Summer Cursed

Chapter Five

“What do you want to know?” Jocelyn asked,

“Whatever you’d like to share. Start wherever you’re comfortable.”

Jocelyn averted her eyes as she shifted in her seat. “I was out for a run in the woods behind our house.”

“Same. Just a different day. Maybe three months after he… attacked Joce.”

Tears filled Jocelyn’s eyes. “If I had told you what happened—”

“Stop. I told you to stop blaming yourself,” Pamela said, hugging her friend. “It’s his fault, not ours.”

“I know, but I still think if I had told you, it wouldn’t have happened to you.”

I shrugged. “That’s not necessarily true. He may have tried in a different location. Though, he liked the woods, that’s where he jumped me. I also prefer running there.”

“He got you too?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yeah, but I think he was there to kill me and tried to have some fun first. I, uh…” I glanced at Liam. It felt cruel to tell them I had fought him off when they clearly hadn’t been able to. Liam nodded and gestured for me to continue. “I fought with him, and before he could get too far, my Alpha showed up.” I added that last bit to soothe their egos.

“That’s good. I’m glad he didn’t get far with you,” Pamela said. “Anyway, with both of us, it’s like he was waiting for us. He knew exactly where we’d be. There’s really nothing else special about what happened. He jumped me from behind and did what he wanted.”

“Jocelyn, are you able to remember or add anything else to that?”

“No, sorry. It was a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of thing. When he finished, which wasn’t long after he started, he took off. I never saw him again. He didn’t even come to the pack meetings.”

I took a moment to find the best way to ask the next question. Nothing came to me, so I went with it. “I don’t know how to ask this without offending you. Please know in advance that is not my intention.” I paused, waiting for them to agree. When they both nodded, I continued. “Why do you think you couldn’t fight him off?”

“We’ve been asking ourselves that since Pam told me what happened. We can’t figure it out. He was only a step above an Omega. We should have been able to stop him. But it was as though my arms and legs had turned to jelly.”

“Same with me,” Jocelyn said.

“Okay. What, if anything, did you do differently that day? Did you try anything new? Food, drink, drugs, alcohol? Anything you might remember.”

I could feel Liam’s eyes on me. An itch developed where his stare seemed to bore a hole in my head. I fought the urge to scratch it and kept my gaze on the women while they thought things over. It was a good three minutes before they shared a surprised look.

“The chocolates,” they said in unison.

I furrowed my brow. “Chocolates?”

“I got a delivery of chocolates from a secret admirer,” Jocelyn said. “I thought they were from Brian, a guy from work. We flirt a lot, and I thought it was his way of telling me he wanted to take things up a notch. But when I asked him about it, he denied sending them.”

Pamela shook her head and looked down at her lap. “We still ate them. They would be the only thing out of the ordinary. Now that you’re asking about it, I felt weird after eating them. Sluggish, groggy. That’s why I went for a second run that day, trying to wake my ass up.”

I nodded, impressed they’d had a box of chocolates in their house for three months. That shit would have been gone the day I got it.

“And now that I’m thinking of it, he must have injected us with something. I remember a pinching feeling in my butt-cheek just before I fell.”

Jocelyn agreed, and it was the best answer as to why they couldn’t fight him off.

“Do you have any of the chocolates left?”

Pamela’s head jerked up, her eyes wide. “No, sorry. Why? Do you think he drugged it?”

“I think it’s a possibility, yes. I think he injected you with Wolf’s Bane to paralyze you enough so you couldn’t fight him. The candy is the part I’m confused about, so I’m curious to know if he had laced it.”

Liam made a small noise finally getting me to look at him. He smiled and bowed his head once. Like he approved of my conclusion. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the women. I didn’t need their arrogant Alpha patting me on the back.