Gunnar's Game

Chapter One

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Hunted. Not a word Frederik Gunnar Tersch would ever think to use to describe himself. He was the biggest badass of the Dawn Endeavor team, often likened to a Viking berserker, and could break a man's neck with little force, even when in his human form. He'd been a US Navy SEAL for six years, then a Circ—a genetically enhanced fighting machine courtesy of Uncle Sam. When changed, as he was now, he shifted into a monstrous giant with claws, fangs, and skin tougher than armor. Tersch killed those who deserved it with little conscience and defended his country and his teammates with honor.

So why did the thought of going home scare the shit out of him?

“Thinking about Ava again, hmm?” Kisho Hayashi, his best friend and fellow Circ, murmured with laughter in his voice. Hayashi's chest rippled with muscle, his skin slightly darker than his normal almond tone, his frame larger and more lethal in his beastly form.

“Shut up, Hayashi.”

“She told me to keep an eye on you.” Hayashi cracked a smile, exposing fangs that glistened under the full moon.

Tersch growled. Though pleased that the once taciturn Asian now seemed to take great joy in life, he didn't appreciate being the butt of the joke.

He quickly glanced around him at the surrounding forest, making sure Morgan Reynolds, Hayashi's obnoxious mate, was nowhere around. The asshole constantly poked fun, and Tersch was tired of it. Hell, he was tired of everything lately. “Dude, I'm sorry, but Ava's not my keeper. And she's not your boss. Just ignore her.” The way Tersch had been trying to ignore her for the past year. Trying being the key word. Though Ava's diminutive height made her seem less than dangerous, the rest of her was pure threat. Tersch had never seen a woman better put together in his entire fucking life.

Her dark brown skin glowed, smooth and rich. Her hazel eyes could flash green or brown, depending upon her mood. She had a face that could have graced any number of magazines, with a stubborn chin, button nose, and those thick, ripe lips that made him sweat in remembrance. And that body… Ava had a woman's curves. Full breasts, a tiny waist, and a heart-shaped ass. And two weeks ago he'd learned she was Circ. A potential mate.

Holy fuck.

Hayashi chuckled, distracting him. “Oh yeah, you're definitely thinking about Ava.”

Tersch grimaced and tried to will away the erection stabbing through his camouflage trousers. It never failed. He always grew hard at thoughts of the stubborn little witch who was no doubt waiting at home to nag him about something.

“Fuck off.”

Hayashi sighed. “I would if Morgan were here. I wish Jules would stop pairing him off with Fallon.”

“Jealous?”

Hayashi snorted. “No. Fallon's too head over heels for Olivia. And with the baby coming, you barely see one without the other anymore. Besides, Morgan knows how lucky he is to have me. He's not going to screw up a good thing.”

“You got that right.” Because if the annoying male even tried fucking over Hayashi, Tersch would gut him. Slowly.

“The problem is you.”

“Huh?”

“Our illustrious team leader knows how much Morgan bothers you. I think he's afraid you're going to lose your temper one of these days and rip Morgan's head off.” Tersch grinned. “You know, that's not a bad idea. I like the way Jules thinks.” Julian Hawkins had been his lieutenant in the US Navy, when Tersch had been a SEAL. Tersch had followed him into the Circ project and hadn't looked back since. He trusted Jules with his life. He'd do anything for the man, to include keeping the enemy from taking another whack at him. Hence their trip into the sweltering early September heat of Virginia. He could only thank God his toughened skin repelled the insects on the hunt for blood.

Hayashi sighed. “I know Morgan can be a pain in the ass.”

“I'm sure you do,” Tersch muttered and kept his eyes open for any sign that the enemy had been through this section of the forest.

Hayashi ignored him and continued, “But he's not the problem. You and that temper are. Say what you want, but we both know you've been getting worse at keeping a tight rein over your anger.”

Especially since the monster that lived deep inside him refused to be silent any longer. Unlike the other Circs, Tersch didn't just have to deal with a beast he changed into at will. A darker, stronger force lay buried deep inside him, a force that grew closer and closer to taking over every day. And Tersch blamed Ava for the damned thing's impatience.

The berserker wanted its mate. The beast wanted his mate. And both of them wanted her yesterday. Tersch flushed. “I'm fine.”

“No, you're not.”

Fortunately, before Hayashi could start counseling him, Tersch picked up the scent. “Our prey went that way.”

“Quarry, not prey,” Hayashi replied with a whispered growl.

They moved swiftly through the forest. Tersch connected with the ground beneath him. He absorbed every rock and root through the soles of his bare feet without complaint, the undersides as tough as the rest of him. Like Hayashi, he wore only his trousers as clothing. Made of a special fabric, they expanded when he changed from man to beast.

