Page 14 of Camp Dire

Damn him!

I am actually surprised I’m not completely naked. Instead, I'm in one of my own nightgowns. At least he thought of doing that for me. I press my legs together and try again to twist free of the ties. One of the most embarrassing things about all of this - besides the fact I let Merrik eat me in the fucking hallway where anyone could walk up on us - is the heat I feel on my mound. I refuse to let myself think about why it could be so hot there - beard burn, scuff marks, scratches from when I fell in the woods.

“Oh, you’re up. I was so worried I would… what the hell?”

Annie is standing in the doorway, and I have to wonder if maybe Merrik wasn’t telling me the truth about him and Annie since she looks pissed as hell.

“What has he done to you?” She quickly moves across the room and immediately comes over to untie me. She's not pissedabout me being here with Merrik, she's pissed at him for tying me to the god damned bed! “Are you okay, Piper?”

I nod but I'm not sure if it’s true. I may never be okay again.

“I…I have to leave, Annie. I have to get out of this house before he comes back.”

I’m already making my way to the door.

“Um, I don’t think that would be such a…” Both of us hear a thud in one of the rooms close by. “What the hell was that?”

We look at one another and I shake my head so she’ll know I have no idea either. I open the door slowly and listen, waiting for any other sounds.

“Piper, maybe we shouldn’t leave the bedroom. You don’t know everything. There’s a murderer.”

“What?” Fear rises up inside of me. I might have asked but I am intimately aware of what is out in those woods. I did trip over a dead body after all. It helps clarify my feelings towards Merrik. Never has he made me feel this way, this fright.

“Merrik and his brother, the sheriff, they went to find the guy who’s been killing women and children in the Dire Woods.”

My stomach lurches. “The body I stumbled over in the open field was…”

“The seventh.”

“Wait! You said Merrik left to go find the killer?” My heart hits my rib cage at the thought of Merrik being anywhere near someone who has killed people.

She nods, “As the mayor and…um, do you know about…?”

“What Merrik is? Yes.”

She rushes through the rest, “As our Alpha, he’ll want to be right there when they find the guy.”

“How do you know it’s a guy?”

“Kenneally’s girl saw him when he killed someone trying to save one of the victims.”

“Kenneally?”

“Merrik’s brother.”

Another thump echoes down the hall drawing our attention back to the empty hallway.

“I think it’s someone in a room, Annie.”

“Piper if something happens to you while I’m here, Merrik will have me for dinner.”

“What if someone’s hurt? We can’t just leave them.”

My hand unconsciously comes down low to just above the spot that is burning. I go out into the hallway with Annie following close behind.

“Wait!” She disappears and comes back with the lamp from the bedside table.

“Are you stealing Merrik’s lamp?”

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