“Move to the side!” Ezra shouted at her. She pulled on the reins, moving herself quickly, and a moment later, she saw Ezra grab the limp body and hurl it at the leather-clad guard, whose pistols were aimed at Jessica.
Just as the guard pulled the trigger, the dead sentry slammed into him. The guard’s shot went wide. As he stumbled, he grabbed hold of Jessica’s skirts. Ezra ran forward and slashed his claws across the man’s arm. The guard screamed and dropped his spent flintlock. Blood sprayed. His hand spasmed around Jessica’s skirts, tearing a scrap of her traveling costume.
Ezra lunged. His teeth closed around the man’s neck. There was a horrible ripping sound as flesh tore and more blood spurted into the dust. The man fell to the ground to lie in a dark, widening pool of blood, the piece of Jessica’s skirt still clutched in his fist.
The carriage rocked as the coachman’s lifeless body landed atop it, flung there by Tej.
Mowbray disappeared back into the vehicle and Ezra darted after him. From her vantage atop her frightened horse, Jessica saw Mowbray fleeing through the other carriage door, running into the field beside the road. Ezra’s massive form filled the interior of the vehicle as he grabbed a medium-sized wooden box that had been resting on one of the carriage seats.
“I’ve got the loot,” Ezra roared, as he emerged from the carriage.
More shots rang out, whizzing dangerously close. A group of half a dozen mounted men appeared ahead, also clad in head-to-toe leather. One man rode at the front, a silver-edged sword in his hand. A chain with a heavy insignia hung down his chest. He bared his teeth in a snarl. Even at a distance, the hatred in his eyes blazed.
“Guardians,” Rhys snarled.
“Led by that piece of shit Jonathan Page,” Tej added.
“Kill them!” Mowbray bellowed from the safety of the field. “Kill them all!”
In swift, sleek movements, Ezra, Tej, and Rhys started toward the forest.
Jessica turned her horse in circles, debating.
Loping back to her, Ezra growled, “You see how it is. Time to choose.”
“I—”
“We can’t fight this force here, and I can’t protect you.”
More shots rang out, pinging into the carriage and nearly grazing Jessica. She flung her arm up to protect herself from flying wooden splinters. One nicked her face, and she felt the warm trickle of blood dripping down her cheek. Her horse continued to dance beneath her, white-eyed with fear as she gripped tightly on the reins.
She stood at the crossroads. After this, nothing would be the same. She could try to return to her old life, put this behind her, and forget everything she’d done and witnessed this night—or face the unknown ahead of her.
A moment passed. And then she kicked her heels into the horse.
Ezra ran beside her, exquisite, a mixture of man and animal, beautiful and otherworldly and lethal.
Tej and Rhys waited for them at the edge of the forest, massive shapes full of violence and beauty.
She galloped on, into the forest, the three werewolves beside her.
5
A wild laugh burst from Jessica. Her hair streamed behind her as she bent low over her horse’s neck.
This was utter madness, fleeing into the night with three werewolves running alongside her galloping mount. The woods stretched all around her, dark and full of mystery, and yet she charged heedlessly forward.
Ezra surged forward to take the lead. He ran with speed and agility, slipping around trees, plunging through the bracken, as much a part of the night as the shadows themselves. The forest was his home, and he sped through it with purpose. Rhys and Tej did the same, pushing ahead, equally comfortable in the untamed wilderness.
Jessica followed as best she could. She guided her horse through the woods, and even though the animal ran, it still trailed behind the three wolves.
Under his arm, Ezra carried the wooden box taken from the baronet’s carriage. Werewolf he might be, but he still had a highwayman’s heart.
Where were they headed? She didn’t know the forest well, yet this seemed a different route from where they’d gone before. They weren’t returning to the tumbledown cottage, that much she knew.
Ezra dove over a fallen tree and then disappeared, with Tej and Rhys following. Trusting that Ezra wouldn’t guide her into anywhere dangerous or terrain her horse couldn’t manage, Jessica plunged after them.
She pulled on the reins, stopping her horse, as she found the three wolves waiting in a dell. A massive oak spread its branches over them, sheltering the glade from the moonlight, but just enough illumination remained for Jessica to see Ezra, Rhys, and Tej standing to face her. Ezra moved to one of the trees and set the box down, nestling it in the thick winding roots.
