A/N: This chapter by request from one of my lovely reviewers. Thank you all very much for your comments. Some of you made some very good points and I’m glad that you are all enjoying this fic.

Kira was civil, almost friendly, towards Alec the rest of the hours we spent at the bar. But she also watched his every move carefully. He must have sensed that he was being watched because I noticed he was trying extra hard to be witty and charming. I couldn’t tell if Kira bought it, but I was falling for hook, line, and sinker.

“Alright, well, it’s been fun, kids, but I’ve got some stuff I’ve got to do.” Kira said finally as it neared 1300, “I’ll see you later.”

“Later, Kira.” I waved.

“See you.” Alec called after her. He turned to me with his grin and a raised eyebrow, “I think she digs me.”

“Oh, really?” I almost choked on my soda.

“Yeah. See how nice she was being to me? And notice that every time that you’re around me she gets all mad? She’s jealous. Totally digs me.” Alec nodded.

“You’re crazy.” I informed him.

“No, really.” he insisted.

“Psychotic.” I said, walking away.

“She does!” he cried, following me.

“Delusional.”

“Well, if you’re so smart, you explain it.” he challenged, looking sulky as he crossed his arms over his chest, “Why’s she being nice to me all of a sudden?”

I raised an eyebrow slightly as I looked at him.

“Alright, I will.” I said, “She’s being nice to you because I asked her to.”

Alec cocked his head and looked at me curiously, “But what’s in it for you if she’s nice to me? Why not just let her harp on me? I’ve heard it’s fun to watch.”

“Well, maybe I asked her to be nice to you because I dig you.” I said, stepping closer to him.

He raised his eyebrows and I wondered to myself what I was doing.

“I thought I wasn’t your type.”

“Maybe I changed my mind.”

My hand was on his chest. How had it gotten there?

“That a fact?” he grinned.

His grin was so sexy. So seductive. It made me want to close the space between us and capture his mouth in a kiss.

What the hell was going on with me?

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I froze.

“Shit.”

Alec’s brow furrowed in confusion and he looked at me questioningly.

“Uh...nothing. I just remembered, I was supposed to be somewhere. Got to go.” I blurted out an excuse to leave.

I turned to run for the door. Alec’s hand captured my forearm. I looked from his hand, up his perfectly muscled arm, to his incredibly cute and sexy face.

“What’s up, Jess?” he asked.

“I told you. I got to go.” I said, struggling to free my arm.

“Where?” he pressed.

I sighed. I could not deal with this now.

I spun in towards Alec and elbowed him hard in the gut while at the same time wrapping my foot around his ankle and pulling his legs out from under him. He landed with a thud on the floor, letting go of my arm in his surprise. All activity around the bar stopped to look at us curiously. I ran out of the place as fast as my legs could take me.

This couldn’t be happening now. It seemed like everything was happening all at once. Finding Alec, learning about Manticore, meeting Max, becoming accepted at Terminal City, escaping White, now this. It was just too much. I couldn’t take this. Not now. Not with him here.

I remember the first time this happened to me, back at Manticore. They’d told us about it before, of course, to prepare us. But nothing could really prepare us for the actually occurrence.

“Hey, 509. You’re looking pretty good. Have you been working out?” I heard one of the stupid lines from our seduction training exiting my mouth.

I’d been put in quarantine for two days. Only female contact. I had only been fourteen and I’d been scared out of my mind by what was happening to me. I’d never even thought about having sex with anyone. We’d just barely started our training in seduction operations. Plus, I’d never been completely isolated from my unit for so long. It had been horrible and had seemed like the longest two days of my life.

I’d been in heat again once since Kira and I left Manticore. I wasn’t sure what to do without a secure quarantine area, but Kira had been there for me. She’d isolated me and kept me from doing anything with force when necessary. I’d done the same for her in return the two times she had gone into heat. But it had been difficult. It was hard to keep an X-5 from doing something they really wanted to. Which was why this was going to be such a bitch. Because like it or not, ready to accept it or not, Alec was my type. I had been attracted to him even before I’d gone into heat. So now I wanted him extremely badly and I wasn’t sure if either Kira or I could stop myself from trying to get him.

