This Chapter was Beta's by scarlet. Thankyou once again Scarlet.
Chapter Seventeen
God, he was tired. Sleeping with Max was not conducive to actually sleeping. Smiling, he turned onto his side and propped his head on his hand as he looked at her. Even more beautiful when she was asleep, his eyes lingered on her lips as they moved softly into a smile. Gently, he traced them with his finger. The fact that she didn't stir, didn't move reassured him as nothing else could that she truly had taken him as her mate. Safe sleep, they had called it when they were children. That deep trusting sleep that you only slept around those your instincts recognised on a primal level as safe, as part of your pack.
He had stayed awake because he wanted to relish every moment he could spend with her like this. In the morning he would take command of TC he knew what that would entail as clearly as Max did not. He had a highly trained fighting force strong enough to effectively take control of Seattle if he needed too. He led a people determined to survive. With an instinct for survival that ordinaries couldn't even begin to comprehend.
He would stop the killing of his kind with whatever it took. Sighing he fixed his eyes again on Max's face. He would like it to be a joint effort, she had a lot more experience integrating with humans than any of them. But he knew that what he would need to do to make Seattle safe for all of them could mean she might not even choose to remain his mate, let alone help him.
They were being targeted and killed and Trasgenic nature was starting to reassert itself. Before they had been unorganised and scattered but now they had started to regroup here in TC and reunite with their units. It was their nature to fight, not retreat. Even fighting in small groups they would cause a lot of damage to the human population of Seattle. But in small groups, they wouldn't survive as a nation and eventually they would be eliminated. A well organised and managed military campaign would ensure that the Transgenic population survived. Plus it would mean less human casualties. A win, win situation as far as he was concerned but Max would probably not see it that way.
His sweetest dreams he'd had of being with her paled in comparison to the reality. He wanted to relish every moment. Lying here with her, just being able to watch her sleep was as important to him as making love to her. He had never really understood the deep obsessive attachment Steve and the other guys felt for their mates but he did now, he thought, ruefully. Each day that passed, it grew stronger. Each time she touched him or said something to show him she did care about him, he loved her more. But they were so new to each other. Her instincts might trust him enough to turn off in his presence when she was asleep but would she trust him enough to let him do his job?
All he wanted was to make it safe for her and their baby, for all their kind to live without fear of being killed or enslaved again. But before he did that, he had to neutralise White, and deal with the Seattle Ordinaries who thought it was okay to kill them for sport.
Alec watched her eyes flutter open. Leaning over her he brushed his lips across her cheek her skin was soft. So soft, like the smoothest satin. Gently, he kissed the corner of her mouth.
"Hey," she greeted sleepily. "What time is it?"
"Only three o'clock. Go back to sleep, Max, plenty of time before we have to get up. You need your rest now."
"So do you. You still look really tired," she whispered, stroking her fingers down his cheek and along his jaw, "have you even been to sleep?" He drew her naked body into the curve of his and felt her shift provocatively as his half aroused erection nudged the cleft of her buttocks.
"Hmm not sleepy Alec," she whispered, as she rotated her buttocks against his erection.
"Yeah, I am but I'd rather do this." Kissing the nape of her neck, he nudged her hair aside.
Gently, she stroked the back of his hand that was now squeezing her breast.
"That feels good," she whispered, turning her face into the arm that was under her head, she gently sucked his inner elbow.
Alec felt a hot heavy flash of desire. "How do you do that Max?" His deep voice tickled her neck as he sucked her earlobe.
"What?" She asked innocently, still sucking his arm.
His hand cupped the swelling fullness of her breast his thumb, now massaging the taunt nipple.
"Always pick the right spot," he gently bit down her neck "the right way, to make me really hot," he murmured, sucking the curve where her neck joined her shoulder.
"Instinct," she breathed.
He slid his hand down the quivering swell of her stomach into her moist curls. She was ready for him, hot and wet on his fingers. The scent of her desire warm and seductive. She bucked against his hand as he caressed her, rubbing her buttocks against his erection.
