Page 20 of The Good Boys Club

“Betrothal?”

“Yes! Betrothals. A lot of werewolf betrothals are quite lengthy, so they wouldn’t expect to see a mate bite.” Mash dragged a hand down his face. “There are ways that couples basically promise themselves to one another before the mating. Like with a human engagement, they have rings, yeah? Were don’t need rings, we’ve got other methods.”

No part of me wanted to know what Mash’s “other methods” meant, so I breezed right by that. “What’s in it for her?”

“Huh?” he said, a genuine look of confusion on his face.

“The fact that you’re a doctor is wild. Why would this mysterious mate agree to go with you into the middle of nowhere and pretend to be your girlfriend for ten weeks?”

“Oh.” He smiled, then laughed. “I’ll pay her. Plus all the no-strings fucking.”

“You plan on fucking her?” Of course he did. Of course. Why had I assumed otherwise?

“I have to fuck her. The pack will need to smell me on her. They’d know something was off if we didn’t.”

I nodded. It was getting worse and worse by the second.

“I mean, it’s not a deal breaker. If she doesn’t want to fuck, we don’t have to. There areotherother ways to mark my mate. It’s just that in my experience, they rarely say no.”

Again, I didn’t need to know. “Let’s just pretend for a second that you’ve found a woman—” I began.

“A werewolf woman,” he corrected. “Because . . . ya know.”

I exhaled loudly. Pack speciesism, super fun. “You’ve found a werewolf woman who’s willing to pretend to be pre-mated to you, take ten weeks out of her schedule, frolic around with you in the woods, maybe have sex with you, find out everything she can about you so she can pretend to have been dating you forhowever long to fool everyone in your family, presumably sleep in the same bedroom as you . . . ?”

He nodded.

“To do all of that, and not want more? I might not be an expert in women, but I can say with some degree of confidence, if you ask someone to spend that amount of time with you and become so intimately acquainted, they’re probably gonna fall in love.”

“A-ha! I’ve thought of that,” he said, which didn’t surprise me in the slightest. Mash was well versed in letting down heartbroken girls who’d somehow seen past all his red flags and fallen in deeper than either of them would have liked. Heck, I was well versed in letting them down on his behalf.

He leaned forward on the stool, pulled something out of the back pocket of his shorts, and smoothed it down on the counter.

“I’ve prepared a contract,” he said.

I took the note from him.

I hereby promise not to fall in love with Mash Cassidy.

Signed _______________

“Yeah, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this isn’t legally binding.”

He shrugged. “I’ll type it up.”

A few moments went by where I gave Mash my most cutting,this is a stupid idealook, and Mash responded by noisily slurping his tea.

“If I don’t go, or if I go without a fake mate . . . they’ll mate me off. I won’t get a say. I’ll just have to do it for the pack, like my grandparents did. They don’t care about my feelings, they only want what they think is best for the pack. They want me to continue the lineage.”

“But you have so many siblings. Can’t they continue the lineage? Wait, Clem has kids. You’re already an uncle.”

“Yes, but they’re not . . .” He trailed off. Peered into his mug. Swirled the dregs of tea around the bottom. “If they mate me off to Dee-Dee, I’ll have to move back to Howling Pines. Permanently. We’ll . . .” He never lifted his eyes from the bottom of his mug. “We’ll never hang out any more.”

I watched him for a few seconds, my mind a distortion of white noise, a thousand thoughts all at peak panic. Not seeing Mash any more was unthinkable. Even if hanging out with him was often torture, I just couldn’t . . . not see him every day.

“Fine.” I hopped down from my stool. “Let me get dressed.”

“Love you, man,” he said.

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