Author's notes: This story is loosely based from the heat challenges presented a couple of months back over at the Dark Angel Raising Hell website. Somehow, everytime I try to post a new story, it takes me longer to get all the preliminary info categorized (genre, rating, etc.) than it is to write the actual story! But sometimes, a storyline just strikes and you have to write it, you know? Regardless of how much trouble it's gonna give you.

Music Suggestions: 'Crown of age' by The Ettes, 'Take me under' by Three Days Grace.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Cameron Eglee Productions and FOX. The original characters and plot are the property of the author (which is me, in this particular case). I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. (This is my "serious" disclaimer :D )

Heat of the Moment

Alec joined Max in the middle of the street on her walk to the command center for their weekly review meeting about two minutes away from their destination.

What made this an odd occurence? They lived in the same building and it was normally a ten minute walk.

"Max." Alec said cheerfully, by way of greeting. A bounce filled his step as he walked casually beside her.

"I don't wanna know why you didn't meet me at my apartment, as I asked you to." Max returned briskly, her steps not faltering as she imparted him with a meaningful glare before returning her gaze forward.

Chuckling, he snuck a glance at her profile to try and gauge just how pissed she was at him. It was an around the clock sort of thing lately, but standing Max up, he realized from both present and past experience, left her especially bitter and prone to violence.

But then, perhaps she might forgive him this transgression once he told her about the bootleg beer and whiskey he'd been able to pilfer from one of his many underground connections.

However, for some unknown reason, he almost openly stared at Max as he tried to place the feeling of unease that twisted his insides suddenly. Her skin was flushed and glowing, a healthy contrast to her almost pale and drawn coloring as of late. The temperature was on the cool side, being late September, and yet all she wore was a tight-fitting t-shirt and tank top combo over dark blue jeans and motorcycle boots. He himself was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and jacket.

Something was off, he just couldn't place it.

It wasn't until they were inside command central, over the halfway mark towards their destination when the proper alarm finally started clanging in Alec's brain. He halted about sixty feet away from the conference room filled with male X5's, scenting something sweet and intoxicating, yet something that was as unfamiliar as a full-fledged smile from Max directed at him.

Max was entering a heat cycle.

Latching onto her upper arm and hauling her between two tall, tarp-covered pallets filled with supplies, he glanced at least four of the other male X's from the other end of the building sniffing the air curiously.

"What the hell, Alec?" Max exclaimed indignantly as he backed her up against one of the pallets and lined himself up as close to her body as she'd allow.

He had to mask her scent before matters got out of hand. The fact that he couldn't resist the urge to surround her with his scent anymore than he could resist breathing had nothing at all to do with it.

"Tell me something, Max." Alec whispered sedately, leaning in close. Max's breath hitched as her hands only by reflex rose to his chest to keep a semblance of distance. He unconsciously pulled in a deep draft of her unique pheromone composition before he continued. "Were you planning on telling me that you're in heat?"

"What?" Max hissed in a panicked tone, her gaze shifting in both directions frantically, expecting to be bombarded with unwanted male attention from both sides.

"It hasn't gone into full effect yet." Alec informed her calmly. "But it wasn't wise coming out in public. We met outside on the way here, which is why I didn't catch it sooner. Now we're in an enclosed space full of transgenics that can scent you. A few have already picked up on you and will start searching for you any minute now."

"Is that why you're so close?" Max asked in a low, distracted tone, one of her hands starting to move across his chest. "To mask me?"

"I have to ask you something." Alec said instead of answering her question, his pulse quickening at her gentle petting. They didn't have much time. The fingertips of his right hand reached up to caress the free-flowing locks of her hair.

"Hmm?" Max prompted for him to continue.

"Will you let me bite you?" Alec asked in a husky tone, his left hand wandering along her arm coaxingly. His gaze fell to her right shoulder.

Nodding in an entranced manner, she began to let her head fall to one side before realization dawned. Her head snapped back up into an upright position. "What?" she asked dryly.

"We're about to walk into a 10 by 15 foot room filled with ultra-enhanced smelling tools. Every single guy in there will be unable to resist auditioning to mate with you. If you let me mark you, we might be able to get out of here without any broken bones or bloodshed." Alec replied matter of factly.

