Mine. My mate. Her beast growled low in her throat. Trust the animal within her to want the most obnoxious Circ she'd ever met. She could only be glad she didn't suffer the same mating heats as the team. She couldn't imagine needing to have sex with a Circ and being denied Gunnar time after time. It was bad enough she had to watch him flinch from her touch.
She knew he was afraid he might hurt her. But she had no idea how to get him over his fears. Maybe I should just jump him, tie him up to the bed, and have my way with him.
Her beast liked the idea, a little too much.
Sighing, Ava turned to leave the bathroom. She made it as far as Gunnar's bed before pain, the likes of which she'd only felt once before, splintered her mind. She didn't even get a chance to cry out before she fell to the floor and passed out, trapped in a nightmare of jumbled thoughts and images that seemed never ending.
Chapter Three
“I trust the mission went off without a hitch,” Mrs. Sharpe said as she handed him a cupcake.
Tersch looked at it with mistrust, wondering at the woman's game. She was usually all over his ass to eat healthy. He also didn't like the fact that the others had left him here alone with her while they cozied up to their mates upstairs. Even the psychics who normally bugged the shit out of him had disappeared.
That fucking Keegan. Bastard was always making eyes at Ava when he had work to do.
“What's up, Alicia?” He stared at the chocolate confection in front of him with suspicion.
The older woman laughed. “Honestly, Gunnar. You can eat it. It's not poisoned.”
“Yeah, right.” He gave it another sniff but could detect nothing but empty calories and cream. He ate it in one bite and sighed after he finished chewing.
“Damn, that's good.”
When she said nothing, he persisted. “What?”
“How are you feeling?”
The warmth in her gaze took him aback. He never liked this side of her. The softness confused him. Normally hard, unflappable, and commanding, when Mrs. Sharpe took him aside, away from the others, she turned all maternal on his ass. He much preferred her cold and imposing.
“I'm good.” He cleared his throat, wondering when the hell Ava would return.
Much as he needed to avoid the sharp-tongued little witch, he was never quite right without her. Besides, she made a strong buffer against her grandmother. Christ, he'd never seen that one coming.
“You seem stronger,” Mrs. Sharpe commented.
He shrugged.
“The power inside you has grown, boy.” Her eyes flashed to that funky red, making him feel both uncomfortable and strangely reassured. He'd have a hard time hurting her. The beast inside him respected her; the berserker sensed great power. To Tersch's surprise, he thought the monster might fear her. And that easily, she kept him in check.
“I don't feel any different. I'm the same.”
“Still angry with me and Ava?”
“What, for lying to all of us for a year? For not telling us your goddamn granddaughter is as much a Circ as the rest of us?” She smiled, annoying him. “Why, is that a problem?” Because if I’d known she was Circ from the beginning, I would have taken Ava and made her mine before my anger got so out of control. Now I change into my berserker even when I don’t mean to, and I’m afraid I might hurt her. A chip off the old block, like my fucking old man. “It's not, I just…” A strange sense of unease hit him hard.
“Gunnar?”
Tersch glanced around him but didn't scent, see, or hear anything amiss. He didn't know what the hell to think. “Ah, you think the compound is secured?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” He rubbed the back of his neck, his beast pushing at him to take a look around.
“Hold on.” She turned from him and found a phone. After making a call to security and reassuring herself all was well, she turned back to him. “I don't sense anything amiss either, but it never hurts to check. Now tell me about Raul LaGarda.”
“Fallon read him before I had to deal with him. Hey, he was going to kill Jules.
I had to stop him.”
Mrs. Sharpe just watched him, sighed, and shook her head. “Right. So tell me what happened.”
“Don't you already know?”
“Don't be flippant, dear. If I knew, I wouldn't need to ask, now would I?” The hell of it was, he didn't know what she knew. Half the time he felt like he was playing some kind of game with the older woman and losing. She always smiled at him, and Tersch knew he was far from pleasant, even on a good day. Now Ava, she never pulled her punches. The sexy woman called him an asshole right to his face. That he could respect. Ava didn't play games, not like her spooky relation.
Mrs. Sharpe grinned, and he did his best to guard his thoughts. He cleared his throat and took the next cupcake she handed him, feeling like a calf being fattened up for slaughter. “LaGarda was the same rogue Circ who helped Sheridan and Jules escape from that jungle prison a few months back. The bastard also admitted to helping Melissa Ramirez—that was her real name—pull one over on us.
“He didn't know who he was really working for other than her, but he thinks she knows. Said the woman always referred to the guy as Lonnie.” Mrs. Sharpe didn't react, but the absolute stillness in her petite frame reminded him of how Jules had reacted before. Her tension said what words did not.
The woman was seriously freaked.
“Mrs. Sharpe?”
“Lonnie?” she whispered. She paused in thought. “That can’t be right. No.” She closed her eyes, then opened them, her expression bleak. “But it makes a twisted kind of sense.”
Oh hell. The woman was blinking back tears. In the year Tersch had been working for her, he'd rarely seen anything upset her. An arched brow, a mocking smile, one or two sharp words, but nothing of panic or grief, even when Ava had been held at knifepoint in the woods outside the house, right before they'd killed Montaña.
“You're not going to cry, are you?” he asked in a hoarse voice. Where the fuck was Ava? Olivia, hell, Sheridan?
Mrs. Sharpe blinked. “Of course not. I had something in my eye.”
“Right.” A part of him wanted to hug her, to reassure her that he'd protect her.
But he couldn't make that call, not when he feared hurting her in the process. If only he could keep a handle on that monster inside him. The raging chaos that wanted nothing more than to destroy.
She took a deep breath and exhaled a shaky sigh. “I have a few things I need to look into. I'll talk with the rest of you later. Let the others know to meet in my study after breakfast tomorrow. Nine o'clock.”
He started to really worry when she didn't make any “don't be late” comments before she left.
Not sure what the hell was going on, Tersch decided to grab a shower, then a late lunch and some rack time before dinner. While the others were no doubt screwing themselves silly, his libido had been sated by Jules and the guys yesterday. Maybe it had been a mating heat after all, because seeing the female Circs today hadn't aroused him at all. Normally, he felt at least a pull of attraction at remembrances of Olivia or Sheridan in their Circ forms.
But now all you can think of is Ava, normal or changed— and that is a sight worth seeing again. His beast purred his pleasure at the thought. The creature wouldn't leave well enough alone. Even his damned berserker wanted to mark and claim the female, and that wasn't happening. It would be one thing if Tersch could fuck Ava out of his system. He'd take her and forget her. Except he knew it wouldn't be that simple.
Not with Ava.