A/N: Shana, you are the best beta I've ever had, and I owe the coherent-ness of this chapter to you :smooch:
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Chapter 6: And Still She Screamed
"Alpha, we have a visual on the targets. Priority One target is right in my sights," came the response from Brianna, Beta's team leader. The disgust in her voice was obvious. White was priority one.
"Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. We go in nice and stealthy. I don't want them to know we're here until it's too late for them. We need to get that bio agent secured before any personal vendettas get taken care of," Alec ordered. "Besides, White is mine." He knew that every one of the transgenics with him had a reason or more to hate Special Agent White. But, in turn, every one of the transgenics knew that Alec had more reasons than anyone except Max. No one argued. "I want radio silence until Charlie team figures out where they've got the bio agent."
"Alec," Trevor ventured after cutting the outgoing feed on his comm. "You okay, man?" He braced himself for Alec's usual response of 'I'm always alright.'
Alec paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "I gotta bad feelin', Trev. Like something really major is about to go down."
Trevor nodded simply. It had to be bad if Alec was actually admitting it. "The mission the only thing botherin' you?"
"Max went into heat today." As if that explained it all.
Trevor muttered a low, "Yeah, tell me about it." He'd been one of the males in the room when it had hit her. Oh yeah, he knew.
"Well, that happens occasionally..." Trevor encouraged.
"Yeah, but...I don't know." Alec shook his head, frustrated with himself. "It's just I've got a really bad feeling about this whole situation. It seems so convenient. Logan showing up just in time to give us this perfect opportunity. Max going into heat making it so she can't go on the mission."
"Alec? I got bad news for you," Brianna's voice said in Alec's ear.
"How'd you hear me? Oh shit." Alec frowned as he realized he hadn't followed his own advice about radio silence. Not only that, but he'd just aired out his dirty laundry to 60 troops.
"Yeah, smart move, pretty boy," Brianna retorted, although the usual sarcasm was missing from her voice. "Why don't we move this to a private channel?"
Alec complied. They needed radio silence on the main channel. It wouldn't do for Charlie team to hear about all of his problems and become distracted.
"Okay, what's the bad news this time?" Alec's words seemed flippant on the surface, but beneath it was fear that his instinct had been right.
"Alec, it's too early for Max's Heat. I should know, I had one about the same time she did."
"And?" Alec's fear grew in intensity as he waited for Brianna to respond.
"Are you sure it was really heat?
"Yeah, I think so, why?"
"Because it could have been induced. Has Max come into contact with any strange drugs or anything like that?"
"I don't think so." Alec paused to rack his brain. Suddenly, it was as if everything clicked into place. "Dammit! The drinks! That son of a bitch!"
"What are you talking about?" Brianna was starting to wonder if the stress of leading a nation was finally getting to her CO after all these years.
"Logan. Bought us drinks..." Alec had known Logan couldn't be trusted, but never in all his training-induced skepticism had he ever imagined Logan to be capable of this.
"And he would be just the kind of bastard who would spike them," Brianna commented, piecing it together.
"I knew it was too convenient. He knew we were going on this mission and that I wouldn't be around when he..." Alec cringed, closing his eyes, as if he thought that once he opened them, all of this would've only been a dream. But no, the nightmare was real.
Trevor, hearing only Alec's side of the conversation, had enough sense to figure it out. Then he had an even more alarming thought. "But Logan gave us this intel...does that mean...?" Trevor's voice trailed off as Charlie team's leader, Sean, came over their comms.
"Shit! We've got two wounded, heavy fire. They made us before we could get near the stuff. It's in a utility shed out back...Fuck!"
The sounds of machine gun bursts could be heard over the comm link, and soon were audible without them. Alec quickly and efficiently handed out his orders; "Brianna, take Beta team. Go for the shed and back up Sean." His team was going after the monster himself.
Alec switched his comm link over to the channel used to communicate to base. He needed someone to take care of Max for him, to give his mind a little peace. "Alec to base." There was nothing but static. "Mole?" Still nothing. "Dammit, they must be jamming the signals; I can't reach base."
He glanced at Trevor, conflicted. 'What kind of choice is this? Go save the woman I love, or stay and help my friends fight for their lives?'
Trevor needed only to look at the pain on Alec's face to know the answer. "Alec, we've got it covered."
Alec tipped his head in acknowledgement before he turned and ran as if his life depended on it. But it was worse than that. Max depended on it.
Max looked up pleadingly at the stubble faced man hovering above her in the bed. She was fighting with everything she had not to give in to him, not to listen to that instinct-driven side of her. She'd had a feeling that Alec had wanted her for his mate, once his City Council position had been relinquished. But after everything that happened with the election, and White, everything had just gotten so messed up. She felt a tear leave a wet trail on her cheek as she realized that now, he might never ask. How could he forgive her for this? How could he ever accept her as his mate when he discovered what she'd done?