"I can't let you bite me. It's...it's...you." Max said in a scandalized tone, succeeding in pushing him back a couple inches.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think I might cry." Alec returned in a deadpan tone, his hand releasing her arm to place a hand over his heart. Turning serious, both hands moved to her shoulders and shook her lightly. "Max, everyone already knows we're here. If we walk into that room now and you lose complete control, nothing will stop any man within smelling distance from coming after you. It affects us just as much as it affects you. One of us might succeed in getting you alone. Or we'll go at it tag-team style, one at a time. And you won't care. Think, Max! This isn't just me trying to get you naked and underneath me. I don't want to mark you. We don't go around marking someone just for the hell of it. Once it's done, it's done. You could probably sleep with human men, but around here, X's will respect the claim and not even try. Hell, most of the girls around here won't even bother trying to bed me anymore because we're seen together all the time. They just assume we haven't gone through the formality for PR's sake. There's nothing physically stopping us from marking others, but I won't. Most don't. I don't take most things seriously, but when it comes to this...I'm dead serious, Maxie."

Max stared back at him mutely, a mixture of hurt, embarrassment, and lust all warring for dominance in her dark eyes.

"We don't have to have sex, Maxie. I'm just trying to help you out. Like always." Alec added somberly, his thumbs grazing back and forth against her bare arms reassuringly.

Max sucked in a deep breath before she spoke, as if she had trouble voicing the words out loud. "Do I have to return the favor?"

"No. It's mostly a guy thing." Alec answered without hesitation. Some mischief returned to his dark expression. "Of course, that hasn't stopped some of the more territorial X5 women."

"How do you know know all this?" Max asked gently, disbelief written all over her features.

"Manticore didn't always have a drug to suppress the heat cycle in females, they didn't even know it was a possibility. I barely hit puberty before I was involved in the first wave of heat. There were other X's a lot bigger and stronger than I was, and I got tossed around quite a few times." Alec replied, a tenseness developing in his neck and shoulders from recounting the memory as his gaze focused on a spot over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Max apologized, placing one hand over his heart consolingly.

"It would have happened whether you'd been there or not." Alec stated in a tone void of emotion, meeting her eyes again. "We've only got a few minutes before your heat peaks and we need to get you out of here as quickly as possible. But you should know, Max, if something happens between us...I mean if we don't get you alone in time...I'll be a good lover, and I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do. I'll...I'll take care of you."

"Okay." Max replied in a distant tone, her eyes clouding with lust and focusing on his mouth. Her own lips quirked in a way that implied a strong physical interest in seeing him naked.

"No, Max. Not just like that." Alec clarified, shaking her again. "If something results from our...mating."

"Wait. What do you mean 'if something results'?" Max asked, her tone scathing as the fog temporarily cleared once again, her fingers putting quotation marks around the final three emphasized words.

"I trust you know the mechanics of the baby making process." Alec retorted in a joking tone. His tone sobered. "Depending on how many times we...come together, we're most likely going to reproduce. If it's just one time...maybe nothing will happen. In some cases, it takes a few tries to get egg and sperm compatibility. It's not a guarantee, though. And considering how we were paired together back at Manticore...we're probably already very compatible."

"Tell me again why you have to bite me?" Max asked, in a tone that said she didn't want to be in her current position but unable to do anything about it.

"Right now, most of us will be able to keep a semblance of control. Even if we don't necessarily want to. If they see the mark, they'll accept that we're mutually exclusive. It's kind of like a wedding band, or an 'I love insert name here' tattoo. Except it's more significant, something we'll all abide by." Alec explained, leaning in close to Max's neck and breathing in deep from shoulder to ear, hovering ever closer towards the edge of pheromone bliss.

"So if I don't, then it's all one giant pissing contest and the winner gets me?" Max stated sullenly. "Great. Just freaking great."

"Sorry, Max. I wish I could give you more options. Not that you'll much care at that point if it does come to that." Alec answered.

"Are you certain they'll back off if I let you do this?" Max asked begrudgingly, her fingers fisting up the front of his shirt.