"How do you know?" she whispered as she felt him rub his inner thigh along her leg, his fingers still moving between her legs.
"Practise," he smiled, into her neck as she stroked his thigh where it rested on her hip.
"Practise is good," she breathed as she rolled onto her back "but only with me."
"Yeah, only with you Max," he agreed sweetly, green eyes meshed with brown as he stroked her hair back from her face, sliding his fingers through the silken strands.
"Only ever with you now." Bending his head, he brushed a feather soft kiss across her mouth.
Her hand went to his head as she pulled his mouth quickly back down and covered his lips with hers. She felt his tongue surge into her mouth, driving all other thoughts from her head. Pulling his weight down on top of her, she spread her legs and drew her knees up making it easy for him to move into the cradle of her thighs. She could feel him try to relieve her of his weight and pulled him back down. "I want your weight on me," she breathed as she licked his ear and played with the hair at the nape of his neck.
He could feel her breasts soft under his chest her stomach pressed against his abdomen her mouth on his ear. "Yeah, Max, he groaned, leaning his ear into her mouth as she gripped the sides of his body with her bent legs.
She could feel his erection hot and hard and throbbing with life as it rested against her. Inserting her hand between their bodies she closed her hand around him and guided him to her. "I just want you inside me, Alec." Lifting her hips she manoeuvred to bring him into her body. Alec leaned back until there bodies where only touching where hers cradled his between her legs. And his hard length nudged her hot moist opening, he looked down between their bodies.
She's so sexy, he thought smiling as she moved her hips suggestively up at him. Leaving him in no doubt as to what she wanted. Slowly, he pushed into her he could feel her muscles close around the head of his erection, gripping and squeezing him, as she undulated her hips, trying to draw him deeper into her. "Open your eyes Max." His deep husky request took her by surprise she opened her eyes. His eyes captured hers as he eased a little more into her. Her hips were moving frantically up at him now as he moved slowly, fully into her until finally he was buried deep inside her. Their gazes still locked, she continued to thrust her hips up as he rested still inside her. Half sitting up, she slid her hands up the sides of his body and pulled him back down to her. "I like your weight on me," she whispered, before his mouth closed over hers.
Cradling her face in his hands, he covered her soft luscious mouth with his. Her lips parted and her felt her tongue slide sensuously into his mouth, her delicious sweet taste invading his senses.
Sliding her hands up his back, she pulled him more tightly into her as she arched her back and matched him thrust for thrust.
His hand now holding her head, she could feel his sense of urgency growing. Lips moving on hers, he let her feel the hunger in his kiss. She met his demand, her tongue dancing with his as she wound her arms around his neck His body now slick with sweat, he continued to thrust into her. She thrust her tongue into his mouth as he unrelentingly thrust into her body.
Releasing her mouth to breathe, Alec buried his face in the scented hollow of her throat. He could feel her hands on his back her fingers sliding up and down his backbone and his neck as he thrust into her again and again.
Sliding her hands across his back, Max could feel the muscles moving and flexing under her palms. Biting into his shoulder she heard him groan in pleasure as she sucked away the pain. With increasing urgency he plunged wildly above her. Looking up into his intense sweaty face her eye caught his and she saw her own wild need reflected back at her. Her climax hit her hard and suddenly. Gasping his name, she felt her muscles start to spasm around him as shuddering waves of pleasure swept over her. He was still plunging wildly into her as she convulsed around him. Pulling his head down to her, she covered his ear with her mouth and plunged her tongue into it. She heard him groan low in his throat as she sucked his ear and he thrust violently into her until she felt the warm surge of his seed.
Pulling him back down to her she could feel his heavy breathe in her ear as his body quieted. She stroked along his spine as she sucked his earlobe and nuzzled his neck. Rolling onto his back, he pulled her with him. Settling her head on his shoulder she slung her leg across his body. His breathing was still laboured and putting her hand over his heart she could feel its fast beat against her palm.
"You should be able to go to sleep now, I've tired you out," she said with satisfaction, tilting her head and smiling smugly at him.
