Page 9 of Puppy Pride (Pride Camp 2025)

Chapter Nine

Jai

T his is rewarding. This is rewarding. This is…

Exhausting.

Being a counselor for the last five years at other camps had given me a sense of how fatiguing camp could be. Kids who wouldn’t go to sleep. Kids who wouldn’t wake up. Time in the fresh outdoors. Forced to be inside when the weather turned.

I’d seen it all.

Being responsible for ten souls plus staff?

Overwhelming.

Every moment felt like a struggle because, rightly or wrongly, I felt everything rested on my shoulders.

My bed beckoned—

Damn. I didn’t put away my paperwork.

I headed over to the administration building and was horrified, upon trying the door, to find it unlocked.

How…?

You were thinking about Demetrius. About how much fun you had last night. Once you got over your nerves, anyway. And how you ran away like a headless chicken.

And apparently had forgotten to lock the administration building.

I wasn’t really worried about the campers. They didn’t seem like the type for hijinks. The staff would obviously keep away. So unless someone had come onto the property…

My office door was at least closed—although not locked.

Overall, I hoped nothing bad had happened.

I opened the door and headed to my desk.

And stopped short.

My breath caught.

My gaze darted around the room—as if the answers were contained within these walls.

Panic rose within me.

You have to breathe. No one will come to your rescue if you have a panic attack.

Keegan’s episode earlier in the day had been a sober reminder of my past. Of that period immediately after I’d left Vancouver. When my life had fallen apart. Although actual panic attacks had been rare, I’d lived with a gnawing sense of fear for all these years.

Slowly, I advanced to the desk.

Dog treats and a little chew toy.

To be precise, my favorite dog treats and a chew toy identical to the one I’d had all those years ago.

Six years is not that long ago. You tell yourself that you’re old…but that’s not exactly true.

Because, in this moment, all those panicky feelings returned with a vengeance.

Clearly someone knew who I was. Had remembered me from all those years ago.

Except that made no sense, so the alternative was someone had spoken to Gary.

Except that didn’t make sense either because, although he knew I liked to dress up like a dog and play with other puppies, he didn’t know my favorite toys and treats.

Treats made for dogs, but that could be eaten by humans. Toys that squeaked.

I grabbed my messenger bag and shoved them in.

I removed the laptop from the docking station—to which it had been locked securely—and I put that in my bag as well.

I would have to disconnect it from the Wi-Fi and run it through a virus protection program because I had no way of knowing if someone had come in here and attempted to access the data. My heart caught in my throat.

Nothing appeared out of place. I didn’t keep paper files on the kids—or even notes. Cody had password-protected files that only he, Alessandra, and Kennedy could access. I had an admin override, but that was only for dire emergencies. And only if I couldn’t reach any of the three who had access.

I should’ve been relieved—but I wasn’t. I’d screwed up badly. Do I call Alessandra and let her know? How bad of a mess is this? Did someone see who came into the office?

We had cameras along the edge of the property line—in case someone tried to get in to cause damage.

But we’d opted not to have them in the camp itself.

People might feel like every moment of their lives was recorded, but here we tried to make it a safe space.

Where campers could be themselves and not worry.

I ensured my office windows were fastened and secure before locking the door to my office. Once I had all the lights turned off, I exited the building and bolted that door as well.

No one was about.

After today’s morning hike and afternoon swimming, I hoped—once campfire was over—the teens would be ready for lights-out .

Finn, the firefighter who lived nearby, had stopped in yesterday to let me know the municipality was eyeing a campfire ban next week.

We’d been particularly dry in the late spring, with almost no precipitation for the last month. Everyone hated the bans—but they hated wildfires way more. Tonight was to be our one and only campfire.

I unlocked my cabin door and slid inside, quickly relocking it.

I hadn’t been in here all day, and hadn’t been running the air conditioning, so a warmth lingered.

After putting my laptop bag on the dining room table, I set about opening all the windows.

The screens would keep out the bugs, but hopefully some of the cooler night air could waft in.

I eyed the ceiling fan and decided not to turn it on.

The gross, sticky sweat that had soaked me upon finding the gifts someone had left for me was now turning my skin cold and clammy. I secured the laptop in the wall safe, then headed into the bathroom.

Clear planning had gone into the design of this cabin. A four-piece bathroom was positively decadent, and I headed to the shower. The compact bedroom offered privacy, while the much-larger main room allowed for entertaining of up to six.

What had Alessandra been thinking? I had no idea when I’d ever be entertaining six people. Perhaps the next director would be more social.

I stripped and turned on the faucet. The hot-water-on-demand feature was appreciated, and soon I was under hot spray.