Plus, there was another problem. When a female X-5 went into heat, male X-5’s were effected by the pheromones given off. It made it extremely hard for the male X-5 to resist the female. I was a female X-5 in heat, surrounded by a city full of male X-5’s. There was no telling what might happen when my pheromones hit them and made them all crazy.

I had to get out of here.

But that was a problem, too. There was no way I was going to be able to get out of Terminal City safely after what we had pulled this morning. I was trapped.

“Kira!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, feeling helpless.

I wasn’t sure where my friend had gone. She hadn’t mentioned what it was she had to do. But I had to find her and quick.

“Kira!” I yelled again.

“Hey, Jess! What’s wrong? Kira’s over on the west side.”

It was Max. I quickly decided that she was my best shot with Kira out of range.

“Max.” I hurried towards her, “I need your help.”

“What’s up?” she asked, immediately concerned.

“I...well, I...I’m in heat.” I finally managed to spit it out.

Max’s eyes widened in surprise and her mouth fell open slightly.

“Oh...oh!” she said, “That’s bad.”

“You think?” I snapped, feeling very edgy, “I’m in heat in the middle of a swarm of X-5’s. You sure that’s a bad thing?”

“Wait a minute. What does the fact that some of the guys are X-5 have to do with anything?” Max asked, confused.

I’d forgotten she’d escaped very young. I sighed in exasperation. I didn’t have a lot of patience at the moment.

“We give off pheromones, Max. Drives the guys crazy. They can’t help themselves anymore than we can. And with this many around they’ll probably start going nuts and attacking each other to get to me. I can’t be here.” I said quickly.

“Hey! What are you guys talking about? Me, I’ll bet.”

“Oh, god.” I breathed, feeling cornered.

Alec hurried over, Max looking at him horrified as she looked from me to him. I felt myself smile at him seductively.

“Hey.” I said smoothly.

“Hey.” Alec said, sounding surprised and confused, “Why’d you bail like that before? I know I’m a pain in the ass, but usually people don’t knock me on my ass on the floor without at least a warning.”

“Alec, I think you should go.” Max interrupted pointedly.

“What? You’re mad at me, too, now? What did I do?” Alec demanded.

“Just go, you jackass.” Max yelled at him, planting herself between him and me.

“No, don’t.” I called around her.

Alec looked torn in indecision, unsure of who to listen to.

“Alec, you leave right now or so help me I will kick your ass so bad you won’t be able to sit for a week!” Max threatened.

“Don’t listen to her!” I pleaded, “She’s just jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” Alec asked in confusion, his curiosity keeping him there instead of leaving like he should.

“Jealous of us and the stuff we could be doing together right now.” I looked at him suggestively and ran my tongue across my upper lip.

Alec’s eyes widened and slowly he realized what was going on.

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Max agreed sarcastically, “Now will you get out of here before you both do something you’ll regret.”

“Yeah...yeah, I’m going.” he said, but he wasn’t moving.

He was staring fixedly at me. I completely forgot about Max as I returned his stare. My eyes finally left his to trail down his body, taking in his perfect form. Even the unflattering police uniform could not detract from his incredible sexiness. I was suddenly struck by memories of the plan he had had to waste time on his mission to capture Kira and me.

I shook my head, trying to get the image of that look on his face out of my head.

A shiver ran down my spine at the memory of being pinned under his body.

I licked my lips again as I remembered how he tasted.

As if of its own accord, my hand rose to where the scar had been on my neck. That was it. I couldn’t take this anymore.

“Alec...” my voice was barely a whisper and very strained.

The sound drew Max’s attention to me. Alec took advantage of the opportunity to strike. The unsuspecting Max soon found herself unconscious. A second later I had stepped over her prostrate form and into Alec’s arms. A second after that he was kissing me and I was pressing myself against him.

“Hey.”

