Chapter One

"Lucian Thomas and Aiden Urian are two of the

best MMA fighters known to man and tonight

they fought each other at Red Wall Arena in downtown Dallas.

It was my first taste of the sport and it was enough to get

me hooked as a fan for life. What girl wouldn't love to see two

half naked men duking it out? Any ways back to the fight-

the fight started out with the normal show of power and it ended in

one quick motion, a knock out in the first round. Then I had

this crazy idea, there was no reason to ask Urian how he had

won the fight, I didn't need another recap, I did ask a personal

question. And the risk has seemed to pay off. Mr. Urian just might

be human after all."

-Kasey Marshall, The Dallas Morning News, 15 December 2006

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The black haired man sauntered into the arena, dressed in what most people would describe as his uniform: a snug black t-shirt, ripped jeans and biker boots, with his leather jacket and helmet securely nestled under his arm. Some eyes turned to face him and there were others that did not even sense his presence. There was a shudder from some of the humans as they took in his somewhat intimidating appearance. At six foot one he was by no means the tallest of people, but his aura was enough to keep most people far away. Demigods generally did that when they were around humans, leave it to someone who had already lived for nearly 400 times the average human life span to not want to talk to them anymore. They found ways to keep people away and they were very good at it, it was one of the few things that made it possible to survive in the human world.

He stretched his arms over his head as he walked up to the metal cage and took a look at the fighters, neither of them knew they were being sized up as his next opponent. He had taken a beating about three months ago that had left the world of Mixed Martial Arts in shock, of course he knew the other "man" had cheated. He used his demigod powers on him and was now paying for that in a special version of hell. It had been a rule for as long as there had been demigods: do not attack each other unless you were willing to start a god war. MMA had given them a type of reprieve from this rule, they could fight inside these rings to their hearts content, but they must never use their demigod powers, they must never risk that they would expose the pantheons that still thrived today in the shadows of humanity.

The man had soon disappeared off the face of the earth, which was suspicious to all of those that didn't know the truth. There were rumors that he had killed the man, but that would have been far too easy of a fate. In Hades the errant demigod would be tortured for this small mishap and when he returned, he would never risk something like this again. He took no solace in the other man's demise, but it did make him smile, justice always seemed to be swift among gods. There was never any gray area, things were black and white and that was something that he had always appreciated about Olympus, even if it was something that had always confused him. He did see things in shades of gray, but he knew better than to tell any of them that, he would have been disowned otherwise.

In his three thousand years of existence, he had only been called on with his full powers once. As a god of war, he was called upon whenever the pantheons started taking issue with each other. If war was imminent, he was to be there and he was to be among the front lines, forming strategies and plotting easy ways of defeat. He was not considered to be as important as Athena, but they all knew better when it came to power, Aiden Urian was a man that no god wanted to cross and when he was in his god form, none of them did, unless they had a death wish and he had been glad to grant them their final wishes when they were that stupid. Taking a life did not phase him in the least, it was the way that he had survived for so many years, war always benefited him. It always made him into someone that was seen as a hero, he did not like that, but he did wish to help and that meant fighting- it always had.

He took several steps away from the cage and sat down in the third row of seats. He was now among the reporters, but he did not worry that any of them would recognize him. All of them were used to seeing him in a pair of black shorts with "Untameable" written across his backside and unless they took a good look at his face, they'd never realize that the number two ranked MMA fighter was sitting beside them. Most of the reporters weren't smart enough to take a moment and look around at anything but the fight, if they had he would have been caught on several occasions. He did this on a regular basis, some times to scope out the competition and other times in hope of seeing the one person that he didn't snarl at. The one person that he had learned to trust above all others.

Then he saw her, his favorite reporter. She looked over at him and her gaze lingered for a second longer than necessary, but she just smiled and nodded a 'hello'. In all his years of being a fighter, he had never met a reporter that didn't pounce when they recognized him, but that was why he respected Kasey. She made sure he was left alone, she made sure that he was not just treated like a piece of meat and he didn't know why she had done it. It was almost like she understood why he was this way, but he knew that was a far cry from the truth. No one understood why he was like this, especially not someone as good of a heart as Kasey. They were from completely different worlds.

He watched her return her attention to the match and he openly smiled. If he had anything to do with it, she would not be stuck here writing MMA articles for The Dallas Morning News, but she didn't seem to mind, so he kept his mouth shut. She had more talent than what could be used at a newspaper, but it seemed that he was one of the few people that saw it. She might not be a friend in the normal sense, but she most definitely became that when she asked the one question he had been dying to answer, but no one else would dare to ask. No one else had felt that they would survive a lashing by him if he reacted to it badly, it had been her first night and she had not really known any better. He knew now that she didn't know all of the stories that the other reporters did about him. That night, she had looked up at him and faced him head on, when other people shied away from him on principle. It was unnerving and refreshing-she was the first person to have done that in nearly two thousand years and she had not even known what a miracle that it was. The question she asked, rocked him- but he was glad, even now, that it was finally out in the open.

"Can you be tamed, Aiden?"

AN: I hope this first chapter gives you a good idea of what the story will be able and that you will enjoy it as it progresses. Also, there are going to be some real companies used here (like The Dallas Morning News). I mean no infringement and am simply using it as a bit of realism for the backdrop of the story. Also all the characters are completely fictional- any likeness to a real person is a mere coincidence.

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AN2: Just to let you know, this is how I plan to format most chapters. With a bit of a "news" article at the beginning and then the actual text of the chapter.