"It's not a guarantee, no." Alec admitted, closing his eyes and biting his lip to resist the urge to take her before she fully complied with his request. It was getting dangerously close to crunch time. "We don't carry each other's scent on our skin. Some might argue that the mark alone doesn't count. That we just faked it."

"Which we did." Max grumbled, cursing her hormones worse than she ever had before. "How do we do the whole scent thing then?"

"The most effective method?" Alec began, staring at her neck hungrily. "Logging in a copious amount of between the sheets time."

Max bit back the moan that resulted from the images that sentence sprouted in her head. "I meant now. Anything short-term that we can fake for the present."

"Will you let me stick my hand down your pants?" Alec asked, already aware of the answer but couldn't resist asking.

Max's patent glare confirmed his answer. She wasn't that far gone.

Pulling the collar of his shirt aside, he tilted his head. "Lick me."

"What?" Max practically shrieked in muted tones.

"You want the quick, PG-13 version? This is it." Alec said in a clipped tone. "It's the first place they'll go for confirmation."

She stared closely at the pulse thrumming in his neck, how its erratic cadence matched hers. Swallowing hard to tamp down on how enthusiastic the thought of licking that pulse made her, Max leaned forward and pushed his head to the opposite side with one hand. She felt Alec's pulse quicken in anticipation as she tentatively touched the tip of her tongue to his skin. One of his hands fell to her waist and his fingers clenched around her side as she flattened her tongue against his neck and slowly dragged it upward from his collarbone to the tender flesh under his ear. A subdued groan and a small shudder came from him when her teeth nipped at the skin her tongue had just tasted.

Pulling her from her involved, thorough task suddenly, Alec pressed forward, barely pausing to pull her hair aside before he buried his face in the cradle her neck and shoulder formed. The whimper escaped her lips unbidden as his mouth teased the skin he'd just decided was his to plunder.

"Bite your hand." Alec commanded gruffly, pulling his mouth away only long enough to utter those three words.

"Why?" Max asked in a daze.

"We can't be too loud." Alec explained in an impatient, muffled tone.

"I can control myself." Max said defensively, her temper sparking.

"Have you ever been marked by another male X5 in the past?" Alec asked, pulling away minutely to meet her eyes.

Max hesitated at the dark intensity she read in his eyes. Eyes that were no longer 100 percent Alec. "No."

"Then. Bite. Your hand." Alec clipped out in a stressed tone. He waited until her mouth closed around the fleshy area below her thumb, her teeth digging into the material of her fingerless gloves.

Max drew in a sharp breath in expectation as she felt the outline of his teeth in the same spot he'd just abandoned. Her surprised cry turned into a muffled scream as his teeth sank into her skin, drawing blood. One of his arms encircled her waist and banded tight as her knees buckled.

It felt like he held on for an eternity, the pain disguising itself as euphoria as she felt the tell-tale signs of a heat cycle flaring to life.

He was licking the wound clean as they heard their names being called from the other end of the hall.

"Alec?" Max asked in a breathless tone. She hitched one leg around his calf and rubbed against his leg. "We need to be alone. Right now. I'm losing control."

"Me, too." Alec mumbled against her neck, the short and focused laps of his tongue turning leisurely and savoring. "Taste so good. Want to lick you everywhere."

A low grumbling sound worked its way out of Alec's throat as the voices from their conference room started moving closer. His arms tightened around Max and pulled her closer as a warning snarl marred his usual pleasant expression.

Max purred her approval and pasted herself even closer to Alec, her nose rubbing back and forth along the column of his neck.

"Don't let them separate us. I want you, nobody else." Max commanded, his scent providing the highest level of security to her heat-elevated senses.

Alec retreated suddenly, causing Max to whimper and surge back towards his embrace. Holding her at arm's length, Alec began tugging her in the direction opposite the voices.

"Where are we going?" Max asked as she hurried to keep up. Both hands latched onto his left arm as he strode forward with a harried purpose.

"Somewhere that no one can interfere with what we need to do." Alec stated incisively.

oooooocoo*ooomooosoo*oowoooooo

"So," Mole began, leaning back casually in his chair as he lit a fresh cigar. "Max?"