"Yeah," he agreed, laughing, his head again full of what he had to do tomorrow.
Half an hour later, they were both still awake. She looked at him again, still preoccupied deep in his thoughts. She traced a path with her finger around his ear and down his neck. "What are you thinking about, Alec?" Smoothing her finger across his collarbone she meet his eyes as he looked down at her.
His eyes are so expressive, she thought, as she watched the debate going on behind them as the whether he should tell her or not.
"Yes, you should, Alec."
Perplexed, he frowned at her.
"You should tell me what you're worried about,
"What makes you think I'm worried?"
"Because you look worried and you hardly ever worry about anything."
He laughed, but it didn't reach his eyes. She knew straight away it had been the wrong thing to say and he wasn't going to tell her. So he did worry, but this had been the only time he had let her see it. She wouldn't make that mistake again.
"So shall we make you to tired to worry as well," she invited kissing along his jaw.
"Okay," but since I'm already tired your going to have to do most of the work."
"Okay, she agreed sucking his full lower lip slowly in to her mouth.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Max struggled to consciousness. She'd never slept as deeply as she'd been sleeping lately. Must be the pregnancy hormones, she mused, snuggling sensuously into the hard warm body wrapped around her. It's so nice to wake up with him like this. Smiling, she ran her hand up his back and pulled him closer. Now she was going to be able to do it every day, she thought happily.
"Sleep well?" he asked, his deep voice taking her by surprise.
"Hmmm really good." He felt a flare of desire for her as he watched her fluid sensuous stretch. She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. "So what's the plan for today? It's Saturday so we could stay in bed all day if we wanted," she offered enticingly.
Yeah. How he wished they could. Leaning over her he cupped her face in the palm of his hand and brushed his lips across hers a simple, brief tender kiss. "I gotta go to TC today, Max. Got a lot to do."
"What do you have to do?" she asked petulantly, already knowing he was right, they both had things to do that couldn't avoided.
"Gotta sort Todd and Tavis out for starters." His mind started to run through all the things he needed to do to start getting his Command into shape.
And you've got to see Logan today to," he added warily.
"Yes," she agreed, glancing quickly away.
"Not looking forward to it are you, Max," he asked softly, turning her face back to him.
"Of course I'm not, Alec," she answered tartly, "
"Would you be?"
"I could come with you? he offered hopefully.
"I don't like the idea of you going on your own." Didn't like the thought of Logan in the same space as her..
"I'm perfectly capable of telling him on my own, Alec," she huffed indignantly.
"I know you are, Max." He brushed the hair off her face and kissed her softly. But I don't want him hassling you." And I don't want him touching you either he thought repressing a flare of anger.
"If you won't let me come then, I'm gonna send Kat with you. Her presence will help calm things down, diffuse things a bit," he rushed on, fully expecting disagreement from her.
To his great surprise she shrugged her acceptance without protest. She must really be anticipating a hard time, he realized, frowning angrily, thinking about how much better if would be if he went himself. But she wouldn't let him. Kat would have to do. He knew she was perfectly capable of handling Logan on her own. But why should she have to? She had the right to be with him and Logan had no right to make it unpleasant for her.
"Logan was parked outside for most of the night, Max. He knew I was up here with you." He saw the shock in her eyes before she blanked it out with that still, expressionless face he had come to hate. He had only seen it twice over the last week and both times it had involved Logan. Well no more, he thought in satisfaction, after today Logan would be gone from her life for good.
"Hhe saw us arrive?" she asked shaken. Alec returned her gaze steadily.
"Why didn't you tell me he was there? That's why you were so restless and looking out the window all night, wasn't it?" she demanded angrily.
"I don't trust the guy, Max." I've never trusted him. You don't send your girlfriend unprotected into the sort of dangerous situations he sent you. When he thought you and him were together I didn't think he'd do anything to deliberately hurt you. But you're mine now Max and I don't trust him. So yeah, I kept my eye on him."
Max angrily realized how much harder it was going to be to tell Logan now he had already seen her and Alec together. Sitting up, she jerked the sheet off him. Alec watched her rigid back as she sat on the bed, angrily wrapping herself in the sheet.
