Summer Cursed

“You don’t have Artemis’ wolf about to rip your face off, man,” Ivan said to his comrade.

Artemis’ wolf? That was new.

Turning back to Ivan, my wolf growled again hoping to push him over the edge. It worked and his shoulders slumped.

“We really don’t know who it is, but we receive encrypted texts through an app that automatically deletes them after we read them. If no one opens them, they disappear after thirty minutes.”

She snapped her jaws in his face and he squealed like a pig. “I swear on my life, that’s all I know.” Spittle ran down his chin. “Oh, it’s a chick. She’s the boss but there’s a guy that works for her or with her or something. That’s it. That’s all I got for you.”

“You’re a fucking moron,” Charles said. “What do you think they’ll do with us now that you told them? They don’t need us anymore.”

Ivan turned to glare at him. “I’d rather die than let these guys torture me or set me loose to be captured by whoever the hell we work for.”

I shifted and threw my clothes back on. “Now that you’re so chatty,” I said to Ivan. “Who burned down my house?”

He glared at me for a long while. To encourage him, I let a ripple of energy wash over him. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, I’m dead either way, right?”

“I’d say that’s a pretty safe bet,” I said.

“Marcus. He’s an Autumn, like Charles.”

“Damn, Liam. Chill out,” I hissed when his power washed over me.

“Sorry.”

“And what about the chocolates?” I asked the men. “How do you get those?”

Ivan sneered at me, but then sighed and said, “We are told where to find them when our orders come through that app.”

I nodded. “Different locations each time?”

“I don’t know. She only uses us once for the pick up. I don’t know about Charles, but I went to some abandoned carnival site.”

Charles reluctantly nodded.

“And do you have any idea why they recruited you guys into a rape circuit?”

Both men looked lost. Their faces pulled into grimaces as they stared at me like I was crazy.

“We don’t rape anyone. Why would you even think that?” Charles asked.

Liam stepped forward. “Christoph Skeiner raped at least nine women using the Wolf’s Bane laced chocolates.”

“That prick? None of us ever understood why he was a part of this. It doesn't surprise me he’d take the opportunity to assault the women. I take it you’ve taken care of him,” Charles asked his Alpha.

“That’s not your concern.”

“So, if you’re not doing this to rape them, what are you doing with the women?” I asked.

“It’s not just women,” Ivan chimed in. “It’s women, men, but never children. We deliver the chocolates. If they answer, we subdue them and inject them with enough Bane to paralyze them so we can transport them. If they don’t answer, we wait ‘til they eat the candy. It has a tracker in it, so we know when they’ve eaten it and where they are. Then we follow, subdue, inject, and take.”

He was really letting it all go now. “Where to?”

“Never the same place twice.”

“Do you remember any of the places you went?” Both men nodded. “Got a notepad?” I asked Liam.

Philip took out his phone. “Ready,” he said and started typing as the men rattled off the locations.