The voice was low and dangerous. It was enough to get our attention. We broke apart and I saw Del. He was crouched low, ready to attack.

“Back off, Del.” Alec warned, pulling me behind him.

I watched with interest, wondering what was going to happen.

Del growled at him and edged closer.

“Back off!” Alec commanded.

Even from my position behind him, looking over his shoulder, I could see the fire in his eyes. Del froze, looking into Alec’s eyes and weighing things carefully. Finally, Del looked down and began to back away. Alec had won the struggle for dominance. I smiled.

“Alec.” I said again, drawing his attention back to me.

He turned to me and I saw his eyes fill with a new emotion. Hunger. He pulled me to him forcefully and smashed my mouth with another kiss. I welcomed the force, kissing him back with equal strength.

Suddenly, Alec pulled away. I clamped down on the feeling of abandonment that surged through me and looked at him curiously, wondering what had drawn his attention this time.

It was Max. She was stirring. Alec looked at me, then back at Max. He grabbed my hand and began to lead me away. I followed quickly after him, hoping the faster we got wherever we were going the sooner he would return his attention to me.

Our fast walk soon broke into a run and eventually we found ourselves at the empty part of Terminal City where we had made our jump over the perimeter fence by motorcycle. Alec kicked in the door to a building and we both hurried inside.

Alec let go of my hand to barricade the door. I watched him, my eyes wandering down to his ass.

Alec whirled around and flashed me a grin. I felt like I was going to die I wanted him so bad.

Suddenly, he had his arms around me again and was kissing me. I moaned into the kiss, feeling relieved now that he was touching me again, but also feeling desperate to take the contact further.

“Jess...” he breathed my name as he moved his mouth from my own to my neck.

The sound of him saying my name like that was almost too much to bear.

Alec yanked my shirt collar down off my neck and onto my arm to reveal the spot where he had left the mark on my skin. His mouth covered the spot and I felt him bite down, breaking the skin a second time. I gasped, feeling like I was falling even though I knew I hadn’t moved. My skin tingled all over.

I grabbed Alec’s shirt and ripped it open, popping off all the buttons, revealing his perfectly sculpted chest. I ran my hands over his skin. I felt feverish. It was ridiculous how much I needed him.

Alec returned the gesture in kind. Buttons littered the floor.

“Alec!” I snapped.

Foreplay was not a good idea right now. I needed him to get on with it.

He grunted an unintelligible response and quickly began undoing his pants. I did the same, shucking off the ruined police shirt, as well. In seconds, we were both in our underwear.

Pounding on the door made us both freeze.

The growls told us it was some male X-5 that had tracked us down.

“It’s okay. He won’t get in.” Alec assured me, reaching for me.

I nodded and returned to him. His hands were on my hips, about to pull off my underpants.

The pounding suddenly stopped and we both looked at the barricaded door in surprise. Suddenly, a body came hurtling through the window, shattering the glass. The figure dove into a somersault and rose. It was Max.

“Forgot the fucking window.” Alec swore.

“You’re so going to pay for knocking me out, you asshole.” Max snapped, eyes narrowed.

She flew at Alec who was forced to push me out of the way. I was shaking with need and so stumbled and fell to the ground. I felt like I was about to burst into flames or implode or something. My body couldn’t do anything but scream for Alec. I watched the fight helplessly.

The fight was fast and furious. Max was really mad at Alec and desperate to stop him from doing what we had been about to do. Alec was acting out of pure instinct, lashing out at anything that was keeping him from me. So while he might be stronger and better trained and possibly faster than Max, he wasn’t thinking clearly. Plus, he was almost naked except for his boxers. Booted feet tended to pack more punch than bare ones. That made the fight pretty even.

However, the blow that finally took Alec down was a desperate one. It was a hard, swift kick to the groin. Alec crumpled in pain, falling to the ground. Max followed the blow with a kick to the head that sent Alec into unconsciousness. I would have cried out in disappointment if I could have found control of my voice.

“As for you...” Max stomped towards me, still radiating anger, “you have the worst timing.”

My head exploded with pain and everything went black.