"Yep." Biggs replied, looking towards the open doorway as most of the inhabitants took off after a mysteriously enchanting smell.

"And Pretty Boy was with her?" Mole questioned further, pulling a few drags off the cigar.

"You're kidding, right?" Biggs retorted with an incredulous question of his own. "I've never seen Alec shadow anyone like this. There hasn't been an occasion that I haven't see one without the other."

"Great. As if we don't have enough drama around here." Mole muttered drolly, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and fixating on a loose ceiling tile. "Logan boy's gonna be pissed." Mole added almost gleefully. "You feel the pull?"

"Of course I feel the pull." Biggs replied in a frustrated tone, shoving his hands through his hair. "I'm resisting."

"Relax. It'll all be over in a few hours." Mole said monotonously, unconcerned.

"Hours! More like days." Biggs muttered bitterly, already weary of his cocktail DNA. Maybe if Cece were close by it'd be easier...

"Trust me." Mole said sagely, folding his arms behind his head and grinning. "If that boy knows anything about anything, it's working horizontal miracles. Not to mention they've been pinned to burn up the sheets for over a month now. Our fearless leader won't know what hit her."

ooouoooooo*oonooo*oooroooo*

Rational thought had left him awhile back, back before he marked Max. Nothing existed outside the room they were in, an unused locker room that had been attached to a small workout room, long since abandoned. Her mouth was full and pliable, conforming to his as he worked one muscled thigh between hers, drowning in everything that was Max. One of her legs had twined itself around his, twisting her body in an attempt to lift and grind her hips into his.

The world could crumble around his ears, and he wouldn't care less. Just as long as they left Max and him to themselves for the foreseeable future. He couldn't get enough of her. She swore as often as she caressed and fondled, leaving him with a sense that if he weren't so caught up in getting her naked, he might have laughed and teased her mercilessly about it.

Considering the cursing was coming from the fact that she couldn't get his pants open fast enough due to their being all buttons instead of a single button and zip closure may have also had something to do with it.

Damn if Max wasn't the best damned kisser he'd ever been lucky enough to hook up with. Her heat pheromones may have amplified his testosterone level to make him about as hard as he'd ever been in his life, but the fact that it was Max's pheromones dragging him under made it all that much more erotic and tantalizing. It was like a true taste of heaven, being Max's mate, knowing that he was the only transgenic she'd ever be with.

Right now, they seemed to be at a battle of wills to see who ended up on top first.

Her boots were off and her jeans were halfway down her legs, and she was torn between separating herself from his body long enough to take the garment completely off and trying to turn the table and buck him off so that he was on the bench beneath her spread legs. A cry of exultation passed her lips when she finally succeeded in popping all the buttons free from the fly in his jeans. The groan that was torn from his lips as he felt Max's hand snake its way down the front of his pants gave her enough leverage to direct him to the bench that was positioned squarely between the two banks of lockers in the abandoned locker room.

Max grinned like a cat that had just snatched the canary. "If I'd have known that was all it took to get you to do my bidding without argument, I'd have grabbed on ages ago."

"Let me on top and I'll show you who will be doing whose bidding." Alec retorted cockily, his fingers deftly pushing Max's black t-shirt upwards as she leaned over him. "Besides, at some point, you're gonna have to stand up to take off those jeans."

"That sounds like a challenge." Max said, a spark of mischief in her eyes.

Before he could even think to react differently, he was pushing his hips up far enough for Max to yank his jeans and boxer briefs down to his thighs. Barely another second passed before he watched Max reach down between them to pull her panties to one side and sink down onto his exposed shaft.

Her jeans had been pushed down far enough only for her to straddle his thighs.

His lower head took over thinking processes as he began to move inside her, his upper brain enshrouded with a pheromone lust and a disbelief that Max could be so uninhibited, so in a rush be joined with him, that 80 percent of their clothes still remained on their bodies.

Gasping cries and throaty moans escaped from Max as one of her hands extended her upper body out to a 90 degree angle from his, latched onto his neck like a vice as her other hand reached behind her to support herself on his shin as she rode him.