Stomping into her living room she pulled the curtain open. She caught the quick flash of movement on the building opposite.
Just as she thought. Furious now, she scanned the road and the surrounding area. She couldn't see them, they were to good for that, but she knew they were there.
She stormed back into the bedroom "What the hell do you think you're doing Alec? First you don't tell me Logan is there, and then you mobilise our own kind to protect me from, Logan? He would never hurt me, he's never had anything but my best interests at heart. And I'm not yours, you don't own me. Who the hell do you think you are?" she ranted.
Alec rose fluidly from the bed and impassively pulled his pants on. Max felt her rage rising as he ignored her. She knew in the back of her brain her anger was out of proportion, but she couldn't seem to stem it.
"Don't…just… ignore… me," she demanded through gritted teeth, eyeing his partially clad body disdainfully. He sat on the bed and started to put his boots on.
"What the hell did you think your were doing? What do you think everyone will think? That I'm so useless not only can I not defend myself? That I'm so stupid that I have friends that can't be trusted?"
Alec knew he had to get out of there. He very rarely lost his temper but he could feel his anger growing and confusedly mixed in with that was pain. She was the only one who could make him feel like this. He hated her cold and angry and disconnected from him like this. It was always this same shit… always over Logan. Logan this… Logan that. Logan could do nothing wrong whereas he couldn't seem to do anything right. She'd sweep all common sense aside. Care about nothing in her fucking defence of Logan.
"Don't ignore me, Alec, answer ME," she commanded, storming over to him and hitting his shoulder. He intercepted her blow, grabbing her hand before she connected with his body. Max surprised, first, that he had blocked her and second, that it had been so fast she hadn't seen it, stared at him blankly.
He stood up. Still holding her hand, he moved it down to her side. Suddenly uncertain, she gazed warily back at him. She could feel how angry he was, it emanated of him. He never gets angry like this, she thought confused. Her eyes fell to the small ticking muscle in his jaw before sweeping back up to meet his stormy green gaze.
"I don't like it when you hit me, Max. I've tolerated it in the past but now you have other ways to touch me," he said quietly, his eyes intent on hers.
"As to owning you, it's not about that. That's the Ordinary way to look at it. I'm a Transgenic and I make no apology for that. I couldn't be an ordinary even if I wanted to be. And I don't," he reiterated emphatically.
"You're mated to a Transgenic male, Max. You are most definitely mine," he released her hand and brought his large hand to her abdomen his splayed fingers enclosing her stomach. And so is the child inside you. Mine," he repeated possessively and unapologetically, his eyes still intent on hers. Moving past her he grabbed his jacket.
Max, her flash of anger-gone, feeling bewildered and unsure, stood forlornly where he had left her.
"I'll send Kat up now," he said, from the door way as he shrugged into his jacket. "Getting my Unit to cover my back is standard procedure, Max. And nobody will think any the less of you because it's not really about you. Every transgenic woman when she's outside of TC has at least two males either with her or watching her back. This has been happening for the last three months, ever since we realized how many we were losing, either to White or to random killings by Ordinaries. You haven't noticed, Max, because I've been the one at your back. But when I haven't, for one reason or another, been there, others have been."
"And that's one of the reasons I know that Logan has nothing but his own best interests at heart. I know all the dangerous, shit he's sent you into. I know how close you've come to White on some of Logan's stupid self-aggrandising bullshit missions. We all know because we've been there, protecting your back. Logan may not be a direct threat to you, Max, I don't know, but I sure as hell don't trust him. And I'll take no chances with your safety."
"That goes for all Ordinaries, not just Logan. Its Ordinaries who have declared war on us, Max. White and his loony tunes are merely their agents. Until we have resolved that and they no longer consider killing us their right and privilege then as far as I'm concerned all Ordinaries are either the enemy or at best unfriendly non-combatants."