Hunt, kill. The animal sentience that dwelled just beneath his skin had an innate sense of self-preservation. His beast had been urging him to annihilate these fuckers ever since they'd learned the enemy was out here.

He took a deep breath and scented the enemy's spoor. Violence and the pungent smell of rogue Circ told him he was headed in the right direction. Tersch grunted with satisfaction and listened with a keen ability—and that other part of himself more wild than even his beast.

In the far distance he could make out Raul LaGarda and three other rogues.

Unlike Tersch and his team, rogue Circs lived on the raw edge. They had trouble filtering right from wrong and were driven to satisfy their baser needs. Many of them had to work hard not to kill, when every primal urge insisted they take what they wanted whenever they wanted. At some point during the course of a rogue's life, they devolved into mutants: inhuman creatures more monster than man.

Supposedly a mate could cure that spiraling transformation into becoming mutant, but Tersch wasn't buying it.

Just more mate propaganda from Mrs. Alicia Sharpe, their annoying boss. He detested the woman's interference. He didn't need a wife, a mate, or a goddamn girlfriend. He didn't need anyone but his team. He huffed and increased his pace, determined to concentrate on his job and only his job.

Hayashi fell behind as Tersch's rage sneaked up on him. He barely realized that he'd begun to change even more, into his inner berserker. Though not gifted with the psychic abilities his friends had, Tersch could enhance his physical prowess, becoming faster and stronger than anyone he'd ever met. Even Morgan, that slippery bastard, couldn't outrun Tersch when the raw, basest part of him took control.

He grew several inches taller than his beast, now towering over seven feet in height. Muscles upon muscles developed. His heart grew, supplying more oxygen to his body through enlarged arteries, and his expanded lungs increased his intake.

His claws and teeth grew sharper and harder, and his flesh darkened, almost rivaling Ava's brown skin. But where hers was soft and beautiful, his was coarse, designed to protect against enemies.

His eyes, he'd been told, frightened grown men. As a Circ, he had slit pupils surrounded by blue irises. But his eyes turned black all over when he went into berserker mode. Streaks of white and blue covered the orb, making his eyes look

“like a reflection of deepest night, speckled with stars.” Hayashi had described him so poetically, while Morgan had likened him to a demon's bitch, come to drag the unworthy back to hell.

Tersch's berserker preferred Morgan's description. Hell, fire. Death, destruction…

The creature lived to destroy everything in its path. A good thing when in the presence of the enemy, but a bad thing when surrounded by friends or family.

Family who could be taken and tortured, like what had happened to Jules just two months ago. Friends who could be thrown from a building and nearly killed, as Hayashi had experienced months before that. Every one of his teammates and their mates had suffered because of men like the ones he now hunted.

He'd be damned if he'd let them get away with it. Accepting the rage, he used it to fan his aggression as well as his abilities. He followed the trail of his enemies with ease and loped through the forest on silent feet.

He found the rogues waiting for him, having caught his scent on the shifting wind. Four large Circs led by Raul LaGarda, their target. Perfect.

When they spotted him, they froze, and he scented fear. Tersch chuckled with glee, pleased at the rush that overtook him.

“Which one of you wants to die first?” he growled in a voice less than human.

Need to keep Raul alive for questioning. Don’t forget. Tersch fought to get through to his berserker, the monster, but he feared it was too late.

As the rogues leaped to attack, he met them fist for fist. He countered with deliberate slowness, absorbing the blows and press of claws against his rough hide but not feeling much more than featherlight taps. He clawed through one rogue's chest and another's back. Both dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Though changed, his enemy couldn't withstand the power behind his punches, his sheer animalistic rage. The remaining two flailed as they tried to run away, but Hayashi had caught up and stopped one of them with a kick to his face.

“Not so fast.” Hayashi stood ready to attack Raul, the last one standing.

Hayashi glanced at Tersch and quickly looked away, careful not to make eye contact. “Oh shit. This cannot be good.”

Raul struck out, but Hayashi retaliated with a kick to his ribs and a following roundhouse that took Raul off his feet. The rogue fell and hurried to right himself.

Too late.

Tersch lifted him off his feet by his neck. Though Raul must have weighed a good three hundred pounds of solid muscle, he didn't come close to straining Tersch's muscles. Tersch smiled through his fangs, his berserker pleased at finally being allowed to play. Though he often exercised his beast by letting it come to the surface to frolic and fight, his berserker had to be kept on lockdown for fear it would kill everything in sight. The raging creature hated being cooped up, on a leash, and scolded into behaving by everyone on the goddamn team. Including Tersch.

