Heart and Claw

Cooper trudged through the ankle-deep snow, the powder emitting a watery-blue light that made the entire landscape look like some kind of polluted ocean. The glow was subtle, especially this late into the night, but his Geiger counter was starting to ramp up, the little ticking sound suggesting he better hurry it up before he started walking around on three feet.

His leather boots dug furrows into the snow as mounted the next dune, the disturbed dust staining the leggings of his cargo pants, also made from leather. His upper half was clad in a metal chest piece, the rusting metal catching the light of the glow as he shuffled between two decaying trees, the skeletal branches shaved clean of their leafy coats long ago. The armour trailed down to his wrists, the plating segmented near the elbows, so it didn’t limit his range of motion. It had burned a hole in his pocket to pay for the custom fittings, but with a bit of luck, money wouldn’t be an issue for much longer.

He pulled his hood over his face as a strong gust of wind hit him from the side, kicking up a sheet of swirling snow and making things hard to see. When it cleared, he was greeted with a vantaged view of a valley, the adjacent humps of earth winding towards the horizon, the ground littered here and there by a few patches of trees just barely clinging to life, the monotonous glow of the powder broken up by a solitary building in the near distance.

It had a triangular roof, a single chimney rising from the sloped tilework, a little plume of smoke curving into the sky. A deck extended out of the left and right sides of the main structure, held aloft by maybe a dozen wooden pylons with concrete bases, just made visible by the dim, yellow lanterns attached to the corners of the walls.

As Cooper approached it, he could make out a few more details. Sprouting from the sides of the lodge were piles of junk – rubber tires, crates, wooden planks – all of it stacked on top of each other in a haphazard pile, though there was a method to the madness. It was all arranged to form a wall maybe five meters high, parts of it covered over with wire meshes, the occasional barbed wire sprouting from the top. The junk formed a perimeter wall that encompassed both flanks of the building, likely wrapping around and meeting on the other side. There was an opening near the middle, with wooden crates stacked here and there to provide the defenders a strong position to ward off frontal attacks.

Speaking of defenders, a pair of humans stepped out into the open as he waled up onto the adjacent road. It wasn’t exactly a road, but more of a track that had been carved out through overuse. Cooper could see footprints in the disturbed snow, animal prints, even the long strips left by wheels. Caravans, if Cooper had to guess.

“You the guy from NCR?” one of the defenders called out, his face capped by a woollen toque. He had a lot of winter gear on, but Cooper could just make out the glint of an armoured vest between the zipper of his coat. He was pointing a hunting rifle somewhere between Cooper and the ground. His counterpart was similarly geared, though they were carrying a submachine gun, aiming it right at Cooper’s head.

“Mister Hendrix asked for me,” Cooper replied, the guards lowering their guns at the mention of the title.

“Boss’s waitin’ inside,” the guard informed him, gesturing with his rifle for him to follow. The other guard eyed Cooper warily as he stepped toward the gate, the ornate design of the lodge drawing his gaze up.

The roof slightly overhanged across the front façade, casting the slatted windows into shadow, Cooper noting there was barely a scratch on the pieces of glass. Even the wooden logs making up the faces of the building were pristine, the oakwood sitting perfectly flush against the glass panes. It felt like this place had been plucked straight out of the Old World.

“So is it true?” the guard asked, Cooper following him up to the porch. “You the waster who took down thirty fire geckos with just a ten millimeter?

“It was actually nineteen,” Cooper replied, adjusting his collar. “And I mostly used frag mines. Wasn’t cheap, had to sacrifice half the bounty just to make it work.

“Won’t have to worry about tight funds here, the boss is sitting on a pile of cash. Hell, I get paid just as much as I did back when I was running with caravans, and I get to sit around a gate all day.”

The guard pushed a pair of double doors open, holding them so Cooper could walk inside. “So what’s the job?” Cooper asked, the humid air of the lodge warming him through his armour.

“Hendrix wants to give you the details himself, but I’ll give you this,” the guard added, bringing his voice down to a low, conspiratorial tone. “You’ll need a lot more than frag mines for this, these ain’t geckos you’ll be dealing with. I’ll go tell the boss you’re here.”

The guard sauntered off, Cooper rubbing his cold hands together as he surveyed the spacious interior. The lobby was wider than it was longer, with the far wall occupied by a long bar flanked by shelves stacked with differently coloured bottles, a pair of men giving him the side-eye as they sat at the counter. Tables were arranged throughout the open-planned space, and a balcony ringed all four walls above him, maybe half a dozen doors visible above the wooden railings. Two wings branched off to the left and right, connected to the lobby by doorless arches, the guard who’d led him inside disappearing into the one on the left.

All of this was cast in a yellow glow by an impressive chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the hundreds of little glass shards sparkling as they caught the light of several smaller lanterns placed throughout the lobby. There were tall glass display cases lining the left and right walls, Cooper moving over to the closest one and craning his neck up at what was being kept inside.

Standing within the glass tube was a suit of armour, but not just any kind. The suit was bulky, easily twice the mass of the average man, the limbs and torso layered over with steel plates thicker than Cooper’s arms. A black, slatted visor peered back at him above a set of respirator tubes, the helmet stencilled with the letters T45 above the left brow.

It was a suit of power armour, one of the more common variants found throughout the Wastes, though that wasn’t to say they were easy to come by. Most of the pre-war suits had been hoarded away by the Brotherhood, a group of tech-crazed humans who kept all the best toys for themselves. Cooper had only ever tested out a frame like this once before, but the nuclear fusion core that powered the armour was damaged, and gave up the ghost an hour after he’d started up the suit. It had been a pretty fun sixty minutes, though.

The gate guard returned before he could investigate the other displays, the man jerking a thumb down at the left wing. “He’s ready to see you. Watch where you step, though, Bessy’s around.”

The guard returned to his post without elaborating, Cooper shrugging his shoulders as he moved to where he’d pointed. This wing of the lodge wasn’t as spacious as the lobby, but no less impressive. A cobblestone fireplace dominated the far wall, the gentle flames sizzling over a row of logs casting a warm glow over the room. Bookcases lined the walls, the shadows made harsh by the light of the fireplace, the number of pre-war books easily in the hundreds, Cooper resisting the urge to pluck one off a shelf at random. He’d spent most of his younger years reading the teachings of the Old World, and he never went anywhere without a few on hand.

There was something on the floor in front of the mantle that caught his attention. A giant, furry mat stretched from one wall to the other, not quite long enough to cover the entire breadth of the room, but very close to it. Cooper blinked as he picked out bulges in the mat, the texture shifting into very hand-like shapes, the digits tipped with long, black claws.

A bulge on this side of the mat drew his gaze, and he realised this was no mat at all. A pair of creamy eyes watched lifelessly at some far point behind Cooper, the skin below it tapering out into a long muzzle, capped with a dark nose. Mangy fur draped over a splayed set of powerful jaws, the neck flattening out into the rest of the skin. It was a yao guai coat, a deadly predator that hunted man and beast alike, reduced to a carpet.

There were two seats atop of this exotic rug, and one of them was occupied. A man maybe a decade or two older than Cooper peered across the room at him, his body clad in a crinkled green suit, the kind Cooper had only seen the rich types in New Reno wear. He wore a pair of dress shoes, and there were gold and silver rings on some of his fingers. He would have looked right at home in the Bishop’s Shark Club.

Although getting on in his years, the man had a calm, collected voice, weathered by many years of thriving in the Wastes. “Not another step, Mister Cooper,” he said, holding up an authoritative hand. “if you value your legs.”

At first he thought it was a threat, but then Cooper heard it, a muted rattling sound filling the room. He looked down, noticing a slight shimmering in the air by his boot, his instincts warning him there was something right in front of him.

As he watched, the shimmering began to solidify, the tapered end of a tail defining itself into his vision. The appendage wound up to a pair of backwards-shaped legs, sitting flush against the hind of a long, serpentine body, the legs ending in four, padded toes. The torso was covered over with fur in places, and scales in others, a winding neck narrowing into a long muzzle. A pair of green, reptilian eyes with vertical pupils scrutinized him from below a pair of fuzzy ears like those of a dog, Cooper’s eyes drawn to the two long fangs protruding from the tip of its mouth. If a dog and a snake had a baby, this was probably what it would look like. Cooper reached for his pistol, but the older gentleman spoke up before he could draw.

“Relax, Bessy,” the man in the suit said, snapping his fingers. The strange creature stopped producing that disturbing, rattling sound, turning its winding neck to look at its supposed master. The man beckoned to it, and the creature stood up, winding between the legs of a table, and disappearing again. When Cooper blinked his eyes, the creature was visible and by the man’s side, laying down to nuzzle itself against his smart shoes.

“How’d you tame the Nightstalker?” Cooper asked, warily approaching the man.

“Oh, Bessy isn’t tame, hardly any of my animals are, she’s just been around long enough to know she’ll get fed if she behaves. Isn’t that right, darling?” he added, reaching down to scratch behind Bessy’s ear, who crooned in reply.

“You have more?” Cooper looked around warily, wondering how many Nightstalkers he’d passed on the way in.

“Don’t you know who I am?” the man asked, quirking a brow. “The Hendrix business is known throughout the west coast as wildlife traders. If you’ve ever seen a pet, be it dog or cat or whatever, it’s likely travelled through this very lodge.”

“I deal with wildlife in other ways,” Cooper replied. “I’m not gonna be your handler if that’s why you sent for me.”

“I’m aware of your expertise,” Hendrix said, leaning back in his cushioned chair. “A bounty hunter, equally adept in hunting man and beast. People have taken to calling you the Tracker, from Reno to the Boneyard you’ve accumulated quite the reputation for solving problems.”

“Always hated that stupid name,” Cooper grumbled.

“Nevertheless, it’s your tracking skills I wish to purchase, not your animal handling ones, though you should consider it, keeping the wastelands beasts in line can be just as thrilling as hunting them. But I digress,” Hendrix muttered, shifting through his coat to produce a cigar and a lighter. He shielded the flame as he lit it, taking a small puff. “You see, some of my stock have managed to escape the lodge, and I need someone to find them.”

“Sounds simple enough, what’s escaped?”

“Straight to the point, aren’t you? I chose you well.” He took another draw, speaking around the cigar in the corner of his lips. “We’ll get to the matter of details in time, but answer a question first. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever hunted, Mister Cooper?”

He took a moment to reflect over the years, flashbacking to the weeks of travelling interspersed by fights ranging from trivial to brutal. Mantis’, geckos, raider gangs, yao guai, hunting and killing had become his life ever since he’d struck out on his own, but there was one encounter worthy of recalling to Hendrix.

“Have to be the Fire Ant Queen that burrowed in next to Junktown,” Cooper said. “Big bitch had dozens of bodyguards.”

“Not a bad trophy, not bad at all,” Hendrix mused. “Ants never relocate their burrows, however, that makes them easy to predict. What I want you to find is anything but predictable.” He leaned forward in his chair, fixing Cooper with a hard look. “I’ve watched this beast tear apart soldier ants like they were made of tissue paper, but it’s not its vicious claws, or its innate ability to shrug off superheated flames that makes it so dangerous. It’s the way it thinks,” Hendrix said, tapping his temple with a finger. “Devilishly clever creature it is. It doesn’t fall to its primal needs like the instinctual nightstalker, or the predictable fire ant, this creature knows when to be patient, and when to strike. Subject Omega as my men have taken to calling it, is the perfect predator, that’s what makes its recovery so invaluable to me.”

“Recovery?” Cooper echoed. “You want me to bring this thing back alive?”

“Not just it, but several others of its ilk that escaped as well.”

“You’re painting a pretty grim picture, Mister Hendrix,” Cooper said. “You’re asking me to track down a whole pack of these creatures, these things you claim to be more smart and deadlier than anything else in the Wastes, and bag them?”

“I’m aware of how it must sound, Mister Cooper,” Hendrix replied, Cooper blinking at him. He’d expected assurances, or maybe even some threats, but instead the older man just leaned back in his chair, like he’d expected him to be hesitant. “I know I ask a lot from just one man, but I wouldn’t have brought you all the way out here if I didn’t think the Tracker himself could pull it off, or at the very least, point my men in the right direction, as we have no idea which way Omega went after it broke free. You would be paid for your time, of course, and as my people would tell you, I can be quite generous to those who are helpful.”

“… How generous?” Cooper asked, his age-old vice rearing its head.

“Three thousand caps for Omega’s recovery,” Hendrix said. “Half that if you can find where it’s gone, and five hundred if you just want to pick up the trail and let my people handle the rest. If you’d prefer NCR money or some other currency, we can exchange it for an equal amount.”

Cooper whistled at the generous reward. He’d only been paid a thousand for that ant queen’s head he’d mentioned. “You’re throwing a lot of money around for this ‘Omega’,” he noted.

“As I said, apex predators like Omega are worth their weight in gold to the right buyers, and it took a lot of resources to secure several of them, I’d rather not let all that effort go to waste.”

“I’ll take a look around for tracks,” Cooper said after a bit of thought. He’d found dead trails hundreds of times before, it would be a nice haul of caps for an easy job.

Hendrix leaned back in his chair, a relieved smile on his weathered face. “Splendid,” he said. “I’ll show you to where we held it, come Bessy.”

The nightstalker wagged its reptilian tail as it followed Hendrix to the door, the man stopping to retrieve a cape hanging from a rack, Cooper following him back into the lobby.

He was led around and behind the bar, the two men there still drinking and chatting away, though they did stop to greet Hendrix as they walked by. Frigid air whipped at Cooper’s long hair as his new employer pushed a sliding door on the far wall aside, the two of them walking out onto a porch.

Snow and woodland stretched out before the rear of the lodge, the junk wall Cooper had seen from the front ringing around maybe an acre of land in a rough circle. The right side of the yard was occupied by a long, two-storey shack, definitely hand-crafted judging by the rickety supports and the glassless windows. It was surrounded by a tall metal fence, the gaps between the bars wide enough for a human to squeeze through them. This fence extended into the majority of the yard, dividing the space into walkways and secluded coops.

“This pen is where we keep our more dangerous animals,” Hendrix said, waving a hand at the area as he leaned on the railing. “We have automated turrets set up every twenty meters, guards every thirty, and they’re rotated out every night at one o’clock.”

“What’s that building over there for?” Cooper asked, gesturing at the handmade shack.

“That’s the processing kennel, caravans load and unload stock from there. We were a day off from sending Omega through before it snuck out. Its holding pen is this way.”

Hendrix grabbed a lantern off a nearby stool, trudging out into the snow, Cooper following behind. Sections of the pen were walled off by metal fences, breaking up the area into several smaller spaces, the occasional gate allowing the handlers to corral the different animals without having to get in close.

Within these pens were things that looked like bird cages, only scaled up tenfold, with colourless tarps draped over their tops, the plastic ruffling in the breeze. It was obvious these were intended to protect the occupants from the cold weather, but what exactly these occupants were was impossible to tell without getting inside the coops.

“This is the one,” Hendrix announced, the pair coming to a stop in front of a series of storage containers twice as tall as Cooper was, and just as wide. There were seven in all, sitting flush against the west side of the junk wall in a neat row.

Hendrix gestured at the first one along, Cooper’s eyes widening as he appraised the cage, though calling it that wouldn’t do it justice. The container looked sturdy enough to withstand grenades, with the sides and back wall made from planks of wood, which were layered over with metal pipes on the outside, arranged like a mesh. The front frame of the container looked like it had been welded to the main body, the steel brackets melting into the underlying wood.

The thing looked sturdy enough to keep a yao guai in heat contained, if not for the giant hole occupying the middle of the front side, the interior of the container visible as a pond of inky darkness, despite the lantern’s light.

“How big is this Omega?” Cooper asked, running his hand over the breach in the cage. The wood was splintered at the edges, the reinforcing brackets snapped clean apart under what must have been a tremendous amount of force. The bend in the wood appeared to curve in a convex direction in relation to the cage.

“About nine feet tall,” Hendrix answered. “And maybe eleven from head to tail.”

“May I?” Cooper gestured for the lantern. He held it out as he stepped through the breach, the hole wide enough his shoulders didn’t even graze the edges. The lantern’s yellowy glow created a small circle, cutting back the darkness of the cage as he moved inside. The smell of musk was strong enough to make Cooper pull his scarf over his mouth, the man crouching down to examine the floor. There wasn’t a single hair or scale in sight, but the textured ground caught his attention. The floor was layered over with a smooth, almost rubbery material, dark gray in colour. Cooper noted that even the walls of the cage were protected by this odd fabric.

He stepped out into the open air again, handing back the lantern and asking Hendrix about the cage’s inlining.

“That’s Kevlar,” Hendrix explained. “It’s the only material aside from reinforced steel that can withstand a slice from Omega’s claws. We thought our yao guai cages would be enough to hold it, but it seems I was wrong.”

“You got that right,” Cooper replied, turning his eyes on the metal mesh that enclosed the container. The pipes that should have lidded the container were instead lying in the snow, suggesting something powerful had busted clean through it. “So it punched straight through the wood and freed itself. Any witnesses?”

“Jade, one of my guards, took the afternoon shift the night Omega escaped. She traded places with the night guard, and when she turned around, the cages were empty. She’s up there now, if you want to talk to her.”

He pointed up at the wall, where a small ladder led up to a platform overlooking the cages. A woman was standing there, her back to the cages, an assault rifle clutched in her gloved hands as she looked beyond the wall. Next to her was a rotating gun, mounted on a set of custom-built legs built into the wall’s roof, the barrel swivelling back and forth across the pen.

“Sure, couldn’t hurt.”

Hendrix called up to the woman, and she climbed down the ladder, her boots splashing the snow as she stepped off the last rung. Her leather jacket creaked as she sauntered over, her pale skin contrasting with the dark material. Her raven-black hair was tied up in a ponytail, the woman flicking it aside as she addressed her boss.

“You called me?”

“This is Mister Cooper,” Hendrix began, waving a hand at him. “He’s here to recover Omega and its pack.”

“Considering it,” Cooper corrected

“Of course, my apologies,” Hendrix replied. “Jade, why don’t you go ahead and tell him what you saw the night Omega broke free?”

“Just like any other shift, really,” Jade said with a shrug. “Critters were sitting tight in their cages, still out cold from all the tranquilizer we pumped into them, could hear their snores from up there.” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at her post. “Marcus came over to relieve me, we got to chatting, like always. Next thing we hear this bang.” She clapped her hands, letting her rifle hang in its sling. “We turn round, and there’s this blur, going down the line and snapping off all the cage lids, fucking thing was peeling off the wood and metal like it was canned fruit! Marcus starts firing, he’s always been trigger-happy, but he’s barely gone through half his mag before the whole pack’s scurried off into the dark.”

“The turrets didn’t shoot them?” Cooper asked.

“Nah, they kept out of its line of sight. Stupid things are only good for things out in the open, easy to avoid if you’re smart. And Omega’s super smart,” Jade added. “You ask me, that thing remembered when Marcus comes up to swap places with me. Best chance it had to get out.”

“Which way did they go?” Cooper pressed.

“Back of the pen,” Jade answered, jerking her head at somewhere behind him. “All of them was walking in single file like, you know? Omega at the head, juvvies at the back. Too dark to see much else.”

“They didn’t just jump the wall?” Cooper asked, turning to Hendrix. “You said Omega was nine feet tall, this wall would be nothing to a creature that big.”

“That’s true,” Hendrix replied. “Perhaps it was aware it would make an easy target if it took the most direct escape? There’s not much cover on that side of the wall, it would be cut down by turret fire before it got very far.”

It was a bold assumption, but if that was the case, this Omega was a lot more intelligent than Hendrix gave it credit for. “That’s everything I needed,” Cooper said, nodding to Jade. “thanks.”

“Good luck, Cooper, you’ll need it.”

As Jade climbed back to her post, Cooper walked down the line of cages, noting the damage to the rest of them was far less superficial. Like Jade had said, the lids on these cages had been torn right off the hinges, rather than being shredded from the inside like Omega’s container had. The slabs of wood were laying right where Omega had left them, Hendrix telling him he’d told his people to treat the area as a crime scene while they waited for Cooper to arrive. They’d been thrown away a fairly good distance, giving Cooper a good idea of Omega’s strength.

“Did Omega damage any of the other pens?” Cooper asked, noting the scratch marks on the Kevlar in the last cage along, whatever was held in this one must be feistier than the others.

“No, just these ones,” Hendrix answered. “it did leave a trail of destruction before it slipped away, however. I’ll take you there, if there’s nothing else you need?”

Cooper couldn’t find any evidence to help hone in on his quarry, save for the strong stench in Omega’s cage, but that wasn’t much to go on right now. He nodded, and Hendrix ushered him towards the rear of the pen, Cooper looking down to see dozens of tracks printed into the snow. There were boot marks, hooves, talons, paws, all less than a day old. Whatever tracks Omega’s pack left were too muddled for Cooper to pick out.

“Where were you going to send Omega?” Cooper asked as they walked. “You said before you were going to send it off before it escaped. Where exactly?”

“Does that matter to your investigation, Mister Cooper?”

“No, just curious as to who’d want to buy an apex predator.”

“Plenty of groups are interested in the Wasteland’s wildlife. The Followers of the Apocalypse like to keep topped up with venomous samples to develop antidotes, and there are many fighting pits out east that like to test their mettle against the Wastelands toughest predators, just for sport, but Omega specifically? It is the magnum opus of all creatures. There’s this organization that’s willing to part with a lot of caps for Omega’s capture, but they weren’t all that eager to say why. Too many questions spoil the broth, as they say.”

“How’d you capture it and its pack?”

“The same way I secure all my assets. You see, when I discovered this lodge, there was a cache of Etorphine and Ketamine locked away in the basement – immobilizing agents used back in the day to sedate big game,” Hendrix explained. “I took sampled to the chemists in New Reno to have them mass produced, but they weren’t quite designed to bring down the kind of animals we have on Earth today, so we had to make new, specialized agents unique to each category of animal. It wasn’t cheap, but the creation of the new compounds paid dividends once business was up and running. Who says we can’t create something new out of the old?”

“Pretty self-sustainable,” Cooper noted. “How many doses did it take to bring down Omega’s pack?”

“Enough that we could have brought down a family of yao guai twice over. They were still somewhat conscious when we loaded them onto the caravans, and the men were uneasy the whole return trip, and I couldn’t blame them. Omega was the most aware out of all of them, I swear it watched me the whole time as we brought them here.”

“You go out on the hunts yourself?”

“Have to find ways to keep my eyes sharp. And there’s nothing better than that feeling you get when you corner your target after a long time tracking it down. You know what I’m talking about, Mister Cooper.”

There was a wood and metal stockade built into the far side of the junk fence, the unhealthy squeak of rusty hinges filling the air as the gate parted at their approach.

“This gate was found broken when the alarm was raised,” Hendrix said, gesturing at the stockade. “As you can tell by the noise.”

Beyond the gate was open space, more of the vast wilderness that Cooper had seen from afar stretching out before him. The terrain flattened out for a ways before transitioning into rolling hills that blocked out the horizon, the dark trees contrasting against the cold blue sky.

Beyond this point, the junk fence was replaced by something a little more familiar. Wooden posts were hammered into the snow every couple of feet, with angled boards connecting them, like something one would see at a farming settlement. The two fences splayed out to either side, stretching across several more acres before looping back around, disappearing too far into the haze for Cooper to judge the distance accurately.

“Here’s where we keep our more docile creatures,” Hendrix explained. “Brahmin, dogs, livestock and the like. Plenty of room to graze when it isn’t snowing.”

“A lot less security here,” Cooper added. He could see a few mounted turrets down the sides of the fence, but they were few and far between compared to the pen and the lodge. “No surprise Omega escaped this way.”

“Are you implying there’s a connection?” Hendrix asked, raising a skeptical brow. “How could it know to come out here? It had never seen the lodge before, and we kept it locked in the cage the whole time.”

“Maybe it took note of your defences on the way in, you said it was awake when you were bringing it back.”

“You’re starting to see how intelligent this thing really is, Mister Cooper. Having said that, our grazing fields aren’t entirely unprotected. Come look at this.”

He led Cooper down the length of the junk fence to the right, where a small metal box stood inside the wall’s shadow. The metal was arranged into a mesh, with gaps big enough to fit one’s fingers through. Inside it was a large machine with a plume of smoke rising from one of the exhaust pipes jutting out of its side, the motors and pipes protected by metal casing bolted into the chassis. Laying beside it was a man in oil-stanned coveralls, his arm buried up to the wrist in the machines guts.

“This is one of our power generators,” Hendrix said. “See the copper wire trailing out of the top? That cable winds down into the ground, which travels the entire length of the fence, powering the pylons we’ve set up on the posts. Those things will shock anything that gets too close. It’s enough to keep the occasional nightstalker away, at least until…”

“Until Omega fixed that,” Cooper finished for him. “Destroyed your generator, did it?”

“More n’that!” the man in the overalls grumbled, fixing Cooper with a glare. “Damned animal didn’t just cut the wires! It made off with the rotor, too! Irreplaceable, that thing was!”

“Our generators are powered by solar,” Hendrix added. “We have panels on the roof of the lodge, but its connected by underground conduits as well, and Omega didn’t go digging for them, it just took out the part and knocked the fence out of commission in one go.”

“As if I needed more proof that this thing’s smart,” Cooper muttered. “So it took out the generator, then booked it out of here, no sweat.”

“That’s the most likely scenario.”

“How long ago did you say this was?” Cooper turned his gaze towards the frozen landscape, watching what few trees still stood out there shake in the breeze.

“Ah, it would be four days back when Omega made its move.”

“I don’t know why you bothered to send that messanger for me when you did,” Cooper said. “Your Omega’s long gone by now.”

“Not necessarily,” Hendrix said. “You see, Omega may be viscous and resourceful, but it’s still a cold-blooded creature, and like most of the animal kingdom, it cannot travel very far in the heart of winter. I have also been led to believe its den is right here in the valley somewhere, as we tracked it passing from north to south a couple of times before we captured it.”

“Can’t your nightstalker go sniff it out?” Cooper suggested.

“Bessy’s tried, but one sniff of Omega’s scent and her tail goes between her legs. She’s gone a little soft now that I’ve spoiled her, isn’t that right, girl?”

Bessy appeared by the man’s foot, simply appearing in one moment and hissing contentedly as Hendrix scratched it behind its furry ear. The idea that this thing could just appear at any time made Cooper uneasy.

“If only she could talk,” Hendrix continued as Bessy wandered off into the snow. “she’d point us in the right direction, save us the trouble.”

Cooper hunkered down next to the generator box, seeing various human tracks muddling the ground around it. He thought there might be evidence of some creature, but too many of Hendrix’s people had walked through here for him to be sure.

“I’ll go poke around,” Cooper said, standing up. “see if I find anything.”

He left Hendrix with his grumbling engineer while he stalked into the night, scrutinizing the ground for anything out of the ordinary. More boot prints suggested the guards had combed the grounds already, but despite his personal beef with the nickname, they called Cooper the Tracker for a reason.

He soon came across the electrified fence, the boards standing a little higher than Cooper was tall. At the top of each post was a smooth, white ball, surrounded by a winding spool of copper wire. Yellow electrodes poked out of the sides of the sphere, suggesting that the stored electricity would lance out at anything that got too close.

Just to be on the safe side, Cooper tossed a rock at the pylon, moving closer when the stone wasn’t electrified. He still kept his hands clear from the fence just in case as he ducked beneath the barrier, adjusting the strap of his pack as he headed deeper into the wilderness.

A crow flitted out of a tree as Cooper passed beneath its branches, keeping the fence to his left as he circled the lodge’s property. Omega could have cleared the fence from any direction after it knocked out the generator, so there was a lot of ground he’d have to cover.

He could see his breath wisp out in front of him as he distanced from the lodge, the crunching of snow the only thing to break the silence. He came across a set of tracks after a couple minutes of searching, but frowned when he recognised the paw prints belonging to a canine. The mutt had circled the fence for a while before looping back into the wild, too afraid to get any closer to the pens, like Hendrix had said.

It took another ten minutes of searching, but the next clue he found was much more promising. He was towards the very rear of the fence in relation to the lodge when he came across an indent in the snow, maybe ten or so meters away from the formerly electrified perimeter. There were no human footprints nearby.

The wind tugging at his hood, Cooper crouched down, checking the area for movement before examining the snow. There were several divots here, as if someone had fired cannonballs at this specific spot. Cooper didn’t have to be a genius to know something heavy had created these imprints. He drew an imaginary line from here to the fence, judging the arc to be very much possible for nine foot-tall creatures with a good run up.

He moved over towards the treeline, his canteen clapping against his hip as he scanned the snow, eventually coming to a stop by the base of a tree. Piles of snow had gathered on top of the lowest branches, Cooper’s presence disturbing them as he placed a hand on the wood.

Three long scars marked the trunk, trailing from left to right, the splintered wood wide enough that Cooper could have fit his fingers inside the gap between. If the marks had gone a few inches deeper, this tree would be lying in the snow. No wonder the cages had been lined with inches of Kevlar, the claws on Omega must be truly massive.

Keeping the fence at his back, Cooper moved further away from the lodge, and soon found a set of tracks he’d never seen before. There were three, pointed toes capping a long, thin heel. The print was huge, bigger than a yao guai’s, and there was an identical one about two meters ahead. This thing had very long strides.

There were also a few handprints, five digits a piece, the palm uncannily similar to a human hand. There were also little piercings in the snow above each digit, likely the result of the claws burying into the earth for leverage. The talons on these things had to be just as long as his arms, if the theory was correct.

Whatever had come through here had been running on all fours, judging by the displacement of the hand and foot prints, but it wasn’t alone. Several other identical tracks surrounded this one in particular, slightly smaller in comparison, but the size gave him pause. He could gauge that the smallest packmate had to be no less than seven feet tall, and the biggest to be nine or ten, probably Omega itself. The tracks wound up the incline, and Cooper followed them, noting that there were seven sets of tracks in total, sticking close together.

As he reached the top of the small hill, a patch of colour drew his attention. A fern in the process of dying had been splattered with drops of red, Cooper pausing to lift one of the stained leaves. The cold air temperature had frozen the blood solid, falling snowflakes giving it an icy sheen. Perhaps this Marcus had managed to land a shot or two before Omega escaped.

The tracks continued down the incline on the other side of the hill. Coupled with them, and the blood, Cooper didn’t think it would be too hard to track down the pack. A conflicted expression grazed his face as he stared into the distance. He’d already secured five hundred for finding the trail, should he push his luck and take the job? He had a rough idea of what he was up against, and he was already jumbling ideas on how to deal with these things in his head, but there were seven of them, including Omega. Taking them all down wouldn’t be easy, to say the least.

And yet, from this opportunity came a prize that set his mind wondering. He could do anything with that kind of money, he’d no longer have to scrounge through ruins for trinkets, or craft his own ammunition, he wouldn’t even have to do either of those things if he so wished, as long as he lived to collect the reward. One never gets far without taking risks, so his father had said.

He turned back to the lodge, the sounds of clattering turrets and muddled conversations reaching his ears as he neared the junk fence. Hendrix was still waiting by the broken generator, the older man leaning off the wall at Cooper’s approach.

“Any luck, Mister Cooper?”

“Blood trail, up on that hill over there. Tracks move north into the valley. Perspiration’s low, so they should keep for another few days.”

“I knew hiring you would be worthwhile. The five hundred is yours. Let’s go back inside, the cold’s doing hell on my bones.”

“Gonna need someplace to tinker in peace,” Cooper added. “and if you got any spare ammo to sell, I’ll put the five hundred towards a restock.”

“Oh?” Hendrix asked, turning around. “Does this mean you’ll take the job?”

“It does. I’ll also need someplace to put my head down, been walking all day.”

The older man’s expression was reserved, but Cooper could tell he was pleased at the news. “Of course, of course, anything you need you are welcome to take. Come, we have a workshop in the east wing that should suit your needs.”

***

Cooper followed Hendrix back into the lodge, the warm air quickly staving off the cold. They moved into one of the many doorways leading off from the lobby, Hendrix plucking a hanging string just inside, a lightbulb illuminating a garage. It was filled to the brim with crafting benches littered with weapon parts and supplies, the walls lined with shelves stacked with components and tools. It was a pretty tight fit, but Cooper could make it work.

“I have collected hundreds of weapons over the years,” Hendrix said proudly, gesturing to one side of the garage, where the barrels of guns were sticking out of several bins stacked against the concrete wall. “Automatics, rifles, pistols, a few launchers as well. You are free to take whatever you wish.”

“I thought you said you wanted these things alive?” Cooper asked, placing his pack on the nearest workbench.

“Although I would like to have all my assets returned to me, it is Omega that really matters. The rest you may deal with as you see fit, as I have no doubt they’ll get in your way as you hunt down my prize. Wound it if you must, but keep in mind I will reduce the bounty appropriately.”

“I prefer my own gear, but thanks for the offer.”

Cooper peeled off the sling over his shoulder, setting his rifle down next to his pack. Every part from the muzzle to the stock had been jury-rigged from a different weapon, no two parts quite alike, the rifle custom-made to tailor to Cooper’s needs specifically. It was very compact, almost stitched together at a glance, but he had only experienced a handful of jams in his long years in the Wastes, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

He also placed down his sidearm from his waist holster, a bulky ten millimeter. This was one more streamlined, the black paint chipping away in places. He’d been using this model since he was a kid.

“Might need something to replace this, though,” Cooper admitted, brandishing his final weapon. It was a machete, the blade dulling towards the point, the metal failing to catch the light of the overhead fluorescents. “Doubt it’ll penetrate the skin of Omega’s hide, from what I’ve seen.”

“Yes, you’d barely do anything superficial with that,” Hendrix noted. “Wait here, I’ll fetch you something more appropriate.”

Cooper was left alone for a few minutes, and he rummaged through the ammo boxes stacked on one of the shelves, soon finding one marked as 7.62. He was loading the bullets into the magazines for his rifle when Hendrix returned, two weapons clutched in his blemished hands.

The first one was a sword, with a silver hilt and black cross guard. The blade was thicker at the base, tapering into a wicked point at the tip.

Hendrix flourished the blade, his movements surprisingly practiced for one of his age, holding the blade out horizontal as he thumbed a little button built into the handle. Arcs of blue energy danced up the blade, the sharp metal glinting as Hendrix sliced the sword through the air.

“Stun-baton meets sword,” Hendrix explained. “There’s enough juice in this thing to drop a man, it should help you stun Omega or any of its packmates that might get in close, though I wouldn’t recommend that happening.”

He cut off the electrically-powered blade, offering it to Cooper, who gave it a practice swing, listening to the blade whistle through the air. “What about that one?” Cooper asked, gesturing at the other thing Hendrix was carrying.

He held it up, and at a glance, it looked like a bunch of pipes and brackets welded into the shape of a gun. A long, bronze barrel made up the majority of the weapon, with two branching pieces of lead pipe capped with bolts welded onto one end, creating the most uncomfortable stock he’d ever seen. Between these two pieces was a small gas tank, connected by a rubber pipe to the trigger well. A tray jutted out of one side of the barrel, flanked by a little pressure meter that also looked like it had been welded on.

“This is a syringer,” Hendrix explained. “it uses air pressure to fire these tranquilizer darts.” He held up one of said darts. It looked like a needle, with a point on one end, and a cluster of red feathers taped onto the other. “Inside each one of these darts is enough sedative to knock out a yao guai for a day. From my experience it takes five darts to knock out Omega, and four for its packmates. It’s quick, quiet, perfect for hunting and capturing.”

Cooper took it, the thing as big as a submachine gun, but as light as a pistol. He noted that the loading tray could hold six darts before needing to reload. “No safety latch?” Cooper asked, careful to aim the barrel away from himself.

“Don’t worry, my chemists have developed the agent to work on irradiated blood only,” Hendrix said. “Still, maybe take a bit of Radaway before you set off, just in case.”

“I’ll do that.” He set his new weapons down, his hands on his hips as he examined his new arsenal. “I’m gonna need a few bags of fertilizer if you’ve got any spare,” Cooper added.

“We’ve got plenty to go around now that it’s winter. May I ask why?”

“Ammonium nitrate goes up when exposed to a bit of heat,” Cooper replied. “Might be able to cook up some frag rounds or some mines.”

“You seem well-versed in chemistry, Mister Cooper.”

“Mom was a bit of a bookworm, passed it on to me.”

“I’ll have someone fetch a bag or two. Do you need assistance while you work, my men can help speed up the process.”

“Explosives aren’t the kind of thing you want to rush, I’ll be fine.”

“Can I ask how you plan on approaching this task?” Hendrix asked. “You have a rough direction on where to go, what do you plan on doing if you find them?”

“If they’re hibernating in a den somewhere like you said, I’ll be able to get the drop on them,” Cooper said. “If they’re out in the open, I’ll pick them off at a distance, and mine up the place in case they get too close.”

“I see, mines may work on the pack, but I hope you haven’t started underestimating Omega’s intelligence already,” Hendrix said, shaking a finger at him. “It learned to avoid the fence, I doubt it will fail to notice your traps. It may wait in its den and make you come to it.”

“If that’s what it takes, then so be it. I’ll assess my options once I find it, this isn’t my first den-walk.”

“You won’t last long in close quarters with Omega,” Hendrix muttered. “Your metal vest couldn’t take a single swipe of its claws. You saw the cages.”

“That’s what the sword’s for, said so yourself.”

“You’ll need a bit more than that if you want to stand a chance, expert or no. I have a suit of power armour I can lend you for your hunt, it should be adequate enough for your task.”

“You’re just giving me power armour?” Cooper asked, exasperated.

“Lend, not give. You know how much I need Omega back, Mister Cooper, and if I don’t invest in you, you’re sure to fail, and Omega will be even harder to track down.”

And the reward will go to someone else, Cooper thought, but instead he said: “I guess you’ve got suits to spare, that T45 in the front looks sturdy enough.”

“What? Oh, that old thing? No, no that hasn’t been powered in years, I’ll get you a more used model. That being said, don’t count on it lasting more than a handful of attacks, Omega has claws longer than your arm.”

“I’m aware. Unless you got any more info for me, I should get to work.”

“Of course,” Hendrix said with a curt nod. “When you’re done, come find me in the dining hall upstairs, the nightshift will be switching soon and there’ll be plenty of food to go around. I’ll have the armour ready in the morning for you.”

“Appreciate it.”

Hendrix nodded, moving through the door. Three thousand caps, Cooper thought as he leaned on the bench. Three thousand for one more den, and he’d walk away a rich man.

***

When Cooper had sufficiently stocked up on mines and fragmentation rounds, using the fertilizer Hendrix had provided, he cleaned down his weapons with some oil, and then made his way back into the lobby, asking someone for directions to the dining area. Hendrix hadn’t been lying when he said there was food to spare. About ten guards were sitting around a giant table, digging into trays of pre-war delicacies, Hendrix beckoning for Cooper to take his fill. There was Salsbury steaks dressed with creamy sauces, sweet roll pastries for those who liked sugar, along with refreshing carbonated drinks. It wasn’t anything like the bland, scavenged foods Cooper was used to eating, and when he voiced his praise, Hendrix explained that he had cooks on hand that paired Old World cuisine with locally grown fruits and vegetables. It was no wonder all these guards were content sitting guarding animals pens all day.

The cherry on top was the roasted mirelurk sitting on a spit above another fireplace, the juicy meat sizzled to the point where every bite was laced with a flavorful amount of salt, the sound of cracking shells filling the room as the attendees plunged into their hearty meals.

The men and women spoke at length of their latest caravan runs, Cooper quizzing them about the threats they faced out here, protecting live goods. Raiders were few in far between, especially after the would-be thieves realised their cargo was just as dangerous as the men guarding them. They in turn asked Cooper about his exploits, and the state of the west coast, as their caravan runs took them more and more to the east. They were particularly interested in hearing about NCR’s plans to annex the whole coast, starting with New Reno, but the guards were hesitant to accept that anyone could wrangle a hold on the vice capital itself.

Once the feast was winding down, Hendrix had one of the guards show him to his room. It wasn’t more than a box with a bit of furniture and a bed, but the mattress was soft, and it was private, Cooper drifting into a light sleep as he pulled the covers over himself.

***

Cooper pulled at the straps of his pack, weighed down by his new weapons and his crafted tools, his faced warmed by the morning sun as he trudged into the main pen. He felt refreshed after the uneventful sleep, his belly still full from last night’s feast, ready for the long days of hunting that awaited him.

Hendrix was waiting for him by one of the side gates, and as he approached, the barricade opened, revealing a caravan trundling through the gap. Two pairs of brahmin hauled along a flatbed mounted on a set of giant wagon wheels, a wireframe cage resting on top of the makeshift wagon. Inside it was a sleeping yao guai, tranquilizer darts jutting from its furry hide. It was snoring lazily, its exhales so deep and gruff Cooper felt the instinctual urge to steer clear of the caravan. He didn’t envy the guy who had to sit up on the driver’s seat and direct the brahmin.

“Mister Cooper, your armour,” Hendrix said, grabbing his attention with a wave. His employer gestured to a hulking suit of armour behind him, Cooper nodding his approval as he appraised the powered armour. It was a set of T51, a more advanced variant compared to the one displayed in the lobby, the armour designed to be thicker and more durable, without sacrificing mobility. The barrel chest piece and the angled pauldrons were painted in lime green, one of the shoulder pads emblazoned with a faded star of Old America, while the rest of the suit was as white as the snow at his feet.

It was a clear foot taller than Cooper, the limbs exaggerated proportionally to accommodate the heavy plating. There were a few dents and scratches, and the left leg looked like it was being held together by tape, but it was still an imposing sight, and would serve better than his current armour.

“Replaced the fusion core with a fresh one this morning,” Hendrix said. “It’ll keep you going for months, not that I hope your hunt will take that long.”

He watched as Cooper placed his possessions on the ground, stepping around the suit until he was behind it. In the middle of its metal backside was a giant valve, Cooper reaching up to twist it with his gloved hands. There was a clunk, and he brought his arms clear as sections of the torso started to part, the suit moving of its own accord to splay out its metal limbs. Like a blooming flower, the armour parted with a series of mechanical whirs, exposing the humanoid wireframe the suit used as a base.

With the suit opened up, he placing his hands on the shoulders, Cooper stepping into the suit, securing his hands and feet into the awaiting limbs, the frame spacious enough to accommodate his outfit. Once he was braced inside, the suit moved again, defaulting back into its previous state as it sealed around him, the plates compressing against his back. Cooper felt like he’d just experienced a growth spurt, the ground appearing far below him through his fibreglass visor, the air leaving a coppery taste in his mouth as the helmet filters recycled the air. He gave his now metal fingers a flex, his gauntlets mimicking his movements with little electric whirs. Gone was all that apprehension from the night before, he felt like he could drag Omega back with his bare hands.

“Shouldn’t have any trouble hauling all that gear around,” Hendrix said, the man looking tiny through Cooper’s angled visor. He picked up his weapons, clipping them onto the hooks on his waist and thighs, his pack weighing practically nothing in his powered arms. “You picked up your rations, yes?”

“As much as I could fit in my pack,” Cooper confirmed, patting his bag with his hand.

“We could provide you with a pack brahmin if you need the extra space,” Hendrix suggested.

“No, it would just make me a target, and slow me down. I always travel light anyway.”

“Then I’ve given you all that I can,” Hendrix said with an air of finality. “Remember, the pack is secondary here, though I’m willing to pay you three hundred for every one that you spare. Omega is all that matters, and just a reminder, any damage you do to it will result in a penalty or forfeit to the bounty.”

“Capture and return, I got it,” Copper said, his voice taking on a tinny quality as he spoke. “You want me to lug them back to the lodge myself?”

“While that might be possible with the suit, there’s no need.” The old man brandished a bright red sidearm, handing it to Cooper. “This is a flare gun,” he explained. “once you’ve neutralized Omega, fire it up into the sky once a night, and we’ll send a caravan to pick you up. Skies are clear enough that we’ll see you for miles.”

He handed a box of flare charges over, Cooper storing it in his already bulky pack. “If there’s nothing else, I wish you good hunting, Mister Cooper. Omega is more cunning than anything I’ve ever seen, not that I need to tell you at this point. When you see it, don’t hesitate.”

“I never do.”

***

The morning sun cast the sky in an orange sheen, the occasional strip of light fighting its way through the overcast to warm the plates of steel overlapping Cooper’s body. The wind was soft and constant, the only thing to be heard aside from the shifting servos of his suit as he crested the rough terrain. The occasional hardy tree and shrub broke up the sterile, powdery landscape, the peaks on the horizon muddled behind a haze of falling snow.

The power armour made the going easier despite its added bulk, every stride of his legs assisted by the built-in electronics, his metal legs easing him through the bumpy landscape. It had been a few hours since he’d departed from the lodge, but he was already starting to feel nostalgic for the company of the small community. He had to keep telling himself he would never want for companionship again once he claimed the reward for Omega’s capture, he just had to stay focused on his task.

He had picked up where he’d left off the night before, following the sets of tracks leading to the northwest, finding that the pack had swerved to the east after distancing from the lodge. After a good bit of walking he stopped, planting an armoured knee in the powder to examine the tracks, breathing recycled air onto his visor He wished there was a setting to turn off the helmet rebreathers, the metallic quality of the filtered air was leaving a literal bad taste in his mouth.

No longer was the pack dashing along on all fours, the sets of prints coming along in pairs, rather than quadruples. It seemed like these things could walk along on two legs as well as four, maybe they only used their forearms for when they had to move quickly?

The tracks wandered down to a flowing river between two hills, the peaks stabbing up into the sky on either side of him like giant knives. The prints suggested they’d stopped to drink, and Cooper decided to indulge himself, swiping his Geiger counter over the flowing water, the little machine staying quiet. He twisted off his helmet and refilled his canteen, the water cooling his throat as he drank. Usually he’d have to dilute irradiated water with Rad-X pills, but the Bombs must have gone a little easier on the wilderness out here.

Where the pack had gone next was confusing, Cooper noting that one of the tracks had split off from the rest, heading in the direction of the river, the water washing the prints away as they approached the bank. It wasn’t very deep, so Cooper waded into the waist-high water, keeping his pack and weapons above the waterline as he crossed. The tracks picked up again on the far side, winding into the trees.

He was conflicted. Should he track down this lone packmate, or follow the more numerous group? Judging by the prints, this lone animal wasn’t the biggest, and likely wasn’t Omega. The bonus Hendrix mentioned was tempting, but in the end Cooper decided to let it go, one loose animal wouldn’t bankrupt him.

He traversed the river once again, and followed the plentiful tracks upstream, wondering why one of the beasts had decided to separate. Even animals knew there was strength in numbers, maybe Omega had turned it away?

He wouldn’t figure out much speculating, so he pressed on, his suit clanking loudly as he fell into a light jog. The exercise would help keep him warm, as the cold was already starting to make his fingers go numb.

It was around midday when Cooper stopped for lunch, leaning against a tree next to the river to munch on a piece of mutfruit Hendrix’s people had supplied him. Soil-grown foods spoiled fairly quickly, especially in the more irradiated air on the coast, but the cold would keep his rations preserved for a little while before they spoiled, though he was starting to miss having a warm meal in his belly.

As he dug into his snack, he noticed there was something up ahead, standing on four legs by the riverbed. It had a mange-ridden coat providing little protection for its pinkish skin, a long tongue extending from its muzzle to lap at the water. It was a mongrel, and a fairly large one at that, a bit less than a meter tall and just as long from its head to its tailless hind. Cooper stopped chewing on his mutfruit when the canine extended its head high, aiming its muzzle in both directions before settling its dark eyes on him.

It bared its teeth in a snarl, froth drooping from its wet teeth as it began to gallop towards him, Cooper’s heart starting to race. Then he remembered with a start he was wearing a suit of armour designed to stop bullets, and he calmed himself, the mutt closing the distance rapidly as he reached for his array of weapons. Should he try out the syringer? No, he’d be better off conserving the darts, maybe the sword? He’d rather not get his armour dinged up before he faced off against Omega, mongrels had sharper teeth than people thought. Rifle it was, then.

Pulling it by the sling, he shouldered his rifle, the mongrel close enough now that Cooper could hear it panting. He fired from the hip, the bullet connecting to the dogs shoulder and blowing its forelimb clean off, the micro-explosion ringing out across the valley like a bomb. Cooper had forgotten he’d loaded his rifle up with explosive rounds before he’d set off.

With a whimper, the mongrel face-planted into the snow, skimming along in the powder for a few feet before settling, a pool of red spreading around its corpse. He pulled the loading bolt back then down, cursing himself for wasting his precious frag rounds on a mutt. At least he knew they were working as intended, not that he needed the assurance, he’d been doing this kind of work his whole life.

He considered skinning the mongrel, but the time it would take wouldn’t be worth the tradeoff for food, and dogmeat was notoriously smelly. Mutt chops made him gassy anyway, so he left it be, scooting round the animal and journeying onward.

***

Night had fallen, Cooper losing sight of the distant rocky mountains as the dreary light of dusk lost its strength behind the overcast. His helmet was equipped with a mounted headlamp, and he reached up to turn it on, a pool of yellow light cutting back the darkness wherever he turned his gaze, illuminating the patches of snow interwoven by the occasional rocky outcrop.

The land began to grow uneven, Cooper slipping on the slick surface of a stone more than once on his journey, the power armour saving him from twisting his ankle. It soon became too dark to rely on the headlamp alone, so Cooper decided to make camp for the night.

He set about collecting some kindling, which was in abundance thanks to the trees toughing it out here. There was no need for an axe, Cooper chopping the branches off with his metallic gauntlets, a little like the Shi martialists in San Franciso. He picked a spot at the base of a hill to protect him from the wind, then made a circle of stones in the snow after digging a small hole in the powder. Using his trusty lighter, he blew on the smoking embers until a fire was going, Cooper turning his eyes toward his pack as he warmed his hands.

He had a portable tent stuffed into a bedroll, but the thing was just barely big enough for Cooper to fit inside, and trying to cram inside it with his armour on would be pointless. He considered leaving the suit unoccupied for the night, but if some opportunistic animal decided to make a meal out of him, getting back into the armour might not be possible.

Instead he used his bedroll as a pillow, propping himself up against the nearest tree, holding out his metal hands to the fire. Better to just sleep in the armour and get his body used to the suit. It wasn’t comfortable, Cooper shifting from side to side as he struggled to get some rest, the cold ground below his legs seeping through the armour if he stayed still for long, but he’d camped out in the open long enough that he could push most of the problems aside.

Just a couple more rough nights, and then he could buy a proper residence with all the wealth he’d get from Omega’s bounty. No more pitching it in the cold, or renting board at dingy inns with rotting pillows, he’d live like a king of the Wastes, he just had to suck it up for a little bit longer.

With that, he fell into a doze, dreaming of piles of caps surrounded by billowing snow.

***

The tracks continued to follow the stream, the water winding gently from side to side, Cooper’s suit clunking as he walked along the bank. He stopped to refill his canteen again, freeing his long hair as he removed his helmet to drink.

As he popped the cap on the little bottle, he felt the muscles in his shoulders tense up. Cooper knew when he was being watched, he’d been stalking man and beast his whole life, and it was easy to tell which side of the hunt he was on, and right now, it seemed he was balancing both sides.

Something was coming up from behind him, the little tremors in the earth suggesting it was heavy. He looked back down the stream the way he’d come, placing his helmet back on as he scanned between the trees, his eyes soon resting on movement.

There was a figure plodding along the stream, covered up in what looked like the world’s largest cloak, the fabric bundled up over a set of hunched shoulders, tapering up into a baggy hood. The sleeves were as thick around as his bedroll, the figure placing its arms against its chest like it was praying. The giant cloak left a huge smudge in the snow behind the figure, the fabric dragging along behind it like the hem of a wedding gown.

Cooper narrowed his eyes as the figure drew closer, aiming with his rifle as it came within a stone’s throw of him. They had surely seen him, were they planning on marching right up to him without so much as a greeting?

“That’s close enough,” he called out, lining up his scope with its chest.

The figure stopped, cocking its hooded head at him, as though surprised to see him there. “You been following me or something?” Cooper asked, gesturing at them with his gun.

