Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Patrick
We were in the middle of a very busy lunch rush when Cooper turned up. His cheeks were flushed pink, and his hair was windswept. He looked beautiful.
Instead of waving hello and taking a seat like usual, though, Cooper came over to the counter.
“Hey, sweetheart.” I smiled.
Cooper leaned over the counter and began… sniffing me.
“Erm… you okay?” I asked.
“I’m great. You smell great.”
I laughed. “Thank you? You gonna take a seat?”
“No, I’m good right here,” he said.
“Okay…”
I grabbed two plates from the pass and headed over to the table of chest-feeding omegas because boy did they get crabby if you let them go hungry for too long.
Only, after I gave them their food and turned back around, I nearly crashed into Cooper, who’d followed me to their table.
“Hi,” he said, grinning up at me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m perfect.”
I couldn’t argue with him there, but he was acting strange all the same.
So that was how I spent almost the entirety of a busy shift. I ran around like a headless chicken, and Cooper followed me like an imprinted duckling. It was something we’d need to talk about later on, but I’d been too busy at the time and hadn’t wanted to upset him.
Jia had been giving us weird looks the whole time. I would also deal with that later.
We were down to the last few customers before closing when I asked Jia if she could finish up for me, and I took my weirdly behaving boyfriend back home.
Cooper had been quiet but had seemed happy enough, if a little clingy, on the way. When I opened my front door, though, there were… daffodils everywhere.
“Sweetheart…”
“Don’t they look pretty, Daddy?” Cooper smiled at them before kicking his trainers off and heading straight upstairs.
I followed him, and things got weirder. In my bedroom, there were what appeared to be close to fifty flannel-fleece blankets draped around the room. I was still busy staring at it all a bit dumbfounded when Cooper crawled onto the bed completely naked.
When did he get undressed?
“It’s perfect, isn’t it? You love flannel. You wear it all the time.”
“I’ve certainly never seen so much of it at once,” I said.
Cooper busied himself arranging the blankets in a very nest-like manner.
“Baby boy… do you think maybe your rut has come a little sooner than usual?” I asked.
“Rut week” as we generally called it was closer to rut fortnight in reality, and Cooper said his usually came towards the back end of it.
“No. It never comes early,” he said adamantly.
“Hmmm. So, the daffodils?”
“You like them. You said you used to pick them for your mum.”
“Right, sure. And all the flannel blankets?”
“Like I said, you wear a lot of flannel. I’m not sure what’s confusing about this, Daddy.” Cooper hopped back off the bed and headed for the bathroom. He returned dragging my laundry hamper in with him which he tipped upside down onto the bed.
Huh. Maybe a rut with an alpha isn’t so different after all…
“Daddy? You need to take your clothes off now and get inside our nest.”
“Can you give me just five minutes and I’ll be right there with you?” I asked.
Cooper pouted and didn’t reply, fluffing up some pillows in the nest.
I quickly shot off a text to Jack to let him know Cooper had gone into rut early so wouldn’t be at work, and I called Jia to let her know I’d be closing the cafe for a few days. She seemed grateful for the time off.
From the kitchen, I grabbed some supplies, snacks, and a few sports drinks along with the prescription for Cooper.
When I returned to my bedroom, I found Cooper tearing off the plastic wrapping on the bottle of lube with his teeth like a feral racoon.
“Finally. You’ve been gone forever.” He glared at me, and I really tried not to laugh. Cooper was so compliant in his nature, and seeing the alpha in him really come to the surface, firm in what he wanted, was incredibly endearing.
“Just quickly—”
“Can you take your clothes off while you talk?” Cooper interrupted.
I laughed but did as I was told for once and approached him on the bed after I’d stripped down. “I need you to listen for this bit, Cooper. Do you still want to take this tablet so you can take my knot?”
Cooper grabbed the little brown paper bag with the tablet in it and ripped it to shreds.
“Easy…” I passed him one of the bottles of Lucozade, and he had the pill swallowed in seconds.
A small pool of apprehension formed in my gut. I knew that if Cooper had been an omega, his heat would’ve triggered my rut to sync us up. But Cooper wasn’t an omega, and I decidedly was not yet in rut… What if I had to ride this out with him, and I didn’t start my rut until afterwards?
If that’s what he needs, that’s what you’ll do.
Cooper was rubbing the soft blankets over his skin and mumbling about how good it felt. My heart seemed to beat a little faster at the sight of him. He looked safe and happy in his nest that he’d made with me in mind.
I climbed onto the bed and joined him.
Cooper sighed happily as I ran my hands over his slightly heated skin. I kissed his plush lips, along his jaw, and down his neck. Cooper shivered when I licked the scent mark on his neck.
Grabbing the lube Cooper had gnawed his way into earlier, I flicked the lid and poured a generous amount over two of my fingers. Cooper hitched his leg up over my hip so I could reach beneath to rub the lube over his hole.
His entrance was softer than usual with more give, so the tablet he’d taken must have already taken effect.