While Hayashi took care of the Circ he'd kicked trying to regain his feet, Tersch shook Raul like a rag doll.

“Fuck! Let me down, you freak!” Raul choked, barely able to breathe.

“What? I couldn't understand that.” He felt his back teeth form. When Tersch transformed, his canines grew into fangs. But when he allowed his berserker to emerge, his entire physiology changed. All his teeth grew sharp, and a second row grew to reinforce the front, increasing his ability to inflict greater damage.

His berserker loved the thought of biting into prey, and Tersch forced himself to keep Raul at arm's length. He shook Raul again, taking care not to accidentally break the fucker's neck. Playing with this new toy amused him, and he didn't want it to end too soon.

“Hell.” Hayashi swore next to him. “Gunnar, buddy, you can hang on to him all night if you want, but don't kill him. Jules wants him alive for questioning.” Tersch frowned, his inner berserker not pleased. More orders. More rules. No fun. The Circ challenges me for dominance? He grumbled at Hayashi and took a threatening step nearer, even though Tersch knew he stood next to his friend. I’m a fucking monster.

“Come on, Tersch. It's me.”

Tersch leaned down to sniff and nodded, pleased when Hayashi bared his throat and turned his head away. The berserker knew and trusted that scent.

Friend. Family. Hayashi had been his before and would be again. No matter that the others had all taken mates. At heart they belonged to each other. When the mating heat struck—as it did just about every month and sometimes more often—

gender and marital ties meant less than satisfying their inner beasts.

At the thought, he grew hard. Both his berserker and his beast wanted sexual play. So long since I had that ass. Tersch glanced down at Hayashi and grinned.

Hayashi swore again before lifting a radio out of the small pack he carried.

“Jules, it's me. We have them. You'd better hurry before the Viking kills Raul. He's ultrahuge again, and his eyes are that funky striated black and blue. Freaky, yeah.” He rattled off a set of coordinates he read from the GPS on his radio and signed off.

“Okay, Tersch. You'd better put him back on his feet again. He's turning purple.” Tersch lowered the rogue to the ground but kept his hand around Raul's neck.

Every now and then he squeezed to remind Raul he lived because Tersch allowed him to live. His berserker thrived on dominance as much as Tersch did. He had to be in charge, because to lose command of a situation would be deadly. As he well knew.

“Why did you take Melissa Keiser?” Hayashi asked Raul while they waited for the others to join them.

“Who?” Raul answered in a hoarse growl.

Tersch shook him. “Melissa Keiser.”

Raul swallowed hard beneath Tersch's palm. “Fuck. You want to know? Fine.

Like I give a shit about her. Melissa Ramirez is working for some bigwig in Washington. Keiser was the name she used to sucker you assholes into believing her.”

Hayashi snorted. “We figured that much out ourselves. How long has she been working for this bigwig?”

“As long as I've known her. Nine months or more, I'd guess.” Tersch had a bad feeling Melissa had been working for the enemy for as long as she'd been working at the mansion, what the team had dubbed Circ central.

Their home. And it had never been as safe as any of them had thought.

His anger grew. Someone had dared put those he loved in danger.

“Easy, Gunnar.” Hayashi spoke softly, and Tersch realized his claws had grown another inch and darkened in color.

His vision blurred as he strove to remain in control. He nodded, pushing past the layers of sheer feeling into thought. Hayashi gently stroked his forearm, helping to soothe him. The familiar touch and scent eased his berserker, as well as his beast.

Hayashi continued his interrogation of Raul. “But you don't know who she's working for, right? I know the name Colonel Ricardo Montaña rings a bell. You worked for him, remember?”

They'd killed the asshole drug runner just two weeks ago. Jules had pulled Montaña's heart from his fucking chest. A thing of beauty, but Tersch had been too busy trying to save Ava's sexy, sorry, lying ass at the time to witness it.

As if thinking about him had conjured him, Jules appeared, followed closely by Fallon and Morgan.

“About time,” Tersch said with a grunt.

Fallon swore and gave Tersch a wide berth.

Morgan groaned and did the same. “Shit. I hate when he turns all freakish.”

“Pussy.” Tersch chuckled and showed Morgan his teeth, delighted when Morgan's green eyes widened.

Morgan shook his head. “You are one spooky Circ, you know that?” Tersch took it as a compliment.

Jules sighed. “Tersch, level down to your beast. Now.” Not yet, still hungry. Want to play. Tersch's berserker whined, even gave him a small fight about going back under, but Tersch persisted. He tucked the monster back down and allowed his beast to resurface. After letting go of Raul, he shrank a few inches to seven feet. His sharp teeth returned to normal, except for the fangs, and his muscle mass decreased considerably. Still, he was larger than the others around him, and his beast took comfort in the fact.

