Page 152 of The Good Boys Club

A second later, someone’s nose was at my anus—practicallyinmy anus. Fuck, I’d forgotten about these violations.

I whirled around, ready to growl, but caught sight of the cubs waiting for their first shift. Except Felix wasn’t waiting patiently. Felix was on his hands and knees, looking like he might throw up.

“Oh my gods!” I yelled, pivoting Mash towards his nephew.

Clem burst past us. “You’re doing it, honey. It’s time,” she said.

Mash and I rushed over as Clem wedged her muzzle under her son’s arched body. Felix wrapped his arms around Clem’s neck, but instantly let go and dry heaved. Fur erupted along his bare chest, his shoulder blades. It sprouted in a wave along the length of his body. His agonised face morphed, lengthened, his limbs elongated. His underpants tore and fell to the marquee floor.

Moments later, a reddish-brown wolf pushed shakily to its feet, like a newborn deer standing for the first time.

“Fee, you’ve done it. My perfect boy,” Clem cooed, digging her snout into his fur and sniffing him as Kimmy had sniffed Mash and me that first day at Howling Pines. Felix’s tail swished frantically.

“Knew it would happen tonight,” Mash said. He bent his front legs, his tail also wagging. An invitation to play rough.

Felix did the same. He flipped his weight from left to right, then pounced towards his uncle and mouthed his jaw, but didn’t bite him.

“Come on, boys, no fighting in the tent,” Clem said, muscling between the pair. Both the fourteen-year-old Felix and the thirty-five-year-old Mash whined in an“aww, no fair”way. “Mash, you’d better get to the dais. We’ll meet you there.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mash said. He sobered instantly, standing up to his full height. He was nervous. Understandable.

“It’s call-acceptance day,” Mash said, as we left the marquee together. “Which means we can’t immediately go running off into the trees like we usually do. We have to gather at the stone dais for the power . . . transfer thingy. People come from all over to watch. It’s kind of a big deal. Like a ceremony, I guess.”

“Will you remember it?” I asked.

“Probably not, but it’s always done this way.”

The dais was the large flat rock where Mash and I had found ourselves last full moon. Wherethatfight started . . . sort of.

I still hadn’t told him all the specifics of that night; I didn’t think he needed to know. If there was a chance it would upset him, why would I bother? It wasn’t as though he’d done anything wrong or had anything to atone for either. He’d been honest with me, and I had taken it all the wrong way.

Neither of us had been upfront about our feelings for far too long. We were both to blame.

But we had forever to make it up to each other.

When we reached the rock, wolves began aligning themselves around it in a horseshoe shape. Rita, who could no longer shift, arrived a moment later on a mobility scooter. People made space for her to pass through. To my left, I recognised Zach and Kai. They nodded their greetings to me. To my right stood Clem and Sean and a small wolf with reddish-brown fur—Felix—and next to him, another even smaller wolf with reddish-brown fur . . .

“Juno? You shifted as well?” Mash said. He bounced over and greeted his nephew and niece by digging his muzzle into their scruffs. “I can’t believe you both shifted on the same night, you little legends.”

“I still shifted first, though,” Felix said.

“First the worst,” Juno sniped.

“Kids,” Clem cut in. “Shut it, will you? This is a historic occasion.”

Rita hopped out of her buggy and climbed atop the rock. She placed her hand on her hip and stared at us, waiting for something.

“Right, yeah, that’s me,” Mash said, rushing to stand next to his grandmother.

His wolf form dwarfed her. The top of Rita’s head lined up with Mash’s chest. Silence fell. Like the curtains being opened at the theatre, people knew the show was about to begin.

Rita said nothing. At least, nothing we could hear from our spots near the stone. She held out her hand and Mash lowered his head so her fingers slid through the fur between his ears, then she wrapped her arms around his neck.

The silence was a presence of its own. Even the trees seemed to stiffen, as though they were pulling in their branches and holding their breaths. Mash’s gaze landed on me, and never left.

After a few moments, the stillness became disrupted by a rumbling, like distant thunder or a lorry idling on the road. Itbuzzed through my paws, up my legs, even rattled my teeth. The hackles of every wolf surrounding me stood to attention.

Something was happening. I just didn’t know what.

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