Page 133 of The Good Boys Club

“I wish you could shift right now and give me a belly rub,” he said. We both knew I couldn’t. The risk of being spotted was too great.

I lay down on my tummy, my face tucked in close under his.

“Do you remember when we kissed at Zach and Kai’s mating?” he said, his voice quiet.

My heart hammered in my chest. “Yes. What about it?”

“When I kissed you then, that’s what you tasted like. Like the scent of us. I didn’t realise until last night. I thought when we did the scenting in my apartment, you smelled familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. You know, after we kissed that first time, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The kiss, but also the taste of you, the smell. I never felt like that with anyone else. It was like, I dunno, electricity in my veins. Like you were givingme life. Like I was a phone on two percent, and you were the charger.”

“Mash,” was all I could say. The word no louder than a whisper. I’d felt all those things too, and I realised Mash was right. His kiss tasted like the scent of us. “I thought about that kiss a lot too.”

“Did you think about it whilst wanking?” he asked. Trust Mash to instantly turn it into a sexual thing.

“Yes.” Might as well be honest. Wasn’t like he’d remember any of this in the morning, anyway.

He growled and rolled onto his front. “Me too. I thought about it loads. Still do.”

Okay, I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to find out what his last comment before shifting meant. “What did you mean when you said you would bite me? Were you talking about mate bites? Why would you want to mate bite m—”

“Are you gonna fuck me now or what?”

“No. Mash, I need to . . . we need to . . . clear some things up first.” We needed to talk.

I needed to know if he’d meant what I thought he’d meant.

Mash stilled. He apparently decided that this particular conversation was a deal breaker, and pushed to his feet. He bounded down off the rock and into the nearby treeline.

I gave myself thirty seconds to compose my thoughts before I chased after him.

“Mash, wait up!”

“Are you gonna fuck me?” he called back.

“No, we need to talk.”

He ran off again.

Branches snagged in my fur, and I felt the first few drops of rainfall pattering my snout.

I was already done with being a wolf. I wanted to be a human again, in a human bed, with a human-ish Mash, so we could have a sober conversation about us and his feelings.

Or maybe now was a good time to tell him how I felt. And if it went badly, he wouldn’t remember in the morning.

“I’m hungry, are you?” he said, slowing his pace.

“No,” I lied. “Listen, we need to talk. About—”

“You’re leaving me.” He stopped at the edge of the creek.

I stopped too, but my heart didn’t get that message. It wanted to flee, across the creek and down the hill.

“Wait, no. You’re not leaving me,” he said. “I’m leaving you.” His tail was flat to his leg. I hated seeing him like this.

“You don’t have a choice,” I said.

He assessed me with his deep-green wolf eyes. “Maybe I don’t have a choice now. But I did. I’ve just made all the wrong ones in my life.”

“What does that mean?” We were walking, following the path of the creek.

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