But that was absurd. How could he possibly be asking her what she thought, when they’d known each other for four and twenty hours? True, they’d had the most energetic carnal knowledge of each other—twice, once with him as a human, and another with him as a wolf—but that wasn’t the basis for anything lasting. She could barely make sense of the next quarter of an hour, let alone anything beyond that.
“What new place are you taking me now?” she asked.
Perhaps she imagined his exhalation.
“In time,” he said, “all will be revealed. Quentin likes to keep business private.”
“And yet, you’re bringing me, a stranger, to him.”
Ezra’s smile flashed. “I could never consider you a stranger when I’ve dined upon your cunt several times.”
“By God, Ezra,” Tej growled, “are you trying to make her blush herself to death?”
She fought the urge to cover her hot cheeks with her hands. For all that she’d seen and done in life, it was rather miraculous that she could blush anymore. Yet Ezra had a gift for it, one she didn’t particularly appreciate.
At the least, his mood was far lighter than it had been back at their camp. Tej was right. Ezra was a changeable man, and each of his shifts played upon her like sunlight and clouds on water.
“Will you not tell me something of yourself?” she asked Ezra softly.
“I cannot fathom why you’d want to know anything about me,” he answered, though there was no edge in his voice.
“I’ve never met anyone like you,” she replied. “Like any of you. Tej and Rhys have given me their tales, but you have not. How does a man who can transform into a wolf find himself the leader of a gang of highwaymen?”
“Idle curiosity?”
She eyed him. “Nothing about what has transpired between us is idle.”
He didn’t speak for a moment. Perhaps he’d ignore her questions, or say something clever and dispassionate.
“I was fortunate,” he said. “I had a pack. They took me in when no one would, and they…” He cleared his throat. “There were five of us, five wolves without homes who found a home with each other, a family. We roamed around, taking on odd jobs, stealing food when no one would hire us and we had no money. They were lean years. Lean, but good. We kept each other safe as we could in this world, and there was friendship, too.”
His expression darkened. “We didn’t know about the Guardians, but they knew about us. They tracked us, hunted us. Cornered us in a ravine and…”
“You needn’t speak of it.” She squeezed his hand.
He shook his head. “When they attacked, we all fought. But we weren’t in our wolf forms, and there were too many Guardians. Page was there, leading them. They…they murdered every one of my pack. I barely escaped, and sometimes…sometimes I wonder why, out of all of us, I was the one to survive. They were good men, good wolves. Who was I, to elude their fate?”
“You’re a good man, too. As deserving of life as any of your packmates.”
“There’s one who doesn’t deserve life,” he growled. “Mowbray. I saw him at the top of the ravine, watching his hired killers cut us down. He shot at me as I ran away.”
“That fucking monster.” Fury ran hotly through her veins. How could she have worked for the baronet?
“From that night,” Ezra continued, “I promised myself that if I ever had the chance to kill Page or Mowbray, I’d take it.”
“You didn’t last night.”
“Impossible to protect you and kill them.”
She stopped walking and stared at him. “I cost you the chance. I’m?—”
“No apologies,” he insisted. “I made my choice, and I’ve no regrets.”
Pressing a hand to his chest, she said, “Thank you, for trusting me enough to tell me.”
“It’s not a tale I take pleasure in relating,” he admitted. “Yet I’m glad you know. And that there’s no pity in your eyes. It would be my undoing if you pitied me.”
So much pain and bravery shone in his eyes. “You and Tej and Rhys give each other security when there is none to be found, and I cannot pity that.”
