me please.”
His hands reluctantly fall away from hers so she can continue efficiently opening his vest and shirt. Then she hurriedly strips her own shirt off and unclasps her bra so it falls away to reveal what Cooper has decided is a perfect pair of tits. Before he can touch or even comment she’s hugging him so they’re pressed skin to skin and a layer of pain sheds away like snake skin.
“Fuck,” he groans, head dropping to her shoulder.
“Better?”
“Mmhm.”
She laughs lightly and wraps her hand around the back of his neck to further ground him.
“I’m gonna make sure you feel so good,” she murmurs, stroking up and down his back.
“And how do you plan on doing that, little alpha?”
“Well first I’d like to kiss you if that’s okay.”
“How about this? Blanket permission to do whatever your heart desires and I’ll throw you off if I don’t like it.”
“Or you could use your words.”
“Not as fun.”
She shakes her head and says, “Oh hush,” before kissing him as sweetly as she can which is quite a lot.
He forgot what sweet even tasted like, being unable to taste much of anything, but he swears that’s what she is. Way too sweet for him, too precious for rough hands like his to hold her. She pushes his duster, shirt, and vest off his shoulders and onto the floor before grabbing his arm and looping it around her waist.
“Touch me for real, please,” she says, and goes back to kissing him.
Who is he not to oblige?
She’s soft under his touch, both her skin and the give of her body, the wasteland not having quite taken it from her yet. His palms skate the planes of her stomach and ribs before one slides to the small of her back and the other cups a breast, thumb passing over her rosy nipple. All he can think in this moment is how good it feels to surrender himself into this right now, practically delirious with heat at this point. Her hands fall to his belt buckle but before she unclasps it she presses a firm palm to his dick, hard and trapped in the confines of his trousers. He moans without meaning to, swaying into her space a little more. She finally has his pants and underwear down around his ankles as well and she kneels to remove his boots, smiling up at him in a way that is decidedly Lucy, both innocent and devious at the same time.
“I want to ride you,” she says as soon as he steps out of everything, standing before her completely naked and feeling so vulnerable he could scream.
“I reckon that sounds mighty fine to me.”
“Oh good,” she says, smiling wide, and pushes him confidently onto the bed.
Lucy may be innocent in a lot of ways but Cooper has gathered that apparently sex is not one of them.
Lucy strips her pants and underwear off shamelessly and climbs on top of him. She takes a hair band off her wrist and pulls her hair into a ponytail before she leans down to kiss him, this time sloppier and hungrier. She’s a drink of clean water in the wasteland and he’s so goddamn thirsty.
Before he can even think of trying to touch her between her legs she’s slid herself right onto his dick, bottoming out fast because she’s so opened up from arousal. Something clicks into place for him and suddenly the pain has almost entirely receded, allowing him to actually enjoy his own arousal instead of suffering under it. Good alpha pussy will do that.
His hands dig into the thick meat of her thighs as she bounces on his dick and his hips buck up into her tight heat hard enough to wrench little cries from her throat. She takes her own bouncing tits in her hands, moaning as she starts to play with them. He clicks his tongue in annoyance and bats her away, covering them with his own greedy palms.
“That’s my job, sunshine.”
She laughs, head thrown back and he reaches one hand back to tug her ponytail free so that her hair falls free like a waterfall curtain around her face. He fists that large hand in her hair and tugs her close to kiss her again. He can tell she’s going to cum right before her orgasm hits with the way she starts to spasm and clench around him. She wails a little and says his name over and over as she comes around him. When he comes on the heels of her orgasm, he cries out for Lucy and wraps his arms tight around her as he fucks up into her welcoming body.
“Can you go again?” She asks as soon as he’s come down a little, ass rolling slowly as both of them enjoy his cum dripping out of her and down his dick before she fucks it back into herself.
“Honey, do you know anything about heat?”
“Yes! I was an official neutral heat partner in the vault, I took care of a lot of the omegas.”