“Daddy?” Cooper whimpered.
“Yeah, baby boy?”
“I think I might have gone into rut early,” Cooper said so earnestly I couldn’t have stopped myself from laughing if I’d tried.
“You reckon? I think so too maybe. What do you need?”
“My cock really aches, Daddy. Can you fuck me while I use the toy?”
“Of course, sweetheart.” I pecked him on the end of his cute little nose before reaching to get the toy from the bedside table.
I squirted a lot of lube inside it and then passed it to Cooper, who got comfortable on his side.
The toy was a knottable fleshlight, the base of it able to expand and keep a knot trapped inside. I’d never found them to quite hit the spot, but they would get you through a rut on your own.
I squeezed a bit more lube onto my cock and spread Cooper’s cheeks to line myself up with his hole. Cooper gave way to me much more easily than usual, and he groaned as I pressed all the way in, my stomach and chest flush to his back as I bottomed out.
He was so tight and warm around me, and I moaned as he began to wriggle, clearly becoming impatient.
“Fuck me now,” Cooper demanded before tacking on a quick, “please.”
“Match my pace with the toy. Only stroke yourself with it when I push back into you, okay?”
Cooper let out a frustrated groan. “Y-y-yes, Daddy. Okay.”
With considerable effort, I took my time. Cooper pulled the toy down over his length with each roll of my hips, and he whined at the double sensation.
When his hand was trembling to keep to the slower pace, I showed him some mercy and began to speed up.
“Yessss. Oh my god. Fuck. Yes. Right there.” Cooper was so much more vocal than usual, and I loved seeing this side of him. Loved the thought of all the ruts we might share in the future during which I’d get glimpses of a very cute, demanding Cooper.
Giving him exactly what he needed, I fucked into him firm and fast, wishing I was in rut so I could knot him.
“D-daddy. Gonna come. F-fuck. So c-close.” Cooper gasped and trembled as he fell apart, his hole strangling my cock. I watched as the toy stretched and made room for his impressive knot, and Cooper eventually turned to jelly in my arms.
“Keep going please. Keep fucking me. Can’t you knot me, Daddy? I want it,” Cooper murmured.
I kissed the back of his sweaty neck and brushed some of his hair back and away from his eyes.
“I can’t knot you right now, I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ll keep fucking you, though. I’ll fill you with cum instead, how does that sound?”
“That sounds okay,” Cooper replied a little sleepily.
I went back to a slower pace, gently rocking inside him and enjoying the warmth of him around me. He smelled like sex and alpha pheromones, and I couldn’t stop myself from breathing him in.
My own release built slowly, like wading through thick, delicious syrup. My balls ached, and Cooper was so pliant, taking every thrust with little whimpers falling from his lips. I groaned and gently bit down on his shoulder as I came, my hips jerking as I lost myself inside my perfect boy.
“Fuck, you’re amazing. How did I get so lucky?”
Cooper hummed. “I’m just a boy.”
I shook my head. “No. Not just a boy. My perfect boy.”
My perfect boy smiled, and before long, soft little snores were the only sound in the silent room. I squeezed my arms tightly around his middle and got comfortable, his knot was still swollen inside the fleshlight, and he was keeping my cock warm with his sweet hole.
As much as I wished I could have knotted him like he wanted, this was about as close to perfect as it got.
It was dark out when I woke up sweating all over. Despite having fucked Cooper three times yesterday, I was rock hard. And when I realised I was alone in the bed, my heart began to race in my chest.
Where is he? Where is mate? Where, where, where?!
I sniffed the air. Cooper’s pheromones were still strong, so he couldn’t have gone far. The bathroom was empty and so was the spare bedroom.
Like a madman, I searched through every room, my panic building the longer it took to find him.
Had I lost him again? Had he left me?
Checking only because I’d looked literally everywhere else, I opened the door to the tiny utility room near the back door. It was where my washing machine and dryer were, and I couldn’t fathom why he would be in there, but then I spotted him.
On top of the dryer was where I kept the big cat bed I’d put outside for him when he’d been just my little fox in the winter.
Cooper was curled up in his fox form in the bed. He’d been sleeping, but he peeked an eye open at me now, and I could finally breathe again. Instead of taking him out of it, I scooped up the bed with him still inside and took it back upstairs.
Silly mate hiding.
Back in bed, I placed the cat bed next to me where I could see him. He was peering at me from the little entrance to it.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stroking a finger down his nose.
Cooper nipped at my finger playfully. He didn’t look sad, at least. He’d told me that he often spent a lot of his rut in his fox form, finding it lessened the intensity of it, but I’d sort of assumed that was only because he’d spent them alone.
I knew Cooper took a lot of comfort in his fox. He spent more time in this form than most people, so I tried not to read into it. Instead, I shifted too.
My fox was far too big to fit in the little cat bed with him, so I nudged him with my muzzle until he crawled out. I licked his face and his neck until he smelled just right, and then I sat on top of him.
Good luck hiding from me again. Silly mate.