"Max, I've been waiting so long for this. This is how it is supposed to be," Logan said, carressing Max's cheek, oblivious to the tears of regret and fear she was crying. The thought that she might lose the only man she'd ever actually loved was enough to temporarily give control back to the rational side of her.
"This is nothing like it's supposed to be. Logan, please, please don't do this," she begged him. Her body still refused to move, but her mouth was in working order.
"You'll realize, you'll see. After this is over, you'll see that this is what you want. That you made a mistake. He won't want you after this. He'll hate you. But I'll still be here. I'll always be here. But he won't." He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned away. Her anger was building, but there was nothing she could do to release it. She not only was hancuffed, her ankles were cuffed on either side of the bed as well. He had apparently planned this far in advance.
Max opened her mouth, ready to scream for help. She hated this feeling of helplessness, the horrible ache of knowing there is nothing you can do stop what is happening to you. Before she could get out more than a squeak, Logan had pressed his lips to hers.
"Max. Cooperate and it will be so much better for you. It will be better for him too." Logan's eyes were no longer the eyes of a man who's got everything he ever wanted. Now, he wore the face of a man willing to do anything to keep it.
"What do you mean? How could me fucking you be better for Alec!" Logan was still staring at her, but his hands began to roam over her body. Max shivered in disgust at the touch, but the man on top of her took it as a sign of her enjoyment. Max allowed a sliver of hope to enter her heart as she realized her body was no longer reacting to Logan as it had been. Was her fear and anger making the Heat dissipate?
"Right now he is in Familiar territory." Logan's voice dropped to a whisper. "And they know he's coming." Max's eyes widened in fear. "They won't kill him, unless I say so." The rest of the words were left unspoken, but Max understood what he was saying. If she didn't cooperate, Logan would give the order, and Alec would die.
The alternative was that she let Logan rape her and Alec get captured by the Familiars. Logan. Rape. She had never thought of those two words in the same sentence. When had things changed so drastically? When had he gone from someone she could trust, to someone she truly feared? One thing was for certain; she did not react well to fear.
Her eyes hardened as she smiled sardonically, suddenly determined. 'I will die before I let anything happen to Alec.' She lifted her head as much as she could and Logan took the invitation. Before his lips could brush hers, she reared back her head and slammed it into his with all her might. The man slumped down on her, knocked unconscious by the blow. Max breathed heavily in relief and waited for the stars to leave her vision. Then, she screamed. A primal cry that held grief, anger, and fear. For Alec, for herself.
She was still screaming when Joshua burst through the locked door of the apartment. The door splintered and crashed to the floor. Joshua lifted the limp man off of her naked form and threw him viciously against the wall, his body bouncing off and crumpling to the floor in a shower of plaster. And still she screamed. Joshua searched the fallen man's body for the keys to the cuffs. He found them and quickly unlocked the cuffs at her ankles. The keys, amazingly, worked on the cuffs around her wrists as well. He carefully brought the sheets up around a trembling Max, and pulled her into an embrace. Her screaming continued and didn't cease until her tears choked her, and she could do nothing but cry.
"Joshua, I- I have to get to Alec. I-it was a set-up." Max pulled herself away from Joshua and picked up her clothes that were strewn on the floor. She inhaled, and then abruptly threw the clothes across the room. They still smelled like Logan. She hurriedly found new clothes and threw them on, her tears beginning to subside. She strapped her knife sheaths onto her ankles and wrists.
"Little Fella be okay?" Joshua asked quietly, putting an huge hand on his friend's tense shoulder.
"I'm always okay, Joshua. Take this," she shuddered with revulsion as she gestured to Logan's limp form, " this - animal - to a holding cell." Her eyes were hard and cold as she looked at Joshua. "Tell the others to send back-up to the warehouse now." She turned to leave, but stopped in mid-stride. She walked purposefully across the room to the bedside table.
Opening the top drawer, she pulled out a hand gun. Max shut her eyes as she felt the cool, hard metal of the pistol in her hand. She gritted her teeth, her knuckles going white as she tightened her grip on the pistol's handle. It was time to push aside her fear. She tucked the weapon into the waistband of her pants. With a small smile of thanks in Joshua's direction, she blurred out of the apartment.
Alec raced past his team members, closing his ears to the sounds of fighting. He had his own fight waiting for him. He concentrated on his heart-beat, trying to slow it from its heightened pace.
"494, so glad to see you made it to the party." Alec stopped and turned. He had but a minute to regret sending Beta team to help Sean and the others. It had left him vulnerable and now White was on him.
Max hurtled down the road on her Ninja, her fury and fear increasing with each roar of the engine. "Hang on, Alec. I'm coming," she whispered.