The feel of her sheathed around him pushed him over the edge quicker than he'd ever thought possible. Less than four minutes after she first mounted him, he was coming inside of her. Max whimpered in a panicked disappointment, her pace turning frenzied and frantic as she sought completion as well, thinking that her first inning was about to rained out.

"Max. It's alright." Alec said soothingly, feeling the savage compulsion to console his mate. She almost looked like she was about to cry. "Relax. Close your eyes and focus on where our bodies join. What do you feel?"

Her eyes fluttered closed and she went silent, obeying his command as she sat upright and minutely slowed her pace. A few seconds passed before her eyes shot open and sparked with wickedness.

"You're still hard." Max whispered in admiration, causing both his ego and his cock to swell at her praise.

"The benefits of being transgenic, babe. I've got at least two more rounds in me before I have to recharge. I'm gonna stand up now." Alec informed her, his fingertips digging into her thighs. "When I do, shake off your pants. I wanna feel your legs around me."

Nodding her acquiescence, Alec pushed off the bench and stood upright, holding the most vital part of her close to him tightly as she wriggled her lower legs out of her jeans. The moment he felt one of her legs across his lower back and the other under his ass, he raised one arm to brace against the wall of lockers and leaned forward.

A loud keening cry of pleasure escaped from Max after his first thrust in their new position. The grooves at the top of the locker door had to be grating along the back of her head as she bounced up, down, and all-around, but as long as she wasn't complaining about it, he was going to solely focus on pleasuring his mate. Because by his count, she still hadn't had an orgasm, and she was overdue.

"What do you want me to do? What will make you come the hardest?" Alec asked seductively in Max's ear as he continued thrusting deep and unrelentingly into her.

Without saying a word, she eased his hand off her hip and pushed it down to where her body met his. Keeping her hand on his, she pressed his fingertips into her parted, heated flesh and began to pleasure herself with his fingers. He looked down and watched with rapt fascination as Max used his body like a giant sex toy. If it were at all possible, her legs spread wider as they tightened around him, and even more blood rushed into his penis at the sight along with the feel of her inner walls contracting and squeezing around him, attempting to keep him fully seated inside of her.

He noticed imperceptibly that she was getting close. Her fingers worked his furiously and her pace returned to something similar to when he'd first come, deviating from his already feverish pace. The pattern of her inner muscle contractions began to spasm and fluctuate uncontrollably.

A sharp biting pain radiated from the top of his left shoulder suddenly, startling him. Max's tongue lapping over the wound in apology made realization dawn in his brain. The revelation couldn't be held though as Max climaxed, coming undone around him.

"Oh my God. That was the best sex I've ever had." Max confessed in a tone loaded with awe, her hips still unconsciously bucking against him, continuing to ride his unceasing thrusts.

"It's not over yet, Maxie." Alec said in a swaggering tone. "I still want to feel your legs crushing my head as I put my tongue inside you."

Max gasped in pleasure and her eyes darkened to nearly black. "When will we get to do that?"

ooooxoooooo*ooowooo*ooosoooooo

Barely an hour passed before a few of the stronger-willed X5 men began ambling back into the conference room, shaking their heads in a bemused fashion. Most looked disappointed. Biggs was overwhelmed with relief.

"Well?" Mole asked, his posture and tone drowned with smugness. He and Biggs had been the only two remaining in the room and had stayed, Biggs afraid to move while Mole was just amused by all the X5's antics. No amount of money or force could have moved him from his chair.

Biggs met Mole's expectant gaze begrudgingly. Biggs nodded his head curtly that all was good. Mole would hold this over all their heads for weeks, if not months.

"Don't rub it in." Biggs muttered darkly.

ooosooo*ooomooooo*ooowooooo

Yes, I know...another heat/mating story. I just can't help myself. That whole idea mostly comes from Nalini Singh's "Psy/Changelling" series, which I've been reading (and rereading) lately. I've also got to tell you all that this is probably some of the most detailed sex I've ever written. That comes from reading all that Linda Howard, I guess, lol! Hope you enjoyed my little story!