"We all feel like that and I'm a moderate compared to some. You need to start listening to your own kind, Max. No one in TC is interested in what ordinaries think we should do to fit into their world. Those of us who have spent twenty years under their control, trying to fit our instincts and ourselves within their parameters know it isn't possible, even if we wanted it.
"Just give us a chance, Max?" he finished wearily, as he closed the door.
Her stunned eyes fixed unseeingly on the door. Everybody feels like this and she'd had not idea, no clue. She hadn't even known Alec felt like that and she thought she knew everything there was to know about him.
Yeah, she thought guiltily, but you thought there wasn't much to know. You disdained him, dismissed him as just another Manticore soldier clone who kept messing up. You disdained all of them. Oh sure, you wanted to help them but you didn't want to be like them. You thought they should want to be like you and fit into the human world. Except you never fitted into the human world, she admitted to herself, you just tried to convince yourself you did. And until Alec had come into her life, so obviously, unashamedly Transgenic, and he had felt so comfortable and familiar to her, she had thought she had.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Max got into the passenger side of the van. "Thanks for coming with me, Kat. I, I know that none of you like Logan, but he's been a good friend to me."
"Its never easy to have to tell someone you care about that you don't want to be with them anymore. I understand how that feels Max. And I'm happy to come with you." Max could hear the emotion in her voice.
"You've had to do it too, Kat?"
"Yeah, Steve when we were back at Manticore when they started the forced breeding programme."
Oh God, not another thing I managed to screw up. "What happened?" she asked guiltily.
"We were already mated before the programme and he just couldn't handle it, same as the other mated males during that time," she shrugged. So to keep him alive I tried to cut him loose. It didn't work very well, though. At first he wouldn't accept it and when he did, he became self-destructive. So Alec called in some big time favours and managed to sneakily manipulate them into transferring him out of our Unit into another area of the facility, under another Commander. At least he wasn't one of the ones they killed," she added bitterly.
"I don't understand Kat why did they kill them? Why not just send them to reindoctrination?
"They did at first. Steve was one of the ones they tried that on but it didn't take them long to realize that they couldn't over ride their instincts or the primal memory the body has when you make an emotional as well as a physical connection with another Transgenic. After that they tried Psy-Ops and then Punishment."
"Hasn't anyone ever told you about this, Max? Its probably the reason the X'5'series lost so many women straight after the escape. A lot of them were women whose mates had been killed. Separated from the rest of us, their mates gone they just didn't try hard enough to survive."
"We're here." Kat nodded toward Foggle Towers.
"Yeah." Absently Max noted where they were. "Kat, tell me about what happened to you and Steve, to everyone, all of it. Remember I've been away from Maniticore for ten years so a lot of the stuff you take for granted I don't know. Have no idea about.
"Okay, Max," Kat agreed.
"Steve just couldn't handle the breeding programme he went insane every time he knew I was being sent to breed. Imagined it was going to happening when it wasn't. He became obsessively over protective. He got disciplined so many times he was barely physically functional. When that didn't work they tried Reindoctrination, then Psy-Ops and then Punishment
His behaviour was standard for all the mated males they just couldn't help it. It's just X5 DNA. Their mates couldn't help them, their Units couldn't help them. It was heart breaking. In their heads they knew the other guys weren't touching the mated females, but their instincts just couldn't cope.
"Mostly, the mated males had managed to disguise their possessiveness, hide their instincts prior to the breeding programme. But that was only because other Transgenic males never messed with mated females. There were only ever problems if ordinaries put their hands on a mated female."
"The guards got the message, and were very careful, nobody wanted to die for accidentally touching a mated female and within the units, everyone became very good at covering for the guys and controlling them if need be. The handlers never really became aware of it until the breeding programme. Once they knew, then, of course, the brass knew and then came the proposed solutions, none of which worked. Finally, they decided to take another tact."
"They decided executing a few of the more dangerous, more recalcitrant males, making an example of them, might have a deterrent effect. So one day at roll call handlers went into the ranks and shot about twenty of them in the back of the head. That didn't work either. In fact, it caused a fucking riot."
"What, you mean there was unrest and rebellion before I burned Manticore."
