Heated Partners

Rated: R definitely.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Dark Angel.

Summary: What would've happened if Max had been in heat when Alec first walked into her cell at Manticore...?

This is my answer to Smartieepants challenge. I thought it would be interesting. This is my first attempt at an Alec/Max fic so be gentle please. Reviews are most welcome. Here it goes.

Anything in italics is that characters thoughts.

Chapter One

Max entered her cell feeling more trapped than ever. Was it hotter in here than usual or was it her. God did the thermostat break or is this their new method of coercion? Man that one X5, what was his designation? Whatever it was he was lookin' good! Wouldn't mind getting a piece of that transgenic ass Max thought biting her lip. Oh god! I'm in heat! Shit! What am I gonna do?!

First pull yourself together solder! Another voice in her head said Get your head in the game. You're only in the beginning stages. Tomorrow when it starts getting really bad they'll see what's going on and do to you whatever they've been doing the other females when they went into heat.

For once I'll be glad for their intervention. Okay time to concentrate on escaping. The physical activity will help distract me. Max folded up her bed using the hooks in the wall to secure it. She pulled out the metal rod and started sawing her way through the bricks. It was a little while later when Max heard footsteps coming down the hall. She quickly worked the brick back into place, unhooked her cot and climbed in feigning sleep. She could have sworn her heart skipped a few beats when she heard them stop at her door. We're they coming for her already? It could only be for the better if they were right? I mean they had usually grabbed all the other females by now hadn't they?

When the guards had come to get him from his room, if you could call it that, X5-494 was both anxious and annoyed. He knew Manticore had given him an excuse to get laid. Not something you got to do very often in Manticore, at least outside of away missions but they could have stuck him with a dog. Sure they had genetically engineered them all to be cream of the crop in everything including looks but that didn't mean they were all his type. Most people there thought he preferred blonde's cause that's who he usually ended up with but the truth was he'd always had a soft spot for brunettes. He just usually ended up with blondes cause the brunettes never showed much interest in him. As he always said it was just his luck, always falling for what he can't have.

Not to mention some of theses girls could be dead fish. He knew this from personal experience. It had been toward the end of dinnertime when 494 had been heading back to his room only to be cornered by X5-287. Her pheromones had immediately hit his senses and his instincts kicked into overdrive. Somehow they had made it to his room where he experienced a night he'd never forget. He'd been with her one more time after that. They'd snuck into a supply closet but he might as well have been screwing a post for all the passion and energy there was. He'd carefully spurned her advances from that point on.

He'd heard about the whole mating thing. Something that happened between two Transgenics that got together when the female was in heat. It became more than a physical thing. They acted like wolves in the wild protecting each other, acting like they owned each other. It was bizarre and Manticore couldn't figure out what caused it cause it didn't happen every time. Of course there weren't many cases to study. Manticore was usually pretty good at getting to thee females when they went in heat and giving them a suppression drug before anything like that could happen.

Please let her be my type and have at least some spark of life in her. 494 thought as he stopped in front of the door that separated him from his new lover. The door slid open and he stepped in with his usually cocky manner. Than two things hit him at once. First he had gotten his wish. She wasn't only pretty but gorgeous. Second she was in heat. Oh this is gonna be better than I thought.

When Max saw the person who had stepped into her cell she forgot about being in heat. She was so shocked by the torrent of emotions flashing through her only one thought stuck out through the myriad of them all. "Ben?"

Huh? Who's Ben. "What?" I hope she doesn't have a boyfriend.

"You look like some one I use to know." Max said her wits slowly coming back to her.

"My designation's 494" He said walking further into the room

"His was 493." She said trying to get her thoughts sorted out and figure out who this guy was that wore her brother's face. One thought struck her. "You must be twinned."

"493, you're fellow traitor. Went psycho." So Ben's not a boyfriend just my twin that lost it and I got to pay the price. That's a memory I wanted brought up. He thought sarcastically. Great way to start the night. Can we get to it already? Her hormones are driving me crazy. Has she even noticed she's in heat? He was starting to have a hard time concentrating. Max's pheromones were permeating the small room making his body want to take over.

"What would you know about it?" Max could feel her temper rising. How dare he talk about Ben that way. He doesn't know what Ben went through.

"I know because of him I had to spend six months in Psy-Ops." So much for not dredging up those memories. God does she have to look so hot? "They wanted to make sure it wasn't genetic. Looks like ten years in the world finally got to him."

"It was this place that got to him." Her temper was really starting to flare and it didn't help that her body was starting to remind her of it's current state by reacting to his close proximity. Why does he have to be so hot? Even for a transgenic.

"Whatever. Well let's get this over with huh." He couldn't take much more. His body was craving her by now. It was taking all his willpower to keep it from showing and act nonchalant about it. He started untucking his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Max asked starting to feel worried when he started untucking his shirt.

"We've been paired off. I'm your breeding partner." He said pulling his shirt off.

"My what?!" Oh god pleas put your shirt back on. No don't put your shirt back on. Mmmmm! Delish! No! Snap out of it. This is wrong and on so many levels. Remember you love Logan. With those full lips and scruffy beard. Not helping! Where's a cold shower when you need one? I can do this. It's still early enough for me to control my urges. Just stay angry.

