She couldn’t find it in herself to feel distress at that fact. Sir Harold had willingly funded the slaughter of innocents. Her own sense of justice demanded retribution.
“I imagine the authorities will come in the morning,” Ezra agreed. He had gotten up to seat himself opposite her, and now picked up a roast chicken leg and bit into it. “And more Guardians.”
Her brows rose as she plucked a few grapes off the platter. “Didn’t we…?”
“This was only one unit. Others are scattered throughout England.”
“I’d hoped that was the end of them.”
“They’ve existed for centuries,” Ezra said. “Unfortunately, it’ll take more than one pack of werewolves to rid this country of that scourge.”
“Will they come for you, these other Guardians?” Jessica glanced at him, Rhys, and Tej, worry furrowing her brow.
Rhys, also seated nearby with his legs outspread, lifted his shoulders before helping himself to several iced cakes. He licked his fingers, and the sight of his tongue lapping at the icing made her belly flutter.
“They might,” Rhys said. “But there are others like us around England and Scotland, werewolves who’ve been forced into crime, and I imagine they’ll be the unfortunate targets of the Guardians’ interest.”
“Do you ever encounter these other werewolves?” she asked.
“From time to time.” Tej placed a piece of cheese on a hunk of bread, and popped the whole thing into his mouth, which he chewed with exceptional grace. “We all have our territories, and we respect those boundaries.”
“Yet if you joined forces,” she mused, “and fought the Guardians together, I imagine you could finally rid yourselves of those bastards.”
A laugh cracked from Ezra. “Packs aren’t known for collaboration. We’re rather…insular.”
“Still…” Jessica pressed.
Tej held up a hand. “Pax, Lady Vixen. We’ve won tonight’s battle. That’ll have to do for now. We cannot solve the problems of the world in a single night.”
“I’ll abide—for now. But I still think there’s a solution there. We could fight them, and win.”
“That’s our jewel,” Ezra said warmly. “A born warrior.”
He leaned across the space between them, and cupped her jaw with his broad hand. She closed her eyes to lean into the heat of his skin. When his lips brushed hers, she met his searching mouth with her own.
His kiss was long and slow, purposeful. He tasted of wine and roast meat and the silken depths of night. There was something in the feel of him against her flesh, an energy released from sorrow. This had been a hell of a night for him, killing the man who’d murdered his pack, witnessing the death of the man who’d paid for that murder.
Hopefully, that had given Ezra some sense of peace. It wouldn’t bring his lost friends back. Yet perhaps they could rest a little easier, that Ezra could rest, knowing he’d avenged them.
Her heart brimmed, and she poured that feeling into the kiss, letting him know through the feel of her mouth against his that she might not fully understand how he felt, but she would be there for him, just the same. In whatever capacity he needed.
A deep sound rumbled from him, and he took the kiss deeper, his tongue sweeping into her mouth with carnal intent. He tipped her head so that he could have her exactly where he wanted her. She let him lead, and in his hum of appreciation, she heard how he understood that she was purposefully ceding to him. This was her decision to make.
She edged closer to him, needing his feel. As she did, his other hand came up to stroke down her throat, then reached beneath the lapels of her jacket and caress her collarbones, and lower still, under the neckline of her stays to cup one of her breasts. He thumbed the stiffening tip. She hissed into his mouth as pleasure shot through her.
Sounds came from nearby, and she cracked open her eyes to find Tej and Rhys watching them intently. Already, both men’s cocks pressed against the fronts of their breeches. There was a barest hint of indecision in their gazes, their bodies poised as if ready to get up and leave her alone with Ezra—but they hadn’t moved, either.
“Don’t go,” she said huskily. Was she truly about to say what she wanted? “I want you. All of you.”
Her statement was a bolt of lightning streaking through Ezra, Tej, and Rhys. They all jolted with its force, and Rhys even shuddered in unsuppressed excitement.
“Do you toy with us?” Tej asked on a rasp.
She let out a huff of laughter. Impossible that such words left her lips, yet as they did, something fell into place.
“This is not a game to me,” she said. “It’s precisely what I want. And if anyone else finds me crass or wanton or takes offense at the fact that I truly do desire three different men at the same time, well, they can go fuck themselves. But I’d rather fuck you three. If you want me.”
“Jewel,” Ezra said, his eyes hot silver, “the question isn’t whether we want you. It’s whether you can take what we want to give you.”