"Of course there was, did you think it changed after you left? There was always unrest. As we got older, we were harder to control, more resistant to discipline. I thought Alec would have told you about all this," Kat asked curiously.
"No, we haven't talked about it," she replied, her mind reeling. When would Alec tell me about this? When had she ever been interested enough to listen to anything he'd tried to tell her? she thought, moaning inwardly. She could hear him in her head 'you thought it was hard when we were kids. Well, it got a whole lot harder.'
"Tell me about the riot, Kat."
"The whole thing took less than five minutes. It started out just a normal rollcall. Handlers often walked amongst the ranks and they were always armed. There were quite a few extra guards on the ground that day but that wasn't unusual either. They called the CO's up to the front, again not unusual. But by then we'd had an alert signal from Alec so we knew something was up. Next thing we knew the handlers in the ranks pulled their weapons and simultaneously shot twenty of the mated males in the back of the head as examples. At the time, we didn't know what was going on. It just seemed like they were randomly killing us.
Alec was the first to move. He disarmed the handler closest to him and had put a bullet in his brain before the X5's they had shot had hit the ground and he signalled us to fight. The only guns in the compound were the 20 the handlers had and they only had the chambered rounds and no clips so they were useless. The guards only had tazers, so it was hand-to-hand. We killed everybody Manticore had on the ground 200 Ordinaries the whole thing took less than five minute but we lost 50 of our own kind to the guards shooting us from the towers.
Alec and the ten CO's already up the front went for the Towers. But they had to fight there way through the guards before they could get to the wire. Alec and two of the others made it, plus Tavis and Biggs, who always had Alec's, back and were close behind him. They had to climb the electrified barbed wire and by the time they got to the top they had all taken multi hits.
But once they had neutralised the towers the brass had to horse trade with Alec. He stayed on his feet long enough to talk us out of the compound and into lockdown.
Why didn't you break out that day?" Max asked.
"Because the only CO's we had left had to be stretchered out of the Towers. We had no one to lead us, so we went back to our cells."
"If Alec led the raid, why didn't they execute him?"
"They didn't know he'd given the order. They thought it was a spontaneous, panicked reaction. They didn't understand how it was for us. They showed that in thinking that separating the units from their CO's would mean we couldn't react quickly enough to retaliate. It never occurred to them that there was someone who could command all the Units."
"They have never really understood that ranking naturally evolves for us. Our alpha's always self select and because they were alpha anyway, already recognised and followed by the group, Manticore would then select them to be CO's. Manticore thought it was the other way round." Kat laughed.
Although they did develop some understanding towards the end because they did stop stripping rank from CO's as it never really worked. The Units still naturally recognised the instinctual hierarchies.
"The whole incident was a mismanaged mistake on Manticores part. Renfo was away and the Facility was being managed by her new 2IC. He thought he'd make his mark by solving a disciplinary problem that had all the Brass scratching their heads. But he had no idea of how to manage Transgenics or how much fire power he would have needed to pull of a stunt like that."
"Max, her mind reeling, wondered what else she didn't know about. Hadn't bothered to ask about or had just tuned out. Either because she was just too arrogant and full of herself, or because she thought she already knew it all. *Why did I assume it it would still be as I left it ten years ago? What was I thinking she?*
"From then on when they became aware a male had mated, they decided his fate based on who he had killed. Other Transgenics or guards they transferred him to a different area of the compound. If they killed handlers, then they took them away and quietly shot them. Transfering didn't really work either because you couldn't sever that instinctual connection. But by providing physical distance it at least kept the males from constantly coming to the attention of the Handlers."
Alec, Tavis, Biggs and the other X5' CO's who had neutralized the towers spent a month in Punishment. The rest of us were kept in constant lockdown. Lockdown continued until you burned Manticore Max.
"What was Punishment?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot Punishment was introduced about two years ago. It was like Psy-Ops except they didn't waste time fucking with your head. Only really hard disciplinary problems that Psy-Ops hadn't been able to break went to Punishment. Most of them don't talk about it. Steve won't, nor Alec, but from what I can gather it was just day in day out relentless physical torture. Those that survived it always had a lengthy stay in the infirmary."
