Page 25 of The Good Boys Club

“What if you changed the search to include men?”

He sat forward in his chair, taking his feet off my desk. “Dudes? Really?”

“Yes. I’m being serious. It would be transactional only. I know your pack wouldn’t care if you mated a guy. Your brother did. I came to his mating ceremony as your plus one, remember?”

“But my pack would expect me and this guy to like cuddle and hold hands and maybe even kiss. Like, it’d be weird if we were supposedly pre-mated and we never did any of those things.”

“There are a couple of guys on here who are actors,” I countered. I knew this because I had dated a few. Granted, Harvey wasn’t a great actor, but Mash couldn’t afford to be that fussy right now.

He scratched below his chin.Hmmed.“I don’t know. Like, I’d have to share a bedroom with him for two months. He’d have to go on shifts with the pack, get naked in front of me—” Mash jumped to his feet. “Oh my gods! You should do it!”

“What?!” I stood too.

“You should do it. You should come to Howling Pines with me and pretend to be my mate!”

My stomach swooped dangerously. It felt like the rug was being pulled from under my feet, and at the same time, like winning the lottery.

“I . . . I have work.” It was a feeble excuse.

James wouldn’t give two shits if I took a couple of months off for Harvest Fest celebrations. Mash knew this. It was the single most important holiday in the entire werewolf calendar. A period of time that spanned the Sturgeon’s Moon in August, the Harvest Moon in September, and the Hunter’s Moon in October.

“I can’t do it,” I said.

I couldn’t pretend to be in love with him in front of his pack, and then pretend not to be in love with him when it was only the two of us.

I couldn’t sleep on the bunk above him for ten weeks . . . breathe in the scent of him, listen to his voice, feel the heat from his gigantic werewolf body. It would be torture. Like sharing halls with him all over again.

“But you know me,” he continued, evidently unaware of the battle raging inside my thoughts. “You wouldn’t need to pretend to know me. They won’t try to trip you up because they know you know me. You’ve met them.”

“They know I’m a shifter, though—”

Mash waved me away. “It was ten years ago, they’ll never remember that.”

“But Mash . . .”

“Ci, I know this is a big ask, and I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t desperate. It’s just . . .” Mash flopped back onto the chair. “I don’t wanna be pack—uh, I don’t want to mate, with Dee-Dee or anyone. Don’t wanna leave this life in Remy . . . get a new job in Howling Pines. And I’m pretty sure Dee would be pissed as well. Can’t imagine her up and leaving Bordalis and her bigwig company for the simple life. But neither of us would have a choice if our packs decided it would be best for us. They don’t care about Remy Uni or Byte Tech.”

I had to do a double take. I replayed Mash’s last words in my head just to be sure I’d heard him correctly. “Byte Tech? Did you just say Byte Tech?”

“Yeah, it’s Dee’s company, she’s the CEO. She makes a fuck-tonne of money—”

I held up my hand to stop Mash. I needed a second to think. “Dee-Dee. Is Dee-Dee a nickname?”

“Yeah,” Mash said. “It’s short for Dylan.”

“Dylan West?” The name was no louder than a huff.

“Holy shit, are you related to Dylan West?” Gideon chimed in.

“Yes, she’s like my cousin, but not really my cousin.”

“Is this Dee-Dee?” I pulled the magazine out of my desk drawer. The one James had given me.

“Yep, that’s her. Fuck, I always forget how gorgeous she is. That’s Riley beside her.” He tapped the glossy magazine page, as though I couldn’t work out who the only other person in the photo besides Dylan West was. “My other sort-of cousin. She’s twenty-four or something. She works with Dee.”

“I cannot believe you’ve been related to Dylan West this whole time, and I had no idea.”

“Technically, not related.”

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