“Yep,” came a gruff reply. The voice had a husky, feminine contralto to it, deep enough that Cooper could feel each syllable in his bones. It gestured to the ground with a billowy sleeve, Cooper looking over to see his own, blocky footprints in the snow.

“Why?” he asked, faltering a little at the offhand reply.

“Wanted to find out who was shooting up the place,” the stranger replied. “You out here hunting for game?”

“You could say that,” Cooper said, shrugging. “What about you? You always come looking every time you hear shooting?”

“When I need to find a bit of excitement, sure. That was an explosive round, wasn’t it? Heard the little fizzle noise at the end of the gunshot. Quite unusual to find a hunter with that kind of firepower.”

“Quite unusual to find someone else out in the middle of nowhere,” Cooper shot back. “What’s your business out here?”

She eyed his rifle, which he was still training on her chest.

“I’m just a traveler, I’m on my way to the Abbey.”

“Taking a bit of a detour, aren’t you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. “Roads through Vault City still work, last I saw.”

“The ones clogged with raiders? Yeah I think I’ll take my chances out here. A lady traveling by herself draws the wrong kind of attention, if you catch my drift.”

“You look like you could lift a car, doubt you’d have trouble with raiders,” he noted, gesturing at her bulky frame. She was nine or ten feet tall easy, though it was hard to judge her exact size with the cloak.

“You’d be surprised how often Mutants get jumped out on the road. People think we’re easy pickings after the Master died.”

“You’re a Super Mutant?”

Cooper didn’t know the specifics, but Super Mutants were humans who’d been exposed to some sort of special irradiated virus that turned them into big, green killing machines, at the cost of their mental aptitude. There had once been thousands of them infesting the west coast, but after their leader was assassinated, the legions had dispersed into the Wastes, and were rarely seen in the more populated areas.

“That’d explain why you’re so… big,” he muttered.

“Some silver tongue you have there, stranger,” she replied with a chuckle. “But yep, that’s me, got skin so thick I’d give your explosives bullets a run for their money. That’s not a challenge by the way, please don’t ruin my favourite robe.”

She didn’t seem like a threat, and she wouldn’t have approached him so brazenly if she’d wanted to attack him, so he lowered his rifle, the Mutant relaxing as she shifted on the spot.

“Sorry about the gun,” he said. “You know which way the Abbey is, yeah?”

“Same direction as you, conveniently,” she replied. “You wouldn’t mind if I tagged along, would you? The road is cold, and I could use some company.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Cooper said. “I’m hunting a pack of dangerous animals, big thing like you might spook them off.”

“And that tin can suit of yours won’t?” She planted a long arm on a hip, gesturing at him with the other. “You’re lumbering around like a rhino in that thing, could hear your stomps from a mile off.”

“Rhino?” he asked, giving her a confused look.

“A creature from before the Bombs,” she explained. “Big, heavy, thick horn on the front.” She mimed at her forehead.

“Weird,” he replied. “but I guess you have a point. Can’t guarantee we’ll be walking all the way to the Abbey, but you can come along, just don’t make too much noise.”

“I can be sneaky when I need to be,” the strange woman replied, bringing her voice down to a mock-whisper. Truth be told she was unusually quiet for such a large creature, only the subtle thumps of her steps giving her away in the first place.

“This way, then,” he said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He continued up the stream, his new companion hurrying to catch up. She was even larger up close, Cooper having to crane his neck back to look her in the eyes, not that he could even see her eyes, her thick hood covered her face in shadow.

“I’m Cooper by the way,” he started.

“Pearl,” she answered, turning her head down at him. “What’s with that look? It’s better than what the Master gave me. Grunt doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as Pearl does.”

“Guessing you’re from the coast, then?” he asked, making small talk. “Haven’t seen many pearls in my day.”

“You could say that,” she replied, Cooper getting the feeling that she didn’t want to elaborate further. “So what’re you hunting, exactly?” she said, gesturing at the tracks in the snow. “Must be some pretty dangerous game if you need to use a suit like that.”

“Escaped livestock,” he explained, seeing no harm in indulging her. “There’s a hunting lodge a ways south of here, and some premium goods got loose. The proprietor hired me to hunt them down.”

“Kill or capture?”

“Either or, except for the biggest one. Mister Hendrix wants his ‘Omega’ alive, said it was his magnum opus of goods.”

“Sounds exotic,” Pearl commented. “You a hunter by trade, I’m guessing?”

“Taken hundreds of bounties in my lifetime,” he said. “Humans, animals, but nothing like this, this Omega is part of a pack of clawed reptiles that can shred through steel and shrug off bullets.”

“And how are you, alone, going to take on a pack of them? Not with just that peashooter, I hope?”

“No, with this.”

He pulled off the syringer from his belt, holding it out for Pearl to see. “This thing fires darts full of tranquilizer, I’ve been told just three doses is enough to bring down one of the beasts.”

Pearl didn’t seem that impressed, in fact, she snorted, beginning her next sentence with a girlish giggle. “That old thing? It looks like a toy gun!”

“Only way to bring Omega down without killing it,” Cooper continued, ignoring her comment. “Less painful than a bullet too, at least I think so.”

“How considerate of you,” she muttered.

“I’m considerate of the reward,” he answered. “Mister Hendrix will cut my pay down to scraps if I bring back damaged goods, but I may have to resort to that if this thing outwits me like it did to Hendrix’s people. It figured out how to bust through a cage that was padded with materials resistant to cutting, then knew that the fence was electric, and stole a valuable part off a generator to make sure it couldn’t be easily repaired.”

“Doesn’t sound like mere livestock to me,” she said. “It must be an intelligent creature, aware of its surroundings.”

“Beasts aren’t aware,” Cooper insisted. “they can be as big and clever as they want, but Omega is still a wild animal, it’ll make a meal out of anything it sees if it’s hungry.”

“How many has it killed?” she asked.

“None, as far as I know, it avoided every guard on duty when it escaped.”

“Why would a wild animal not rip into the first man it saw once free?”

“Who knows?” he asked with a shrug, his suit whirring. “It’s smart, but we’ll see how much that helps it with a bloodstream full of sedatives.”

***

The midday sun shone down on the pair as they crested a hump of snow, barely a measure of sunlight filtering through the rolling clouds. Cooper’s towering companion walked alongside him, hopping deftly over the occasional outcrop without breaking her stride. She was pretty limber for such a stout Mutant.

“How’d you get into the whole hunting business?” Pearl asked, turning to watch him hop over a tree root.

“By accident, really. My home, Shady Sands, was being harassed by a mantis sneaking into the coops at night to eat the brahmin. I happened upon the insect one night when I was out with some friends, shot it clean through the head. Next thing I know, the bounty on it was mine. It was a pretty profitable career at the time, so I learned how to find tracks, locate nests, things like that from Old World manuals.”

“You’re from NCR, then?” she asked, cocking her head as she examined him. “That’s a long way to walk for a pack of escaped livestock.”

“I said the same thing when Hendrix’s rep approached me. I was in the bar when this guy in a suit turned up, asking for me specifically. Told me about how his boss had a problem I could solve, and said the reward would be more caps than I could ever hope to spend.”

“And you believed him?”

“I was skeptical, sure, but then he straight up paid for the drinks of every single patron, including mine. I was a little more inclined after that, and now Hendrix has offered me three thousand caps for Omega’s return. Couldn’t pass it up.”

“You said hunting was a profitable career,” Pearl said, her cloak dragging through the powder as they moved down the slope. “What changed?”

“NCR did. As the population grew, the security around the borders did too, and before long every ant, gecko and mantis in a twenty-five-mile radius had been culled, and the work was drying up. Had to start taking jobs for hunting people, since we humans started to outnumber the animals.”

“Did you pick and choose who you killed? Or was no price too small for you?”

“Well, I… I’m not a raider in disguise, if that’s what you’re getting at,” he replied, a touch of uncertainty in his tone. “Plenty of people wanted a few deadbeats roughened up, debts collected. Paid well, but that kind of work wasn’t for me.”

“Nice to hear you have some standards,” she commented. “Is it easier or harder to hunt humans compared to animals?”

“The skills translated better than I’d thought, the biggest problem is that your targets like to shoot back.”

“You don’t seem all that bothered about killing people.”

“The whole world died once already, killing raiders and deadbeats is pretty trivial in comparison.”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at things.”

They continued on for a few minutes in silence, the wind whispering through the grooves in his helmet, Cooper eventually breaking it. “How about you, Pearl? Tell me something about being in the Master’s army.”

“A lot of it is… fuzzy,” she replied, the sound of scratching reaching his ears as she lifted a hand to her face. “I remember there being a strong sense of love, and devotion, but after the Master died, everything got replaced by a kind of… emptiness. I wandered the Wastes as a confused mess for a while, until I came across a place called Gecko. They welcomed me with open arms, even after they discovered what I was. Guess the Mutants didn’t expand that far north.”

“And, do you remember anything about being a human?” he asked. “Mutants are former humans, right?”

“Remembering that far back would be like trying to hold melting snow in my hand,” Pearl said. “But, whoever I was doesn’t matter now, I’m me, and right now, me can use a break.”

“We have been walking for a while now,” he relented, his stomach rumbling beneath the power armour. “Let’s find some place out of the wind.”

They soon came upon a jagged outcropping of limestone, shaped like a giant tooth that poked up out of the snowy blanket, Cooper and Pearl putting the stone between them and the direction the wind was coming from. They sat down to rest, Cooper watching as Pearl’s excess cloak piled up by her feet, the Super Mutant shifting from side to side to get comfortable.

He rummaged through his pack for one of his ration parcels, untying the hairy string and producing a leg of roasted mirelurk, leftovers from the night in the lodge. He reached up and removed his helmet, setting it down in the snow, Cooper feeling Pearl’s eyes playing over his features. He had long, fair-coloured hair that was in dire need of a cut, as well as a bit of matching stubble on his chin, interrupted by a thin, faded scar trailing over his left cheek. Maybe it was the fact she was hidden beneath that cloak, but her lingering stare made him a little self-conscious.

Soon her eyes played over his meal as he brought the seafood to his lips. It wasn’t as good as it had been during the feast, and was colder than ice, but it sated the grumbling of his stomach and left a lingering taste of salt in his mouth.

“I thought hunters were supposed to share the spoils of a kill?” Pearl asked, Cooper raising his brow as he watched her eyes sparkle, doing a double-take when he realised he could see her eyes. They were large and bright, the same colour as the setting sun, the two points slightly lidded by the top of her hood.

“With other hunters, maybe,” he replied as he chewed. “Didn’t you bring anything for your trip?”

“I ran out,” she explained, though calling that an explanation was being generous.

“So will I if I start sharing,” he said, Pearl continuing to watch him eat in silence. Cooper sighed, handing her the rest of the leg, his companion swiping it from his extended hand. She lifted her long sleeves to her head, her large eyes disappearing behind the wooly fabric, Cooper hearing the muffled sound of chewing.

“Don’t start thinking I’m giving out Super Mutant-sized rations,” he chided as Pearl laid her sleeves out on her knees, apparently done eating the leg, bones and all.

“If I start to feel like eating you, Cooper, I’ll let you know,” she chuckled, Cooper looking up at her in alarm. “Relax,” she added. “Mutants don’t eat people. Actually that’s not true, but I’m an exception. Humans are too stringy anyway.”

“How would you know that? You just said you’re an exception.”

“It’s easy to tell what kind of flesh something has. Take you, for example,” she said, her eyes returning to view as she looked him up and down. “Humans are mostly sinew, but you’re a little different, bit more muscle on you I’m guessing, given your… demanding lifestyle. Can’t tell much more with that tin suit of yours.”

“Unless you feel like giving me food, Pearl, the armour stays on.”

She laughed at that. It had been so long since he’d had a travelling companion that could take a joke, it was refreshing.

“So you’re heading up the Abbey, right?” he asked, crossing his arms over his metal chest. “Biggest library in the Wastes, so I’ve heard. You like books?”

“Oh yes!” she replied with an enthusiastic nod. “They wrote so many interesting things in the Old World, stories of mythical creatures, ancient figure biographies, pre-Bomb histories… I like to check the Abbey every now and then to see if they’ve stocked anything new.”

“Prefer reading manuals and guides myself,” Cooper said. “things more practical than that… made up, theoretical stuff.”

“Just because something’s not practical, doesn’t mean it’s useless,” she defended. “Theoretical stuff inspires ideas, and without ideas, there’d be nothing to apply your skills to. Don’t tell me you’ve never stayed up late reading a nice romantic novel?”

“I’ve lost sleep to actually useful books, like this,” he said, Pearl watching as he rummaged through his pack. He pulled out a thin pamphlet, the bright orange cover drawing his companion’s attention. The silhouette of a hiker was printed onto the front, a walking stick clutched in one of its hands.

“A Scout handbook?” Pearl muttered. “I’ve seen a couple stocked on the Abbey’s shelves, never read it before…”

Shrugging, he handed it over, Pearl taking the handbook gingerly from his hands, like she was afraid of damaging it. Piling her sleeve between two pages, she opened it up to a random part, bringing it up to her hood to read. “I love the font,” she cooed. “The margins are little out of line, but… what’s this?” she asked, turning the cover over so he could see what she was looking at. “Did you cross this part out?”

“Yeah. That bit’s completely incorrect for surviving the Wastes.”

“But you vandalized it!” she pouted. “That’s history you’re erasing.”

“Hey I corrected it, see the little box in the corner there?” He pointed at his personal note scribbled into the margin, Pearl grumbling as she read off the words.

“I guess that’s okay, but you could have made a copy and kept this one pristine. The people at the Abbey would fine you if you defiled their books like this.”

“Guess I don’t feel as strongly about them as you do,” he admitted.

“Books are precious, they are mediums that those in the past create to teach lessons for the future. It’s a shame that hardly anyone outside of the Abbey was even tried to inherit the art of creating more for the Wasteland.”

“Maybe I should make one,” he chuckled. “Maybe call it, Cooper’s Guide to Getting Rich.”

“You’re joking around, but that’s not a bad idea. You have a modern skillset on hunting, and you might gain some valuable insight if you somehow manage to take down this pack of yours.”

“You don’t think I can do it?” he asked.

“Not with that dented armour and toy gun of yours,” she said. “Not to paint you a grim picture or anything, but something as tough and clever as what you’ve described would need several armoured-up hunters to deal with.”

“We’ll see about that. I’ve taken on whole packs of critters by myself, I work better alone.”

With their meal done, Cooper got to his feet, his armour creaking as he collected his pack. As he led the way, he turned to see Pearl was reading his handbook as she followed after, shielding the pages with her cloak to protect it from the snow.

“Wow, these notes go into a lotta detail,” she commented. “Did you learn all your skills from these guidebooks?”

“Mostly. A few old timers from Shady Sands threw me some tips, but yeah, most of my knowhow is from the Old World. That handbook’s saved me a lot of trouble in the past.”

“Do you mind if I keep it? For a while, I mean?” she added. “I’ve always wondered how humans hunt for game, Mutants generally just wander around and shoot anything that moves, there’s no finesse.”

“Sure,” he said, getting the feeling she was beaming at him from beneath that hood. “Just don’t break it, and don’t pull the pages by the corners, it’ll rip.”

“I’ll be careful, pinky promise.”

***

It wasn’t very long before Pearl’s investment in the handbook became an obsession, and she started begging Cooper to teach her the finer details of hunting and tracking, and he eventually relented after a while. It was almost endearing in a way, seeing this giant Mutant soldier enraptured by his words, eagerly quizzing him about his profession as the hours ticked by.

“But how do you know the pack came this way?” Pearl asked, gesturing at the ground around them. “We haven’t seen any tracks for at least an hour now.”

“It’s only natural to assume they’d keep following the river,” Cooper replied, waving a hand at the water on their left. “It’s a source of food and water, obviously, and animals tend to stay close to them during the colder months. Ah, see that?”

As if to prove his point, there were prints in the snow ahead, trailing out of the water, exactly six sets of them. Cooper took a knee in the powder, hovering his hand above a print he knew to belong to Omega. “Looks like they trudged through the river at some point, maybe to bathe, or…”

“Or throw off pursuers?” Pearl suggested, hunkering beside him. Even on her knees she towered over him.

“That’s a bit of a stretch, wouldn’t you say? Most animals aware enough to know they’re being hunted would either flee, or turn and fight.”

“But this Omega isn’t like most animals, true?”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.” He peered closer to the tracks, chewing his lip in thought. “Looks like they stayed here for a while, we’re only two or three days behind them.”

“How’d you figure that?”

“These prints are softer than the ones I was following yesterday, and there’s a bit of disturbed snow behind them, see? Tracks will start to freeze after a couple days, and that hasn’t happened yet.”

“But you haven’t even touched them!” Pearl replied. “How can you know if they’re soft or hard?”

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he said, his pauldrons creaking as he shrugged. “It takes time and practice, but you learn to pick up the little things.”

“I see, I see.” Pearl turned to examine his handbook, splayed out in one of her hands. “You have a pen?”

“Pencil, yeah.” He fished through his one of the pockets on his pack. “Why?”

She didn’t answer, taking his pencil and flipping to the back of the handbook, beginning to scribble on the blank page there. How she managed to write with that giant sleeve in the way was anyone’s guess.

“Hey!” he said, reaching up to grab his handbook. “What are you doing?”

“Making you a new section,” she answered, easily holding the handbook out of his reach. “You have nothing in here about this pack, so let’s add something!”

“Oh, so when I write in it, that’s vandalizing, but not when you do it? Sounds fair.”

“I’m adding to it,” she insisted. “And unlike you, I know how to write in a straight line. Now let’s see, we’ll need to give this pack a name. Any ideas?”

“What about… Omega Pack? Simple, straightforward.”

“Okay, okay.” Pearl jotted down the name, tapping the pencil against the handbook as she thought. “What about the species itself? Any distinguishing characteristics we could base a name off of?”

“Well they’ve got some pretty wicked claws on them, maybe something about that?”

“I thought you said you’ve never seen the pack before? Let me guess, you can tell by the tracks?”

“Yep, see the little indents in front of each toe?”

“No?” Pearl said, leaning close enough to the ground she could have licked the snow with her tongue. “Oh wait, now I do. You have some pretty keen eyes, my man.”

“If they have talons, they probably have claws, as well. Witnesses as the lodge said so as well. Won’t know anything else till I find them.”

“Let’s recap. They’re resilient, clawed, incredibly dangerous and deviously clever. Let’s call them…” She paused, then raised a triumphant hand after a moment of thinking. “Oh! What about… killerclaws! Eh? No good?”

“Too on the nose,” he said.

“How about deathjaws? Assuming they have big, nasty teeth of course.”

“Sure, use that. And since you’re writing, jot this down too: Deathjaw: carnivorous, reptilian, natural predator, pack mentality. Height, maybe nine to eleven feet from head to toe. Weight, roughly…” He glanced closer at the print. “Six, seven hundred pounds.”

“Fat thing,” Pearl commented. “You can tell by how deep the tracks are, right?”

“Yeah, that and the size of the cages they were kept in. Think that’s everything I know about them so far.”

“You forgot about their intellect,” Pearl added, pointing the pencil at him.

“Write keen,” he said, but Pearl shook her head, her hood swishing.

“I’m gonna put… diabolically keen,” she said, Cooper rolling his eyes as she jotted it down. “There’s a word you don’t see often.”

With their lead rediscovered, they set off once more, the sun beginning to lower in the sky, turning the few visible patches of the sky into strips of gold. Pearl continued to add things to the deathjaw part of the handbook, but he was too focused on watching for movement to ask her about what she was writing down.

“Let’s say you bring down this Omega Pack,” Pearl began. “Whatcha gonna do with the reward money? You could buy stacks of books with three thousand caps.”

“And spend my days reading till I died? Not a terrible plan, but I think spending it all so I can live like a saint in New Reno would be better.”

“New Reno?” she scoffed. “the ‘shittest little city in the world’? Or was it biggest little city? I can never remember. You’re just going to blow it all on their cheap moonshine and hookers?”

“Why not? They’ve got heated rooms, soft beds, and there’s a reason New Reno women aren’t cheap.”

“I’d never buy a night with someone,” Pearl mused. “Making love is about connecting with someone you care about, it’s an act where passion is the goal, not the other person’s wallet.”

“You’ve been reading too much poetry,” Cooper said, feeling a little more insulted than he should have. “People like me, we go on the road for days, weeks at a time without any human contact, we don’t have the time to go on dates and woo someone we like.”

“Sounds like an issue of skill, rather than a lack of time,” Pearl replied, Cooper hearing the grin in her voice.

“Well… it’s not like I have a ton of practice when out hunting,” he said, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly. “And I’m never in one place for very long, so nothing really… develops.”

“Aw, is the little hunter feeling lonely?” Pearl teased, Cooper feeling his cheeks warm beneath the helmet. “Don’t worry, Cooper, I’ll be your friend for this hunt.”

She leaned over and bumped shoulders with him, the blow hard enough to send Cooper reeling, even with the power armour.

After a bit more walking, the fading light soon reached a tipping point, the snowy hills plunging into shadow, Pearl watching as he clicked on his headlamp. Cooper had done plenty of long walks in his time, and so had Pearl apparently, his companion not uttering a single complaint as they trekked late into the night. When the parting clouds eventually revealed the twinkling carpet of stars, Cooper decided it was time to rest.

“Let’s get a fire going here,” he declared, setting his pack down between two trees.

“Won’t the flames attract predators?” Pearl asked, looking around as though she could sense the wildlife. “The pack will see us if they’re nearby.”

“Animals are scared of fire, and if the pack comes… I’ll have you to deal with them.”

“I’m taking the whole reward if that happens,” Pearl said. “No joke. I’ll go get some kindling, I saw a dead brush back there.”

Cooper set a ring of stones on the ground after clearing the snow, and before long, Pearl returned with a pile of sticks in hand. The little branches poked into her sleeves, and it took a bit of effort to free the bundle, but she soon succeeded in tossing them into the pit, Cooper flicking his lighter on once everything was in place.

“You hungry?” he asked, blowing on the embers until they were blazing healthily. He fetched a strip of salted mirelurk from his pack, chucking it to Pearl.

“Thank you,” she said, catching it in a sleeve, the two going quiet as they had their dinner. Once she was done, Pearl extended her arms above her head as though she was yawning, Cooper noting her orange eyes were shining in the gloom, almost seeming to sparkle as the firelight caught on them. “About ready to hit the sack myself,” she said. “You?”

“Guess so,” he said, swallowing down the rest of his meal. The servos in his suit whirring, he fell on his rump, his helmet tapping against the tree behind him as he settled in. “G’night.”

“You’re going to sleep like that?” Pearl asked, Cooper opening an eye to look at her. “What about your bedroll there?”

“Too small for the armour,” he explained.

“So take it off, it can’t be comfortable lying down in that thing.”

“And if something sneaks up on us while we’re sleeping?” he shot back. “I need to be ready.”

“Suit yourself,” she chuckled. “No pun intended.”

Dropping onto her side, Pearl bundled up the excess rolls of her cloak as she splayed out on the snow. Once she was settled, the cloak draped across her stout midsection, conforming to the curve of her chest and hips. Cooper took a shameless eyeful of her curves, the helmet saving him from being caught staring.

“Where’s your bedroll?” he asked. “You know, you’re traveling pretty light for someone going all the way to the Abbey in the middle of winter.”

“We Super Mutants don’t need to carry hundreds of things around like you humans do,” Pearl replied. “That being said, I couldn’t imagine you lugging around this robe, even with that armour on. Thing weighs a ton.”

“What’s with the cloak anyway?” he asked, lifting a gauntlet at her. “Looks like you’re walking around in a giant ass curtain.”

“Robe,” Pearl corrected. “And I learned the hard way that people tend to start shooting when they see a Mutant on the horizon. I had to hide what I am, hence the disguise. Stitched it together over the years with every bit of cloth I could find or buy.”

She began to brush and pick over the fabric, clearing it of stray snow, Cooper noting the series of stitches located around the shoulders. The robe was actually several smaller cuts of cloth, he realised, the slight discoloration forming squares in the outfit, joined together by either giant, knitted threads, or lengths of tape.

“You made it yourself?” he asked.

“A little, usually I pay a tailor for when it gets tattered. The kind men at the Abbey do it for free, but I’m not always in the area.”

“You ever take it off? You’ve had that hood drawn all day now.”

“Trying to get me out of my clothes, huh?” Pearl joked. “Tell you what, I take mine off, you take off yours.”

“Nice try, but I’ll pass.”

He thought he could see disappointment in those glowing eyes, but Cooper soon closed his, clearing his throat as he settled into his metal bed. “I’m turning in now. Good night.”

“I thought sleeping out in the open isn’t good for humans,” Pearl said, Cooper sighing as he once again opened his eyes. “Perhaps I should come over there, share our body heat? The cold could kill you.”

“I’ll be fine,” he insisted, but the metal backside of his armour was already starting to go frigid, the snow working its way through the cracks in his armour. He wrapped his arms around himself, but that did little to ward off the cold, and just made him more uncomfortable than he already was.

Pearl didn’t add anything more, the silence allowing Cooper to drift into sleep.

***

Cooper awoke to the sensation of his teeth clicking together, his already groggy vision made dimmer by the helmet he was wearing. He felt like he was encased in ice, every inch of his skin numbing as the cold permeated his core. He extended a stiff arm to pull himself towards the fire, but the dammed pit of stones was just a pile of burnt wood, not even a single plume of smoke trailing from the embers.

He breathed out a sigh of icy air, turning his eyes towards the dark mass piled up on the other side of the firepit. Pearl looked like a bundle of discarded clothes, the occasional shift of a limb and her heavy breathing giving her away. He didn’t know how she could survive such temperatures with just that cloak, and lying against the snow no less, but she was his only option if he didn’t want to risk going into hypothermia.

He shuffled along the snow on his hands and knees, finding that the cold had frozen his legs solid, his whole body developing a nasty case of pins and needles. When he reached her billowy cloak, he gave it a tug, his companion grumbling to herself as her hood turned to peer at him.

“Mm? Cooper, what is it?”

“P-Pearl, I need your cloak. I’m freezing,” he complained through gritted teeth. He didn’t need to tell her twice, he was hunched over, his armour clanking about as he shivered in the frame beneath it.

“You poor thing,” Pearl cooed, holding her arms up like someone about to deliver the biggest hug. “Come here, give Pearl some sugar.”

Before he could protest, she seized him by the pauldrons, turning him round so that his back was to her. She splayed out her cloak, creating enough room that he could lay down without touching the snow, the material already a hundred times warmer than his previous spot against the tree.

He felt her hand on his arm encourage him down, and the next thing he knew, Pearl draped her cloak over his helmet, the world beyond his visor blocking out and turning to wool.

“Hey! Quit it!” he complained, trying to free his helmet from the cloak. It was in vain, though, Pearl grabbing at his arm and keeping him still as she shuffled around behind him. Even with the servos in the suit, her grip was so much stronger than his own that he couldn’t break free.

“Keep still,” she demanded. “I’m making some… readjustments. Ah, there we go.”

He felt more of her cloak drape over his midsection and legs, already the warm confines blocking out the cold, the material as plushy as a quilt. After a minute, his shivering ceased, the body heat they made creating a cozy pocket of warmth inside the cloak. She pulled off the part that was obscuring his vision, Pearl chuckling as he frowned at her over his shoulder.

“You’re making me cold with that tin suit of yours,” she murmured, her chest pressing up against his back as she scooted closer, Cooper just able to feel steely muscles through the armour pressing up behind him. “We’ll need a little more insulation if you’re not going to take it off. Let’s see…”

She reached behind her, and when she turned back, his bedroll was in her grip. She shook it out to its full length, then placed it on top of the both of them like a blanket. It wasn’t much, but every bit of helped to trap the heat in. Soon the feeling in Cooper’s hands and feet returned, his body relaxing as he pulled the cloak tighter against his chest.

“No wonder you keep this thing on all day,” he said. “You could cook a steak with all the heat you’ve trapped in here.”

“You’re doing most of the work, actually. You humans can push out a lot of heat with those tiny bodies of yours.”

He could feel even the armour start to warm up as the temperature inside the cloak rose, Cooper feeling her warm breath on his neck as she settled against his rear. He wasn’t alarmed by her presence, they’d been traveling for a fair while now that he didn’t see her as a threat, but she was so big, her sheer size as enough to inspire a touch of alarm in his chest. Armour or not, she was twice the size of him easy, and strong enough to overpower him, even if his muscles hadn’t been frozen.

As he started to drift off, her felt her hand roam down his arm, picking at the segments in the armour, apparently intrigued by their design. “What are you doing?” he mumbled.

“Checking out my sleeping-buddy,” she replied, oblivious to his discomfort at having his personal space invaded. “I wonder if you’re as big as you are now, under all that getup.”

“Well wonder another time,” he said, jerking his arm away, a useless gesture considering he wasn’t about to leave anytime soon. “I can’t sleep with you getting all… touchy.”

“Are you always this grouchy with women you sleep with?” Pearl teased.

“I’m taking you up on your earlier offer,” he defended. “I’m not… sleeping with you.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, you haven’t paid me for my services. My mistake.”

He was too flustered to form a cutting reply, and once again Pearl laughed at him, so close he could feel every huff resonate through his bones. He shuffled as far away from her as he could without leaving the cloak behind, resting his helmet on his arm as he tried to steady his breathing. He could feel Pearl’s legs resting against the back of his own, her huge thighs brushing against his armoured rump. The texture of her body was lost behind their respective clothing, but he could tell she was as tough as rocks, her muscle mass appropriate on such a large body. He wondered if she could toss him like a softball, armour and all.

She seemed to constantly shift back and forth, despite her slow, deep breaths suggesting she was already dozing off, but Cooper wasn’t in the position to look, and he didn’t want to be rude and ask her to stop, not after she’d been kind enough to offer him warmth. He closed his eyes, tiredness soon taking him.

***

Cooper awoke to the sensation of being buried, waking to see a long, cloaked arm draping itself over his chest. He followed the limb along with his eyes to see Pearl was practically spooning up against his flank. Her body must have been drawn to his natural heat during her sleep, as he was practically boiling after spending hours underneath her insulated clothing.

He reached out and gingerly removed her arm, being careful not to wake her as he scooted away. When he rolled off her cloak, Pearl muttered something in her sleep, shifting onto the spot he’d just been sleeping on, then switching to her side as she wrapped her arms around herself.

His pack was nearby, and he reached inside it to pull out his breakfast, munching on a piece of dried meat as he contemplated his next move. He had to admit, despite his freezing wake-up call in the night, he was feeling quite refreshed this morning. Sharing a bed with someone was good for the mind, even if said someone was a Mutant.

He glanced over at his sleeping companion, chewing slowly as he examined her physique, or at least the outline of it. With most of her robe rolled out in front of her, the rest of the garment clung to her figure like a second skin. Her thighs were as thick around as his chest, joining into a beautifully wide set of hips, the curve rising high into the air. Her hips tapered into a slightly pinched waistline, then curved into a slim stomach, her robe sliding across a flat torso that expanded as it reached her chest, Cooper’s imagination convinced her bust was full and developed. The robe concealed the rest of her, but that only seemed to entice him further of what her true form entailed. Her pose reminded him of some Old World model magazines he’d picked up over his travels, her figure purposefully silhouetted against a brighter background. There was definitely a woman under all that fabric.

He had to admit, he was curious as to what she looked like underneath all that fabric. He’d heard tales of Super Mutants of course, giant green humanoids built like trucks, but stories were one thing, and the curiosity was nagging at him.

He reached out a tentative hand, praying the little sounds of the motors wouldn’t wake her \ as he drew closer. Her hood was riding high on her face, the fabric roiling as her deep breaths crystalized the air. He’d just have to pull the hood up an inch or two, and he’d see her face. He could probably pass it off as him waking her up if she took offence.

As his fingers hovered inches above her hood, he hesitated. She’d told him she’d created her cloak to hide her true form from others, maybe she was a little conscious of what she was, and that’s why she’d hidden herself from him so far, afraid he might take offence. He couldn’t care less what she was, but he didn’t want to invade her privacy…

He drew his arm back, giving her outstretched arm a gentle pat, then a harder prod. “Hey, Pearl, wake up.”

“Whassat?” Pearl slurred, her glowing eyes peering up at him from beneath the hood. “Oh, morning tin man, how’d you sleep?”

“Fine, thank you. We should get moving soon.”

She sat up, stretching her long arms over her shoulders, bundling her excess cloak about herself as he fetched her another of his rations. She replied with a sweet thank you as he passed it over, Cooper making conversation as she ate.

“You should really pack more food if you’re going to and from the Abbey so often,” he said. “Especially when it’s winter, you’ll burn twice as many calories if you can’t keep warm enough.”

“I guess I’m lucky to have the best hunter around to teach me,” she replied over a mouthful of meat.

“Best?” he chuckled. “I wouldn’t say that, I’m good enough to eek out a life, but that’s all.”

“Don’t be so modest. You’re out here hunting big game all by yourself, oozing confidence from beneath that armour. I don’t think you’d have been hired to do this job if people didn’t know you were pretty good at it.”

“I have earned a bit of a rep in NCR, I suppose,” he admitted. “People I’ve never even met have heard of my nickname, like Hendrix for example.”

“What’s your nickname?”

“Promise not to laugh?”

“Pinky promise.”

“It’s… tracker.”

Pearl snorted, then got about two seconds in before breaking her promise, Cooper shooting her a glare at her bobbing hood. “Th-That sounds like a character from the cheesiest movie ever!” she giggled.

“Look I didn’t pick it,” Cooper complained. “What’s a movie anyway?”

“It’s a thing from the Old World, think of it like a… a bunch of images projected onto a screen, all blurred together to make it look like the pictures are moving. They used these little slips of paper called film, which are projected through another thing called a camera, which is full of magnifying lenses that… You have no idea what I’m on about, are you?”

“Sounds a little far-fetched for me.”

“If you actually read some books that aren’t about skinning animals and drying their guts, you might actually know a thing or two about Old World technology.”

“You ready to get going?” he asked, noticing that her breakfast was all gone. She nodded, and the two rose to their feet, setting off in the direction of the tracks once again.

***

“And these have to be wolf tracks, right?” Pearl asked, her cloak bunding around her feet as she crouched in the snow. Cooper spent most of the day teaching Pearl the basics of tracking game as they followed in the pack’s footsteps. He’d never had the opportunity to pass on his skills to another, and while it helped pass the time, it also made him feel good to know that Pearl wouldn’t be lacking for food once they eventually parted.

“Good eye, see how large the prints are? Easy way to tell a mutt from a wolf, as mutts are way smaller. How old do you think they are?”

Crisscrossing over the tracks the deathjaws had made was a set of canine prints. Cooper had no intention of following them, but it did provide a nice opportunity to test Pearl’s skills.

“Well, it must be newer than the pack’s prints, or else they’d have diverted, they wouldn’t have given up a tasty snack. The snow looks disturbed here, so I’d say… a day, maybe less.”

“I’d go even lower than that, but you’re right,” he said. “We could probably find it, but the wind’s blowing the way it went, it’ll smell us before we see it.”

“By us, you mean you, right?” Pearl joked, holding a hand up to her nose. “You smell like an outdated can of fish under that thing.”

“I don’t exactly live in a bathing house, Pearl,” he replied annoyedly. “At least not yet.”

“Where is your home anyway?” she asked, the two leaving the wolf tracks behind, Cooper examining the pack’s prints before replying. Omega and its ilk had stopped to rest at around this point, Cooper guessing they were maybe two days old at this point. He was making good progress.

“You slept under it last night,” he answered, gesturing at his bedroll. “I’ve slept in motels and inns when I’ve got the cash to spare, but I’ve spent as many nights in this bedroll as I’ve had hot meals. I travel too much to call a place home.”

“What about NCR?” she asked. “You grew up there, right?”

“Yeah, but… it’s changed a lot over the years. People fight over every acre of land nowadays, especially after the brahmin trade opened up, and the taxes started rolling in. If you couldn’t afford to keep up with the fees, the council would seize your house and toss you into one of the publicly owned hotels. That’s what happened to my parent’s home after they passed. That was when I was… eighteen, nineteen, maybe.”

“And that’s why you’re risking your life now?” she asked. “You hope to buy back your childhood home with the reward?”

“No, they knocked the house down years ago, now a Brahmin Baron lives on that spot, built up a big mansion last I checked.”

“That’s terrible,” Pearl muttered. “A lonely hunter with no place to call home. No wonder you’re out here, putting your life on the line in order to live a life of vice in Reno. You’ve never had the chance to settle down.”

Her words couldn’t help but inspire a measure of shame in his chest. People often claimed to want to be able to live as he did, out in the wild, away from the taxes and laws and raiders, but they never truly appreciated the fact that living by oneself didn’t just shake off all responsibilities. Cooper still had to pay for things like books and equipment, which needed constant maintenance that he couldn’t sustain without bartering for goods. To live in a community was to be privileged, and Cooper wanted in on it.

“I think you’re reading too much into it,” he said. “I’ll have all the money I’ll ever need soon enough anyway, just need to keep going.”

“And what if you fail?” Pearl asked. “what if your armour and weapons aren’t enough to take down the pack?”

“Everyone dies,” Cooper said dismissively. “if this pack is my match, then that’s all there is to it.”

“You could turn back,” she suggested, but Cooper shook his head.

“I’ve come too far to back down now, and I gave my word I’d see this through, both to Hendrix… and myself.”

***

They spent the following night much like they had the last, this time Cooper a little less hesitant to lay down with Pearl, knowing her robe would keep him comfortably warm during the plummeting temperatures of the night. They woke up early and increased their pace a little, every step forward bringing them closer to the pack.

With the proximity of Omega drawing closer, their conversations dwindled, the tension palpable after Cooper deduced the prints were less than a day old at this point. The pack must have slowed down considerably after clearing out from the lodge, lacking in energy after being fed scraps during their capture, maybe.

Pearl kept herself occupied with his handbook, asking the occasional question or needing him to elaborate on one of his handcrafted notes, but on the whole it seemed she’d caught onto his lessons very well, maybe even a little better than he had back in his youth…

“You’ll be confronting the pack sometime tomorrow,” Pearl began, she and Cooper sitting round their fire, taking a deserved break. “They’re not far off now, you go any further and they might pick up your scent. This could be the last chance you’ll get to back down.”

“Still doubt I can do it, huh?” he asked, prodding the embers with a stick. “Who’s the expert hunter here, me or you?”

“Expertise doesn’t guarantee success,” she replied. “You’re going up against way too many unknowns, can’t you see that?”

“I can’t go back, even if I wanted to,” he replied. “I’ll either go back to NCR a rich man, or not at all, and that kind of risk suits me just fine. What about you?” he added. “it’s going to get much more dangerous from here on out. I’d start moving to the Abbey if I wanted to save time.”

“I’ll join you for a while longer,” she said. “Once I know where the pack is, I’ll know where to avoid on my return trip.”

The implication that she thought he would die tomorrow wasn’t lost on him, but he shrugged it off, pointing at the handbook in her lap. “Suit yourself. Don’t stay up too late reading that, we’re moving at sunrise.”

***

One more uneventful night and a few hours walking through the dawn later, and the pack’s footprints started to change. The tracks began to snake away from one another, overlapping with older and new sets, the latter of which moving in the direction Cooper had come from. The land was flat here, nestled between two distant mountains, dozens of trees dotted about in every direction. Ther was plenty of open space here, making Cooper feel more exposed than ever.

“We’re getting close now,” he muttered, Pearl watching him as he unslung his rifle. “Call out if you see anything.”

“Will do,” she whispered back.

They stalked between the trees, the constant wind sweeping curtains of snow into the air, obscuring the horizons. With the lack of hills present to buffer the gale, the wind swept across the flatlands unfiltered, Cooper shivering beneath his armour as he pushed on through the sparse forest.

Everything around him was pure white, except for the occasional rocky overhang adding a splash of grey to the scenery. Even the trees had taken on a muted hue, as if the snow itself had been absorbed into the bark. It was getting on in the day, and they’d been walking since sunrise, but they couldn’t afford to stop, not out in the open anyway.

The wind here had swept most of the original tracks away, but it seemed there were plenty to go by around here, the pack must have found someplace to hold up nearby if they were overlapping so much. Cooper was constantly turning his head, checking to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them, every creak of the branches keeping him on edge. Even in his experience, he’d never hunted something he’d never actually seen before, just how accurate had his assumptions been? He’d find out soon enough…

“There!” he said. “Something in that mountain up ahead.”

He kneeled behind a rocky outcropping, Pearl joining him as he peered out into the haze. When the powder cleared, the foot of a mountain gently revealed itself through the gloom, maybe a hundred meters away. Near the base of its sloped body was a splotch of darkness, surrounded by a framework of wooden planks. Below it was what looked like a pair of metal lines built into the ground, leading into the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave. It looked tall and wide enough to accommodate a caravan with one of Hendrix’s cages on top of it, which was more than enough space for Omega…

The prints led in and out of the entrance, confirming his suspicions. He wasn’t too sure about their sleep cycles, but hopefully the creatures had taken respite during this windstorm, and they were in there at this moment.

“I believe we’ve found Omega’s den,” Cooper said, turning to his companion. “You should probably get out of here, Pearl, I’d hate to see you get caught in the crossfire if things start to get hairy.”

“You’re going in there?” she asked, as though it wasn’t obvious enough to her. “Cooper, that looks like a mineshaft to me, they’ll tear you apart in those tight hallways.”

“This ain’t my first den,” he said, his armour creaking as he shifted his weight. “I’ll take the den one piece at a time, then place landmines on the spots I’ve already cleared.”

“You’re still thinking of them as simple beasts,” she grumbled. “What if your conventional tactics don’t work? What if they’re not even in the den right now?”

“Then I’ll mine the entrance, and let them come to me.”

“You act like this will be trivial,” she continued, her sleeves crossing over her chest. “I haven’t known you for very long, Cooper, but I’d hate to see you die because you underestimated these creatures.”

“I stopped being afraid of death a long time ago,” Cooper replied. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be reckless. I know more about these things than you do, Pearl, I’ve hunted beasts my whole life, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Then, I guess your course is set,” Pearl said, an air of finality about her as she rose to her feet. “Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t you walk me to the Abbey? It’s only a few days, and the pack’s not going anywhere.”

This might be his last chance to back out of the job, but no, he’d heeded all the warnings, and it was do or die, and he figured he should just go ahead and do.

“I’m sure you’ll manage without me,” he said, swearing he could see Pearl’s shoulders sagging beneath her robe. “It was nice meeting you, Pearl. Maybe I’ll stop by once I’ve got my reward, buy you a book or two?”

“Or the whole library, with that kind of money,” she replied. “I’ll hold you to that, Cooper.”

She looked like she wanted to add something, but instead she leaned down and gave his pauldron a pat, her glowing eyes meeting his for a fleeting moment. As she turned around to leave, she stopped abruptly. “Oh! I almost forgot.”

From her sleeve she produced his handbook, holding it out to him. He looked down at its bright cover, and then shook his head.

“You keep it,” he said, Pearl recoiling as though he’d said something absurd. “I’ve memorized that book from back to front.”

“What? Oh, no, Cooper, I couldn’t accept this…”

“You need it more than I do,” he replied. “When we met, you were out of food. You shouldn’t have to ever go a night hungry again as long as you follow my notes in that book, Pearl. I want you to have it.”

“Seriously?” she asked, clutching the handbook in her arms. “Look at me, the new owner of Cooper’s first edition hunting guide.”

“I usually call it a scrapbook,” he chuckled. “but, I like that name better.”

She lingered there for a moment, then came over and hugged him from behind, bending down so she could reach him. Her robe enveloped him, Cooper feeling the flesh of her bust yielding against his armour, his cheeks burning as she nudged her head against the side of his helmet.

He felt a tinge of disappointment at not being able to return the gesture with his arms holding his gun, the feeling only growing when Pearl parted, beginning to walk back into the snow the way they’d come.

“Thank you, Cooper. Take care.”

“… You too,” he said, watching her vanish into the white haze, her silhouette soon fading. A part of him felt the need to follow her, but he had to remember his mission came first, and soon his thoughts turned solely on the den, where his ultimate goal was hiding.

Taking a moment to check for movement, he vaulted over the rock, moving cautiously towards the entrance of the den. As Pearl had said, the mouth was the entrance of what appeared to be a mine, the rough walls held in place by wooden supports, grafted onto the rock to form supportive wireframes. The wind screamed down the passage, shaking loose a few errant pebbles on the rough walls.

Cooper stepped over the tracks trailing out of the cave, the metal strips buried beneath snow in places, the servos in his suit echoing down the mineshaft as he stepped inside.

The tunnel went deeper into the mountain for a ways, before abruptly turning to the right, Cooper using his headlamp to cut away the shadows, the light of the sun losing its influence on the turn. He turned to look back out over the snowy landscape, stooping to one knee as he fished inside his pack, withdrawing a bundle of landmines from the front pocket.

These weren’t the typical fragmentation mines that was common throughout the Wastes, but a more personal invention. Spike mines would send out a spray of rounded bullets in an area, crippling anything that triggered the blast. These mines tended to maim rather than kill, but that didn’t make them wholly non-lethal. From all accounts, Omega would need a lot more than spikes to be brought down, but if any of the pack was outside right now, the blasts should warn him of anything coming up behind him.

He placed one to the left of the tracks, another on the right, and one more between the rails, priming them with a flick of a switch. He placed another one down further inside, ensuring that even if they somehow missed the first three, the fourth would certainly detonate.

His flank secured, he took a deep breath as he plunged into the mine, his headlamp providing a pool of light in an otherwise pitch blackness, the shadows so strong he couldn’t even see his feet. Cooper prayed his lamp would see him through until he was done.

As he neared the bend, the texture of the ground shifting from snow to gravel, he saw more evidence of Omega pack’s presence. The rail lines bolted into the ground were scratched, chunks of the steel scored clean away, as though a beast with claws had come and gone many times. He was starting to wonder if power armour would be enough to protect him.

He proceeded around the bend, shifting his head out of the way of a few errant planks dangling from above. He could hear flowing water from somewhere nearby, could this place be the source of the river he’d been following?

He soon came across an intersection, the path splitting into three directions, each passage framed by more support beams. Here would be a good spot for a spike mine, but the rotten wooden supports gave him pause. The last thing he needed was to trigger a cave-in and be trapped in here with these things.

He picked the passage going left, the gloom so oppressive his headlamp could scarcely penetrate a few meters in front of him. There seemed to be a layer of moisture clinging to the walls, the sheen reflecting the light of his headlamp. The water source must be nearby, perhaps right above his head.

The passage turned into another corner, Cooper aiming his rifle around the bend from the safety of the wall. His favoured weapon wasn’t designed for close quarters engagements like this, not that dealing with these pack animals in the confines of these tunnels was very appealing to him anyway.

The suit’s servos echoed eerily down the tunnels as he shouldered his rifle, bringing the syringer to bear and checking the dart tray. Time to see if the tranquilizer worked on these beasts, if it didn’t, he’d have to resort to the sword.

He walked deeper into the tunnel, and he soon passed a minecart toppled onto its side, its wheels clogged with dirt and rust, Cooper shimmying around it. It was so quiet, his heartbeat audible in his ears as every inch of revealing shadow threatened to hide one of the beasts.

As he spied the tunnel branching into another junction ahead, he heard it. He stopped, the motors in his suit sounding very loud in the ensuing silence, occasionally broken by a drip of distant water. He held still, straining his ears, waiting for the noise to repeat.

Then, a solitary footstep, loud and heavy, coming from ahead of him. He shone his headlamp that way, but the light only reached so far, the tunnel as dark as the maw of a monster.

He leveled his syringer, but then another footstep gave him pause, this one coming from back the way he’d came. He was surrounded, had these beasts sniffed him out the moment he’d entered the den? He doubled back, trying to move as quietly as he could wearing the heavy armour. The footsteps weren’t getting faster, but they were inching closer. His only choice was to use that minecart to hide. He’d been told these things were fast, and he couldn’t risk taking on two at once.

He moved back to the minecart, inching over to the side the bucket was facing, kneeling inside it, pausing to listen for the footsteps. They were drawing close enough that he could hear the pebbles being kicked up by their feet. The cart was just big enough to allow him to squeeze inside it, Cooper holding his syringer at the ready, the gun shaking in his hands as he waited.

It only just now occurred to him that his headlamp was on, the light would give him away. He reached up to switch it off, grimacing as the little following click bounced off the walls. His world turned into darkness, so much that he couldn’t even see the outline of his visor he was peering out of.

The footsteps were now chased by a quiet huffing sound, one of an animal scenting its prey. Did these things have the ability to see in the dark? It seemed likely, Cooper praying they didn’t see his footprints in the gravel.

The pair of growling animals were meters away now, close enough that each footstep seemed to pound on the rocky floor, Cooper’s helmet shaking against his head. The beasts sounded like they were snarling through their chops, deep and powerful, Cooper sensing their menacing presences approach the minecart.

He held his breath, nearly releasing it when there was a loud clang, Cooper looking up to see a hand sliding against the rim of the cart, directly above his helmet’s cranium.

Each finger was as long as his hand, covered in fine, brown scales, their arrangement reminding him of a serpent’s body. Each finger was tipped with the biggest claw he’d ever seen, easily doubling the length of each reptilian finger, the claws ending at a wicked points. The hand was conjoined to a dark, towering mass that was leaning over the minecart, Cooper resting his finger on the trigger of his gun.

He could feel the beast start to haul over the minecart, the metal creaking under its immense weight, its snarling taking on a strange rhythm as it neared its kin, the other beast responding in kind. Once there was room, the second beast wound its way past the minecart, this one not deigning to place a hand on his hiding place, perhaps because it was smaller and could squeeze through.

Small or not, the beast was incredibly tall and powerful, that much he could tell without needing to see it, its sheer presence powerful enough to inspire a primal dread inside him. Cooper’s chest began to tighten as he refused to exhale the breath he’d been holding, peeking over the lip of the cart once they had moved away, his eyes starting to adjust to the darkness. The beast going back the way he’d come had horns on its head, the little points scraping against the stone on the ceiling. As it rounded the corner, he thought he could make out what looked like a tail protruding from its rump, the appendage arcing around the corner for a moment as the beast disappeared.

The other one was too absorbed into the darkness for him to see it, but its footsteps had grown faint. Still there, but lowering in volume, Cooper sighing as quietly as he could as he rose from his hiding place, thanking his stars the beasts hadn’t smelled him out.

He readied his gun, mustering up the willpower to follow the beast moving away from the entrance. He’d have a better chance taking it by surprise while behind it, he just had to be wary of any others that could be wandering around.

He set off after the thing, keeping his headlamp off, as he couldn’t risk shining a light and giving himself away. He used the sound of its own footsteps to help guide his way, Cooper holding a hand out so he didn’t bump into anything. The thing veered off to the left, and he strained his ears to their absolute limits before following it around what felt like a turn.

The passage opened up into a chamber on the far side, the ceiling extending maybe ten or so meters above his head. There were wooden platforms hugging the walls to the left, joined to the floor by rickety staircases, likely used as spots for miners to access mineral deposits before the Bombs. Running through the middle of the floor was a river of trickling water, illuminated by shafts of light slipping through cracks in the ceiling.

Sitting in the middle of the chamber was a hunched figure, its back to Cooper, his heart pumping as he tried to examine it through the gloom. He could see several small spikes that looked like thorns running down the length of its massive spine, the breadth of its muscular shoulders wider than his power armour. It was leaning over the little stream of water, Cooper hearing it slurp loudly at the liquid. His eyes had begun to adjust to the dark, but without the lamp he couldn’t make out much more detail.

He levelled his syringer, his movements microscopic, worried that any sudden moves might alert the creature. He eyed the contours of the chamber with his eyes, confident he’d caught the beast alone. The tunnel behind him would provide a good bottleneck if the beast alerted its packmates, now was his best chance.

Exhaling a shaky breath, he pulled the trigger, his patchwork weapon filling the chamber with the sound of pressurized gas, three red-feathered darts soaring towards the creature, impaling it just above the base of its tail.

