"Who said that?", White demanded as he spun around in the direction of the voice from a corner of the cave. Alec narrowed his eyes toward his new challenger and groaned inwardly when he realized who it was a split second before White did.

"You!" White pointed his taser wand to a cage in the back corner across from Krit.

"That's right," a deep voice grumbled, "I'll take 494 on. We have a score to settle."

"Tiny, give it a rest!" Alec groaned. "You know you don't want to fight me. We've been through this before already!"

"Who is he?" Max hissed through the bars as Alec backed up a little closer to her to protect her. They took comfort in each other's proximity as White opened the cage of one of the largest males Max had ever seen. Her eyes widened slightly in disbelief. She had never seen someone so massive in her entire life! She'd heard of these guys, but never saw one up close before.

The largely built X5 had not been able to stand up straight in the cage because the cage itself was only about six feet tall. This guy was probably about six feet, eight inches tall, about three hundred pounds of pure muscle, making him look like a professional wrestler. Both Max and Alec had to crane their necks to look up at him. "Tiny" flexed his massive shoulders and popped his neck, even did a couple of knee bends, freeing his muscles from being cramped up in the small cage for so long.

Tiny shot a dangerous look at Alec as he bent over to stretch his hamstrings. "What's the matter, 494? Having flashbacks from the last time I beat your ass?"

Alec's eyes narrowed dangerously as he answered, "That's not how I remember it. I remember three of your guys holding me down while you beat me up. You were too chicken to take me on one on one."

"Well now's my chance, little man." Tiny growled as he stood up to his full height and cracked his knuckles. "And once I'm done with you, I'll have your bitch as a consolation prize."

Max sniffed as she crossed her arms defiantly. "I prefer my men with more brains than brawn. Besides who said I was anybody's consolation prize?"

"Max…not helping," Alec murmured in a sing-song voice so low only Max could hear him.

"Besides…Max goaded the big guy through the bars of her cage, "I heard Manticore pumped you boys so full of steroids that you have no balls left!"

Shit! Alec's eyes widened as Tiny lunged toward them. Max's words were just the thing to spark the big guy's rage. Alec was about to take a fighting stance right then and there, the primal need to protect his mate coming to the forefront, but there was no need to do anything yet. The four Familiars in the room stepped in between Alec and Tiny, including White himself, and used their tasers to back Tiny up to the back wall again. Maybe two Familiars would have been equal in strength to Tiny, but four of them could definitely overpower the big lug.

White chuckled, amused by the whole show of male posturing. He gave Tiny a pat on the shoulder, "Save it, big guy, save it for the ring."

Worried, Max hissed through the bars at the man in front of her, worry and concern in her voice, "Alec? He'll kill you!"

"Nah!" Alec waved that statement away like it was an annoying gnat. "You were gone from Manticore by the time these big guys came out to play. I can take him. I know a few of their weaknesses."

He could still smell Max's pheromones in the air, but he also detected something else. Fear? For him?

He looked over his shoulder at her, making eye contact, trying to reassure her without words. Then he turned to her, reached through the bars and grabbed the back of her head, pulling her mouth swiftly to him for a kiss.

Kissing her through the bars, Max reached through the bars to pull Alec toward her as Alec reached his free hand through the bars to pull Max toward him by the waist.

White gave an order to one of his goons, "Frankie, go stop that before I get sick!"

Frankie immediately stalked over and pulled Alec away from Max forcibly, causing them both to growl in irritation. Alec's eyes flashed at the Familiar, teeth bared.

Frankie narrowed his eyes down at Alec. "Wanna try it? You'll be fighting with two broken legs if you do, kitty cat!"

Somehow, Alec found it within himself to let rational thought come to the forefront and gain some control since he was now a few feet away from Max's lips and body. Just giving Frankie a stony look, he turned to Tiny and growled, "Bring it on! I'm ready!"


The crowd of Familiars was huge in the auditorium. There was a cage standing center stage with bright lights spotlighting it so that everyone in the oval shaped auditorium wouldn't miss a moment of the action.