“And I’m sure those omegas were well medicated with heats that were practically sedated. This ain’t nothin’ like that. This is hunger, plain and simple. I’ll fuck you as many times as you let me, sweetheart.”
“That’s quite a lot, mister, we’ll see.”
“I know for a fact I can outlast you.”
She leans back enough to brace herself on his chest before starting up a rhythm again.
“Like I said, we’ll see.”
Cooper wraps his hands around her pretty hips as she rides him for all she’s worth, panting and moaning. Lucy is open in her pleasure as with all other things and she is beautiful in it, beads of sweat glistening down her lithe body.
“Will you fuck me on my back?” She asks breathlessly, “My thighs are tired.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” he says and flips them smoothly enough to stay inside her.
As he starts to move between her legs, she hooks her heels in the small of his back to get him deeper, greedy for his cock. He smiles into her neck and starts to kiss and suck at the sensitive skin there, reveling in the little mewling sounds she makes. When he picks up the pace, hips starting to slam into her, she claws at his back to keep from screaming too loud and the pain only intensifies everything. He hopes she leaves scars in the shape of her scratches.
“Please do it harder, yes, yes, just like that, doing so good.”
Cooper shudders at her words and keeps fucking her exactly how she asked until she’s coming around him with a strangled cry.
“Come inside me again please, Cooper, please.”
He is truly helpless but to obey.
“Mercy, mercy,” she finally says after he’s able to draw proper breath again, weakly pushing at his chest, “You win I can’t take anymore, Cooper.”
He pulls out immediately but is actually honest to god squirming against her, still deeply turned on. She turns onto her side and takes him in hand. He’s sensitive enough that it doesn’t take much to make him come again, white spilling over her fingers. He makes a pained noise and pushes her hand away, overstimulated but still turned on, which prompts her to say,
“What if I put my fingers inside you?”
He slow blinks at her in something close to confusion.
“What for?”
“What for? What do you mean what for?”
“I mean what the hell for?”
“Have you really never let anyone put anything up there?”
“Hasn’t come up.”
“It’s supposed to feel good, Cooper. It’s the same as sticking your fingers in my vagina.”
“Hmm.”
She doesn’t say anything but looks at him with those big doe eyes that make him crumble every time.
“Whatever you want, I ain’t sayin’ no yet.”
She pushes at him till he turns onto his back again and encourages him to bend one of his legs. He feels terribly open and a little like he wants to kill her for getting to see him like this. Then she reaches down to her pussy and runs her fingers through the mess they’ve made before bringing them to his hole and getting it wet.
“Now that may be the hottest thing I ever did see, Miss MacLean.”
She giggles and shakes her head, kissing him even as she slides a finger inside him. It’s barely up to the first knuckle and she has small fingers but still it’s like a shock to his system, foreign and intrusive. She’s a good kisser at least and that distracts him until she’s got her entire finger inside him.
“Feels strange,” he says, unsure whether he wants to shy away or lean into her touch right now.
“Just gimme a second to find it,” she says, tongue between her teeth in focus.
She has such an endearingly focused expression that he can’t help but chuckle. That sound is quickly cut off by a moan that escapes his throat as she finally finds whatever it was she was looking for. Like a lightbulb turning on, a pleased smile transforms her face.
“Got it!” She says brightly and then proceeds to flip his world upside down.
Each press of her finger is a gut punch of pleasure as she strokes along his inner wall. He can tell he’s going to come fast and he’s going to come hard.
She happily guides him through multiple orgasms where his cock remains untouched before he starts to beg for her to touch him again.
“You can come in my mouth by the way,” she says brightly.
Before he can form more slow words she’s rubbing against that spot again and dipping to take his cock in her mouth with zero hesitation.
“Oh fuck, Lucy, what the fuck?”
She pulls back enough to suck just on the tip of his dick, tongue working at the underside, before sliding back down again. Her head bobs as she sets a punishing rhythm of suction and insistent pressure inside him that has him right on the edge before he knows it, shocked by how quickly she got him there this time. She hums in pleasure when he brushes her hair back and scratches against her scalp.