The beast stirred, whirring around and glaring at him with a pair of creamy, grey eyes, flashing with wild fury. Rather than unleash a bestial roar, it twisted its torso around like an uncoiling snake, climbing to its feet. Its eyes towered into the air, the creature near twice his height, beginning to walk towards him at an almost leisurely pace.

He fired off another dart, this one impaling it in the chest, and its eyes seemed to dim, the beast holding out its hands as it leaned forward. He felt it take one lumbering step, and then its leg gave out, the beast eating the dirt with a puff of dust.

He turned his headlamp on cautiously, and sure enough, the beast was lying on the floor as though it was resting, its bright eyes only open a sliver. The tranquilizer had worked exactly like Hendrix had told him, Cooper slamming in a fresh dart cartridge with a satisfied expression on his face.

Checking the passageway behind him, he moved over to the slumbering beast, finally able to examine one of these things in earnest. It was ten feet of scales and muscles, its arms and legs tipped with black, cruel-looking claws like he’d seen before. Its underbelly was a creamier colour than the rest of its brown body, like a beige, the scales finer and smaller. Two swirling horns protruded from the top of its head, sweeping to either side of its snout, the tips sharp enough to suggest the thing could skewer prey on them. Yellow teeth poked out from a pair of chops, too many for Cooper to count, a dull snout and a pair of large eye sockets making up the rest of its elongated face.

Its chubby tail flicked idly behind it, the thing so long it trailed into the stream behind it, adding five or so feet to its overall length. It was the biggest thing he’d ever seen, no wonder these fighting pits Hendrix mentioned coveted them so much.

Working up the courage, he gave the beast a solid kick to the stomach, his hands ready on his rifle should the thing start to wake up. His worries were in vain, the beast not so much as flinching as his armoured boot collided with its tanned hide.

Satisfied he could turn his back on the thing, he returned to the passageway, continuing straight on once he reached the intersection. He stopped to set down a spike mine, then continued on, his headlamp lighting his way. Like the rest of the mine so far, the floor was occupied by more tracks, the metal strips reflecting the glow of his headlamp. He wasn’t sure if it was just his mind or not, but the walls seemed to narrow a little closer together in this particular passage, close enough that the shoulders of his power armour almost grazed them.

After a few moments of silent pacing, he reached yet another intersection, this one in the shape of the letter X. When he reached the epicenter of the four passageways, the muscles in his chest tied into knots. He could hear more footsteps, pounding against the stone. Cooper wheeled round, pointing the syringer back the way he’d come, the noise picking up in speed.

His headlamp barely cut back the darkness at all, each passageway just a stretch of oily darkness. It was getting closer now, echoing off the walls to make it sound like ten of the things was rushing him down. Cooper couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from, but then with a start, he remembered the flare gun Hendrix had given him.

Sticking the syringer to his belt, he shrugged off his pack, aware of every precious second wasted as he plucked the flare gun from his belongings. He let go of the bag, the pack hitting the floor with a puff of dust, Cooper picking a direction at random, brandishing the colourful pistol. With a clack, the flare discharged, a plume of sparkling smoke arching down the passage, the walls turning crimson as their wet sheens reflected the light.

The flare clicked against the ground, skimming along the rocks for a few feet as it sizzled away. Cooper’s gaze was drawn up to a pair of glowing eyes just lingering out of the flare’s influence, the two orbs reflecting the bright light, shifting hues as it angled its head.

His wild shot with the flare hadn’t come soon enough, the flickering light blocking out as the beast lunged over the flare, indifferent to the sudden influx of light, its eyes rapidly growing in size as it charged Cooper down. The sight reminded him of the time a yao guai had charged him, the only real difference being the stone walls of the mine trapping his world to a handful of suffocatingly narrow passages.

He produced the syringer, filling the passage with darts, knowing the beast was right in front of him, but made invisible as it crossed the threshold between the light of the flare, and his headlamp. The dart tray ran dry, and he knocked it aside, his heart thumping in his ears as he reached for the next spare. He couldn’t tell how many darts had found their mark, so he unloaded every dart in this mag too, and he was rewarded with a wailing groan from the beast, the thing stumbling into his headlamp’s light, its chest and shoulders bristling with darts.

It looked almost identical to the one in the river chamber before, albeit a little on the smaller side. It still towered over him at eight feet and change, with arms as long as he was tall, its scales a deep brown, likely to help it blend with its environment whenever it wasn’t snowing out in the Wastes.

He watched it fall to a knee, then to both as the tranquilizer started to work itself into its bloodstream, its eyes lidding into slits as its chin hit the ground, the beast opening its jaws wide in an oddly human display of tiredness. It gave him a lingering glare, then went still, its tail folding over one of its legs as it succumbed to sleep.

Cooper couldn’t hear any more noise, but didn’t take a chance for a breather, instead using his time to reload his syringer and flare gun, which he’d dropped in his haste. The gas-powered gun was silent for the most part, but the popped flare would travel far in the mine, and he had to assume he couldn’t rely on stealth for much longer.

Once he was set, he moved up the passage the second beast had come from, the light from the flare petering out as he approached, the world plunging back into darkness. Keeping his weapon trained on the beast, he stepped over its outstretched arms, then its legs, the thing bulky enough to plug the passage like a cork in a bottle.

The path bent a little to the left, eventually opening up into a wide room after a few moments of walking. There were crates full of rocks stacked up to one side of the space, the rail tracks splitting into two sets here, one of which curved towards the crates. The other track continued through the middle of the room into a collapsed wall, the adjacent passage plugged with boulders as big as the torsos of the beasts that now occupied this place. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like someone had been trying to clear the rubble, using the crates to keep the rocks stored. He briefly wondered what lay behind the blocked passage, and then his thoughts were interrupted as he felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

He turned around, and saw another one of the beasts was standing right behind him.

Its wide, unblinking eyes had no pupils to speak of, yet Cooper could feel it making eye-contact with him through the visor. There was intelligence in its gaze, more than he’d expected from an animal. He could almost read the question in its gaze, what are you?

The creature’s long arms were splayed out to the sides, almost as though it was preparing to trap him in its embrace. Fearing any big movements would set it off, he turned the barrel of his syringer up. Like a snake zeroing in on movement, its predatory gaze angled towards his gun, and the thing snarled, instilling a kind of fear in him that Cooper hadn’t felt since he was a boy.

It took one step forward, Cooper feeling the ground shake beneath his suit. He wasted no time, bringing his weapon up with practiced speed and firing, three of the darts peppering it along the arm and neck, the last three going wide. The thing had ducked out of the firing arc, closing the distance between them on its digitigrade legs, Cooper feeling his lungs empty of air as the thing crashed into him.

He felt his boots leave the ground as he was sent flying backwards, metal grinding against rock as he crashed into the stacks of crates, Cooper’s gaze blurring as a rock bigger than his head tumbled onto his helmet, the metal ringing in his ears like a gong. As the boulder tumbled away, his headlamp illuminated the beast, its giant shadow dancing on the ceiling above it as it slammed one of its feet on his chest. Each of its three toes was capped with a talon longer than his forearm, their colour almost matching the dusky scales covering the rest of its leg. The talons buried into his chest piece as though the steel wasn’t there, slicing through the metal and inching their way towards his vulnerable body.

The beast slowly raised one of its arms, flexing its hand to reveal the long claws sheathed in its fingers, its hungry eyes still locked to his helmet. It would rip him right out of the power frame in a second, but his weapons were below his waist, and he couldn’t move his arms around the foot pinning him down. The only thing in reach was the rock sitting by his helmet’s cranium.

He scooped the rock off the ground, the servos in his suit whining as he threw all his weight into a swing. It would have been unmovable normally, but with the armour, the stone weighed as much as a pebble, Cooper snarling with effort as he struck the beast on the knee. He felt as much as heard the resulting crunching of bone, the beast unleashing a furious roar as it staggered away, Cooper scrambling to his knees as its tremendous weight was lifted off his chest.

He launched for his discarded syringer, slapping a fresh tray into the mag well, then rolling onto his side to face the beast. Its movements were sluggish, the limp in its leg and the tranquilizer from the darts finally taking effect. It made to wrench open his suit with its claws, but it was close enough now that Cooper didn’t miss when he pulled the trigger.

Two more darts joined the rest on its body, and the beast once again voiced its frustration into a snarl, the noise tapering out into a whimper as the sedatives sent it crashing to the floor, fatigue washing over it. It swiped at him one last time, but it was too far away that the movement was in vain, the beast going still save for the slow rise and fall of its chest.

Cooper released the breath he’d been holding, cursing himself for letting things get so dicey. He peered into the passageway as he reloaded, sweat drooping from his brow into his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to take a breather, but he still had two more beasts to deal with, plus Omega. He considered the possibility that the one he’d just taken out was Omega, it had darker scales and was perhaps the tallest one so far, but he had a feeling he’d know the pack’s leader when he saw it.

The adrenaline in his veins spurred him on, Cooper leaving the blocked passageway behind as he returned to the intersection, once more stepping over the beast plugging the shaft. He briefly wondered why that last beast had watched him rather than just pounce right away, maybe it didn’t know what he was? Maybe it had seen its sleeping counterpart, and it had been curious as to what could have brought down its kin?

He pushed these questions to the back of his mind, picking the passage that led further away from the entrance, hoping his mental map of the place was correct. As he walked through the winding passage, he felt a tremor in the earth, a distant boom echoing down from the passage behind him. One of his mines must have been set off. He kept still, waiting for more to detonate, but nothing came. He’d have to investigate once he doubled back.

He continued on, noting that there were lightbulbs spaced throughout the shaft, connected by long copper wires. There might be a way to power on the circuit and help light up these tunnels, but Cooper thought that would be a bit much to hope for, this place had been abandoned for a long time.

Soon the mineshaft widened out into another room, this one more spacious than any of the others so far. There was a great machine off to one side of the room, it almost looked like a vehicle, except it was supported by tracks rather than wheels, and the front of it extended out into the shape of an arm, with a scoop on the end, the bucket currently filled with rocks. There was another of its kind a little further in, painted a faded yellow, sitting flush against a wall of minerals that looked like it had been chipped away in places. Sitting next to the outcrops of rock were handmade tools, drills and pickaxes, along with tall, tubular machines as big as a man, wedged into the crevices of rock. These were more drilling machines, if Cooper had to guess. This must be where most of the mining was done, back before the Bombs. He wondered how the Old World managed to fit all this equipment inside, perhaps there was a larger entrance somewhere else?

Like the room with the stream, there were gaps in the ceiling, allowing shafts of light to brighten up the room. Sitting right in the middle of the little pools of light was what appeared to be a haphazard bundle of fabrics. Cooper could see mattresses, blankets, pillows, the sheets stained by the abundant presence of dirt and dust.

Two of the creatures were sitting on top of the nest, their tails flicking across the fabrics as they lounged together. Had these things dragged the bedding here from someplace? It was unusual to see wild animals prefer fabrics rather than just the ground. Then again, Cooper thought, this hunt was the most unusual one in his life.

He thanked his luck these things had not heard him fight the last beast, and had not been riled up by the confrontation. He could see movement in the mound of fabrics, the two beasts were shifting together, the sight coming off as rhythmic. They were awake, then, maybe starting to wake up?

As he took aim with his syringer at the seemingly oblivious creatures, he felt a little off-put by how simple this was all turning out to be. For creatures bigger and tougher than anything else in the Wastes, he had managed to get the drop on most of them so far.

He sprayed the nest full of darts, and the reaction from the beasts was immediate. Two hulking figures rose to their feet, turning their bright eyes in Cooper’s direction. One appeared to be maybe seven feet tall, while the other was eight, and it looked like the latter of which had been laying in front of the other, Cooper noting its back was covered in darts while the former looked unharmed.

The big one stepped in front of the other, opening its chops wide to unleash a blood-curdling snarl, approaching him swiftly on all fours despite the sedatives pumping into its body. It leapt from rock to rock like a pouncing cat, coming in too fast for Cooper to reload the syringer in time before it was on him. Instead, he drew the flare gun, firing a powerful light straight into the thing’s face. Like any animal, having its senses overloaded with smoke and sparks sent it reeling, the beast clutching its horns in its hands as it snapped its eyes shut, stunned just long enough for Cooper to reload, and plug its chest full of tranquilizer, the beast dropping with a groan.

With the big one down, Cooper turned his attention to the remaining beast. It took one look at its fallen kin, and then turned on its heels, its long tail winding behind it as it raced towards a passage on the far side of the chamber. Cooper aimed, a wave of pity coming and going as he zeroed in on the frightened creature. For something so big and deadly, it knew when to flee, the act betraying the kind of intelligence Hendrix had warned him about.

Two darts hit it in the leg, the creature hitting the ground hard, Cooper feeling the vibrations of the impact travel up his legs even from this distance. He crossed the chamber, noting that the creature was trying to pry the darts out of its scaley hide, succeeding in tossing one aside. Before it could work on the other one, Cooper emptied the rest of the syringer into its flank, and the beast went still.

Cooper sighed through the rebreathers, allowing himself a moment to catch his breath. He’d downed the whole pack with only a few scrapes to show for his troubles, but there was no time for celebrations just yet. These two were much the same build as the others, so the last, remaining beast must be Omega. He was starting to tire, but he had to push on and find this thing before it found him.

Checking his ammo and dropping another mine, he moved on from the chamber to where the smaller beast had tried to flee, the walls narrowing into the passages once more. All these tunnels looked the same, with the spaced out wooden frameworks, the walls covered in a layer of moisture, the lightbulbs swinging gently as his heavy suit disturbed the earth.

The path soon wound towards the right, and Cooper found himself back at the first junction near the entrance, the mine winding around in an almost circuit-like shape. The last path must be where Omega was holding up, unless it had managed to get behind him at some point…

He fired a flare down the mineshaft he’d come from, but saw nothing, so he proceeded into the unexplored passage, noting that the walls here began to part to a more comfortable distance, big enough that one of those machines he’d seen could pass through unhindered.

The path split into two directions after he ventured a little deeper, one going forward, the other leading left into an offshoot, the latter of which projecting a loud crashing noise. Was that a waterfall, the source of that stream maybe? He made to investigate, but then stopped, a peculiar sight in the passage ahead catching his attention.

There was a great breach in the ceiling, as though the miners of the Old World had taken a massive auger to this spot and drilled right to the surface of the mountain, a circle of cloudy sky visible to Cooper as he stood in the pool of light.

There were pieces of string attached to either side of the vertical tunnel, just high enough that Cooper would have to stand on his toes to reach. There were things attached to it, shirts, pants, coats, slightly swaying as the air filtered down from the open sky. Had someone been camping out here before the beasts had moved in? He didn’t envy being in their shoes, waking up to find your home had been made into a den.

He moved beneath the clothesline, the rushing water fading behind him. After a few moments, the passage opened up into a vast room, maybe ten meters across and twenty deep, the floor made level by strips of wooden planks, arranged almost like pathways as they snaked to the corners of the room.

There were columns of carved wood holding the tall ceiling aloft, covered in scratch marks and rot, but still holding firm. There were no cracks for light to sneak its way into the room, but there were lightbulbs spaced about the ceiling, suggesting whoever had lived here hadn’t done so in complete darkness.

To one side of the room were a pair of tables, the desks stacked with odd trinkets, Cooper moving over to examine them. There were wooden figurines that looked handcrafted, along with stacks of paper, held down by stones so they didn’t flitter about.

The workspace was a mess of scrunched up paper balls, most of it littering the floor around an upturned chair, Cooper’s curiosity overpowering his adrenaline as he stooped to pick one up, unravelling the parchment with a gauntleted hand. There was something written on it in black ink, but someone had crossed over the words with several lines to make it illegible.

Dropping the paper on the desk, he moved around it, spotting a small pile of books by one leg of the desk. The covers were frayed at the edges, but not as dusty as Cooper would have guessed they’d be after sitting in here for who knows how long. Perhaps he could dig into them later, see if anything worth selling had survived.

He neared the far end of the room, where more workbenches were stacked up against the stone walls. Bundles of clothes sat off to one side, with pairs of scissors and sewing kits sitting on top of them, but Cooper was more focused on the centermost table.

A single wooden bowl rested on its surface, Cooper catching a sliver of white through the rest of the colourless contents. Wide, flat rocks were sitting in a messy pile, slightly overflowing from the rim of the bowl. As Cooper leaned in closer, he noticed they weren’t rocks at all. Their surfaces were bumpy, with white and brown stripes creating patterns across their hard surfaces. Were these… clamshells?

“You made it a lot further than I thought you would, Cooper.”

He spun around to face the voice, his headlamp driving back the shadows to reveal Pearl, standing in the threshold of the exit. Her bright eyes were slightly curved at the bottom, as though she was smiling at him from beneath her hood.

“Pearl? What are you doing here?” he asked. “it isn’t safe, there’s still one more of these things around here somewhere.”

“I know, I know, Omega’s the most dangerous one, blah blah blah,” she sighed, waving a dismissive sleeve at him. “You told me to keep my distance, but as I was leaving, I got to thinking. What kind of person would I be if I just let my new buddy walk into the lions den without lending him a hand?”

“You have to get out of here, Pearl,” Cooper insisted. “Head back to the entrance and… wait. I… didn’t say that it was Omega who was left…”

“Oh, Cooper,” she giggled. “Here I was starting to think you had sharp eyes. Perhaps it’s about time you learned something your precious employer failed to tell you…”

He watched as Pearl brought her sleeves to her hood, pulling the billowy material over her head. His wide eyes were drawn to the floor behind her, the trailing excess of her robe catching on her legs. She pulled harder, and Cooper realised it hadn’t been caught on her feet, but on a tail.

The tapered tip splayed out into a curving appendage, thick with fat and muscle, its base wider than the span of Cooper’s hips. There were bony spikes lining the spine of the tail, tens of them coming into view as the robe slowly lifted away. Her feet came next, the three toes capped with triangular talons, splayed out apart to cover as much surface area as a creature of her size needed. The ankles were raised off the ground, the feet tapering into bent, digitigrade legs. Her powerful thighs rippled with muscle as she shifted on the spot, each as thick around as tree trunks. Every inch of her body was flush with shining scales, her hide shifting hues as his headlamp played over her pale complexion. The scales began to thin as they reached towards her underside, smoother and finer than the armoured plating on her rough back and legs.

Her waist looked noticeably pinched from this angle, her torso widening as it reached her chest, the robe pulling away to reveal subtle fat deposits there. At first he suspected she had a bosom, but he couldn’t see anything that would suggest she had breasts, just a slight curve that reminded him of an hourglass figure.

Her robe snaked its way over a muscular set of biceps, then up a thick neck, Cooper noting that the spines on her tail continued up her backside, getting bigger as they reached her broad shoulders. The cloth finally pulled over a pair of horns rising from her forehead, sweeping away and then up so they didn’t block her vision. From beneath a scaly brow, two burning eyes emerged, the same amber colour as he’d seen before, but somehow glowing more brightly now that there was no shadow to conceal them.

The edges of her maw curled back and then up as she laughed, revealing a set of chops full of dozens of mismatched teeth, the smallest of which maybe the size of his finger. She flung the robe to the side, revealing a pair of forearms just as built as the rest of her, each finger just as wide around as his wrists, capped with dark claws sharpened into deadly points.

Towering over him at ten feet and change, Pearl was enormous, her tail making her appear much larger as the appendage trailed into the darkness behind her. Despite her overpowering presence, the shifting hues of her scaley hide were oddly distracting. Her scales were white at a glance, but shifted in pinkish hues as the lamp caught the scales at different angles, reminding him of… well, pearls. He would have found the sight transfixing under different circumstances.

“You’re… Omega,” he muttered, trying to steady his trembling hands as the beast scrutinised him with those glowing eyes.

“My scales twist every time someone calls me that,” Pearl sighed, her voice still maintaining that feminine tone, despite her toothy maw appearing like it could produce nothing more than snarls and hisses. “Seems that you and I have that in common, abhorring our silly nicknames.”

“We have nothing in common, you animal,” he snarled, aiming his syringer at her chest. His mind was having trouble processing what was happening, but he collected himself just enough to know he still had a job to do, he had to stay focused.

“Animal?” Pearl echoed, putting a clawed hand on her chest in mock-outrage. “Would an animal talk? Discuss its hobbies with its would-be killer? I told you that you were underestimating my pack.”

“Your pack is out cold,” Cooper replied defiantly.

“A fun little side show,” she giggled. “I was wondering if you’d do things the easy or the hard way, if your hard-on for money would convince yourself to just off my pack and be done with it, but you showed restraint, which is lucky for you. If I’d heard a gunshot, or watched you spill our blood, well…” She bared her ivory fangs. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Cooper shifted, wondering if she’d been following him through the mine the entire time. Why had Hendrix not told him these things could talk and act like humans?

“At a loss for words, Cooper?” Pearl asked, grinning toothily. “You were talking a big game on the way here, is my body really that upsetting to you?”

She cocked her hips, turning in such a way that only exaggerated their curves.

“I saw you catching an eyeful when you thought I wasn’t looking, you know. You thought I was a Super Mutant, you cheeky thing. Why should me being a deathclaw change anything?”

“You are Omega,” Cooper said. “The thing I’m being paid to bring back to its cage. It changes everything.”

“So it’s really just all about the money with you, is it?” she asked, shaking her head. “After all we’ve been through, that’s all you can think about? And here I was just starting to like you, little hunter.”

Cooper didn’t answer, reaching over to adjust the pressure valve on the syringer. Despite lacking pupils, she rolled her eyes at him, splaying her legs out wide as she exhaled.

“I guess talking it out isn’t really your style,” she relented. “You want to bring me back to that lodge? Go ahead and try.”

She held her arms out to either side, the palms facing cooper, exposing her paler underbelly. The scales looked thinner here, but would his darts penetrate her hide?

“Give it your best shot,” she challenged, gesturing at him with her long arms. Cooper hesitated, expecting some sort of trick, but she really was letting him have the first move, her legs arranged in such a way she wouldn’t be able to dodge out of the way easily.

He squeezed the trigger, the weapon hissing gas as he sent all six darts her way. He watched with narrowed eyes as she stood fast, the beast flinching as four of the darts wedged between the gaps of her scales, the rest bouncing off and dropping to the floor. Hendrix had said Omega would take more tranquilizer than the packmates to knock out, but maybe four would be enough to slow her, and give him an edge?

He held his breath as she looked down, her chest bristling with feathered darts. She pulled one of them out, resting it in her palm as she examined it. She flexed her fingers into a fist, crushing the dart like it was a clump of snow, the creamy fluids of the sedatives leaking between her digits.

“I’m pretty sure I said shot, not shots, plural,” she grumbled, turning her glowing eyes on him, pulling her chops back in a snarl. “Oh well. My turn.”

She dropped to all fours, zig-zagging across the room towards him like a giant serpent. She was faster than any of the pack members, crossing half the space between them in the time it took Cooper to blink. He hit the eject on the dart tray, slamming in a fresh one, his heart hammering in his chest as she lunged at him. He fired off another dart, but the shot went wide, and the weapon left his hands as she swiped it out of his grasp. She threw the weapon over her scaly shoulder, where it clattered into the darkness. She’d moved like a flash, why wasn’t the tranquilizer slowing her down?

The deathclaw, if that was what it was called, planted a leg in the ground, pulling her arm back and forming the claws into a fist. He barely had enough time to raise his arms to protect himself as she attacked, his metal arms ringing loudly as she struck with enough force to send him reeling. He could feel every plate in the power armour vibrate as he hit the ground, the servos screaming as they compensated for the heavy fall. He peered up at her through his visor, seeing the beast rear back on her powerful legs, so impossibly tall.

“Not bad for a tin suit,” she said, shaking her fist like a boxer who’d just hurt their hand. “Hit like that would paste a brahmin. Let’s see how it holds up to my claws.”

Brandishing her left arm, she gave her hand a flex, and five claws slid out of their sheaths on her fingers, easily the longest claws out of any he’d seen. If they were to impale Cooper’s chest plate, the tips would probably poke out of the other side.

As she telegraphed her strike, Cooper reached for his waist, producing his sidearm in both hands. He dumped all nine rounds into Omega’s chest, dark blood spraying the air, the room lighting up in sharp instances by the muzzle flashes. She flinched away, covering her head with a giant arm as she snarled through her teeth. He struggled to a knee as the weapon went dry, his hand once again flaring in pain as she knocked the gun out of his grip. Rather than cast it aside, this time she slammed down on the weapon with her foot, obliterating it under her heel.

He spied the syringer between her legs, laying on the other side of the room. He would have to circle around her to get to it, but even with her chest riddled with holes and darts, Omega didn’t look fazed in the least.

“Not bad, little hunter,” she said, Cooper watching with wide eyes as she dug a nail into one of the bullet holes in her bicep. “What’s this, ten mil? Maybe you should try your rifle next, that might get through.”

She would probably snatch the rifle off him if he pulled it off his shoulder. Instead he reached for his last resort, brandishing the Old World sword out in front of him with both hands, angling the tip towards her face. Just like she had when she’d first seen his syringer, she snorted, her nostrils flexing as she gestured with a claw.

“Wow, seriously? My man wants to take me on hand-to-claw? This’ll be interesting…”

Summoning all his strength, he flexed his powered limbs into a thrust, driving the point of his weapon towards her chest. Omega sidestepped out of the way before he could pierce her scaley hide, and Cooper almost lost his footing as he steadied his lunge. Before he could recover, she dug two of her claws into the ground, then brought them up in an uppercut motion, her claws sweeping his leg out from underneath him, his visor showered with dust.

His suit clanking, he crashed onto his rump, the suit’s servos whining in complaint as he rolled onto his front.

“I can hear you panting beneath that helmet,” she growled. “Not such a dumb animal after all, am I? Perhaps if you apologized for the name calling, I’d consider sparing you…”

He’d been a fool to ever consider her intellect as anything but as good as his own, but she was being brash, toying with him, he could use that to his advantage.

Feigning tiredness, he struggled to one knee, then slashed out with his sword, meeting resistance as he cut into one of her calves. It glanced off her scales, little more than a flea bite to Omega, but she flinched back in surprise, giving Cooper the room to climb to his feet.

He cleaved through the air with another jab, the blade whistling as Omega dodged away. He used the momentum to follow through with another strike, slashing the sword from right to left, aiming for Omega’s neck. She didn’t dance out of the way, but rather, she brought one of her arms up, blocking the blade with the flat of her wrists, the scales stopping the blade from digging into her.

Almost like she was dancing, she swung her hips, and her tail arced into view, slamming into his chest, packed with so much muscle that his power armour buckled as though the joints had come loose. Like being hit by an angry brahmin, Cooper was lifted into the air, the strike sending him crashing against one of the support columns in the room, snapping it into two pieces.

Gasping for air, Cooper braced himself on his knees, blinking his wonky vision clear, his adversary watching him struggle to his feet.

“That armour is giving you plenty of endurance,” she marveled. “do you have as much stamina without it, I wonder?”

Putting her inhumane swiftness on display, she was on him in a moment, Cooper holding back a cry of alarm as she seized his pauldron, posing like she intended to rip his arm right out of his socket. Instead, she pulled down in a sort of peeling motion, and the sound of searing metal filled his helmet as the plates of his gauntlet began to break. The sound was horrible, like fingernails scratching against a chalkboard, the metal stripping apart as Omega’s powerful nails rended the steel apart.

With a final metallic groan, his gauntlet was stripped away, Omega holding the bent metal in one hand as she admired the result of her efforts. His limb had been stripped of its protective plating, the wireframe base of the power armour exposed to the air, Cooper’s arm visible through the seams. He felt vulnerable, his body so acclimatized to the suit’s coverings that seeing his own limbs felt wrong.

Omega’s chops curled into a smile as she tossed the armour away, the metal arm bending at the joint as it vanished into the dark. “I knew it, you’re a softie under all that metal, Cooper. I could carve my name into your skin, that’s how tender you look…”

“I don’t need the armour to bring you down,” he growled, readying his sword again.

“There’s the confidence I was starting to miss. Come on, then.”

He charged toward her, dipping into a roll as she swung her tail at him, the appendage cracking over his head as it whipped through the air. The muscles in her legs bulging, she turned on the spot, readying a claw for an overhand strike, but Cooper was quicker, darting in and slicing her across her waist, drawing a line of blood across her scaled hide.

Like the other deathclaw that he’d struck with the stone, she opened her mouth and roared in pain, half hiss, half cry of a giant beast, the sound chilling his blood. She backhanded him with a claw, the blow making his ears ring, but Cooper pressed on, intending to impale her through the stomach, using his sword like a spear and driving the point home.

She blocked with her clawed hands, encompassing the entire blade within her palms, intending to snap the weapon clean in half. Thinking quickly, Cooper thumbed the little button that would electrify the weapon. He could see the blue glow filter through the grooves between her fingers, the arcs of energy shining through her skin, her expression shifting to one of alarm as the beast jerked her hands away like she’d just touched a hot stove.

The blade flickering with arcs of lightning, Cooper swung the blade up, catching Omega on the chin, the strike sending her sprawling back a few feet, the sound of a zap filling the room. Her tail dragged across the floor, keeping her balanced, but without it he was sure she’d have collapsed under the sudden electrical discharge.

Hissing through bared teeth, Omega, or Pearl, furrowed her brow at him, a wild fury that betrayed her predatory urges overcoming her.

“Nobody shocks me, Cooper,” she snarled. “The last person who did that, I gutted like a fish.”

She was on him in a second, Cooper batting one of her swipes away with his undamaged hand, using his electrified weapon to ward her away. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought he could see a flash of fear in her eyes each time the sword almost made contact with her. Was that a primal fear, or something more?

She pivoted on the spot, the turn of her hips betraying her next attack, Cooper bracing himself for her tail. The appendage rose up like a giant tentacle, but she pulled it back at the last second, delivering a swipe from the other side, claws aiming for his face. He recoiled, reaching up on instinct to clutch his temple, the helmet clinking as it got in the way. As he tried to blink his vision clear, he swiped out wildly with his sword, praying for a lucky hit, yet all he could see was darkness.

He blinked again, and realised the world was cast in shadow, even when he was certain his eyes were working. The walls of the room were obscured, and Omega wasn’t anywhere to be seen, what had happened?

The clinking of fallen glass drew his gaze down, and although he couldn’t see, he deduced those were shards, formerly part of his headlamp. Omega had shattered his only light source. He reached up to flick the lamp switch, knowing it was a futile gesture but trying anyway.

“Haven’t you done enough to us?” Omega’s voice asked, Cooper holding his sword out defensively. The electrical lances created a small pool of blue-tinted light around him, but anything beyond a few feet in front of him was pure darkness, he couldn’t see where she was in the room anymore. “You should just leave, the pack won’t follow you, you’ve made sure of that.”

“I’m not leaving without dealing with you,” he replied, suppressing his fear as he wheeled on the spot, slashing out at where her voice had come from, hitting nothing but empty air. He walked back to where he thought the exit was, but instead he bumped into the corner of the room. The walls hadn’t been this far apart, had they?

He heard the rumbling of footsteps as she approached him from the side, Cooper yelling out as she grabbed his arm. She could have dragged him into the darkness and devoured him, but instead she did the same as she had last time, tearing apart the armour on his limb until the frame was exposed, shooting off into the darkness before he had realised what had happened.

“Three thousand caps?” she asked, the sound of clanging metal informing him she’d discarded his armour. “Is that what your life is worth to you? You’d die for the chance to get rich?”

“Yes! I told you that already!” he shouted into the shadows. “I haven’t got anything to go back to, it’s do or die for me.”

He put his back to the corner, holding his sword out to illuminate as much room as possible. He’d known there’d always been the possibility he’d be literally backed into a corner during the hunt, but that didn’t mean he’d lay down and take it, he’d give this beast, Pearl or whatever it was, as much trouble as he could manage.

Like a striking snake, she leapt out from the shadows, clamping her powerful claws around his leg, the armour peeling away as she retreated immediately back into the darkness. There were warning lights flashing inside his helmet, the systems warning him that his armour was compromised, as if it wasn’t obvious already. He delivered a swift kick to Omega’s temple before she could disappear, the beast grunting in pain as she slunk deeper into the room. Cooper struck out with his sword, but all he saw was the point of her tail, and then she was gone again.

As much as she might have feared the electricity, this was her domain, and Cooper was literally fighting blind. The shadows at the edge of the sword’s influence played tricks on his eyes, each minute movement convincing him Omega was nearby, but she never revealed herself, toying with him as she bided her time.

The next strike came from the side, Omega moving so quickly she was nothing more than a blur of scales. With one clawed hand she speared into his chest piece, her fingers slipping into the grooves, using her momentum to pull the armour apart. He tried to bat her off, but she blocked his sword with her free arm, Cooper sure this was the end of him. The cuirass stripped away, bolts and joints flying, Omega dropping it by his feet as she disappeared as quickly as she’d come, the armour clattering as it settled. Cooper could see most of his underlying clothes now, there was nothing to protect him from being skewered on the spot.

“Just give up, you can’t fight me,” she growled, Cooper unable to tell which side of the room her voice was coming from. “You’re stumbling around in the darkness of my home, and your armour’s scrapped. Are you still sure you can capture me?”

Cooper removed the stifling helmet, and flung it into the shadows, hoping he might luck out and hit her. He heard it bounce off what must be the wall, rolling away somewhere to his left.

“I’ll take that as a no…”

Something pushed into him from behind, and he hit the ground, his sword tumbling out of his grasp, the electric blade cutting off as it fell to the floor. His world turned to black, Cooper’s heart racing as he brandished his rifle, fitting his finger into the trigger well and firing wildly into every direction. Muzzle flashes lit up the room in milliseconds, the crack of each bullet making his ears ring. He felt something stomp towards him, the ground rumbling beneath his back, a mass encroaching over him.

His rifle was plucked from his hands, and a weight was pressed onto his stomach, Cooper emptying his lungs as he searched for his killer. Warm breath on his face assured him she was right in front of his nose, but he couldn’t see anything. He winced away, waiting for the final blow.

Then, there was nothing.

In the next moment, there was a flood of yellow light, Cooper peering up to see a lightbulb dangling from the ceiling had turned on, Omega tugging the hanging string that powered it. She wasn’t attacking him. Cooper held up a protective arm as she crouched down beside him, crossing her long legs as though she was about to start meditating.

“There,” she said. “problem solved.”

“What?” Cooper asked, his fear slowly ebbing away to leave him confused.

“Problem, solved,” she repeated, slowly annunciating each syllable. “Your armour is knackered, and you’ve been thoroughly disarmed. You have no means to fight me, so now we don’t have to.”

“But, you could have ended it,” he said, his mind having trouble processing this turn of events. “You had me pinned, you could have just killed me!”

“I never wanted to kill you,” she replied, raising a hand at him. “It was you who wanted to kill me, and you wouldn’t listen to reason, so I had to neutralize you. Therefore, problem is solved.”

Cooper looked at her warily, his distrust palpable. She’d been playing him for a fool for days now, was this some kind of trick? No, she could have finished him off the moment he’d set foot in her lair. Even with all his weapons and preparation, nothing had seemed to put a dent in her except for the sword, he was nothing short of being at this thing’s mercy.

“So what now?” he grumbled, his suit creaking as he sat up. “You gonna feed me to your pack when they wake up?”

“Why would I do that?” she asked, cocking her head in confusion.

“Why would you do any of this?” he shot back, raising an arm to count the points off his fingers. “You threaten to kill me and then didn’t, you pretended to be someone you weren’t, traveled with me, and ate my food for the past three days!”

“I was bored,” she explained with a shrug of her scaly shoulders. “You think it’s fun being able to talk, but have nobody around to speak to? The moment I heard that gunshot out in the valley, I just had to find the shooter, and I’ll admit, you were a pretty fun diversion. You should be glad you fed me,” she added. “After you told me you worked for that dick Hendrix, I might have made a meal out of you if you hadn’t shared.”

She began to laugh, throwing her horned head back to the ceiling.

“I had to struggle to contain myself every time you said you’d take Omega down no sweat, almost let slip a chuckle here and there. I’ll admit, when you went off to take out my pack, that was a bit of a wildcard moment, but it went according to plan, which is more than could be said for you, eh Cooper? You thought this would be like any other mark, but the reward blinded you from seeing that your Omega was sleeping right next to you the whole time!”

She held her belly with a clawed hand, eventually getting her amusement under control.

“So no, I’m not going to eat you or let my pack feast on you. I wanted a bit of excitement, and I got more than my fill. For that, you can go.”

“Fuck you,” Cooper snapped.

She narrowed her eyes, fixing him with a cold stare. “What did you say?”

“Fuck you!” he said again. He got to his feet, jabbing his finger in her face, Pearl blinking as she glanced between him and his extended digit. “Where am I going to go? I have no home, and I spent most of my money stocking up to hunt you. You’ve ruined most of my supplies, I’ve barely got enough to feed myself for a week, tops. I was going to walk out of this rich, or dead, not this… in between bullshit.”

“But you’re a hunter!” she protested, so close that he could feel her warm breath on his hair. “You don’t need money to survive, I’ve seen your tracking skills…”

“I don’t want to survive,” he spat. “I want to spend my days behind ten-foot walls, where I don’t have to watch my back every minute of the day. I want to live where I don’t have to worry if I’m gonna starve the next night, or spend another day out in the freezing cold. None of that’s possible without money.”

“There’s other jobs out there,” she tried. “someone of your expertise can’t be that short of work…”

“It’s not that simple,” he said, folding his arms dejectedly. “Every day I’m hunting further and further from the settlements, and one day I’m gonna slip up, or be too far away to get help. Something faster, or smarter than me is going to get the drop on me, hell, you’ve already done that, and then I’ll die out there in the Wastes… alone. The thought of it just terrifies me.”

“We’re all scared of that happening,” she said, her tone sympathetic. “I know how much roughing it out in the wilds can take a toll on the mind.”

“You should just end it,” he said, turning away from her, his voice wavering. “I’d rather die here on the hunt than return to Hendrix empty-handed. Man like that would work me to the bone after ruining his power armour.”

“Don’t be like that,” she sighed. “Look, go use my shower, run your head under some cold water, you’ll feel better. Trust me.”

“Sh-Shower?” he asked. Hardly a minute ago she’d tried to kill him, his mind couldn’t keep up with what was happening.

“Yep. You’re a mess, and you could use a good wash. It’s just down the hall to the right,” she said, pointing a claw over a shoulder as though there was nothing strange about their situation. “It’s not really a shower per se, but it’s clean, and it’s the least I could offer after intentionally leaving you at the mercy of my pack.”

When she didn’t elaborate, she nodded towards the exit with her horned head. “Go on then, a good cold splash will clear your head.”

Cooper walked past her, keeping a constant eye on her in case she suddenly attacked him while he was distracted. What was going on? They’d been at each other’s throats a second ago, and now she was offering him hospitality? Her glowing eyes tracked him as he went, her chops still pulled up in a smirk. As he reached the passageway, he turned, the maw of darkness giving him pause.

“It’s too dark,” he complained.

“Oh, right, forgot you humans don’t have nightvision. Turn on the generator on your left. No, other left.”

Somehow he hadn’t even seen the bulky machine on his way in. It looked more or less the same as the ones on the lodge, albeit a little on the smaller side, with less protective panels encasing the machinery. As he flicked the on switch, he noticed there was a couple of discarded parts on the ground nearby, one of them catching his attention. It was a rotor, rusted around the edges and badly in need of maintenance. The one in the machine looked perfectly well, the generator beginning to jostle on the spot as the motor started chugging.

“You stole this rotor from the lodge,” he pointed out.

“Yep,” she chuckled. “Was looking for a replacement, happened to catch my eye during my escape.”

A little click down the passage drew his attention, Cooper turning to see the mineshaft become bathed in the light of more bulbs. They flicked on one by one, revealing the way he’d entered up until the junction. He’d seen the lights during his clearing of the mine, where they all controlled from this generator? And had this beast set them all up? How?

He had no idea what was going on right now, this beast was no beast, and it was offering him a shred of comfort after he’d tried to kill it. Everything had been so crystal-clear the previous day. Tranquilize the beasts, then and wait to get paid. Now he didn’t know what to think or do.

Perhaps he should just splash his face with water, like she’d said. He might even wake up from this crazy dream once he did.

***

Cooper retraced his steps, passing beneath the clothesline once more, the fabrics swaying slightly, making the turn towards the offshoot. The sound of flowing water bounced off the stone walls, the way forward illuminated by the occasional lightbulb dangling over his head.

With the helmet no longer there to filter the smells, he could breathe in the scent of the mine for the first time. The air was damp, but not quite as musty as he would have expected it to be, neither warm or cold, which was a pleasant change from the icy temperatures outside. The creators of the mine must had bored out vents to circulate outside air through the shafts, regulating the temperature for the workers.

The passage widened into another chamber, the gravel in the passage giving way to a wide room of stone. As the noise of water suggested, most of the floor was occupied by a small pool, the rocky ground sloping into a sort of bowl-like indent. To one side was the smallest waterfall Cooper had ever seen, streams of water dribbling over a cliff near the ceiling. There must be a natural spring up there. The rest of the room was occupied by mineral outcrops, shining like glass as they reflected the glow of the lightbulbs.

He glanced around the chamber, peeking behind a cluster of stalagmites protruding from the floor to make sure he was alone. He’d tranquilized every deathclaw that had escaped from the lodge, baring one, but he didn’t want to be lured into a false sense of security again.

Checking the passageway to make sure Omega wasn’t sneaking up on him, Cooper pressed a small mechanism in the collar of the power armour, the latch snapping back with a click. The frame moved his arms to his sides of its own accord, the suit blooming open with a groan of mechanics, Cooper ducking beneath the collar as he freed his legs from the suit.

Once he had pulled himself out of the frame, he stood clear, the armour clamping back into place with an electric whine. Although the valve and the rear plating was still intact, the suit was almost naked compared to what it had looked like before he’d entered the den. It had been a walking tank before, but now it was just a headless frame, integral wires and cogs exposed to the air. It wasn’t completely useless, however, the exosuit could still assist the limbs with extra power, but its fighting days were over.

He walked over to the waterfall, his boots getting wet as he stood to one side of the stream. Closing his eyes, he pulled his hair back, leaning his face into the water, the explosion of frigid liquid eliciting a gasp. His face was plastered in sweat, and the stuffy helmet had boiled the grime into his skin, and it felt good to wash it away.

After dunking his face a couple times, he set about removing his chest piece. Omega had been right, he felt wide awake now, but he wanted to take it a step further. It had been weeks since he’d gone without a bath or shower, a tentative sniff under his armpit confirming he was in dire need of one.

Setting his armour and fatigues by the frame, he stepped out of his underwear, his feet almost slipping as he stepped into the stream. Calling the water cold would be an understatement, it felt like liquid ice was cascading over his shoulders, slipping down every crevice on his nude body. Cooper was no stranger to taking icy cold showers, he even enjoyed it to a degree, but even he found himself stepping out of the waterfall after a few cold minutes of washing.

He looked around, suppressing a shiver, soon noticing a small box off to one side of the pool. At first it looked like a tall battery, with the front face composed of a grill that protected a fan located just behind it. A cable trailed from it towards the passageway, where the nearest lightbulb provided a soft amount of illumination to the chamber. It must be connected up to the power grid.

He reached down and flicked the on switch once he found it, and a strong blast of warm air hit him in the face. The fan had whirred to life, the little box beginning to pivot slowly to the left and right. It was a heater, he’d seen plenty of these back in NCR, but one wouldn’t be enough to bring the whole chamber to a comfortable temperature.

He angled the little box so that it faced the waterfall, then he returned to the ‘shower’, Cooper kneading out the knots in his shoulders as the hot air and the cold water evened out, bringing the temperature into a bearable equilibrium. He exhaled as the adrenaline from his fight with the pack washed away, leaving him exhausted and sleepy, Cooper closing his eyes as he let the water drip from his hair to his feet.

“You know, when I said I wanted to see you out of that armour, I didn’t think I’d be getting a show when it happened.”

Cooper spun around, cupping his junk with his hands as he saw Omega standing next to his power armour. She was leaning on the frame’s shoulder, looking as casual as a beast of her stature could manage, one clawed foot crossed over the other.

She shamelessly played her glowing eyes up and down his naked body, and Cooper felt his cheeks start to redden. He shouldn’t feel embarrassed having his body being examined by an animal, but he knew firsthand that she was no simple beast. In fact, he’d been convinced she was an actual person up until ten minutes ago.

“Do you mind?” he complained, hunching over awkwardly as he stepped a little further away from the light.

“Nope. This is my cave, so I get to go wherever I want. You’re the intruder here, Cooper, coming in and shooting your little dart gun at me and my friends.”

He felt a pang of regret at that, and he turned his back on her, slowly releasing his hands from between his legs when he was sure she couldn’t see his privates. He felt her gaze on his back, but he had no choice but to endure it if he wanted to get cleaned up.

“I was thinking about what I said,” she began, still standing by the frame when he checked where she was. “It’s kinda my fault that you’re in this situation in the first place. I let you wonder into my den under false pretenses, and me ruining your little toys has set you back. If you need a place to hang out, the den’s got plenty of room.”

“You’re… you want me to stay here? I just knocked out your pack, and you were chasing me through the dark trying to kill me a few minutes ago. Why would you want me anywhere near you?”

She smiled, the way her reptilian chops pulled back making her seem a little less monstrous.

“Again, wasn’t trying to kill you. You have to understand, me getting the chance to have a conversation with someone is pretty much a novelty to me, and I’m desperate enough to befriend my hunter if it means getting some… relief.”

“Don’t your packmates talk?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” she replied. “They can speak deathclaw, but they can’t do human like I can. I’m somewhat of an enigma among our kind.”

“I’ll say,” he muttered, slathering the water down his legs. He turned towards the pool, sparing her a self-conscious glance as he waded into the water, shielding his groin again until he was safely waist-deep, the gloom giving him enough darkness to give him some privacy. He let himself float on the water’s surface, aware of every moment that her gaze lingered on his body, which was pretty much every second.

“When we were travelling before,” Cooper began after a bit of silence. “Was all that stuff you said made up? Going to the Abbey, being a bookworm and all that?”

“Everything I told you was the truth! …Except the parts that weren’t,” she added, her gaze falling to the floor. “I did say I was a Mutant, and that’s true, I just let youcome to your own conclusion, and played along after that. My name really is Pearl, but I wasn’t part of the Master’s army, obviously. Do you need some body wash, by the way? I have a spare bottle around here somewhere…”

She leaned off the frame, the suit creaking, moving off to one side of the pool and stooping down to collect something. When she stood back up, she waded into the pool rather than walk around it, Cooper covering himself up and inching away from her.

“Calm down,” she said, handing him a plastic bottle, the purple liquid inside sloshing as she gestured with it. “I just wanted to test the water. I’m surprised you haven’t turned into a human popsicle, Cooper.”

She chuckled, Cooper silently taking the bottle from her hand, keeping as far away from her fingers as possible. She noticed his hesitation, shooting him a frown as she waded to the edge of the pool.

“Am I really that repugnant, Cooper?” she asked. “Should I go get my robe so I can get you to look me in the eye again? You’re being pretty rude to the girl who’s trying to help you out.”

He didn’t want to come off so, but she was an unsettling sight. Pearl and her counterparts were perfectly capable of impaling him on their claws, and the memories of her striking him from the darkness made him wary of her.

“I’m just… still in shock from all this,” he said, trying to put it as politely as possible. “I went from being chased down by you anim… things, to talking with one. It’s a little jarring.”

“You’re afraid of me,” she muttered, her shoulders sagging.

“No, it’s not that,” he insisted, Pearl smirking at him mischievously. She suddenly pretended to leap at him, Cooper flinching away in alarm, frowning as she filled the chamber with her laughter.

“Oh, isn’t it?” she teased. “We’ve already spent two cold nights in each other’s arms, Cooper, is my appearance putting you off that much?”

“That was different,” he defended. “I thought you were… something else.”

“So? Past Pearl is still present Pearl. It was nothing personal. I had to gauge you, just like how I have to gauge everyone else I meet out there. A lot of dangerous people are out for my blood, and not just little hunters and survivalists, mind. Bad people, super bad. Thought you might be one of them with that tin suit of yours…”

She met his eyes again. “But I was wrong! You were a lovely young man that started off by talking rather than shooting me, and you don’t know how long it’s been since that’s happened. The second people are even slightly suspicious of me, they tend to shoot first, ask questions later, you know? It makes striking up conversations… hard to manage.”

So seeking companionship was her motivator for tricking him? He wondered who these bad people she was referring to were, but she went on before he had the chance to ask.

“I’d like to spend just a second in the company of someone who just sees me as a normal person,” she continued, shaking her head. “As normal as I can be, of course. Is that so much to ask?”

He could see where her frustration was coming from. If she thought as much as she talked like a human, then he couldn’t blame her for following him around these past few days. He knew for a fact living so far out from civilisation would be a lonely experience.

“I suppose since you gave me a chance, I should give you one back,” Cooper relented, upending the bottle and slathering the lotion over his chest. “I’ll try, but it’s just… Aside from the whole, deathclaw thing, I don’t usually have an… audience, when I’m cleaning myself.”

“No need to be so self-conscious,” Pearl said, satisfied with his answer. She sat down on a rock behind and to his left. “You’re tall, well developed, especially around the legs and butt, probably from all that walking you do. Your long hair suits your beard, makes you look… softer. If anything, those New Reno women you love so much should be paying you for a chance to cop a feel.”

She was being downright salacious, Cooper thankful that the gloom was obscuring his burning face. In his few fleeting encounters with women over the years, it had been Cooper that had done all the pursuing, and it made him feel oddly embarrassed to be on the receiving end, and by a deathclaw no less. Did she actually think he was easy on the eyes, or was she just fooling around? It wouldn’t be the first time she’d tricked him into believing something that wasn’t true.

“You lived in this mine for long?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Ever since I was free,” she replied. “Don’t worry, place was abandoned when I found it, nobody died. It was only the first couple of passageways that weren’t blocked when I moved in, but after I picked up my pack, we started clearing the rubble and expanding our den.”

“I think one of your friends was doing that when I came through just before,” Cooper said. “there were crates full of rocks, and a half-blocked passage.”

“We usually only haul the rocks when there’s not enough room to walk by, otherwise we just leave them. They’re not heavy or anything to us, it just takes a long time. We used to use the minecarts, but one of the girls accidently severed the tracks with one of her toes. Clearing got a lot slower after that.”

“Doesn’t seem all that slow to me,” he muttered. “You escaped the lodge, what… just over a week ago? That’s hardly any time to clear out a collapsed mineshaft.”

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about our breakout from Hendrix’s lodge,” she said. “That wasn’t the first time I’ve been locked in a cage, and may not be the last, either.”

“So what was the first? You’ve been in Hendrix’s possession before?”

“Not… exactly,” she replied cryptically. “Tell you what, I’ll give you my whole life’s story over a meal, the real one this time, no more lies.”

“I guess I’m pretty hungry after our… fight,” he said, wetting his arms with the water. “Do you have a towel for me?”

“Yep. I’ll get it, no need to stand up.” She lifted herself off the rock, her talons clicking against the stone as she circled the pool. “Oh, are you all done with the body wash? Pass it over. You smell nice by the way – a new experience for you, I’d wager.”

He chucked it over, Pearl snatching it out of the air and placing it on the ground. “We could eat in here if you want,” she added. “You don’t even have to get out of the pool.”

“I’ll prune if I stay in here for much longer,” he replied. “Besides, it’s hard to focus while one of us is naked.”

“Cooper,” she cooed. “Haven’t you noticed I’ve been naked too this entire time?”

He didn’t respond, fighting the momentary urge to look between her legs.

“The towel, right,” Pearl said, breaking the silence. She flashed him a wink, then turned around, her tail flicking behind her as she stalked into the passage. After a few minutes, she returned, two bundles of cloth under her arms. She tossed a grey towel towards him, Cooper wrapping it around himself as he stepped out of the icy bath.

“I’ve also got some spare clothes if you want,” she said, placing a pair of long pants and a jacket by the foot of the pool. “Shouldn’t be as smelly as your other outfit.”