The crowd was buzzing with excitement. One of their most hated transgenics, X5-494 was more than likely going to meet a horribly painful end, and everyone was ready to see that happen.

And to top that off, it would bring anguish to the chosen one, X5-452, which would be a lot more fun than killing her outright.

It was even said that 452 herself was in some animalistic heat stage. Many Familiars made off-color jokes about this. Just goes to show the filthy animals they really were. And they needed to be eradicated into extinction!

From all studies the Familiars have ever done about the animal kingdom, having a female in heat around two alpha males would cause the males to fight for the right to breed the female.

And if the same is true for these X5s, then it's going to be a fight worth watching.

Bets were being placed with ten-to-one odds on the big one they call Tiny, X5-629. There were still some that bet on X5-494, taking a chance on winning a big pot, knowing his history with the female in heat that was in question, and his fighting skills.

The announcer jumped into the cage and a microphone was lowered to him from the ceiling.

"Ladies and gentlemen! You will see the fight of the century tonight! Not only one fight, but several. We will see firsthand true, animalistic fighting to the death, right before our very eyes, eradicating these transgenics once and for all. You don't want to miss this! So without further ado, we begin with our first contender, standing six feet, eight inches, and weighing in at three hundred pounds, X5-629!"

Two doors slid aside on the far wall and a spotlight picked up Tiny as he walked through. Cheering sounded out through the crowd, but all Tiny did was walk straight toward the cage and enter it. He glared at the crowd, then raised his fists in the air and gave a mighty roar, working the crowd into a frenzy.

"Our next contender, we all love to hate him. Almost needs no introduction. Standing six feet tall, weighing in at one hundred seventy-five pounds, X5-494!"

Alec's doors were on the opposite side of Tiny's as they slid back and he walked out. Hisses and boos sounded all over the stadium as Alec glared over the crowd. He saw the priestess sitting regally in a private box. Using his enhanced vision, he zoomed in on her and caught her eye. He stopped walking, then gave her the finger, making sure the highest-ranking person in this building knew he didn't give a shit. Then he continued to the cage.

Both fighters were shirtless and wearing whatever pants they were captured in. In this case, both were wearing jeans. Not the best pants for movement or fighting, but it was either that or go naked. Alec stood in the opposite corner from Tiny, bouncing on the balls of his feet and warming up.

"Prepare to die little man!" Tiny shouted across the ring. All Alec did was smirk.

"We'll see about that, big guy." Alec answered. The announcer motioned for both fighters to meet in the middle of the ring. Once they were a couple of feet from each other and facing one another, the announcer laid out the rules.

"Well animals, rules are, there are no rules. Do whatever you want until one dies. You just can't leave the cage till we tell you. You will be locked in from the outside. And begin fighting when the bell rings. The bell will not ring again to end the fight until someone's dead. Got it? Good."

The announcer walked away, and Alec noticed a movement on the outer fringes of the crowd, just past where Tiny stood. Alec narrowed his eyes and noticed White dragging Max, who was shackled at the wrists and ankles, into an enclosed booth.

"What the hell is he doing?" Alec muttered.

Tiny turned, and then narrowing his eyes in confusion, he couldn't help but wonder the same thing.

Max was enclosed in a glass cubicle and White locked her in.

Tiny grunted, "Probably just showing us what we're fighting for."

Alec couldn't believe they were being civil when one of them was about to die, but Alec answered, "This is White we're talking about, Tiny. There's something more to it than that."

Suddenly, both males could smell it. Max's pheromones. The Familiars in the crowd didn't have the same sense of smell as the transgenics, so they wouldn't notice the heat pheromones in the air, but the males sure could. Alec could see the air vents above the cube Max was placed within and now understood why they could smell the pheromones.

That's when they both knew what White was up to. He was trying to enrage them both even more for the fight. Both X5 males were then taken to that animalistic, primitive level where the need to breed outweighed most logic. Tiny turned his head back to Alec and growled low in his throat. Alec, in response, did the same as they circled each other.

Alec's eyes going to Max's one last time, he saw her pleading, fearful look for him as she pressed against the glass to watch. Turning his head back, he placed full concentration on his opponent. Then he heard his signal.

DING!