"We're supposed to copulate every night until you get pregnant." Pleas let it be more than once or twice. For once 494 found himself cursing his superior genetics.

"That's sick!" She was trying to hold on to her anger but the thought of having him in her bed every night sent shivers down her back.

"It's your own fault. If you and your friends hadn't blown up the DNA database they'd still be whipping up eggs and putting them in surrogates. Take off your clothes." God please don't fight to much on this. I don't know how long I can control myself and be gentle. He'd already noticed how the pheromone levels had increased when he'd taken off his shirt. So he knew she wasn't totally immune to him. The problem was it made it that much harder on him.

Please tell me he's not reaching for his belt. "Get out of my cell." Max could feel her body heating up at the thought of what lay under those pants.

"We've got our orders." He stated hoping that would do the trick. But he didn't know Max.

Max could feel her body taking over and desire consuming her as he started to undo his pants. So she did the only thing she could think of and put as she much distance between them as possible. She lashed out and kicked him back against the door.

494 was caught completely off guard. "What the hell was that?!"

"The only kind of physical contact you and I are gonna have." She snapped trying to rain in her body's reaction.

Now he was getting aggravated. Between the treatment he had received since entering her cell, her pheromones making it very hard to think straight and her general hotness he felt like literally climbing the walls. So he decided it was his turn to be the aggravating one. Turn about is fair play. He thought walking up to her. "You know, this isn't exactly a plum assignment for me either. You spent half your life out there in filth and degradation. I could catch something."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself…" God he's close. Much too close! Look at those full lush lips. They looks so kissable. I wonder if they taste as good as they look. Dammit! Focus Max! Don't get sidetracked now. Mmmmm… Look at those eyes though. You could just fall into 'em. It took all her strength to restrain the purr rising in her throat. It's getting hotter in here. "Just so long as we understand each other." She handed him back his shirt catching a strong whiff of his smell as it went by. God he smells like heaven.

He chuckled to himself. Though it wasn't so much out of amusement as self deprecation. This girl was in heat and still fighting. If anything that just made his attraction to her go up. "Fine. Don't 'freak out on me.'" Max gave him on odd look at his word choice trying to take her mind off his rock hard abs. "I took 'Common Verbal Usage' when I got cleared for my solo missions."

"Oh you mean assignations?" She was trying not to look at his well defined chest and perfectly unblemished skin. Why isn't he putting his shirt back on?

He'd started to put his shirt back on but instead had decided to leave it off hoping to tempt her. He knew she found him attractive and the pheromone levels were going up as she got further along in her heat. It's only a matter of time before she can't resist me anymore. "It was my job. You want to 'bust my chops' about it, go ahead."

They turned to the "window" in the door when they heard someone approaching. When Max saw it was a guard she spoke up quickly trying to distract him from noticing their state of undress or lack there of in her case thinking he was there to check and make they were following orders like good little breeding solders. "He's reading me love poetry, you know, to get me in the mood."

494 threw her an amused yet superior look as he walked towards the guard. "You got something for me?" The guard asked completely ignoring Max. 494 handed him some pills. "Beautiful." The guard said passing money to 494.

"Do me a favor. Give these to Vic." He said passing the guard a few cigars. "Tell him he can pay me later."

"No problem." The Guard said and left.

"Thanks." 494 whispered as he left. He turned back to Max seeing her look of consternation he decided to explain himself a little. "He's got a thing for those vitamins they make us pop every morning." He pulled out his wallet and stuffed the money in it trying to ignore the sent of her pheromones and what they were doing to him. They seemed to be increasing exponentially now.

"I'm not even going to ask about the cigars." How does he even pulling out his wallet look hot?

"I got a few things working." Would she quit staring at me already? I can feel her eyes raking me and God is it turning me on. 494 was trying to suppress the growl that wanted to come out. A growl of frustration and arousal. Deciding to play it cool he walked over to her cot. "Listen I got an hour to kill before I head back to the barracks. Why don't you wake me up at 0100?" He said acting like it was to save face and that he had capitulated and decided not to push her. He tossed his shit to the side and stretched out so there was no way to deny or avoid his perfect physique. Just give it time. Soon she'll be crawling all over me. Or me all over her with the way her pheromone levels are spiking.

I can't believe he's just going to lie there like that. With that gorgeous body on display. He's gotta be doing it on purpose. No he doesn't know you're in heat. I don't know that. Plus he's arrogant enough, heat or no heat, to think that might tempt me. Well it's not going to work. I'll just sit over here in the corner for the next hour and not think of the sexy man lying in my bed right now. With that beautifully tanned skin, those taunt muscles that ripple so beautifully every time he moves or flexes, or that hair that looks so soft and is the perfect length to run my hands through. Or how much I just want to grab him by that hair and pull him down into a mind-shattering, searing kiss with those full, lush, pouty lips of his. Right, another hour. Not that hard. Max whimpered quietly to herself.

But having transgenic hearing of course 494 heard it. Oh yeah, not long now. He smiled to himself.

TBC……

So tell me what you think. Love it? Hate it? I'll have the next chapter up soon I promise. And the next one is where it'll really start getting heated.

For those of you waiting for the next installments of my other stories I haven't forgotten. I was just getting a brain cramp and needed to do something short, sweet and simple to get my mind off 'em. The next chapters for them will be up soon I swear. Probably by the end of the week.