“You just keep clothes on hand for visitors?” he asked.

“They’re spares, in case I need more material for my robe.”

He shuffled over to the pile of clothes, but before he dried off, he gave Pearl a frown, making a turn around gesture with his finger.

“You’re no fun,” she pouted, but eventually she complied, facing the wall as he dressed himself. He kept an eye on her all the same, his eyes drawn to her chubby tail as it waved back and forth like a cat’s.

“Alright,” he said, pulling up the zipper on his new jacket as he slipped on his boots. “I have some leftover mirelurk, a few mutfruits, might be able to make a meal out of it.”

“I’m not going to make you share out of your own supply in my own den!” Pearl replied. “We have plenty of meat here. Come on, we’ll dine by the entrance, get some fresh air in us.”

As he hurried to catch up, he stooped to collect his pack, watching as Pearl unrolled the other bundle of clothing she’d brought with her. It was her robe, and she pulled it taught over her shoulders, slipping her arms into the baggy sleeves as she covered up.

“Why are you wearing that?” he asked, Pearl cocking her head. “I’ve already seen you without it, disguising yourself would be pointless.”

“It’s for the cold, silly,” Pearl chuckled, her tail whipping around to slap him on the rump. She didn’t hit him nearly as hard as she had during their fight, but the appendage still sent him stumbling forward. “Scales don’t help as much against freezing temperatures as they do bullets… or darts, to pick a random example.”

He followed after her as they made a right turn, her talons and his boots crunching against the gravel. After moving through the first intersection, for the first time in what felt like hours, Cooper saw natural light, spilling in from the turn at the far end of the tunnel. His relief was quickly replaced with alarm, however, Cooper holding out an arm to stop his giant companion.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I set up a couple mines here,” he explained, lowering his hand. “Watch your step.”

“Oh, those! Yeah, I kinda set one of them off before, nearly busted my arm in the blast. The heck did you put in those things anyway?”

“Rubber spikes. Made them so I could… well, you already know why. Sorry about that,” he added.

As they rounded the bend, the mouth of the tunnel splayed out before them, fresh snow sweeping across the plain outside. Cooper told Pearl to stay put as he got onto his hands and knees, crawling his way towards his own mines and carefully disarming them. After disabling three of the traps, he scratched his head in confusion.

“Pretty sure I had four here,” he mumbled.

“I just said I tripped it. On purpose of course,” she added hurriedly. “Wanted to see how big the blasts were, so I threw a rock at one before I followed you inside. Told you Omega was smart enough that your traps wouldn’t work on her, didn’t I?”

“You said you had meat, right?” he asked, setting his pack down as he looked out beyond the entrance. The wind had picked up while he’d been occupied, the white powder flowing through the air as the gust swept from left to right.

“Gamey fresh beef,” she replied. “How hungry are you?”

“Starving,” he said, the topic of fresh food overcoming his inhibitions for the moment.

“Wait here then” she said, making for the exit. “Back in a pinch.”

She faded into the frozen haze, Cooper getting a fire going as he waited. He set up the circle of stones close enough to the exit so the tunnel didn’t get filled with smoke, but far enough away that the wind didn’t smother it.

After a minute or so, Pearl returned, dragging something along in the snow behind her. She deposited it next to the fire, Cooper blinking as a carcass slapped heavily onto the stone. Its pink, crinkly hide looked like someone had taken a machete to it, its neck splitting off into two identical heads, beads of blood dripping down its lips.

“Where’d you get a brahmin?” Cooper asked, craning his neck up at her.

“Where’d you think? Hendrix has plenty to go around on his little farm.”

“Don’t think that’s dangerous? Hunting around a lodge owned by the guy who wants you captured?”

“I know that place inside and out, Cooper, you should know that. Haven’t been caught yet, and I don’t plan on that changing anytime soon.”

“Looks fresh,” he added, noting there was no rancid smell coming from the animal.

“There’s a little nook just out and to the left here,” Pearl explained. “We keep all our carcasses stored there, the snow helps preserve them.”

“You just keep your meals outside? What if something steals them?”

“Now what kind of idiot would willingly come so close to a deathclaw den? No offence to you personally,” she added with a laugh.

Ignoring her comment, he fished inside his pack for his collapsible stove, folding the little legs out as Pearl flexed her hand. There was a string of snicking sounds as her claws unsheathed from her digits, Pearl plunging her hand into the brahmin and starting to butcher it. Cooper grimaced as the blood began to pool on the stones, her claws flowing through the skin of the bovine with almost no resistance, blood and meat slipping through the parting skin. That would have been him if Pearl had been the feral animal he’d thought she was.

“Catch,” she chimed, Cooper raising his hands to grab the biggest slice of meat in the world. The steak was thicker than his wrist, and longer than Pearl’s claws, Cooper handling it like it was a bag of sand.

“You can have this one,” he said, hauling it onto the grill, the metal legs buckling under its weight. “How’d you like it done?”

“Blue,” Pearl replied.

“What’s that?”

“It’s lower than rare. Literally just sizzle each side for ten, twenty seconds, then it’s done.”

“Sounds a little raw for me, but suit yourself.”

He followed her instructions while Pearl built up a pile of cuts, Cooper picking up the smallest steak and cooking it until the skin was nice and crispy. “I don’t have much for you to sit on,” Pearl began. “I have a desk and chair in my room, but I didn’t really want to go dragging a cow through those tunnels.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ll sit on my pack.”

He produced a hunting knife from his pocket, slicing the meat up into pieces and spearing one on the point. Pearl had been right, being as far away from the confines of the den was relaxing him, and the scent of cooked beef added a nice touch to the experience. She grinned at him as he devoured the sirloin, eagerly digging into the rest. After rationing to and from the lodge these past few weeks, it felt nice to be able to stuff himself to fullness, and there was no lack of meat to go around.

“Nothing like gamey beef, right?” Pearl asked, bringing her portion to her mouth. He couldn’t see her devour it, as she brought up her sleeve to shield her face. It was probably on purpose, she knew the sight of her exposed maw would unsettle him.

He nodded, setting another steak on the stove as he chewed. “So where are you really from?” he began after he swallowed. “Hendrix told me you were his property, is that not the case?”

“Technically I am property, but not to that pompous prick,” Pearl replied. “Have you ever heard of a group called the Enclave before?”

Cooper scratched his brow in thought, then shook his head.

“Thought not, they only have a few outposts on the mainland, and the people who do know of them usually wind up going missing. Not the most pleasant bunch, but I was a part of their organization, even made a few friends during our… collaboration.”

“Why’d you work with people like that?”

“Didn’t have much of a choice. They created me after all. See, the Enclave was doing experiments on gene splicing, trying to figure out a way to make deathclaws more docile, easier to influence. The Enclave had groups of deathclaw auxiliaries in their army, but they were just as likely to attack their own soldiers as their enemies. That’s when I came into the picture. This scientist, can’t remember his name, he came up with the idea of adding bits of the human genome into a deathclaw template which would create a new breed that would see humans as fellow beings, rather than just food.”

“… How the hell does that work?” Cooper asked incredulously.

“That’s exactly what I said!” Pearl replied. “Someone explained it to me a long time ago, can’t remember the specifics, but what I can recall was, they sort of… grew an organism in a tank of water, an embryo of a deathclaw, then injected human DNA into the mix during the artificial growth stage. I’m no biologist in case you couldn’t tell, but they found a way to make our DNA’s compatible, or else I wouldn’t be here.”

“So you popped out of these tank… organ… things?” he asked, Pearl nodding.

“Yep, mom was a glass tube through and through, but I wasn’t the only one. There were ten of us altogether, and I was lucky number two, if you’re wondering. They ran us through some tests after our birth, making sure we wouldn’t start chomping on the first person we saw once we were let out of our containment cells, then they put us to work. My tasks usually revolved around smartening up the other ‘claws on the base, but sometimes they let me into the lab and engineering wing to help the workers out. Learned how to use my opposable thumbs to tinker up machines and other stuff.”

“So you’re a… what, hybrid?” he asked. “Guess that explains why you look so different compared to your pack.”

“They’re feral deathclaws, their genome is completely different to mine,” she replied. “Well, maybe not so different, I do look more like them than a human, so the ratio is a little off-balance, but yeah, Pearl the Hybrid. Has a nice ring to it.”

“Is your human DNA the reason you can talk, and the ferals can’t?”

“It’s not that they can’t, it just takes them a really long time to pick up the skill. I did manage to get one of them to say pur the other day, though I’m not sure if she was trying to say pearl, or was literally purring.”

“So what changed?” he asked. “Being part of this Enclave doesn’t sound like it was all that bad.”

“For my kind, that was true, but over time I started to see the cracks in the organization. I heard rumours from the feral ‘claws that entire packs were being culled because they couldn’t be tamed, and that some of the more… invasive procedures to ‘fix’ these problems involved drilling headsets into our skulls. And it wasn’t just us who were being tested on,” she added. “The soldiers would bring in people, sometimes tribals, sometimes people who looked like they’d just walked right out of Vault City. I didn’t need human DNA to know they’d been taken against their own will. I never found out what exactly the Enclave wanted with them, but I do know that if someone didn’t cooperate, they got fed to the ferals.”

“Me and the other hybrids agreed we couldn’t support the Enclave for a second longer, as every day passed meant another claw or human would be a victim to their experiments. We planned this big escape, splitting into groups and rushing to the surface. A lot of us… didn’t make it,” she muttered, her mood becoming dour. “They had chain guns hidden in recesses on the perimeter, and they cut us down by the dozens. Everyone in my group was dying around me, but I didn’t stop, I just kept going and going, even after the gunfire stopped and I had reached the ocean. Legs gave out shortly after.”

She placed her slice of meat on the ground, her appetite apparently gone.

“I was the only one in my group that made it, and that was the last time I saw my hybrid sisters, or any of the ‘claws from the base. I like to think some of the other groups managed to escape, but a part of me is convinced that… I’m the only one that made it. I searched for the next few years, but all I found was ferals. Gave up looking for them after I found this place.” She pointed a claw down the tunnel. “Lost hope, I suppose.”

“Must have been a lonely time for you,” he said, Pearl nodding as she rubbed one of her horns.

“For a while, yeah. It got a little better once I found the pack,” she continued. “Found them wondering out there one day, half-starved. They weren’t from the base, and were more feral than what I was used to, but I eventually earned their trust, and now they sort of chill out here. They saw me as their alpha once they figured out that, although I smelled funny, I was bigger and tougher than all of them. We held up here in the den for the next… I don’t know how long, I stopped counting the days a long time ago. It was quiet for a while after that, until…”

“Until Hendrix?” he tried, and she nodded again.

“I watched him search that old lodge from top to bottom, thinking he was just a scavver or something, and that he’d move on. I check back after a while, and what do I see? He’s got dozens of people building up those walls, setting up pens for his little trade caravans. If only I’d known he’d become such a thorn in my side, I’d have…”

She noticed she was snarling those words out and stopped herself, shooting him an apologetic look. “His goons started prowling the valley after his lodge was established, but they didn’t come so far north for me to worry. That was, until he cornered me and my pack one day when we were out hunting,” she continued. “He slugged us with those tranquilizer darts one by one, took us to his lodge. You know the rest.”

“But my darts didn’t work on you,” he noted. “How’d you get captured?”

“I think my human DNA dilutes most of the drug,” she replied. “Doesn’t make me immune to it, though. I must have been plugged by like… eight or ten darts before I started to become drowsy, I think?”

“Hendrix said you only needed half that.”

“I faked it,” she grinned, her usual boisterousness returning. “if I stayed on my feet any longer, they’d have shot me with actual bullets. So I played the part, then made my next grand escape, saved the pack, too. And by the way,” she said, her eyes meeting his. “did Hendrix ever mention to you how exactly he tracked me down?”

“Not really,” he replied. “just said there was a lot of money on the line if I couldn’t bring you back.”

“Interesting. Well… there you go, Cooper,” Pearl said, splaying her hands out to him. “That’s Pearl the Hybrid’s story. Feels weird saying it all out loud, never had the pleasure of telling it to anyone before. Kind of glad it’s you who’s the lucky first.”

“Why’s that?”

She blinked innocently at him. “Well, you’re my friend, dummy. The first human ever to treat me right outside the Enclave.”

“Treat you right?” he echoed. “I hunt animals, I tried to kill you, hell I even knocked out your pack. How can you see me as anything close to a friend?”

“You did all that for the reward, out of necessity,” she explained. “You were forced to come out here, intent on saving your wellbeing, you didn’t do it out of hate, or for the thrill of killing an animal, not like Hendrix or his people do. You’re different from them.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Cooper muttered.

“Well I am. The Cooper I met by that river was generous enough to share his food with a stranger, and was kind enough to teach me how to hunt properly so I wouldn’t starve. You were even thoughtful enough to give me your most prized handbook, after I told you how much I loved reading.”

“I didn’t know what you were at the time.”

“So? That doesn’t erase what you did.”

“You’re looking too much into it,” he said. “Anyone would have done the same in my shoes.”

“You’re wrong, Cooper. The few people I’ve come into contact with either try to rob me, or give me a wide berth. You’re better than them, a decent man who’s kind enough to indulge me in conversation, even after seeing me for what I am.”

He glanced down at the fire, mulling over her words for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for calling you an animal all those times before, Pearl. You got more reasoning than most people I know.”

“Would you say you’re starting to see me as… more, than that?”

“I guess so. Why?”

“Good,” she replied, ignoring his question. She asked him to cook her another slice, and he did so, the two going quiet as they ate their fill. By the time they were done, the sky had dimmed from white to orange, Cooper stifling a yawn with a hand as he put his knife away.

“Tired?” Pearl asked. “thought you might be, walking and fighting deathclaws all day would do that to anyone.”

“I think you ruining that power armour was a blessing in disguise,” Cooper said, giving his arm a stretch. “should be able to fit in my bedroll this time.”

“I have room in the den, if you’d like,” Pearl suggested. “There’re blankets, quilts, pillows, should be loads better than that little sleeping bag. If you’re comfortable sleeping inside, that is.”

It was flattering to see her considering his state of mind, she was likely thinking he wouldn’t want anything to do with the den after their whole ordeal. He was a little hesitant to spend a night in a deathclaw nest, but he was eventually won over as a cold gust of wind hit him in the side.

“Appreciate it,” he said, Pearl smirking at him as she began to lead the way back. “What about your pack?” he added. “are they… they won’t wake up in the middle of the night and eat me, will they?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you if they start poking around,” she replied. “From memory those darts can knock them out for two, three days tops, so it shouldn’t be a problem for now. But… maybe you should stay close to me, just in case one of them is a light sleeper.”

Cooper gulped, hoping he’d hit them with enough darts, as he didn’t fancy waking up to find a pissed off deathclaw looming over him.

***

Cooper struggled to keep up with Pearl’s long strides as she led him back to her lair, as she called it, which was the same room that she’d revealed her true form to him. With the lightbulbs on to provide light, Cooper saw that he’d missed a lot of details compared to when he’d first walked in, one of which being the bed. It wasn’t a traditional mattress wrapped in sheets, but about six mattresses bundled up into the corner, with what appeared to be curtains plucked from a household draped over the top. There were pillows on top of that, arranged in a rough crescent shape to form the outline of a headboard.

“Don’t tell me you had your pack drag mattresses all the way out here,” Cooper muttered, watching as Pearl picked up a pillow and fluffed it out between her large hands.

“Nah, there was a sleeping quarters deeper in the mine, full of bunk beds,” she explained, throwing the pillow back onto the nest. “Well what do you think? Better than roughing it in that tin suit, wouldn’t you say?”

Placing his pack aside, he knelt down, testing the firmness of the nest with his rump. She was right, his legs sank wonderfully into the soft sheets, or curtains rather, Cooper resisting the urge to flop down straight away.

“I’m just going to go check on the girls,” Pearl said as she turned round. “fingers crossed you haven’t OD’d them, or there’ll be reparations. Make yourself comfortable.”

He watched as she disappeared back down the passage, Cooper feeling a twinge of apprehension as she left him alone. What if the pack was awake, and they started scenting him out like bloodhounds? Would she stop them? He had to chuckle bitterly at the realistion he was counting on Omega of all things to protect him.

No, Pearl was her name, not Omega. Spending some time with her made him realise her bestial features weren’t all that bad, she wasn’t a monster, but a person.

He looked around, spying his discarded weapons laying randomly on the ground around him. He was confident by now that Pearl wasn’t out to hurt him, but would she take offence if she returned to see him stashing away his weapons?

He decided to collect them and place them next to his pack, out in the open so she wouldn’t miss them, close enough to the sheets that he could grab one without getting up. He turned his gaze to the ruined bits of metal that was his sidearm, the memory of Pearl crushing the handgun through pure strength flashing through his mind. He swept them up into a pile, deciding to check it over later for any spare parts he could use.

Slipping beneath the fabrics and placing his head on a pillow, he stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts turning to what his plans for the future were. What was he going to do in the morning? Return to the lodge, head back to NCR? His original plan of coming out rich was off the table, what was he going to do now? His fatigue willed these questions away, he’d just have to address them when he wasn’t tired and sore after everything that had happened.

His lidding eyes parted as he heard footsteps, Cooper sitting up and watching Pearl stride back into the room. “They’re sleeping like babies,” she informed him. “Which is what we should be doing, it’s been a long day for both of us. You want the light on? I have a dim setting if you’d like.”

“Dim setting?” he asked. Pearl plucked a drape hanging by the exit, the sheet suspended by a rubber cable, and pulled it over the bulb, the light going from a harsh white to a muted grey.

“Ta-da,” she chuckled, her body just visible in the new gloom. She seemed to absorb herself into the shadows, despite having a paler complexion compared to the others, Cooper tracking her as she slinked across the room.

“Where will you sleep?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

His eyes went wide as she pulled her robe off, casting it aside, her scaley body and thorny backside revealing themselves. Somehow, his mind had momentarily forgotten her true form, a flash of concern coming over him as she stalked towards the nest.

“What do I mean?” he asked, but before he could protest, she shuffled into the bed by his legs, a giant hump in the sheets betraying her location as she slid up to the headboard.

“Cooper, we slept together before, don’t be so naïve.” Her horned head poked out of the top of the sheets next to his face, Cooper staring accusingly into her amber eyes. “What?” she asked in a sweet voice.

“We did that to share our body heat. Now we’re in shelter, we don’t have to worry about freezing anymore.”

“Maybe you don’t,” she replied. “But deathclaws are cold-blooded, and besides, this is my nest you’re sleeping in, so what I say goes.”

“Whatever,” he muttered. “just don’t turn your back on me, I don’t want to get poked by your thorns.”

“Didn’t plan on it,” she replied, obviously smiling even though Cooper couldn’t see her expression.

She settled in on his right side, pulling the curtains over them, the sheets on her side of the bed rising like a mountain as she lay down on her shoulder. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t suspected she was a giant, scaly beast before, she was covered in thorns and spikes, and that tail was huge. Perhaps she’d coiled it around her legs to keep it from his sight.

He closed his eyes, sinking his head into the pillow as he willed himself to sleep. It was easier said than done, however, a primal fear he couldn’t suppress insisting he was way too close to this predator for comfort.

Cooper froze up as he felt something slither over his leg. It was long, thick with muscle, covered over in a pudgy layer of scale. He would have thought a snake had weaved itself into the bed if he didn’t know any better.

“Could you move your tail over?” he asked, feeling his limb become encased in fine scales. It wasn’t quite as rough as he’d expected, the texture of her hide as smooth as glass, and cool to the touch.

“Cold~” Pearl chimed. “Your body’s putting out so much warmth that I can’t help it. Tails move involuntary anyway. Trust me.”

He grumbled under his breath, turning onto his side and scooting towards the edge of the nest, her tail reluctantly releasing him. There was roughly a minute’s peace, and then he felt Pearl drape an arm over his waist, tugging him back. She pulled him snug against her bosom, stroking his stomach through his shirt, the points of her claws tickling him through the fabric.

“Pearl…”

“What?” she replied, as if his annoyance wasn’t obvious enough. “You try being cold-blooded, the blankets just don’t cut it sometimes.”

“Somehow, I don’t really believe you. I know the difference between sharing body heat and getting touchy.”

“Then you should know why I’m doing it,” she cooed, Cooper holding in his breath as her claws trailed higher, her fingers tracing the outline of his pectorals, her touch making him shiver. Had he always been so sensitive, or was it the fact that he’d seen her claws cut through steel, making him hyperaware of how sharp her claws were?

“You were eyeing me up a lot during our travels,” she muttered into his ear. “why shouldn’t I get to return the favour? People say look but don’t touch, but I can’t help it when I’m snuggled up against such a soft, warm thing like you…”

He felt her other hand plunge into his hair, his scalp buzzing with tingles as she began to stroke her fingers. Part of him wanted to recoil away, she was a giant nine-foot beast, but if he closed his eyes, he could almost convince himself he was in bed with a woman. A woman with plenty to go around…

“I checked you out from time to time as well,” she continued. “Especially when I saw you bathing just before, in case you didn’t notice. You’re lean, young, with a rugged, dashing face…”

“Dashing?” he asked. “I don’t have scales, horns, a tail… wouldn’t other deathclaws be dashing to you?”

“I guess it’s the human side of me that’s attracted to you,” she replied. “Didn’t you feel something during our time togher too? Or am I fumbling through the dark here?”

“W-What about your pack?” he asked. “wouldn’t they be more your… type?”

“We’ve had a few encounters from time to time,” she admitted, stopping her stroking to ponder. “but it feels… wrong. They’re feral, they can hardly talk, and can’t see me as anything but their alpha, someone to obey. But you, you’re different, Coops, you give me the kind of company I haven’t felt since my time with the Enclave, and the fact you’re a man is the cherry on top…”

Cooper felt his loins begin to shift, his body responding to her hands despite his conflicted thoughts. He’d gone over a month now since his last encounter with a woman, and he was starting to feel pent up. And yet, Pearl was a deathclaw, a beast he’d been hunting just this morning, could he really see her in that kind of way?

He had admired her body through the robe, that was true, she possessed a slim waist, flared hips, stout legs. To top it all off, she had the voice of a mature woman, but could he even lay with her? She was so hard and spikey, an armoured killing machine that had been grown from a tank, designed to help deathclaws and humans coexist, which seemed oddly apt given their current situation…

“Say something, Cooper. Is my body putting you off to the idea? I could put the robe back on if you’d like. I could stay under the covers, or… or give you a blindfold! Get a bit kinky, eh? I may have lied to you about my appearance, but I’m not lying when I say I want you…”

He felt something warm trail across his ear, Cooper’s heart racing as she left his earlobe wet with her saliva. A part of him urged him to push her away, and she would probably get the message if he did, but the way she traced his muscles, the way her pronounced chest pressed against his back, the hard scales reminding him of the bosom of a well-endowed woman, it was starting to crack his resolve. He had needs, just like she did, and nobody would know if they fooled around a little…

“You’d… you’d stay under the sheets?” he mumbled. “You wouldn’t… mind?”

“Not at all,” she whispered, pausing her movements to wait for him to continue. “I work better in the dark anyway,” she giggled. When he didn’t move, she took that as a sign he wasn’t going to refuse, chuckling quietly as she pressed her snout into his neck, breathing in his scent.

“Good boy. You just relax, and let me do all the work…”

He felt her face leave his neck, Cooper turning his head to watch as Pearl delved into the sheets, the light so dim he could only see her glowing eyes. She blinked one in a suggestive wink, and then she pulled the covers over herself, the fabrics tenting over her spiky backside.

He felt one of her long legs swing over him, his shins trapped from both sides by scaley flesh as she sat on his knees, the hump she created in the nest positioning over his waist. He felt her raise the hem of his shirt, bundling it up by his shoulders as Cooper watched the blankets curiously, his body struggling to decide if it wanted to flee or not.

He gasped in surprise as he felt her tongue slide across his chest, the smooth organ tickling him as it traced his sternum. It felt like it was tapered into two points, like a serpent’s, each one moving independently of the other. It was dripping wet, her sticky saliva clinging to his skin in ropes, Cooper lurching when she brushed it over one of his nipples, lapping at it for a moment before moving onto the other.

With Pearl hidden beneath the nest covers, his world was now one of touch and sound, the squelching noise of her lapping tongue filling the room as she roamed lower, coating his abs in a slippery sheen as she continued to sample him.

Cooper seized up as he felt her sharp claws on his chest, worried that even the slightest move might impale him on her vicious weapons. She ran them down his skin, not hard enough to pierce the skin, but enough to leave stinging red welts in their wake, shivers of pleasure dancing up his spine as she repeated the gesture, drawling lines from his belly to this chest. The fear that she might slice him up if she applied just a little more pressure was driving him crazy, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to stop, it felt so strange, but so good, he’d just have to trust she would keep his limits in mind.

He gripped fistfuls of the sheets as she left a lingering kiss on his stomach, slipping her tongue into his belly button as she moved down to his waist. Why was he so sensitive? He’d shared beds with women in the past, and he couldn’t remember ever feeling so hypersensitive with them. Her being a clawed monster probably had something to do with it, or was there something else he was missing?

“You’re so soft,” Pearl moaned into his stomach, speaking between her doting kisses. “and warm, too, especially down here…”

Her sharp claws contrasted wonderfully with her soft, pliant tongue working around his hips, Cooper flinching as she dragged her fingers over his sensitive ribs. She slipped a nail below his belt and pulled down his pants, shuffling them down his legs. His underwear soon followed, her claws sealing around his hips as he felt his member bounce free. Her attentions had really got his blood pumping, a mix of fear and insecurity permeating his body as he felt her gaze wonder across his genitals.

He bit his knuckle to stifle a groan as he felt her snout bury into his pubic hair, her warm breath blowing across his skin as she scented him. Cooper couldn’t see what she was doing or where she would go next, and that only made him more reactive to her touch.

She kissed his thigh, sliding her cheek against the inside of his leg as she poised there between his legs. He lurched as she dragged her tongue over his balls, the tapered tips snaking their way across the base of his erection. It was so long, Pearl maneuvering it with all the finesse of a finger as she coiled it beneath his sack, enclosing his most sensitive parts in a cocoon of slippery warmth.

“You’re trembling, Cooper,” she cooed, sucking her tongue back into her mouth after teasing him for a few more moments. “I might look all terrifying to you, but your body’s just rearing to go, it’s adorable. What’s the word for being scared and aroused at the same time? Cause that’s you right now.”

Inhaling a shaky breath, he felt her snout position itself above his erection, Pearl glancing his tip with her tongue, Cooper shivering as her bubbling saliva streamed down his length. He remembered how her chops had looked, bristling with ivory teeth that were just as sharp as her claws, apprehension swirling with the fear that she might cut his privates to ribbons.

“W-Watch the teeth,” he muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” she asked. He had the feeling she was only pretending not to hear him, but he repeated himself anyway.

“Watch the teeth,” he said, trying to get himself under control. “I don’t want you biting down on me like you did to that brahmin before.”

“If you’re that worried, I could stop. You just need to ask.”

She gave him a small window to reply, but he didn’t speak, Pearl’s muffled giggling slipping from the sheets as her lips neared his member.

“Thought not. Don’t worry, I’ll be as gentle as a cat with a mouse…”

“That’s the opposite of being-”

His sentence petered out as she grazed his length with her forked tongue, soaking it in her warm slaver, his spine arching as she lapped at a bead of pre welling at his tip. She enclosed his glans in its soft flesh, her curling tongue lapping at his sensitive underside, the tips of her teeth gliding along the sides of his shaft. Cooper felt like he was melting as her hand cupped his manhood from below, cradling his balls in her palm, the scales a lot smoother than he thought they’d be.

His hips rose reflexively, his body seeking out more stimulation, his legs writhing beneath her heavy frame. He felt her thick tail coil around his shins, tying his knees together like a pair of cuffs, the appendage so packed with muscle that moving became impossible, and for good reason. Any more gyrating on his part and he might catch himself on a claw or tooth.

She steadied his hips with her free hand, Cooper’s breath going short as she drew his cock between her rows of teeth. She pursed her lips over his length, his organ resting against her soft tongue, Pearl beginning to slurp on his tender flesh, the sucking sounds reaching his ears as she maneuvered him around her mouth. The inside of her cheeks pressing against the sides of his throbbing cock as her lips kissed his belly, Pearl taking him all the way into her warm throat in one smooth motion.

Using her teeth to peel back the foreskin, she exposed his sensitive glans, slathering her silky tongue across his head, her lapping and licking sending his thoughts into a frenzy. He didn’t know how big he was compared to a male deathclaw, but Pearl didn’t seem to be disappointed, nibbling at the base of his length eagerly as her throat tightened around him. She began to purr, the deep rumbling filling the air as she started to suck at his tip, Cooper feeling like he was being vacuum-packed inside her hot maw as her throat and tongue clamped down on him from all sides.

His eyes rolled back as she gently rose off his shaft, until her lips were poised over the rib of his head. Her tongue leeched out and swirled over his length, the slurping sound making his cheeks flush, and then she crawled back down his shaft until her teeth touched his belly, plunging him back into the wonderful tightness of her throat. She repeated that slow, placating movement, the circle of resistance her lips provided reminding him of a lover’s loins as they rose and fell on his shaft.

Unable to suppress the urge, Cooper reached below the covers, placing his hands over the top of Pearl’s head. The illusion he’d mentally created of being given head by a human were shattered the moment he felt the tough scales and spikes on his fingers, the reality of the situation flooding back. This thing wasn’t human, it was a beast, a hybrid caused by some advanced experiment he couldn’t even begin to comprehend the meaning of. This was wrong, but why did it feel so damned good at the same time?

He placed his hands over her horns, their texture reminding him of bone or carapace. They jutted up from the sides of her forehead, Cooper tracing the little curves with his digits, a twinge of intrigue fighting its way up his thoughts as she continued bobbing her head in his lap.

She chuckled around his length, giving his head an appreciative lick as she pulled back. “Checking me out, Coops? You can pull my horns if you want. Don’t hold back, I can take it…”

Clutching her swept horns like they were bike handles, he encouraged her to slide back down his cock, Pearl allowing him to set the pace, her moans of encouragement igniting a primal fire inside him. Together they found a slow, heavy rhythm, Cooper’s length squashing against the roof of her mouth, her flesh smooth and flawless, bursts of pleasure coursing through his body each time he filled her tight gullet.

He groaned in frustration as he felt his member slide out of her mouth on the next pump, Cooper peeking through the gap in the sheets questioningly. Her orange eyes gleamed back at him from the darkness of the nest, his arms engulfed in shadow as they reached towards her. Seeing much was difficult, but he could feel her strings of saliva pool over his lap, her hot breath washing over his bouncing erection as she poised over him.

“Looks like someone’s disappointed,” she giggled, Cooper able to hear the smirk in her voice. “Want me to keep going, finish you off maybe?”

He reluctantly nodded, those orange eyes disappearing for a second as she blinked.

“Am I that good that you can’t even speak? Use your words, Coops, I want to hear you say it.”

“I… want you to keep going.”

She laughed at that, Cooper feeling one of her hands trail down his leg, the other slipping beneath him to cup one of his cheeks.

“As if I could bring myself to stop anyway,” she chuckled. “But, it’s nice to hear you ask so nicely. Your face looks like a tato, by the way, all red and shit, it’s pretty cute.”

Before he could formulate a reply, he felt the hand that had trailed down his leg return, his member bouncing in the air as he felt something warm and thick splash against its tip. Her fingers were coated in something not quite like her saliva, it had a different consistency, almost like honey, sticky and warm, her palm covered in it. Pearl made a fist around his base, Cooper feeling more of the mysterious substance spread over his waist, his partner beginning to pump her hand up and down, spreading the liquid over his loins.

“A little pick-me-up to help us along,” Pearl explained before he could ask. “Or, maybe it should be called pick-you-up, because I’m doing all the work here. I don’t mind, though, watching you squirm is more than enough for me.”

Her hand left again for a moment, returning with a fresh new coat of the unexplained honey, Pearl shifting between his legs as she straddled one of his knees, careful not to put too much weight on him. He felt something wet begin to pool on his shin, and then it hit him. She’d been dipping her hand between her legs, using her fem-nectar to oil him up, his groin now a mess of her saliva and her juices. She was practically soaking his leg, she really did like watching…

His eyes went wide as she suddenly gripped his length with a new vigor, increasing the pace of her massaging fingers, keeping her claws clear as she ran them up and down his shaft. She paused at his glans to wet the pad of her thumb with his liquid excitement, then resumed her rhythmic stroking, Cooper’s arms faltering as he rested them by his sides.

“Don’t you dare pull the covers up,” Pearl muttered from the sheets. “I want to see your face when you come. You’re close, right? I can feel you swelling. Fuck, if it gets any bigger it might not…”

She didn’t finish whatever she was saying, trailing off as her amber eyes flicked from his face to his crotch. She increased her pace, the pressure in Cooper’s core surging as she never relented, working his shaft as though she was trying to milk his emission out of him like he was a damned brahmin.

She ran her free hand up and down his chest, her sharp claws tickling his ribs, Cooper unable to stop his spine from rising off the nest. Her eyes locked onto his all the while, the sight reminding Cooper of, well, a hungry predator stalking prey through the darkness, not unlike what she had done to him in this very room a few hours ago.

But now her hunger was of a different variety, Pearl’s incessant pumps making him writhe against the sheets. Without warning, she pulled her hand away, the cool air picking his skin for only a moment before she slammed her head back down into his lap, her horns digging into his abs as she twisted her head, the soft lining of her tight throat spiraling around him.

His squirming reached a whole new octave as she began to swallow around him, her throat contracting in waves as she took him to the hilt. She had a tight hold on him, however, cupping his butt in her giant hands, her strong tail tied around his legs, Cooper could scarcely move, but the frustration of being unable to thrust into her mouth only added to the stimulation assaulting his senses.

He was getting close, his will to stave off his coming release crumbling down as his orgasm threatened to break. Every swallow caused her throat to squeeze wonderfully down on him, her tongue lashing at his glans every now and then to keep him guessing, the organ slipping beneath his foreskin to coat his glans with her bubbling drool. Any human woman would be gasping for air by now, but Pearl showed no signs of stopping, the lewd noises of her gulping making his heart flutter in his chest.

He gritted his teeth, his rising need reaching an absolute limit. Pearl seemed to sense this, pausing at his tip and flicking her eyes up to meet his. Her tongue snaked out, corkscrewing around his cock to wet his balls, her movements slow but forceful. That was all it took to send him crashing over the edge.

Pearl sank her lips to his belly as she felt his emission begin to release, a rope of his seed splashing against the back of her throat. She chewed on his base, stroking the underside of his cock with her tongue to draw out the next wad of his semen, Pearl swallowing it down greedily. The sound of her gulps was very loud in that moment, the darkness that obscured his partner adding an air of mystery as she drew him as deep into her maw as he could go. He could imagine her throat bulging as she drank down his come, his eyes glazing over as she never missed a beat, sealing her lips to block his emission from escaping through her chops.

She raised his butt off the floor to get better access, Cooper too enamored by her ruthless sucking to be alarmed by the sudden movement. She stayed locked to his crotch like that until the last rope left him in a final, shivering spurt, Cooper feeling like he was melting into a puddle as he sank into the pillows, the tension of the orgasm bleeding away to leave him spent. As the euphoria draped over him, it was momentarily delayed as he felt her long tongue wipe his cock clean, his erection bouncing against her snout as she cleaned him of their combined fluids. When she was finished, she deposited him back to the nest, his length leaving her mouth with a pop, his crotchy sticky with her spit.

Like waking from a dream, Cooper slowly regained his senses, his breathing deep and irregular as he felt Pearl shift beneath the sheets. She crawled up beside him, running a hand over his chest as she bumped his shoulder lightly with her horns.

“You’re more pent up then I thought,” she laughed. “almost couldn’t force it all down for a second there. Tastes great by the way, a bit salty, but in a good way.”

Her crassness made him blush, Pearl chuckling as he averted his eyes. She seemed to consider for a moment, then plucked the edge of the covers with her claws, beginning to pull them up. “Sorry,” she began. “just realised I’m not covered up anymore.”

She went to conceal herself behind the sheet, but Cooper reached out a hand to stop her, the deathclaw blinking in surprise. In his past encounters, the women Cooper had been with had hardly ever wanted to indulge him in a kiss, and those who did entertain the thought, did so reluctantly, and only after charging him extra. He’d always been a sucker for a good kiss, and monster or not, his lingering euphoria demanded he seek out some sort of intimacy.

He pinched her chin between his thumb and index finger, Pearl’s eyes going wide as he drew her closer. There was a gap between her front teeth where her lips were exposed, and he gave her a peck there, his mouth brushing against scales that were so soft they might as well be skin to his senses. Her teeth weren’t as yellow or crude as her packmate’s maws had been, did she groom herself in her free time?

Pearl’s surprised quickly melted into curiosity, the beast leaning into him and parting her chops, her tongue darting out to return the gesture. He didn’t intend to take things much further than that, but after prying at his lips with her forked tongue, Cooper eventually parted his mouth, wrestling with her tongue. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was making out with a woman. A big, toothy woman of course…

Her breath didn’t smell of carrion like he’d imagined, Cooper leaning into her as his apprehension melted away. Her saliva mingled with his own as she brought her face flush with his, his body flooding with warmth as she clutched him by the shoulders, rolling him onto his back so she could deepen their embrace. Her tongue coiled around Cooper’s, his cheeks bulging as she explored his palate, the kiss bordering on invasive as she piled her long tongue into his mouth.

What little strength he possessed after her blowjob faded as the kiss dragged on, her deft tongue shamelessly painting every inch of his mouth and plunging down his throat, Pearl pulling back when she felt him flinch. He could feel their combined drool leak down their chins to pool on his chest, the gesture blurring the lines between a kiss and a sex act. What little breath he could take was full of Pearl’s scent, which was musky, but not in a foul way.

She eventually broke off, sensing he was growing short of air, their lips separating with a wet smack. Pearl gave him a covetous look as she connected her forehead to his, her eyes flicking to the strands of saliva still linking their mouths together.

“C-Cooper, that was…” she trailed off, shivering as she closed her eyes. “Didn’t think you had that in you. I’m surprised.”

“Who’s trembling now?” he asked with a chuckle.

She brushed a horn against his head again, the gesture oddly affectionate, Pearl rolling off him as he suppressed a yawn. She draped an arm over him, bringing her lips to his ear as she pulled him against her bosom.

“Go to sleep, little hunter. I’d continue this little encounter of ours, but you’ve had a long day, and I’m satisfied… for the moment,” she added with a mischievous giggle.

As his lingering euphoria gave way to a powerful sense of relaxation he hadn’t felt in years, he found himself dozing off to her words, the soft materials of the nest swiftly carrying him into exhaustion.

He closed his eyes, Pearl pulling the covers over themselves as he relaxed in her arms, too exhausted to care about what kind of implications this taboo act would have on him.

***

Cooper would never expect to sleep peacefully in an abandoned mineshaft, let alone one that had been overrun by beasts, but here he was, clawing his way reluctantly out of his sleep, blinking in confusion as the light barely changed when he opened his eyes.

The lone lightbulb by the exit emitted a soft glow through the blanket covering it, the passage beyond lit up in a brighter yellow. It was impossible to tell what time it was, but his body clock insisted that he’d slept in.

As he made to sit up, a gasp of alarm escaped his lips as he noticed the biggest hand he’d ever seen was sitting on his chest, the fingers made longer by the claws that tipped them. His heart soon settled as he remembered the events of the previous day… and night, his cheeks flushing as he turned his head to face his sleeping companion.

Pearl had draped the covers over herself at some point, obscuring all of her save for the arm currently keeping him flush against her side. He peeked over her bulk to see her tail whipping back and forth across the floor behind her, and he wondered what she was dreaming about.

Cooper sat up, carefully lifting her hand by the finger and trying not to wake her. Her palm was nearly twice the size of his own, and that was to say nothing about her claws. Even in their sheaths, they were like meat hooks, curving slightly towards the end to give them a wicked edge. One wrong move or twitch on her part, and she’d have skewered him in his sleep, yet she could be oddly gentle for such a predatory creature, the fact he’d survived her attentions last night proved as much.

Speaking of which, he swept the covers off his legs, wincing at the sight of his crotch. Everything from the waist down was a mess of unidentifiable fluids, every strand of hair covered in a sticky, wet coat of something.

Double-checking to make sure Pearl was sleeping, the steady rise and fall of her torso confirming as much, he slipped out of the nest, pulling on his borrowed shirt and pants as he hobbled towards the exit, his bare feet slapping on the stone as he moved down the passage.

As he walked around the next turn, Cooper had time to process on what had happened. He’d let a deathclaw give him head, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. A part of him called him out for his depravity, of letting this beast have its way with him. Part human, half human, whatever she was, she was still a monster, an animal, and her teeth had been dripping with his essence.

But it was only a fleeting encounter, wasn’t it? They hadn’t gone all the way, she’d just offered him some relief that he’d desperately craved after months of being pent up, what was so wrong about that? He wondered what would have happened if they had gone further, did she possess the right parts to make something like that work? And if she did, would it be anything like her gullet, how her soft cheeks had sealed around him every time she took him all the way inside…

He shook his head and willed these thoughts away. It was done, he couldn’t change what happened, and nobody but him would know, anyway. Still, he could have stopped it from happening, but didn’t, that made him more than a deviant now…

He emerged back into the pool chamber, the miniature waterfall crashing away to fill the basin-shaped crevice on the floor, Cooper noting that a small tide carried the water towards a small hole in the wall, perhaps leading all the way to the river that snaked through the valley. He tensed up when he noticed the humanoid figure standing off to one side, but relaxed when it turned out to be just the power armour frame, standing where he’d left it. Cooper set about undressing himself, doing a double-take as he realised he hadn’t thought to bring a gun with him. If one of the pack had woken up, or were about to wake up, he’d have nothing to defend himself with. He’d been told the tranquilizer would knock them out for two days, but how long ago had he taken the pack down? Half a day by this point?

He stripped down until he was naked, then turned the portable heater on, the hot air and the cold water making the bathing somewhat tolerable as Cooper began to wash the grime from his crotch away.

After five or so minutes of washing, he felt the familiar sensation of being watched, and he turned around, seeing Pearl striding into the chamber, her frame outlined by the lightbulb shining behind her. She had donned her cloak once more, though the hood was pulled back to reveal her draconic features, her orange eyes shining like two coins.

“Morning,” she chimed, raising a clawed hand in greeting. “Sleep well?”

“Y-Yeah,” he replied, not quite used to having such a casual conversation with a deathclaw. He hurriedly stepped out of the water, pulling the towel he’d left there yesterday around his privates, turning his back on Pearl as he dried himself.

“Mm, I bet you did,” Pearl chuckled. “You don’t need to cover yourself up, by the way, I’ve seen your junk in all its glory.”

He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment, and he quickly splashed his face with water to cool them, wrapping the towel around his neck as he pulled on his shorts. “I know, it’s just… I’m not in the habit of walking around naked.”

“Like I am?” Pearl laughed. “I get you, I couldn’t imagine walking around with my pecker flopping all about in front of me. Male deathclaws can retract theirs once the blood flow slows down, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” he replied, wincing at the mental image. “I don’t know where you got such a vulgar mouth from, Pearl.”

“You weren’t complaining about it last night,” she answered, her cloak bundling up by her feet as she squatted by the pool’s edge. “But I guess it comes from one of my human trainers, back during my Enclave days. She was a bit of a foul mouth too.”

“Who was she?” he asked.

“Called herself Elizebeth, and she was part of the team that grew and tutored me. Took to her the most out of all the scientists. She used to try so hard to not curse around us hyrbids, but she slipped up one too many times, because my first word ending up being a cuss.”

“Which was?”

“Bollocks,” Pearl replied. “Said it every chance I could, like I was a damned parrot or something. The looks I used to get from the others…” She closed her eyes in a way that came off as wistful, her chops widening in a smile. “It spread like a virus until every deathclaw smart enough to speak was repeating me. Elizebeth was furious, said I got her into trouble with the base commanders, but I think deep down she thought my cursing charade was cute, cause she spent more time with me than the others after that.”

“Did she help you when you escaped?”

Her smile faltered, and she shook her head. “I never told her what we were planning. I wanted to, but the other hybrids talked me down, said if I told her our whole plan would be compromised. I was sure she wouldn’t turn us in, but in the end, it was better that she didn’t know, the Enclave would have hurt her if they found out she was somehow in on it. Apart from the tube I was grown in, she’s as close to a mother figure as I ever had. Coming to terms with the fact I’d probably never see her again was… difficult.”

“Leaving family behind never is,” he said, looking at her in a whole new light. “but you did what you had to do. Staying would have been worse, might have even cost you your life. She would have understood.”

“You’re right,” she said, her tail swishing behind her as she perked up. “She’d be proud of what I’ve accomplished. Conquered an old, smelly mine all for myself, what’s not to be thrilled about?”

They shared a chuckle at that, Cooper folding the towel up once he was dried down. All those years of living in isolation, no wonder she’d been so eager for his company.

“How’s the water?” she asked, changing the subject. The satisfaction of their encounter last night had bled into the morning, and he didn’t want to ruin it talking about the past. He had an inkling Pearl had the same mindset.

“Cold as shit,” he said, stepping to the side as Pearl made her way towards the waterfall. As she brushed passed him, she leaned down, her lips hovering over his ear.

“Well if you need to find someplace warm, you just let me know.”

She giggled as his face went red, finally giving him some space as she searched for the bottle of body wash. As she walked towards it, she turned to gesture at him. “So what’s the plan for today, Coops? You’ve finished your hunt, what’s the next move?”

“I’m still working on that,” he said. In truth it had slipped his mind entirely ever since he’d laid with her, too caught up in thinking about implications that had on him.

“You could return to the lodge,” she suggested, moving back to the waterfall. “But you’d be missing out! Bet they don’t have cold showers, hot mineshafts, and more steak than you could possibly eat.”

He could tell she was hinting that she wanted to him to stay, and part of him was tempted by the idea. But he couldn’t hang around forever, could he? She was an experiment, a hybrid, and he was a human, surely their cultures were bound to clash at some point. And what about his dreams of returning to civilisation?

“Suppose it’d be cheaper to stick around. For now,” he added, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Cheaper? Twenty caps a night, then, please and thanks.”

“Twenty for a night in an abandoned mine? That’s daylight robbery.”

She flashed him a grin, holding a hand out under the water and then shrugging off her cloak. “I’d ask you to scrub my back as a compromise, but I wouldn’t want you to get stabbed by my thorns.”

His eyes lingered as her powerful frame slowly revealed itself, the way her cloak sloughed off her shoulders bringing to mind images of disrobing models. Every part of her back from the shoulders down was bristling with thorns of various sizes, the biggest being as tall as his head.

She turned on the spot, reaching around her bulk to slip a finger between two thorns, her claw just able to reach her spine. She started to scratch out the grime, and he could tell it was an effort on her part.

“How do deathclaws usually clean up?” he asked, taking a seat on a nearby rock, politely looking away. “Is it hard with the claws?”

“Not if we do it communally. We bathe each other in the pool every night or two, help clean up the hard-to-reach places. The girls don’t like the fruity smell of the lotions, but I think it’s better than smelling like musk all day.”

“If… you need help, I’d-”

“Would you?” she asked, turning round to give him wide eyes. “Are you sure? Last night you said my appearance was… y’know.”

The sparkle in her eyes dimmed, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit of shame upon seeing it. He’d tried to see the least amount of her as possible, which was downright insulting on his part.

“That’s true,” he began. “but, maybe I could make that up to you now.”

That seemed to cheer her up, and she waved him over. “Well come on then! Maybe your clawless fingers can get where I can’t. And be careful. My thorns are as sharp as… well, claws.”

As he walked over, shedding his pants but leaving his briefs on, he couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive. He really shouldn’t be nervous, not after last night. Maybe it was the fact her imposing body was in full light now, and there were no shadows to help him ignore her true form. He was still scared of her on some level, but maybe he could fight through it if he helped wash her.

“You’re going to get those undies wet,” she said, letting the water wash down her face as she dunked her head.

“I know,” he said, and he could see she wanted to ask him why, but the deathclaw merely shrugged, closing her eyes as the water rinsed down her neck.

“Kinda hoping I could get another eyeful of you again, but suit yourself. if that’s the price I have to pay to get you to touch me, then so be it.”

She passed him the bottle, Cooper upending the contents on to his palm as she got down on her knees. He rubbed his hands to form a lather, then started on her shoulder, feeling her muscles flex as he rubbed at her scaley skin. He’d expected her hide to be coarse, sharp, but instead his fingers seemed to glide across her body, her scales so flush together he barely felt the texture of the bumps between.

He worked his way towards her spine, feeling steely muscles press up through a surprisingly malleable layer of blubber, giving the beast a pleasant softness. This soon ended as he reached her shoulder blades, where her imposing thorns took precedence. There must have been a dozen of them just below her neck alone, starting small and then growing larger as they traced down her spine.

Cooper ran his hand across one, finding the texture to be as hard as rock. They were the same colour as the body wash, a deep purple that almost looked black, with wide bases and thin tips, wrapped over in protective scales. A deathclaw might have trouble wedging a finger between them, but Cooper had no such trouble, keeping himself clear of the sharp thorns as he rubbed the soap into the grooves.

“Ohhh yeah,” Pearl moaned. “Could you rub the bottom of that one? Yeah, right there, that knot’s been killing me…”

He dug his fingers into her skin, feeling the tense muscles beneath the scales relax, Pearl deflating against the wall with a sigh. He stepped over her leg as he worked to her other side, blinking at Pearl’s strong reaction as she began to groan under her breath.

After cleaning her other shoulder, he moved lower, noting that the thorns on her spine got smaller the further down they went, creating a sort of V shape of spikes. His movements were tentative at first, but he slowly gained more confidence as he explored her body, became more curious with her anatomy.

His fingers roamed towards her soft hips, the rubbery muscles beneath them shifting as he spread more of the lotion. Despite appearing like she could pick up a truck, she was oddly lean, her flesh clinging enticingly to the wide span of her hips, tapering out as they connected to her powerful thighs.

He skirted the edge of her rump, too tentative to touch them with his hands, but not his eyes. It was shaped like a cut peach, dimpled with firm muscle and as big as melons. Her tail joined to her body just above and between her generous cheeks, the appendage dragging across the stones lazily. As he began to trace down the outside of her thigh, he felt the pointed end of her tail slap him on the back, Pearl pouting at him over her shoulder.

“Hey, don’t forget the tail~” she said, sing-songing the last word.

He grabbed the base of the appendage in his hands, the thing so thick around he couldn’t encompass it in his hands. Like her spine, the top of it was lined with little spikes, each one about as big as his palm. He ran his fingers along the squashy underside with one hand, while working the lather between the spikes with the other. It slipped out of his grip, however, when Pearl flicked it around with all the finesse of a finger.

“Keep still,” he complained, trying to trap her tail under an arm.

“It’s not me!” Pearl replied. “Your fingers are so damn soft, it’s driving it nuts.”

He dug his nails deep into the tail’s underside, muscles as hard as stone meeting his grip. There was probably more strength in the appendage than Cooper’s entire body, but it was covered in a thin layer of fat that gave it a pleasantly soft texture, Cooper admiring the way it spilled between his fingers, noting it got thicker as it neared her hindquarters.

He stopped his explorations when he heard an odd noise, looking up to see Pearl burying her horns into the wall, her eyes shut tight. “Are you… purring?” he asked.

“Nnnyep,” she mumbled. “Seems like you found my weakness, little hunter.”

“Maybe I should have opened up with this instead of the syringer,” he joked, an amused expression on his face as Pearl slid further down the wall, her horns the only thing keeping her from falling prone. He continued stroking her tail for a while longer, then told her to turn around, his words snapping her out of her trance.

She shuffled on the spot, her back to the wall as she watched him approach, pouring more lotion onto his hands, then placing them on her neck and shoulders. It put him almost face-to-face with her, and she watched work him with a smile on her chops.

“What?” he asked, glancing at her as he rinsed his hand in the water.

“I never said anything about doing my front, Coops.”