“That is some fucking weird-ass shit.” Raul gasped and clutched at his throat, where Tersch's fingerprints were slowly fading.

Jules crossed his arms over his broad chest. His bright gray eyes shone with hard purpose. “Raul, let's not play games. You helped Sheridan escape from Montaña's compound two months ago. You pretended to work for him then. But who have you really been working for?”

“Myself.” Raul sneered at them.

Jesse Fallon shook his head. A telepath, he could be relied upon to dig information from sources who didn't want to share. His talents came in handy, especially on cases like these. “He's telling the truth, but not all of it. Raul's in it for himself. He worked for Montaña because it was the easiest way to gain information on the asshole. He spied for someone else. And he doesn't know who he's really working for, except that he goes through Melissa. But Melissa knows the boss. Some guy she calls Lonnie.”

Jules blinked but said nothing. Yet a stillness overcame him, and Tersch didn't like his leader's sudden worry.

He took an automatic step closer to Jules, the ingrained need to protect overwhelming.

When Jules noticed, he bared his teeth in a growl. “Stand your fucking ground, Tersch. We've been over this.”

Unhappy but not willing to annoy Jules more than he already had, Tersch obeyed and stepped back. The last time he'd tried to smother Jules with protection, he'd paid for it with his ass.

“So Melissa knows who she's working for.” Jules paused in thought. He stared hard at Raul. “What about Jack?”

“Who?”

“Jack Keiser, her husband,” Hayashi clarified.

Raul shrugged. “Never heard of him or saw him till we set fire to their house.

Melissa's the only one I had contact with. She's psychic, but you already knew that.

One powerful, money-hungry bitch. You can smell it on her.”

“He's telling the truth,” Fallon agreed. He frowned, but by then it was too late.

Tersch had already moved. He'd seen the way Raul's body tensed in the moment before the rogue sprang at Jules.

Already in front of his team leader, Tersch intercepted the claws meant for Jules and took the stabbing blow into his own chest. As he did, he caught Raul's head in his hands and twisted.

The rogue dropped like a stone, and his claws left Tersch's chest in a sucking sound.

The pain was intense, but the gaping wound healed quickly. He glanced at Raul staring sightlessly from the ground, his head twisted at an odd angle, his neck broken.

“Nice move.” Morgan nodded to Tersch. “I guess I'll put out some feelers on Melissa Ramirez. I wouldn't have minded some time to dig for more answers from this one, but they never learn.” The ex-mercenary might be a pain the ass, but he was a helluva guy when it came to learning information. Between Morgan's contacts and interrogation techniques, he'd become handy to have around.

Tersch agreed, considering the dead rogue.

“I thought I told you to stand your ground,” Jules said in a soft voice, one that sent chills down Tersch's spine.

Shit. Tersch slowly turned around. “Sorry, Jules. It was instinctive.” Jules glared. “Bullshit. I told you I don't need you fighting my battles anymore.”

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Morgan muttered to Hayashi as he crossed to stand next to his mate.

“Jules, he was just trying to help,” Fallon offered but quickly shut up when Jules shot him a hard look. To Tersch, Fallon mentally sent, “I tried, buddy. I have a feeling you’re in for it.”

“I know,” Tersch sent back. Though not telepathic, he replied on the wavelength Fallon had used.

“Come here.” Jules tugged Tersch by a belt loop on his trousers, closing the distance between them. “Need some discipline, Gunnar?” Fuck, he would have to do this now. Thoughts of Ava continued to crowd his mind, the need for sex and blood and violence an ever-present source of desire, especially after he'd walked in the footsteps of his berserker. It didn't feel as if a mating heat pressed, just the good clean scent of lust and Circ pheromones invading the space around them.

“Shit. I'm going to tie up our surviving rogue,” Morgan mumbled and quickly moved to the one on the ground still breathing. “I'll keep watch while you four…

Hell.” He rubbed his own erection through his trousers. “Too bad we can't film this so I could watch it later.”

Hayashi grinned at him. “Don't worry. I'll give you a blow-by-blow tonight.”

“You'd better.” Morgan gave him a stern look, then turned and dragged the sole unconscious Circ away.

Hayashi said to Jules, “Morgan knows what we need, and he's good with it. We haven't done this in a while. It's time, I think.” Jules flashed his fangs. “Glad you approve.” He turned back to Tersch. “But my intent isn't only to strengthen our team. Seems Tersch here still wants to play by his own rules. He doesn't seem to remember that he's part of the pack and that he's not the alpha. I am.”