Page 19 of The Good Boys Club

“Listen, have I ever said no to you? Whenever you’ve asked me for a favour, have I ever said no? Remember that one time I pretended to be your bodyguard, and you were pretending tobe a famous actor, and we crashed the movie premier ofBark Avenue Princess?”

“Oh my gods, that was your idea.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, that was a good idea. We’d’ve got away with it too, if that security guard hadn’t been standing next to that fake bush—but my point is,” he said, interrupting himself. “I’ve never said no to you.”

I faltered. He was right. I only had to have a crumb of an idea, and Mash would be on board. If this were the other way around, he’d already be out the door collecting supplies, no doubt.

“Urgh, fine, okay. What’s your plan?”

He scratched the back of his head. His cheeks grew pink. Mash blushing was the most adorable thing. He didn’t blush nearly as often as I wanted him to. “So, right, I was talking to Nana earlier, and she was, well, you know how she is?”

I’d met the woman once, a long time ago—nine, ten years perhaps—so I didn’t really know what she was like, not personally anyway. I knew from Mash’s stories, though. I nodded to keep the conversation moving forward.

“She was all Dee-Dee this, and come to the harvest that, blah blah blah. I said I couldn’t because of work, and she said—”

“She’d come get you if you don’t.”

“Right, so I didn’t know how to get her off my back, and I might’ve told a very teeny weeny, microscopic little lie.” He paused and waited for me to fill the silence. I didn’t. “Imiiiiighthave said I was seeing someone.”

“Okay?” I said it like a question because I hadn’t fully understood what Mash was getting at.

“Nana wants them to come to the Harvest Fest as my plus one.”

“Right?”

“But, here’s where it gets tricky. I might’ve—just a little bit—told her me and this imaginary woman were mated. Pre-mated.”

“Gods, Mash, you told her you were pre-mated?”

He bit his thumbnail. “Yeah, a little bit.”

I poured the water from the kettle into the mugs. “So, the rest of the plan?”

“Alpha’s not going to accept me not bringing my mate over, right?” he said. I gave him a look which plainly agreed. “The plan is, I get a girl to pretend to be my mate and go with me.”

I made to comment, but he held his hand up.

“That’s why we need to break into Howl’s offices, like now. I would just use the app, but as you know, I’ve been banned.”

It took me a few moments to formulate my response. “You’re suggesting we illegally hack Howl’s servers and what, convince some poor girl to pretend to be your mate for the ten weeks or however long Harvest Fest is for?”

“Exactly!” He play-punched me on the bicep. “You’re so smart.”

“Let’s start with the most obvious problems with this plan.” I fished the teabags out, added milk, then pushed Mash’s mug towards him. “Won’t your alpha be annoyed that you mated—pre-mated someone already without the pack’s consent?”

He screwed up his face. “Yeah, probably.”

“So, your fake mate is already facing a battle when she gets there? Like she’ll be interrogated? You’ll need to find someone who’s comfortable answering your pack’s questions, and someone who either already knows you, or is willing to take a Mash crash course.”

“Yeah.” He slurped his tea. “Fuck, that’s boiling.”

“Problem number two. Won’t they be expecting to see a mate bite mark? How can you fake that? Makeup? But won’t they smell that it’s not real?”

“No, because pre-mating is what you do before the bite. It’s like, uh . . . what’s the word?”

“Engagement?” I offered.

“No, yes, but like, what was it called in the olden days?”

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