“Oh,” he said, slowing pulling his hands away. Pearl was quick to stop him, her tail flicking up to coil around his arm.

“It’s fine,” she added, pulling his limb towards her. “You do you, Coops, I’ll consider lowering your rent if you do a good job.”

She shivered as he returned his hands to her skin, spreading the liquid soap down her chest. Her scales here were as flush as a tiled floor, so soft they felt like skin to him, her flesh taking on a creamier tone compared to her back.

Although she lacked nipples and breasts like a human woman, her bosom retained that distinct shape, two deposits of fat making her pectorals slightly more pronounced. Cooper tried not to think about them as bountiful assets as he took one in each hand, drawing circles on them with his soapy palms.

Pearl sighed through her teeth, bringing up a claw and starting to chew on its end. “Get it in deep,” she cooed. “Dirt gets stuck in those scales all the time.”

“How?” he asked. “I can’t even tell where each individual scale stops. Doesn’t even look dirty to me.”

“Shush,” Pearl snapped. “get your fingers back to work.”

“What’s this?” he asked. There was a little bud of scabbing flesh over her left pectoral, the browning flesh contrasting with the rest of her pink scales. There were more like it all over her chest, maybe eight in total.

“Don’t remember giving me those?” she asked, reaching down to pluck one of the wounds. “Gotta admit it’s pretty scary getting shot, but good thing I’ve got thick skin, eh?”

“I’m… sorry about that,” he stuttered, unsure what else to say.

“Apologise by giving them a good scrub,” Pearl said. “Already took out the bullets before.”

He did as she asked, splashing the wound with water and soap, chipping away the dead scales with his movements. Deathclaws must be highly regenerative if all his bullets had left was a mild scabbing.

Once he was done with the, he slid further down to her belly, her scales shining as the water clung to her hourglass figure. Her stomach was flat, but her core was as hard as rock, her developed muscles flowing down her sparkling hide. Her scales shifted from white to pink with every turn of his head, the deathclaw shimmering as though her skin was made from a thousand flawless gemstones.

He felt her breathing growing heavier as he traced her flexing stomach, Cooper too distracted by her reflective hide to notice his hands were bare of soap. She didn’t have a navel, her column of abdominal muscles running down her torso uninterrupted, her creamy flesh creasing into a V shape as they neared her thighs. Her mound drew his gaze next, the scales thinning out until they were the size of his nails. Cooper averted his eyes before they drew lower, wrestling back his wondering mind and pulling his hands away.

“W-Why did you stop?” Pearl groaned, blinking her eyes as though she’d been dozing off.

“All out,” he said, holding up the empty bottle. She grumbled something under her breath, then rose to her feet, taking the bottle and setting it down beside her.

“Might have some more in my room, but I don’t want to get out just yet.”

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Cooper felt the same way, part of his mind nagging him to just keep running his hands over her body anyway. He wagered Pearl would be more than delighted if he did, but he felt as though if he showed her how much he was enamoured by her, he’d be admitting his own deviancy.

He wiped at his brow, noting that he’d started to work up a sweat being in the direct path of the heater. He’d planned on diving in before she’d interrupted him, might as well get it over with. He turned around as he made to pull off his shorts, hiding his burgeoning erection from his companion.

“Going for a dip?” she asked. “I’ll be over in a sec.”

As he submerged his groin below the water, the liquid dark enough he was confident she wouldn’t see his junk, he dunked his head below the water, shaking out his wet hair like a dog and sending mist everywhere. Hopefully the icy waters would cool off his unwanted erection.

He couldn’t help but peek over as Pearl washed her body of suds, squeezing her chest together with her biceps as she ran her claws over her stomach. Her eyes were shut, but he had a feeling she knew he was watching, the way her hands roamed slowly down her flanks, her hips rolling as she rinsed her tail, it reminded him of the strip-dancers in New Reno, their movements designed to entice. She turned on the spot, his loins twitching as she lowered her back, her hindquarters rising into the air as she let the water cascade over her shoulders. Maybe the cold water wouldn’t be enough…

He forced his eyes away, splashing his pits with water. There was a quiet splash, and he turned back around, noting that Pearl was gone. He looked around, his heart skipping a beat as her face emerged from the water, everything from her chin down submerged. She lurked towards him like some beast of the sea, her amber eyes contrasting against the black water.

“Deathclaws are just as quick on land as they are on water, put that in your handbook,” she said, demonstrating the fact as she zoomed up on him like a bullet, grinning when he recoiled. He frowned, splashing her and chuckling when she sputtered water. She rose until her shoulders were above the waterline, then drew a circle in the air with her claw, Cooper watching her curiously.

“That means turn around,” she explained. “I have some shampoo here for your hair.”

He noted there was another bottle in her hand, he hadn’t seen when she’d grabbed it. “I can do it myself,” he said. She held it out of his reach when he tried to grab it, wagging a finger at him.

“No, no, you literally scratched my back, now I get to do yours, that’s how it works.”

He began to complain, then shook his head, arguing with her would just be a waste of time. Battling his instincts, he turned his back on her, the displacing water letting him know she was sidling up behind him.

Her bare chest pushed against the back of his neck, its softness somehow amplified compared to when he’d touched them, and he found himself leaning against her as she started rubbing his head.

He closed his eyes, her claws pricking his scalp as she ran her fingers through his hair. She traced the dimples in his neck and shoulders with her other hand, pressing the pads of her fingers into his skin, Cooper grimacing as she kneaded into a knot near his spine. She took handfuls of his hair, not hard enough to sting, rubbing it between her digits as though the texture intrigued her.

“You’re supposed to use the shampoo,” he said, opening an eye and glancing back at her.

“Oh yeah,” she said as though she’d forgotten. He shivered as she upended the gel onto the top of his head. “I just spread it around like soap, right?”

“Yeah, add a bit of water until its foam, then rub.”

She did as he instructed, being careful with her claws so she didn’t butcher him, her claws raking along his scalp like the teeth of a comb, Cooper unable to suppress a sigh at the senstaion. He’d washed his hair many times, how could having someone else do it feel so different, incredible even?

He relaxed into her bosom, her flesh soft and inviting, lacking any kind of thorns or spikes. No wonder he hadn’t suspected anything when they’d spooned out in the valley, with no visual medium, she had the shape of a comely woman, several, actually, her torso was wider than his shoulders and then some.

“You might have your magic fingers,” Pearl began, Cooper shivering against her as she massaged his head. “you can rub, but I can scratch, I’d say that’s better, wouldn’t you think?”

“Mm,” he mumbled, feeling her face lean closer.

“Speechless again, I see,” she teased. “Another win for me. Your hair’s weird, by the way. It’s like web, but fuzzy. Not sure what the point of it is, it won’t keep you warm in this weather. Feels nice, though, better than my thorns, let me tell you.”

He relished the sensation of her combing claws, the world draining away until it was all he could think about. How could this beast be so gentle? Did the word beast even apply anymore? Every minute he spent with her chiseled away at his apprehension, which was obvious enough by the bizarre situation he was currently in. He was letting this apex predator cradle his hair, and he was loving every second of it.

A splash of cold water pulled him out of his trance, Pearl cupping water in her palm and washing his hair with it. When she was done with that, she slid her hands around his sides, water dripping from her digits as she began to rub his stomach. She pricked at his ribs with her claws, and he flinched, squirming against her chest as she traced the grooves of his muscular chest.

“A little ticklish, are we?” Pearl cooed, peering over his shoulder, her orange eyes flashing as she drank in his reaction. “Thought you were. You like it when I brush your ribs?”

“I’m not ticklish,” he grumbled, sighing when she proved him wrong and traced one of his ribs with the tip of her claw.

She smirked at him, laughing to herself as she teased him a few moments longer, Cooper too distracted by her rhythmic movements to comment that she was long done washing his hair. Her hands roamed lower, Pearl testing the springiness of his abs, then one of his thighs as she trailed a claw over his waist.

Cooper felt his eyes lid, the steady rise and fall of her chest drawing him deeper into her cleavage, her chest as soft as pillows. She was exploring him, just as he had to her. The hand on his leg traced his muscles towards his crotch, and Cooper let out an unbecoming moan as she wrapped her fingers around his raging shaft. It took him a moment to realise this had happened, and with a start he crawled out of his daze, leaning away so he could look Pearl in the eye.

“W-What are you doing?”

She was breathing heavily, her warm breath washing over his chest in waves, and he had to repeat his question again in order for Pearl to meet his gaze.

“What’s it look like?” she shot back. “You’re rearing to go again, in case you haven’t somehow noticed.”

“Here?” he continued. “Pearl, I… I don’t know about this.”

Her grasp on his genitals relaxed, and she gave him a confused look. “Why? You’ve already spent a night in my nest, what’s wrong with a little more action? Didn’t you enjoy yourself?”

“Well, yeah, I did, but…”

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” she said, cutting him off when he opened his mouth. “no, let me finish. Every day, I have to deal with humans and deathclaws seeing me as some sort of… freak of nature. Just once, I’d like someone to see me differently, and I want that person to be you,” she murmured, wrapping an arm around his chest and hugging him to her. “You’re my only friend, Cooper, and I want you to be relaxed around me. Tell me how I can do that.”

His heart tied a knot in his chest, her outburst so heartfelt compared to her usual carefree demeanor. She’d called him friend, and he wanted to reciprocate, but he was still too shaken by her appearance to follow through with it.

“You can’t do anything,” he said. She deflated, her arms leaving his chest and floating on the water. “But I can,” he added, turning round to face her. “let me get a little more used to you first, then we’ll see.”

She beamed at him, nodding her head vigorously. “Okay! Whaddya want to do?”

“Come over here,” he said, taking her by the claw and leading her to the edge of the pool. He had her sit down, with only her legs submerged, her pink scales shifting hews to the shade that was her namesake.

He brought a hand to her hip, standing in the water between her legs as he drew closer. He’d gotten more familiar with her when he’d washed her body, and it seemed that touching her, exposing himself to her body was the only way to bring down the barriers his mind had erected.

He traced the muscles in her powerful core with one hand, the flat row of muscles enticing him, his gaze eventually lowering to her thighs. They were as thick around as his chest, the sides covered over in wide, flat scales that looked like armour, bristling with thorns not unlike those on her back. Her natural armour trailed down her legs, making her appear like she was wearing a pair of scaley shin guards, but he noticed the scales thinned out as they neared the inside of her legs, looking just as soft as those found on her stomach and chest.

Cooper hadn’t had the chance to touch her at all during their encounter last night, save for the horns on her head, but he could scarcely remember their texture, his mind had been too preoccupied about her head bobbing on his shaft. He was making up for it now, however, and by the way Pearl’s tail flicked back and forth behind her, she was enjoying his explorations as much as he was.

“See anything you like?” she asked, a bit of her usual cheek returning as his roaming fingers made her squirm.

“Couple things,” he replied, glancing up at her. She was so tall from this position, and having to crane his neck to meet her eyes sent an odd shiver down his spine, one not born from fear, but something else.

His hands eventually picked up where he’d left off during the wash, his fingers resting about her hips, his eyes almost level with her crotch. Her mound was the same creamy colour as the rest of her belly, the scales flowing down to join with the base of her tail, leaving a tantalizing gap between her thighs. Pearl raised herself off the ground a little, sliding forward and bearing her womanhood for him to see.

Nestled between her stout thighs was a line of pink flesh, encased in a pair of puffy, scaley lips as white as bone. A wave of dizzying lust overcame him as he watched her lips twitch, a bead of her liquid excitement leaking to the stone floor. It was big, twice the size of any human’s he’d seen, but not all that different visually, and the sight did wonders for his hesitance.

“Don’t breathe on it!” Pearl complained, Cooper looking up at her. “It tickles!”

He made a point of overexaggerating his next exhale, the way she trembled making him smile. She was so playful, so receptive, and on top of it all she’d been so accommodating, and all she’d asked in return was that he try to treat her as normally as he could. He had an idea of how he could do that. “Scratch my back…”

“W-What? What did you say- ohmygosh!”

He brought his lips to hers, cupping her hip as his nose touched her mound. Her body temperature had been made cold by the water, but her swollen sex was fever-hot, the warmth it radiated reminding him of the portable heater currently whirring away behind her. Her opening winked in response to his tender kiss, and more of her juices spilled out, Cooper hesitating as he let it drool onto his tongue. His apprehension quickly melted away as he tasted her, dragging his mouth over her flexing labia in search of more of it. It had the consistency of nectar, with a taste he’d never experienced before, the sensation making his loins twitch in excitement.

Where her body was armoured with scales that could resist bullets, here she was as soft as silk, Cooper delighting in how malleable her puffy lips felt on his tongue. He felt her scaley body shiver around him, looking up over her mound to see she had closed her orange eyes in delight.

“Th-This is… wow, you’re pretty flexible with that tongue, Coops, shiiit….”

She gyrated her hips on the spot, her swaying waist distracting him as Cooper resumed his ardent mouthing, his strokes becoming more confident as time went on. She was sopping wet, from both the water and her own juices, his tongue gliding on these fluids as he circled her twitching opening, every breath he took laced with her feminine scent.

“Y’know, I thought you’d h-hate how I- oh! -tasted,” Pearl sighed, placing a hand on the ground behind her to steady herself. “Cause of the whole -ah!-overgrown iguana thing I got going, but looks like I was wroooongohmannnthatsgood…”

Her lean body wriggled with every stoke and brush of his tongue, Cooper admiring the way that her core flexed as her hips rocked, Pearl bucking her crotch to his face as though she was trying to fuck his tongue. He felt one of her hands delve into his hair, her palm big enough to cup his entire skull, forcing him deeper into her sopping loins.

Cooper reached around her waist to keep her steady, the deathclaw bucking and writhing to the tune of his tongue as he cored her out. Her hips were so wide his hands didn’t meet on the other side, and he couldn’t get enough leverage to hold her in place.

“Keep still,” he muttered into her crotch, grinning as his warm breath made her tall body shiver.

“I’m working on it!” she said, raising a finger. “Still getting used to… human properties. Man, I should have sat on your face days ago, honestly. You ever eaten someone out in the snow before? Think it’d work, or would the cold be a bit much? You ever made love outside?”

Cooper pulled back, but didn’t answer, planting sucking kisses on either side of her entrance as he reached up, pulling one of her soft lips aside with his finger, splaying her vulva apart to reveal her tunnel.

The sides of her pink vent were lined with what looked like a hundred tiny tongues, curving up and out of view and narrowing towards the end. There was a ring of muscle just inside, a dark circle flexing and pulsing. She looked familiar on the outside, but here he wasn’t sure what he was looking at here, only that she appeared far looser than even the biggest human woman.

The sight gave him pause, but he quickly shouldered away his reservations. He was already in the deep end, literally and figuratively, he might as well keep going.

“Hey,” Pearl said, tapping him on the head. “What’s the holdup down there? You put your face in a girl’s parts you better be ready to follow through.”

He answered her by plunging his tongue into her depths, raking the nearest bristles lining her tunnel with his organ. He heard his reptilian partner wail as her vent clenched around him like a fist, her body freezing up as the nodules in her tunnel danced across his tongue. He pulled back, peering up over her toned belly to find she had was hiding her face in a hand, gripping one of her sweeping horns in the other.

“You okay?” he asked, alarmed by her violent reaction.

“Y-Yeah,” she breathed. “just… that kinda hurt, but… in a good way, y’know?”

He took that as a sign he should ease back for now, Cooper resuming his mouthing as he brought his lips to her mound again. For all her brawn, she was oddly tender down here, maybe it was something to do with the fact he had no jutting teeth or a snout, he could reach all the places a deathclaw would have trouble reciprocating.

His nose eventually bumped a small protrusion located higher on her lips, and he angled his neck up, Pearl’s body once again going crazy as he gave it a tentative lick. He repeated the motion, and she bucked into his face, her thighs spilling over his shoulders as she squeezed her legs.

“OoooOOoohh gosh, Coops, right there, give Pearl some human lovin’ right there…”

Cooper found it endearing that she could be quite the chatterbox in a time like this, redoubling his efforts as he lashed at her bud with his tongue, alternating between placating strokes and hard, rough licks. Her bucking began to work in time with his deft strokes, her body dancing to its rhythm, her tail joining in as it swooped in lazy archs.

Cooper’s cheeks flushed at the lewd noises he made, chewing her out until his jaw started to ache. He held his face to her groin for a few moments longer, then popped away with a wet smack, a strand of her juices trailing down his chin and dripping to the pool.

Pearl lurched off the ground, giving him an annoyed look as she pulled his head back, Cooper batting her hand off his head. “What gives?” she mumbled. “my oven was just starting to warm up.”

“M-My legs are freezing,” he said, blushing at her sordid choice of words. “Lay back while I get out.”

“Taking charge, huh? I like it.”

Cooper lifted one leg out of the pool, errant drops splashing to the stone, then the other, pausing when he saw Pearl’s tail sliding towards him. It curled up like a snake rearing to strike, the fat coils creasing like springs, its pointed tip reaching for his face. As dexterous as a finger, it stroked him across the chin, Pearl flashing him a warm smile as she laid down on her back. All the women he’d been with, and none of them had even come close to showing Cooper as much affection as Pearl was now, and a burning desire to please her overcame his thoughts.

His lower body was rife with pins and needles from the cold water, but Cooper didn’t care, crawling across the floor between her long legs, taking a second to examine them before he resumed his work.

They were bent at an odd angle at the second pair of knees, her shins covered in little thorns and spikes that would prick his fingers if he wasn’t careful, but her thighs were a different story. They were so thick around they were like the size of tree trunks, but that was to be expected for something that weighed seven or eight hundred pounds, but moved so swiftly when it needed to.

He sank his fingers into the inside of her thighs, blinking when they sank into her flesh up to the first knuckle. Their inner surface was layered over in a tantalizing amount of blubber, her softer, mosaic scales taking precedence while leaving their outer side hard and rough.

“Could you hurry it along down there?” Pearl asked, leaning on her elbows as she looked down at him over her chiseled stomach. “Momma Pearl’s getting frisky thanks to you.”

He planted a kiss on her left thigh, then mouthed at the other as he ran a hand from the back of her knee to her hip, admiring the way his fingers travelled across the pronounced curve of her rump. She shivered around him, one of her legs giving out and drooping to the ground.

“O-On second thought, take as long as you want,” Pearl mumbled, throwing her head back. “Fuck, feels like I’m floating right now…”

He crawled his way up towards her womanhood, planting his knees on either side of her fidgeting tail, the appendage so packed with muscle it was like straddling a metal pole, the layer of fat it was sheathed in giving it a subtle amount of squishiness.

Her feminine, musky scent grew stronger as he neared her wonderfully smooth mound, Cooper running a hand over her abs and waist as he poised above her swollen sex. A part of him was begging that he plunge straight back in and finish her off, her taste still fresh on his mind, but he wanted to savour their encounter a little, Cooper lapping at the edges of her labia, dragging his tongue over the pudgy flesh that connected her legs to her hips, Pearl arching her spine as she raised her hips to his face.

“C-C’mon, Coops,” she breathed, a sigh hitching her speech as he gave sweet spot a single, doting lick. “Don’t make me roll you over and make you eat me out, cause I’ll do it!”

Her ‘threat’ made him laugh into her loins, the sudden influx of air making Pearl squirm, her thighs pressing around his head and engulfing him in their bountiful flesh. She could have crushed rocks with her legs, but she was being considerate of his human limitations, even as he teased her and kept her pining for more.

He wanted to pay her back for the previous night, make her feel as he good as he had when their roles had been reversed. She’d said that she liked him, was he starting to like her back? No, it was probably just his sex-depraved mind getting the better of him. He was simply returning the favour, that was all this was.

He eventually relented, plunging his tongue against her winking lips, shivering as her pleated, silky walls leeched onto his organ, the muscles contracting and pulling him deeper. She was so muscular down there, and his heart started to pound as he imagined what it would feel like to sheath his member inside her flexing walls.

He slid his hands beneath her rump as he alternated between eating out her depths and mouthing at her mound. Her cheeks were firm and muscular, shifting as he groped her ass and pulled her closer, finding he could access more of her passage at this angle.

Cooper lapped at her vulva, moving up its splayed length towards her engorged bud, sealing his lips around it. He teased her with slow licks, occasionally planting a sucking kiss on it to keep her guessing, Pearl laying prone on the ground as she covered her face with her hands.

“Ah! N-Not so hard,” she breathed, her tail curling round one of his legs. “Man, human mouths are so great. Better than a deathclaw’s, our teeth get in the way and boy does it hurt having your snatch getting nicked by a tooth let me tell you. Took all of my concentration to keep little Cooper safe last night but we made it wor-”

Her voice cut off into a whine as he filled her passage with his fingers, her walls clamping down on his digits with enough force that it almost hurt. He curled his fingers inside her, having to grimace with effort as her rippling walls fought against him. More globs of her nectar escaped her lips, wetting his fingers and trailing down his wrist, the added lubrication allowing him to slide inside her a little easier.

“… Ohmy… aahhaa…” Pearl mumbled, her voice reminding Cooper of a drunk person’s, giddy and slurred. “Human… fingers… so good…”

As she started moaning about the benefits of a clawless digit, Cooper matched the movements of his fingers with her wriggling waist, the deathclaw arching her spine every time he plunged back in, her hitching breaths reaching his ears each time he glanced the furthest point of her tunnel.

Returning his tongue to her sweet spot, he resumed chewing on it, occasionally pinching it between his teeth, her tail shivering beneath him as he ate her out in earnest. He glanced up over her core, seeing that Pearl had draped her hands above her head, her eyes shut tight as she danced to the tune of his questing fingers and lashing tongue. She was powerful enough to lift him off whenever she pleased, but seeing her in such a state made him feel wholly in control.

“I-If you don’t slow down, I’m…” She craned her neck back, a snarl escaping her mouth, one Cooper knew to be a show of arousal rather than anger. She didn’t need to tell him she was close, he could see it in the way she writhed, her hips thrusting against his face with increasingly more strength, her claws pricking the stone hard enough to score it. He upped his pace along with her, chewing on her clitoris hard enough to leave his jaw craving for rest, sending her over the edge with one last kiss.

Her muscles seized around his fingers with enough force to cut off circulation, Cooper unable to withdraw them as her spasming lips contracted. Pearl’s body contorted, her mouth opening in a silent wail as the first pangs of her climax overtook her faculties.

Cooper tried to pull his head away, but she sealed her legs around his face to stop him, her quivering flesh spilling over his shoulders and neck. He shut his eyes as a wave of her warm fem-cum spilled over his face, coating his mouth and chin in a slimy layer, the taste invigorating him to lick up as much of it as he could. He eased out another wave of ecstasy as he lapped at the edges of her labia, a loud purr filling the chamber as she rode out the tides of her orgasm.

With one last whine, Pearl slowly sank to the ground, Cooper’s face still connected to her loins as one last ebb of pleasure rocked her. He slid his hands out from beneath her butt, then pried her knees apart, gasping in a breath of Pearl-free air like a surfacing diver. He tried to wipe away her juices on his face, but it was so thick that it clung stubbornly to his features.

He couldn’t help but grin as he watched her tremor on the ground, his handiwork reducing the chatty deathclaw to a murmuring mess. As though she was waking up from a short nap, she opened her eyes, the two orbs peering up at him, growing more focused as she watched a string of her fluids break from his chin and pool on her leg.

“Looks like you’ve slain me, little hunter,” she laughed, leaning on an elbow as she slowly got her breathing under control. “You’ve got me incapacitated at last, now what’re you gonna do with me?”

“Maybe tie you up and drag you back to the lodge,” he joked, caressing her wonderfully smooth thighs.

“Kinky, but I have a better idea…”

He felt her tail creeping up on him, and he looked down to see she was coiling its length around his waist, constricting him like a giant snake. His feet left the ground for a moment, Pearl depositing him in her lap. Her chest met his as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her cool scales pricking his skin as she held him close. Cooper shivered in her embrace, but not because she was cold, the sudden show of affection was sending pleasant chills down his spine.

“You’re all wet,” she chuckled, her tongue snaking out of her maw to lap at his shoulder. “I don’t remember you dunking your head in the pool.”

“That’s sweat,” he explained, laughing softly as she lapped at his bicep, apparently he was pretty ticklish.

“Ah, that’s right, you guys sweat when you’re hot, right? Suppose that’s one way of warming up in winter, isn’t it?”

He didn’t answer, letting Pearl sample his chest and arms, her tongue gliding over his skin, Cooper closing his eyes as the sensation lulled him. Maybe it was a deathclaw thing, licking your partner, or maybe she though his sweat was tasteful. Either way, it felt good to be held, clawed hands or otherwise, and he returned her embrace, gripping the thorns on her back for purchase, Pearl beaming at him as she sensed his change in attitude.

“Looks like a certain someone’s getting used to a certain other someone,” she cooed, leaning her head down to whisper in his ear. “What say you and I go again? After some breakfast, but, I’m fucking starving right now.”

“Maybe,” he replied, his throbbing erection betraying his anticipation of another encounter. His length was squashed between their bodies, so it was hard for Pearl not to notice.

“I sense a bit of conflict of interest here,” Pearl noted. He expected her to provide some argument or remark, but instead she just placed her chin on his head, holding him close. “Take your time, Cooper, I’m not going anywhere.”

-xXx-

After cleaning themselves up, Cooper and Pearl made their way back to the entrance of the mine, reigniting the campfire and eating their fill of brahmin meat, the carcass having stayed preserved in the frigid cold.

“Been a bloody long time since I smelt cooked meat,” Pearl started, her head hovering over the fire as she gave it a sniff. “I don’t like it charred, but I can see the appeal of making the outside nice and crispy.”

“Don’t you know how to make a fire?” he asked, giving her a concerned look.

“It’s not that, I can just never hold those little lighters properly. Y’know, because of the claws?” She held up a hand, her claws flexing in and out of their sheaths. “Same with flint and steel, chipped my nails a couple times trying that out.”

“I can’t imagine you having trouble with delicate work,” he said. “You’ve set up lights all throughout this place, got your own power source, too. How’d you do all that with claws?”

“Lots of time and a lotta practice,” she replied, watching him eat with a smile on her face. “Keep in mind I had ages and ages of practice during my time with the Enclave. Some of the higher-ups thought it was a waste of time teaching us things like electronics or mathematics or whatever, but just like you humans, we hybrids needed a lot of stimulation to keep us occupied. That’s not a euphemism by the way, even though it kinda was.”

“I figured,” he chuckled. “Sounds like this Enclave is pretty sophisticated if they’re teaching deathclaws all this stuff.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she replied. “They’ve got tech that makes your power armour look like something out of the ancient times. Hangar bays full of vehicles, a standing army that could occupy most of the west coast cities, armories full of gauss rifles and laser weaponry. They’re the top shit and nobody knows it, not yet anyway.”

“Vehicles?” he asked. “Like cars?”

“Sorta. Imagine if you took one of those automobiles, and strapped inches of armour plating all over it, then mounted a couple of chain guns on it, that’s what they have. Then there’s the Vertibirds, which are like cars, except they drive through the air using rotors as propellant.”

“I’d say that sounds crazy, but I’m out here treating a deathclaw den like it’s a camp, so I’ll believe you.”

“It can be a lot more than a camp if you gave it a chance,” Pearl suggested, Cooper pausing his chewing to think. It was obvious she wanted him to stay here permanently, but she didn’t want to say it out loud. The idea was certainly becoming more appealing the more time he spent here, but his dreams about living in a city like New Reno still held sway over him. Living in a dirty old mine out in the middle of nowhere didn’t hold as much appeal as a cityscape, did it?

“You ever ride in one of these aircars or armoured vehicles?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation away.

“They’re called aircraft,” she chuckled. “and I haven’t, wasn’t authorized to go joy-riding. I did manage to sneak into a vehicle bay one night and hop in an armoured truck. There’s an entry hatch on the roof and you’re supposed to go in legs-first, but in my foolishness I did it the other way around and got stuck. One of the guards found me after I kicked and screamed for like fifteen minutes, had to get a couple guys in power armour to un-wedge me.”

“Must have been quite the sight,” he chuckled, picturing Pearl stuck with just her legs and tail visible.

“Got more than a few electric shocks for that one,” Pearl continued. “Being banned from working on the vehicles was the worst thing, though. Engines are super cool.”

“Not much out here to put those skills to use,” he said. “I’ve only seen a handful of intact cars in my life, and never one that worked.”

“Generators are the best substitute, they’re similar in a few ways to an engine, but I had to read up a fair bit before I even tried making that one you saw near my nest.”

“Saw a bit of your book collection before our… fight,” he said, remembering the stacks of books he’d glossed over. “What kinds of stuff do you read?”

“Oh, anything and everything!” she replied eagerly. “Romantic adventures, machining guidebooks, poetry, sciences, even a few copies of Guns and Bullets.”

Cooper whistled his approval. “Those are pretty rare, couple hundred caps a piece for those.”

“Ah ha, caught your interest there,” Pearl grinned. “Can’t blame you, I would be too if I could use guns. Wanna go check them out?”

“Sure,” he said, quickly finishing up his meal. After taking a swig from his canteen, they stamped out the fire, Cooper blinking as Pearl offered him her hand.

“Come on, you can walk me back. Proper lady style.”

He didn’t see much point considering it was about a minute’s walk, but he humoured her, slipping his hand into hers and grabbing her by the finger, since it was a much more comfortable size than her giant palm. Despite her suggestion, Pearl took the lead as they made their way back to her room, the deathclaw guiding him past the bathing chamber, her horns just grazing the ceiling.

Once they were in her room, she brought him over to the stacks of books sitting on the ground, setting a couple of them on the nearby desk as she searched for something in particular. Eventually she found what she was looking for, slapping a thin book on the desk, a little puff of dust exploding from the impact.

“There we are, a copy and G’s and B’s.”

He lifted the guidebook, the cover stenciled with an Old World handgun below the signature title. He leafed through it to a random page, the parchment slightly yellowed, but readable. Cooper knew all he needed to know about bullets, but it still felt humbling to hold a copy of the famous guidebook.

“Neat. What’s that one?” he asked, pointing at another book in the stack. It was as thick as his hand if he splayed his fingers all the way out, with a bright blue cover.

“BBS, or Big Book of Science to the uninitiated,” Pearl explained, the way she plucked the book coming off as more than eager. “This thing’s got it all, from chemistry to computer science. Not a lot of it applies anymore to this day and age, but it’s a good bit of light reading.”

“Light reading? That thing’s as big as your head!”

“That’s the best compliment someone’s ever said to me,” she chuckled. She started laying out the books into rows, her gentle nature showing itself again as she kept her claws well away from scratching or ripping anything. Her chops were pulled up in an oddly human-looking smile as she watched him browse. “Feels great to finally show off my collection,” she said. “my pack doesn’t exactly appreciate my passion for literature, y’know?”

“You really do have everything here,” he said, nodding as he appraised the tomes. There had to be at least two dozen unique books all together, some of which he’d never seen before in his travels, the ones about poetry and fantasy being the prime examples.

“Not quite everything,” Pearl corrected, Cooper watching as she reached into her cloak like some sort of shady drug dealer. From the folds of her cloak she produced a very familiar looking handbook. He’d almost forgotten about his little gift to her.

“There,” she said, placing the scout book on top of the copy of Guns and Bullets. “It’s not a preserved copy considering all those notes you scribbled in, but it’ll do.”

“You’ll never let that go, will you?” he asked. “Don’t forget you wrote in it too.”

“Wait a minute,” she said, holding up a claw. “I just had this amazing idea! Why don’t we make your notes into a proper book?”

“You want to make a book? I’m not sure there’s enough notes for a full volume.”

“It doesn’t have to be as big as the science book, and people like a more concise guide anyway. And if worst comes to worst, we can fill it out with drawings.”

“How’re we going to make it?” he asked. “We going to rub out one of your copies and use that?”

“No way are we touching those! We’ll do it from scratch. I have all the tools here, as I’ve dabbled a couple times. It’s not as hard as you might think. What do you say?”

“I… okay,” he replied, Pearl’s grin growing wider. “What do we do?”

“Clear the desk, but leave the handbook. I’ll go get some paper.”

She made for the other side of the room, Cooper gingerly placing the books on the ground as she rummaged through a pile of junk noisily. He took the solitary seat behind the desk, and Pearl came over after a moment, a bundle of pens and pencils in one hand, and a stack of paper in the other. She set the objects down, then sat on the floor beside him, shuffling on the stones to get comfortable.

“You can have the chair if you want,” he said, making to stand up, but she put a hand on his leg to stop him.

“I’m good, puts me at the right height anyway, sitting like this.” At this angle her eyes were higher than his, but not by much. “Besides,” she added. “you blew up my other chair when you shot up the place earlier.”

She gestured, and he followed her extended arm towards a pile of splintered wood that might have resembled a chair at some point. He must have sniped it when he’d fired his rifle into the darkness. He mumbled an apology, Pearl bumping his arm with her elbow.

“Hey don’t worry about it, it’s just a chair. Now if you’d blown up my books, then I’d really be mad, but you got lucky.”

“So how do we get started?” he asked.

“Grab a pen and start writing down your notes on a blank page,” she said, nudging the paper closer to him.

“All of them?” he asked, dreading the hundreds of words he’d scribbled into the handbook.

“Well duh,” she replied. “You want to fill out this book, right? Oh and try and make it legible, other people will want to read this one day if we end up making copies.”

“And what’ll you be doing?” he asked, starting to copy over the text from the handbook.

“Drawing,” Pearl replied, taking a pencil to another sheet and starting to trace out some lines, pinching the pen between her claws like they were tweezers. “Couple sketches will really put some oomph into it. Start thinking about what you want to put on the cover as well, a nice catchy title will go a long way.”

-xXx-

The hunters trudged through the snowy dunes, the powder coming up to their thighs in the deepest places. The occasional wonky tree sprouted up from the sloping landscape, the brown trunks contrasting sharply with the snow, rising up like bones towards the grey sky, the air chocked with a low-hanging mist the sun barely penetrated.

Their group numbered three, each of them wearing drawn hoods and long cloaks, the sleeves and scarfs of their uniforms flapping like flags in the gale. The storm had been going strong for days now, and it showed no sign of clearing up, the group forever surrounded by an encroaching haze of wind.

“Where the hell is he?” one of their number called, his voice muffled by his bandana. “You think he even saw the flare?”

“Of course he did, ice-brain,” one of the others said. “Got one in return, didn’t we? Damn it, freezing my tits off out here…”

“Maybe if you didn’t wear leather all the time, Jade, you’d stay warm for longer,” the third of their group replied, leading the way up the next slope.

“She wears it to look like a dom,” the one with the bandana snickered. “Loves it when the boys and the girls ogle her, don’t you Jade?”

“If I was gay, I’d still get twice as much pussy as you ever would, Carlson,” Jade replied, and now it was her turn to laugh while the one called Carlson grumbled.

They crested the next dune, the three shielding their faces as they glanced around, their voices carrying on the wind as they called out. When nothing appeared to happen after five minutes, Carlson snapped.

“Fuck sake, Jorden, fire another flare already, he’s not here.”

“Hold on,” Jade said, pointing out to their north. “Think I see him.”

They looked to where she indicated, a figure blooming into view from the snowy fog. He was clad from neck to toe in padded combat armour, painted over to match with his white surroundings. He carried himself with a professional ease despite the treacherous environment he was in, Jorden giving him a respectful nod as he approached.

“Rhys, there you are. We were just about to pop another flare.”

“Found something interesting about our mark,” Rhys replied, pointing over his shoulder. “Come take a look.”

The three followed the armoured man further into the snow, soon coming upon a clearing between a handful of dead trees. A smoldering firepit sat in the middle of what might have been a camp at some point, the ring of stones partially submerged in the snow. Foot prints ringed the camp in random directions, but it was hard to tell where one began and another ended.

“He’s not alone,” Rhys explained, kneeling in the snow. “Two sets of footprints. Maybe he had a friend hang back while he went and talked to the old man.”

“He didn’t seem the sociable type to me,” Carlson added. “But why hide out here? We’re not raiders.”

“Some of us used to be,” Jorden said, giving him a pointed look. “Think you can follow them, Rhys?”

“Prints lead a bit to the west, wind’s hard, but we’ll pick up a trail if we’re quick.”

“You hear anything from our hired hunter?” Jade asked as the group began to walk. “You’ve been tailing him longer than we have, hear any gunshots or something?”

“Nope,” Rhys replied. “Either he’s still searching, or he’s dead.”

“What’re we planning to do with this guy, anyway?” Carlson asked.

“What do you mean?” Jorden said, turning to look at him. “Hendrix told us to find him, that’s what we’re doing.”

“I meant after. Let’s say hypothetically he’s somehow insane enough to bring down those deathclaws, I reckon all that reward money’s better off lining someone else’s pockets, if you get what I mean.”

“You really are an ex-raider,” Jade muttered. “You want to fight a guy who’s crazy enough to take on a pack of those things by himself?”

“It’s four on one, I’m a fan of those odds,” Carlson said. “Plus we got Rhys with his laser gun, that thing will slag his power armour.”

“This is true,” Rhys added. “I’ll expect a bigger cut if you end up relying on my gun.”

“What if he hasn’t found the pack yet?” Jorden asked.

“Then we’ll help him out,” Carlson explained. “He’ll be so grateful that we came to the rescue that he’ll end up letting his guard down, and when that happens…” He raised a finger and slid it across his neck.

“That’s assuming we take on Omega’s pack and live,” Jorden said. “I don’t know about this, man, if Hendrix finds out we straight up murdered this Tracker guy…”

“We’ll just say the claws got him! God, it’s like you haven’t ever killed someone before. Think about the money! Three thousand caps, split between us! That’s like… uh… hmm…”

“Seven fifty each,” Rhys said. “Could probably ask for a hazard pay bonus if we play the heroes.”

“How about it, Jade?” Carlson asked. “You’ve gone quiet over there, what do you say? Think of all the cheap leather suits you could buy with that money.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been forced to team up with a trio of lunatics,” Jade muttered. “If you guys are stupid enough to go up against someone who didn’t even blink when I told him how big Omega was, then go ahead, I’m not getting involved.”

“Bigger cut for us, then,” Carlson said, seemingly elated by Jade’s refusal. “Just stay out of the way while we reap the rewards. Man, this Cooper guy won’t know what hit him.”

“Assuming he’s not dead already,” Jorden muttered.

***

“Easy…” Pearl warned, hovering over Cooper’s shoulder as he fed the final length of the thread through the hole. He brought the pin needle between the gap in the papers, then wound it behind the nearest stitch, creating a loop in the string. “Easy!” Pearl said again.

“That’s not helping,” Cooper said, rolling his eyes as he poked the needle through the loop.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’m just so excited! C’mon, Coops, one last thread of the literal needle…”

After they’d filled out the contents of their book, they’d began working on the cover, cutting out two square sections of cardboard Pearl had lying around. Pearl had used her nails to poke holes in the margins, which would serve as threading for the string that would bind the book together. She had begun the first couple of stitches, pinching the needles between her two claws, surprisingly good at such delicate work. She’d let Cooper have the honour of doing the final touches, and after tying down the last loop, Cooper held out the excess string, Pearl cutting it off with a talon.

“Think that’s it,” Cooper breathed, wiping his brow as he set the needle down.

“Turn it over!” Pearl said. “Let’s see how it looks!”

He pinched the front cover between his fingers, and folded it over the pages, waiting with bated breath to see if the binding would hold. There was a crease of paper, and then the hardcover turned over, his flimsy needlework keeping the book in shape. Black letters were stenciled into the cover, Cooper reading them over with a grin on his face.

Gamma Season

A Hunter’s Guide to the Wasteland

By Cooper and Pearl

It was outlined by little humanoid figures and sketches of yao guai and geckos, as Pearl had thought the cover could use some imagery. Cooper felt an odd sensation swim over him, one he could best describe as a kind of euphoria. He’d created this thing, as haphazard as it looked at a glance, he and Pearl had stitched together their very own handbook, and he felt proud at the realization.

“Well go on,” Pearl said, nudging him with an elbow. “Open it up, let’s see if the stitches hold all the way through.”

He glossed into the first few pages, his movements slow and deliberate as though he was handling some precious work of art. The first couple of sections were dedicated to survival techniques, Cooper had decided, and every now and then the tips would be accompanied by an illustration where Pearl had thought it appropriate, such as the steps on how to tie certain knots, or the construction of a primitive water filter. She wasn’t an artist by any means, but Cooper’s handwriting wasn’t all that great either, yet the amateur styles complemented each other in a strange way.

“Looks good so far. Wait a second…” He placed a finger on the next illustration. “Is that supposed to be me?”

“What?” Pearl asked innocently. “I think I really captured your physique.”

The sketch depicted a figure clad in bulky power armour kneeling in the snow, in the process of placing stones in a firepit. The helmet was absent, a sliver of a gruff face visible below a long tuft of hair, an unseen breeze wisping it to the left.

“Not bad for someone with claws on their hands,” he admitted, turning the next page. The next parts were all about tracking techniques and how to save time when searching for game, all of which Cooper had tried and tested over his years out in the wild. The last bit of the book was a detailed bestiary containing every creature he and Pearl had come across in their lifetimes, with deathclaws included at the very end, Pearl drawing a little image of herself at the top of the entry, exaggerating her proportions, like giving herself big eyes and a bright smile.

He’d wanted to add a section on how to hunt deathclaws, but his biases towards Pearl had stopped him, not to mention Pearl herself having her own problems with that. Instead he wrote down avoid at all costs in big bold letters, which satisfied the guide part of the entry.

“This is awesome,” Pearl said as she turned the book over in her hands. “I’ve always wanted to make something cool like this, and now we have!”

“It was pretty fun,” he admitted. “How much you think this could go for at a market?”

“Cooper!” she exclaimed as if he’d just insulted her. “This thing is ours, we’re keeping it, right here in the priceless section…”

She placed it carefully on a shelf mounted above the desk, Cooper noting there was only one other book there, one covered in a bright red binding. He asked her about it, and she lifted it off the shelf, handling it as though it was made of glass.

“This… is my animal encyclopedia,” she said dramatially. “It’s pre-war, obviously, but it has a detailed list of every known animal to have ever existed on Earth. Watch out when you open it, the pages literally come to life.”

He was about to ask her what she meant, when he got his answer. The first pages were using the weight of the cover to hold a crease, and lifting the cover unfurled it, a section of the page popping out like a blooming flower. Colours burst up at him, the shapes forming some kind of strange animal with a long nose and two curving tusks, the creature taking on three dimensions thanks to the way the parchment flared out.

“Uh, Pearl?” he asked. “This is a children’s book.”

“Animal, encyclopedia,” she insisted. “It has drawings, maps of where they used to live in the while, and fun facts too! Did you know that a baby elephant can walk within a day of its birth? Deathclaws can take up to three weeks and we’re the apex predators.”

She encouraged him to read through it a little more, explaining each animal in turn. Lions, monkeys, giraffes, hippos, each animal looked so docile compared to what Cooper was used to.

After browsing for a while, he folded the book up, the blooming pictures residing into the pages, Pearl placing it beside their hunting guide. He stretched his arms over his head as he yawned, wiping at an eye as he asked: “What time is it? Might catch some lunch soon.”

“Dinner, you mean,” she replied, leaning back to peer down the mineshaft, no doubt using her keen senses to look for natural light. “It’s dark out, maybe seven or eight o’clock.”

“Really? We’ve been doing this all afternoon?”

“Time well spent in my book. Damn, doing bad puns again.” She reached over and took him by the shoulder, pulling him into a one-armed hug, Cooper breathing in her scent as she clutched him to her bosom. “Seriously though, that was so fun. Tried making my own books a long time ago, but it’s way better having someone around to help.”

Her affection was contagious, and he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her to return the gesture, Pearl chuckling quietly as she placed her head on his own.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, her deep voice shaking his bones.

“You. Just the other day you couldn’t stand the sight of me, now you’ve gone hours without even batting an eye.”

He guessed he’d been too distracted making the book to really think about it, but maybe that was the whole point of their little book project, to get him used to her presence.

“Your arms must be tense after all that work,” she murmured, moving her other hand to his throat. She pressed the pad of her thumb into where his neck met his arms, digging into a knot of muscle there. She’d remembered all his pressure points. He relaxed into her embrace, her soft underside pliant and inviting, the novel texture of her scales pressing into his face. Sitting in one spot for hours had stiffened up his muscles, and it felt nice to have someone on hand to ease them out.

As though of their own accord, his arms began to run down her sides, her strange scent igniting a fire inside him. What was he doing, hugging this beast like she was a life long friend? No, Pearl was no beast, she was a thinking, intelligent person, he’d known as much already, but their afternoon of bonding had finally forced him to accept the fact.

“What’s this?” Pearl cooed, angling her head round, tracking his questing hands. “Someone’s getting a little touchy…”

“Sorry,” he said, pulling his hands back.

“That wasn’t a warning, Coops, you can touch me all you want…”

Her verbal permission emboldened him, Cooper settling his palms on her pinched waist, Pearl mirroring his movements as she continued her massage. He’d felt her up before, he knew her quite intimately after their encounter in the pool, so why was he suddenly delighting in the way she looked and felt, and apologizing for doing so?

His outlook on her was changing, and not just visually. His heartbeat was rising, a knot that wasn’t a result of tense muscles welling in his chest. He couldn’t be developing… feelings for her, could he? Maybe he wasn’t thinking straight, her scent was distracting him, her deft hand movements more so, his thoughts turning to mush alongside his muscles. She’d been teasing and goading him for days, was he finally starting to crack?

No. They were just friends, he couldn’t fall for a deathclaw, could he? That was ridiculous, yet what was so ridiculous about wanting to be near someone he secretly admired?

With their torsos connected, it was impossible for him to hide the growing erection pressing into the fabric of his pants, Cooper blushing as Pearl let out a surprised gasp.

“Hang on a tick, someone’s getting ready,” she said in delight, her flippant words worming into his head as she leaned down, licking at his ear with her forked tongue. “Say, want to fool around a little? A reward for a long day’s work? I’ve recovered after our last session…”

His body was betraying his thoughts, quivering in her embrace as she mouthed at his ear and rubbed his shoulders. If he’d been told a week ago that he’d get a hard on for an apex predator of the Wasteland, he’d have shot the speaker dead, but now here he was, with his aching member pressed so very close to her nethers, with only the layer of his pants keeping them apart. They’d been at it twice now, but something about going again felt… different, more personal.

It was just his needs, he told himself. He’d had his dick in his pants for months, and here was someone who was willing to sate his desires, that was all. They were just fooling around, like she’d said, nothing more than that.

“You got that deep think look on your face,” Pearl whispered, winding her neck around so that their foreheads touched. “Take my advice – just go with it, don’t think about it so much.”

His resolve crumbled, and he brought his mouth to hers, chewing on her lower lip and leaving a gentle kiss. He made to pull away, but Pearl’s hand on the back of his head stopped him, the deathclaw tilting her head as she reciprocated.

Her oversized teeth made things a little awkward, but they made it work, their tongues intwining as they pawed at each other, Cooper taking her by her slim waist while she draped her arms over his shoulders. They’d kissed once before, but Cooper had been drunk on afterglow at the time, and it had been hasty and clumsy. This time was different. He made every stroke of his tongue deliberate, wrangling as best he could with her forked tongue, his companion moaning into his throat as he stroked at the insides of her cheeks. There was no way he’d be able to compete against her dexterous tongue, but Pearl reared back, intentionally letting him dictate their pace, no doubt enjoying the way he expressed his denied affection to her.

He kissed her until his lungs burned for air, pulling back with a sigh, watching as a string of their drool draped over his lap. He looked up at Pearl’s face, noting that her eyes were facing two different directions, the sight eliciting a chuckle from him.

“You okay Pearl?” he asked. She blinked her eyes back into focus, her amber gaze piercing him with a fresh fire.

“Clothes off, little hunter.”

Cooper stood up and obeyed without a word, Pearl running her covetous eyes across his body as he disrobed. As soon as his pants were gone and his member bounced free, Pearl set her hands upon it, clenching his erection in a fist and giving him a single pump. His reaction was immediate, his face contorting as her wonderfully soft palms caressed his sensitive flesh.

“I could make you come all over my face again,” Pearl began, giggling as he thrust his hips into her hand. “But I want to take things all the way this time, if you’re up for it, of course.”

He wasn’t some fresh-faced kid, he knew what she was implying, and he wanted it. What did that make of him, exactly? He should be ashamed for even entertaining the thought, let alone desiring it. Then again, he’d already had a face full of deathclaw cum just this morning. He was already balls deep, as one of his old friends used to say, what would be the point of backing down now? He should deny her request, to put a stop to this, yet when he opened his mouth, an entirely different reply came out.

“Y-Yeah,” he said, Pearl smirking as she rewarded him with another pump, his peeling foreskin sending a harsh shock up his spine.

“That’s all you have to say? ‘Yeah’? Ah well, I’m sure I can find something else to use your tongue for. On the chair or in the nest?” she asked, ever the blunt deathclaw.

“Nest,” he said. She teased him by pulling away ever so slowly, drawing a circle on his glans with the pad of her thumb, his mind running circles as she made her movements slow, sensual.

“Good idea, might break our only seat once we get crazy up in here.”

She rose to her feet, the way she towered over him stirring up butterflies in his stomach. Pearl copped a shameless handful of his rump as she turned him towards the nest, her other hand reaching back to pluck her robe off the desk. Even after his admission, she still wanted to keep his mind at ease by concealing herself. She was driving him crazy.

“Leave it,” he said. “I… want to see you. All of you.”

His words came out a little more heartfelt than he wanted, Pearl giving him a radiant smile as she dropped her cloak, following him across the room. He took a seat at the foot of the sheets, Pearl following suit and laying on her side, leaning her head on a hand as she looked at him expectantly.

“So… how do we start this?” he asked, at a loss now that they were here. Pearl giggled, which went some way of defusing the tension.

“You know I’m a sucker for foreplay,” she said. “but we can cut to the chase if you’re ready. You look ready,” she added, nodding at his aching junk. His male urges wanted nothing more than to just plunge his member between her legs and rut, but would Pearl enjoy that? Undoubtedly, part of him thought, but he felt oddly obliged to see to her needs.

He shimmied down the sheets, Pearl’s tail flicking behind her as he kneeled by her waist. He placed a hand on her scaley leg, encouraging her to lift it up, a fresh wave of her scent hitting him in the face as she exposed her womanhood.

Her underbelly scales shifted from pink to white as she caught the glow from the lightbulb, her flesh becoming more blushed as they reached her nether regions. Her exaggerated lips were swollen with excitement, Cooper resting a hand on her soft thigh as he leaned closer. Her scent was rich and spicy, and he found himself magnetized to her vulva, planting a kiss on her upper lip.

He glanced to his left, Pearl’s glowing eyes watching him explore her loins, one particular lash of his tongue making her arm slip out from beneath her head. She caught herself before she tumbled back, flashing him a sheepish grin. “Y’know, this isn’t what I m-meant when I said all the way, but don’t stop. Kiss me a little higher there… yeah just… just like that.”

Her eyes swapped between lidding and opening as he mouthed at the pleated folds of her sex, the deathclaw letting slip a little gasp as he glanced her sweet spot, the sound so unbecoming of a ten-foot killing machine.

“You don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been gone down on like this,” Pearl said, her raised leg kicking out as he used his thumb to pry her entrance apart so he could better access her tunnel. “And twice in a day too! What a spoiled girl I am.”

Her clawed toes curled as he stroked her from one end of her labia to the other, his face quickly becoming a mess of her sordid juices, but he paid it no mind. He groped at her thighs and ass as he worked, the coin-sized scales on her inner thighs providing a wonderful texture to his roaming fingers.

Something long and chubby wound over his neck, Cooper’s alarm quickly subsiding when he noticed it was her tail, its pudgy length deforming over his flesh as it tightened around his throat, not hard enough to cut off air, but enough to keep him pinned to her lips, as if he even wanted to pull away. Her taste was intoxicating, filing him with energy as though he’d just inhaled a shot of Jet.

He brought up a finger, brushing it over the smooth surface of her clitoris, the deathclaw gyrating her hips in response. He kissed it like he would to her mouth, nursing the marble-sized protrusion between his lips, daring to bite down on it a little with his teeth.