"Alec hadn't been long out of Punishment long when he was assigned as your breeding partner, he was still physically recovering and probably still pretty messed up which was why he was assigned to that duty instead of straight back to his unit and active duty."
He wasn't back with the ranks, but was still in segregation when Manticore burned. That's how he got separated from us during the escape. We found Tavis and Biggs and I found Steve again," she added smiling softly. But we couldn't find Alec or two of our females who had been taken away to be breed so our unit had to evac without them.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kat let Logan's door slam closed.
"Don't cry, Max, you did your best in there. If he chose to receive it like that, then that's his bad luck."
The nasty, self-absorbed, fucked up Ordinary bastard, Kat thought to herself. He'd get his. She might not be able to tell Alec the worst of it, but she could tell Steve and that bastard would finally get the ass kicking he deserved.
Kat put her arm comfortingly around Max's shoulders as they walked back to the van.
"I'm not crying about what he said to me Kat. Its what he said about the baby. Do you think he's right? I mean he's right about me not being like you and the other women in TC. I don't mean in the way he meant it. I mean I'm not as tuned to my body or my instincts as you and the other women. Maybe I'm not pregnant."
"Get one of those ordinary test kit things if you doubt it Max." Kat suggested shrugging. "But your body has told you a baby is there. Just like it tells you about heat, I guess. I wouldn't let Logan make you start doubting yourself again. He's been pretty good at that in the past," she added shrewdly.
"I'm really sorry for what he called you. I never knew he was such a bigot, I never knew he felt like that about us," bewildered, she looked at Kat.
We knew, Kat thought disgustedly. "Its not your fault, Max, you are not responsible for his shit. And it isn't you he feels like that about, just the rest of us. Most Ordinaries do, they're scared of us we're a threat to them. It doesn't really matter if we are X or anomolie, to them we are all the same.
"He really hates Alec," Max shivered. The depth of his hatred and contempt for Alec had shocked her. "Don't tell Alec what he said about him, Kat, there's no reason he should have to hear that, please."
"No I won't tell him if you don't want me to. But he already knows, Max. Logan has always treated him with contempt."
Alec's usually pretty easy going. He's pretty calm, doesn't loose his cool easily and is generally pretty tolerant. But one thing we all know and appreciate about him, because it's the reason a lot of us are still alive, is that he recognises threat early and he knows how to eliminate it. Usually he does it fast and ruthlessly, without qualm. Logan, he let linger on far past the point of what seemed sensible to most of us."
"Why would he consider Logan a threat?" Frowning, Max wondered whether Kat was implying she would have expected Alec to kill Logan.
"A threat to you, Max. Alec wanted you for his mate, Logan repeatedly sent you into dangerous, stupid situations on idiotic missions risking your life for his own bullshit agenda. It nearly drove Alec crazy. Steve and the guys couldn't figure it out. Why he would continue to let Logan put you at risk?"
But I think I know why. Alec knew that things were different out here. The old Manticore behaviour didn't work and our own instinctive behaviour often didn't fit either, so sometimes he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do about Logan without turning you against him and that is why Logan remained a problem."
Alec is CO not because he was Top dog at Manticore that really didn't mean that much to anyone but Manticore hierarchy. We elected him because our instincts already knew him as Alpha. He can do what is necessary to keep us alive. He will stop the killing, we know that. But after he has done that, if we are to integrate with Ordinaries on any level, then we will need someone who understands them, someone we trust. Alec trusts you and we trust Alec so that is were you come in, Max. When he doesn't know what to do, I think you will.
Kat saw Max's sceptical expression. "Ahh, you buy that 'I'm always all right' shit he hands out. We don't. We know him too well. We know his strengths and we know his weaknesses. You need to know them too. Talk to him, Max, because although you're his mate now, you don't really know him. I've seen him turn to you when he's floundering and I've seen you not only turn him away, but not even realize what's happening. We can't afford for you to keep doing that, Max.
TBC