My mind whirled.

The image of the toy and treats were imprinted on my mind.

Who would know? Why would they threaten me with exposure? Why not just out me and get it over with? I’ll be let go from the camp for certain —

That thought circled. Alessandra and Smith were kinky. Perhaps they would be more understanding of someone else whose…predilections…were more closely aligned with theirs.

Not all kinky people respect age- and puppy-play.

Oh, and kitty-play. We’d had two cats who enjoyed coming to pup night.

They tended to stick to their corner but could, with the correct inducement, be pulled into play.

Usually a large ball or yarn or a laser pointer were required.

Those were good times. Really good times.

Then Gary had discovered what I was doing in my spare time while he was off wining and dining clients on his expense account. That part of the job never appealed to me. I chose to stick to financial analysis and leave the selling to guys like Gary.

I’d never ascertained how he’d uncovered my secret.

But one night I came home from the club to discover he’d gone through my private things.

Stupid to believe he’d ever respect artificial boundaries.

Except they hadn’t felt artificial to me—he had his space, and I had mine.

I kept a suitcase at the back of my closet with my pup stuff.

I’d come home to find it strewn across our bed.

Almost a sacrilege.

I shampooed my hair, using my nails in my scalp.

Any hope of containing the damage had been in vain.

He’d already called my parents, all the coworkers he could, as well as the managing partners of the accounting firm we worked for. I’d been gone just three hours, and in that time, he’d managed to destroy my life.

I’d packed a bag and gone to a hotel.

The next morning, when I’d shown up for work, my laptop had been confiscated, along with my security pass, and I’d been shown the door. One senior partner, Hazel, hadn’t looked pleased. The three male partners, along with Gary, had been smug—clearly basking in their superiority.

Yeah, but what secrets did they hold?

Why hadn’t I found the courage to fight back?

Gary wasn’t in the closet…but he also hadn’t been out. How he’d explained finding my puppy paraphernalia while carrying on the illusion we were just roommates was beyond me. Or maybe he hadn’t. Who knew?

I’d gone back to the apartment, packed all my things, and headed home.

Only to find my father barring my entrance and demanding I return the key. After being away for six years, I had few things remaining in their house—certainly nothing to fight over. So I got in my car and drove east.

Stop dwelling .

I rinsed my hair and then stuck my face under the spray. The warm water hit my skin, and I reveled in the heat.

Aside from rest breaks, I’d driven straight through to Toronto. More than halfway across the country.

Even that hadn’t been far enough.

I quickly discovered I wouldn’t be getting a reference from my old employer. No one was willing to risk a lawsuit at the old firm, but they made it clear my work hadn’t been to their standards.

Which was total bullshit, but whatever.

Then I found the ad for a camp in Nova Scotia looking for counselors.

A Pride Camp.

Even without an interview secured, I drove there. I showed up with a résumé and, what the director later confided was a desperate appearance. She’d given me the job on the spot. At only twenty-three, I was barely older than most of the campers.

Six years ago.

I shut off the shower, shook off, then stepped onto the bathmat. I grabbed a towel and set about drying myself.

Going down memory lane isn’t helping.

What if Gary did this? What if he heard about me coming back and…?

How would he have heard? What would he get out of this?

Too many questions and too few answers.

Once I was dry, I donned my pajamas and then dried my hair with the blow dryer. Then I brushed my teeth.

Just as I was about to turn off light, I looked into the mirror.

Why me?

I flipped off the light.

Whether I was asking why I enjoyed things that others found perverted or whether I was asking why I was being targeted, I wasn’t certain.

I opened the safe and removed the laptop.

After putting it on the counter, I grabbed a soda from the fridge. I cracked the can and sat at the dining room table with the laptop. Although I didn’t have mad computer skills, I’d studied enough programing in university to be able to start the machine in safe mode and to review the access logs.

Nothing looked amiss. No attempts since I’d last been on.

Just to be safe, I ran the machine through the virus detector. While it worked, I wandered into the kitchen. I wasn’t hungry, but decided I really needed a snack as dinner had been a number of hours ago.

The sound of laughter carried through the open windows as the campers gathered around the firepit .

Might as well eat something sizable. No way will I be able to sleep with that noise.

Or with my mind going a million miles an hour .

I set about making a grilled cheese sandwich.

By the time that task was complete, my mind was a little more settled, and the laptop was ready to go. No malicious software found.

That brought a modicum of relief.

So I settled in to eat my snack and to review the schedule for the rest of camp—even though I’d already done it daily for two months since taking the job.

Anything to forget the treats and toy at the bottom of my messenger bag.

And how I might be on the precipice of losing this amazing life I’d built for myself.