Suddenly, the tail seized around his shoulders like a noose, and he found himself thrown on his back against the nest, his chin dribbling with saliva and her nectar. He blinked over at his companion, who faltered as she clambered to her knees.

“That’s it,” she said with an air of finality. “If I let you keep going you’ll knock me out again. I need you, Cooper, I need you so bad…”

She crawled towards him on all fours, the memory of her dashing around using all her limbs after he’d shot her flashing through his mind, her gaze just as predatory as it had been then. Cooper wasn’t afraid of her anymore, however, and her gaze was filled with a whole new kind of hunger. As she made to straddle him, he seized her shoulder, Pearl yelping in surprise as he rolled her onto her back.

“Little Cooper wants to be on top, eh?” she asked, her forked tongue arching out to wet her lips. “You do know you weigh as much as a toy to me, right? Could throw you off whenever I wanted.”

“Then you’ll just have to entertain me, won’t you?” he asked back. Her grin grew even more predatory, but she didn’t move, so he shuffled down her long body, kneeling between her outstretched legs so that their waists lined up.

He gripped his shaft in a hand, angling it towards her dripping vulva. His knees were planted on either side of her fat tail, the inside of her legs brushing his ankles as she lay back. His glans brushed up and down between her smooth lips, the heat she radiated baking his length. Pearl shivered beneath him, taking fistfuls of the blankets in her claws as he drew shapes on her puffy entrance.

“Stop teasing me already!” Pearl whined. “It’s a bad idea to get between a deathclaw and her food, you know.”

“Food?” he echoed.

“Just shut up and fuck me.”

Cooper finally relented, taking in a breath, and then thrusting his hips forward. There was an angry circle of resistance as he opened her up, and then he broke through, entering her with a loud squelch of flesh.

Pearl threw her head back, loosing something between a groan and a hiss as her roiling walls welcomed his glans. He’d expected her vent to be a little looser than what he was used to, but there was a wonderful tightness to her silky passage, her walls sealing around his length with all the tightness of a fist, her powerful pelvic muscles helping to constrict her passage.

As colourful as Pearl’s reaction to their coupling was, Cooper faired no better, doubling over as her fleshy walls embraced him, her lips flexing around his base as he hilted inside her. He groaned into her soft belly as every bristle of muscle lining her walls began to stroke the sides of his shaft with their velutinous flesh. He’d compared them to tongues before, and the description was closer to the truth than not, his length melting into her delicate folds as the overpowering sensations assaulted him.

“Sh-Shiiit,” Pearl moaned. “That vein on the top of your dick, was that always there? It’s pressing right up against my… oooohboy…”

Cooper planted his hands on either side of her torso, the soft sheets of the nest protecting him from the hard floor. He could feel her pelvic muscles flexing beneath him, her passage squeezing around his length even tighter, the little nodules lining her vagina spiraling around him as he throbbed in response.

Part of him was almost too afraid to move, but he leveraged his knees and gently slid his member out of her, exposing his length to the air until only his glans were still gripped by her hot walls. Pulling took more effort than he realised, a dizzying pressure clinging to his length as part of her flesh followed him out of her entrance. Pearl growled again as he plunged back in, impaling her, the flesh on her thighs rippling as their hips clapped together.

“Ah-! Oh wow!” Pearl gasped. “Feels like you’re s-splitting me right down the miiiidleohthatsthespotdude...”

Pearl was constantly moving, wriggling beneath him as though she was pinned under his weight, even though she said herself he weighed practically nothing to her. He took her hips into his hands for purchase, once more leveraging his length out of her constricting depths.

“You’d think I’d be ready for how big it is,” she continued. “it was in my face the other day! But seems like it’s just, don’t know, grown. What do you reckon? Cooper?”

Cooper didn’t answer, gritting his teeth as the rings of muscle lining her vent ribbed across his cock, squeezing in random intervals and sending sparks of pleasure up his back. A part of him almost dreaded each time he had to drive himself back into her passage, the overwhelming sensations of her reptilian entrance sliding over his shaft making him pull embarrassing faces. She was never meant to take a human dick, but the difference in anatomy brought a whole new world of sensation to the both of them, and Cooper felt a guilty sense of excitement at the fact.

Her pressure points were different, the shape of her vent unorthodox, Cooper feeling like he was fucking an alien. He found a slow rhythm, Pearl’s doughy thighs quivering with each thrust, her hands clutching at her horns as he spread her insides apart.

The rings of muscle inside her loins were tough, but the fleshy nodules between them were soft, the two sensations contrasting wonderfully as her wet passage massaged him from tip to shaft. He had to fight back the sudden urge to release, the novel sensations were starting to overwhelm his faculties, but he didn’t want this to end so soon, if ever.

“You can get so deep like this,” she muttered. “Deep with three ‘e’s, but I think we can go a little deeper-er.”

She hooked her legs over his back, her powerful thighs flexing as she pulled him into her, harder than Cooper could have managed under his own power. Her unnaturally strong walls milked him as he was buried inside her, his tip reaching the narrowest reaches of her cunt. It was hard to tell over the flexing walls that encircled him, but he was sure he felt his glans rub over something hard and slimy before he pulled back, his eyes glazing over as she used her legs to thrust him all the way inside again, her copious juices making their coupling slick and sweet.

“That’s my egg clutch you’re feeling,” Pearl whispered, her sordid words laced with desire. “Deathclaw dicks can reach them easy cause they’re long and thin, like pencils, but yours is so frickin wide I can’t even…”

She increased their pace a little, the thought that he was pressing up against her eggs making his length shake, his thoughts a mess as he once again slathered his glans over an eggshell. Needing to find something to distract himself lest he release early, his gaze turned towards her bosom. Two deposits of fat gave the illusion of a pair of breasts, but her chest was more like that of a weightlifter, lean and developed pectorals outlined by more pink, sparkling scales. He felt compelled to touch her there, but without nipples he wasn’t sure how to start.

Trying to focus on keeping his hips steady, he reached up and placed a palm on her left bosom. Blubber rose up from the scales to greet his questing fingers, but below that was iron muscles, shifting like cables when he dug his digits into her scaley flesh, the more sensitive tissue making Pearl moan appreciatively.

“Gotta admit,” Pearl began, purring under her breath as he smothered his face in her cleavage, her rich scent filling his nose. “Thought you might back off before we could mate, but it looks like you’ve finally come round.”

He answered by mouthing at where a nipple would be on a woman, Pearl chuckling as she wrapped her arms over his head, burying his face in her copious bust. He didn’t know if her chest was sensitive or not, but Pearl holding him like that while they fucked was as good an answer as any. With his vision blocked with scales, and his lower body wrapped in her legs and her walls, his world was now one of Pearl’s pretty scales, the colours shifting from white to pink as the light played over them. His hips pistoned in and out of her, his eyes glazing as they writhed against each other, her warm walls welcoming him with every flex of her legs, Cooper surfacing from it when Pearl started to ramble on again.

“I don’t think any ‘claw has ever even thought of a position like this,” she said. “Most of us take it from behind, mutt-style I think it’s called? Do humans prefer that? I used to have this lovemaking book years ago with all these different positions but it doesn’t really work with deathclaws, all the thorns and spikes make most of them impractical. Can’t remember what this position was called. Mission-something? Missionary! How do you like being a missionary Cooper?”

He patted her arm, and she allowed him to lift his face out from her chest. He gave her the best glare he could manage with his dick sheathed in her satin-soft flesh, Pearl shrugging a question at him.

“You gotta shut up, Pearl.”

“W-What? It’s just a question, don’t humans talk when they ma-”

He didn’t let her finish, interrupting her as he shoved her tongue between her parted chops, her slimy organ wrestling with his own. She cupped the back of his head in a hand, pouring her affection into every stroke, neither of them holding back as they moaned into each other. Cooper sank into her scaley body as she filled his mouth to capacity, his eyes watering as she momentarily suffocated him with her organ. She must have gone a solid minute as she stroked his palate, ensuring that she piled just enough of her tongue inside that he could take, pulling away with a smack and beaming down at him.

“Fine,” she began. “I’ll use my mouth for… other stuff.”

She pushed her snout into the nape of his neck, eliciting a gasp from Cooper as he felt her teeth sink into his flesh. There was a pinch of pain, which was quickly chased by warmth as she raked his throat with her tongue, drawing wide circles on his skin. She’d bit him, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make him feel it, diluting the pain with her sticky tongue.

She circled his Adams apple, her orange eyes drinking in his reaction as she repeated the fake attack, her jutting teeth catching on his skin, the pain quickly abating as she soothed him with a doting kiss. The last time she’d had her teeth to his throat, he’d thought he would die, but now he felt like he’d never been more aroused in his life, the way her teeth met his jugular making him feel vulnerable and sensitive, which only excited him further.

It was difficult to concentrate with a predator at his throat, but he brought up his hands, mauling at her chest, taking handfuls of her scales and feeling them deform between his digits, the harder tissue beneath her hide flexing at his greedy touch. Her next lick faltered a little, and he grinned at her reaction. The darts from his syringer had struggled to penetrate her, but his fingers were able to locate her sensitive weak points, how odd…

“Faster, faster,” Pearl whined. “I’m – ah! – getting there.”

He slammed into her with a new vigour, the noises of their coupling growing in volume. She was gushing around his length, her nectar spilling to wet his balls and stain the sheets, the added lubrication allowing him to glide along her velvety walls. Her legs acted like a noose around his waist, Pearl squeezing when he bottomed-out inside her, ensuring that his glans pressed up against her eggs. They were smooth and rounded, with the texture like that of her scales, covered in a slimy coat of unknown fluid. It walled him off from her womb, the texture so starkly different of her slippery tunnel, the creases between her little tongues and the circles of muscle barraging his senses with pure ecstasy. Every time his erection flexed, her passage would respond by clenching down on him, a loop of pleasure linking the two, drawing them ever closer to their limits.

Cooper ran his hands down her waist, finding that she was slippery to the touch. He blinked, turning his head to see droplets of sweat cascading down her flanks, unknowingly exposing more of his throat to her attentions. Was she sweating? No, that was his own sweat raining down on her, his torso covered in a layer of droplets from all the exertion.

They were slamming into each other now, Pearl pushing back against his thrusts, the two rutting like beasts as they gave themselves over to the mounting pleasure. Her breathing grew heavier, his hair blowing back as she nuzzled at his head, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as his thrusts caused her to visibly rock backward in the nest.

“A bit more,” she pleaded. “Please, oh please I… I can’t…”

She was just barely able to formulated a sentence, and Cooper took that as a win on his part. If he could reduce her to a mess and stave off his own rushing climax, he might be able to bring down Omega after all.

He parted her tight passage once, twice, three more times, every flaw and wrinkle in her sopping vent leaping out at him. On the fourth, Pearl opened her chops, crying out his name as her pelvic muscles clenched, tightening around him harder than they ever had before. Her spine arched off the floor, her struggling nearly bucking Cooper off kilter, her legs hugging him as close to her hips as they could manage. Her insides sealed around him, her hips rocking reflexively as her orgasm crept up on her, her passage contracting in roiling waves as she gave herself over to it.

A torrent of her juices spilled around him, the milking motions of her passage sending Cooper over the edge soon after. They clung their arms around each other, questing hands sliding on skin and scale as his dick smothered against her eggs, the first rope of his ejaculate coating them in his essence. Cooper’s vision flashed as her contracting walls drew out rope after rope of his emission, pleasure so raw and harsh making every bone in his body freeze up.

He shuddered as another rope joined the last, then another. It felt like she was sucking the lifeforce out of his dick one knot at a time, leaving him a heaving mess as he collapsed on her chest, his warm semen filling her passage to capacity. He held onto her scaley torso for dear life, fearing that his climax would never end, but secretly hoping it wouldn’t.

With one last spurt, he felt the familiar ache of euphoria submerge him in its sweetness. He shut his eyes, relaxing in the afterglow as Pearl held him, the deathclaw snorting like an angry brahmin somewhere above him.

Gradually, his senses returned, and he opened his eyes as though he’d just had the best rest in his life. Pearl peered down at him from between her bosom, a warm smile on her face as she reached down to stroke his hair with her claws, his member jumping in response to her touch.

“It’s better when you don’t have to pay for it, right?” she asked, chuckling when his cheeks flushed.

“I’m starting to regret ever telling you that.”

She laughed again, encouraging him to lie face-down on her belly, Cooper draping his arms over her slim sides as he relaxed into her inviting scales. They stayed like that for a while longer, and then Cooper rose to a kneeling position, beginning to pull slowly out of her.

“Hold it!” Pearl said, holding up a finger. “Keep it in a little longer.”

His heart, and his dick, fluttered at her words, and he lowered back down, the pair laying down on their sides so that they were both comfortable, the subtle movements of their loins sending aftershocks of pleasure through their bodies. His cock was surrounded by hot fluids, a blend of their juices sticking to his shaft, forced to either leak down his thighs or be plugged against her womb.

They were quiet as they regained their strength, the afterglow warming them as much as the nest did. After what felt like hours, but what could only have been minutes, she tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned his head, meeting her gaze, her orange eyes glowing brighter.

“Looks like you finally slew me, Coops,” she said, flashing him a grin. “Worth all the effort?”

“Absolutely,” he replied, and she responded by bumping him with a horn, a display that must be a sign of affection for deathclaws.

“I could get used to laying with humans,” she continued. “Might need to go one or two more times, though, really test out the waters, y’know?”

“Give me a second to recover,” he said.

“Sounds like a yes to me, I knew you couldn’t resist me forever.”

She rolled him onto his back, placing her knees on either side of his chest as she straddled him, her body stretching to the ceiling from this angle. His length still inside her, she began to move, twisting her hips like a corkscrew as they prepared to go again.

-xXx-

When Cooper woke up the next morning, he did so very reluctantly. The sleep he usually got was the half-baked kind, where one lingers on the edge of dozing off without quite falling through, but for the first time in what felt like centuries, he truly felt rested, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Pearl’s claw was draped over his chest, her body leaning against his right side as she spooned him in her sleep. Her forked tongue lolled onto the pillow she was resting on, looking like she’d been knocked out cold. He felt some measure of satisfaction at having brought the chatty deathclaw into exhaustion from their proclivities last night, but that was a feat he didn’t feel like he should start boasting out loud.

Her leg twitched as it rested over his hips, Cooper shivering as the minute movement made him gasp in pleasure. Pearl had insisted they stay mated for the whole of the night, and his dick had stayed lodged inside her during their sleep, resulting in more than a few lurid dreams and half-hearted romps in the night.

As heavenly as the sensation was of being buried in deathclaw pussy, Cooper was awake now, and he grabbed her by her malleable thigh, gently sliding out of her. He winced as her walls, lined with those hellish bristles, clung to him on the way out, gripping him with an almost desperate pressure, as though her loins couldn’t stand to be empty.

Pearl muttered something in her sleep as he pulled all the way out, but she didn’t wake, even as the blend of their juices slapped loudly to the sheets below. The nest was ruined down there, but Cooper imagined Pearl would be too satisfied to care.

Wary of her thorns, he sat up, placing a hand on her shoulder. His chest swam with a mix of sensations: his feelings towards Pearl, and his shame being the biggest of the bunch. He’d let his sexual frustrations get the better of him once again, and he’d loved every moment of it. He had no excuse this time, he’d gone all the way with Pearl, he should be embarrassed at reducing himself to such a state, concerned with the moral ramifications. And yet…

Yet all he could feel was a swim of butterflies every time he looked at his lover, everything about her was just… right. The novelty of her inhuman parts, the way she teased and joked, the way they’d created that book, it all brought a smile to his face. Damn it, what was going on? One tumble in the sheets and his thoughts were all jumbled up. He needed to get some fresh air, that always helped.

His eyes lingering on her slumbering body, he lifted away the covers, pulling on his clothes and making a hasty exit, making sure to grab his hood and coat for the cold. He gave himself a quick clean in the bathing chamber to get their stringy fluids clear, then made for the entrance.

He shielded his eyes against the white glare as he rounded the last corner, the windstorm still kicking up sheets of snow, obscuring the distant trees and outcrops in a mist. Powder billowed a little into the tunnel mouth, smothering the campfire in a cold sheet, and Cooper brushed it clean, flicking on his lighter after placing some fresh kindling within the ring of stones.

Cooper sat against one of the walls for a while, staring into the crackling flames and trying to make sense of his thoughts. The stark, cold air helped him focus, and he knew why his mind was a mess. He liked Pearl, that was obvious, but what wasn’t obvious was what he should do with that knowledge. Too many nights together had resulted in him getting all too comfortable with her. She’d made him feel wanted, loved even, but was that just how deathclaws behaved with each other? She might have been part human, but on the outside she was just like the pack, she shared their mentality, but to what a degree?

He considered just telling her his feelings and see what she said, but in the end decided against it. His problems were his to deal with, alone, as they always had been.

He flinched as he heard a branch snap, and he turned his head, squinting into the snowy landscape. There were four figures fading in from the haze, their bodies protected by long cloaks and fur hoods. His first instinct was to reach for his weapons, but his heart froze as he remembered he’d left everything back in Pearl’s room. He wasn’t even wearing his armour.

His heart began to hammer against his chest as he noticed the figures were carrying guns, making a beeline for him. Hiding would be pointless, they’d already seen his campfire, probably from hundreds of meters away. Damn it, he’d become so complacent that he’d let someone get the drop on him, and he hadn’t done that in years, if one didn’t count Omega’s reveal. He was lucky it hadn’t been a pack of hungry animals that had happened upon him out here.

Trying to appear less alarmed than he actually was, he settled back against the wall, waiting for the group to close in. It wouldn’t do to make any sudden moves, if they were here to rob him, he’d rather part with his possessions than his life.

As the group drew closer, Cooper could make out more details of their apparel. Three of them were sporting mostly leather armour, the occasional sliver of metal glinting as the wind bracketed their clothing. The fourth was wearing pre-war military armour, the kind only rich mercenaries could afford. The ballistic plating was thick and bulky, and was known to reliably stop bullets.

The group formed a ring around the tunnel mouth, their rifles slung across their chests, two were bolt-loaded, while the other looked like an automatic. The one in combat armour was holding a laser rifle, the bulky battery pack making up the stock, the muzzle ending in a pair of lenses rather than a traditional muzzle. Unlike his companions, he was pointing it closer to Cooper’s feet.

“What do you want?” Cooper asked, looking to each man in turn. He noticed one of them was a woman, and he thought he might have recognised her, but couldn’t be certain.

“Hendrix sent us,” one of them answered, a man maybe a few years younger than Cooper. “Old man was worried you kicked the bucket, sent us to bring your corpse back.”

“Sorry you had to waste your time,” Cooper replied, relaxing now that he knew they shared the same employer. “Still kicking, as you can see.”

“And the pack?” another asked, gesturing with his hunting rifle. “You ice those overgrown iguanas yet?”

Cooper hesitated before answering. He didn’t look the part of a weary hunter with all his gear missing, but he had to make up something the hunters would believe. Hendrix’s people were afraid of Omega’s abilities, maybe he could play into that and drive them away.

“Managed to down a couple of them.” Cooper said. “But whatever’s in your darts must have diluted, cause it took two clips to knock just one of them out. They ripped straight through my power armour like it was nothing, came this close to running me through. Took damn near everything I had just to off two of them.”

“I’ll say,” the one in the combat armour muttered. “You got nothing but the shirt on your back. Quite the investment for two deathclaws.”

“What about Omega?” the woman asked. “You manage to bag it?”

“Caught a glimpse of it on my way over,” Cooper replied. “It was eleven feet easy, but so pale it blended with the snow. Even if I hadn’t lost my syringer, I doubt me or you could ever bring it down. I was just about to go home when you guys showed up, and I highly recommend you do the same. We’re in its territory, it could be watching us right now,” he added, glancing conspiratorially out at the haze.

That seemed to get one of the hunters spooked, but the other’s weren’t so impressed, especially the man with the energy gun. Cooper knew a well-travelled hunter when he saw one, and this man carried himself better than the others, the way he held his weapon, the way he stood and talked, they were all little tells that this one wasn’t easily tricked.

“Where’s your buddy?” the man on the right asked. “Don’t tell me he left your all alone to take on Omega?”

“Buddy?” Cooper asked, a touch of worry in his voice. Did they know? No, they’d been following his tracks and had seen evidence of Pearl’s presence, probably suspecting it was a fellow hunter’s. “Oh, her,” he said, pretending to remember something that was so obvious. “she was travelling up to the Abbey when I happened upon her. Long gone now.”

“I don’t like this,” the armoured man said. “Something’s not adding up, several something’s actually. Where are these ‘claws you took out?”

“Inside,” Cooper answered. “They made a den in there.”

“And you’re just camping out the front of it?” one of the other men asked. Cooper hesitated too long before he could answer, and the one in the combat armour took a step forward.

“I don’t know whether to be confused or concerned, but what I do know is, you’re talking bullshit. Arms above your head.”

Cooper had no weapons, the hunter must have noticed that, but he’d be stupid to not obey. “I really did take down some of the pack,” he said, raising his hands. At least that much was true.

“We’ll see about that,” the hunter said. “Jorden, tie this guy up.”

“How?” the one called Jorden asked. “I didn’t exactly bring cuffs.”

“Keep your gun on him then,” the hunter replied tersely. “Carlson go check it out, see if our Tracker is telling the truth.”

The man on the right, Carlson, hesitated, peering into the tunnel in much the same way Cooper had when he first saw the den. “M-Me? How about I watch him while you all go?”

“You’ll probably shoot him before we get any answers,” the woman answered.

“Rather not corner ourselves like this,” Jorden added timidly. “if this is the only exit, and Omega follows us inside…”

Wish I thought of that, Cooper thought, watching the group start to argue. He prayed their voices were loud enough to travel through the mine and wake Pearl up, hoping that his virility last night wouldn’t come to bite them both in the ass.

“You people are fucking useless,” the armoured hunter grumbled. “I’ll go with you, Carlson. Jade, Jorden, you stay here with this guy. Get him to tell us what the fuck’s going on.”

The hunter stalked into the tunnel, a reluctant Carlson following behind, shooting Cooper a dirty look. He became more and more anxious as the two men walked into the mine, holding their guns aloft. Would Pearl wake up in time, or would they find her in her sleep, and cook her alive with that laser rifle?

He wanted to stop them, but the man and the woman had their guns trained on his chest, and the moment he moved, they’d plug him full of holes. He needed to make an opening, but no ideas came that didn’t end up with him dead. Pearl was tough, but would her scales stand up to a laser strike? Either way he couldn’t let her come to harm, he had to do something!

“You should just leave these things alone!” Cooper called out, exclaiming as loud as he dared. “They’ll kill us all if we stay in their territory much longer!”

There was a flash of pain, and Cooper’s braced his hands against the ground rapidly approaching ground. He rubbed at his temple, glaring up at the one called Jorden as the hunter reversed the grip on his rifle. “Be quiet,” he warned. “Won’t ask you again.”

He pushed himself off the floor, peering down the tunnel with a worried look on his face. The hunters were about to make the turn, and all he could do was watch uselessly, some friend he turned out to be…

“… Oooooh yaw-awwwn, slept like a big old scaley log,” -came from around the bend, the two hunters stopping as the voice grew louder. “Would have slept a bit better if you weren’t shouting all morning, Coopsie~”

Pearl turned the corner, her pink scales catching the light spilling in from the tunnel mouth. She was picking at something on her bicep, her gaze turned to the floor, oblivious to all the humans gawking at her.

“What’s with all the ruckus? Thought I’d fucked your brains out enough to leave you speechless yet again, but I guess…” She finally deigned to look up, her speech faltering as she did a double take on the hunters. “… Oh,” she said, her amber eyes going wide. “uh, hiiiiiii? Friends of yours, Coopsie?”

The two sides didn’t know what to do apart from stare at one another. Even the armoured hunter looked like he’d frozen up, caught off guard by Pearl’s flawless speech, the source of which was undeniable.

“D-Did that thing just say… ‘Coopsie’?” the woman, Jade, asked, her question directed to no one in particular.

“So, ah,” Pearl began, holding up a hand. “Come here often, or…?”

Time seemed to slow as Cooper sprang into action, climbing to his feet and shouldering into the man called Jorden in one swift movement, taking advantage of Pearl’s distraction. He struggled with the man for a moment, prying the rifle from his hands and decking him across the chin. Jade whirled on him, taking aim, but Cooper had overpowered the man, compressing his backside to Cooper’s chest and covering his neck in a headlock, the man choking out indecipherable words as he tightened his hold.

Jade hesitated, Cooper using Jorden’s body as his own personal meat shield. Jade was a guard, used to dealing with stray animals, not potential hostage situations, and Cooper didn’t give her the chance to form a plan. He levelled Jorden’s rifle one-handed, and pulled the trigger, the woman’s shoulder splintering like broken wood as her flesh parted, a red mist spraying out behind her, the gunshot echoing loudly off the walls of the tunnel. The weapon kicked so much that the muzzle pointed to the ceiling.

The woman went down with a cry, Cooper meeting the eyes of Carlson further down the tunnel, who turned to look back at the commotion. Unlike Jade, he held no reservations about collateral damage, bracing his weapon against his shoulder, sending a burst of rounds his way.

A bullet hit Jorden in the chest, while the others went wide, Cooper feeling wet blood trail down his front as his meat shield wailed in pain. He couldn’t pull back the loading bolt while gripping Jorden, but he didn’t have to restrain the man anymore, shoving his hostage to the ground as he reached across to chamber a round. He took to a knee, peering down the iron sights, the weapon banging as he fired another shot. It missed, a distinct ricocheting sound filling the tunnel as the bullet crashed into the walls.

Cooper thought it was the end, staring down the barrel of Carlson’s gun, when Pearl unleashed a dreadful roar, the kind one might here late at night, travelled on the wind by some unseen mutant horror. The horror was in plain view this time, however, Pearl hunching onto her forelimbs like a cat preparing to strike.

Carlson looked as though he’d just soiled himself, but the other hunter was as unfazed as Cooper was by the sound, the man bracing his laser weapon, part of the weapon spooling up like a chain gun. There was a brilliant flash of red light, and then a series of strobes began to lance down the tunnel, birthing from the lenses of the barrel.

Pearl charged, her chest inches from the ground, bounding across the tunnel like a charging stag, the tips of her horns bathed in red light as the lasers sailed over her head. Attempting to throw off the hunter’s aim, she weaved from left to right as she closed the distance, her spiky shoulders brushing the walls, but the lack of space wasn’t doing her any favours, and she cried out again, her roar now one born from pain.

There was a sizzling sound as the hunter adjusted his aim, the strobes of light crisscrossing over Pearl’s chest. She shielded her face with an arm, her white scales burning to black as the lasers scorched her limb. Cooper had seen energy wounds before, the superheated light could melt entire limbs if given enough time, and for one horrible second he thought that would happen, but Pearl kept up her momentum, her scales protecting her from a grisly fate.

The hunter with the laser gun held his ground, even as the hulking mass of scales rushed down the tunnel, perhaps thinking that he could stop Pearl if he plugged her with enough energy. He aimed for her chest and stomach, the lasers burning black lines into her torso, but she was on him a moment later. Like a yao guai pouncing on a gecko, she barreled into him, following the hunter as she fell down on top of him, pinning him under her momentous weight.

She raised her hand, holding the claws out as though she intended to decapitate him, but the hunter reacted first. His arm a blur, he reached for his belt, taking out a giant hunting knife and swiping it across Pearl’s face. She blocked it with her horn, winding her long neck and goring its tip through his wrist, the man snarling through his teeth as he tried to pull his arm back.

The one called Carlson regained enough sense to take aim at Pearl, holding his gun in shaking hands. He fired in full automatic, the muzzle flashes lighting up the tunnel in a dim yellow. He delivered ten or so rounds into her flank, some of the bullets sparking off her dorsal spikes, before Cooper was reloaded. This time he didn’t miss, Carlson going down with a golf ball sized hole in the side of his neck.

Cooper winced as Pearl finished off the incapacitated hunter, swiping across his chest with her powerful claws, a wet gurgle emanating from his lips. The fight couldn’t have lasted more than fifteen seconds, but it was all over, the echoing gunshots subsiding to the ever-present sound of rushing wind.

Before Pearl had time to utter a word, Cooper rushed over, holding her in a tight hug as he wrapped his arms around her. She’d been snarling like a beast starving for air, but that quickly turned into a rumbling purr as she returned his embrace.

“Fuck me!” she sighed. “that’s the second group of hunters that’s tried to kill me this week, and it’s only Wednesday!”

He chuckled into her bosom, the humor relieving him of some of the tension in his heart. “You okay, Pearl? I thought… I thought I was going to watch you…”

“It’ll take more than superheated light to take me down,” she replied, but the way her chest hammered against his own betrayed her concern.

He was about to see to her wounds, when someone coughed behind them, the pair turning to see one of the hunters was still alive. It was the woman, propping herself up against the wall, one of her shoulders shattered apart.

“P-Please,” she said, her bottom lip trembling as she raised her working arm in surrender.

Cooper glanced at Pearl, raising his brow in a silent question.

“Reckon I should send a message and eat her?” Pearl asked, her chops curling into a grin. “Human flesh has always been wonderfully tender…”

“Oh god!” the woman gasped, trembling even harder now.

“Pearl,” Cooper chided.

“I was joking!” she explained. “Look, wait here, be back in a tick.”

She turned around, heading back into the mine, Cooper standing over the woman as he waited. She looked up at him with questioning eyes, no doubt confused as all hell at why he was on the same side as a killing machine, but he wasn’t in the mood to give explanations.

When Pearl returned, she was carrying a small case in one hand, the cover stenciled with a white medical cross. She hunkered next to the woman, but held the kit out of her reach when she made to grab it.

“Ah-ah,” Pearl scolded, wagging a claw, the movement causing the woman to shrink away. “First, you’re gonna give me a little information, then I’ll give you some meds. Deal, miss…?”

The woman looked too flummoxed to answer, so Cooper did it for her. “Jade,” he said. “She was on the night watch when you escaped.”

“Really? How ironic,” Pearl chuckled. “I don’t know if carelessness should be rewarded with gratitude, but if you hadn’t been such a terrible guard, Jade, I wouldn’t be here. So I’m going to return the favour, on the condition,” she added. “That you answer me one tiny little question. Ready for it?” she asked, her smile coming off as a little more toothy than normal. It was obviously meant to scare Jade, and it looked like it was working.

“How did Hendrix find us?” Pearl asked. “And I’m not talking about today, I meant last week, when you captured my pack and I. How’d you get the jump on us? Speak up now, you’re bleeding out fast.”

“I-I don’t know!” Jade replied, her voice shaky. “Hendrix, he told us to head out one day, he makes all the patrol routes, w-we just follow his orders!”

“I don’t know~” Pearl said, singing out the last word. “Starting to get hungry over here with all this useless info…”

“I swear that’s all I know!” Jade pleaded. “Hendrix does all the organizing, I just do the legwork! Please, that’s everything!”

“Alright, I believe you,” Pearl replied, placing the kit on Jade’s lap. “You’re just a minion after all, shouldn’t have expected much. Begone now.”

The woman looked between Cooper and Pearl, her eyes wild and confused. “Go on,” Cooper added. “She really will eat you if you don’t get out of here.”

Jade scrambled to her feet, almost dropping the medkit in her haste, turning to flee into the snow. She turned to look back as she waded into the powder, and then she was gone, her footsteps fading soon after.

He dropped the hunting rifle, the weapon clattering on the gravel as he turned to Pearl, who was glaring out at the snow.

“Sure that was a good idea?” he asked. “She’ll tell the whole lodge where your den is.”

“They’ll have a good idea anyway now that all these assholes are dead,” she said, gesturing to the bodies.

“What was that all about anyway?” Cooper continued. “You said Hendrix got the jump on you, what did you mean by that?”

“Just following a hunch,” she answered. “tell you later, right now we should get these corpses out of here, before they stink up the place.”

She grabbed one of the bodies from under the armpits, Cooper doing the same with another. He followed her out into the snow for a good hundred meters or so, until she stopped by a tree, depositing the body unceremoniously next to the trunk. She held no pity for the hunters, and he wondered how many times she’d had to dispose of her would-be killers.

“Could you bring over the last one?” she asked as he dragged the one called Carlson beside the other. “That guy really burned up my arms with that laser thing, should probably run them under some cold water.”

“Sure,” he said. As they made to return, Pearl placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him left and right as she played her eyes over him.

“Just making sure you’re not hurt,” she explained. “Meet you in the pool?”

“Yeah,” he replied, Pearl ruffling his hair in response. They retreated to the entrance of the mine, Pearl hurrying inside while Cooper hauled out the last corpse, the one belonging to the experienced hunter. His chest piece was ruined, three rend marks slashed diagonally across the plating. He was glad she hadn’t done that to him when he’d been in this guy’s shoes.

He placed the body beside the two others, the corpses already partially submerged in the snow. He mumbled an apology as he rolled it onto its side, fishing in its pockets and pulling out a handful of battery cells, the equivalent of a magazine for an energy weapon. He needed all the guns he could get after his fight with Pearl.

Shivering in the cold wind, he turned back to the mine, retrieving the hunter’s laser gun when he arrived. It looked in pretty good condition. The sights were slightly unaligned when he peered down them, but that was nothing he couldn’t fix.

He left the rifles, as they weren’t much better than his current gear, moving further inside, the tight walls staving off the cold as he moved to the first intersection. Pearl was standing in the passage veering off towards her room, her beige backside to him.

“Hope you don’t mind me holding onto this,” he said, turning the energy weapon over. “Not many of these around, especially not in good working…”

Wait a moment, Pearl wasn’t beige, she was pale and pink. He paused not five feet away from the deathclaw, his heart beating faster as it turned to look back at him, Cooper vaguely recognizing it as a member from the pack, though he couldn’t be certain which, as they all mostly looked the same.

There was intelligence in its eyes, but not as much as Pearl’s, and unlike her, this one saw him as prey. It turned, its arching tail flowing through the air behind it, the beast hunching to keep its head from hitting the ceiling, giving it a very predatory posture.

Cooper tried to move, but couldn’t, his body freezing up as it decided whether to treat this thing like Pearl, or a wild beast. It took one slow, agonizing step towards him, and Cooper retreated an equal pace, his boot catching on one of the minecart rails. He tried to catch himself, but his brain couldn’t keep up with his body, and he tripped, the laser gun falling to his side as he crawled away on his ass, moving like he was in slow motion.

Its breath washed over his face as it leered closer, planted its giant fists on either side of his head. It opened its jaws, presenting its ivory teeth, Cooper choking out a few unintelligible words as its chops pressed against his neck.

Its musky smell filled his nose as it poised over him, drawing out the killing blow with a long pause. Instead of a bite, it retracted its fangs against its scaly chops, pushing its nostrils into his face as it breathed in his smell. It pushed the back of his head into the gravel, turning his head this way and that as it nuzzled its face into his, far more interested in smelling him than killing him.

Its maw opened again, its forked tongue snaking out draw a line across his face, Cooper grimacing as it left a smear of drool in its wake. What was it doing? Surely it remembered him shooting it a few days ago, he should be dead, but this was the second time a deathclaw had his life in its hands, but didn’t take it.

“P-Pearl?” he asked, regaining control of his voice, raising it as much as he dared without startling the creature. It cocked its head at him, then resumed to push its nose into his neck. “Pearl? A little help, please?”

Hoping her sensitive hearing would catch his words, he waited, the beast scenting him for a few moments longer before he heard footsteps. He looked around the deathclaw’s muscular arm, but his heart sank at what he saw. Another deathclaw had rounded the passage, its coat of scales a dark brown that bordered on black. Its creamy eyes locked onto his, and then the thing started to prowl closer.

“Pearl!” he shouted, starting to panic, even as the curious deathclaw lapped at his throat, dragging its organ up and down from his cheek to his collar.

More footsteps responded, and he thought for a second it wouldn’t be his companion. He sighed when this time it was Pearl who appeared around the corner, a bemused expression on her face as she watched the deathclaw lick him like some kind of overgrown puppy.

“Can’t I leave you alone for two seconds without you getting into trouble?” she said, seemingly oblivious to his peril.

“Get this thing off me!” he exclaimed.

She responded by emitting a series of growls and purrs, interspersed with the occasional hiss. That must be deathclaw speech. The one busy licking him suddenly stood up straight, peering over at Pearl with a confused expression. It growled back, which Pearl replied to with another couple of growls, pointing a claw at Cooper with the final ‘word’.

The deathclaw, who looked even more muscular than Pearl, dipped its head in a display of obedience, the one that had been watching doing the same. It stood clear, Cooper pickinghimself up, along with his weapon, the deathclaws stepping out of the way as he returned to Pearl’s side.

“Thought I was gone for a second there,” he admitted, the deathclaws cocking their heads as he spoke, they mustn’t hear speech all that often. “That big one was about to swallow my head whole, but then it just… stopped.”

“I think she smelled me on you,” Pearl replied. “My scent is all over you from head to toe after our romps last night. I’ve claimed you, and they don’t want to piss me off by hurting you, so you’re good.”

“Claimed me?” he asked.

“That’s what we do when we find a mate. You lather your pheromones on them, helps keep the other deathclaws from getting any funny ideas. We’ll have to apply it regularly though, make sure the pack knows you’re my man.”

After a few moments, more of the members of the pack began to creep in from the passages, exposing their jaws as they yawned like cats waking up from a nap. Cooper was a little alarmed by their presence, especially from the bigger ones, but he felt comfortable enough around Pearl that she would keep him safe if any of them decided they were hungry.

“They must be hungry after being starved for a few days,” Pearl said, clapping her hands together. “How about some brekkie? You guys remember that word, don’t you? Brekk-ie.”

The largest one of the bunch, the one that had licked Cooper like he was a damned ice cream cone, grunted in a way that came off as an affirmative, as did one of the others.

“Been teaching them English in my spare time, which is all the time really,” Pearl explained, switching languages as she translated for the others. “They mostly understand yes and no, so if someone tries anything, just say no, they should get the message. I’ll go get the carcass.”

“I’ll come with you,” Cooper said, hurrying along after her. She smirked at him, but didn’t say anything, the two plucking the dead brahmin by its hooves, hauling it inside. When he asked why they didn’t just eat there, Pearl explained that the deathclaws didn’t like the sunlight as much as she did, they preferred eating indoors.

As Cooper cooked up his portion, setting his stove up a considerable distance from the carcass, the pack delved in on Pearl’s command. She seemed to hold absolute authority over each of them if she got to decide when they ate. They ripped into the dead cattle like vultures, fleshing stretching taught from bone, joints snapping as they used their claws to sever chunks of meat. Cooper shouldn’t have been surprised to see the beasts tear into the brahmin the way they did, but the sight still made him grimace.

Before long, one of the deathclaws separated from the grisly feast, apparently full to capacity. It looked like the smallest one out of the pack, but it still towered over Cooper at about eight feet when it wasn’t hunched over, its scales a more creamier, beige tone that reminded him of varnished wood.

It lapped at its claws with its forked tongue, its claws about the length of Cooper’s hand. Once it had cleaned each digit, it set its creamy eyes on Cooper, beginning to inch closer to him. Unlike the others, this one seemed almost hesitant in the way it approached him. Perhaps it was far younger than the others, or maybe just more curious than them. There was something endearing about watching the clawed beast slowly build up the courage to get a look at him, when it could just rip his face off if it so pleased.

“She’s quite harmless,” Pearl said, placing a reassuring hand on his knee. “She’s the youngest, just turned an adult by human standards.”

“It have a name?” he asked, the deathclaw blinking the moment his words left his mouth.

“Nah,” Pearl replied. “Well they do, but it’s sort of a unique growl I don’t think you could pronounce.”

The runt of the pack gained enough courage to poke him on the leg, the beast aware enough to keep the sharp edge of its claws clear. He let it pick at his clothing for a while, and then the little beast sat between his and Pearl’s feet, its tail wagging behind it as it looked at the two expectantly.

“Think she wants to learn a few words,” Pearl said. “I know that look.”

“They can talk?” Cooper asked.

“Yeah! Didn’t I tell you before? This one’s a pretty quick learner, try getting her to say something.”

“Uh, hello,” Cooper tried, the deathclaw blinking its reptilian eyes at him. He repeated the greeting, but the creature didn’t reply. Frowning, he tried something different. “My name’s Cooper. Coo-per.”

“Coowa,” the deathclaw chirped.

“Close enough,” he said, Pearl snickering beneath her hand. The runt glanced at Pearl, then made a noise that sounded suspiciously like someone clearing their throat.

“Purr,” it said, unless it was actually purring, but Cooper was sure it was the former.

“That’s me, Purr the alpha,” Pearl said. The runt started making incomprehensible noises that might have been words, Pearl nodding along, pretending to understand the random sounds.

“So just how smart are these things?” Cooper asking, watching the deathclaw grow tired of the one-sided conversation, curling up into a ball of scales, exposing its teeth in a yawn. “Does it actually understand what it’s saying, or is it just copying us?”

“The Enclave scientists compared the ferals to parrots, so they’re smart in their own way,” Pearl explained. “Could say they’re kinda like… I don’t want to say pets cause I’ll sound like a weirdo, but I’ve seen what domesticated dogs and cats are like in human society, and these guys are sort of the scaly equivalent.”

“Don’t think it’s strange comparing your own kind to housepets?”

“Of course I think it’s strange. I’m part them, and part human, I’m literally the definition of strange. I’ve wondered my whole life what deathclaws and humans are to me, who I identify more with, but it’s… weird. I’m slap bang in the middle of both species, makes my whole existence a confusing mess.”

“Does that… bother you?” Cooper asked.

“Only when it comes up,” Pearl answered, chuckling in an attempt to stay humorous, but it wasn’t convincing. “I didn’t really think about it all that much when I was young, back when I was surrounded by Enclave and the other deathclaws, but now that I’ve got so much time on my hands… it nags at me sometimes, like an itch or whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the pack’s company, but it’s… they’re not like me, you know? And that makes me feel alienated, even though I’m the alpha. I’m probably explaining it really bad, aren’t I?”

“Maybe you should take up your search again,” Cooper suggested, Pearl lifting her eyes from the floor to look at him. “You can’t have been the only hybrid to escape the Enclave, maybe finding someone who’s like you could do you some good.”

“Cooper, even if the others did manage to escape, they’d have gone into hiding just like I am, or took up with a feral pack and moved on, they could be literally anywhere after all these years. It’s pointless.”

“But they’re as close to a family as you got,” he pressed. “You can’t give up on them. Maybe you could return to this Enclave base after winter, see if the trail’s still there.”

“I have all company I could ever need here,” Pearl insisted. “The pack… now you. I get what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it, but I just don’t see it ever working. Not to mention how dangerous it’ll be.”

“I’m not telling you to go out right now it’s just something to think about,” Cooper tried. “I know if I was the only one of me around, I’d like to talk to someone like me eventually.”

Pearl shrugged in response, stroking the younger deathclaw for a while before speaking up again, changing the subject.

“See you picked up a new toy,” she noted, gesturing at his energy weapon. “How’s it handle?”

“Pretty good,” he answered. “Lifted six cells off that guy, but the sights are a little loose.”

“I have tools, next to our writing desk,” she explained. She’d called it our writing desk as though Cooper owned it alongside her, but he didn’t choose to correct her. “Go give it a tweak if you want.”

“You seem to have everything in this den of yours,” Cooper noted. “Next thing I know you’ll be telling me you make your own fuel.”

“I have a refinery out the back for keeping the generator topped up,” Pearl said, snickering at his bewildered expression. “Nah I’m lying, I hardly use what fuel I’ve stolen, since deathclaws don’t mind the dark. Hey, do me a favour and cover up the books while you’re there? The pack like to chew on the pages if they see them.”

“You’re not coming?”

“Think I’m just gonna stay here for a while,” she replied, glancing up at him as he stood. “Need a bit of time to unwind after being lasered. And don’t give me that look, you trust me, right? The pack won’t harm you even if I’m not around, seriously.”

He believed her, but he still gave the pack a wide berth as he circled the carcass, which was now little more than a pile of bones at this point. He felt the eyes of the deathcalws following him into the passageway, Cooper suppressing a shiver as he heard one of them snap the brahmin’s ribcage apart.

-xXx-

Cooper wiped down the laser rifle with a rag, the fabric coated in a layer of oil. As Pearl had said, she had a basket full of handheld tools and replacement parts hidden away in one corner, things that one would need in order to maintain a basic electric grid like the one she had employed for the mine. It turned out fixing the sights was a simple case of turning a few loose screws, the hunter had kept his weapon in great condition otherwise. Cooper was more familiar with ballistic weapons than those that fired energy, but maybe Pearl had a book somewhere that could help him get started, as he didn’t fancy parting with such rare weaponry anytime soon.

As he picked through Pearl’s collection, grinning when he saw the cover of Gamma Season, he found what he was looking for, a copy of Nikola Tesla and You. He opened it up to the index, taking a seat as he perused the various topics inside. Apparently, it was possible to recycle used energy cells, though the process required more advanced machinery than what Pearl had on hand. A nearly unlimited amount of ammo would be useful indeed if he ever found the right equipment.

He browsed the book for a while, only pausing when he heard something coming down the hallway behind him. He turned, expecting it to be Pearl, his expression darkening when he saw it was one of the ferals.

It paused in the doorway, wrapping its claws over its flanks as though it was folding its arms, its bright eyes watching him, lacking any sort of pupils. It was the same one that had pinned and then licked him earlier, the memory causing him to shift in his seat.

“Hope you’re not planning on doing that again,” he sighed, expecting no real answer but saying it anyway. The deathclaw, ever fascinated by his speech, tilted its head like a curious dog’s, walking slowly over towards him on its giant legs. They were as thick around as his torso, flexing with even more muscle than Pearl’s was. Surely this giant beast was too big to be bossed around by Pearl. Maybe the two had fought, it was hard to say.

He bristled as it approached, forcing himself to calm down. Pearl had told him to trust her that no harm would come to him, but the memory of these things charging him down from the dark mineshafts was still fresh on his mind. The deathclaw paused a few feet from the desk, opening one of its hands. Something was clutched in its huge palm.

“What have you got there?” he asked, the beast tipping its hand over, a chunk of meat slapping wetly to the desk. It must have been leftovers from the brahmin carcass. Drips of blood pooled over its edges, but the surface was browned, slightly cooked. Had Pearl sent him this meal, using this deathclaw as a proxy?

“I’m good, thanks,” he said, pushing the books clear before the blood could make a mess of them. The deathclaw hovered nearby, and when it saw he wasn’t going to eat, it reached out and pushed the meat closer to him.

He glared up at it, hoping his body language would translate better than his words would, but the deathclaw just stared back, miming with its hands as it demonstrated how to eat. Did it think he didn’t understand how to feed himself?

“Fine, if it’ll get you to leave.” He picked up the lustrous meat and took a bite, making sure the deathclaw got a good look while he did. He swallowed down a bite, but the deathclaw didn’t seem satisfied, encouraging him to eat the whole thing. Maybe it felt bad about getting all personal with him before, and was offering the meat as a sort of peace offering.

He was hungry, and he guessed there’d be no harm in entertaining the creature. He finished off the portion, nodding and rubbing his tummy with a hand. “Mm, yeah very tasty, thank you.”

The beast huffed, seemingly satisfied at the display. As he returned to his book, the creature plonked itself down behind him, the impact shaking the ground, the beast so tall that it could easily hover over his shoulder to watch what he was doing. It looked on in silence as he wiped the rag over the rifle, its face moving left and right like a pet tracking a tasty treat.

“This is a laser gun,” Cooper began, the beast turning its gaze to him. “Can you say laser? Pearl said you were like parrots.”

The deathclaw blinked, only reacting when he said Pearl’s name.

“Not a big talker, huh? Fair enough.”

The beast kept him company as he worked for a while, apparently never boring of watching his dexterous fingers strip away parts of the weapon, Cooper taking note of some of the internal components, using the book as a guide. He didn’t dare fully dismantle the weapon, afraid he might never get it back in working order, but the idea that he might as well tend to his other weapons while he was at it crossed his mind.

“Pass me my syringer, would you?” he asked the deathclaw, the beast following his finger towards the weapon laying nearby. It blinked in reply, so he gestured picking the weapon up, and then pointed at himself. The creature seemed to get the picture, standing up and plucking the tubular weapon off the ground.

It held the syringer up to its face, a wave of recognition flashing over its features. It opened its mouth wide, its fangs curling out towards the gun. “No!” Cooper shouted. “Don’t eat it, I know I shot you with it, but don’t do that.”

Pearl had said they understood yes and no, and the deathclaw paused with the gun inches from its maw, reluctantly thrusting it into his outstretched hands.

He wasn’t all that familiar with how the gas-powered syringer operated, but it wouldn’t hurt to clear off the dirt and grime. He read more of the Tesla book while he worked, but then the deathclaw soon grew impatient, reaching for one of the other books on the desk.

“Pearl said you shouldn’t touch them,” he chided, the deathclaw freezing mid-reach. It gave him a deathclaw’s equivalent of puppy-eyes, and somehow that had an effect on Cooper, and he eventually relented. “Fine. You can’t even read, but whatever, just watch you don’t rip anything…”

It seemed to understand the warning in his tone, and the deathclaw plucked a copy of Guns and Bullets from the pile, setting it carefully down next to the one Cooper was reading. It flipped the book open to a random page, slipping a claw between the pages to use as leverage, then brought it face down, pretending to read the scrawling text.

Cooper couldn’t help but laugh when it turned the page at the same time he did for his own, matching his reading pace down to the last second. He flipped the same page back and forth a couple times, amusing himself for a few minutes as the thing copied him to a fault. These creatures seemed to like imitating, they were still animals, but there was a certain intellect to their actions, more than any other creature that Cooper had come across.

There wasn’t a whole lot of use for the syringer anymore, but Cooper thought he might be able to sell it somewhere, or use it against other deathclaws if he ever got caught out by them. Next came his rifle, which was in better condition save for the empty magazine, Cooper teaching the deathclaw how to load the bullets into the case. The claws made the process clumsier than it should have been, but it eventually got the hang of it, huffing in satisfaction as it handed him a full mag. Aside from the browner colouration of its scales, it wasn’t all that different from hanging out with Pearl, albeit this one hadn’t uttered much more than few huffs and grunts.

Eventually his arsenal was back in working order, and he stood up, shouldering his fresh weapons before stacking the books away, hiding them under Pearl’s robe. He wasn’t about to go wandering around without a gun at hand, not because of the pack’s reawakening, but because of the close call with the hunters.

“Let’s go find Pearl,” he told the deathclaw, the beast rising to its feet and following him out. It stuck close to his side, like it was afraid he might run off or something. When they passed the brahmin carcass, the animal reduced to a few slops of red meat, the deathclaw made a grunting sound to get his attention. He watched it pick up a stray chunk, dangling it out at him.

“I’m good,” he said, sighing when the creature moved its hands insistently. Did it think he was hungry, or was this yet another offer of peace? He might have just been adopted by this creature if it was the former.

It couldn’t understand his words, but it could gleam his intent from his tone of voice, the deathclaw soon getting the message that he wasn’t hungry, downing the chunk in a single bite.

He looked around, but couldn’t see Pearl, and it seemed that the pack had dispersed after all the food was gone. Seeing he had the time for it, he picked a random direction and started walking, surmising he could take the time to explore the mine a little bit now that he wasn’t in danger of being torn apart by the locals.

The way was still lit by the glow of the lightbulbs, allowing Cooper to see all the way down each shaft until the turn. He noted that his follower seemed to shy away as it drew closer to the lights, and he vaguely remembered Pearl mentioning something about them favouring more darker spaces. It could have destroyed the lightbulb with an idle flick of its claw, but chose not to. Had Pearl forbidden damaging them, maybe?

Just as Cooper was starting to feel like the mine was abandoned, another deathclaw walked into view from the turn ahead, Cooper recognizing it as the smaller, chatty creature he’d taught his name to before. It came bounding down the passage, Cooper resisting the urge to run as it sprinted full kilter. The second before it crashed into him, it dug its talons into the gravel, pivoting to the left and beginning to run circles around him like an energetic dog. It avoided colliding with him, but his follower wasn’t so fortunate, the tall deathclaw shooting its smaller counterpart an annoyed look.