“You taste like me,” she says matter of factly when she stops to catch her breath, and Cooper can feel his thighs shaking with arousal.
She shuffles a little closer so she can change the angle a bit as she goes back to sucking his cock and rubbing at that spot that’s making his stomach swoop like crazy. Cooper almost whines with how good it feels.
What Cooper has learned from this experience so far is that Lucy is very good at sex and Lucy is very insistent on eye contact during said very good sex. It’s overwhelming.
“Lucy, honey, I’m gonna come, I’m gonna- oh god,” he groans and comes in her mouth, shuddering as she easily drinks him down.
“I changed my mind I want more,” Lucy says desperately and climbs right back on his dick while Cooper is still shivering through the aftershocks of a mind blowing orgasm.
The frenzy she’s worked herself into is impressive, her pupils blown insanely wide, and it takes him a long moment to realize her rut has kicked in.
“I want you so bad, Cooper, why do I want you so fucking bad?” She says, the slightest bit alarmed at the hunger that’s awoken in her belly.
“Sweetheart, you’re in rut.”
“That’s what this is,” she says, slightly in awe, “They never let me go through rut properly, said it was too dangerous.”
“Well that’s just unhealthy.”
“Tell me about it,” she sighs and her eyes flutter shut as she grinds down against him, smiling when he starts to buck up to meet her.
Lucy is so oversensitive at this point that she’s keening with each upward thrust of his hips and he doesn’t dare stop. Her teeth set right over the spot where a mating mark would be on his neck and the sting makes him come inside her in an instant.
He completely loses count of the orgasms after that, lost in a heat haze with an alpha that tastes so good he wants to bottle it.
“Oh fuck,” Lucy says in the final afterglow, once the heat has passed on through, and Cooper is incredibly surprised to hear her curse but even more surprised when her fingers trace what he realizes is clearly a bite mark on his neck. Her fingers come away bloody and she looks horrified.
“I am so sorry oh my gosh I can’t believe I did that, I can’t believe I did that, I’m so, so sor- ”
“So you meant it when you said I was yours didn’t you?”
“I didn’t mean it like this,” she says with tears in her eyes, “I didn’t mean to hurt you like this, baby, please believe me.”
Baby. He’s cared for softly enough to be called that by her of all people.
“I’d really prefer it if you did mean to.”
“But I didn’t.”
“So lie to me,” he shrugs.
“You want to be claimed,” she suddenly says in realization, “You wanted this?”
“Question is, do you?”
“I feel like it’s obvious from my teeth marks in your neck that I want to keep you.”
“Bond doesn’t stick without my teeth in you, sweetheart.”
“They told us the biting was barbaric and unnecessary.”
“And you think otherwise?”
“I think it depends on what you think,” she says after a beat.
“I think taking your bite is about the closest thing to romance I’m willing to touch.”
She offers her neck up instantly before blushing a little at her own eagerness.
“You sure?” He says, stroking a finger along the soft, exposed part of her neck where her pulse is fluttering strongest.
“I told you I’d follow you anywhere and I meant it.”
“Flatterer,” He says and she smiles back.
“You gonna bite me or what?” She says, moving closer to his teeth.
“I guess I am,” he murmurs and then sinks his teeth in, slow but deep enough to cut the skin.
When the bond snaps into place, Lucy cries, wrapping her entire body around Cooper like she never wants to be separated. Cooper can’t bring himself to let go either.
Lucy stares in wonder at a sleeping Cooper, purring up an absolute storm in her arms, and traces the tender bite mark on her own neck. The trust she’s been given is immeasurable and makes her teary eyed. When he shuffles closer to her in her sleep after she kisses his forehead, she knows she wouldn’t just kick another alpha’s ass for him, she’d kill for him, plain and simple. Her sweet omega has already done the same for her and he is hers now so yes, she’d destroy whoever it took to keep him safe and that’s just who she is now. She can’t bring herself to mind when he’s this vulnerable and trusting with her now. When he lets her love him the way she’s always wanted to love someone, with her whole entire heart.