“Coowa!” the creature said as it paused in front of him, jumping from left foot to right as it hopped on the spot. It was panting hard from its mad dash, flinching towards him in a mock charge as Cooper watched it curiously. It seemed to want to play. When it made to run another circle around him, he intercepted it, grabbing fistfuls of its scales and attempting to bring it to the ground, the deathclaw resisting him easily. It purred as it leaned its weight on him, the two crashing to the floor, Cooper laughing as it wrestled with him, surprisingly considerate of his limitations.

His ward scolded his new playmate, growling under its breath as it chased the runt away, the deathclaw darting out of its reach, sprinting into the tunnel behind them. It was the first time Cooper had heard it ‘speak’, and that was only because it seemed to be fussing over him like his personal guardian.

After dusting himself off, they proceeded deeper into the mine, coming across the runt again after a few minutes. Like before, it was rushing down the mineshafts, taking the turns that didn’t intersect with Cooper’s path. Maybe it was exercising, or trying to keep itself warm by doing laps, but it was an amusing sight either way.

He could hear noises coming from down one of the passages, and he followed it, vaguely recognizing the area from his initial sweep of the den. The passage curved to the left, then ended in a square-shaped room, two deathclaws standing inside. Their dark scales caught the light of the overhanging bulb as they shuffled from the left side of the room to the right, their muscular arms flexing as they chucked giant rocks into piles. One wall of the room looked like it led into another passage, but was caved in by a wave of rubble, the creatures removing the debris one rock at a time.

They stopped what they were doing when they noticed Cooper, peering at him curiously from between their sweeping horns. Their scales were somewhere between black and dark brown, with their bright, creamy eyes standing out harshly against their deep complexions. They looked identical at a glance, but there were subtle differences between them if he looked long enough. A shorter horn, a longer claw. The way their horns swept out from their faces was the most obvious distinction.

They inched closer, giving him a few cursory sniffs, one grumbling to the other in their strange dialect. Cooper would have held quite the grudge at someone who’d shot him full of sedative, but these creatures seemed like they’d forgotten the whole ordeal, or maybe they didn’t care now that he smelled like their alpha.

They started to pick at his clothes, Cooper trying to relax as their roaming claws caught on the fabric, one of the creatures giving his laser rifle a tentative flick with a talon. His ward sensed his growing discomfort, the two beasts backing off when it loosed a growl that might have been a warning. It seemed to hold some authority over the other members of the pack, so it wasn’t just Pearl who could order them about. Maybe this one was the second-in-command, or the unofficial matriarch to the others, it certainly gave off fussy mother vibes. That seemed as good a name as any for it, Matriarch.

The two deathclaws returned to what they were doing as Cooper and Matriarch lingered off to the side, watching as one handed off a rock the size of Cooper’s chest to the other. One seemed to be in charge of hauling, while the other was responsible for organizing the rocks into stacks, piling them around the edges of the room so there was space to walk.

One passed off another large stone, the deathclaw struggling to lift it, even with its monumental strength. Matriarch narrowed her eyes as Cooper set his rifle down, moving over to the panting deathclaw. He motioned for it to put the rubble down, and after a bit of thinking it seemed to get the message, placing the huge stone down with a thump.

Cooper moved behind the stone, bent down, and then shouldered all his weight into it, the rock rolling a few inches forward. The deathclaw seemed to get the picture, and the two of them started to roll the rock towards the back of the room. Cooper was heaving for air by the time they finished placing it, but the deathclaw seemed grateful by his efforts, reaching down with a clawed hand and ruffling his hair, a display that Pearl must have taught it.

The deathclaw by the rubble handed off another rock, and its counterpart rolled it away, Cooper stooping to pick up another from the rubble. He tested its weight, finding it practically impossible to lift, then settled for one that was about the size of a pistol. He wasn’t contributing much, considering the deathclaws were flipping rocks the size of his body, but he helped the pair along anyway, the two laborers huffing in what might be their version of a chuckle at his measly efforts.

“Join in anytime you want, Matriarch,” Cooper panted, fully aware it couldn’t understand him. Just when he thought the beast would stay content watching, it walked over, working in tandem with the hauler to tunnel away into the rubble.

Cooper had to rest his hands and back frequently, but the deathclaws went at it, drawing on their seemingly endless energy reserves. While they were strong, it took two of them, sometimes all three to move the larger, heavier pieces of stone, the rocks so jagged they had to be flipped rather than rolled. If only those giant digging machines deeper in the mine were still intact. He’d seen similar models restored by NCR engineers, the things able to move mountains of rock in mere days.

The thought gave him an idea, and he got to his feet, snapping his fingers to get the pack’s attention, telling them he’d be right back. They seemed to get the message, as Matriarch didn’t follow him out when he turned to leave. He backtracked his way to where he’d seen the excavator machines, but he wasn’t naïve enough to think he could find one that still worked after all this time. Instead, he turned towards the scattered equipment laying around the mineral deposits, kneeling in the gravel to pluck through them.

He tossed powered drills over his shoulder, their bearings long since melted away into uselessness, stuffing aside other broken handtools until he found what he was looking for. Alongside all this advanced equipment was more traditional tools, like pickaxes and chisels. The metal was rusted away in places, the wooden shafts rotting and splintered, but he found a few that were mostly intact, and he bundled the ones in good condition under his arms, returning to the blocked passage (giving the energetic deathclaw that was still running laps a friendly hello as he went).

The laboring deathclaws stopped what they were doing when he dropped the tools, the metal echoing down the passages. He clutched a pickaxe above his head, preparing to strike the largest piece of rubble. The deathclaws didn’t need to be told to move away, they shuffled away, tails flicking in what might be confusion as he brought the pick down hard, a spiderweb crack weaving down the middle of the piece of granite.

With a few more heaves, he succeeded in cracking the boulder in two, the deathclaws rumbling their approval as they collected the two pieces, carrying them away. One of the deathclaw laborer’s tried to mimic him and use a pickaxe for itself, but it couldn’t quite get used to the movement, as much as it tried.

The clicking of his pick joined the grumbling deathclaws as they worked at the blocked passage, Cooper wiping the sweat from his brow as the hours passed. The rocks just kept coming, spilling in from a pocket in the ceiling, but their progress through the rubble was steady, if a bit on the slower side, the passage slowly gaining in depth as they cleared it. Together, the four of them bored out the earth, the mystery of what lay beyond the rubble fueling Cooper’s efforts.

The rocks began to subside, a sliver of open darkness revealing as they cleared out the next mound of dust and rock. With one last swing, Cooper split the final bits of stone apart, the two laborers hurrying over to clear the way. The newly opened passage was pitch black, Cooper reaching into his pocket and flipping open his lighter. He flicked the gears, the deathclaw’s eyes catching the resulting spark. The candle of flame provided a pitiful light, but it was better than nothing.

The beasts stood to either side of him warily, and it was Matriarch who dared to lead the way, the two others falling in behind her. Cooper brought up the rear, ducking his head to avoid their winding tails, their bodies already fading after a few paces on their long legs. The way the creatures blended into the dark never ceased to amaze him.

He followed them into the revealed room, the walls branching out after a short distance. What had they uncovered? Could it be an armoury, an entrance to a Vault, maybe?

It was nothing so extravagant. The room was barely big enough for the three deathclaws, the beasts touching shoulders as they scanned the new surroundings. It was a carbon copy of the intersection near the entrance, the path splitting into two more passages, each one caved in by even more rubble. Cooper swore he saw on eof the beasts sag its shoulders at the revelation that the work hadn’t bore fruit.

“Ah well,” Cooper said, the deathclaws peering back at him. “least we’re all warmed up after a long day’s work, right?”

They probably would share the sentiment, cold-blooded creatures like them probably hadn’t felt so hot in a while, which was better than nothing.

The two laborer deathclaws sidled up to him, the one that had ruffled his hair before doing it again now, the other pushing its face into his arm. His use of tools had helped him keep up with their efforts, which seamed to impress the pair. They couldn’t express their gratitude in words, but they could do so through gestures, the one touching his hair running its claws over his scalp, the tingling sensation reminding him of when Pearl groomed him like that.

He felt hot air on his neck as one of them leaned down, a forked tongue not unlike Pearl’s worming out between its fangs. It lapped at the beads of sweat clinging to his skin, tracing them up his neck, one of the tapered ends flicking at his lips. He winced as he smelled its foul breath, his grunts of discomfort turning into ones of arousal as one continued to massage him with a hand, the other with its tongue.

The sensations he was feeling were so like Pearl’s; the sharp claws, the pinch of an errant thorn or spike as scaled flesh rubbed up against him. He began to sag, one of the deathclaws wrapping an arm around him before he fell. IT was so good, but… but they weren’t Pearl, and that realization jolted him back into reality, and he shoved the two beasts away, retreating back a few paces and raising his hands.

“That’s enough,” he panted. “No touching Cooper, got it? I’m already taken.”

They appeared to understand his tone to a degree, the two laborers glancing at each other in confusion, while Matriarch looked concerned. He backed out of the passage, the deathclaws following at a safe distance. Couldn’t they smell Pearl on him? Surely coming on to the alpha’s mate was a no-go, even for animals. A shiver passed down his spine at the thought of them licking and touching him, and what else they might do if given the chance. He’d spent a whole night in Pearl’s arms, of course, but this was different. The pack were animals, beasts, he wouldn’t ever consider crossing that line.

But the guilty bulge in his pants betrayed his thoughts, Cooper blushing as he tried to suppress his wondering thoughts. He’d spent too long coddled up against scales and thorns, and his body was reacting to it, that was all. He mumbled excuses under his breath, convincing himself he hadn’t stooped to that level.

“Cooper … per… per…” echoed down the passage.

He perked up at the voice, hurrying into the previous chamber. The stacks of rubble trailed all the way into the passage beyond, here must have been a hundred rocks at least, and he caught a sliver of pink and white as Pearl stepped over the haphazard piles, her orange eyes blinking as she appraised the cleared path.

“Keeping busy I see,” she said, giving him a coy grin as he walked up beside her. It felt good to be able to hold a conversation with someone again. “You’re getting along with the pack, too! Colour me impressed.”

He asked her where she had been these past few hours, Pearl’s expression darkening as she scratched her neck. “Went out for a little stroll. I know, I know, bad idea after I was literally being shot at this morning, but I needed some space on this one.”

“What ‘one’? Are you alright?”

“Yeah! Well, sorta…” Pearl said, turning around. “Walk with me, need to tell you something.”

She shortened her long strides so he could keep up, the pack following behind them, the tall beasts leaning in and listening in on their conversation even though they couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“I was thinking about what you said,” Pearl began, holding out an explanative hand. “About me reuniting with my sisters. I don’t want to be the pessimist and say it’s hopeless – even though I did – but the only way I’ll be able to even entertain the thought of taking up the search again, would be to take out Hendrix first.”

“You… You want to attack the lodge?” Cooper asked. “Are you insane? That place is built like a fort.”

“You think I don’t know that? Hunters from that lodge have been combing this valley for me ever since they moved in, and today they finally found me, it won’t be long before I’ll be forced to pack my things and move, and that’s not going to happen.”

“Why not? You’ve moved from other hideouts before, haven’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” she replied tersely. “Hendrix’s people will just come after me again, or some other group will take up where they left off. The bounties will never stop as long as this loose end doesn’t get tied up. Hunters never let a juicy target just walk away, you should know that better than anyone.”

It was hard to deny her logic, considering he’d tracked her for over several days just for a shot at getting his fortune. “How does wiping out Hendrix have anything to do with finding the other hybrids?” he asked.

“Remember when I questioned that woman about my pack’s capture? To me, it seemed awfully convenient that after years of eluding the hunters, suddenly all seven of us were captured in just one night. There are other deathclaws in this valley, not many, but they’re there, so why us in particular? What happened to cause them to switch tactics, and target this pack specifically?”

“… Omega happened,” Cooper muttered.

“Exactly!” Pearl replied. “There’s only one other group in the Wastes that knows how valuable I really am, and is willing to pay for my recovery, intact may I add.”

“You think Hendrix is in league with the Enclave?” Cooper asked. “I thought you said they hated outsiders.”

“They’re not above employing help if it means reaching their goals,” she said.

“What if it’s just coincidence?” Cooper countered. “You don’t exactly blend in, Pearl, you’re exotic, and no offense, but you’d make a fine trophy to any aspiring hunter.”

“It makes sense though, right? The Enclave needs to find a valuable asset hiding out in the wild, so of course the first people to employ would be the local hunters. Where’s Hendrix getting all the reward money from, huh? Does he have a Vault full of caps under that lodge?”

“He’s a businessman,” Cooper explained. “He’s the only one that trades in exotic wildlife this side of the country, that’s bound to bring in wealth and influence.”

“That might be the case,” Pearl said, the way her tail flicked behind her indicating her disapproval. “Let’s say that you’re right and this is all just coincidence, but the fact that old codger is still a threat to me isn’t speculation. Either he goes, or I do, and I’ll be damned if it’s gonna be me.”

Cooper chewed his lip in thought, hesitating under Pearl’s gaze. He didn’t hold the same biases against Hendrix as Pearl did, but he couldn’t deny that she was in danger because of him, and it was obvious who he’d choose over the other.

“We’ll need a plan then,” he said, Pearl tilting her head in shock.

“Does that mean… you’re in?” she asked. “I thought you’d need more convincing, I had a whole speech planned and everything.”

“Why? We’re friends, right? I haven’t exactly had a lot of them before, but this is what they do, yeah?”

“They help each other assault highly defended compounds, that’s a widely known fact,” Pearl said, chuckling weakly as she rubbed her horns. “You’re sure you want to, though? I don’t think attacking your former employer will do wonders for your reputation.”

“Pearl, you’re something else,” he laughed. “You spent the better part of a week yearning for my company, and now the second I agree to join you, you start pushing me away?”

“I wasn’t yearning,” she defended, hiding her grin behind a claw. “well, maybe a tiny bit, but don’t start telling everyone that.”

“I don’t see how just us two are gonna take out a whole compound full of guards,” Cooper added, Pearl nudging him with her elbow.

“Did you forget we’ve got five other deathclaws ready and willing? I’ll have a chat with them.”

She turned around, addressing the two laborer’s and the Matriarch with a string of growls, the beasts hissing in reply. Cooper couldn’t follow the conversation, but it seemed that the two sides were arguing over something. As he waited, he saw the runt appear down the mineshaft ahead of them, attracted by all the chatter. When Pearl addressed it, the deathclaw simply nodded, the way it acted so human always appearing uncanny to Cooper.

Pearl had the final word, and she turned to Cooper, a smirk on her face. “They’re a little tired after all that clearing you guys did, but they’ll help, after a bit of rest. We’ll set off tomorrow morning, take the lodge down while they’re still waiting on their hunters to return. Hmm…”

“What is it?” he asked.

“We’re one short,” Pearl explained, glancing left and right. “Guess she’s a little shy of you, Coops. I’m sure she’ll come around once we set off.”

“Now that you mention it,” Cooper began. “There were seven cages back in the lodge, and there’s six of you here, so where’s the last one?”

“Oh, him!” Pearl replied. “We didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye on who got to be alpha. We’ve sparred it out several times in the past, and being captured ticked him off again. I won like always, but he got a bad case of sore loser and took off, for good this time. Poor sod, he missed out on a damned fine harem if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah, noticed that you’ve referred to everyone so far as a she,” Cooper muttered, glancing between each deathclaw, who all blinked back at him in turn. “Might go tinker with the power armour frame, could help with our attack on the lodge, assuming someone hasn’t completely ruined it.”

“My bad,” Pearl said, her tone unapologetic. “don’t exhaust yourself, we got a couple big days ahead of us.”

-xXx-

Cooper didn’t have to see the sky to tell it was getting late, but his limited progress on repairing the power armour was making him too frustrated to consider going to sleep. He’d managed to secure the chest piece onto the frame, literally taping it back on using spare adhesives Pearl had in her piles of spare parts. The legs and arm pieces were another story. Cooper was resourceful, but he’d only had limited experience with power armour, and repairing the damage Pearl had done wasn’t as easy as reassembling a gun or welding parts together.

He must have spent hours trying to connect the left arm sockets to the wireframe, cursing under his breath at the little progress he made. Each limb had dozens of little connectors that fed into the wireframe by microscopic wires, where power could be distributed from the exosuit to make the plating feel lighter than it really was. Just how did they mass produce these things before the Bombs? Why hadn’t they deisnged them to be repaired in the field?

He was momentarily distracted as Pearl walked into the bathing chamber, meting her eyes for a second before returning his attention to the frame. “Cooper…” she sighed. “you said you were coming to bed.”

“In a minute,” he growled, twisting his arm at an awkward angle as he delved into the wireframe, catching his finger on a sharp bit of metal and drawing blood. His curse echoed off the stone walls.

“You said that ten minutes ago,” Pearl complained, tapping her foot on the ground. “Just leave it, you’ve done all you can.”

“Which isn’t enough,” he replied, sounding more defensive than he wanted. “We need every advantage we can get when we attack the lodge, and I need this suit intact.”

“No you don’t,” she said, making her way over. “You’ve gone years without an exosuit, and you survived this long, didn’t you?”

“I suppose…” he said. Her hand came down on his shoulder, and he touched it with his own, looking up at her with a worried expression.

“You’re a capable man, crafty, and you don’t stop for anything,” she said. “I’ve seen you fight, you don’t need a tin suit to be a force to be reckoned with. You’ll be fine without it.”

“I don’t know how you can be so calm, Pearl,” he sighed. “I’ve been in a lot of tight scrapes, but attacking a fort is something I’ve never done before.”

“Wanna know my secret?” she asked, bringing her voice down to a whisper. “I get this little thing called rest, it helps me out a lot.”

Cooper had always been a light sleeper, but something about this whole situation made him feel he wouldn’t get much sleep over these next few days. He was worried, not over his own life, but Pearl’s. It was a ridiculous notion, she was covered in a natural coat of scaley armour, but the thought of her coming to harm again created a pit in his stomach.

“I can see that might be a problem for you,” Pearl said, reading him like one of her books. “What if I rode you until the sun rose above the mountains? How’s that sound?”

“It’s an idea,” he said, his mood lightening a little.

“Don’t be coy, Coops, it doesn’t suit you. My pack was worried too when I told them we were going back, how do you think they feel? They have to close in to melee range under hails of bullets, that’s fucking terrifying, but they’re content to make do with what time they have now, even if there’s a risk some of us might not come back.”

“How?” he asked. He knew these creatures were more than just dumb animals, and he was curious as to what sort of mentality they had when it came to dealing with stress.

“I’ll show you,” she said, her lips spreading in a grin. “Follow me.”

They left the bathing chamber, heading into the deeper reaches of the mine, one of the lightbulbs flickering as they passed by it. Cooper rubbed his hands together as he stepped between the twin railway tracks, the temperature dipping with every pace. Just how did these reptiles stay warm in such frigid temperatures?

The mineshaft opened up after a while, Cooper recognizing it as the chamber with all the excavation equipment, easily the largest space in the entire den. The only source of illumination was the light spilling in from the two passageways leading into the area, leaving the rest of the room in near-darkness.

As Cooper’s eyes adjusted, he noticed something was moving near the center of the chamber. To one side of the giant excavators was a bundle of fabrics, a nest not all that different from Pearl’s bedding, and there was something on top of it. Multiple somethings. He couldn’t pick out much in the gloom, a questing hand, a pair of coiling tails, interlocking horns.

“I don’t need to tell you it gets cold out in the Wastes after dark,” Pearl said. “but for reptiles it’s worse, ‘specially in winter. We have to share what little body heat we make, but we have ways of… amping that up. And it helps relieve the tension, so that’s a bonus.”

It didn’t take a genius to know what she was talking about. A soft grunt filled the room, along with an especially powerful movement from the pile. Two white eyes blinked open from the writhing masses, Cooper’s muscles tensing as the hungry gaze lingered on him. He was pretty sure it was Matriarch, but the shadows were making it hard to tell.

Cooper inched closer, the way his shoes clocked against the stone disturbing the shifting pack, and one by one they looked up at him, halting their proclivities to watch him approach. Had he walked in on something like this before, when he’d come through here with his syringer? Just how often did these things go at it?

“They wondered about how compatible we were,” Pearl said, waving her hand between her chest and his. “I just had to spill the beans, and they were pretty excited once I gave them all the raunchy details.”

“W-What?” Cooper asked. “You told them? Pearl that’s… private.”

“That’s the cost of living in a pack, privacy goes out the window. Besides, they begged me!” Her tail flicked, indicating she wasn’t being whole with the truth. “Still, I may have embellished it a bit too much. They’ve been itching to get their claws on you ever since. Jump on in if you want, you’re bound to surprise most if not all of them.”

“Pearl!” he exclaimed. “I-I can’t do… that with them. They’re-”

“Intelligent, eager and willing creatures?” Pearl suggested. “You’ve done the dirty with me, how’s this any different?”

“Everything’s different!” he said. “First of all, you and I’ve got a connection, but I’ve only had a handful of interactions with these things… girls, whatever.”

“That’s more than could be said for those prostitutes you frequent so much,” Pearl countered, Cooper dragging his hands down his blushing face. “But it’s pretty sweet hearing you say that you like me. Aren’t you even the least bit curious as to what a bunch of deathclaws could make you feel? Trust me when I say they can make all your worries disappear…” she cooed, snapping her fingers for emphasis.

Cooper wanted to deny it, but a little voice in the back of his head was asking him similar questions. His encounters with Pearl were so passionate, so much more intimate, and especially novel, compared to what bedding a woman was like. What sort of proclivities would the pack subject him too? All he had to do was walk a few more steps, and he’d find out…

“E-Even if I wanted to,” he began, Pearl watching him stutter with a big smile on her face. “You and I, we’re… humans don’t usually share partners with other people…”

“Ah yes, humans have monogamous relationships, read about that somewhere,” Pearl said. “Well, we deathclaws are a lot more frivolous when it comes to that, and I don’t mind a bit of sharing if it means getting you to relax, Cooper. Besides,” she added, leaning a hand on a wide hip. “something about watching you wriggle around, it just… just gets me going, is that weird? It sounds weird when I say it.”

Cooper felt tiny under the gaze of the collective pack, scratching his head as his thoughts reeled. He wasn’t really considering this, was he? Despite Pearl’s words, he still felt like he would be betraying her if he decided to indulge himself, as strange as that sounded. He hesitated for too long, two of the deathclaws turning their attention back to each other, a handful of scales being grabbed by a clawed hand, a sultry hiss emanating from one of the females. He felt blood rush to his groin as he watched them gyrate, taking each other right then and there, Cooper unable to tear his eyes away.

He didn’t want to reduce himself to such deviancy, but he found it increasingly harder to refuse his body the more the pack turned their attention back to themselves, soft moans and heaving bodies shifting in the dark, Cooper catching a sliver of pink as someone’s womanhood was exposed for a split second, a meaty thigh sealing it away right after.

“What’ll it be, Coops?” Pearl asked, holding out one of her hands. He wasn’t thinking straight, watching in stunned silence as one of the deathclaws brought their hips to another’s, the recipient purring in delight. Cooper made to turn hisemlf around, put his back to such thoughts in the most literal of ways, but when he willed himself to do it… there was nothing. His deviancy won over, and he met Pearl’s eyes with a neutral expression. She didn’t need to ask him what his answer was, it was written all over his face.

Her lips pulled back in a smirk, and she growled something in her animal speech. Before he could ask what she’d said, he noticed a scaly arm reaching out of the pile of bodies, a pair of creamy eyes peeking out at him. Before he could react, the giant arm seized him by the ankle, Cooper falling on his ass as it pulled his leg out from beneath him. Pearl stopped him before he could fall too hard, but she backed off after giving him an apologetic look.

Cooper eyes widened as he was dragged across the uneven floor, the bright eyes of the deathclaws tracking him as the arm pulled him towards the nest. As Cooper was dragged into the darkness, he felt a fresh surge of excitement overpower his hesitance, his heart racing in both arousal and fear, the two sensations clashing wonderfully inside his chest.

He saw many pairs of clawed arms reach out when he was close, seizing his arms and torso, the pack pulling him in with the same enthusiasm they’d showed to the brahmin carcass. He recognised Matriarch was the one that had initially grabbed him, and she wasted no time in bringing her snout to his neck, subjecting him to her bawdy licks and bites as she planted her chest on top of his. Unlike Pearl, she had no hint of a bosom, her front was flat, powered with an impossible amount of muscle, lingering behind a slightly squishy layer of scale.

The weight she was planting on him was too much, he could feel his ribs bending under the strain, and Matriarch sensed this, leveraging herself on her knees so he didn’t suffocate. As she drew back, Cooper could see the other two deathclaws were already starting on removing his clothes, rolling up his sleeves and flicking off his shoes. With Matriarch straddling him, the beast so unnaturally wide and tall, it made it difficult for the rest of the pack to undress him, but they were quick to figure out a way. He held back a complaint as they brandished their wicked claws, slicing through the garments until his chest was exposed. Good thing these were just borrowed clothes.

Matriarch brought her hands to his pecs, running her claws over him and leaving red welts on his skin. The only time these things saw bare skin like his was when they were feasting, so maybe his flesh was as novel to them as their scales were to him.

He played his eyes over her powerful body as Matriarch nuzzled him. She was truly a massive beast, eleven or twelve feet or pure muscle, covered in scales that were as wide as his hand in places. He could have fit his whole body inside her stomach with room to spare, the analogy inspiring a pit of dread in his mind. She could do just that at any time she felt like it, and that kind of powerlessness made him feel oddly aroused for some reason.

Her body might have been brimming with muscle, but there was still the presence of curves that betrayed her gender, mostly in the way her hips flared out from her waist, her monstrous thighs anchored to her torso providing tantalizing orbs of flesh. Cooper wanted to run his hands over them, explore the creature’s anatomy, but his arms wouldn’t move, and he turned his head to see his left arm was being smushed between the ground and the chest of another deathclaw. It was the one that had been moving the piles of rubble before, the one that liked rubbing his hair.

He was protected from the hard ground by the bundles of sheets, but his skin was catching on the scales of the beast, drawing beads of blood, but that was a small price to pay for the sensation of being immobilized. She dragged her forked tongue up the underside of his arm, Cooper shivering as she closed in on his shoulder, nibbling at him playfully with her fangs. Not wanting to be left out, Matriarch connected her forehead to his, nuzzling him like a giant housecat, her horns clicking against her smaller counterparts as they fought for space.

He turned his burning face to his right arm, and saw it was also being manipulated, the other deathclaw laborer currently sticking his fingers into its mouth, the warm, slippery surface of its tongue coiling over each digit. His world was now one of horns and scales, and he could do nothing but kick his legs fruitlessly, and his depraved mind was savoring every moment of it. He sighed out the most embarrassing grunt he’d ever made as two serpentine tongues slithered over his sensitive neck, Matriarch pulling back to give him a concerned look, Cooper blushing even harder under her piercing gaze. When she saw he wasn’t crying out in pain, she leaned in again, this time angling her tongue towards his mouth.

Her breath was rife with the scent of carrion, and Cooper tried to turn away, but couldn’t, the other deathclaw pushing its face into one side of his neck. Matriarch’s tongue slid over the corner of his lips, surprisingly dexterous enough to peel his lips back, the beast lapping at his teeth. He couldn’t stand the rancid smell in his nose for much longer, and he sucked in a gasp through his mouth, which Matriarch immediately filled with her winding organ.

Hers wasn’t much wider than his own, but he knew the beasts tongues were long, Matriarch hovering inches above his face as she explored his mouth, lapping at the roof and inside of his cheeks, the forked tips tickling him. Her slaver dribbled down his lips as she found his tongue, their organs flicking and pushing as they fought for space. It wasn’t exactly a kiss as their mouths were too dissimilar, her fangs too large for their lips to touch, but the act was bawdy in its own right, Matriarch unleashing her animalistic desire into every lick and stroke. It was nothing at all like Pearl’s kisses, but that wasn’t a bad thing, it was so ravenous, so wrong, the feral beast holding nothing back as she made his body go limp with her unreserved attentions.

Matriarch pulled away with a wet smack, her bubbling saliva wetting his chin, Cooper making to wipe it off, quickly remembering his hands were bound by the two deathclaws, the one chewing at his fingers clutching him tightly as if sensing he wanted to escape.

Fear and anticipation swelled in his stomach as Matriarch leaned in again, Cooper suspecting she was about to subject him to another unrestrained kiss. She tilted her head at the last second, lowering her chin to look down the length of his torso, Cooper following her gaze. She’d splayed her legs out into an upside down V shape, the two looking between her massive thighs at the bulge in his pants.

She placed one of her feet on his stomach, Cooper tensing as her talons dug into his skin, and then she dragged her leg down, the belt of his pants catching on her toes, before shredding it into ribbons. She brushed away the loose fabrics with her tail, the appendage as thick as his torso where it connected to her rump, slithering over his legs like a giant serpent.

His cock twitched in anticipation as she nudged it with the tapered end of her tail, Matriarch purring in what might be arousal as she turned her creamy eyes to his now exposed privates. Like a giant tentacle, the appendage began to coil in on itself, slowly creating tightening spirals, with his dick at their center. He lurched as the base of his crotch was constricted, the Matriarch piling the rest of her tail on top of it until his member was buried in scales, with only the tip open to the cool air.

Glancing down at him, Matriarch flexed her tail, the muscles flowing like liquid. Cooper’s eyes rolled back as the coils viced over his length, the deathclaw holding the tension for a few blissful moments. As he peered up at her with lidded eyes, she squeezed him again, his genitals constricted in a prison of flesh far tighter than anything he’d experienced, human or otherwise.

Was using a tail like this some kind of foreplay for deathclaws? It translated well enough to Cooper, a kind of melting sensation washing over his body as his brain struggled to keep up with all the other sensations. One beast was licking at his vulnerable neck, another was trailing its claws up his forearm, sending tingles down his limb, while his privates were nestles in a cage of scales that slowly tightened over time. It was too much to keep track of, he felt like he would go insane if this went on for much longer.

Shuffling from near his feet drew his attention, and he blinked his eyes clear, noticing there was something drew closer from the darkness, the two white eyes betraying the presence of another packmate.

Matriarch sensed the movement shortly after, the two watching between her trunk-like legs as the runt of the pack crawled into what little light touched the nest. The short deathclaw – short for deathclaws that was – grumbled in its native tongue, her eyes locked on the conspicuous bulge nestled within Matriarch’s tail. Its owner growled back, Cooper bucking reflexively as her appendage pulled down on his groin, his foreskin peeling back to expose his pink glans.

Crawling on her belly, the runt moved closer, placing a hand on his foot as the beast positioned between his legs, her tail drawing wide arcs behind her. He mumbled out a warning that she should be careful with her teeth, as it was obvious enough what she was planning to do, but he wasn’t sure if she understood. He’d find out in a few moments, he guessed.

With only the head of cock visible above the coils of Matriarch’s tail, there wasn’t much else for the runt to put her attentions towards. She positioned her head above his length, the way she peered up at him making Cooper’s heart flutter, then parted her chops slightly, lowering down until her scaly lips pursed over his tip.

Unable to hold it back, he groaned into Matriarch’s face, shocks of electricity travelling up his body as the runt swirled her tongue over his sensitive underside. The runt’s forked tongue made it feel like there were two thin, long tongues drawing shapes over his length, one of them dragging over the rib of his head on its way down, the other making lazy circles over the tip, spreading a bead of his leaking excitement over his flesh.

Her efforts were clumsy, whether from inexperience or because he was human he couldn’t say, but what he could be certain of was that Matriarch’s tail was getting in her way, the runt trying and failing to part the muscular coils so she could access the rest of him. Her frustrations were his benefit, however, Matriarch tensing her tail in random intervals when Cooper least expected it, her appendage as hard as rubber as it squeezed down on his base, the resulting pressure far tighter than Pearl’s loins had been.

The tension of the binding tail contrasted beautifully against the soft, pliant texture of the runt’s tongue, Cooper twisting impotently beneath the pounds of scaly flesh sitting on his limbs. The runt hissed and growled around his length, whter that was speech or sounds of pleasure he couldn’t tell, the sudden rush of air making his rod twitch in her mouth, the Matriarch growling in reply. It seemed they were indeed talking, maybe arguing over something.

With an air of reluctance, the tail wound away like an untying rope, still leaving his base viced in muscle, but allowing the runt to play with roughly half of his pulsing cock. She parted her chops wider, her two front teeth coincidently the perfect width apart to allow his member to slide between them, the runt squashing his glans into the roof of her mouth. She swirled her agile tongue around him, his powerful reactions telling her she was pressing all the right buttons, covering his erection is a sticky layer of her saliva as she rolled him inside her gullet.

The little gasps she made around his length made his brain fizzle out, the sounds trailing out into purrs and grumbles that might have been dirty-talk in deathclaw-speech. His hips bucked, his body seeking out more of the stimulation, only managing to plunge a few precious inches deeper into her hot mouth before the tail around his base stopped him, pressing down on his waist like a piece of rebar come to life. Whatever her reasoning, the Matriarch wanted to keep him and her tail in place.

His movements encouraged the runt to start taking him deeper, his glans brushing the beginnings of her throat as she swallowed what little of him was exposed, before gently lifting her head up, doting on his head with sucks and nibbles. Cooper curled his toes as she dragged her chops back down his length again, her front teeth acting like stroking fingers as she went, the sounds of her sucking growing louder as she started to work up a slow rhythm.

He tossed his head back, scrunching his eyes shut as her warm, salivating maw drew up and down his shaft, the accompanying tail wriggling over his base like a snake securing its coiled pray. He felt something tap on his right arm, and he slowly opened his eyes, seeing that the deathclaw nibbling at his fingers was trying to get his attention.

Cooper was too overwhelmed to form a question, so he just raised a brow, the deathclaw responding by shifting on the spot until it was resting on its thorny knees. It grabbed at his wrist with its clawed hands, slowly lowering his limb down between her parted thighs.

It was hard to concentrate with his cock surrounded by a prison of hot scales, but he caught a glimpse of something pink in the beast’s nether regions. He blinked through his haze, and found that it was a set of lips where he’d expect genitals to be, but it was not quite the same as what he was used to seeing, the deathclaw angling her waist up to expose more of her alien womanhood.

Where Peal’s loins had been a more familiar, slitted entrance, this one was instead a set of three conjoined stretches of skin, forming a triangular entrance of flawless flesh, centered by a swollen bud. Outwardly it was strange, oddly shaped, but the same principles must apply given the context.

The deathclaw placed his hand on its crotch, his curiosity getting the better of him as he ran a thumb over the triangle of miniscule scales surrounding her entrance. The flesh here was so soft it might as well have been skin, a distinctly squelching sound reaching his ears as he pried the sides of her cloaca apart, the deathclaw trembling above him as he opened her up.

A forest of tiny nodules lined the walls just inside the opening, the pink flesh wriggling like dozens of tiny tongues, Cooper’s heartbeat thumping harder as he watched the strange sight. He swallowed a lump in his throat as the deathclaw guided him closer, enclosing his digits in a fist and giving them a tug, the unspoken implication not lost on him. He was surrendering himself to the most perverted of taboos, and while he was disgusted with himself, his mind was tingling at the prospect at what kind of pleasure would result from such debauchery.

Steeling himself, pushed his fingers into her twitching opening, the tiny nodules gliding against his skin, slippery and wet. He went up to the first knuckle without any resistance, the giant feral wetting her chops with her tongue as he expanded her insides. When the width of his hand stopped his progress, the deathclaw flexed her core, her soft walls clamping down tightly, the flowing muscles pulling him deeper than he thought would be possible. Something slimy washed down the sides of his fingers, the layer of juices adding another layer to an already slimy passage.

Once his fingers had disappeared inside her, the deathclaw removed her hand, turning her legs out spread-eagled, squashing his submerged hand between the nest and her genitals, purring through her chops as he curled his fingers inside of her. His member twitched violently, though whether that was because of the one giving him head, or the thought of sheathing his member inside this giant, feral passage, it was hard to say.

She drew a circle of eight with her hips, Cooper faltering as her opening stretched even further, her triangular lips swallowing his palm,the deathclaw growling and purring until he was submerged up to the wrist. He was afraid that even the slightest movement might tear her apart like tissue paper, but her passage seemed incredibly stretchy, and she showed no signs of discomfort as she bucked her hips, impaling herself on his hand.

Her insides maintained a cruel tightness, Cooper just able to ball his hand into a fist, those tiny papillae brushing him from all angles. Her rumbles slowly grew in pitch, separated by distinct pauses. Perhaps she was telling him to move more or go faster, his fears of hurting her ebbing away as he made random gestures inside her, her walls clinging to him like a glove that had come to life, always sliding and moving, fluids clinging his fingers together, as sticky as glue.

As he tried to focus on finding the beast’s weak spot, Cooper could feel his limit approaching, distracting him. The pleasure surrounding his loins was reaching a fever pitch, the runt going up and down his shaft with almost no friction, the way her teeth sometimes touched his length catching him off guard. Everyone was growling, scaly limbs and ivory teeth catching the light as the pack squirmed around him, Cooper too distracted by his nearing climax to track what each member of the pack was doing to him, only aware that he was being subjected to pleasures no human should be in a position to receive.

An ache began to grow in his core, and he tried to thrust into the runt’s mouth, but Matriarch’s weight on his stomach stopped him. He couldn’t see with all the scales and flesh in the way, but he could feel the runt slide all the way down him, sensing his nearing limit. He felt the chops seal around the halfway mark of his length, one last doting lick on his underside sending him toppling over the edge.

His cock shook violently, and Cooper opened his mouth to gasp, but instead, all that came out was a pained grunt. Matriarch’s tail, which had been cushioned up around his length up till now, suddenly tightened its hold on him, squashing his sack against his thighs, the pudgy muscles clenching around his base, closing off the floodgates against his rising climax.

The runt grumbled around his cock, the tone implying she was just as frustrated as he was, swirling her tongue around him again to try and elicit his release. Matriarch’s tail was too tightly wound for that to happen, Cooper glancing up at her with a pleading expression on his face. He was teetering on the edge, frustration and arousal blending into an amplified disappointment as she continued to deny his climax.

Her cream-coloured eyes blinked, and then she growled out something, Cooper lurching as the runt’s scaly lips separated from his member, lifting her face clear to leave him covered in cold saliva. He wanted nothing more than to urge her to continue her blowjob and bring him to completion, but he could already feel himself cooling down, his release inching away to leave him warm, giddy, and frustrated at the same time.

The massive beast rose off his chest, her tail still noosed tightly around his erection like she was keeping it hostage, the Matriarch hunching over him as she turned around, exchanging a few words with the runt. After snapping her chops at the smaller deathclaw, the runt backed off, slinking into the shadows until only its eyes were visible.

Matriarch turned around, her thick tail round one of her legs as she put her back to Cooper, angling her head towards his crotch. Was she going to finish him off instead? It was hard to focus with one hand clad in a deathclaw’s snatch, with its counterpart biting at his neck and shoulder, but he’d felt like he’d go crazy if this teasing didn’t end.

“Alright that’s it,” Pearl said from somewhere behind him, Cooper trying to turn his head to look at her, but the deathclaw nipping at his neck got in the way. “I can’t take this anymore, I’m getting in there.”

The pack looked up as Pearl shuffled closer, Cooper watching as two pale hands gripped him by his armpits. “Outta the way,” Pearl chimed, the Matriarch hauling a giant leg off Cooper as he was hauled back and then up. “Momma Pearl’s coming through, make room.”

What felt like a mountain of scales slid beneath his rump, Cooper finding himself right in Pearl’s lap as she shimmied behind him, the inside of her legs touching his knees as she wrapped herself around him, her bosom making for an admirable pillow for him to lean back on. The two laborers still had his hands in their grasp, and they returned back to what they were doing once Pearl was settled in, the one he was currently fisting encouraging him to keep up his efforts by growling at him.

“There we go,” Pearl said, crossing her arms around his chest, smothering him like she was a giant child clutching a favourite toy. “Hey there Coops, miss me?”

He answered by using his free hand to angle her head down, delivering an upside-down kiss, Pearl moaning into his mouth as their lips joined. He preferred this kind of contact as opposed to Matriarch’s assault on his mouth, every stroke of Pearl’s tongue measured, his companion intimately aware of his limits and tells, his desire for her burning in his heart as their kiss dragged on into the better part of a minute.

They parted with a delicate pop, Pearl parting her lips in a silent sigh, her pink scales shining as she shifted to get comfortable in her half-reclined position.

“Good answer,” she chuckled, her tone turning sly as she glanced over him. “Should probably stop distracting you, though, someone else is about to take their fill of you.”

He followed her gaze, seeing that the Matriarch was lifting her tail, her hungry eyes peering back at him over her shoulder. Only now did she decide to uncoil her tail from around his manhood, a part of Cooper still able to feel the tightness sensation seconds after it was removed. Her entrance was similar to the one he was palm-deep inside of, although the triangular lips were a lot wider, a bead of liquid excitement dropping from the flexing bud between them. She lowered her hips to his, her quivering cloaca clinging to his glans like a film as their genitals touched. She held that position for a few moments, circling her waist as though teasing herself, Cooper’s breaths coming in hard and fast as she kept him waiting.

“You know,” he began, his voice attracting the gaze of every deathclaw present. “This isn’t quite how I imagined my first four… uh, fivesome to go.”

Pearl chuckled into his hair, her tongue slipping out to wet his earlobe. “Then, we’ll just have to make a good first impression, won’t we?”

“Think you already sorted that out, Pearl,” he replied.

“Second-wind, then.”

The Matriarch finally relented, a ring of pressure building over his glans as she pressed down, the resistance giving way to a popping sensation. Her hips touched his with a ripple of wet noises as her walls sealed around him, Cooper lurching in Pearl’s arms as he was hilted in one go, waves of pleasure making his eyes glaze over.

She wasn’t as tight as the one he was currently wrist-deep inside of, nor as much as Pearl had been, due to her exaggerated size and build, but that didn’t mean it felt bad. Her smooth walls contracted around him like malleable pillows, the soft, almost gentle way they pulsed up and down his length a welcome reprieve from the tight hold of her tail.

The Matriarch hissed, her massive body shuddering as she got used to his human organ, which should be nowhere near her feral loins. He winced as she started to rise off his shaft, her lips peeling back until only his glans were encompassed in her velvet-soft folds. She waited, placing a hand on a knee, and then came down hard, hilting him with enough force that Cooper could feel the hard ground below the sheets.

He tossed his head back, making an unmanly sound as the giant beast repeated the motion, gaining a little more speed each time she brought her hips to his. Pearl peered down at him, her chin on his hair as she laughed at his expressions, her eyes occasionally flicking to watch his rod slide out of Matriarch’s alien loins.

“Making a lot of cute noises today, Coops,” Pearl cooed, leaning down to press her cheek against his blushing face. She joined the other beast that was sampling his hair, the two creatures butting heads as they fought for space, Cooper getting the feeling Pearl was play-fighting her packmate. There was so much movement, both his right hand and his cock wedged inside deathclaw womanhood’s, his left side encompassed in Pearl and the laborers scales as they fought to taste his flesh, and his bed was currently one of scales and thorns. Only his face was free to the air, which was slowly filling with the scent of animal lovemaking as the sordid encounter progressed.

His mind was an unfocused mess of sensations, but the wet slaps as the Matriarch bounced on his cock reminded him of his dissolute choice to experience this forbidden pleasure. He should be disgusted, and he was, but he was also… excited. These creatures could rut like animals, because they were animals, and they could sate his most darkest desires, subject him to pleasures and pure, raw carnality, all at the cost of his moral fiber. And each time his shaft was swallowed by Matriarch’s scaley lips, his tip glancing her most intimate reaches, the prospect became a little more appealing.

He let himself melt into this scaly prison that had surrounded him, not that he had much of a choice anyway, but letting the pleasure take over his faculties somehow made the experience better. Pearl continued to cradle him from behind, her bout with the packmate ending in a compromise, with Pearl taking his right shoulder, and the deathclaw having the left, Cooper’s eyes widening and closing as they licked at his skin, the occasional bite making his cock throb inside Matriarch’s passage, the giant creature rumbling in approval far above him.

He felt the circulation in his hand cutting off, Cooper glancing over to see the one impaling herself on his arm tensing up, throwing her horned head back as she growled, the sound reminiscent of the calls Cooper had heard in his initial delve into the den. There was a few scant moments in which the beast didn’t move, and then her orgasm burned through her core, her scaly body shuddering as waves of her ejaculate ran down in his fingers, Cooper clogging the sticky liquid inside her. When she’d filled herself to capacity, her next contraction forced it down the sides of his wrist, the feral warbling out a string of grumbles as he flexed his digits, drawing out yet another wave of her emission.

Like a deflating balloon, the beast began to ride down from her high, her contractions soon subsiding, the feral turning her bright eyes down at him and flashing him a satisfied grin. She warbled out something, and before Cooper could even raise a brow in question, she started to gyrate her hips, spreading the sticky sheen of her fluids up his forearm, encouraging him to explore her walls again. Did she not have a refractory period? If that was true, he wasn’t sure whether to be excited or nervous at the prospect.

As he began to move his fingers inside her, he turned lust-addled attention to Matriarch, the giant creature coming down hard enough on his pelvis to leave bruises, her punishing pace contrasting against her silk-soft walls contracting around his length. There was something mesmerizing about the way her generous ass squashed up against his abs like putty each time she came down on him, the slapping sound of flesh on scales adding to the numerous lewd noises coming from the nest.

He reached out with his free hand, cupping one of her cheeks in his fingers, watching her copious flesh mold around his nails. It was as malleable as it looked, but there was a springiness deep beneath the scaled exterior, firm muscles pushing back against him as he groped her. The scales were almost perfectly flush, just the tiniest hint of bumps noticeable as he ran his fingers over the orb of flesh, her peach-shaped cheeks far larger than would be at possible on a human woman, as big as melons.

His hand trailed upwards, towards the tail that jutted out from slightly above and between her generous rear. It was so thick around at the base that his hand hardly encompassed half of it, Cooper tracing the crevice where it joined to Matriarch’s body. Like Pearl’s, the top of it was lined with a row of spikey thorns, each one curved slightly like a tooth. The top of it was armoured, but the scales on the underside were thin, Cooper finding they were glass-smooth as he ran his fingers over them.

The motion caused Matriarch to falter in her bouncing, not by much, but enough that Cooper was aware that the sliding sensation of her thrusting had somewhat slowed. Had he discovered her weak point? He brushed the flesh beneath her tail again, and this time Matriarch snarled, her walls clenching down on him like an angry fist. He wondered what other kinds of reactions he could get out of her by playing with her tail, but the sound she’d made had instilled a bit of fear inside him, and he felt compelled to take things slow for the moment.

He gave her tail a slow, placating stroke, his efforts rewarded with another spasm from her bristling walls. Matriarch shook her head like a human might clear their thoughts, giving him a hungry look over her shoulder before resuming her previous pace. Cooper could barely keep up his fingering and his tail-strokes, but the more he rewarded his feral lovers, the more their pleasure linked back to him in kind, as though they were all connected like some sort of power grid of building ecstasy.

He manipulated Matriarch’s tail towards his face, its owner looking down at him as he moved it in range of his mouth. He poked out his tongue, running it up and down the paler underside, mimicking what Pearl was currently doing to his shoulder, biting down on it hard enough that she could just about feel his teeth. Matriarch cooed, a purring sound he’d never heard her make before, the appendage draping over his neck and face, rubbing against his cheeks in a way that came off as both affectionate and needy.

As though her body was extending into his own, Cooper was aware of Matriarch’s nearing limit, her walls flexing, her pace increasing, the little moans and hisses she made rising in pitch. He’d been afraid a creature of her size would hardly feel him, but she looked like she was as numb and addled as he was, her serpentine tongue flicking out of her mouth as she panted.

There was a flicker of movement to the side, Cooper peering round the horns of a deathclaw – he couldn’t tell who’s – to something lingering in the darkness nearby. It took a second for his eyes to adjust, but he saw it was the runt, a conspicuous hand between her legs as she sat cross-legged on the edge of the nest, her gaze drawn to his and Matriarch’s coupling.

He’d almost forgotten about the comparatively smaller deathclaw, and a wave of pity washed over him. For such communal creatures, they seemed to have pushed the smallest of the bunch aside, perhaps too enamored with their new, human lover to pay her any mind. He tried to call out, but it was hard to form words with every part of his body in contact with scales and tongues and cloacas, and when he did manage to say something, the runt ignored him, too focused on pleasing herself to pay attention.

“P-Pearl,” he began, batting Matriarch’s tail away so he could speak.

“Mmmm?” she mumbled into his shoulder, caressing his neck with a long claw.

“Call her over here,” he said, nodding to the runt when Pearl asked him who he was talking about.

“Why?” she asked.

“Wanna return the favour.”

She smirked at him, then grumbled something in her native speech, the runt tilting her head in their direction. Cooper beckoned with his free hand, the runt getting down on all fours as it watched him gesture. Like a cat trying to decide whether to bolt, she crawled closer, its bright eyes flicking from his to the Matriarch. Were the two at odds, the runt afraid of its massive counterpart? He would be too if he had to live alongside the beast.

When she was in range, Cooper reached out, seizing her by the thigh and pulling her closer. Pearl helped bring her over, the runt appearing to resign to this course of action as the two positioned her so she stood over his face, her tail flicking indecisively as she gave her alpha a questioning look.

“Come down,” he said, the runt glancing at him. It heard the reassurance in his tone, gently placing its feet on either side of his chest. She bent her knees, and when she was in range, he cupped her rear, drawing her the rest of the way, the beast letting him manipulate her.

His mouth met her triangular entrance, Cooper pursing his lips on it in a sordid kiss. All of the runt’s apprehensions melted away in that moment, the soft insides of her thighs brushing against his cheeks as she sat on his face, snarling through her chops as he pried one side of her lips apart with a finger, exposing more of her delicate passage.

“Come!” the runt chirped, Cooper chuckling into her nethers, the influx of air making her shiver.

“I think she likes it,” Pearl added, watching from behind Cooper’s hair as he cored the deathclaw out, the forest of nodules waving like stalks in a breeze as he flicked them with his tongue. With Cooper sitting on top of Pearl, and the runt sitting on top of Cooper, there must have been a tremendous amount of weight on the hybrid, but she didn’t voice any discomfort, content to watch the show as Cooper subjected the runt to his ardent licks.

Cooper wasn’t so complacent, the runt was still a weighty beast, and his neck and skull started to throb with pain as the runt squeezed her legs and dropped more of her weight on him. Pearl came to his rescue, grumbling out a warning to the runt as she lifted her by her rump, just enough so that he could still chew on her walls without getting crushed in the meantime.

The runt’s musky scent filled his nose as a particularly cruel lash of his tongue made her juices flow, his chin dribbling with saliva and her fluids as he made come hither motions with his tongue, the nodules that lined these deathclaw’s passages never ceasing to drive him mad with desire.

As he pulled back for air, he noticed that Pearl had grabbed one of the runt’s curling horns, drawing her down until their snouts connected. They parted their toothy mouths, their forked tongues lashing at each other desperately, Pearl’s wider organ overpowering the runt’s after a quick duel, coiling around the smaller organ before plunging between runt’s teeth. The smaller deathclaw moaned as she was dominated, her body sagging, but her head keeping paradoxically still as Pearl clutched her horn tighter.

His cock jumped at the sight of the two beasts making out, Matriarch’s purrs growing louder as her walls flexed to accommodate his twitching length. Pearl flicked her eyes down at Cooper, laughing at the sight of him being sandwiched between their bodies.

“Either your dick just grew,” Pearl began around the runt’s coiling tongue. “Or I’m not the only one who likes watching. Reckon I could shove my tongue down her throat?”

Cooper was too overwhelmed to answer, Pearl bringing her mouth to the runt’s, the smaller beast draping her arms over Pearl’s shoulders as they made out. He couldn’t see their tongues any more, but the way the runt’s throat bulged suggested Pearl’s tongue was far longer than he originally thought. Their draconic lips mashed together, the runt clearly overwhelmed by the lurid act, but powerless to stop it, if she even wanted it to stop, which didn’t seem to be the case by the way she purred and growled into her alpha’s mouth.

The runt began to thrust her hips, pushing him rhythmically into the soft flesh of Pearl’s bosom, Cooper meeting each movement with a push of his tongue. He grabbed one of her thighs draping over the sides of his face, kneading the soft flesh on the inside, the beast squirming at every little squeeze and stroke.

Every nerve in his body felt like it had been dialed up to eleven, his senses struggling to process all the sensations as his encounter with the pack continued. Matriarch’s slippery passage stood out a little more than the others, perhaps because he couldn’t see it with his face currently occupied by the runt’s loins, his erection tingling as the beast hammered his pelvis into the nest, increasing her pace until she was practically slamming down on his shaft.

He felt Matriarch shuddering, the meat of her thighs quivering over his sore waist, a sharp hiss filling the room. She threw her head back, coming down on him one last time, drawing a random shape with her hips as she impaled herself, the Matriarch’s passage trembling around his member as she came. A torrent of fluids gushed passed his glans, sloshing out of her reptilian vent to wet his balls and stain the sheets. She pushed his cock against the roof of her passage, drawing out another wave of her orgasm, the Matriarch reducing herself to a panting mess as the throes of her release petered out to leave her exhausted.

She kept him pinned inside her for a few moments, and then she rose off him, his dick slipping out of her with a slick pop. Her contracting walls had almost sent Cooper over the edge with her, but not quite, and once again he was denied his release, his frustrated groans reaching deaf ears as the runt’s thighs muffled him. He could feel the Matriarch plant herself down between his legs, laying prone as she wallowed in her euphoria. For all her possessiveness over his cock, she left it throbbing in the cool air without so much as an afterthought.

As Cooper sighed in disappointment, he noted that the runt had looked back, drawn to all the noises Matriarch was making. It could have been his imagination, but the runt’s eyes shone a little brighter upon noticing his exposed member, and she pulled away, struggling to free her chops from Pearl’s invading organ.

“Come!” the deathclaw chirped. It rose off Cooper’s face, a string of their combined fluids linking his lips to her loins, sagging to his chest as she darted down his body. She planted her legs to either side of him, her knees tucking under his armpits as she straddled him, holding his erection between two claws.

She shoved his tip inside her puffy lips without warning, Cooper grunting like an animal as her cheeks clapped against his thighs, her cloaca kissing his belly.

The runt didn’t waste any time adjusting to him, grinding against his hips, those wonderful bristles stroking his length as he kissed every part of her reptilian passage. Cooper had been left high and dry twice now, and he felt the same desperate urge to mate, devoting all his attention on her shaking walls.

She picked up where Matriarch left off, Cooper moving his hips with her own, almost like he was counterbalancing her actions, their coupling reaching wonderful depths. Pearl sealed her arms around his chest again as she watched him thrust up into the runt’s vent, the deathclaw grumbling her contentment as he splayed her most intimate reaches apart. She began to fuck him in earnest, her loins already geared up after his mouthing, her own senses overwhelmed with pleasure if her wild expression was any indication.

“Coowa…” the runt moaned, her tail arching over her shoulders as it wagged behind her. Hearing his name – or at least part of it – made him jerk inside her, her passage responding with a flex of its own. Cooper was aware of every micromovement, every bristle of her passage as they squashed up against his length, her feral walls conforming to his shape.

Her pace became greedy, unreserved, and it was all Cooper could do but lean back into Pearl’s bust and let her have her way with him. He got a beautiful view of his member slipping in and out of her scaley lips, so did Pearl, his companion watching them fuck with a sultry look on her face.

The ache of his delayed orgasm began to build back up, the sensation both painful and blissful at the same time, the runt helping it move to the front of his mind with their rutting. He held onto anything he could find, snaking hins fingers into Pearl’s hand, his other arm tightening inside the passage of the one hilting herself on his hand, his body convinced he might float away if he didn’t hold on.

His exhausted muscles found new strength, Cooper meeting the runt’s thrusts with equal vigour, mesmerized by the squishing sounds of their lovemaking. The runt placed its claws on his belly, holding onto him for dear life as his member kissed the very apex of her tunnel.

She could sense him drawing close, her eyes crunching up as they brought each other to their limits. Every part of him, not just his genitals, felt numb, but in the best of ways, Cooper growling like a deathclaw himself as Pearl cradled him from behind.

“Don’t hold back,” Pearl cooed. “Fill her up, I want to see it gushing out…”

His member surged at her words, and he tried to hold it back, but it was too provocative, his spine arching as his release came crashing down on him. Pearl almost lost her grip on him as he buckled in her lap, his head spinning as all the pleasure concentrated in his loins. His pulsing member pumped a fresh load of his essence into runt’s reptilian vent, her spasming walls swallowing around him as she hilted his cock, ensuring his semen splashed against her deepest reaches. Another rope of his cloudy ejaculate hit the furthest nodules foresting her walls, the little bristles contracting in distinctive waving motions, milking out another rope of his emission.

The runt threw her head back, her chops parting in a comely growl as her belly began to bulge. It just wouldn’t stop, load after load of his come forcing its way out of his dick, Cooper feeling the hot fluid wet his waste as the runt’s passage was filled to bursting. From somewher behind him, Pearl joined in their chorus of grunts and groans, her request fulfilled and then some.

The ache in his body began to sweeten, Cooper’s next knot of fluids coming in later, slower. He draped himself over Pearl’s chest as he began to ride the tide of his climax down, the warmth of afterglow permeating him to his core.

The runt followed him soon after, her bristles shaking as her paradoxically cold come splashed his slowly receding length, Cooper shivering, momentarily brought back into the present at the feeling.

Looking beyond the rise and fall of his chest, he watched his cock slide out of her scaley entrance, the runt wobbling to her feet. She walked about two paces before her legs gave out, falling on her chin before curling up into a ball. Cooper was concerned for her, but that quickly subsided when he saw her smiling.

A glint of white drew his eyes to her loins. That was his seed spilling out of her feral vent, the realization hitting him harder the more he stared. Shame began to overpower the sweet aches, but he tried to push these thoughts aside, not wanting to spoilt the mood.

“You were right,” Cooper began, Pearl smiling at him from one side. “Totally relaxed now.”

“Good to hear,” Pearl replied, nudging him with her horn. “Not too tired I hope, think the other girls still need some lovin’.”

The deathclaw on his right arm pulled away from his limb, his hand covered in an alarming amount of her fluids. She stood up, then positioned herself over his member, tilting her head as she noted he wasn’t as swollen as before. These things were rotating off him like he was a damn ride or something.

“H-Hold on,” he said, the deathclaw stopping with mere inches between her entrance and his glans. “Tell her I need some recovery time or something.”

Pearl did as he asked, the deathclaw pouting at the pair, but getting the message. She sat down on his leg, licking her chops like a giant dog as she waited.

“I think the girls are happy to have a male back on board,” Pearl muttered, Matriarch and runt lying in humorous poses as they rested on the sheets.

“How do you mean?” Cooper asked.

“You’re part of the pack now,” she explained. “we look out for our own, human or deathclaw, or both in my case. You and them have found a way to understand one another, they’ll treat you right from now on.”

He’d had an inkling she hadn’t brought him here just for him to relax, but that didn’t bother him. If anything it helped quell his nerves about the ferals, he no longer had to worry about one of them suddenly deciding he was food. And if they were family now… why should he feel ashamed to have laid with them? Maybe he should just forego his guilty thoughts, don’t think about it, just go with it, had Pearl sad something like that before?

“I guess I could get used to running the show around here,” he admitted, Pearl slapping him on the arm in a mock-attack.

“Oh, you think you can be alpha? Already beat you once, I could do it again.”

“Rematch, right here and now? I’ll have you know I’ve learned a lot about deathclaw weak points since then.”

A sultry purr escaped her lips, her tail reaching over to coil over one of his legs possessively. “Okay, I’m after her, then we’ll see who’ll top who.”

-xXx-

Cooper clipped his sword to his belt, keeping his fingers clear of the button that would engage the shocking element, walking down the lobbying tunnel of the mine, each pace followed by a whir of motors. He’d stepped into the power armour frame once again, the suit a lot less bulky with most of its armour components now lying discarded in the chamber behind him, too damaged to be refitted. Only the back and the helmet were intact, which should provide at least a bit of protection.

Over his shoulders were his two weapons, his old ballistic rifle on one side, the new laser gun on the other. He wanted to take some practice shots with the latter, but his energy cells were limited, and he didn’t want to waste them. It’s previous owner had fired the gun well enough, so he was confident it wouldn’t fail him when the fighting began.

He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the morning glare, the whitewashed landscape growing in size. The pack was waiting for him, slinking just beyond the entrance, the billowing snowflakes falling to their swept horns. Matriarch, the runt, the two laborers, and one other deathclaw huddled together, looking about as uncomfortable as overgrown reptiles could be.

Cooper paused as his eyes met the unknown deathclaw’s. The beast was taller than the runt, but smaller than the laborers, maybe eight feet in all. It’s scales were a dark green hue, fading into a beiger tone as they travelled towards her underbelly. It’s horns were curved into tight loops, like a ram’s, its tongue flicking out to taste his scent as he walked by. He had barely seen this one during the previous day, but it seemed to recognise his scent, or the pack’s sent rather, giving him a low grumble that might have been a greeting.

“All set?” Pearl asked, stepping into view from one side of the tunnel. She was draped in her signature robe, her hood drawn so her features were hidden. He noted the tip of her tail was lifting the hem of her disguise a few inches off the ground, the white scales just visible from this angle. He wondered how he’d never seen it, and then wondered over all the other thing’s he’d missed that would have given away Pearl’s secret if he’d taken the time to think about them.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Got a big walk ahead of us, better get going while we have the light.”

“Did you turn the oven off?” Pearl asked Matriarch, the feral giving her a blank stare. “Nice. On me, everyone, I know the way better than anyone.”

The group set off into the cold, Cooper taking a look back at the mine as they went. It felt strange to leave the place behind after spending so long cooped up inside it, and the thought that he might not ever see it again made him oddly anxious.

“You alright, Coops?” Pearl said, walking up beside him, perhaps sensing his changing mood.

“I’m not sure, I feel… weird, for lack of a better word, and not just because its colder out here than in there.”

“I think that’s a bit of homesickness you’re feeling,” Pearl said, draping an arm over his shoulders. “You’ve spent more time in my den than anywhere else, right?”

“Up till recently,” he agreed. How could he feel for a location, and one of such… low standards than what he was used to? He should be longing for NCR if this was indeed what homesickness was like, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

He tore his eyes from the slowly fading mountain, electing to ponder on these thoughts later.

They walked past the rock where he had given Pearl his handbook, the pack bringing up the rear as the pair retraced their steps. The fog that had blanketed this area had lifted during the night, the windstorm gently abating to allow most of the sparse woodland to be visible. The mountains on the horizon were still shaded away, however, as was the sky.

“Check it out,” Pearl said after a while, pointing to the left. Cooper could see footprints marching into the haze, following their general heading. They must belong to the woman that Pearl had spared, Jade. Cooper wondered what Pearl would do if the two encountered each other again at the lodge, and if her show of mercy was just a one-off.

-xXx-

The day of travelling was mostly uneventful, save for the pair of wolf howls travelling on the wind sometime in the afternoon, the group’s reaction varying wildly. While Cooper thought it best to keep moving, some of the pack decided they could use a late snack, bounding off and quickly vanishing into the snow. Pearl decided it was for the best, the pack finding their own food would help keep Cooper’s rations from dwindling too fast.

He’d packed as much brahmin meat as he could manage, and once night fell, he set about cooking himself a steak, wishing he had something else to go with it. While he was a fan of meat, a bit of sauce could have gone a long way to vary his meals up. He looked up with a startled expression when he heard movement, relaxing as the pack reappeared into the light, carrying a furry wolf in their arms.

The ferals feasted on the carcass while he and Pearl acted a little more civilized, Cooper passing her a giant sirloin once he’d sizzled it over the flames to her liking. He’d become so used to the regulated temperature of the mine that the cold air was a bitter surprise, but Pearl came to his rescue, draping her cloak around the both of them so they shared their body heat.

“I missed this,” Pearl mused, staring into the crackling flames. “I know it was literally less than a week ago, but bundling up with my mate, our arms wrapped around each other… Oh, sounds like something out of one of my romance books.”

“Haven’t seen Jade’s tracks in a while,” Cooper said, not wanting to spoil her mood, but unable to help but bring the topic up. “She might have gotten lost in the storm, but if she didn’t… the lodge will know you’re still out here.”

“But they don’t know we’re planning on coming to them,” she replied. “Hopefully they’ll send out another group, and the lodge will have even less defenders for us to deal with.”

“Still think you shouldn’t have let her go,” he said, Pearl giving him a surprised look. “They’ll be on alert in any case, but we could have done with a bit of surprise on our hands.”

“So, what, should I have butchered her on the spot?” she asked, her brow furrowing. “I’m not a wild animal, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that.”

“I know you’re not,” he said.

“She’d surrendered, and was completely defenseless,” Pearl continuned, her tail thumping into the snow, leaving a long groove. “if I’d killed her, I’d be no better than a feral, and that’s the exact justification everyone who wants me dead uses. I want to be better than that, and if that means putting us at a disadvantage, then I’m willing to pay that price.”

“I get that,” he assured. “but that price might be one of us dying.”

“Nobody is dying,” she snapped. “I’m not losing anyone, not the pack, and certainly not you, Cooper. Not after I just got you. Look,” she said, her voice softening. “maybe it was a mistake letting that woman go, but the alternative was proving Hendrix and the Enclave right, that I’m just another mindless beast that’s better off being put down, or being controlled. Showing mercy is the one thing I have left.”

“And what about Hendrix?” he pressed. “Once we get to him, will you let him go, too? That won’t exactly tie up that loose end, which is what this whole attack is for, right?”

“It… depends on what he knows,” Pearl answered, shifting on her haunches. “If he’s not in contact with the Enclave, I’ll convince him to give up this hunting game, same way I did to you.”

“And if you can’t? Or he’s in league with the Enclave?”

“Then… I’ll do what I think is best,” she replied, averting her gaze. “Let’s worry about our plan of attack for now, cross that bridge when we get to it, y’know?”

He could tell she was being evasive, but he could tell pressing her any more wouldn’t get anywhere, so he dropped it. She’d have to figure this one out on her own, Hendrix wasn’t his target after all. He was hired help, as was usually the case, though his employer had never been his bedmate before…

“Let’s get some rest,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist. He felt her apprehension melt away as he held her, encouraging her to lay back, the pair using her cloak like a bedsheet. They stared up at what few stars glittered through the clouds, sleep soon taking them.

-xXx-

Cooper felt a lot safer with a pack of deathclaws watching out for him, even though they encountered very little on their return trip. He was no longer afraid to be surrounded by them after their proclivities the other night, and he felt a sense of belongness around them that he didn’t feel around other humans. Did that make him some kind of outcast? It might have, but what did that matter if he was content? He wished they had connected like this sooner, instead of pumping their bloodstreams full of tranquilizer.

The runt sidled up to him from behind, placing her head underneath his gloved arm, encouraging him to pet her. He laughed, scratching at the base of her horn, the beast rumbling in contentment.

He looked at the other pack members as they kept moving. Pearl and Matriarch were chatting, while the laborers were chasing around the deathclaw he’d yet to give a nickname, their movements quick and playful. The creatures didn’t seem all that worried about their coming attack on the lodge, and he found himself envying their simple-mindedness.

Another day came and went, the pack using the river to guide them back to the area of the valley the lodge was located in. The mongrel that he’d blown apart with his explosive bullet was gone, bones and all, perhaps a yao guai had come through at some point and scavenged it. Copper chuckled under his breath as they walked past the sight, Pearl scrutinizing him with her amber eyes.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“That dog I shot around here kinda started all this,” he said. “We’d have never met if you hadn’t heard the shot.”

“That’s true,” she said. “Granted, shooting a dog isn’t exactly the most romantic beginning to our relationship, but who cares.”

“Hey, speaking of which… what were you doing out here in the first place anyway? Don’t tell me you were just sitting here waiting for someone.”

“I was drawn to you by the power of friendship,” Pearl said, giggling at him when he stared at her. “C’mon, not even a smirk? Alright seriously, I was going to do some recon on the lodge at the time, then you distracted me as you so often do nowadays.”

“Were you planning on attacking Hendrix before I came into the picture?”

“Of course I was! You would too if you had a thorn in your ass all the time, especially after said thorn captured you and tried to sell you off.”

“It’s thorn in your side,” he corrected.

“You try saying that with several horns sticking out of your butt.”

“We’re getting close now,” Cooper continued, changing the subject. “Maybe a day and a half out if we keep this pace. Wanna go over the plan again?”

“Sure,” she said. “Gather round, girls,” she added, the pack closing in on the pair from all sides. “First things first,” Pearl began. “We’ll split up into three teams, A B and C…”

-xXx-

Cooper placed a hand on the lip of earth covering him and Pearl, the pair looking down the length of road towards the structure in the near distance. The lodge emitted an aura of light, a yellow ball that encompassed both the building, and the walls of the pen that flanked the acres behind it.

Under the cover of darkness, they had snuck close enough to the lodge that they could hear the rattling of the mounted guns, the turrets swiveling on their stands as they tracked for movement. He could see men and women manning the walls, patrolling from left to right, the occasional piece of chatter lost over the distance. His suspicions had been right, the lodge had stepped up its security, which meant there was a good chance Jade was somewhere nearby. Neither he or Pearl voiced this fact.

“Any second now,” Pearl muttered, peeling back her hood a little to look out to the building. “There! Look!”

He turned his eyes skyward, movement on the roof of the lodge drawing his attention. Framed against the stars, the skies clear enough now that one could make out the many nebulas canvasing the heavens, was a spiky mass, stalking its way across the slanted rooftop, the tiles creaking under its weight.

Cooper held his breath, fearing the whole thing would come crashing down at any second. The burly figure darted over the peak, scanned its surroundings, then vanished from sight. After a few tense seconds, the roof did cave in, though for reasons other than the weight of the figure.

There was a tremendous bang, clouds of smoke and shrapnel pluming out from the rooftop, tiles and bricks falling down the sides of the building. The damage was controlled to the apex of the building, the structure holding fast, but bringing the lodge down wasn’t the plan.

Back on the ground level, roughly half of the turrets mounted on the walls stopped rotating, every other emplacement powering down with a distant whir. Someone shouted from afar, and then another explosion shook the earth, this one located on the opposite side of the lodge from where Cooper was crouching. The blast wasn’t huge, but the effects were immediate, some of the floodlights illuminating the area cutting off with loud clicks.

“Hope she didn’t catch herself in those blasts,” Cooper murmured. “I know your scales are tough, but shrapnel from a mine is no joke.”

“She’ll be fine,” Pearl reassured. “Looks like team C got the signal.”

She pointed further down the walls, what few sentries he could see on the barricades aiming their guns inside the pen, firing at something out of his view. In the near-darkness, the muzzle flashes lit up like beacons, more worried shouting reaching his ears as more men joined the chorus of gunfire.

Something else could be heard as well. The distinct buzzing sound of rapidly beating wings, along with the clicking and growling that could only belong to an adult gecko. Yet another blast sounded off, but from a grenade this time, snow raining down over the point of impact towards the east side of the pen. He could see Matriarch and one of the laborer’s scale the electrified fence, rushing into the fray. The last two deathclaws were on the far side of the lodge, doing the exact same thing if the sounds were any clue.

“Déjà vu…” Pearl whispered.

“What’s that?” Cooper asked.

“When me and the other hybrids escaped the Enclave,” Pearl began, her bright eyes oddly reminiscent of the explosions. “our plan relied on unlocking the holding areas for the ferals, using them to cause chaos while the rest of us slipped away.” She looked back at the lodge. “Pretty much doing the exact same thing now. I guess they always say don’t reinvent the wheel.”

“We should get moving,” Cooper said, his suit whirring as he got to his feet, Pearl following. They dashed across the road to the other side, keeping low as they approached the corner of the forward wall. Things might get a little awkward if a caravan decided to turn up right now, but that was something they had to risk.

“Hold up,” Pearl hissed, motioning for him to stay put as she peeked around the corner. Cooper kept his laser rifle trained on the walls, his sights sliding over one of the unpowered turrets. Hopefully those solar panels and the battery banks were the only things they had to worry about, and there wasn’t some auxiliary unit stashed away somewhere.

“Three guards,” Pearl reported. “They’re moving back inside… alright, go go go.”

They rounded the corner, hugging the wall as they approached the main entrance, Cooper’s heart racing as every electric whir of his suit potentially betrayed his position. Pearl was paradoxically quieter, her massive frame trudging lightly along the gravel.

As they moved up on the arched gate, Cooper took the lead this time, checking his loaded cell one last time as he got ready. He’d had his complaints about approaching through the front door, but Pearl had managed to convince him, her excuse echoing through his thoughts as he shouldered his new gun.

“Attacking from the front is so obvious that nobody will suspect it!”

Cooper turned out, Pearl whisking out to his left as he scanned the lodge’s front side. It seemed she had been right, there was not a soul in sight watching the inner courtyard, nobody behind the mechanism that would shut the gate. There was the mounted pair of turrets to one side that was angled this way, but their targeting systems were offline, the barrels angled towards the ground.

“Told ya,” Pearl whispered, Cooper seeing that she’d bounded across half the courtyard in a few moments. She seemed to get faster every time she put her athletics on display. “C’mon.”

He joined her at the door, the wooden beams creaking under his exosuit, Cooper peering his helmeted head through one of the windows. The expansive lobby was almost still under the light of the chandelier. Almost. He could see people dashing out of the wings and from the stairs flanking the centralized bartop, filing towards the rear doors, shouting orders at each other. There was at least a dozen of them at a glance.

“Let’s wait till most of them are outside,” Pearl said, looking over his helmet. “but not for too long, we can’t wait for Hendrix to get his people under control.”

When the groups of rushing guards died down, they made their move, Cooper shoving aside the door with his gauntleted arm, Pearl sweeping into the room right after. The bulk of the guards were out in the pen, visible between the far windows, shooting at shadowy outlines further out, but their rearguard wasn’t so oblivious.

A group of six armed guards were holding the lobby when Pearl and Cooper barged inside, each one peering back to give the newcomers confused looks. Cooper didn’t let the moment of surprise go to waste. He pulled the stock of his laser rifle into his shoulder, taking aim at the man halfway up the staircase on the left, and squeezed the trigger.

Pm-Pm-Pm! Three bright red lasers lanced across the lobby, the weapon jumping in Cooper’s arms. His target’s leather chestpiece did little to deflect the incoming energy, the man’s cry of alarm cutting short as three burning holes pocked his torso. His legs gave out, and he tumbled down the stairs, the smell of cooking flesh filling the air.

Pearl was already dashing across the lobby before the dead guard had rolled to the last step, brandishing one of her hands, her claws snicking out of their sheaths. The guard unfortunate enough to be closest to her fired his rifle in full-auto, the sound of ripping fabric just audible over the barking weapon. Pearl swiped his head clean off his shoulders, the body part flying through the air to land inside one of the adjacent wings.

As the headless body crumpled, the remaining guards started yelling out in alarm, directing their fire on Pearl. The nimble deathclaw danced out of the way, ducking behind one of the support columns, clutching her horned head as the bullets showered her position.

Cooper moved right, kicking over a table with his armoured boot and kneeling behind it, aiming at a guard taking cover behind the bar. His first shot scored one of the glittering bottles lining the counter, the glass fracturing into a shower of shards. The second shot hit the guard in the shoulder, the man crying out, but not going down, calling for his counterparts while pointing at Cooper.

The table that was his cover was quickly shredded, and with the added height of the power armour, Cooper was forced to move, strafing out to the right as he filled the room with burning arcs of energy. The amount of recoil from his laser gun was less than he expected, throwing off his next couple of shots as he got used to the weapon.

He darted into the wing branching off the lobby, putting his back to the solid wall. He fired off a few blind shots around the corner, his weapon clicking impotently after a few discharges. He slapped a gloved hand into the receiver, the energy cell popping out like a bottlecap, Cooper producing a replacement from his belt and shoving it into the slot. The electric whir informed him he was reloaded.

He couldn’t see Pearl, but Cooper couldn’t afford to keep track of her, turning out the corner and aiming at the wounded guard again. There was a momentary flash as something slammed into his slatted visor, leaving a little ingrain in the fiberglass. A squashed bullet fell to his feet, Cooper’s heart hammering in his chest as he returned fire.

This time, his lasers were fatal, the man going down with a mist of blood spraying behind him. Cooper turned his sights on the next guard, seeing they were retreating up the steps, using the balconies as cover to fire down on him.

As he relocated, dashing up the length of the lobby, he spotted Pearl, seeing her advancing on the other side. She could only dodge and weave so much in the limited space, and he saw more than one trail of her blood in her wake, concern momentarily overcoming him. Two of the guards on that side had backed off, unwilling to let Pearl get close. They dashed upstairs, but one tripped over his own feet in his haste, pleading for his companion to help him, who didn’t look back until he reached the second floor.

Pearl dragged the fallen guard towards her by his feet, pinching her fingers together to form a bundle of sharp claws, then impaled them through the back of his uniform, her claws undoubtedly poking through on the other side. His screams of terror went silent shortly after.

She pulled her hand free, a curving sheet of blood draping off her fingers, turning her draconic features to the remaining men. She climbed the steps, but the guards concentrated their fire on her, and as quick as she was, the narrow staircase did her no favours. Pearl hissed in pain as several bullets found their marks, and she shielded her face as she backed away, diving beneath the bar top for cover.

Cooper fired off another burst, but he couldn’t get a shot, the chandelier put him at a bad angle. They blanketed the lobby with automatic fire, breaking bottles and shredding plaster, Cooper forced to duck away. He picked his moment, leaning out and firing off another burst, the lasers catching on the many branching pieces of wood jutting from the chandelier, glass raining down on Pearl’s head.

They couldn’t afford to waste any more time, that was exactly what the guards were doing, delaying them until someone came over to assist. They needed to end this now.

He waited for a break in the fire, then leaned out of cover once more, brandishing the flare gun in one hand. A bright ball of light sailed up to the second floor, listing a little to the left and trailing white sparks. The flare landed right between the two guards, both of them shielding their eyes at the sudden influx of light.

“Now Pearl!” Cooper called out, but his companion was already leaping up the stairs, her robe fluttering out behind her as she sprinted on all fours. The guards had recovered in seconds, but that was all Pearl needed to close the distance, turning the corner and seizing one of the guards, slashing him across his chest with her deadly claws.

The second guard aimed his weapon, but Cooper pulled the trigger faster, peppering his flank with a stream of lances. As his shots found their marks, a sizzling sound filled the lobby, Cooper’s eyes going wide as the man began to seemingly fade away, falling out of sight behind the balcony railing. There was no thump as he hit the ground.

Pearl gave the strange scene a weary glance, then nodded at him gratefully, her shoulders rising and falling as she caught her breath. “You check downstairs!” she called out, gesturing with an arm. “I’ll look up here.”

Cooper did as she asked, leaning his helmeted head inside the wings, busting down locked doors with his weapon, the power armour frame giving him the extra strength needed. He reappeared in the lounging area where he’d first met Hendrix, the fireplace still crackling away under the mantle, but the room was empty, as was the other wing when he looked throughout the barracks. Everyone must be outside dealing with the chaos the pack had caused.

He moved up the stairs, the wooden boards groaning worryingly under his tremendous weight, his boot landing in what looked like a pile of ash. This must be the last guard he’d shot, the laser gun had disintegrated him. Grimacing, he lifted his boot out of the ash pile, and walked around it.

He spied his companion on the far left side of the balcony. She’d gone through every door systematically it seemed, with only the three leftmost ones yet to be searched.

“Nothing,” he informed her as he ran up, noting that there were dozens of holes in her robe, a trail of wet blood trickling down her legs to leave a trail. “Shit Pearl, you’re hit.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she replied, holding up a hand. “Just help me find this guy.”

The next room was a bathroom, empty, and the one after was the kitchen, also abandoned. That left only one more place to search. Cooper kept his gun trained on the ground floor as Pearl moved to the door, grasping the doorknob and giving it a twist, the device not budging.

Pearl lifted a brow at him, then told him to step back, raising a digitigrade leg and giving the door a swift kick. The lock broke, and it swung inward, Pearl squeezing her shoulders inside, Cooper following her through.

They found themselves in a long, narrow room, with a couple of pristine couches positioned between tall bookshelves stacked against one wall. Opposite these furnishings was a huge window looking out over the acres of land behind the lodge, the glass inlaid with metal brackets. On the far side was a desk and chair, with a terminal resting upon the former, its screen currently switched off.

Looking out through the glass was Hendrix himself, his aged features illuminated by the moonlight, his wrinkles casting hard shadows on his face. As he turned to look at the pair, a flash of recognition passed over him when he looked to Cooper, but he gave Pearl a hard glance, unaware of her true identity thanks to the robe.

“So this is how you repay my generosity, Mister Cooper?” the old man asked, his voice more authorative than his appearance would suggest. “I hire you to perform a task, and then you assault my compound using the very tools I gave you?”

“It’s nothing personal,” Cooper replied, his helmet giving his voice a robotic quality.

“A tiresome reply from your typical, thoughtless mercenary,” Hendrix muttered, turning to Pearl. “And what about you? Did Mister Cooper here promise you a sum of the rewards he claims I hold?”

“No,” Pearl answered. “For me, this is personal.”

She drew back her hood, her forked tongue snaking between her chops as she tasted the air, Hendrix taking a step back in alarm. It was the only time Cooper had seen the old man falter.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on Cooper,” Pearl continued. “You told him to bring me back here, and he did. Maybe you should be a little more careful with how you word your requests, Hendrix.”

“So you can talk,” the old man muttered, quickly regaining his composure despite Pearl’s efforts to appear intimidating. “Why did you not answer me the last time you were here? We might have reached some level of understanding, Omega…”

“We have plenty of time to chat now,” Pearl said. “Don’t we? You lodge is in chaos, and your guards are dead. You and me are all alone now.”

“Aren’t we?” Hendrix countered.

“Cooper’s staying,” she replied, glancing over her shoulder. “I want him to hear all of this.”

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about him.”

Pearl opened her mouth to speak, but instead she loosed a cry of pain, fresh blood spurting out of a wound that had suddenly appeared on her neck. She buckled, as if a dumbbell had been placed on her shoulders, twirling on the spot as red marks appeared on her neck. Hendrix stepped out of the way of her whipping tail, Pearl snarling in anger and confusion. Cooper raised his rifle, but he couldn’t see anything, his eyes darting frantically for the source of her pain.

She swiped her claws about like she was swatting at an errant fly, Cooper watching in disbelief as her hand connected with something solid above her head, something that his eyes couldn’t see. A hiss that wasn’t from Pearl called out, the deathclaw ramming her backside up against the wall as bite marks appeared on her arm, then her face.

Reaching up above her head, Pearl seized at something, her hands clenching over a distinct mass. She wrangled with the air, tossing what appeared to be nothing to the ground, but the thump of an impact convincing him otherwise. The deathclaw stamped on the spot with her digitigrade leg, her talons digging furrows into the floorboards as she missed whatever it was.

Realisation flashed in his eyes, Cooper whipping about in alarm, peering down the sights of his laser rifle. He could hear that hiss again, low and menacing, but he couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from.

“Call off your pet!” he snarled, turning his gun on Hendrix. The old man didn’t even bat an eye – he knew they wanted him alive, and that Cooper wouldn’t fire.

Pearl’s shoulder twisted unnaturally to the side, her face scrunching up as two puncture marks appeared on her bicep. She swiped down her torso, but she missed, her figure hunching as the invisible mass crawled over her backside. She threw out an elbow, but that also missed, Pearl throwing herself to one knee as the scales on her thigh were pierced.

Cooper held his sights over Pearl, watching as she spun and wailed on the spot. He couldn’t bring himself to squeeze the trigger, not without risking hitting Pearl. She was bleeding so much, her many bullet wounds now joined by these fresh bites.

She cried out as the thing attacking her bit down on the spot between her horns, but rather than try and swipe at it, instead she flipped herself over, planting her dorsal spikes into the wooden floor, some of them caving inward.

Dark blood appeared on a handful of her spikes, impaling into the gut of the invisible creature. A sourceless yowl filled the room as Pearl twisted her shoulders, goring the creature. She flipped onto her front, pinning the creature down before it could slither away.

Cooper was able to make out an outline of a torso as Pearl held the invisible thing down, the thing flailing so much that even Pearl almost lost her grip on it. She bared her teeth, her chops parting as she rammed her head between her hands. The hissing took on a wet quality as she gored it on her horns, more blood appearing on their sharp tips. Pearl gave her head a pointed twist, ensuring the kill, pulling her head back to decouple her face from the hidden mass.

The creature lost control of its invisibility, its canine-like body appearing in Pearl’s arms. The nightstalker’s tail rattled once more before going still, the beasts head rolling back as it bled out. Its body wobbled as Pearl let it go, shutting her eyes as she rose to a crouching position, her breath coming out in ragged gasps.

“Not… cool,” Pearl muttered. “Not cool at all.”

She was on Hendrix in a moment, grasping the old man by the throat, lifting him into the air so that their eyes were level. He kicked out his legs as Pearl flexed her other hand, her claws glinting as the light from the muzzle flashes outside caught on them.

“I’m getting pretty thin on patience right now, Hendrix,” Pearl snarled, blood dripping down her left eye. “I was hoping we could be a little more civilized, but you clearly want to do this the hard way.”

“D-Do what?” Hendrix sputtered, grasping at her hand, which she squeezed a little more tightly over his neck.

“I want information,” she demanded. “And if I even get a whiff of a lie, I’ll do things to you that’ll make your pet’s death look like paradise in comparison. I’d ask you how that sounds, but you don’t have much of a choice, do you?”

The choking noises Hendrix made were horrible, and he gave Cooper a pleading look, but he just shook his head. This was Pearl’s time, and he wasn’t going to intervene.

“Talk,” Pearl snapped. “When you captured me, how did you know where I was? Was it sheer dumb luck that you stumbled upon me of all deathclaws?”

“N-No,” Hendrix gasped.

“Then how?” Pearl demanded, leaning so close her horns brushed Hendrix’s temple. “You keep being vague, and this will be a lot more painful for you than it needs to be.”

“They told me how to find you!” Hendrix replied, Pearl’s hold on him loosening so he could speak. “I don’t know who they are! They didn’t give me names, and I didn’t ask, they weren’t the kind of people I wanted to press for details. Said they were looking for something, some subject, gave me a description that you fit to the letter.”

Pearl’s expression shifted. Now she was more worried than angry, though her fury quickly returned. “These people, have you told them that I’m here?”

Cooper’s heart sank. Hendrix had nodded.

“How do you contact them?” Pearl asked, exposing her teeth in either anger or fear, he wasn’t sure.

The old man pointed at the far end of the room, towards the terminal. Pearl glanced at it, then returned her fiery gaze to the old man.

“Cooper,” she said, her tone a little softer. “If you wouldn’t mind, please.”

He nodded, walking over and pushing the chair aside, hitting the power button on the boxy device. He waited for the BIOS settings to scroll by, the green tint of the screen casting half the room in a sickly light, and then a small window with two lines appeared, a flicking cursor awaiting his input.

“Wants a password,” Cooper announced. Hendrix told him a string of numbers, and after typing them in, a loading bar appeared. After it filled, a small startup menu occupied the screen. The options were settings, system, logs, and status. He tapped the arrow keys until he highlighted logs, then hit the enter button.

A couple of messages dating back for about a month popped up, all of them directing and receiving from the same user, according to the labels.

“Got some messages here from someone called… Private Astley,” Cooper said.

“So much for no names,” Pearl mumbled, giving Hendrix a look. “Read them out to me.”

“Lodge, preliminary report on subject. Use caution when engaging, target is highly elusive, but will attack if cornered. Subject reported to be active in the northeastern quadrant of California, estimated to be hiding in the many remote, abandoned locations to the far north of VC. Last seen traveling in isolation. Height: 280cm. Weight: 622 lb. Pink and white complexion. See below.”

There was a picture attached to the bottom of the message. In it, a pale deathclaw stood in the foreground of a whitewashed, featureless space. Pearl looked younger, a lot younger, her features less weathered, her hide oddly iridescent without all the gunshots and wounds she’d accumulated over her years in the Wastes.

“Don’t remember anyone taking a picture of me,” Pearl said. “Creepy. What else?”

“Next one’s a reply from Hendrix. Mister Astley, your report was invaluable, subject has been secured, currently sleeping in one of my cages. Told you the tranquilizer worked. I’ll let you keep the container if you want, though I’m a bit confused as to how you’ll transport it? You’re not using one of those flying contraptions again, are you? Please forewarn me if that’s the case, the animals were spooked for hours after you left last time.”

“Reply from Astley a day later. Lodge, confirm subject’s identity. We cannot risk sending a retrieval team unless there is complete certainty, we draw enough attention from the province already. You will be held accountable if fuel and resources are wasted.”

“Hendrix a few days after that. Mister Astley, the situation has changed. I don’t know how it did it, but it got out, but rest assured I have my best people working on finding it. Updates to follow.”

“Hendrix again. Update: sent out several teams into the valley, and one of them found something. Only one of the four guards returned, who claimed that a hunter I hired is working alongside the subject, and that said subject can speak. I chalked that up to delirium, you would have told me if it could communicate. Sending out another two teams to detain it, updates to follow.”

Cooper placed his hands on the desk. “That’s it,” he muttered. “Astley has to be Enclave, and he knows you’re definitely here.”

“Fuck!” Pearl snarled, pointing an accusing finger at the suspended Hendrix. “You’ve doomed me! Years I went without drawing attention to myself, now I’ll have vertibirds buzzing me any day now! Why couldn’t you just couldn’t leave me alone?”

She was choking him harder with every word, Hendrix’s face turning a worrying shade of purple. Just when Cooper thought she might suffocate the old man, she relented, her nostrils flexing as she sighed.

“What if we told them you’re dead?” Cooper suggested. “I can send a message right now, all we’ll have to do is play along.”

“Wouldn’t work,” Pearl grumbled. “they’d want my body recovered, and they’ll come back. Fuck knows what they’ll think when they see this mess we’ve made.”

Cooper wanted to do something, suggest anything, but nothing came. The cat was already out of the bag, and they’d be hard-pressed to convince her former captors to drop the search thanks to Hendrix’s messages. They’d been very lucky the Enclave hadn’t turned up the moment they’d been told she was caught.

“I-I could help you,” Hendrix whispered, breaking the silence. “I’m the only one with access to that terminal, I could tell them I’m cutting all ties, say you escaped and killed too many men for us to recover.”

“You do realise you just gave us your password?” Pearl asked, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you’d think me stupid enough to even consider leaving you alone with a way to contact them.”

“Then take my terminal!” Hendrix said. “Destroy it if you want, it’s the only device they gave me.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Pearl snarled. “You’re on the Enclave’s file now. Try to run now and they’ll find you. They always do…”

She shook her head, pinching her eyes between two claws.

“I… I didn’t want it to have to end this way, Hendrix,” she added, her tone suddenly shifting. “I hoped I could just ruin your operation and be done with it, but… I don’t see any other option now.”

“Wait, please,” Hendrix begged, her implication not lost on him. “As one thinking being to another, you must understand I was only doing what I had to do to survive. You’re not just a thoughtless animal, I see that now. I won’t bother you any longer, just let me go.”

“It took me days to convince my best friend to see me as more than a beast,” Pearl began, giving Cooper a glance. “but it takes you all of two minutes? I don’t believe you. I can’t. I’m sorry.”

She shut her eyes, Hendrix starting to plead as she clenched her hand around his throat. There was a gut-wrenching crack, Hendrix’s head jutting at an odd angle, his words cutting off with a breathy sigh. His limbs relaxed, dangling by his sides, Pearl placing him on the floor with a surprising amount of care, shaking her head as she stared at his corpse.

“There was no other way,” she muttered, giving Cooper a somber look. “Right?”

“Sorry, Pearl,” he said, walking over and placing a hand on her arm. “It had to be done, letting him go would have just made things worse.”

“Yeah,” she said, not sounding very convinced. She straightened up before continuing. “There’ll be time to feel bad for myself later. Right now we have to deal with the Enclave. Let’s have a look at those logs.”

She took up a spot in front of the terminal, getting on her knees so she was low enough to read the screen. The sounds of fighting beyond the window were dying down, Cooper looking out over the pen while Pearl clicked at the keyboard. He could see some of the pack dashing through the yard, along with a few other critters. There was a giant green mantis, its purple wings flittering as it dodged out of Matriarch’s way, its head twisting at unnatural angles. There was also a few brahmin, and what looked like a radscorpion in the distance. There were dead people and creatures everywhere, and it looked like the guards had abandoned the lodge to get clear of the loose animals.

“Wait a tick,” Pearl said, clicking her fingers. “We might not be able to get the Enclave off my back, but maybe we can throw them off it for a while.”

“How so?” he asked, walking back over to the desk.

“They’re a very secretive organization,” Pearl explained. “The Enclave operate in the shadows, making sure to capture or kill anyone who stumbles upon them, and keep their outside contacts in the dark about their true identity. See what this Private Astley guy says here? We cannot risk sending a retrieval team unless there is complete certainty, we draw enough attention from the province already. I’m pretty sure that means he doesn’t want everyone seeing a vertibird flying to and from their bases without a great reason. Those things aren’t exactly discreet.”

“So what do we say?” Cooper asked. “We could tell them that it wasn’t actually you who was captured, but that might read off as suspicious, Hendrix suddenly backing off after all this effort.”

“We tell them that some other organization has gotten involved,” Pearl said. “Say NCR or something has sent an armed group to investigate the area, and has set up a camp nearby. The Enclave wouldn’t dare showing themselves to a powerful group like them, or at least, that’s my hope.”

“Wont they ask why the NCR’s here?”

“Then we say we don’t know. It’s not up to us to ask questions, that’s what Hendrix basically said before.”

“Okay, that might buy some time,” Cooper admitted. “but Hendrix already told them you got away. You’ll never be safe if we can’t somehow reverse that.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible now,” Pearl sighed. “Best we can do is hope this made-up NCR squad keeps them out of the area for a while.”

“What if we said you were somewhere you aren’t?” Cooper suggested. “Tell them you were seen heading north, or west, out and away from the mine, and that trackers lost sight of you going somewhere like, the Glow or something.”

“Good idea!” she replied. “Alright, help me word this message, these keys are too small for my fingers.”

They spent maybe twenty minutes thinking and planning on a reply to the Enclave, Hendrix and his pet nightstalker starting to permeate the room with a foul smell. They were careful to make sure their message sounded like something Hendrix would say, using his prior messages as reference. Once they were both satisfied with their reply, they typed it all out in full, and what it said was this:

Mister Astley, teams reported subject is heading northwest in relation to my lodge. Highly elusive indeed. Ordered one team to track at a distance. No sign of the hired hunter my guard claimed was working with it. Apologies for the delayed response, it’s been getting popular around here these last few days. A group of President Tandi’s finest was patrolling the road yesterday, apparently the Republic has heard rumours of ‘flying metal birds’ and are investigating the area. They appear to be settling in for the moment. Updates to follow.

“It’ll have to do,” Pearl said, reading it over one last time. “I kinda want to put ASSHOLES or something at the end there, but that might give us away.”

“Maybe,” he said, smirking at her. “You want to send it, or will I?”

“I’ll do it,” she said. She brought a claw over the enter button, the icon flickering over the send command. “Feels weird talking to the Enclave again, even if its indirectly. Hopefully our little reunion doesn’t go much further than this.”

“It won’t come to that,” Cooper insisted. In truth he didn’t know what would happen after they sent the message, but he wanted to reassure Pearl in any way he could.

She gave him a grateful smile, then clicked the button. Their impersonated message was transferred after a small delay, appearing at the top of the log section. That was it, the ball was out of their court, and the fight was over for the moment. Pearl leaned on the desk as though suddenly overcome with fatigue, Cooper reciprocating as he plucked his helmet off, taking in a breath of fresh air.

Something metallic in the corner of the room caught his eye. It was a silver box stood on a set of four tiny legs, the front side of it built like a door. Tilting his head, he made his way over to it, seeing that instead of a traditional doorknob, there was a circular dial labeled with over a hundred numerics.

“Hendrix’s safe,” he muttered. He tried putting in the password for the terminal, but the code was too long. “Wonder what’s inside it.”

“You keep forgetting you have a deathclaw on tap,” Pearl said, waving for him to stand clear. She walked over, slipping a claw into the groove in the door, slicing the lock apart like it was nothing. The safe swung open, Cooper leaning over and peering inside. What he saw inside made his veins flood with excitement.

Green bundles of notes held together by rubber bands occupied the top shelf to capacity, crammed all the way to the back wall. The number 100 was stenciled into each corner, with President Tandi’s youthful face donning each bill. The lower shelf was similarly brimming, but instead of paper notes, there was several bulky bags tied at the necks by hairy strings, their contents bulging the linen outwards.

Cooper reached down to drag one of said bags out, finding himself needing to use both arms to lift it. He undid the knot in the string, folding back the neck, Pearl’s amber eyes widening as she peeked inside.

“Am I crazy,” she began. “or is that like, a whole Nuka Cola factory’s worth of caps in there?”

There had to be a hundred caps easy on the first few layers alone, and there were maybe half ten bags crammed into the safe. The paper money already outdid his promised reward money that Hendrix had offered, but this was just absurd. Had this come straight from the Enclave, or was this simply Hendrix’s treasury? He’d never know, nor did he much care anyway.

He took out a handful of caps, letting them trickle through his gloved fingers, clinking as they fell back into the bag. He’d never seen so much wealth in one place before, and his thoughts were already rushing with the possibilities that were now open to him.

“Looks like you got what you wanted after all,” Pearl said, Cooper glancing up at her. “All the reward money and then some. You could buy back your parent’s place, heck maybe the whole block with this kind of cash.”

“There’s an idea,” he muttered, transfixed as he pulled another bag from the safe.

“I… I guess that’s it then,” Pearl added, rubbing one of her horns absentmindedly.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, you’ve accomplished what you set out to do,” she explained. “your life as a hunter is over, and you’re’ rich as fuck. You could hire out the Bishop family condo with all this, and those New Reno women will crawl over each other to get to Mister Rich Guy Cooper.”

“Having a bunch of consorts would be a nice way to live,” he admitted.

“I’m happy for you,” Pearl continued. “You get to live out the rest of the winter behind walls, surrounded by your own kind. Don’t know how you’re gonna manage to bring all this to the city with you, those bags look heavy. Maybe the joy of being rich will give you the willpower.”

“Pearl… I was pretty content before finding all this money.”

“What? But-” He silenced her with a peck on the chin, the power armour allowing him to just reach her if he tiptoed. He chuckled at her bewildered expression, Pearl blinking at him. “Y-You talked so much about getting your fortune, I thought this was what you wanted?”

“I’m not denying the money’s a good bonus,” he admitted, resting his hands on her wide hips. “But I guess my priorities changed over these past few days. You asked me once if I saw you as more than just a beast,” he continued, Pearl grinning at him as he began to stumble his words. “and the answer is… I do. I… I like you, Pearl, more than anything. I’ve been worrying for so long on what kind of person that makes me, but after all that’s happened, I don’t give a shit anymore. I guess what I’m trying to say is I… I think I’ve fallen for you.”

He watched her cheeks flush into a shade of crimson, her smile not born from teasing, but of relief.

“I guess I can be pretty annoyingly insistent,” she chuckled, her laughter coming out a little more forced than was natural. “I was worried too,” she continued, brushing his cheek with a claw. “I kept thinking that once we took out the lodge, that was it, you’d be on your way. I almost didn’t want to bring it up, like I’d jinx it or something. What about your dreams of living in a city?” she asked. “I like my den, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a heated apartment block.”

“I’d be willing to make a few sacrifices if it means staying with you, if you’ll have me,” he added. Pearl answered by wrapping her arms around him, the servos in his suit whirring as they compensated for her weight.

“O-Of course I will! This whole time I’ve been trying to get you to stay with me, and now you’re asking for permission? You’re such a tease, Coops…”

Her thighs opened, encompassing his waist on both sides as she pushed against him, guiding him up against the wall as she leaned over, pressing her mouth against his own. He battled with her forked tongue for a while, Pearl pulling back to peeper his face with quick kisses, Cooper chuckling as her organ tickled him.

“And, for the record,” she added between pecks. “I love you too. Yes!” she exclaimed, pumping a fist. “I finally got to say that to someone other than the mirror! It feels utterly amazing!”

“Just wait until the pack here’s about this,” he said, his words muffled by her bosom as she pulled him into her chest. After holding him there for a few minutes, she gave him some room, turning to peer out the glass.

“The pack, right,” she said, a twinge of worry creeping into her voice. “Let’s go check on them, we’ll pick this back up later, count on that.”

-xXx-

Cooper and Pearl shared a sigh of relief as they walked out into the pen, seeing that all members of the pack were accounted for. One of the laborers had a few gunshot wounds on her arm, and Matriarch had what looked like bite marks on her chest, but that was the extent of their wounds. Cooper ducked back inside in search of a medkit, returning to patch up the deathclaws once he located one.

As he dressed Matriarch’s wounds, the beast nibbling on the bandage, pausing when Cooper chided her, Pearl motioned for the pack to gather round, switching to their language as she started to speak. Cooper guessed she was explaining to them what had happened to Hendrix.

He looked around the area as she gave them the news. The pen was like an abandoned battlefield. Broken fences were strewn everywhere, sections of the outer wall partially collapsed from where the escaped wildlife had barged their way to freedom. Some of the turrets were utterly destroyed, with only their mounted legs still standing on the vantage points, the guards must have managed to get some of them back online during the attack. What guards that had managed to survive were nowhere to be seen, and Cooper doubted they’d ever come back after the show the pack had given them.

“Heads up, Cooper,” Pearl said, and before Cooper could ask, the runt of the pack barreled into him, nuzzling her horns into his chest, his alarm quickly fading as he returned her embrace.

“Guessing you told them I’ll be sticking around?” he asked, the runt squatting by his foot, her tail wagging happily.

“They’re as happy as I am,” she informed him, standing head and shoulders above the pack as they gave him warm looks. “You’ve grown on them in the short time we’ve spent together, even this one here was worried she’d have to say goodbye.”

Pearl patted Matriarch’s shoulder, the giant deathclaw looking away, perhaps sensing she was the subject of the conversation despite the language barrier.

“That’s… somehow adorable,” he laughed. “I was thinking,” he added, gesturing at the lodge. “It’d be a waste to let all that furniture in there go to waste. We should bring some of this stuff back to the mine, spruce up the place.”

“Suppose we should decorate it if you wanna live there long-term,” Pearl replied. “And those bookcases would look damn fine in my room.”

“We should see about transporting Hendrix’s terminal as well,” Cooper continued. “I think it has its own battery unit, so we should be able to just pick it up. We can keep an eye on it for when the Enclave replies to us.”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Pearl said. “Right now I just want to lay down and sleep for a solid day. But first…”

Without warning, she picked him up, shaking him from side to side as she hugged him to her bosom, Cooper’s feet dangling over the ground. He felt her scales thrum as she purred happily.

“Just had to get that out of my system,” she murmured. She placed him back on the ground, but the moment she freed him, Matriarch took her place, nuzzling him from the left side. Not wanting to be left out, the runt took up the right, and the rest of the pack soon joined in, subjecting him to an overwhelming, but no less pleasant group hug.

“I’ve got my mate,” Pearl said, snickering as he avoided catching himself on their spikes. “I’ve got my pack, and our hunters are gone. I’d say that’s a pretty good outcome, all things considered.”

“Best job I’ve ever taken,” Cooper said, Pearl’s throwing her head back, giggling as the pack pressed in all around him.